Million Dollar Baby

My post is so late tonight because I just got back from watching Million Dollar Baby. I was originally going to see Sideways because it got better reviews, but plans changed and I'm glad they did. I wasn't really excited to see it, but I should've been since Clint Eastwood just made Mystic River a couple of years ago. The premise of the movie is just that Hillary Swank's character, Maggie Fitzgerald, is a woman with nothing to lose and everything to gain with boxing. Eastwood's character, Frankie, is a great trainer who is reluctant to take her in until Morgan Freeman's character, Eddie, convinces him otherwise. The movie takes off from there and blossoms really well. I think the character development was awesome and the boxing scenes were tremendous. My main gripe is that it started and ended slowly. I even started glancing at my watch towards the end, which is a bad sign. Other than that though, the movie carried a lot of well-paced, poignant dialogue and people who you learn to love or hate. I give it an A- with my reccomendation as the best boxing movie I've seen.

I have some palatable nerd news today, but I'm going to keep it short. Yahoo decided that it was about time for them to make all their products compatible with Firefox. That's mighty big of them to bend down long enough to help the little guys. I sense it's an attempt to better compete with Google, but it's too little too late. Speaking of Google, I should extricate myself from bias by plugging this great viewpoint about a possible OS. I do like it better than the one I posted Wednesday because it's more logical and sounds more like their style. It seems like Google has a lot more to worry about in their original search engine with the growth of search engine manipulation. They've done some pretty fancy stuff though so who knows. Open source proponents may smirk at this reccomendation from MIT that the Brazilian government use Linux rather than proprietary software on new computers for the lower-middle income population.

Brace yourself for some amazing movie news today. The BIG news of today is that after much waiting and anticipation, the new "teaser" trailer for War of the Worlds is now up. The last trailer to get me this excited about a movie was the first teaser trailer for Kill Bill, so stop reading this post right now and open that trailer in a new window (right click it) and get ready to flip out. As if that wasn't enough cool video footage, there's an awesome featurette about Sin City and the origins of the movie on Yahoo! Movies that's kind of long but definitely worth looking at (it even has Tarantino in it). I'm hyped up just talking about it! But wait, there's more. Michael Bay is trying to redeem himself with The Island and the new trailer seems to suggest that he's on the right track. Let's hope for the best. That's it for videos I have to showcase, but you may want to read about the beginning of Revenge of the Sith and that Lucas is thinking about a 3-D version. When will it end?! Those of you waiting for X3 news may like to know that Beast and Angel will be major characters whereas Gambit and Cyclops will be more in the background. I haven't had much news for Asian movie fans recently, but there's now strong rumors of a prequel to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And lastly, feast your eyes on an upcoming Batman Begins poster:



Instead of doing an outside meme today I'm going to handle something long overdue. Garber had a meme in his blog where if you comment he'd tell you what he likes about you, what song you remind him of, what celebrity you remind him of, and what word best describes you. The catch is that you have to put it in your blog, so here it is:

1. I really like your happy-go-lucky style - I really think you don't let things get you down. (I've seen you down exactly once, and I can't say I blame you for that time.) I really like how whenever I see you I can count on a smile. No matter what. That, I think, says loads about you and your character.

2. Anadivine - The Timid Gentleman. Not only are you gentlemanly (though perhaps not so timid) - it's my favorite song from one of my favorite bands all time and it can be found here. Also, because of one poem you once sent me, Punchline - Heart Transplant, found here. I hope you enjoy both of them if you haven't already heard them.

3. I'll just say that the first thing I thought of when I sat down to do this was Russell Peters. Simply because I knew you were going to see him and you're both Indian. That's an absolutely HORRIBLE comparison but really, your uniqueness is intrinsic. That's right, I said it.

4. Curiousity won't kill this cat. You = brightening/uplifting. In the sense that passing you outside of the gym or on the way to class, the little conversations brighten everyone's day. Or at least mine. Which is what this is about.

They're very nice words and I don't want this post to go too long but I'll return the favor and try to concisely do the same for Garber. Those of you unfamiliar with him can stop reading right about...now.

1. I like your talent for writing, particularly poetry. It's hard for most people to really empty yourself out onto paper, and I've tried to model characters in short stories after myself, but I can't express myself quite like you can. I hope that you moonlight as a poet after you graduate ;)

2. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. Sorry, but since you like hard rock music that just popped up into my head when I think of music and you. That song may not reflect your personality, but it does remind me of you.

3. I'd have to say Adam Goldberg since you like being Jewish so much. It may seem a strange caricature but you could always fall back on being a Hebrew Hammer if geology doesn't work out!

4. This is tough, but I guess I would say spontaneous. It seems like you're very malleable. One second you're drinking the next you're playing electric guitar and the next you're dating someone who sat behind me in English class for a year!