A nice profile of Hadi and Mimi. I took a shot while Jeff was taking a picture of them.

I Am Legend

Josh and I went to see the premiere of I Am Legend starring Will Smith.

It was an entertaining movie about the last man on earth. There certainly were times of terror and suspense. The movie started off slow, but I liked the way they portrayed an abandoned New York City. Amazingly, most of the abandoned cars were neatly parked on the side and not blocking the road. Ford must have been a big sponsor of the movie, because they sure did show a lot of their cars.

I think that Will Smith is way over-rated, but I think this was one of his better performances. He did a good job of showing sadness and loneliness of being the last living person in New York. However, there were some mixed performances that were corny to me. Perhaps they rushed the part about Will Smith losing his social skills. He seemed to do a fine job of talking to himself and his German Shepherd, but in the scene where he watches Shrek with the boy, he acted like a buffoon mimicking the cartoon characters.

The movie starts off with Emma Thompson saying she found the cure to cancer. Then, apparently, the cure turned out to be a virus that turned everyone into zombie monsters. Didn't we see this in 28 Days Later and in Resident Evil Apocalypse? Oh well, I guess people just love zombies. Frankly, I'm sick of them.

Smith is an army scientist who tries to find the cure to the rage virus. He wanders alone in New York City during the day and hides in his house at night when the zombies come out. The zombies are allergic to the sun like me. I have a bad case of chronic prickly heat.

After his dog dies after getting bitten by a zombie dog, Will chokes his beloved friend to death. Then, he gets rejected by a mannequin at the video store where he gets his DVDs. He wants to die, but is later rescued by a mom and her little reticent boy. Will says that there is no god, but the mom says that god told her to go to Vermont where there is a survivor colony. He sees a butterfly tattoo on her neck and remembers what his dead daughter said about looking at the butterfly. Maybe there is a god. Before he can say hallelujah, he is attacked by zombies. A few seconds before the attack, he finds the cure to the disease and gives it to the mom. She later tells the story of his deeds. That is his legend.

Aside from the weird grammatically incorrect title, this story could have really been told in 5 minutes. Still the journey was fun.

My score: C, 74

The Highs: Entertaining, good performance by the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

The Lows: Derivative storyline, dumb looking zombies, simple plot, pointless and meaningless story.

The Verdict: The best Will Smith yet...which isn't saying much.

Wicked

Last night, Sarah and I went to go see Wicked the musical. It was awesome! It's as good as people say it is. There were some kids that sat behind us that kept talking and they were even more excited than I was about the show.

It's an modern imaginative prequel to the Wizard of Oz. Elphaba is a nice girl that unfortunately was born green. This was due to the sins of her father, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz who had an affair with her mom. He gave her a green elixir to drink. Lesson learned: don't drink alcohol when you're pregnant, especially green ones.

When Elphaba goes to school she meets Galinda, a perky and outgoing blonde. They become roommates and loathe each other in the beginning. Later, they become best friends as they begin to understand each other. Elphaba gets to meet the Wizard because a professor of sorcery sees that she has talent. Elphaba is excited to see him at first but learns that he's the one behind all the animals in Oz losing their ability to speak. She runs away and the Wizard's press secretary condemns her as wicked. Everybody then hates her, except for Glinda and Fiyero, Glinda's fiance who really loves Elphaba.

Call me shallow, but how could anyone fall for a girl that's green? Watching Fiyero and Elphaba french-kiss made me laugh and want to puke guacamole. Fiyero says that Elphaba's beautiful and she tells him not to lie. He says that he means it and that he sees her in a different way. I guess he was under her love spell.

Eden Espinosa who played Elphaba was really good. Her voice was amazing. I can't believe she sings every night for a year or so. Glinda was also good and funny. The guys who played Fiyero and Boq weren't as good as the girls. Their voices were weak and were hard to hear.

The sets, background, singing, and lights were amazing. The lighting effects really were magical. I think this was the best sounding and looking musical ever.

Sarah said that Les Miserables was more emotional and the story was better. I would tend to agree. Wicked was just good fun though.

