Ooooh, a new Iron Man 2 movie trailer debuted Sunday night. Is it May yet.

On a Saturday night without the kids, we went to see a late showing of The Blind Side, a 2009 film starring Sandra Bullock. We attempted to see it back in mid-February on Presidents’ Day, but there were no seats. My wife later went to see it a week later with friends, and enjoyed it. I hadn’t seen it yet, and she wanted to see it again. Of course, this time around on a Saturday night, the theater was nearly deserted. I suppose a lot of people in February wanted to see it when we wanted to see it.

I knew very little about the movie, as opposed to most other films I’m interested in. I’m usually watching the trailers, reading reviews, and sometimes even checking out the plot synopsis (up to a point.) If you were unaware, it’s a film based on a book, about the story of a family in Memphis who take in a down-on-his-luck and impoverished teenager named Michael Oher, get him back on his feet, and he ends up becoming a star football player, and who later gets drafted by the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.

It was a decent movie starring Sandra Bullock, who plays the mother who takes in Michael Oher. I like her in most roles, and I thought she was good in this movie. Oscar-winning good? Yeah, I don’t know about that. However, she was entertaining, and certainly one of the central stars of the movie, along with relative newcomer Quinton Aaron (who played the young Michael Oher.)

The Blind Side (2009)

Lame.

I’m a fan of Futurama, and wasn’t happy with Fox’s cancellation of the series. Although I didn’t like the 1st movie that Matt Groening’s team put out, Bender’s Big Score, I thought I should at least watch the rest of the direct-to-DVD movies. Futurama as an animated television series was smart, funny, and great in-jokes.

Uh, yeah, this next installment, The Beast with a Billion Backs, was pure and simple lame. I didn’t like the story. I didn’t like the jokes. As a matter of fact, I thought it was a waste of my time. I give it one star. Very disappointing.

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)

After much anticipation, I finally remembered to rent 9, a film based on a story by Shane Acker. It’s an animated story that I first noted back early last year, that looked like a great story and cool animation. It features an all-star cast — Elijah Wood, Martin Landau, Christoper Plummer, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, and John C. Reilly, just to name the biggies.

After all that anticipation, after watching it, I was a little underwhelmed. Maybe it was the big build-up, but I did also read that other folks gave it mixed reviews. I felt that near the climax, the story collapsed somewhere along the way. I haven’t exactly put my finger on it. I wasn’t entirely invested in the characters the way that I should be, and the ending itself was half-baked. It’s a rental for the animation, but the story could have made this film more than the sum of its parts.

9 (2009)

We had the day off for President’s Day again this year, so we wanted to grab a quick lunch, and see…… The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock. We were in a rush, so we scarfed down fast food as we drove to the theater. We got a little lost, but found our way soon enough. We stood on a long line at the ticket window, but my wife found the automated kiosks, purchased tickets, and rushed to the theater. Movie hadn’t started yet — it was still previews! We walked all the way in, but found that the theater was packed. All that remained were the lame-ass front row seats, which I’m sorry, are pointless. If no one wants to sit there, why keep that row?

We decided to hang around an additional 50 mins to see Valentine’s Day, a Garry Marshall rom-com starring a shitload of big-name Hollywood actors and actresses. This was not the first choice for either of us, but we made due. You can gather the premise by watching the commercials. The movie involves the intertwining storylines of a multitude of characters.

I’ll go out on a limb, and say it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. My wife was able to predict most of the plotlines, but there were too many stories IMHO. Young teenage love, senior love, unrequited love, infidelity, childhood crushes, marriage, engagements, and on and on. Out of all of the intertwining stories and characters,  I thought the Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway characters were the most interesting. Everyone else was just blah.

Valentine's Day (2010)

Our next movie in the Netflix queue was Dreamgirls, a 2006 film about a trio of black female soul singers making into the music business in the 1960’s, focusing on the inevitable rise and fall of their careers. I was a little surprised to learn:

1. It was a musical. I didn’t know anything about this movie, except that it was a Motown-type film and there would be singing.
2. The film came out way back in 2006. That’s four years ago. I knew I was behind on my movie watching, but wow, four years ago.
3. Eddie Murphy was in this movie?

 The movie had an all-star cast — Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, and Danny Glover. This film also introduced Jennifer Hudson, who was pretty phenomenal. I was very surprised that Eddie Murphy had an important role as James Thunder Early. Frankly speaking, he hasn’t had a good role in a film in years. Seriously, years, and yet he was quite good in this movie. I enjoyed the film, and the movie itself really popped out on my standard definition TV. I would love to see this DVD again on an HDTV, and see it in all of its glory.

Dreamgirls (2006)

Last Father’s Day, my thoughtful-and-smoking-hot wife surprised me with a copy of Bioshock for the PS3. The game originally debuted for the PC and XBox 360 in 2007, and later ported to the PS3 in 2008. It’s a first-person shooter, much like the classic games of yore that I used to really enjoy, such as Wolfenstein 3D and Half-Life. Did you notice that I said “used to enjoy”? Well, yes, I used to be really into first-person shooters, and no, I never felt nauseous or dizzy while playing them. As a matter of fact, I felt immersed.

