Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

So about three and a half hours ago I sat down in a fairly empty theater. The same theater that ruined my Order of the Phoenix midnight premier, but that's a different story. I sat down, surrounded by friends, already talking about whether or not the film would be good or not. Overall the critics haven't been so nice to this sequel, and in my opinion, their reviews have been too negative. From here on out, spoilers.

I am no expert on films, or film making, but I can tell you I have watched a fair amount of movies in my short life and I would like to think I know the good from the bad, and this was certainly not among the bad. It was not top notch either, but it was very good for what it was: an action, comedy, romance, did I mention action? movie. I am not against action movies, but they are not my favorite either. I prefer movies like The Godfather. Now, recently I have probably enjoyed too many action movies for my own good. These past few months have been Transformers, Iron Man, and now Transformers 2.

Ok, let's get down to the review. First of all, good movie overall. I saw problems with: pacing, comedic moments, some lines, and a big change from the tone of the first movie. Pacing, action didn't seem always well spaced out, then again now that I think about it, there was rarely a moment when no one was being chased. Comedic moments, the twins seemed highly unnecessary to me and were clearly only placed for comedic interests, also too much humping (two times with dogs, and one with robot) for a movie's own good. Some of the lines seemed a little phony, and some unnecessary and overall just not good. Probably the biggest problem for me was the fact that with the robots this movie seemed a lot different. In the first one they were a lot more serious, in this one they talked a lot more and were used for comedy.

Ok, on to the good parts. I wont list them out I will just start talking about the film. Storyline, much to some people's thoughts, TOTALLY EXISTS. This movie is based on the past, and people usually don't like that. People want the epilogue first and don't want to know about what happened before what is happening now. You at least can't base a whole movie on that. Flashbacks are ok, but you start traveling to different planets and try to explain for whats happening now, not ok. My point is it exists, and I enjoyed it. I like movies that explain what happened before. Like a prologue to Pirates of the Carribean would be greatly enjoyed. Moving on... the effects and the sound to go along with the effects was all top notch. It was all very crisp and clean, the sound effects had thuds and clings when they needed to an it all fit perfectly. The acting was good as well, the fact that he was going crazy was portrayed very well. The voice acting was also very good as well. All the voices fit the characters well. I especially liked the Black Bird transformer (I don't recall his name, very old Transformer), anyways it was all very good.

I was entertained the whole time, and my friend who was sitting next to me would tell you the same. There were a lot of lines that were timed just right that they cracked me up and some moments were just "That can't be good" moments were just perfect.

This film, as I said as I was walking out of the theater after all the credits were done, deserves a B.

General Movie Grade: B
Cinematography: B
Sounds/Music: A
Writing/Story: C
Acting: B
Entertainment Quality: B
Effects: A

Thanks for reading

~Jake

Boo This!

Here are a bunch of Boos I haven't posted here yet.

Ever Have Those Conversations?

If you've ever seen the show Gilmore Girls, you probably understand what I'm talking about. Those conversations that just go so fast back and forth you have no idea how the heck that just happened. It could be about anything, from thermoses (a flask for a hot beverage) to running out of gas. They are just moments of genius in my opinion. This is probably why I like Gilmore Girls so much. Yes, I'm not afraid to admit it. They have so many awesome conversations and outlandish references that it is pure genius. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was like this as well, and it is sad that both series had to end, in the same year as well. Oh well, at least Gilmore Girls had seven seasons.

Confirming

I hate that people assume the worst. I do it sometimes too. Nothing is confirmed yet world, calm down, Michael Jackson may not be dead, he may just be in a coma still. If I'm wrong, ok, if not ok too.



UPDATE: CNN confirms death with LA coroner. I still don't think it can be confirmed until we hear from the hospital. Meanwhile... R.I.P Farrah Fawcett



UPDATE: Rest in peace Michael Jackson.

Yes, I hate media outlets like TMZ, E! and other purely celebrity news sources. That's why I've been watching CNN this whole time.

Please note the blog post this is much more important, I just wanted to stay relevant.

Religion

As stated yesterday today will cover my travels through the realm of religion, so sit back with a nice glass of lemonade and enjoy.

