Arrested Development: Season 1

Boy, great show. Hard to see how this could have been taken off the air. Love the characters and the zany story lines. Watched all of season 1 (on instant play) in about 2-3 weeks. Ready for Season 2!

Mystery of the Megaflood: Nova

Somewhat interesting but ultimately disappointing documentary about a big flood that happened in the northwestern part of North America about 15-20,000 years ago. I got this because I thought it was going to be about the theorized megaflood that happened in the Tigris/Euphrates river valley thousands of years ago, thought to have inspired various flood "myths", and recorded in the Bible. None of that here, though, unfortunately. I don't even think prehistoric man had arrived in North America yet when this megaflood took place.

Resident Evil: Extinction

I had this on while I was grading. It's the third of the Resident Evil franchise. I like the setting: it's a post-apocalyptic (in the vein of Road Warrior) zombie, horror, action flick. The visuals are good, but like most of these films, there's not much story or character. Some of it just plain doesn't make any sense, but then again, that could be because I was also grading student papers at the time. Those don't make sense either!

Believe it or not, but they actually left the story open for a fourth film which I'll probably see drunk or while grading papers.

Sherlock Holmes

Continuing the Robert Downey Jr., theme. I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I really liked the frenetic energy of the movie, including the music, which is a nice match to Holmes' chaotic brilliance. Downy Jr. is excellent once again, even though the character is much different from Tony Stark (though, oddly now that I think of it, there are some similarities). I liked the reimagining of the character and story. I think aspects are actually more true to the original, in terms of Holmes' dabbling with drugs and bouts of depression. There were some things in this movie that confused me some, but overall I really liked it and hope they do a second one, which is implied at the ending.

Iron Man

In anticipation of Iron Man 2, I re-watched the original. It's just as good the second time around. Definitely one of top superhero movies. Robert Downey Jr. is great. Very little to not like in this movie. Looking forward to IM2.

Broke: The New American Dream

This documentary starts off with the standard arguments and critique of the financial system, including the trouble we are in because of TARP. It features at least three Nobel Laureates in Economics. The doc addresses the way the media and the financial system feed off each other. In fact, I thought this was going to be a bit too standard. It surprised me at the end, but not in a good way....

Mainly, the documentary makes an argument that the average investor should not be a sheep when they invest. I was expecting there to be an argument about how it's impossible to invest wisely in such a corrupt financial system, but then the doc concludes rather strangely that the best way to invest is to do your OWN research and not trust the media. Seriously, in the face of massive corruption in the government and in the financial system, this documentary concludes that you should still invest, but just don't get your advice from Cramer.

So the conclusion of this does not in any follow from the evidence that is built throughout the rest of the doc. It's almost like the documentarian was asked to change the whole argument at the last minute. As the conclusion reads now, it seems like propaganda.

2057

This is a documentary about what life and technology will be like 50 years from now. I liked this. You guys might think it's possibly overly-optimistic, which it is, and maybe kind of cheesy at times, which it is. But overall, pretty cool stuff. Just a teaser: a "space elevator"; soldiers with armor that makes them invisible; robots; and medical advances like growing your own new heart, are all included. What's missing: how about nanotech stuff, brain implants, and terraforming of Mars? Anyway, still good. I liked how they incorporate current technological advances as a way to "ground" what they predict will happen in 2057. Also like the little drama vignettes, though cheesy as they are at times.