However, after some time away from most games in this genre, I got into third-person (over the shoulder) games like the those of the Uncharted series, and also Heavenly Sword. I like them better, because you can still be the character, and yet see what’s going on around. Who’s in front of you, who’s behind you, who’s creeping up next to you with a shotgun. It’s the best of both worlds. In comparison, first-person shooters seemed a little…… I’m not sure how to describe it. I guess what unnerved me was that in those first-person games, you can’t see someone behind you or sneaking up next to you. I don’t like scary surprises — I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t even like showering with my eyes closed. Call it paranoia.

Back to the present — it’s been nine months, and I hadn’t played Bioshock yet, but I knew it was a fantastic game. I mean, I heard, anyway. Early last year, I had downloaded the demo, and it was some scary shit. The visuals were beautiful, but the geez, the atmosphere was too real. The background sounds, the dangerous splicers off in the distance talking, the occasional approaching footsteps that aren’t your own. Man, talk about unnerving. It was scary, and yet exhilarating. I was unnerved (probably unnecessarily since it’s just a game), but since it’s so beautiful and enthralling, I was so intrigued.

Bioshock is one unnerving game experience.

So, there was I was this month. It was a quiet weekend, I’d recently beaten Uncharted 2 a few weeks earlier. I popped in the Blu-ray game disc, and bam!, back to be freaked out. I’ve played only a few hours so far, but wow, it’s a fantastic game. The visuals of this art-deco city under the ocean are stunning and enchanting, and the gameplay is….. well…. it’s well-done, but utterly unnerving. Twice so far, I’ve walked into a room, and then the lights went off. Footsteps approached quickly, and I was attacked.  So yeah, a guy who doesn’t even like to close his eyes in the shower, and there I’m fighting in the dark for my life.

So what’s the premise? The game is set in an alternate 1960 in the underwater city of Rapture. This fellow named Andrew Ryan built a city underwater, and took the so-called “best and the brightest” with him to create a utopian society, far away from religion, capitalism, and communism. Down there, scientists discovered some sort of sea slug that could be used to synthesize this stuff called ADAM, which could be used to make various plasmids. These injectable plasmids would rewrite your DNA, and give you abilities like shooting electricity, fire, etc, out of your hands.

Somewhere along the way, the utopian society gave way to madness and anarchy. Most people went crazy, and started killing each other. Your airplane (you are Jack) crash lands in the water near the Rapture, and end up in this decaying, falling-apart city under the ocean, and surrounded by the surviving denizens of Rapture, now called “splicers.” Oh, they’re all quite mad. Quite, quite mad. People walking around with large butcher knives, blood splattered on the walls, freaky stuff written on the walls in blood, people wearing those weird animals masks (a la The Shining.) One time, there was this one woman crying over a coffin. I walked up to her, and she turned around and started attacking me, while wearing a bunny mask. I killed her, and looked in the coffin. It was empty, except a cake.

If the story and the visuals weren’t so amazing, I would have thrown the disc into the fireplace a long time ago.

Whoa. Geek alert. Calling all 80’s Transformers fans. There is a game. Xbox, PS3, and PC gamers (and fans) rejoice.

On IGN (bottom of page 5) this week, I stumbled upon a mention for a new game coming in 2010 called Transformers: War for Cybertron. Activision is publishing a third-person shooter based the Transformers property, but thank goodness, it ain’t the crap that Michael Bay put out. It’s kinda similar to the 80’s cartoon and comics, but less blocky. You can play as either Autobot or Decepticon faction, as they battle each other in the era before coming to Earth (if you follow the lore.)

The game trailer is available in SD and HD (full screen) on gametrailers.com. It’s a little hard to watch and focus in some parts, but I spotted Megatron, Starscream, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Ratchet.  Even cooler? You also get to see Omega Supreme and Trypticon. Way cool. I hope the game doesn’t blow chunks.

I am shocked at how dumb network TV executives are, but I’m thinking the current senior management team at NBC should win some awards for myopia. We are all aware of the entire Jay Leno – Conan O’Brien fiasco, and there’s no need for me to elaborate.  Instead, I shall cite another example: Southland.

I missed Southland on NBC the first time around early last year. As I understand it, NBC aired the first season (7 episodes), then ordered additional episodes to kick off Season 2. Before season 2 premiered in October 2009, NBC cancelled Southland. TNT purchased the rights to 1st season, and the unaired episodes from the 2nd season. I watched the series pilot, and I was absolutely blown away by how good the show was. Gritty drama, tense action, great acting. Wow. Seriously blown away. Why would I want to watch the diminishing returns of former favorite Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which has become more boring to me every additional season?

Southland on TNT

At the current moment, TNT will air all of the episodes, and they’ve posted all episodes online for your consideration. They have not ordered new episodes, pending ratings. If you are looking for gritty police drama that will hook you for an hour and pull no punches, check out Southland. I think it’s excellent.

I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. I finished Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. For weeks, I’ve been slugging away at each chapter of the game, painstakingly finding every treasure (thanks to the good folks at IGN and their game guides), and collecting achievements (trophies.)  Yesterday, I reached the last chapter, fought my way to the boss battle at the end. Again and again, I lost. Today, somehow, I finally beat him. I completed the last two action sequences, and was rewarded with a lengthy (and satisfying) cutscene movie that tied up the game very well.

Man, what a great game. Pulse-pounding action, great story, awesome visuals, and wonderful voice acting. I’ve embedded a short AP video (a la YouTube) where AP interviewed some of the key actors in the game. I can’t wait for the next installment (please tell me there will be another game) to see where the next adventure with these characters will go next.