The best way to see this musical, as with all musicals, is to listen to the songs over and over again until you've learned them. Then, when you go see the musical you appreciate seeing it performed on stage so much more. The only drawback would be that if the actors sing a little differently than what you're used to, you might not like the change.

I wish that they would make DVDs of musicals so that everyone could have a chance to enjoy them. They can distribute the DVDs after the end of the production run. The ticket prices can be very high, especially for the best seats.

Oh, as an aside, don't ever watch the Tin Man mini-series by the Sci-Fi Channel. They tried to make a wild modern remake of the Wizard of Oz, but it's unbelievably dull. Tin Man is absolutely terrible rubbish.

The musical had great themes of love and friendship. You can find tremendous beauty in things if you see things through different eyes. Don't judge people by their outward appearances. Stick to what you believe is right instead of following the herd.

My rating: A, 94.

Highs: Angelic singing, beautiful backgrounds and lights, Glinda was cute and funny, Elphaba's voice was enchanting, catchy songs, great themes.

Lows: Clever twist of a story was subdued by its thin plotline; few characters, there are some problems reconciling the story with the Wizard of Oz, weaker male performances.

Verdict: Wickedly wonderful!

Solo Time Trial along the L.A. Coastline

I just did a time trial by myself along the beaches of Los Angeles on Saturday. Okay, I didn't race anyone, just myself. It was a race against the clock. Going up and down the coastline took less than 3:00 hours. The distance was 50 miles from Pacific Palisades all the way down to the end of the bike path in Redondo Beach. It was pretty windy. The beaches were nearly empty. There were sandstorms in certain areas. Sand constantly hit my face for many miles. Sometimes the wind helped me, but most of the time it slowed me down. There were times when I could lean against the direction of the beach 10 degrees and the wind just held me up. I can see why you wouldn't want to have full aero disk wheels on these days. I was struggling to keep straight when there were strong gusts of wind. It was still a good day overall. I passed everyone on my Motobecane Nemesis. I love passing people, especially other road bikers.

Riding to church on Sunday was really cold. My fingers and nose felt frozen. I have to ride downhill in the beginning and that is really cold. But, during the middle of the ride I still get hot enough to break into a sweat.

Monday, I had to deal with another road rager. This stupid Chicano guy in a dark gold Civic Si kept yelling profanities at me and kept trying to run me over. He pulled over 3 times and tried to stop me to pick a fight. I should have got his license plate to report him to the cops. Man, drivers are such @ssholes!

My Car is an Accident Magnet II

A few times before I've posted about how people have hit my Hyundai. Yesterday, I got hit yet again by this young 22 year old girl on the freeway. I was on the 5 South in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic. I was braking, and this girl who was trying to change lanes to the right, rear-ended me. Fortunately, I was okay, although I did get really minor whiplash and a headache. There were just some big scratches on my bumper. Her BMW's front crumpled up upon impact. She seemed like a sweet girl so I'm not going to sue her. Plus, I'm tough. I can't believe all those people who claim to be severely hurt after minor fender benders all the time. People in car races crash and flip over 20 times and still walk away fine.

This might have been a different story if I got hit really hard. A few months ago, I posted about how this one pick up truck was going real fast and kept skidding forward. I thought I was going to get hit, but fortunately, he was able to change lanes. Then, he proceeded to just cut in front of traffic later on like nothing ever happened.

I almost got into 2 more accidents after my accident yesterday morning. Another idiot made a double lane change without even looking. He kept driving into my lane when I was in the fast lane. He nearly drove me into the center divider. If I didn't break hard and honk at him, he would have definitely hit me. He was talking on his cell phone which he had in his left hand. He didn't even bother to turn his neck back to check his blind spots. Drivers are real lazy that way. They don't want to turn their dog-gone necks! Another time, I stupid woman made a left turn right in front of me when I was going 40 miles an hour on the streets. People have to make sure it's clear to turn before doing so. Gawd!

Previously on my Hyundai, my parents' neighbor hit my car when they were backing up from their garage. Another time, this old guy just hit my car trying to squeeze between a tight spot at the gas station. This other time, some jerk just left a big dent on the passenger side of the car without leaving a note. My car also has light swastika scratches on the back of my car trunk.

