Death Race
Just watched Death Race tonight and the bottom line is to not expect a good character-driven nor a plot-driven movie but a mindless action popcorn flick. There are numerous plot-holes, inconsistencies, and bad attempts at acting throughout the film and all of this is forgivable if you take this film as what I've said earlier. This is not a critic's film. This is not artistic. It is just mindless action with cars and explosions. The intro was very well done and got me hyped up and it's all action-packed from when the race starts. The special effects do give a convincing appearance of a future where the economy has crashed and everyone is poor while technology still exists.
However, I didn't like the excessive use of those "profile shots" like those you see before WWE or UFC matches or those close up shots of someone's angry face over and over again. There's also gratuitous shots of Jason Statham working out shirtless and Natalie Martinez wearing skimpy outfits (cause of course, sex sells!). This film does take a lot of video game concepts (e.g.,, picking up power-ups on the track to activate weapons and defenses equipped on the car) and puts them to film in a way better than Uwe Boll ever will. In fact, this movie could very well be called Twisted Metal or Hi-Octane (or if you are SUPER old-school, Carmageddon and Death Rally also come to mind).
So for that, I give it a 7 out of 10 as a mindless action flick.
However, if you must consider everything that a film critic wants in a film, then the failed attempts at some sort of character development, emotional acting, and a compelling storyline would warrant a 4 out of 10. But I already wasn't looking for that the moment I saw the trailer. And good thing it was $5 Tuesdays!
Muse – Invincible
Follow through
Make your dreams come true
Don't give up the fight
You will be alright
Cause there's no one like you in the universe
Don't be afraid
What your mind consumes
You should make a stand
Stand up for what you believe
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible
During the struggle
They will pull us down
But please, please
Lets use this chance
To turn things around
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible
Do it on your own
It makes no difference to me
What you leave behind
What you choose to be
And whatever they say
Your souls unbreakable
During the struggle
They will pull us down
But please, please
Let use this chance
To turn things around
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible
Together we're invincible
During the struggle
They will pull us down
Please, please
Let use this chance
To turn things around
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible
Together we're invincible
Song of the Week #4
The song of the week is something older. From Muse's 2006 album Black Holes and Revelations, "Invincible" is the song of the week. Lyrics are posted in the journal.
Just noticed I became #1 on Google for "Andrew Chow" this week. Yay.
FYI
For the wall, if your comment is truncated with a [...] at the end, it just means the rest of your comment will be shown in a tooltip when you mouse over (i.e., hold the mouse cursor over what your wrote).
Yes, the gallery is slowly being updated still. I have lots of photos past and present.
Shampoo, Hair Gel, and Hair Spray Anyone?
Some sort of massive loophole promotion going on at Shopper's Drug Mart. My brother went crazy and bought a ton of shampoo, hair gel, hair spray, and all other kinds of hair products and it was all for free! Here are pictures of what we got - enough to last a lifetime:
And, of course, this deal was brought to you by RedFlagDeals.com. My brother is a true hardcore RFDer. Here's the link to the relevant forum post (and uh, make room in your trunk):
Squaresoft and Final Fantasy
Formerly Squaresoft, now known as Square-Enix (or colloquially "Squeenix"), no company has provided more years of entertainment in my life than this one and they continue to do so through the Nintendo DS and Playstation 3.
Games such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy "III" (VI in Japan) redefined the genre and gave Square a strong foothold in North America coming from Japan. Playing these again brings back memories when I was a kid in elementary school, going over to a friend's house to see Crono solo Lavos or beat the crap out of Kefka. Final Fantasy VII made the Playstation. (Spoilers? Though, this would be like saying Vader is Luke's Father.) Aerith's death made many people shed tears witnessing the scene or a different kind of tears by having the moment ruined by someone on some forum.
Final Fantasy 8,9,10,10-2 all provided escape and adventure from the drudgery of homework and teenage drama all through my junior high and high school years. Final Fantasy 12 kept me sane through my 3rd year of university. The strategy, the storytelling, and entertainment value (each playthrough takes on average 40-60 hours) is what I like about the series.
