stillhq.com : Mikal, a geek from Canberra living in Silicon Valley

On the Sorkonian theme

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 09:12:00 GMT

That is, talking about Aaron Sorkin. Steve mentions that the West Wing wasn't as good after Aaron left. I'd have to agree with that, and you can tell from the scripts that Aaron had left... The dialog wasn't as clever, and the plot line became more about entrenched political positions and a failure to have a mandate than it was about hope and changing the world. Then again, the final season was pretty good as well -- even if they did have to rewrite the ending.

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The common thread

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:28:00 GMT

What do A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, and Charlie Wilson's War all have in common, apart from that I really liked them? They were all written by Aaron Sorkin. Therefore, I should like anything Aaron does. Noted.

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Zoolander

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 19:19:00 GMT

Seen for the first time last night. Stupid but funny.

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More movies

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 21:26:00 GMT

More movies I've seen recently:

Spiderman 2: This one is a real stinker. I've tried so hard to finish watching it twice, and failed both times.
K19: The Window Maker: I really liked this one too, although Harrison Ford with a Russian accent is odd. Really odd.

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Movies I have seen recently

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:34:00 GMT

Simon occasionally discusses the movies he's seen recently in his blog, and I thought I could perhaps do the same. Best of all, it might help me remember what I've seen and what sucked for next time I need to watch a movie... So here we go:

Pay it forward: I'd been meaning to see this one for a while. It's good. Really good. Although Catherine did cry at the end.
XXX: It's terrible. Vin Diesel is a terrible actor, and it just doesn't make enough sense to even be fun.
The fast and the furious: Okish. Perhaps. Again, the plot was weak, and Vin isn't a very good actor.
The fast and the furious 2: It's a bad sign when they can't even convince Vin to be involved.
Space cowboys: It was fun, but there were some plot holes... I didn't particularly believe the "fly me to the moon" ending either.
Jonny English: I lasted five minutes
Blade runner: I love this movie. I was even inspired enough to buy the PKD book, which I will comment more on when I've finished reading.
Charlies Angels 2: I don't think I followed the plot enough to even finish it.

That's all I can think of now... In retrospect, most of them were terrible. Perhaps that explains why they were free with my cable subscription...

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Pleasantville

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:23:00 GMT

Pleasantville was much better than Judge Dredd (it wasn't very hard). It does, however, raise the question of the location of Springfield at the end of the movie though -- Pleasantville is a mere 12 miles away after all. It turns out, that:

The location of Springfield is a long-running joke in the series, based in the fact that 34 states in the United States have at least one community with that name.

This is of course a quote from the Wikipedia entry on the Simpsons' home town, but it seems relevant here too.

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Judge Dredd

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 17:01:00 GMT

I've never seen Judge Dredd, and the MythTV box recorded it from pay the other day, so I figured I should give it a go. This fantastic write up seems like a pretty fair description to me.

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Sin City

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 11:40:00 GMT

I'm in a temporary apartment at the moment, and the nice previous occupant appears to have DVR'ed Sin City for me from Comcast pay per view, so Andrew and I sat down and watched it last night. I must say that I liked it, in a Pulp Fiction kind of way.

Put it this way -- I wont be able to take Rory in the Gilmore Girls the same way any more.

Yeah, I liked the movie a lot. Now I need to decide if I will recommend my wife see it...

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Mind the veggies

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 14:54:00 GMT

Why is it always the vegetable stand which get destroyed?

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Ocean's 12

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 14:19:00 GMT

Well that was a weak movie. At the point that Julia Roberts starts to pretend to be herself, then it's funny, but pathetic at the same time. The premise of the movie was weak, and the execution wasn't up to the standard of Oceans 11. Oh, and another thing. $29 is too much for two adult tickets. I could buy two DVDs for that. How do these people stay in business? (Written on my Ipaq. Gosh data entry on these things is painful.) Comment