Movies, Movies, Movies! And Presents!

Lessee... yesterday, we went to the movies. Reeta and the rest of the ladies went to see Princess Diaries 2, which they described as sweet, and kind of silly. I abandoned the ladies and went to see something else, the title of which escapes me at this point, which is probably a good indication of how much impact it had. Oh yeah... it was I, Robot.
While it was better than I thought it was going to be, and it was closer to Asimov's ideas than I thought it was going to be, the Asimov fanboy in me a) couldn't accept the essential problem being posed as early in the robot history as the movie was set (the brains shouldn't have been that advanced yet); b) figured out what was happening just before the demolition bot started up; c) was incensed by the bastardization of the good doctor's thinking - the three laws never would have led to the result reached by the machines; d) was frustrated with the existence of a positronic brain unbound by the three laws - a result NEVER reached by Asimov. Despite all that (and because I liked the fact that they prominently featured Dr. Susan Calvin, one of my favorite Asimov characters), out of a possible +/- 2, it gets +1.5 Coke. Good action, not a good application of the three laws of robotics. For the non-Asmiov fanboys out there, a good distraction.

Then today, Reeta and I went on a hot date, and saw Jet Li in Hero. My comment to Reeta during the course of the movie was, "I like a little plot with my kung fu movies". It struck me as more of a parable than anything. A story retold and retold and retold yet again not from different perspectives, but with differing degrees of truth. It struck me as an exploration of myth and legend more than anything. Reeta said it was prettiest movie she's seen in a long time. I wanted more of a traditional a, b, c, etc... x, y, z story, but what I got was a, b, c, d, a, b, c, a, c, d, ... repeated in various forms. Still, it is Jet Li. Not as good as his awesome Once Upon a Time in China, much better than The One. I personally give it +1 Coke.

Oh, birthday presents abounded also. With the money for Best Buy, I picked up Madden 2002 ($4.99 - I couldn't pass it up), Tony Hawk Underground, and Metroid Prime all for The Evil (the 'Cube), and Futurama Season 4 on DVD - the highest numbered Futurama Season ever. Finally have the episode where Fry gets the Robot Devil's hands. And the second appearance of Al Gore on a Futurama episode (though the first one was much, much funnier). Reeta got money for clothes, and picked up some really cute things, and Bandits on DVD.