This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
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 We’ve been watching a bunch of DVDs this last week it seems. This time it was time for Brandy’s current Netflix movie. She had picked this one because of Christian Bale I think. But after the first 30 minutes Brandy was bored and was ready to just stop. I wanted to finish though. I wasn’t sure what I thought of it, or if I liked it or not… I was leaning toward no… but I like finishing what I start when possible. So we continued to slog on.
I think it improved after it hit about the half way point. A little more was happening. But this is one of those slow atmospheric type movies. It is certainly not driven by action. Things happen slowly and deliberately, and a lot of the movie is just about absorbing the imagery and atmosphere and the slowly building emotional angst.
In the end I think it was perhaps a little TOO slow for this. The urgency increased as the movie continued, but it never really reached the levels where it was completely gripping. There was always the sort of watch checking and “is it over yet” sort of feeling. If I had to grade the first half I’d give it a D. The second half would get a B. Overall a C. If you are really into the atmospheric sort of movie that tries to mess with your head, then you might like this… I often like that kind of movie… but having said that, this one still never completely grabbed me.
And Brandy I think still wishes she’d stopped watching after the first 30 minutes. :-)
![image]() We decided to take advantage of New Year’s to watch another DVD. What was next in order according to my current system was another “DVD I own which I haven’t watched yet”. Generally, I take the oldest DVD in that category… which would mean another Buffy. But sometimes, if Brandy or Amy really want to watch something that is a DVD that we own as a family (as opposed to one that is “mine”) and I haven’t seen it yet, I’ll agree to watch that. Brandy really wanted to watch Bridge to Terabithia which Amy had bought for herself a few months back. Normally even though I hadn’t seen it yet, I would have said no because Amy had seen it within the last 12 months, but it was New Year’s and all, so I said yes.
And we got about 20 minutes into the movie, and it seemed OK so far, but then it started skipping and such. Amy has a tendancy to not put her DVDs away properly when she isn’t using them, leaving them out wherever and unprotected… so they tend to get damaged and unwatchable. We stopped and Amy tried the toothpaste trick and got a few minutes further in the movie, but it started skipping again. Badly. So we were done with that movie.
Anyway, we fell back to what otherwise would have been the normally scheduled DVD, which is the last disk of the Buffy Season 2 set. This disk just has part part one and part two of the season finale “Becoming”. This is one of those episodes that for whatever reason I have limited memories of. I don’t know if I had actually NEVER seen it… I definitely remembered parts of it. So I guess I probably did watch it. But unlike some episodes (like say the oen with the fish on the last disk) where I remember way too much of it even years later and it diminishes things, on this one I was engaged the whole time through both episodes, with most of it feeling fresh and without me remembering details, even if I did remember the overall plot.
Anyway, these are good Buffy episodes. These are the kinds of episodes that make the series worth watching. It was fun. And it finishes off the Season 2 Box Set. Woo!
![image]() It has been a long time, so it was time for another Buffy. The next in line was Disk 5 of Season 2. This had four episodes.
- Passion: Everybody still reacting to evil Angel. Angel kills Ms. Calendar. That’s about it.
- Killed by Death: Buffy in the hospital, a death thing is killing children
- I Only Have Eyes for You: Ghosts at the school relive a murder suicide
- Go Fish: The swim team turns into murderous fish things
Anyway, of these the first one is the only one that really moves forward the overall season arc. The rest are just one offs for the most part (with the occational scene pushing the arc). Decent episodes, but not great. And that’s all I have to say about that.
 This weekend was time for a movie picked by me. THe next on my Netflix queue was “Fly Away Home”, a kids movie from 1996 that I remember really wanting to watch at a time. Yeah, OK, fine, I was 25 and it was a kids movie. Whatever. I wanted to see it. But I never did. Until this weekend.
Now, neither Amy nor Brandy would agree to watch it with me. But I set up in the family room with the projector and watched it.
For those that don’t know and didn’t click through to the Wikipedia link on the picture, this is a movie about a young girl who adopts and orphaned flock of geese and eventually leads them on their southern migration by ultralight.
So well… I loved the movie. It is exactly the kind of movie that gets me going. Sappy. Sentimental. Cute. Happy ending. All that.
Yeah, I know. This is not the makings of a cinematic masterpiece to last the ages. And not the type of movie that is designed for a 36 year old male. But I like this kind. It is a sweet cute movie. So leave me alone and let me like my sappy kids movie!
 This last weekend… no, wait, the weekend before that… the next DVD in rotation was another old Doctor Who episode. It was time for The Web Planet which was the 13th Doctor Who story. It was a First Doctor episode from 1965.
