Movie Review: Gamer

The best thing I can say about "Gamer" is...this wasn't the worst movie ever, in fact, it wasn't even all that bad. That said, this isn't a great movie either, and I sort of feel like I've seen this type of movie done over and over again.

"Gamer" is set in the future, but not too far in the future. In this world, a genius has created a way for people to play simulation type video games using other people as their avatars. Initially, the concept was for a Sims type of game, where your real person avatar lives out what you control them to do. Then, this concept was take 1 step further with a live, first person shooter game using Death Row inmates as the avatars. The hero of the film is John Tillman (Gerard Butler), or Kable, who is just a handful of games away from earning a full pardon for his crimes. The gamer who "plays" as Kable is a 17 year old kid. But, as Kable gets closer to his release, it becomes clear that he'll never be let out the game without a fight.

Like I said earlier, it wasn't bad, but it also wasn't great. Actually, my favorite thing about the movie was the, somewhat, all-star cast. Lots of top notch TV actors, and several 2nd Tier Hollywood stars show up in this movie. The action is good, but the plot is nearly non-existent. It's a lot like the recent G.I. Joe movie, in that things happen, but nobody really reacts.

"Gamer" is a 3 star movie, and definitely earns its R rating. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who isn't either a video game fanatic, or an action junkie.

Missing An Opportunity

President Obama recently scrapped the nation's plans to again reach the moon by 2020, with an end goal of going to Mars. I hadn't really heard much about this, but a coworker who is big on the space program mentioned it today. Sure enough, I found several thousand articles and columns discussing this topic. One from the New York Times was helpful to me. The biggest issue that I seem to hear is that Obama's new proposals have no specific goals. Many people think Mars would be a good goal

Here's where President Obama is missing the boat by not setting a goal of getting to another planet. What if we were to discover life on a far away planet? That would be an entire new source of tax income and a completely new voting block that Obama could bribe with government handouts. Think of it...billions of new Democrats! Well, unless we discovered Vulcans. Their strict adherence to logic would force them to become Conservative Republicans...Liberal Democrat ideas don't stand the test of logic.

Think about it Mr. President. And, while your at it, remember, some of our great leaps in technology have come because of our space program. But...ah...you know...new voters first.

Book Review: "Beyond the Shadows"

If you've made it this far in the "Night Angel Trilogy" don't stop now, because if you do, you will miss the best book in the Trilogy. That book is "Beyond the Shadows."

I won't bore you with a lot of details regarding the plot, but I will say that everything that built for the first 2 books came together in "Beyond the Shadows." Like many of the great epics, all the separate story threads that had been going for 2 books all came together in a big way at the finale. Every character and every story has some sort of resolution, yet the door is left open for additional chapters, should author Brent Weeks decide to write more.

For me, though, what made "Beyond the Shadows" better than the first 2 books is that much if the ickiness of the first 2 books was not needed in this story. We all understand that our heroes were living in a dark and depraved land, and this book moved past that and went to the story of trying to fix it. I read all 689 pages over 4 days...spending the better part of 7 hours yesterday reading the last 500 pages.

If you decide to give this trilogy a chance, you will be rewarded with the finale. "Beyond the Shadows" is a terrific book.