I thought I was glad that I still drive my older Hyundai so that I wouldn't get that upset as compared to if people hit me when I had a new car. One of my co-workers said that if I had a new Mercedes, people would try not to hit it, because it would be very expensive to fix. That may be true. Thinking back though, it wasn't that long before I got dents and scratches on my Mustang and on my new Honda Accord. So, I still think it's better to have an old car. Once you get a new car, it will be scratched and dented very soon. Take my word on it.

The Golden Compass

I went to the premiere for The Golden Compass and the director, Chris Weitz, was there to make opening comments about his new film. He said it took 3 years in the making and it was very expensive to make.

I think this film kicks Narnia's ass. This was still a film geared towards pre-teen children, but it was much more violent and had better action than The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

The movie is basically the anti-Narnia. There are many worlds out there other than ours. In some worlds, the souls live within people. In other worlds, like the one in which The Golden Compass takes place, the souls live side by side next to people and the souls, called Daemons, take the form of animals. In other worlds, people do not have souls at all.

The star of the story is this 12 year old girl, Lyra. She's very headstrong, smart, and stubborn. She lives with her uncle and 007 agent, Daniel Craig. Pretty soon, Nicole Kidman comes to take Lyra on a journey to see the giant polar bear king. Lyra soon discovers that Nicole Kidman isn't as nice a woman as she first made herself out to be. Nicole seems to work for a church-like organization that wants to rule the world and tries to stop people from thinking freely. They don't want people to question its authority and its teachings.

Children's daemons keep transforming into different animals depending on their mood and/or situation while adult's daemons stay the same once they mature. Perhaps, this is a way to show that children's minds are more maleable and can be influenced whereas adults are more set in their ways. Children's personalities can be molded and are still developing.

Lyra then gets The Golden Compass, a device that helps her find out the truth in any situation. The church like organization are getting children to brain wash them. Lyra gets help from gypsy-like people called the Gyptians. She also meets some old guy with an airship like the ones found in the Final Fantasy video game series. She forms a strong friendship with a giant white polar bear. These polar bears have the voices of the Wizards from The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf and Saruman.

This movie had great special effects that surpassed Narnia and Harry Potter. I just wish it wasn't full of kids. I don't like kid movies. If it was a fantasy movie geared more towards adults, it would be kick-ass.

The fight scene between the polar bears was great. I liked how Gandalf the polar bear slashed Saruman the polar bear's throat at the end. People in the audience started cheering like they were in the Roman Coliseum watching gladiators slaughter each other.

The movie seems like it will follow the book series just like the Narnia movies followed the books. So, expect to see more of these films in the future.

The big mystery is what "Dust" is. It seems to be some elemental particles that evince the existence of parallel universes. The church-like organization is hell-bent on trying to stifle this research, because they do not want people questioning the church's teachings.

Although I did not like the kiddiness of the movie, I liked the story overall. It's important to teach kids to seek the truth instead of blindly following what they're told without question.

My rating: B, 81.

The Highs: Beautiful special effects, great scenery, epic storyline, important lessons about learning about the truth instead of blindly following an institution's teachings.

The Lows: Too Kiddy for adults; cheesy animal daemon souls everywhere.

Angeles Crest

Hiking up Angeles Crest. We're at the Charleton Flats area. Watch out for giant pine cones falling on your head.

Universal City Walk

Black Friday

Going shopping at the Century City Mall.

Turkey Day Weekend

On Thanksgiving, Sarah and I went to my sister's house for dinner. Everything was delicious. I overate as usual. Saejin, Ben, Amanda, and Amanda were also there. We played Guitar Hero III and other games too. That was fun.

On Black Friday, we went shopping in the morning. I don't think the deals were that great. I never want to go shopping on Black Friday again because of the long lines at the malls.

We also took Sarah's cousin around L.A. to show her the sights.

Here are some pictures of the canyons in Malibu. This was a day before the fires there. "We didn't start the fire...." Billy Joel.