The basic plot involved giant ants (Zarbi), giant bee things (Menoptra) and these pill bug lazer things (Venom Grubs). Oh, and some sort of caterpillar thing that hopped (Optera). And it sucked.
Now, the standard for First Doctor Episodes is pretty low to start with. But this one was just pretty bad. I think the last one we watched, The Edge of Destruction was pretty bad as well, but it was also SHORT. This one was a full six episodes. We watched it over two different sittings. I just couldn’t do it all at once, what with the ridiculous looking giant ants and such. I did like the Venom Grubs though. They were cute.
Anyway, once was definitely enough for this one.
 This last weekend was Amy’s turn to pick the movie. Brandy declined to join us, but Amy and I watched the Wallace and Gromit movie.
I’d always generally liked the claymation thing. Hadn’t really watched much Wallace and Gromit though. But I was very quickly laughing. It was enjoyable light hearted humor. I particularly liked the rabbits floating in the suction tank thing and such. BUt Amy and I both laughed quite a bit at various points in the movie. It was a good choice by Amy. It was worth the watching.
I’m not much on rewatching things I’ve seen before, so I probably wouldn’t watch it again. But if a new W&G movie came out, I’d definitely watch it. It was fun.
 It was Brandy’s turn yet again to choose a DVD this weekend. This time her movie was “Wait Until Dark” a 1967 Audrey Hepburn movie. I’d seen this once before on television a number of years ago and had enjoyed it then. It is a little less suspenseful on second viewing, even years later. But it is still a good movie.
Brandy kept laughing at the overacting that is typical of a lot of movies of that era. But I didn’t mind too much. It was interesting to see Audrey Hepburn in a role a bit different than what she played in many of her earlier movies. And the gimmick of the last 15 minutes or so of the movie is pretty cool, although it must have been much cooler when it was originally done in a darkened theater and all.
In any case, good suspenseful movie and such. But I think like many movies that rely on suspense and you not quite fully knowing the situation, it is best on the first viewing, and loses something on repeat views.
 This weekend it was Brandy’s turn to pick the movie. She’d picked “The Prestige” which I had never heard of. It is set in the early 1900’s and centers around the rivalry of a couple of magicians. From the beginning I liked the inside look at magic. That was fun. And then they started talking about Tesla and a little latter he actually appeared as a character.
In any case, there were many twists and turns and it definitely kept my attention. I’d talk more about some of the specific items, as I definitely have opinions on them, but for anybody who hasn’t seen the film (or perhaps read the book) that would just be spoiler after spoiler. So I shall refrain.
Suffice it to say, I really enjoyed this movie. It was well executed and it explored some interesting ideas. It was worth the watch for sure. This is one of the rare movies I’d actually consider watching a second time just to see if I would catch things I didn’t catch the first time around. I probably won’t actually do that, but I’d CONSIDER it. :-)
 It was time for another one of these this weekend, so we watched the third and final disk from this three disk set. This has the story The Edge of Destruction which is the third story every produced. It was a short two episode “filler” story.
And it was very odd. And it had the actors trying to act odd. Which just came off as bad acting. It is 100% set within the TARDIS and with just the four main characters talking to each other and acting dazed, confused and paranoid.
It is pretty laughable. And not memorable really. Most of the other First Doctor episodes I’d at least heard enough about in the past to know what to expect. Not really true of this one. Sure, I’d seen it in episode guides and such, but I didn’t have any preconceived ideas coming in.
And going out, I’ll probably forget it pretty quickly, other than “that silly odd little story with no point”. I guess it did drive forward the relationship of the characters a little bit. A little bit. It also showed more rooms of the TARDIS than are generally seen. I guess that is a good thing.
 Today it was time to watch another DVD. And not just another DVD, but the next one on my quest to watch all of the movies on the 100 Years 100 Movies (1998 version) list. I started this quest soon after the list came out. I’m just a little, uh, slow. I had watched the movies from #100 down to #56 (M*A*S*H which I watched in January this year). So now it was time for #55, The Sound of Music.
I’d of course seen this before, but the last time was quite some time ago. And I am admittedly a sucker for the sappy sentimental type of movie. Usually not for musicals in general, but for ones with songs I’ve known all my life and can sing along to, yeah, I like those. Well, OK, not actually sing along, because I’d never sing in front of others, even Brandy and Amy, but sing in my head maybe. :-)
Anyway, it is a long movie and there are a few slow parts, but in between there are all the classic songs and the cute kids and all that. There were a few parts I had forgotten. I had no memory at all that there was a wedding in the movie. Or the scene in the cemetery.
In any case, yes I like this movie. It is worth seeing… but about once or twice a decade is plenty.
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