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I just walked into my house after spending the last two and a half hours watching Superman Returns, and I still have goose bumps. A couple of weeks ago I went to see X-Man 3 assuming it was going to be the be-all, end-all of super hero movies. It wasn’t, not even close. Tonight I went to see a movie that I had no real desire to see and I left the theatre giddy as a school girl. Go figure.

I’ve never been a huge Superman fan. I have nothing against him personally, he seems like a nice enough guy. My brain just never really clicked with the concept of an all powerful super man, if you will. He’s like the swiss army knife of super heroes; laser eyes, freezo breath, super strength, gravity defying, x-ray vision, bullet proof, rocket proof, missile proof, umm, pretty much invincible. Where’s the fun in that?

But wait, I recall enjoying the original Superman movies with Christopher Reeves. In fact, I really enjoyed them. Then it dawned on me. It’s not Superman himself that everybody loves, it’s what he stands for; truth and justice. The fantasy that someone is watching over us no matter what. This is an important fantasy, especially in the world we live in today, and this movie did a great job in representing that fantasy. I’m getting a bit too philosophical though.

The bottom line is that Superman Returns did a great job stimulating multiple emotions and not just the ones that are typically associated with this sort of film. The cast was fantastic and the story grabs you right from the beginning and doesn’t let go until the closing credits start rolling. True, the movie could be slow at times, but slow doesn’t always translate into lack of intensity. I caught myself holding my breath quite a few times and not just during the action scenes. Louis and Superman had some unforgettable moments together.

I think you get the gist of this review. I would seriously recommend this movie to anyone, Superman fan or not. I think it’s that good.

     

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This is hilarious.

     

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I bought a MacBook about a month ago. A nice shiny white one. I plan on writing a full hands on review, but first I must thoroughly acquaint myself with this fine piece of hardware. I don’t want to be too hasty.

But what I’m about to reveal to you just can’t wait! I found what could be the greatest program ever written! It’s called MacSaber. It essentially takes any MacBook and transforms it into a Jedi weapon of death.

In case you didn’t know, MacBooks, and I believe older Powerbooks and iBooks, have motion sensors built into them. The reason for this is quite simple. If you or someone accidentally hits the laptop or knocks it off the desk, the motion sensor detects this and immediately locks the hard drives to protect your data (more about this in my review).

Enter Ian ”isnoop” Anthony. This guy wrote a brilliant hack that takes complete advantage of the MackBooks motion sensor technology. Simply install this little program and start swinging your $1400 MacBook around the room to hear the melodious sounds of a Jedi’s lightsaber. It’s music to your ears.

And to think, a week ago I was carrying my MacBook around the room like it was a new born child. Not any more. My MacBook has been transformed into a finely tuned instrument of death that I flail around the room as if I was battling Emperor Palpatine himself. Not unlike this actually.

I think it’s fair to say that this little gem justifies the purchase of my new MacBook.

     

Filed under: Apple, Software, Reviews, Zen Geekery
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Askmen.com released their list of the top 99 most desirable women. These ladies were hand picked by the askmen.com staff and readers. It’s actually a very interesting and sometimes surprising list. What’s also cool about this list is that you can see where a particular actress/model ranked last year compared to this year. Katherine Zeta-Jones fell from her #14 spot last year to #67 this year. Ouch, she better start making some movies. It’s not all bad news though. One of my personal favorites, Miss Jessica Alba, landed the #1 spot this year, launching herself 77 spots from her last years position. Angelina moved up a few spots to #3 and the lovely Scarlett Johansson jumped ahead 56 spots to claim #28 this year. Mmmm, Scarlett…. Sorry, what? I drifted off for a second there.

I should also add that this may be my last blog entry ever after my girl friend reads this post. It’s been real nice knowing all of you.

Umm, I’m not sure how Ralph Fiennes made it on this list. That’s just plain weird.

     

Filed under: Zen Geekery, Random Bits
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I saw Cars last night with my daughter, and I’d have to say I think it may be my favorite Pixar film yet. That’s not an easy thing to say considering Pixar’s arsenal of top notch movies (Toy Story 1 & 2, A Bugs Life, Monster’s Inc., The Incredibles, Finding Nemo). I also suspect that I will be in the minority here, but not by much.

The only two real contenders in Pixar’s line up are Finding Nemo and the original Toy story, and believe me when I say that I enjoyed Cars only half a hair more than the latter two. Cars was definitely the most visually appealing of them all, but what did it for me was the movie’s setting. It was very nostolgic and that was the clincher.

That’s all I’ll say though. I give Cars a 9.5 out of 10. Oh, and I highly recommend going to see this movie on a rainy Saturday night, with about 100 screaming children who are up way past their bedtimes, strung out on way too many Junior Mints. It really amplifies the expirience.

By the way, check out this unbelievable tidbit from Rottentomatoes.com.

“The addition of reflections in practically every shot of the film added tremendous render time to the project. The average time to render a single frame of film for “CARS” was 17 hours. Even with a sophisticated network of 3000 computers, and state-of-the-art lightning fast processors that operate up to four times faster than they did on “The Incredibles,” it still took many days to render a single second of finished film.”

     

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