Let's see, let's see... Where to begin... Ok. So, I'm sure everyone has heard of Martin Luther, and no, not Martin Luther King Jr., Marin Luther, the "founding father" of my religion: Lutheran. Now, I believe I can trace back my religion to at least my Great Grandmother. From her to my Grandma who pounded religion into my mom's head and that leads to my family. My dad isn't an extremely religious guy, and thats understandable from the family he came from... Hold on... I need a Goose Island root beer to do this... Mmmm, thats better. I feel refreshed, ok, where was I? Oh yeah. My dad married my mom (he may have had to go through some class because my mom is Lutheran, I'm not sure) and (24-17) 7 years later they moved to my current house of residence. Lucky them (or my mom) two houses down and across the street there was a convenient Lutheran church.

All is well and fine there as I grow up going to Sunday school every week and attending Vacation Bible School throughout the summers, and of course VeggieTales who doesn't love VeggieTales. I still do as a matter of fact, but that's another story. So, now I'm 12ish, our good friend (and pastor) Pastor Jim is retiring (he's the second pastor I had after Pastor Trench who moved away, who's ex-wife and daughters we're still good friends with) and we aquire a new pastor. His popularity among the congregation was that of Bush's approval rating at the end of his presidency. Harsh, but true. And now it's confirmation time for me! Woo! Where we get to learn all about God and have to accept Christ.



Now, because our old church was pretty much left in shambles we got the pleasure of finding a new church. New church? Awesome pastor. Pastor Dawson I believe. A few months later... He decides to switch churches... Am I cursed? I don't know. All I know is I am missing my old church (especially my youth pastor Jason) and not having the best confirmation experience, not knowing anyone because I was new to the church and not winding up in the best small group. Was I the most mature of the group? From my leader's perspective, yes. He's pretty cool by the way. Guy Shilke (spell his last name right?) he said he was going to call me to go bowling... that didn't happen haha. I digress, again left pastor-less I continue my confirmation stuff not really enjoying it. Then comes along my favorite pastor of all time. Pastor Tom. PT was doing everything right (in my opinion). He was trying to bring modern techniques into the church, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The problem was the old grannies of the church (of course I'm over exaggerating). They did not like this. They didn't want change. Now I could be wrong but I believe this is the reason that PT was asked to leave. After spending Campfirmation with him (and Pastor Dawson, who I beat at Monopoly, and he remembered my name, and meeting a bunch of great people) I just loved the guy. He was doing podcasts (and still does: Wired Jesus Podcast) and really using that Mac well in services (except for the one time he forgot to turn of Skype and his brother called, oops). But he chose (again I think this is what happened) to step down and now he is serving a congregation in Ohio.



We are again pastor-less (as far as I'm concerned) but we do have a youth pastor, who my sister says is cool. I barely met the guy and I am not going to throw myself back in the water to be disappointed again by something. Now I prefer to think what I think about religion.

My favorite ongoing argument with my friend is that there is a lot of stuff in the bible that could in fact be a lie. It is not like God or Jesus actually wrote this so the people who wrote it could actually be telling lies. No one knows for sure except the big man himself. After all these years leaving the church I grew up in, losing awesome pastor after awesome pastor, I'm just not sure what to believe because each pastor has their own view on what that book is about. And not just what is going on in The Bible but also what is going on in the church itself. Pastor Tom probably understands this the best:

"...the time comes when fads pass for something of substance. The thing now is that we are looking at a language/communication shift, not just a fad, and its hard to tell the difference. I’m convinced its a shift of the magnitude of the advent of the printing press, but has the added dimension is that entire generation is already speaking this new language." - Tom Lyberg

So, now, where do I stand? I'm not sure. I recently watched Bill Maher's "Religulous" and found the point that he was making to be a bit off. He was astounded by the fact that people could believe in something that couldn't really be proven and he was wondering why people would gather to worship a could be fairy tale. I think what he failed to look at was the faith of these people. I am going to quote my favorite television show of all time:

"These people have nothing but their faith and that movies me." -Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

The fact that people have faith and do believe should be enough. Bill Maher I think your movie was great but I think that it doesn't matter if it is real or not, it matters that people believe. And no, I'm not talking about being brainwashed into thinking this is good and that is evil, the simple fact that people can believe in something that could be seen as completely ridiculous is what moves me.



So, I guess I stand on, "I don't know". I think it's possible that Jesus Christ was married, I think it's possible that there are lies in The Bible, I think it's possible that there could be a million different reasons why "my religion" could be wrong. I think that anything is possible about anything at this point.

