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Rocky Balboa (I actually rented it)

Sun, 06 May 2007 19:36:01 GMT

Ok so I broke down and rented Rocky Balboa this weekend.

Here is my review:

No, no no no no no no no no no! No nono no no;no no no no no no no? "...woman cancer" (?!) No no no no no no no no no no no no no no novv. (no no no no no no) no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.

No no no no no no no. no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.

Then he magically disappears in the very end.

Movie Review: Casino Royale (2006)

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:03:53 GMT

This weekend we rented two movies. Casino Royale and The Holiday. One for me, one for Chas. Now, I know I like Bond movies, but I am admittedly pretty under-informed as it relates to the actual Bond series books from Fleming.

Casino Royale begins with a brief intro about Bond (Daniel Craig) gaining 00 status and quickly turns into major action-flick action sequences. I noticed right off the bat that this Bond was a lot more physical and a lot less “refined”, for lack of a better term, that the Bond I was used to. The fight scenes were great, Bond was a shaping up to be a perfect knuckle head (also noted by his boss “M”). To the observer, it really seemed like they were trying to establish Bond as a meathead with a gun.

I enjoyed the movie, but wasn't sure what I really thought about the portrayal of Bond. After a call to my brother Mike , a movie connoisseur, he informed me that Casino Royale was the very first book in the Bond series and that it followed that the character was not as polished or suave as he would later become. (Thanks Mike!)

Good Bond flick. Good action movie. I say rent it.

300: A manly movie, for dudes who like killing and other manly things.

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:19:28 GMT

Ok, so... after seeing the trailers for 300 I knew I was going to have to see this one in the theater. Long story short, I'm glad I did!

There has been no shortage of people ranting about the historical inaccuracies and blah blah...whatever. All I know is that the Spartans in this movie were seriously kicka$$.

The movie starts out with a brief run-down on the way Spartan boys are raised purely to wage war. They start their training very early, and basically never stop. Once that build-up is done, and we (the audience) understands how completely raw and awesome Spartan soldiers are, the fighting begins and pretty much continues for the rest of the film.

There was nothing I didn't like about the movie, except that it had to end after only 2 hours.

Here is a trailer of the movie in case you haven't had a chance to see it yet.

[youtube uhi5x7V3WXE]

Flywheel the movie: whats the story?

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:48:17 GMT

After watching "Facing The Giants" over the weekend, I discovered there was another movie named "Flywheel" made by the same group.

Blurb from www.Flywheelthemovie.com :

JAY AUSTIN (Alex Kendrick) wants to sell you a used car, but watch out! Many victims have fallen prey to his smiling face and hasty promises. Austin does everything his way until his dishonesty and manipulation are repeatedly exposed. Like many men, he becomes disgusted by the masks he wears and lies he tells. While having a classic convertible repaired, Austin begins a humorous and inspiring journey to win back the hearts of his wife (Janet Lee Dapper), his son (Richie Hunnewell), and his community. In every man’s life, there can be a turning point. When Jay Austin makes his turn, he never looks back. Filmed on location in Albany, Georgia, Flywheel has been shown in theaters, churches, prisons and schools. It is an inspiring family movie surprising audiences with laughter and tears and is loved by the young and old.

[youtube asg2NMGkATQ]

Read more about the Kendrick brothers (the ones who make these movies) here: www.kendrickbrothers.com

Facing the Giants

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:56:01 GMT

As you might already know, I use the Blockbuster online movie rental service, which now allows you to return the mailed DVD to the actual Blockbuster store and exchange it for an in-store rental (pretty cool, way better than Netfilx IMO).

Anyways, one of the challenges I am beginning to face is that there is a shortage of movies that I enjoy, but are safe for the little rugrat (my kiddo). Figuring sports movies should cover those bases, I have been renting football movies as of late. (Invincible and The Gridiron Gang previously). And what I ended up with this weekend was a little movie titled "Facing the Giants". I had been avoiding it since it looked like a low budget (what I term "homemade") movie without the "name-brand" cast and what not.

The beginning of the movie I was pretty much underwhelmed with the acting, and since I had never heard of the movie before I didn't realize where it was going to go, I was feeling pretty skeptical. For those of you who have seen and loved this movie, you know what comes next.

Here is a blurb about the movie on the movie's website www.FacingTheGiants.com

From the award-winning producers of FLYWHEEL comes a new, action-packed, family-friendly drama about a high school football coach who draws up a new game plan for his team … and himself.

In his six years of coaching, Grant Taylor has never had a winning season. Even the hope of a new season is squelched when the best player on his Shiloh Eagles decides to transfer schools. After losing their first three games of the season, the coach discovers a group of fathers are plotting to have him fired. Combined with pressures at home, Coach Taylor has lost hope in his battle against fear and failure.

However, an unexpected challenge helps him find a purpose bigger than just victories. Daring to trust God to do the impossible, Coach Taylor and the Eagles discover how faith plays out on the field … and off.

With God, all things are possible …

This movie was very touching, even while being very predictable. I would suggest this to anyone who is looking for a ~~good~~ great family movie.

Lady In The Water

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 22:33:01 GMT

The latest movie on my recently viewed list, is Lady In The Water directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

Plot outline from IMDB :
"Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world."

