Sunday, April 09, 2006
Shows and movies about Lots of Money
Before I start, I updated my ASP page with more comments stuff and a chat and things. Secondly, I played the Princess of Pers—err, I mean, Tomb Raider: Legend demo, and it was excellent. Plays a lot like Sands of Time, plus Lara Croft is really sexy. Heh. Unfortunately, I hear the game’s very short, so I don’t think I’ll buy it just yet.
Deal? Or No Deal? + Heist + Inside Man
Short post about Deal or No Deal – it’s an interesting game show, but lately I’d like to call it more than a game show. First of all, the contestants aren’t random from the audience – they’re chosen before hand, so they can make “special arrangements” – which is where the “more than a game show” comes in.
About a month ago, a contestant who was like, a poor Texan cowboy was on the show. And you know how after the second deal, they bring in his 3 people that he brought with him, so friends and family. So he says his wife couldn’t make it, because she’s terrified of airplanes and she never set foot on one.
So Howie Mandell asks if he wants to talk to his wife over the phone. Then Howie phones her and the whole audience can hear it – but the phone rings for a while and nobody answers. So Howie turns to the guy and says, “where is she?” And the guy says, “maybe at a friend’s house” – and then all of a sudden the doors open up, and his wife walks into the room, and there’s all this hugging and crying and all that.
I thought that was quite special. Then they did it again a few weeks later, but it wasn’t as impressive.
But recently, there was this other guy, and he brought his daughter with him. So Howie’s asking him what he plans to do with the money, so you know, there’s tuition for the daughter, maybe some vacations etc, and the daughter says she wants a pony (I guess, just like any other little girl).
I pretty much took out the surprise, so later on, Howie says that the bank made a 2-part deal – first part, is $44,000. The second part – well, the doors open up, and a pony comes through! Needless to say, they took the deal. It wasn’t a good deal though, since his case had $300,000 or so – but it was still good. At the end, the screen says this guy won “44,000 – AND A PONY”. That’s pretty sweet.
Heist
Heist is a new show (3 eps so far) that’s sharing CSI:NY’s timeslot. With Miami and Vegas, I can make room for a new show. The commercials say it’s like watching a movie every week… well, true for the first episode, not as true later, but it’s still exciting. The premise is a group of people are planning to pretty much steal everything on Rodeo drive. First episode, they managed to rob a bank, but not directly, but still. Second and Third episode, they’re working on their second job but it’s still not done yet.
So it’s about the planning stages, and of course they have side stories… also, the show also concentrates on the cops that try to stop them. So my description makes it sound very basic – of course there’s more than that – people and relationships, etc, problems, whatever… the main character, umm… Dougray Scott (Sean Ambrose in MI2) has… well, it’s complicated. Long story short, his former heist partner supposedly killed him, but apparently he’s not dead. To make things worse, his wife at the time is now married to this former heist partner. And to make things interesting for us, this main character is now dating the head cop in this show…
So all in all, it’s a pretty good show. I like it.
Inside Man
Today I saw Inside Man with Jia. Haven’t been to the theatres in a while. So saw it with Jia, and Eric, and Jia’s mom. So basically, instead of my idea to see the movie with Jia, it turned out I was going to see a movie with Jia’s family. Nothing wrong with that.
For some reason, ever since I saw the trailer for it circa November, I wanted to see it. Maybe I liked Clive Owen, or some other reason, but anyway, now I’ve seen it, and I’m glad I did. The movie is pretty good.
I walked into the movie with… pretty neutral expectations, so it turned out pretty good. I knew the movie was going to be about a bank robbery, with twists and turns everywhere. Don’t worry, the trailer doesn’t ruin anything – actually, it might heighten the experience, cuz we’re always looking out for something. That said, I was expecting a major twist – but I don’t think anything of that caliber really happened. Actually, some of the twists were quite small in my opinion.
Denzel Washington is damn awesome. He talks a lot, and he’s always happy sounding and enthusiastic, and very real, which makes him a good actor. He was like that in Training Day too – talks a lot, very confident, gets attention – damn, he’s good. Clive Owen’s pretty good too, although it’s harder to critique his role in this movie. And I didn’t know Jodie Foster had such nice legs :P
I’m not sure how many Spike Lee movies I’ve seen, but I think the way this movie played out was quite well. There was a real feeling of a horrific bank robbery in the beginning, with a real sense of panic. Each of the actors felt like they played a role, including the first cop at the scene and some passerby’s at the beginning.
I also like… I don’t know the word or how to describe it, but… I think it’s the pace of the movie. Like, a bank robbery is a bank robbery, and a hostage situation is a hostage situation, so sometimes it gets a bit tiring and a bit stale… so sometimes they have to spicen things up, so it was a nice change of pace when… well…
There was also a lot of music in the movie, and also a lot of silence during the parts where silence was most effective. I remember mostly the segment where the cop says to Denzel “you gotta come to the ladies’ room, you gotta see this” and then it fell silent, and the camera followed him from behind, slowly as we came to the ladies’ room…
For those that haven’t seen the movie, this is the part in the blog where I’ve lost you all already, so I’ll stop talking about it then. Overall, I liked the movie – but mostly, I think it was Denzel Washington’s performance, and the cinematography of the whole thing. It was filmed quite nicely. The plot and twists are a welcome addition too.
Anyway, after the movie when we were going outside, Jia’s mom found this little kid by the entrance, looking for his mommy. So she picked him up and brought him to guest services and dropped him off there. Then we went outside and saw this panicked woman looking for her son. Then we told her her son was with guest services. That made the day that much more interesting.
