Monday, July 11, 2011

What's going on?

Reading - Just finished The Profession by Steven Pressfield. Great book. Frightening that it might prove to be somewhat prophetic about the state of our nation and the various other superpowers and their militaries in this world. Also reading Driven to Distraction by Edward Hallowell, a book about ADD. Pretty enlightening.

Watching - ON TV -  ALPHAS. Very impressed by the first episode. Loved the quirkiness of the characters and  intriguing plot. Will keep watching.

Watching - ON DVD/BLU-RAY - Inside Job. Buried. Inside Job was an insightful documentary about the rampant culture of greed on Wall Street and how it has infected both our government and higher education system. Eyeopening stuff. Have decided to look into third parties in terms of my political choices after seeing it. Buried was very well done and intense, featuring the best performance from Ryan Reynolds that I've seen. Not for the faint of heart.

Watching - IN THEATERS - Thor. X-men: First Class. Green Lantern. Not necessarily in that order.
My favorite of these was X-men: FC. Possibly the best in the franchise. Great performances by Michael Fassbender as Magneto and James McAvoy as Prof. X. I wish all the X-men flicks could've been this good. I'll rank Green Lantern as number 2 here. Sure it's been panned by critics and isn't making as much money as the studio had hoped, but this was a really fun, sci-fi superhero movie. Very impressive visually and well put together. I think Martin Campbell did a pretty good job of taking a character that isn't known nearly as well as the big 3 at DC (Supes, Bats and WW) and getting viewers acquainted with Green Lantern and his universe. Could it have used a little more drama and some better character moments. Yes. But, my only real gripes were the under use of Peter Sarsgaard as a villain and the lack of a real mentor/apprentice relationship between Sinestro and Hal Jordan. Onto the Thunder God. Thor was good, but should have been great. Chris Hemsworth did a fine job with what he was given, but he was not given enough to sink his teeth into. Tom Hiddleston, however, was and really shined in the film. Loki was the best character in the fllm. Natalie Portman was ridiculous...or rather...her character was. Not sure what they were thinking with her character, a supposedly brilliant physicist that acted more like a smitten college student heart throbbing over the ripped up blond Norse god she repeatedly hits with automobiles.

Writing - NOT MUCH - Just coming off a six week stint at an ad agency wherein I was commuting 4 hours each day and working for eight. I came home absolutely exhausted and barely had enough time to eat, tuck my kids in for the night and speak with my wife for twenty minutes before we passed out and started the routine all over again. My plan is to get back to a screenplay I had started right before getting that ad agency gig.