For some reason, I had the impression that this movie was going to be a horror film but as it turned out, it really wasn't that horrifying at all. If anything, I would put this in the fantasy genre with all of the talk of nymphs, mythical scrunts (basically dogs with grass for fur who have their own special powers), hugemongous eagles, etc.

One funny side character was a guy who only worked out one side of his body, so his right arm and leg were pretty muscled while the left side was scrawny.

Put this one in your queue (if you do the online rental thing), or go rent it...good stuff.

Invincible

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:28:20 GMT

Invincible is a story about a bartender/substitute teacher, having some hard luck, who walks on to the Philadelphia Eagles football team and makes it.

To put it simply, I thought this movie was great. The movie had the usual root for the underdog cliche, yet still managed to be entertaining. A little over 2 hrs in length, but still felt too short...and that's always a good sign.

If you like football movies, do yourself a favor and go rent it.

Rocky 6...come on, seriously

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:29:54 GMT

"...Rocky Balboa started fast with a $6.2 million mid-week opening Wednesday from 2,752 theaters."

From the sounds of it, Rocky debuted at #1 followed by: The Pursuit of Happyness at #2, Charlotte's Web at #3 and Eragon #4. Guess he didn't have that much competition...but still.

How can this be? I MIGHT put this movie in my rental queue with Blockbuster online, but there is just absolutely no way I would go see this in the theater.

Gotta hand it to Sly though, he is one ripped up old dude.

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My Top 5 movies of all time

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 13:37:25 GMT

My Top 5 changes from time to time. I don't really know what influences that change, but here is my top 5 as of today (random order):

Aliens (yes, the 2nd one) - My brother Ike and I used to watch this movie over and over again. Any movie that can stand up to that kind of traffic has something.
Braveheart - Such a great movie. Anyone who watched this, and didn't want to paint their face blue and kill some Englishmen, needs to do some serious soul-searching. I also liked the crazy Irishman...I connected with that character.
Dumb and Dumber/Ace Ventura - I lumped these two because I think they were both great Jim Carey flicks, but they were both Jim Carey flicks. And as such, pretty much the same "bit" in different settings. I can't think of any other comedy that is quoted more in conversation, maybe that just says something about the people I know :).
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - I think this was the first time I realized its cool to be bad. Either way, it is a good movie that has obviously stood the test of time.
Raiders of the Lost Ark - Indy's hat, leather jacket and his whip. A bada$$...plain and simple.

Honorable mentions go to Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Easy Rider, Repo Man and all the other really great movies I am forgetting right now.

What movies do you love?

Golden Globe nominees: Am I out of touch?

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:53:25 GMT

I just saw a list of the nominees for this years Golden Globes and I was noticing that I haven't seen A LOT of these movies.

Drama: "Babel," "Bobby," "The Departed," "Little Children," "The Queen"

Nope, haven't seen any of these

Picture, Musical or Comedy: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," "The Devil Wears Prada," "Dreamgirls," "Little Miss Sunshine," "Thank You for Smoking"

I have seen Thank You For Smoking...pretty funny

Animated Film: "Cars," "Happy Feet," "Monster House"

I have seen 2 out of these 3...wtf?

Miami Vice: Don Johnson rolls over in his grave

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:39:22 GMT

I rented the movie Miami Vice this weekend. Now, don't start getting the wrong idea here...I had a free Blockbuster rental, needed a movie, and it was a Saturday afternoon (nothing was left!).

I love movies, even not-so-great ones sometimes. And it is a rare occurrence for me to ever stop a movie half-way and go do something else. I can usually stick it out to the end.

About 1 hour and 10 minutes into the movie, I realized that the story line was not really resolving and I couldn't "feel" the end coming soon, so I hit Display on the remote to see the time remaining. Lo and Behold there was over an hour to go! That was the first time I stopped that sucker and went and did something else.

The next day, I figured I would finish up the movie (since I feel I have to for some odd reason), and I got through about another 30 minutes or so before we felt the urge to get out of the house and escape the movie.

Well, "unfortunately" I never ended up finishing it and had to return it to Blockbuster since it was due ("Monday before noon, thank you enjoy your movie"). I wonder if I will ever finish it?

Robots and main page accessibility

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 06:00:00 GMT

On my quest towards e-stardom (aka a relevant and content-rich website), I realized that the navigation towards my older "news items" was somewhat lacking. My solution for this problem was to create a side bar menu that would contain all of the news item titles in descending date order (aka newest first).

A day or two after this change, I began to notice a positive side-effect to including all of these titles as links on the main page...The robots (spiders) were crawling all through my site! I'm not 100% sure, but I can't imagine how this increased indexing would hurt my chances of being returned in some search results.

In a possibly related subject, a Google search for 'Aaron Lynch' now returns this page in the top 10 search results (#6 as of this entry) and an MSN search returns www.AaronJLynch.com as #3!

Does anybody want my autograph?

UPDATE 1/25/06: Either Google has changed my ranking somehow, or my switch to BlogCFC has harmed my accessibility somehow. I now turn up on like page 5 or something terrible. Back to the drawing board!