After reading Phil Vischer's book "Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About God, Dreams, and Talking Vegetables" I am going to take his stance. I believe in God. But I am not going to force it on anybody. I will probably show my kids VeggieTales, because it teaches good lessons (and is funny) not because I want my kids to be the same religion as me. Phil Vischer's current project, which involves Jelly Fish, is a great metaphor for the path I am taking now. I am not letting religion or any giant decisions be forced onto me, I am going where the current takes me. I am letting what God wants me to do lead me along a path. If it feels right I will do it. I am not taking on any big projects or forcing anything to work out, if it works out great, if not, oh well, brush it off my shoulder and move on.



Ok, my root beer is gone so I think thats enough of my rant. I appreciate you if you are reading this and please feel free to leave your comments below either about your own experiences or what you think of mine, or anything else for that matter. I will leave you with three different closings

"I'll see you out there on the road." - Tom Lyberg (Wired Jesus Podcast)

"God made you special, and he loves you very much." - VeggieTales (Phil Vischer)

"I'm gunna make a friend out of you yet." - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

What I listened to while typing this: The Beatles, Barenaked Ladies, and Douglass Scott. Thanks for reading.

~Jake

Always Comes Back

Today I was reminded of my favorite quote of all time. I am reminded that no matter what I do, this quote will always come back and always have relevance. If you have been keeping an eye on my Twitter you would know that today is the 20th day of summer vacation for me. That means I am already 20 days out of junior year. Where did the time go? Then I am sitting at the computer doing my rounds on my favorite websites and all of a sudden my mom calls and it is 8:30pm. It probably didn't help that I had just watched a two hour movie, but I digress. Then I am listening to my favorite podcast which was a fifteen minute long podcast and it starts and two minutes later I swear its over! Anyways, here is to another 20 awesome days of summer, and to tomorrow's more serious tone of my blogging.

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. - Groucho Marx

I am planning on covering religion and not in some "RELIGION IS BAD" sort of way, in a "This is my religious views and what I have been through" sort of way. If you are interested in that sort of stuff check out Wired Jesus and listen to the podcast.

Thanks as always for checking in and as always keep an eye on my Twitter for constant updates on my whereabouts and what I am up to (whatabouts?).

Jon and Kate

Now, this topic has probably already been talked about to death, and it is obvious why. These two people who at the beginning seemed to be in love and a great family have now filed for a divorce. In my opinion because the media is handling this the way the media handles all troubles, they have been unable to really sort their issues out.

Neither Jon or Kate can just go out and have a dinner where they discuss their problems because they are constantly swarmed by a mass amount of press and media personnel. This deeply saddens me and it really brings to light the real problems the media can bring about. Newspapers, TV shows, magazines and other media outlets should not be sending people out there to basically stalk a family. I'm going to use an overused phrase, but, think of the children! These eight kids are going through unfortunate circumstances, and the fact that they are constantly surrounded by media makes this harder on all of them.

If the media would just leave them alone, tuck away all the cameras, laptops and notebooks and drive away from where they live and leave them alone for a year, these problems may be able to be solved. But unfortunately the society we all live in does not make this possible. There are Americans that just want to know every last detail and pay for those magazines that fund those cameras that are pointed through fences at a family in turmoil.

Ok, got that out of my system. What are all of your opinions? Comment! and thanks trampoline jumper for commenting on my last post! and yes, you are lucky that yours left the country... and thanks for your condolences, really appreciate it.

So, have a nice day everyone and next time you seem a picture of anyone in a magazine that wasn't a planned picture, just imagine a day at the beach with 20 giant lenses pointing through the bushes at what was supposed to be your alone time.

The Beatles

My head is stuck on an endless loop... Of The Beatles music. It is probably because I want The Beatles Rock Band NOW. Haha, it's what I listened to when I mowed the lawn, and when I woke up this morning and what I listen to before I go to sleep. Yeah, it's kind of insane. I seem to go through all of these music phases. Jon Foreman, musicals, The Beatles, oldies, it just changes time to time. I'm sure none of my family appreciates it haha.



I am blogging nearly every day now. Why? Because for some reason I like typing up things like this. I enjoy websites that are updated a lot so I think I want to update mine a lot. Going out somewhere with friends tonight, keep an eye on my twitter for that insanity. Probably doing a starting AudioBoo then pictures and tweets then a closing AudioBoo. I like doing stuff like that. Thanks for reading... If someone did read this. If you did COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT. Yeah, that wasn't demanding at all.

