Jim Rittenhouse's semidaily journal of news, commentary and reports
See it because you are curious about what it will look like on the big screen. See the original TV show for the story; it’s cut to ribbons in the movie because of time limits, and a lot has been reworked – think of the later HARRY POTTER books versus the movies for the level [...]
Couple makes ‘wedding trailer’ as an announcement of their upcoming wedding for family and friends: it’s VERY funny. Helps if you’re some kind of film buff….watch for 2012, Matrix, Bruce Lee and other references in the video. Look for the Vietnamese subtitles…
“Two Gentlemen of Lebowski” – a Shakespearian version of THE BIG LEBOWSKI, just as odd. It talks about Johnsons and marmots, so it can’t be all bad. [Alarums. Enter OLIVER and the two NIHILISTS, bearing a marmot] Forsooth! This be a place Of residence, and much a private place.— O excellent marmot! WALTER Nihilists! I [...]
Mere, who recently saw YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES and really dug it, has really wanted to see the new SHERLOCK HOLMES movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Everyone else in the house wants to see it, but we’re not sure as to whether it’s really appropriate for the little mystery junkie. Same situation with [...]
This year we decided to buy a big household present for everyone rather than a lot of stuff (of course, Mere still makes out, but…) so the big add was a combination of an HD TV for the living room, and a HD TiVo and a Blu-Ray player to go with it. This is changing [...]
Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on his old 31-year old criminal warrant from America. I didn’t think they’d ever manage that one.
Online search references for the Quran and the Bible; the Quran part has both the Arabic and three English translations, and the Bible one has a BUNCH of different translations, most NOT English (which has around 20 different versions). Note that the authoritative version of the Quran is the Arabic one, of course. And this [...]
Saw the trailer for 2012 at Harry Potter 6; I was going oh geeze and razzing the ridiculous POS. Maybe my present health situation has made everything-go-boom Novels and Stories a whole lot less interesting, but this one is just trading on the latest millennial fear nonsense. I say it’s spinach cilantro and I say [...]
Saw it with the family today; Mere and Kay have been whomped with allergies, and I think they’re turning into sinus infections. The kids hate taking stuff for the allergies and hate the nasal sprays, but they hate worse being sick. In any event, I wasn’t all that thrilled with the film, mostly because so [...]
ORPHAN: My readers quietly passed along some information on this still-yet-to-open movie that I trashed earlier…and a little more information on a personal note. Susan talked to Mere, and she got the impression from Meredith that the sheer scariness of the poster got to Mere more than anything else. Arthur passed along this article from [...]
No, this isn’t an advertisement as such. Both the US and UK versions of Amazon are running DVD sales, and I’m listing out my ooh-that-would-be-interesting list for my purposes (and your edification, in case you have similar interests). Note that I have multi-region / NTSC and PAL reading DVD players in the house, and that [...]
This weekend, Meredith, her cousin Kay and I got out on a rare outing to a movie, and saw STAR TREK on the big screen; the kids were ‘I-dunno-about-this’ until they got sucked into the story, and they want MORE. I thought for a re-boot of the original series, it was actually darn decent. [...]
Unlike many folks out there who read this, I’m not a gung-ho Anime fan; part of it is that extreme cuteness isn’t a big draw for me, and the other is that the more wild, cartoony stuff isn’t much in my taste, either. However, I have exposed Mere to the Miyazaki movies, and she’s seen [...]
I finished going through the VHS tapes that I can do anything with; I’ll hooking up the phonograph next to get working on digitizing the records to MP3s. There’s around three boxes of pre-recorded tapes left to be disposed of (either at Goodwill or a local used-media store) and a small handful of tapes left [...]
Time Magazine: mashup of Iranian Politics and Lord of the Rings. Channel Two is putting on a Lord of the Rings marathon as part of the government’s efforts to restore peace. Lots of people, adults and kids, are watching in the room with me. On the screen, Gandalf the Grey returns to the Fellowship as [...]