Seeing this movie brings back memories that I never had. I didn’t see much of Pooh when I was a kid; I had seen a few episodes, but I grew up with PBS, not Disney. However, this movie still feels familiar. You don’t see much “cartoons” in theaters anymore. Children films are all computer generated and spiced up with half working 3D effects, lacking the “human” feel of drawn animations. The short feature before the movie was just as good. But it’s not just the pictures that was touching and emotional, the story told was just as wonderful. There is an equal mixture of humor and sweetness that is Milne’s signature touch to the stories (although I don’t know who wrote the screen play for this movie).

tl;dr: It’s a hard thing, I believe, to have jokes in a G rated movie that makes both adults and kids laugh genuinely, and this movie does that.

I’m not going to lie: I came to this movie with very low expectations because of all the bad things I’ve heard about this movie. “The worst movie Pixar ever made.” (Apparently). However, I never heard WHY it was such a bad movie (other then that Larry the Cable Guy was in it, and I don’t consider that a valid argument even though I dislike his comedy). After seeing it, I learned two things: 1) Cars 2 is not a bad movie, but an OK movie, and 2) there was a lack of the “Pixar touch” in this film, making it feel like a regular, mediocre Disney movie. Basically it’s not as bad as something like Bee Movie, but not as great as Toy Story. The story was forced and predictable. It was as if they thought “what can we do with these characters” rather then “let’s tell a story about…” (as Pixar usually does). It was surprisingly violent for a Disney movie; there was many “deaths” and “killings”, even though they were automobiles. I did enjoy the little tweaks and easter eggs they left in the movie even though I didn’t particularly love the movie as a whole. For example, the two second scene where the cars going through the airport took their tires off or the Japanese toilets and animations. There were a few cleaver bits in this pretty average movie.

tl;dr: Cars 2 seems like a movie trying to imitate Pixar films with no success.

This movie felt like something of a cross of The Goonies and District 9. These are two perfectly good movies, but it’s like mixing ice cream and hamburgers. My main complaint about the movie was the predictability. (Spoilers ahead) The main “hook” of the movie was this unknown thing terrorizing the neighborhood. I kept thinking “oh, it’s going to be an alien.” Now if it WASN’T an alien, I would have been amazed, but instead I was just “meh.” I would have been more interested to learn more about the monster instead of the kids. At the end of the day, this is just another alien movie. That’s not a bad thing, but this movie is nothing special.

tl;dr: Good premise, boring implementation.

I read all the books and watched all the movies, but I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of Harry Potter because that standard is too high. Seriously, Harry Potter is like Star Wars in a way that there is such a huge fan-base that the barrier to entry involves stuff like dressing up and reading the books at least five times. So in a way, I don’t want to be a fan and I don’t deserve to be a fan of Harry Potter. So with that out of the way, let’s talk about my unbiased opinions. My biggest complaint is that the movie is too short. Physically, it is a pretty long movie, but story-wise, there is only about three major acts: the bank, the first battle, and the final battle. I haven’t read the book since the day it came out so I can’t say for sure, but I do believe it was a bit longer than that (or if I’m wrong, I’m just too picky). My other complaint is that the movie feels like I walked in during the middle of the film. I know that it is “Part 2″ and all, but waiting more than half a year for the second half of the movie is something that I don’t think was ever done before. I guessed I should have re-watched “Part 1″ before going to the theater, but I’m far too busy being lazy to watch movies that I’ve already seen. When the first part came out, my main complaints were that it was too slow and not enough action. Now, regarding the second part, I think there was too much action and not enough (and there was a bit) emotional character building. In a perfect world, these two parts would be one epic movie, and I guess that would be in a couple of months when the DVD comes out.

(P.S: The last battle was kind-of anti-climatic when compared to the first battle.)

tl;dr: I guess I have to destroy this movie with a sword or fang or something.

I have never seen gay porn and I don’t ever intend to, but I think that this movie (at least the first half) is like gay porn without the sex. I mean two strong, good-looking guys living together, alone, in an abandoned neighborhood. Even the music contributes to the homo-erotic tension. This, along with the big-breasted man and the sweaty shirtless fighting makes the viewer very confused. However, the sexual confusion is nothing compared to the mental confusion. The whole story is, well, messed up. Every scene makes the movie more confusing and less sense. Just to summarize, basically Fight Club starts out with a guy who can’t sleep. He attends random support groups to feel good about people thinking he’s dying. Then his apartment blows up and he starts an underground boxing group. Then he joins a terrorist organization. It’s like the guy has gone more and more crazy, and because he’s the unreliable narrator, we feel his confusion. And somehow, at the end of it, you will get a message out of it. That’s why this movie is a great film.

tl;dr: It’s a crazy movie narrated by a mental character who enjoys pain and violence. It’s so different from your average film, you have to watch it.

