On Friday night Amy and I saw Bourne Supremacy. It was ok. I thought it was better than the first one, but Mr. Machine disagrees. I thought the second one had more elements of espionage gleaned from movies like Patriot Games, which I like. The car chase seemed better too. Overall though I¡¯d have to say it was a B movie. I still don¡¯t ¡°get¡± Matt Damon.

Saturday night we went to see Collateral. The movie starts off slow, but picks up quick in the second act. Without giving too much away, I¡¯ll say I enjoyed the fact that one of our ¡°heroes¡± is killed off just as you think he is about to end the movie on a good note. I had read Ebert¡¯s review of the movie and he was unhappy with ¡°another summer subway ending in an action movie.¡± Too bad Collateral ends on the MTA¡¦not exactly the subway¡¦and neither was the transit system in Spiderman. The MTA seems to find a better place in Collateral than in Spiderman though. In Spiderman the subway was just a prop to provide a bit of action, but the MTA plays a central role in the philosophy espoused by Collateral. If you are quick, you can guess the ending of the movie when ¡°Vincent¡± (Tom Cruise) makes a comment about it earlier in the film. Ultimately, I wish Mann would have avoided this tacky ending though¡¦or at least making Vincent¡¯s last words a little less cheesy. Those of us who pay attention while we are watching films do not need to be reminded of characters earlier comments when they come to fruition later. Three of the four main actors in this film are major box office names (Jada Pinket-Smith, Tom Cruise, and Jamie Foxx). I don¡¯t like any of them. They all surprised me in this film though. Most surprising is how quickly we forget about the color of Tom¡¯s hair, and how far Jamie Foxx¡¯s roles have come since his ¡°asshole¡± role days; although, the scene with Felix (while necessary) reminds us of why we used to hate him. Foxx¡¯s saving grace comes late in the movie when he makes a very bold move when Vincent says ¡°what?!…what are you going to do about it Max?!¡± The fact that that scene sticks out the most in my mind must mean Foxx¡¯s portrayal of a slightly wimpy guy must have been good. We¡¯ll see how well he can play a confident (and rightfully so) Ray Charles without seeming like the asshole Jamie Foxx we all came to know in movies like Any Given Sunday.

Sunday. Alien Vs. Predator. Don¡¯t bother unless you are one of the Giger faithful, or perhaps I should say Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff faithful. The special effects were good enough, only a few scenes where the xenomorph¡¯s were noticeable CG. Somehow the predator¡¯s face seems much less animated than in the original movie. Also, c¡¯mon guys¡¦don¡¯t give every single predator (with their masks off) in the background the same dumb dumpy mandibles hanging out at the sides look. Throughout the film you¡¯ll hear yourself saying two things: The first being ¡°oh, hey!¡± when you see a reference to one of the other films in the two franchises (like when Lance stabs his pen in between his fingers alluding to the ¡°android trick¡± scene in Aliens) or to parts ripped from the novels and comic books. The second thing you¡¯ll say is ¡°oh¡¦hey¡¦wait a minute!¡± after noticing the plot holes that are too numerous to bother counting. The worst hole in the plot is the fact that they squeezed it into one hour and 27 minutes. That only allows for a few choice moments of Alien and Predator duels after we finish with the (lengthy for this short of a film) exposition. The predators seem dumber, maybe because these are supposed to be younger hunters than the ones in the other two films. As bad as the dialogue and plot are, I have to say that this film out does Alien Resurrection by spending less time on the characters. Paul Anderson realized that nobody was coming to see AVP for the actors, because we sure didn¡¯t go to Alien Resurrection to see Wynona Ryder. With no Sigourney Weaver¡¦why bother with character development? I like the potential suggested for a sequel, as cheesy as it was presented¡¦hell, why not? I¡¯d rather see AVP2 than American Pie 4.

In the past week, Amy and I played a lot of tennis. I¡¯m starting to understand the game, but it is immensely frustrating to deal with that net¡¦ I wonder if it will impact my racquetball game whenever I get to play again. Amy went to the Ohio State Fair on Monday and Tuesday and was fascinated by the local yocals. Even though she was here for more than ten days, it seems like it went by really fast. I have a feeling my life is going to be like that (fast) for at least another three weeks if not much longer. Amy is on a plane back to LAX as I write this. Once she arrives she¡¯ll play the role of ¡°real estate agent¡± for me as it appears I¡¯m all alone in my search for a living space now. Mr. Machine keeps telling me to wait on him, but at this point it is too late to wait any longer. All of my meticulous preparation means nothing if I¡¯m sleeping in my car in a Wal-Mart parking lot on September 1st.
By the way – yes I know in some browsers some weird shit is starting to happen with the punctuation in these entries…. I’ll look at that problem when I have time to worry about things that aren’t a basic human need (like housing).