A Couple Spiteful Reviews

Allow me to vent for a sec. Unfortunately, I met a couple writers online. These guys like to slag on other people's projects, because it makes them feel better about their tiny modicum of creativity to use said modicum to come up with insults.

It's one thing for the audience to react negatively to your work. But it's another thing entirely when you fancy yourself a professional writer, but you're so spiteful and bitter that you become the equivalent of a mall pet store parrot who's learned to squawk "It stinks! It stinks!" over and over again. It's called professional courtesy - try looking into it, you no-talent no-success armchair hacks.

And on that happy note, some quick reviews-

Cars
Many reviewers have said that this film is not Pixar's best. I must convey to you in the most erudite way that those dumb@#$ reviewers are full of @*#$.

Too erudite? Okay, let me tone it down. Cars is amazing. The story, jokes, and characterization are top notch. Amazing art direction, especially the old 50s neon deco and the gorgeous desert landscapes. Paul Newman's gravelly voice carries so much weight and power, while I nearly fell out of the theater chair when I realized who Jeremy Piven was voicing.

Still waiting for Pixar to make something bad. A-

X-Men: The Last Stand
While I'm a longtime X-Men fanboy who loved the first two films, I hated all the trailers for this one. I wasn't looking forward to seeing it. First ten minutes of the film with the first action sequence, it was so obvious that they'd shot it a certain way to save money on special effects, I was ready to throw something.

But imagine my surprise - the film turned out to be pretty good. Third act was a bit long, but when you've got that much action going on, I'm willing to cut them some slack. One minor nitpick in the third act, where something was done differently than the comics. I don't want to get into it at risk of spoiling the film, but it was a disappointing change.

Might as well take this time to praise Chris Claremont, the X-Men writer for 20 years who practically raised me with his superhero stories. So if you hate my stories, blame him.

X-Men. Good time at the movies. B

The IT Crowd
British sitcom about two guys who work in an IT department and the woman who works as their manager. Great great GREAT comedy. I'd love it even if I hadn't worked in computer software for all those many years. I don't think it's available in the U.S. yet, but when it does finally air, catch it. A

Here's a clip from YouTube with a couple of scenes from the third episode (warning: some strong language).