Looking for a Game

I'm looking for a game I can rent for my Playstation 3. I need a good action game that will keep me occupied and satisfy my need for a new game right now. I am low on money so I can only rent. Any suggestions? I have been playing Burnout and Killzone 2 mostly and need something fresh and fun.

Oh Well, That's Life

Image by DavidHT via Flickr

Got a definite no from my current crush. She said she wasn't looking for anything right now because of her last relationship. I can understand that. The usual "still friends" discussion was had. Third time in a row now. Just a little down, but I am not asking "why" this happened, I just let it play out the way it was supposed to. I hope.

The beat goes on as some people would say.

Hopefully hanging out with some people tomorrow. Tony's Steamers is always a good place for me. I maybe should go to bed, but I also want to play a game on my PS3. Burnout or Killzone 2? I don't know.

If something like this happens to you, try not to be upset about it, just roll with it. After four "no"s I have learned that rolling with it goes a lot smoother than complaining about and and being all down and bothered about it. I now have a full summer ahead of me. I am going to (hopefully) make the best out of it... Now when to grill that steak...

Rainy Day

Image via Wikipedia

Rainy day here in good old Illinois. Cubs won yesterday, my iPhone works again, hanging out with friends is always fun and the crazyest conversations come about. Especially on the trampoline.

Hey, if you're reading this, I would like to know! So leave a comment or something so I could know that I am not just typing this out for myself! Also, if you want me to review a book or movie or game, let me know! There is a library in town and a Blockbuster 5 minutes from here. I could use some new stuff to read, watch or play! So yeah... What else... Oh! I am using this Zemanta thing to make my blog posts fancier. I hope it works out well. I am also going to try looking through layout choices around the web so I can change this up a little too. I change the layout a lot because I am trying to find what fits best.

I think that is all for now. I am listening to The Beatles because I can't wait for The Beatles Rock Band to come out. It is going to be fantastic. So, again if you are reading this, comment so I know you exist. Thanks for reading!

Landscape... Yes... Landscape...

FINALLY. I restored it on a different computer and viola! It works again. I'm putting all my music back onto it now, and ringtones and all my apps are moved over a page, but besides that all is well!

Yay! Check my twitter feed (on the right) for screenshots of the phone I'm going to be uploading as soon as I am done putting stuff back on. It is such a relief to have my phone back again... Music done. And of course I put the one TV show episode that I must always have. The Pilot episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. After that I'll just check my settings and be off to bed to mess around with 3.0.

It could have gone a lot smoother but it'll be worth it once I can text in landscape... all the time. Ok, I have to post this now so I can concentrate on my Original 8GB iPhone with OS 3.0 freshly installed.

iPhone Woes

So today the (hopefully) marvelous iPhone OS 3.0 was released. Yay! Wait... Yay? That doesn't sound right in this situation. Why? Well, if you have been paying attention to my Twitter you will clearly notice that this update is going worse than last years 2.0 woes. I have been trying to update all day. It is stuck in the endless "Verifying software" thing that I have given hours, but I keep restarting the PC or iTunes out of anger.


the above statement was not true for my case

I am trying again... and I will keep trying until I succeed. I mean it, I'm not going to bed until I have 3.0... I will be successful. Not to mention my internet connection is being absolute CRAP. In fact my connection went down right when I was about to hit "Publish Post" gotta love this... (10:55pm) I mean I just wanted to get a picture from Apple.com so this post could look nice and fancy. But noooooo, the internet has to crap out on me... This is a major head desk moment my friends... Oh well I say, oh well! I am extremely privledged to even have an iPhone so I am incredibly thankful. So now I am waiting for my connection to come back so I can get the picture then post this. Hey, connections back... Yay! (11:18pm)

DAY 2: Thats right, today I am phone-less as well hopefully tomorrow morning (after the 3GS's are released) I will meander on over to the Apple store and they will fix my iPhone for me, unless by some miracle I get a remedy tonight! (June 18th, 2009 8:22pm)

Normal

Seems like today has been a normal day for me. Sat around. Played some Burnout Paradise. Spent an hour or two trying to get to Pokemon. Wait, what?

Thats right I pulled out the faithful DS and started chatting on the internet to try and get two Pokemon. Holy crap, childhood flashbacks. My DS has been on almost all day with Pokemon Diamond running. I don't remember the last time I played this much. It's probably because I just lent a friend Pearl to start a new game on. I even sorted through my Pokemon storage thingy and actually sorted my Pokemon in a way that made sense. Now I am trying to raise two Pokemon very fast, and I am trying to decide on a decent team. Yes. I'm crazy, and I used the period a lot in this post so far.