Bee Movie

Jerry Seinfeld is a bumblebee that doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. All the other bees are perfectly content with having the same job for the rest of their lives. Not Jerry. He wants to go outside the hive and explore a whole new world out there. One day he flies out with some pollen jocks, but gets trapped in a human's abode. He almost gets flattened, but a sweet woman named Renee Zellweger saves his prickly behind. He's so enchanted by the human girl's beauty, that he seems to have fallen in some sort of weird bee love/crush. Jerry wants to sting her, as in "birds and the bees" sting her, if you know what I mean.

Jerry the bumblebee is kinda like me. . .a lawyer who is a dreamer. I don't know how that bee got his license to practice law in human court. He just wants to fly around and experience the beautiful world out there.

Jerry uncovers a conspiracy by the damn humans to steal all the bees' honey by smoking the bees. He sees that there are hundreds of man made slave hives. He gets Renee to file a lawsuit against all the honey farm companies. They win the case in court. All the bees get their honey back. The bees now have too much honey so they stop working and chill out. Later on, plants, flowers, and trees start dying out because the bees are not there to pollinate them. Jerry and Renee go to the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena to get the last flowers on earth. They get the other bees to get the pollen and start sewing their wild oats across the land.

The Highs: Humorous, cute, good animation, somewhat educational about the importance of bees in the world.

The Lows: Absolutely ridiculous and silly. How'd a bee pass the bar exam? How can hundreds of bees lift up a 747?

The Verdict: A film for kids that parents can tolerate watching.

My rating: An appropriate B, 81, for Bee Movie.

Lions for Lambs

Chicken or Lamb?

Tom Cruise plays a U.S. Senator trying to become the next President. He's interviewed by a reporter, Meryl Streep. The movie starts off okay, but nothing really happens. People talk about politics and ideology. Their conversations become louder and more heated. Then more talk. Blah blah blah. A couple college kids join the army to prove that they're making a difference in the world and then they get shot by Afghans. Oh no. More pontificating. More diatribes.

The Highs: Good sound effects when the army helicopter goes by and gets shot down. A good discussion on war and politics.

The Lows: Too preachy; Can't get Tom Cruise as a crazy scientologist out of my mind; nothing really happens in the movie.

The Verdict: A Political Science major's dream movie.

My rating: D, 61.

Beowulf

I went to go see the advance movie screening of Beowulf. I thought it was an awesome visual spectacle. It's a total thrill ride. Scholars may look down upon this film because it doesn't have the haughty Old English poetry, but action movie buffs will like it a lot. The only way to see this movie is on the big screen. Once you put on the 3D glasses, you enter a world full of amazing special effects. I really liked the way they made this movie, except for people's faces. CG faces never look as good as real people, but this is the most realistic CG I've ever seen. I hope that video games strive to be like this movie in the future. All action movies should be in 3D. I thought this was the best 3D movie ever made.

Beowulf is a powerful hero who is a little bit full of himself. Aside from his ego, he really does kick ass. When he has to fight the monster Grendel, he decides to fight him naked, because Grendel doesn't have clothes either.

***Warning: Spoilers Ahead******

All my reviews contain spoilers, because I like to talk about the movie. Beowulf has to fight Grendel's mom, the beautiful and seductive demoness, Angelina Jolie. Not even the mighty Beowulf can escape the enchanting beauty of Angelina Jolie. Not Beowulf. Not even Brad Pitt. That Angelina Jolie is a homewrecker!

Beowulf's only weakness seems to be women. Or anything that looks like women. He lost a swim race because of a sexy mermaid. Giant sea monsters were no problem for him though.

In Beowulf's moment of weakness, he falls for Angelina Jolie. I don't think he could have killed her if he wanted to anyway, because swords go right through her as if she was a ghost.

Many years later, a new monster appears. It's Beowulf's bastard son, a dragon. Beowulf has to kill his dragon boy, because the dragon is hellbent on destroying mankind. Beowulf slashes the dragon's neck where his heart is. Why the heck is the dragon's heart in his neck? The dragon's heart seems to be too small to pump enough blood to the giant dragon's body too. But, we can't be too nitpicky about the details. This movie is just about the spectacular 3D effects.