Wow, this game is not like anything I’ve ever played before. It’s a strange mixture of a game and a movie. It has the camera effects, soundtracks, and plot of a blockbuster movie, yet you control the main characters and can end up with more than a dozen possible endings. With the absence of typical video game elements like an on screen display, I find many times forgetting I was playing a video game and just stared at a guy’s back for a minute. The plot was well written and I was shocked out of the seat when I found who the killer was. So in terms of the movie half of this weird cross-bred, it is wonderful. What about the game half? It is equally as good. The game makes good use of the controller to do actions and shows that you don’t need a fancy motion wand (even though it’s supported) to emulate virtual events in real life. For example, when doing a complex event, like escaping your bonds require pressing buttons in an uncomfortable order. Climbing a slippery slope requires alternating the shoulder buttons, but with good timing. As the setting changes, your controller changes. The decisions you make in game alters the ending. Luckily, I think I got all the good ending (you get separate endings for each character) the first play-through, but I had a hard time making the choices. In game, the main character’s motivation is to save his son and his choices reflect that. As the player, your motivation is to get the good ending and your choices reflect that. Therefore, as the player, you will actually think hard and ponder before making some tough choices.

tl;dr: This is one game where pretty graphics DOES matter, so this game is a good reason to buy a PS3.

At the risk of sounding racist, I couldn’t different between the various Italian names and faces. For example, I didn’t know the wife being abused was the same girl who got married at the beginning, and that was obvious. So with that, I guess I may not have understood the film fully. Speaking of which, this movie felt like a novel to me. A novel to be read and analyzed in an English class. I could see there are many symbolisms and metaphors and deeper meanings all over the place, but I am too lazy to look into them. This movie is a look at character development and the psychology of mobsters, not just a “mobster” movie. It puts these “bad guys” in a positive light, which is eye opening. It seemed a bit rushed, however (even though the film was long), especially in the main character’s rise to power. His character did a complete 180 after his father was shot; so much is seemed unreal. I mean, right before, he was a different person and didn’t want into the “business,” then *bam*, he kills a guy. I also didn’t understand why he randomly marries a girl in Italy.

tl;dr: Still, the film had a lot of depth and a plot that makes you want more (and luckily, there are more).

I realized one thing through all these movies I watched. “Classical” films and “film noir” is not for me. I don’t hate them and I can enjoy them, but these movies imply great acting and use of cameras and other things, which are all great, but I am a lover of good stories, and these movies have good stories, but not amazing ones. The Maltese Falcon is a great noir film in the definition of the genre, but it was a bit boring for me.

tl;dr: I guessed the ending halfway through. It’s that predictable.

Yes, I know this isn’t a “story”, but I finally finished this game and want to say some things. First of all: this game is hard. I’m not a good gamer, I admit, and I know that “retro” games are difficult, but SMW is a hard game. I did use save states and I know that’s cheating. I was tired of getting halfway through the level, dying and starting over and then not even making it as far as the last time. I really enjoy the art style of the SNES. 8-bit games are too pixel-y for me, but 16-bit games have enough pixels to look like good artwork but not too much to look like low-res photos.

tl:dr: After all these years, the originals are still entertaining. I don’t know if I can say the same for some of the games we have today that only depend on high-res graphics and not gameply.

I have watched all the episodes of the US version of The Office last year, so I guess I should watch the original this year. I was a bit surprised to find that there were only 12 episodes and a 2 hour special. My ignorant self expected the show to be still running knowing how popular the US version is. The weird thing is that I actually had a hard time understanding the dialogue of this show. In part because of the heavy British accent and in part because of all the idioms and metaphors and phrases I have never heard of before. I actually had to re-watch sections and concentrate to understand. The language was almost foreign to me. However, because of the British accent, the show actually seemed classier and more intelligent then the US counterpart. I say “seemed”, because in reality, the UK version is much more “dirty” in terms of the jokes and the humor is a bit more childish (but that didn’t stop me from laughing through every episode).

tl;dr: Mostly the same as the US version, except dirtier, smarter, and with a British accent.