Happy Birthday to Me

Well Hello again everyone.

I am not sure how this happened, but somehow I again have aged a year. Fortunately I still have my hair and it is even it's original colour, all by itself. That being said, I very rarely do anything for my birthday and on most occasions, actually forget about it, as I did again this year. So with this in mind, as well as the fact that I rarely get surprised, I had the joy of spending my birthday with some people I love and cherish and they surprised me by bringing me to a dinner and a movie. Now, as great as the dinner was, Steak and Garlic mashed potatoes, yes, I was also taken to see the movie "9".

Ah 9. This is a Tim Burton produced, Shane Acker directed animated feature. According to IMDB, this is"A post-apocalyptic nightmare in which all of humanity is threatened." So basically, the humans had created a "Machine" for peace. It was designed to make more machines, of peace. Eventually, this machine becomes angry and no longer wants peace and starts to make machines to fight the humans, I know, who saw that coming? So, the is a huge war, I assume world wide, which eventually wipes out all of the humans. Now one of the Scientists who created the "Machine", somehow survives close to the end and he finds a way to place 9 parts of his soul into, what I can only describe as puppets. This allows these puppets to have life and they get up and start their own community. As you may have guessed, the 9th puppet is the one who is going to save humanity, even though the humans are all dead. Without getting into to much detail, the puppets are fighting whats left of the machines, or hiding, and are basically just existing. We dont really get a time line as to how long this has been going on. At the start, it seems as though the big main machine has been shut down and there is only one dog/beast machine left hunting these sock puppets for no apparent reason. The main machine is again activated, by accident, and it begins to make new machines. So, number 9, (Which is the "savior" puppet) is going to stop the machine. From here this story is very linear and is basically just action, not overly exciting action at that, and the generic guy falls for girl story. Throughout the story, we never really get much information on why the machines are hunting the sock puppets or what, other than saving the humanity, which is already destroyed, the sock puppets are supposed to be doing. The thing that bugs me the most is the ending.

**************SPOILER ALERT*************************

So the end comes, and you guessed it, the sock puppets beat the main machine and all is well with the world, even though the world is an apocalyptic waste land and all human life is dead. During the story, the machine was seen "killing" a few of the puppets and it turns out that the machine did not kill them, but instead sucked their soul out of the puppets body, which if you remember, is actually the soul of the scientists who created these puppets. So at the end, the souls are released, they come out, looking like the puppets, but ghostly green and each have their numbers beside them. These souls hover into the atmosphere and explode into the clouds. This then makes rain.....for some reason, and in these rain droplets are smaller green dots, presumably the soul left overs. Then the movie ends.

So we are pretty much left to our own devices with this ending. Not a whole lot is explained and this is a very straightforward action story. The animations is beautiful and different which is fun, but I would suggest waiting for DvD or Blu Ray for this movie. Not horrible, not great, I give it a 2.5 out of 5.



So fast forward to last night, when another good friend of mine took me to a dinner and a movie. At first I thought he had alternate plans, but after I told him I don't give it up on the first date, we let it be and moved on to the movie. We had the pleasure of seeing Quentin Tarantino 's: Inglourious Basterds.

So I was very excited to see this film. I am a mediocre Quintin fan, very much enjoying several of his movies and not so much of his others. That is a debate for another time. Either way, I was pumped to see this. I had heard several reviews on this movie and had deciphered that mainstream audiences were wanting an action movie, which is how the commercials portray and after viewing the movie, were not overly impressed. That being said, most critics and reviews I have heard or read, were fairly positive and some insisting this was Quintins best work. I was intrigued.

Here we go.
This was very clearly a Tarantino movie. Everything about this movie, is Tarantinoesque. The dialogue, the music and really everything else. Now, I would assume that every "Movie" fan or self proclaimed movie aficionado will have seen this. I am not going to go into a lot of detail, but I think it is pretty safe to say, if you are a Quinton Tarantino fan, you will enjoy this movie. It is not an action movie though. It is a drama with action elements. This movie was a lot of fun. That also being said, it did seem long in some areas and I would have loved more screen time for the Basterds. I thoroughly enjoyed Brad Pitt and thought he was amazing in this movie. For the most part, the cast had some intriguing choices, although I thought most worked. The only character I did not enjoy, was the Hitler character. I just didn't enjoy that character at all. Other than that though, the cast was awesome and fun.

So I have decided to not go into spoilers. I will say this movie will not be for everyone. There are a few graphic scenes in the movie. Once again, not a film for everyone. If anyone is going into this movie looking for a serious world war movie, just be quiet and back away slowly, we won't tell. If you are looking for some fun, can stand some of the outrageous elements and the violence, or are a fan of Tarantino, strap on your Nazi killing boots and prepare for a Nazi killing good time.



I very much enjoyed this movie and can not wait to see this again. 4 out of 5 stars.

So that was my birthday. It was great. I had the pleasure of hanging out with people I love and care about, as well as got to see some movies, which I love and even had some awesome steak. All in all it was one of the best birthdays I can remember. Up next will be a review of District 9, which I have seen a little while ago, but have not had a chance to write about.

Thanks for reading,
Angry Rob