Ryan McFadden

This summer season has, for the most part, been terrible. Indiana Jones and the Last Gasp of the Baby Boomers. Narnia and the Prince of something-or-other. The Incredible Bore. Iron Man was the exception. And the Dark Knight looks pretty damned amazing. But I think the movie of the summer (and perhaps the year) will be a Pixar movie. Wall-E.

The goal of screenwriting was to always use the pictures to tell the story — to have the dialogue secondary. How much of the character can we gain not by what they tell us, but what they show us? Do they re-use those day-old coffee grounds? What hidden hobbies show us their inner demons?

Wall-E cannot talk. So the first hour, there is NO speaking.

Wall-E is lone robot left to clean up our dead planet. He has no need for food, water, air, or other physical sustenance (he does need to charge his battery cells with solar power).

And I think this is why Wall-E is so successful. Take away our physical cravings, and what’s left? What’s the most basic emotional need? Comfort. Understanding. A sense of belonging. In other words — it is Wall-Es whole motivation: for someone to hold your hand.

That concept can be understood by everyone. All ages. All cultures.

Wall-E is a classic of film making. I’ll go and say that it is the year’s BEST movie, and I think it will go down as a classic. As the Boomers talk about Snow White, so will our generation (and our kid’s generation) talk about Wall-E. It’s THAT good.

Now it loses steam in the second hour, which is, ironically, when the people make their first appearance. When the plot about recolonization takes some of the focus away from the Eve and Wall-E.

But there where times when I just kept shaking my head — it was so simple, yet so effective. No dialogue. Just moving pictures. There weren’t even any villains (well, again, not until the people got involved).

As for the kiddies — it had some scary moments (intensified by the big screen, I’d say, because they weren’t actually scary, just noisy). And it ran a little long (my guess, about 1 3/4 hours) so that’s a long time to sit. But Paige proclaimed it her favourite movie. And it would be right up in my favs list too (until we buy it on DVD and Paige watches it 3000 times).

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Movie Reviews

Yes, I’m trying to get in shape….much like others out there (how are the legs today Brian?). But there’s always that stupid time thing…and then sometimes not wanting to go to the gym. A couple of months ago, I went to see a personal trainer about whipping my ass into shape. Now this guy LOVES to work out, so he’s not quite human.

Anyway, I told him the situation: look, I hate working out, I only have 4 hours to commit weekly, plus daily biking to work…so make me look like Brad Pitt — in a week.

He failed.

But he did come up with something for me, tailoring my plan around my time limits, and the fact that I wouldn’t always be able to make it to the gym (you know, because I might be ).

So he developed Metabolic Workouts. Or Kick-Your-Ass in 20 minute workouts. Though unlike a pubescent boy’s favourite morning TV-show n the 1980s – 20-minute workout – there are no gyrating women (well, unless you’re a woman, then it wouldn’t be nearly as exciting anyways).

Body weight Circuit – Plan A
10 Body Weight Squats
10 Pushups
10 Jumping Jacks
3 Chin Ups
work up to 10 rounds

Body weight Circuit – Plan B
25 Dumbell Clean and Press (lift light weight from ground to above head)
25 Box Jumps (jump onto a box, and down)
10 Reverse Pushups
15/leg Lunges
15 Push Ups
10 Squat Thrusters (medicine ball optional)
Do three circuits with 90 seconds rest between each

Body weight Circuit – Plan C
do each for 90 seconds, with each pairing getting a 90 second rest
Dumb bell Dead lift (25% of 1 Rep Max weight)
Pushups
Rest
Body Weight Squats
Lat Pull down or other rowing
Rest — repeat 3 times

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Health

Old people behaving badly.

Young at Heart is a documentary following the story of the Young at Heart chorus, a group of oldies who perform punk, alternative, and rock and roll in front of large crowds all over the world. This doc shows us their preparation as they head towards another tour, one that will begin in America and head over into Europe.

There’s nothing quite like seeing 80+ performing the Ramones ‘I want to be sedated’ or the Bee Gees ‘Staying Alive’. The chorus is large, so the documentary can only focus on a few key people. Of course, I found myself involved in the movie, trying to guess who would live, and who would die. And it wasn’t even a slasher flick (do I go to hell for saying that?).

Of course, you have all the personality traits represented: the zest for life guy, the irrepressible 92 year old woman who is too old to care about dropping an s-bomb, the funny guy, the pragmatist.

Now, just because they’re old, and doing punk covers, doesn’t mean that they all act like hipsters. They’re still old, and confounded by things like technology. The scene where Bob, the choirmaster, is giving them CDs to listen to at home…and how they’re explaining to use the CD player (and the choir just ain’t getting it) is hilarious.

Still, many sad moments — as the entire chorus has pretty much come to grips with their mortality, and conversation often turns to this topic. Some touching moments, and some uplifting moments.

Overall, a pretty good documentary, though I felt it ran a little long at 2 hours. I would’ve preferred about 90 minutes.

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Movie Reviews

My short story Five Crates of DragonRoot made it into the pages (electrons) of Afterburn SF today.
Check it out here: Five Crates of DragonRoot

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Writing

For geeks only…

Dungeons & Dragons has come a long way. From cheap, throw-together modules with poorly laid out designs and roughly drawn illustrations, to professional, full colour publications owned by one of the biggest toy companies in the world.

But I can’t help but wonder if the people at Hasbro look over longingly at the WarHammer tables, where gamers spend vast amounts of money on miniatures and settings. With D&D, it was always an inexpensive game — with three core books, you could run a campaign that would last years (and players only needed one book…even cheaper).

Now comes 4th edition. And they’ve tried turning it from game of imagination, into a table-top video game. My problem is simple — if I wanted to play a video game, I’d play a video game. If I wanted to play WarHammer, I’d play WarHammer.

There are a few nice things about the recent upgrade. I like the changes to Armor Class…and really, that’s about it. Here are my initial complaints:

Powers instead of spells (reminds me of hitting the Y button on a controller how you can access all your special powers) and all classes are equal at all levels it appears. I never had a problem with unbalanced classes, where some had their sweet spot at low levels, and others at high levels (again, Wizard comes to mind…able to cast Magic Missile every round, if he so desires).

Not only is every character class the same, every character is the same. No rolling for hit points. Simply take 6 a level, or 8, or whatever. Sure, it prevents abuse, but I was never worried about abuse.

Healing Surges — seriously?

Death — not sure why they changed this rule. Now it’s your bloodied score…that’s a huge minus (at higher levels, we’re talking 50 or 60 in the minus), and you get to make Saving Throws to spend a healing surge and get to 0 again. I don’t know…it wasn’t broken, don’t know why it was fixed.

There’s more wrong for me…but you get the idea.

Too much normalization, and too much like a video game. Gone is the mystique of spells (replaced with cut and dried effects).

But maybe I’m just old

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Books Reviews