Friday, May 26, 2006

The DaVinci Code - A simple review

So, I saw the DaVinci Code last night (it's was Julie's choice, but what the heck, I had nothing better to do with $11.25 US - yep, €8.90 per ticket). Before you all scream the question that is on everyone's mind, I just want to assure you all, Tom Hanks' hair did not bother me. Why are people focusing on this anyway. It's just hair; many people can grow their's longer or shorter, depending on their mood. Tom Hanks had longish hair for this film. Fine.

Anyway, being that my brain tends to purge large amounts of irrelevant and semi-irrelevant information, I had basically forgotten the book. Sure I remember the overall premise. An American guy drives around Paris in a smartcar and somehow ends up in Scotland with a Frenchwoman with a heavy accent. Best of all I forgot who the overall villian was. It added to my movie experience. We could say that the DaVinci Code (the book) didn't have a terribly marking impact on my life. My review of the book was...eh! I read a lot of pulp fiction and the Code was not the best and not the worst that I had read last year.

Anyway, getting to the movie. It was mediocrity in THX surround sound. Sure it was an enjoyable 2 hours and 20 minutes (or something like that). Jean Reno was not at his best - "Leon/The Professional" saw him in better times. Audrey Tatou was okay, if not a little flat in her English-language blockbuster debut (she has done some other lower budget films in English). Tom Hanks - whatever, he didn't make any huge mistakes. Ron Howard did a good job at totally desexing the relationship between Langdon and Neveu. As I said, I don't totally remember the book, but I do seem to recall that there was at least the hint of a relationship between the two protagonists - here, nothing.

I was going to avoid a spoiler, but what the heck, this is my biggest critism of the movie, so I'll have to officially state: SPOILER ALERT, stop reading now if you didn't read the book, haven't seen the movie and want to be mildly surprised if you do see it.

I don't remember exactly how this was done in the book, but in the movie, Teabing's reason for revealing his evil is so stupid and flat. He tries to force Langdon and Neveu to reveal the secret by force, but they are already trying to do this. Why the hell didn't he just let them continue? This rang very untrue in the movie. THERE WAS NO REASON FOR HIM TO FORCE THE SUBJECT!! Even if we learned that he was "The Teacher," he didn't need to reveal this. He'd already killed Remy, why not sit back and let our two characters do the work. His only motivation was that the secret be revealed? Ugh. Just terrible. I know I know. American sense of justice etc, means that he has to somehow be punished for his actions.

Anyway: I would have a hard time recommending this to anyone, espeically at over $11 a ticket. Rent it on video, read some reviews so you get the general premise, whatever. It's too long and too tedious at parts to really say that this is a master oeuvre. Or what the heck, go see it if you want. Someone has to pay Dan Brown's take and Hanks' $25 million.

Oh and just my little post script on the whole religious aspect. IT'S FICTION DAMN IT! I don't understand why so many people are up in arms about this thing. We have movies about Robin Hood, the World Wars, Aliens, the CIA, and Michael Moore's entire catalog that no one takes seriously. Why do they take a piece of pulp that purports that Jesus was married to be serious? Come on, grow up and take it for what it is - fiction, pure and simple.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Two wins to go

Awwww, the poor Hurricanes, all depressed after there loss! Sorry. I shouldn't be gloating until the Sabres win the series; not that this is done yet, but I like the way these guys are playing. Unfortunately their defensive corps is taking quite a beating.





I just realized this: Brind'amour means "A little bit of love," ain't that sweet. It makes me think of the old Molson commercial with Guy Lafleur, which I have looked all over the internet for (ok, I searched Lafleur Molson on Youtube - but still) and can't find. If anyone knows where I can find this ad, let me know. This second photo is just to rub it in a little more: Come on Carolina, why is he all alone? Where's the defense?!?

Sunday, May 21, 2006

First Blood to the Sabres


Nothing's done yet, but I'm happy that the Sabres (who are getting no love from American hockey "experts" - although the Canadians seem to prefer them) have started the series strong, with a win in Carolina. I hope that this continues. Sorry Karl, your 4-0 series win for the 'Canes seems to be wrong!!

With luck we'll see a lot more pictures like this one of the Canes goalie, Cam Ward.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

All Lost in the Supermarket

I can no longer shop happily: 'Course I don't know if I ever could.

I needed to buy a new toothbrush (yeah, I know, this has all the makings of a wonderful blog post, right? Stick with me). Usually I don't over think this - I run into the toothpaste/brush aisle, I grab a toothbrush and I run away. For some reason I didn't make the decision quick enough yesterday and ended up getting stuck in the quagmire that is the tooth care section of Carrefour. I was there for about 5 minutes and then started thinking about how ridiculous it was that I was taking so much time deciding. This only made the process worse, because I tried to force the issue, but couldn't decide between the name brand that looked just like the store brand that was 50% cheaper.

I'm all for choice. We live in [for the most part] capitalist societies, and we therefore have multiple choices. I'm sure the Russians didn't have this problem 20 years ago. They were have to have any toothbrush. Anyway, choice good, blah blah blah. But do we need 150 freaking choices? Ok, each brand has their own toothbrushes, fine, but do they each need 20 different types? Is the toothbrush that costs €2 half as good at cleaning my teeth as one that costs €4? Will it last half as long? Then you have the different names. Is "Professional" a higher grade than "Expert?" If it says diamond clean does that mean there's little diamond chips on the brush? I don't want that, I have a feeling that could damage my enamel.

After a while I started thinking, this is stupid. It's a damn toothbrush, it's not that important. Then I started thinking, yeah, but I really like my teeth where they are, notably in my jaw, I need the best tool available to do this. After a while, I basically closed my eyes and reached out and took the first one I touched. It's an "Expert" grade brush - I'm assuming that they mean it is the only toothbrush used by toothbrushing experts, and that this will thereby ascend me into their ranks.

I reached a couple of conclusions based on this: 1. I need a job so I don't have time on week day afternoons to linger in the food store - Saturdays are the best time to go because the entire population of France decided to cram into the same supermarket. Therefore you're just happy if you can get half the products you need, much less make a "choice" 2. Julie needs to do the shopping more often. She wouldn't have these problems and 3. I may need to seek professional help. Somehow it doesn't seem normal to spend 15 minutes trying to decide which toothbrush to buy.

Monday, May 15, 2006

More Photos From Spain

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a while - at least a couple of weeks - but have got sidetracked on other stuff (who knew that looking for a job could take so much time!!). Anyway, just a couple more pictures that I have from my sejour down on the Costa Brava.

The first is Olivier throwing against Julien from my current club (33 Tours). The second is a beautiful photo (that has been such recognized - it won the photo contest for the tournament). That's Julien of 33 Tours catching against Eric of the pickup team.

Lastly you have a pleasant beach view. Cheers and enjoy.

Give 'em some credit

Ok, it's starting to annoy me now - all of the talking heads of hockey are stating that the Senators "failed" again in their 4-1 series defeat against the underdog Sabres. I would like once to hear some people credit the Sabres gameplay, and not blame the Sens for losing. Sure, they couldn't get the job done, but the Sabres have been doing this all year long. Winning. They were only 3 points short of the Senators at the end of the season - how does one "highly favor" the men from Ottawa for this? They play the same teams all season long.

I, officially, am calling for Buffalo to win the Eastern Conference final against the [surely] heavily favored Carolina Hurricanes. Why? Because I'm a fan? No, because I think that the Sabres are a very well-balanced team and that they have the talent and above-all the team spirit to beat the ugliest man in hockey and his team.

There, start giving these guys respect 'cause they deserve it (and that way I can go back to ignoring my blog...sorry folks, I'll try harder).