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Before I start, I updated my ASP page with more comments stuff and a chat and things. Secondly, I played the Princess of Pers—err, I mean, Tomb Raider: Legend demo, and it was excellent. Plays a lot like Sands of Time, plus Lara Croft is really sexy. Heh. Unfortunately, I hear the game’s very short, so I don’t think I’ll buy it just yet. Deal? Or No Deal? + Heist + Inside Man Short post about Deal or No Deal – it’s an interesting game show, but lately I’d like to call it more than a game show. First of all, the contestants aren’t random from the audience – they’re chosen before hand, so they can make “special arrangements” – which is where the “more than a game show” comes in. About a month ago, a contestant who was like, a poor Texan cowboy was on the show. And you know how after the second deal, they bring in his 3 people that he brought with him, so friends and family. So he says his wife couldn’t make it, because she’s terrified of airplanes and she never set foot on one. So Howie Mandell asks if he wants to talk to his wife over the phone. Then Howie phones her and the whole audience can hear it – but the phone rings for a while and nobody answers. So Howie turns to the guy and says, “where is she?” And the guy says, “maybe at a friend’s house” – and then all of a sudden the doors open up, and his wife walks into the room, and there’s all this hugging and crying and all that. I thought that was quite special. Then they did it again a few weeks later, but it wasn’t as impressive. But recently, there was this other guy, and he brought his daughter with him. So Howie’s asking him what he plans to do with the money, so you know, there’s tuition for the daughter, maybe some vacations etc, and the daughter says she wants a pony (I guess, just like any other little girl). I pretty much took out the surprise, so later on, Howie says that the bank made a 2-part deal – first part, is $44,000. The second part – well, the doors open up, and a pony comes through! Needless to say, they took the deal. It wasn’t a good deal though, since his case had $300,000 or so – but it was still good. At the end, the screen says this guy won “44,000 – AND A PONY”. That’s pretty sweet. Heist Heist is a new show (3 eps so far) that’s sharing CSI:NY’s timeslot. With Miami and Vegas, I can make room for a new show. The commercials say it’s like watching a movie every week… well, true for the first episode, not as true later, but it’s still exciting. The premise is a group of people are planning to pretty much steal everything on Rodeo drive. First episode, they managed to rob a bank, but not directly, but still. Second and Third episode, they’re working on their second job but it’s still not done yet. So it’s about the planning stages, and of course they have side stories… also, the show also concentrates on the cops that try to stop them. So my description makes it sound very basic – of course there’s more than that – people and relationships, etc, problems, whatever… the main character, umm… Dougray Scott (Sean Ambrose in MI2) has… well, it’s complicated. Long story short, his former heist partner supposedly killed him, but apparently he’s not dead. To make things worse, his wife at the time is now married to this former heist partner. And to make things interesting for us, this main character is now dating the head cop in this show… So all in all, it’s a pretty good show. I like it. Inside Man Today I saw Inside Man with Jia. Haven’t been to the theatres in a while. So saw it with Jia, and Eric, and Jia’s mom. So basically, instead of my idea to see the movie with Jia, it turned out I was going to see a movie with Jia’s family. Nothing wrong with that. For some reason, ever since I saw the trailer for it circa November, I wanted to see it. Maybe I liked Clive Owen, or some other reason, but anyway, now I’ve seen it, and I’m glad I did. The movie is pretty good. I walked into the movie with… pretty neutral expectations, so it turned out pretty good. I knew the movie was going to be about a bank robbery, with twists and turns everywhere. Don’t worry, the trailer doesn’t ruin anything – actually, it might heighten the experience, cuz we’re always looking out for something. That said, I was expecting a major twist – but I don’t think anything of that caliber really happened. Actually, some of the twists were quite small in my opinion. Denzel Washington is damn awesome. He talks a lot, and he’s always happy sounding and enthusiastic, and very real, which makes him a good actor. He was like that in Training Day too – talks a lot, very confident, gets attention – damn, he’s good. Clive Owen’s pretty good too, although it’s harder to critique his role in this movie. And I didn’t know Jodie Foster had such nice legs :P I’m not sure how many Spike Lee movies I’ve seen, but I think the way this movie played out was quite well. There was a real feeling of a horrific bank robbery in the beginning, with a real sense of panic. Each of the actors felt like they played a role, including the first cop at the scene and some passerby’s at the beginning. I also like… I don’t know the word or how to describe it, but… I think it’s the pace of the movie. Like, a bank robbery is a bank robbery, and a hostage situation is a hostage situation, so sometimes it gets a bit tiring and a bit stale… so sometimes they have to spicen things up, so it was a nice change of pace when… well… There was also a lot of music in the movie, and also a lot of silence during the parts where silence was most effective. I remember mostly the segment where the cop says to Denzel “you gotta come to the ladies’ room, you gotta see this” and then it fell silent, and the camera followed him from behind, slowly as we came to the ladies’ room… For those that haven’t seen the movie, this is the part in the blog where I’ve lost you all already, so I’ll stop talking about it then. Overall, I liked the movie – but mostly, I think it was Denzel Washington’s performance, and the cinematography of the whole thing. It was filmed quite nicely. The plot and twists are a welcome addition too. Anyway, after the movie when we were going outside, Jia’s mom found this little kid by the entrance, looking for his mommy. So she picked him up and brought him to guest services and dropped him off there. Then we went outside and saw this panicked woman looking for her son. Then we told her her son was with guest services. That made the day that much more interesting. |