22Nov2006 1555: Gluttony

Y'all ready to celebrate America by eating waaaaay too much food? I know I am! It's been a super-rough week at work (14 hours Monday, 10 hours yesterday) and I need to get out of town so I can't get called in again.

18Nov2006 1905: Casino Royale

I've seen all the Bond movies; I've mentioned that before. Casino Royale? Is the best one. The previous Bonds had some highs (Goldfinger), some lows (George Lazenby), and some diamond-powered space death ray lasers shooting a plane over North Korea (Die An...wait, what?), but I watched them all back to back and they were mostly just bad. Casino Royale is already a triumph in that it is not bad, but surpasses all expectations by being good.

This movie ditches all the stupid Bond girl names, all the little gadgets, and all the horrible one-liners that have plagued the series since forever. In their place we have a spy with a gun and a lot of punching. Pacing is good, the action is fantastic, and the movie could have ended at least three different times and felt complete. Casino Royale feels like a period piece, a successful reboot of the series by capturing what made the first couple of movies so alluring. In fact, the feeling was so solidly "old Bond" that I was pulled out of the movie every time a character used a cell phone or laptop.

As of this writing Casino Royale had a 96% and, aside from being a bit overlong and the Texas Hold-'Em tutorials, it deserves the score. This franchise refresh would go right next to Batman Begins in my DVD collection, but I shelve alphabetically. It'll have to settle for Big O Volume 4.

17Nov2006 1609: Top O' the World

Hm. I guess that's a wrap.

12Nov2006 2000: Third-Person Omniscient

Some absolutely delightful things have happened since yesterday, including:

Stranger than Fiction is the greatest thing Will Ferrell has ever done. It was funny where it had to be funny and otherwise let its big star talent fill the screen. And yes, Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhall are some star talent now. Queen Latifah, Dustin Hoffman, a wristwatch, and Emma Thompson are essentially the rest of the cast (in ascending order). I recommend this movie unreservedly.

Even the previews were brilliant: we got a taste of the new film from the ensemble of A Mighty Wind and Best in Show, For Your Consideration; as well as The Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith's most shameless Oscar grab since I, Robot.

And now, from the mind of Zombie City Tactics (Mac version), a peaceful little non-game called Vertical (Mac version). I advise you to read the readme so you don't press a game-resetting key accidentally. Or I could just tell you that that key is R.

and still climbing.

11Nov2006 1024: Pimp Hand

Not to worry, I put aside the guitar on Thursday and finished off God Hand, at which point I was treated to the fantastically cheesy ending credits song. Luckily playing this game is its own reward, because you don't get to carry over any of your techniques or powerups to a new game.

Unlocking and then rocking Freebird on Hard difficulty is now one of my top gaming moments of all time. Stonehenge was on flame with rock and roll.

08Nov2006 0004: GH to GH

I let myself down Monday night. I had promised myself that I would finish off God Hand before Guitar Hero 2 invaded and took over everything. Monday I was intently battling the last boss of God Hand (after fairly smoking everything in the last board; it was rather pathetic on their part) when I suddenly noticed it was time for Heroes. With sadness I turned the game off, and Tuesday morning at 0715 I purchased Guitar Hero 2, and now who knows if I'll ever play God Hand again. Who knows if I'll ever play anything else again.

I'm on the sixth group of songs on Hard and it's taking all my energy right now to go to bed rather than jam on Heart's "Crazy On You".