Monday, July 04, 2005

Happy birthday, America. (updated)

Update: We did go to that party, which turned out to be like a mini bbq restaurant that Rachel and her girl friends set up. It was nice to have waitresses bring us our drinks and cheeseburgers and "mega ultimate chili cheese dogs." Good stuff. The girls had fun, and it was convenient for us. Everyone wins!

We also did play X-box. Groovy!

-11:39 pm, Monday, July 4, 2005


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Happy Fourth of July to all! What will you do to celebrate?

I believe our family will be going to some party at a friend's place down here in Escondido. Oli and I are not particular friends of the family since there's no kids around our age there, but they do have an X-box along with Halo. We'll enjoy ourselves just fine.

To keep in spirit of Independence Day, I'm going to talk about War of the Worlds, which Oli, David Youngman (he's in town for an internship, so he came to visit this weekend), and I went and saw last Friday. Okay, it doesn't really have anything to do with the Fourth of July, but it reminded me a lot of the movie Independence Day, which had a lot to do with the Fourth of July. By the way, I liked that movie. I love its cheese and overrated special effects.

Anywho, I liked War of the Worlds for the most part. The special effects were phenomenal...I couldn't see anything that looked obviously CGI throughout the movie. The acting was great. I'm a big fan of Tom Cruise as an actor, though, so I may be biased. It's not Oscar-worthy stuff, but he is convincing as a regular chum who is a lousy father. Even Dakota Fanning was great in the movie.

A lot of people complain about the ending, but I don't know what they expect considering it's based off a book and there already was a different movie made back in 1953. (Dude, that is an awesomely bad sci-fi flick if I've ever seen one.) Spielberg couldn't really change the ending of the whole story. I do think that there are some odd parts in the movie, and I thought the ending for the characters was wrapped up a little too fast for any real satisfaction. I do like the whole idea that it followed a few normal people merely trying to survive rather than following a scientist trying to find a way to stop the aliens.

All in all, it's worth a watch in the theatre simply because of the special effects. If you wait for this on dvd, it won't have the same effect. I personally liked the story of Tom Cruise's character and his two kids, but I've heard a lot of people say they hated it, so that's just me. As far as the cinematography, Spielberg continues to amaze me with his directorial skillz.

Oh, yeah...Batman Begins is awesome. Go see that movie too. Awesome.

3 comments:

Phil said...

> Happy Fourth of July to all!
> What will you do to celebrate?

I was thinking about eating German food (hot dogs) and watching Chinese entertainment (fireworks), but it doesn't seem patriotic enough.

Possum said...

I had hamburgers, spent time with Libby's family, and they went down and played softball. I was too sick, so I didn't participate.

Gabe read the Declaration of Independence, and that was cool.

Dave1974 said...

WAR OF THE WORLDS was flippin' sweet!