Crash

I received an e-mail from Amazon.com today that my camera shipped so now I'm really giddy about it. Ideally, it'll reach my parents place on Friday before I get back, but if it got there on Saturday I'd be happy. I saw Crash tonight at Kory's place, and I really enjoyed it. I think I'd have to have seen it before the Oscars to say whether or not it deserves best picture, but it was definitely an A movie on my grading scale. The cast was amazing (Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, Ryan Phillippe, and Matt Dillon among others) and the interlocking storylines played very well with each other. I was a little disappointed with how obviously racist it started out, because it was almost contrived. However, once it got going I think it did really well with getting you to think of things being less than just black and white (metaphorically, not skin color) and had severally very tense moments (it even got Bethany to cry a little). I do have to complain though that Matt Dillon's character's motivations seemed very conflicted and strange given something he does very early in the movie, but other than that I really did like how the characters were defined. I can see how someone would poke fun out of how obvious this movie's critique of racism, but I think it's nice when movies have themes and handle them right. I highly recommend seeing it, and it's even coming back to theaters to make it easier for you. It's no Pulp Fiction, so don't expect that out of the structure, but it definitely has some confusion with the timing that I think almost forces you to watch it again to glean some more tidbits that you may have missed. I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain so I couldn't say whether or not it stole the award away from Ang Lee's film, but I definitely think that it was a worthy contender. The acting really did make the movie what it was, and I was especially impressed with Ludacris.

Intel has announced a new chip design that's supposed to offer similar performance and power consumption improvements that the Pentium M did in its time, but they're calling it the Intel Core Architecture. The desktop chip, called Conroe, made a big splash over at AnandTech where its performance for high-powered video games and movie encoding was truly incredible (assuming it wasn't doctored). I was actually more impressed by this video I saw that apparently showcases Intel's answer to Microsoft's Origami called an Ultra Mobile PC, and apparently it has tested well with soccer moms and other focus groups though it will cost $1000 at first. I think that if the price goes down fast enough it could really eat away at the PDA market (in addition to the small computers market). Meanwhile, Microsoft has unveiled the beta for their Live search engine, which is they one they're claiming rivals Google. It did pretty well on a few searches that I ran, but it was a bit slower than I had expected. I think they went for making it a bit sleeker than it needed to be. Apple secretly has started a season pass service for their iTunes-featured television shows where you can pay a discounted price for an entire season of a show, which is something I was hoping for in the very beginning and am glad to see them implement. They've also been rather quiet about how good their server sales have been recently, and I have no idea why this has happened. If you're ever bored and want to read some good news, then this site will provide you with a great snapshot of the most popular geek news around from the three big news amalgamation sites. Lastly, you can check out some fun pictures of the Googleplex over here, and, as always, it really does make me yearn to work there. Especially on nights like last night where I had to do a boring, tedious Physics lab.

We haven't heard much from Lucky Number Slevin lately, but I love the trailer and given its extremely good cast I just felt like showing you that new poster was the right thing to do since its release is less than a month away. The trailer for Over the Hedge, on the other hand, is rather underwhelming, although it also features Bruce Willis. The CG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles we've seen teaser pictures for now has distributors: Warner Brothers abroad and Weinstein Co in the United States. It looks like it really is going to happen! We also now know that Resident Evil 3 is going to start production very soon with many old cast members, but I stopped reading the plot synopsis when I read the word "Alaska" in it. If you've always wanted a zombie movie Stephen King style, then you'll be pleased to know that Dimension has picked up the rights to his recent book Cell for Eli Roth to helm, and I'd be very excited to see what he does with a King novel.

Now for a Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. Name five of your favorite women
My brother's fiance (that's a no-brainer), my mom (she can get on my nerves, but she did kind of create me), and I'll give the other three spots to my three girl cousins I love to hang out with whenever I'm in Houston (they know who they are).

2. Name five of your favorite famous women
Mother Mary (again, no-brainer), Jenny Lewis (I would marry her just for her voice), Jessica Alba (I'd marry her for different reasons ;), Jackie Kennedy, and Katie Holmes (I don't care about the Tom Cruise stuff, I still think she's great so screw all of you who are making fun of me right now).

3. If you're a woman: What's the best thing about being a woman?
If you're a man: What's your favorite thing about women?
Besides the curves? I'd have to say being fun to talk to (when you know them that is, it's a pain to approach women out-of-the-blue it seems). With guys you sometimes have to watch what you say so that they don't make fun of you or something, but girls are typically more understanding and less judgemental, and I like that.