Friday, November 28, 2008

Quantum of Solace Review (Spoiler free)

One line: Not as good as Casino Royale.

More detail: The first thing that struck me immediately about the film was that I did not like the way the action was directed. The film opens with an action sequence that I found very difficult to follow. Other action scenes in the film suffered from similar problems.

The plot relies heavily on the previous film, Casino Royale. Fortunately, I watched that film before seeing Quantum of Solace so I was up to date with the plot. While knowing the details of Casino Royale isn't necessary, if you are the kind of film watcher who needs everything explained, you ought to see Casino Royale first. Otherwise the plot itself is pretty plain. There are attempts to humanize James Bond some more, and also to make some moral statements, but neither really resonated with me. The film retains some of the dark tone from Casino Royale, with very little levity and nearly no gadgets. A small nitpick, but I found the stylized subtitles naming each locale to be silly and somewhat distracting. Overall this film wasn't bad but it wasn't that good either. It's more of a coda to Casino Royale than its own film.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Buffy - Seventh Season

I've been watching the seventh and final season of Buffy, and it's great so far. The first few episodes have been full of great flashbacks and inside references for the show that are really full of nods to the previous six seasons. A great payoff for the longtime fans and the final season of the show. I'm looking forward to the remainder of the season!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

More on the Automotive Industry

Mitt Romney wrote an Op-Ed piece for the NY Times today that states that the government should just let the auto industry in Detroit fail. Kind of an interesting opinion from the same man who said he would bring jobs back to Michigan during the primaries.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Bluetooth

Is it just me or is it hard to take people seriously when they're wearing Bluetooth headsets and talking to you? I was out at a Wendy's and saw this guy complaining to the clerk rather angrily and was on the verge of laughing. For some reason the fact that he had the Bluetooth on seemed really comical.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Old and Slow

It's halftime, the Jets are up and I'm nervous they're going to blow it.

An interesting note that I saw this morning - apparently a Jets player anonymously said that the Patriots were "old and slow" but didn't want to take credit for fear of "bulletin board material." How does saying that anonymously make it any less bulletin board material. It still can read, "Jets: Pats are old and slow."

Sabathia

The Yankees are expected to make an offer to CC Sabathia that will "blow him away." I hope not. Sabathia has had a career year last year but haven't we learned the lessons of Carl Pavano and Jared Wright? One career year a future cannot predict. Sabathia prior to the last two years has been decent but by no means an ace. Here's hoping the Yanks show some restraint - although they do need serious help with the starting 5.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Automotive Bailout?

Should we bailout the auto industry with tax dollars? What an interesting question! The automakers provide a huge number of jobs for people around the country and symbolically are important given their status but on the other hand, when a company can't keep up with innovation or proper business models, shouldn't the be able to fail? At what size company would we decide not to bailout? I find this entire scenario interesting.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

SNL - election loser

The real losers of the election? SNL viewers, who will deal with the loss of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and now only have Fred Armisen's impression of President-elect Barack Obama. In my opinion, Armisen just hasn't really been able to capture Obama. Something about the speech patterns in his imitation just aren't quite right.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Jets - It's not looking good

The Jets are facing Buffalo today but it's not looking good for this game, or even the season. The Jets need a win at Buffalo if they want to stay close in the AFC East race. The problem is, they've been playing really close games against poor opponents - including the loss at Oakland. Now ILB and leading tackler David Harris is out with an injury and being replaced by David Bowens, who never has played ILB (he is a OLB / DE). WR's Coles and Cotchery are both banged up and the third WR, Brad Smith, has 1 catch this year.

In addition, the coaching has been horribly inconsistent, especially on offense. Against the Raiders, the running game in the first half was going really well, yet they ran very few play actions or even run plays and kept passing. Only until overtime did they try to run some more. With the Chiefs, worst running defense in the league, they came out passing. What is going on?

They're teetering right now and the rest of the schedule doesn't get any easier. I think we can call the season pretty soon - probably on 11/14 after the Thursday night game against New England. I'm guessing they'll be 5-5 at best, meaning they would need 5/6 to finish the season and feel good about the playoffs.