Virtue Is Knowledge . com

Another end of the world flick. This time angels come to finish us off and there might be a story in there somewhere, but this movie misses on almost every level. I was tricked by the trailer, which is better than the whole movie. Whoever edited the trailer, should have done the whole movie. The collection of stereotyped characters was embarrassing. A black hoodlum, a white yuppie family, an old man who lost his faith?? Come on, show us some respect. And the setting for this morality play is a little diner in the desert called Paradise Falls. Not too subtle folks. Lots of guns, but no training for the actors, just never ending magazines as they shoot from the hip and hit what they want. The acting was OK. Kudos to Dennis Quaid and Charles Dutton for being able to do a take without laughing at themselves. It must have been difficult. Thankfully all the sinners are redeemed, usually by a gruesome death, and the film ends with a climactic angel vs. angel fight that they put a lot of effort in and apparently thought the audience would take seriously. I couldn’t. At least the human race was saved by the birth of a baby sometime around Christmas. I wonder if that is supposed to mean something? This may be a top contender for Rotten Tomatoes best of the worst.

It seems film makers are obsessed with the end of the world these days. Maybe with the stagnant economy folks like to see an even bleaker future than their own. If The Road was dark and colorless, then The Book of Eli is just black, and that’s not referring to Denzel Washington’s skin color. If Viggo had run into Denzel on the road, then maybe The Road would have been more entertaining. In this film Denzel is the drifter on a quest. He carries a book and his mission is to deliver it to some unknown enclave of humanity to the west. He is one badass road warrior and demonstrates it throughout the movie. He’s Rambo, Jason Bourne and Shaft all wrapped up in one. Gary Oldman is the villain and you can hardly find one better. His trademark psychotic laugh tells the story. He knows the power of the book. With the right words, he can takeover what little pockets of society remain. One man is ruthless, one might be called righteous and together that makes for conflict which advances the story along. The visuals are stark, nothing you haven’t seen before, color is deliberately muted or filtered. There may be a twist you didn’t expect or maybe you saw it early on. Denzel makes the movie because you believe his character even in an unbelievable time and place. The parables poor forth and you can pick them out yourself. Without Denzel’s performance, this would be just another end of civilization story like the the half dozen others this past year, but he and Gary Oldman carry it a cut above the standard fare and I thought it a rather enjoyable film and story.

I had low expectations about this film and was very pleasantly surprised by the wit and humor. The offbeat characters and basically cameo performances by the likes of Jean Smart, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, Justin Long (I’m a Mac), etc. play off our sad hero Michael Cera wonderfully. It’s almost like a very disturbed Alice in Wonderland with all the bizarre characters. Cera plays dual roles as the dweeb and his alter ego Francois, the bad boy he thinks he wants to be. Portia Doubleday is his love interest and is adorable in a teenage psychotic way. What lengths he goes to to win her heart is the basis of the movie and it is sweet and funny and cynical and schizoid like most of us will admit our teen years were.I thought the film was well made and innovative in the use of animation at interesting points. The soundtrack is excellent and you may or may know the songs, but you think you do. This isn’t a Porky’s at all. It’s a smart inventive comedy that I enjoyed more than I thought I would.

What happens when vampires takeover? Well, just like humans they poorly manage resources and have trouble feeding themselves. Ethan Hawke is a reluctant vampire and is trying to find a substitute for blood. Willem Dafoe is a former vampire who found a way to reverse the vampirism in a most improbable way. Humans are in short supply and that sets the stage for all kinds of wacky vampire drama. Lots of time is spent on showing how vampires cope during the day and how society devolves when starvation threatens. Wooden stakes still work somehow when they pierce the unbeating heart and of course prolonged exposure to sunlight is a killer. Leaving behind the folklore problems, the story has some sense and the acting is good. Sam Neil is the head corporate vampire and capitalist villain. There is plenty of gore and action and some stupid attempts to startle you with bats aflying. Vampires smoke a lot too, I guess it can’t hurt them and what else are you going to do for an eternity? I get the point: dead white men are the real vampires and a socialist utopia would mean plenty of blood for everyone. Give me my stakes, garlic and holy water, I’m agoing hunting.

Here is some of the stuff I have used throughout 2009 and liked a lot. In no particular order…

ZOOM H2: a hand held recorder that I use to make recordings. It’ll record in WAV files and has multiple microphones for stereo and surround. It uses SD memory cards and does a good job. Great for noodling or recording riffs before you lose them. One downside is the USB 1.1 interface that is too slow and should have been 2.0.

DROBO: How I love the Drobo. Redundant expandable storage that is beautiful to look at. Right now I have 3 terabyte drives and one 750gb drive in it and have beau coup storage for all my music and other media.

Ipod Touch: 32GB model does everything I can think of. Games, photos, audiobooks, podcasts and tons of music. I hate trying to use it to surf, but when I need to connect it’s there and works.

FACEBOOK: Connecting with old friends is great. I have concerns with its privacy controls, but still think it the best social site out there.

Audible.com: I love books, but spend a lot of time in the car. I’m not sure I’m an aural info processor, so I use it for entertainment books mostly.

NetFlix: I’m using the watchnow feature for the most part and stream content to my TV using the Windows Media Center interface. I’m very close to ditching DirectTV and getting all my TV over the internet.

Windows 7: Latest and greatest Microsoft OS to date. It works and is still compatible with almost everything I have no matter how old.

BlueAnt Supertooth Light: Simple bluetooth speakerphone for the car. If your car doesn’t have a hands free system, you need to get one. This is stupid simple and inexpensive. New models have more features, but this is all I need. If you hold a phone while driving anymore, you are an IDIOT!