After Beowulf kills his dragon boy, the dragon turns into a golden man, just like his mommy, right before he croaks. Beowulf sheds a few tears. Angelina Jolie comes to kiss Beowulf when he dies too. Beowulf's best friend becomes the new king, but Angelina Jolie, who is no angel, seems to seduce him as well to come join him in the sea.

The End.

I bet the new king follows her too. All the guys make the same mistake.

My rating: A, 91.

Highs: Gorgeous 3D special effects; great action; humorous.

Lows: Ugly CG faces; no longer a highbrow adventure of Old English tales; it's Angelina Jolie, but not really her.

Verdict: A 3D roller coaster of a movie. A must see movie in 3D.

Battlestar Galactica Razor

This should have been called Battlestar Pegasus since that's what the movie focuses on.

TV Guide has said that Battlestar Galactica is the best show on television. It's a great sci-fi series that appropriately airs on the Sci-Fi channel. The show has great special effects and great drama, if you accept the fact that Cylon robots have now evolved to look exactly like humans. It's amazing how they make those robots look and act just like people!

Too bad that this, the fourth season, will be the last. If this aired on a major network like NBC, then I'm sure it would do better. It's much better than that crappy Heroes show. Heroes was good the first season, but the second sophomore season sucks bantha fodder so far. Hopefully, they can bring things back soon. With this WGA writer's strike, however, that might take awhile.

In this plot filler of an episode, Lt. Kendra Shaw, a new character in the show, is the center of this movie. Lt. Shaw is assigned to the Pegasus under the command of Admiral Helena Cain.

The Cylons have just destroyed most of humanity and the Pegasus has just narrowly escaped. Admiral Cain has a lesbian affair with a female Cylon, but she does not realize it until Kendra reveals that she's a robot whore.

Admiral Cain is one ruthless bi@tch of a commander and orders the Cylon chick to be tortured and humiliated to obtain information from her or it. Cain is one Machiavellian female leader. She orders her protege, Kendra, to take all the supplies from a civilian spaceship, because military needs outweigh everything else during wartime. Kendra, a sharp razor, does as ordered. When the civilians resist, Kendra is the first one to shoot. Later on, she struggles with guilt and shoots herself up with drugs to ease the pain.

***Warning Spoilers*******

Starbuck and Kendra go on board in old Cylon base and see Cylons from the 70's Battlestar Galactica (BSG) show. They have been capturing humans and studying them to make organic Cylon/Human hybrids. They try to blow up the Cylon spacestation, but their remote nuclear trigger is broken, so one of them has to stay behind and manually blow the place up. Lee Adama who has been promoted to be the Commander of Battlestar Pegasus by his daddy, Admiral Edward James Olmos, orders his not-so-secret lover, Starbuck, to stay behind and nuke the spacestation. Starbuck gets teary eyed but follows orders. However, before she blows the place up, Kendra orders her to leave with the other no-name space soldiers. Kendra stays behind to blast the place to smithereens. Before she could pull the trigger, an old man (Cylon?) tells her that he knows everything that is going to happen. He says that Starbuck will lead humanity to their ultimate destruction. Kendra tries to tell Adama, but her transmission is jammed. Kendra then blows the place up.

This was another great episode. Too bad it didn't have Grace Park star in it. Grace only appears for a couple seconds. What's up with that?

This wasn't as intense as the mid-season finale, the Eye of Jupiter, that they showed at one of the advance screenings I went to last year.

My rating: 90, A-

Highs: "Star Wars" like special effects; "Alias" level drama; Return of the 1970's Cylons that were lost in space; great acting.

Lows: Where the frack is Grace Park, the best star of the frackin' show?; Too many flashbacks to Kendra's killing of innocent civilians (oh boo hoo, we frackin' get it already!); no physical evidence of the lesbian love affair with Admiral Cain and Cylon Number 5 (just kidding!).

Verdict: A great season premiere to the final season to one of the best shows on television, BSG.

Hollywood

A brief trip to Hollywood.

I saw a whole bunch of stars just hanging out in Hollywood, including Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Willy Wonka, Batman, Tigger, Supergirl, Jason from Halloween, and Captain Jack Sparrow.