The music composed by Nobuo Uematsu is top-notch throughout the series and his works have been performed all around the world - notably by the Play! A Video Game Symphony world tour, which did visit Toronto but I was unable to attend.
I write this post because I just finished Final Fantasy IV on the Nintendo DS and realized I played a lot of Final Fantasy, a series that began as a game that was supposed to be a company's last effort due to financial trouble. So I added tracks in the music player for each FF game I played (from III to XII). FF11 is not there because I haven't played it and it will never end since it is an MMORPG, which means the "story" is designed to keep people playing and paying their monthly fees.
Rock on Square-Enix and I can't wait for Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3! (Or for the XBox 360, but I hate disc swapping or compressed textures when compared to PS3's Blu-ray's ~30GB capacity and hard drive usage to reduce loading times.)
The Behemoth @ Wonderland
Got a chance to ride this last night (the line-up was ridiculous at ALL times of the day yesterday) and I must say, it's an exhilarating ride. The initial trek up 70 metres presents a beautiful view of the moon shining over water and of the park's nighttime lights. Then, there's an INSANE 75 degree drop reaching speeds of ~125 km/h. and it's all wild from there with more shorter airtime hills and a double helix (at the end of which, try to pose nicely for the camera).
The best part is the initial drop. It felt like I was going to fall forward out of my seat since it was so steep. The designs of the seat allow for full freedom of head and shoulder movement - i.e., no shoulder restraints to bang your head against - and no seat belts. The only thing holding you down is a "lap bar" pressing down on your...well, lap.
One challenge you could do riding the Behemoth is to keep both your hands up at all times. The feeling of knowing the only thing hold you to the seat is what's on your lap makes the ride more enjoyable (for me at least).
By the way, a woman wasn't allowed on the ride because she was too fat. Waiting all that time in the line only to be told that she was too fat in front of a lot of people must have been embarassing.
Song of the Week #3
New song of the week is Colbie Caillat - Realize. I also added Boyce Avenue's cover version. Lyrics are posted in the journal.
Colbie Caillat – Realize
(I also added the acoustic cover version by Boyce Avenue. You can check out their music at Myspace and Youtube. They do some pretty good acoustic covers of popular songs such as "Umbrella" and "Love in this Club".)
Take time to realize,
That your warmth is crashing down on in.
Take time to realize,
That I am on your side
Didn't I, didn't I tell you.
But I can't spell it out for you,
No it's never gonna be that simple
No I cant spell it out for you
If you just realize what I just realized,
Then we'd be perfect for each other
And will never find another
Just realize what I just realized
We'd never have to wonder if
We missed out on each other now.
Take time to realize
Oh-oh I'm on your side
Didn't I, didn't I tell you.
Take time to realize
This all can pass you by
But I can't spell it out for you,
No its never gonna be that simple
No I can't spell it out for you.
If you just realize what I just realized
Then we'd be perfect for each other
And we'll never find another
Just realize what I just realized
We'd never have to wonder if
We missed out on each other but.
It's not the same
No it's never the same
If you don't feel it to.
If you meet me half way
If you would meet me half way.
It could be the same for you.
If you just realize what I just realized
Then we'd be perfect for each other
And we'll never find another
Just realize what I just realized
We'd never have to wonder
Just realize what I just realized
If you just realize what I just realized
Oh
Missed out on each other now
Missed out on each other now
Realize
Realize
Realize
Olympics
So... when is Canada going to win a medal? Haha. /sigh.
But, to be honest, I haven't actually been watching the Olympics (except for maybe Women's Beach Volleyball today 
). I mean - every time I visit tsn.ca, I see a row of 4 zeroes in their medal count for Canada and our rank just keeps dropping (#51 at the time of writing, hopefully that changes today). That makes me sadface a little.
Blue Jays today: Bases loaded, nobody out. Vernon Wells hits a grand slam. No more runs scored by the Jays for the rest of the game. Yawn. Oh, but it did get interesting at the bottom of the ninth.