So today, was a lazy, Pokemon filled, Fruity Pebbles, Cosmic Brownie about to have Tositos and Pace salsa kind of day. Gotta love summer. Also, if you have any of the DS Pokemon games and are looking to trade with anyone over WiFi Serebii.net has a great chat room just for us crazy people.

Love Life

I was alone tonight. Parents were at a concert in Chicago (Kenny Chesney and a bunch of other awesome country singers). I was on the computer with the History Channel in the background. My friends show up. An old fellow band member shows up. We hang out for a few hours. Play chess, talk and play Super Smash Bros. Brawl. We laughed our asses off.

Life is awesome. Stop complaining about stupid little things.

~Jake

BTW: I won the Waffle-Off on Friday. It was awesome.

Waffle-Off!!!

This Friday my friend Mindy and I are having a Waffle-Off to decide who's waffles are better. We will have a panel of judges and stuff too so it shall be epic. I am starting the campaign for my waffles already.

Something New

So today I started to scribble. And I decided I liked what I saw. So I've been scribbling all day. Here is a scan of one of the guys I scribbled. You can clearly see other scribbles around it haha.



So maybe I'll scribble more. I like what I have so far.

By the way Happy Birthday to three of my favorite Hollywood stars: Johnny Depp, Michael J. Fox and Aaron Sorkin!

Gotta Love It

Gotta love being kidnapped occasionally

WWDC 2009

Apple's annual World Wide Developer's Conference starts today. With a bang.

Apple is expected to debut a few new products and stuff including a new iPhone. Because I can't watch the conference live (like E3) I'll be keeping an eye on gizmodo.com's live coverage. After its all said and done I'll update my blog with my thoughts on how it went. Apple's press conferences are always enjoyable.

So, nothing too crazy this conference. The iPhone 3GS was announced. Just a faster and more powerful iPhone. Are the features really worth an extra $100? Well, it's 8 more GBs, compass, Nike+ compatible (will the 3G have this?). Some new specs for the MacBook Pro. 3GS may be worth it for the video stuff. Uploading right to YouTube is kinda cool.

Fairly good concert, I wish Steve Jobs came out at some point though.

The Begining of Summer

I was just looking at my old blog posts and saw that I did an end of summer list last year and I thought it would be cool to have a beginning of summer list this year then see what I accomplished at the end of this summer.

-Ask the girl I like right now out. - Just did this - she's busy tonight she said "maybe another time"
-Complete THE LIST
-Have a few bonfires
-Grill a steak myself
-Finish The 48 Laws of Power
-Get back into books
-Write a decent story
-Keep on being me

I'm sure this list will expand and the thing is I want all of these things to happen naturally and not be really pressured into doing any of them.

List Boos

Thursday my friend and I started THE LIST.

Everyone

Every person lives his or her own unique life. From the moment of birth to the moment of death, a unique set of experiences happens only for that one person. And if it were not for that one person a whole other set of events would not occur for another person.

While looking through various pictures today I realized how very different these experiences are for each and every person. From the trip to D.C. for my cousin to, at the exact same time, there is a track meet going on for a friend of mine. These vastly different experiences are occurring at the same moment.

To think that I could be brushing my teeth while someone is climbing a mountain is hard to imagine. So I have an idea that I would like to pursue. If I could get a group of people to all take a picture of what they were doing at the exact same time it would be amazing. To see how different peoples' lives actually are.

I will see what I can do and I would love to have this actually happen and I could compile all the images together and post them here.

Next time you are sitting down to turn on the television to watch your favorite late night program that there is someone who is groggily waking up to a similar alarm clock sound you woke up to 12 hours earlier.

E309

E308 is what made me set up my Twitter account, and nearly 1000 tweets later here we are at E309. And thank goodness the regular E3 is BACK.

Microsoft just had their press conference and I heard about Paul and Ringo and Halo and some body motion capture thing. I still don't want a XBOX360. I love my PS3, I also hate it that Microsoft has Metal Gear now. It is such a great game and should only stay on Playstation systems. Oh well. We still have Ratchet and Clank and a bunch of other really great franchises that Microsoft doesn't have so its all good.

Tomorrow Nintendo and Sony conferences. Looking forward to hopefully some good announcements. I probably wont be able to tweet about them because I will be in school but I'll watch and tweet and maybe audio boo my thoughts after I can watch them.