Claire's blog

CARTOONS: MOVIES: The Hit Squad

An animated comedy movie? Yes!

Oh, it’s done in 8-bit style? Double yes!

And it’s about a washed up, failing 1980s synthpop band?!?!?!  Triple yes.

Must see this when it comes out!

LINK URL: http://ilovethehitsquad.com

POLICE STATE: FBI agent states all telephone calls recorded [or at least transcribed] and accessible to the US government

Stasi? KGB? Nah, just ‘Murica.

As for the various debates about if there is space to hold it all…. Of course there is, but also: Convert it to text and there’s no more space issues. There’s not a problem with archiving every word said by every person, ever. It’s audio and video that take up a lot of space.

Anyway… after the IRS just admitted it could read our email without a warrant… And after previous whistleblowing … it’s become clear that the people closer to the truth are the Big Brother Conspiracy Theorists, not the Government Apologists.

And yes, the Obama Administration has a direct hand in making things worse, not better.

Daniel H adds:

As a result of this “expanding array of theater airborne and other sensor networks,” as a 2007 Department of Defense report puts it, the Pentagon is attempting to expand its worldwide communications network, known as the Global Information Grid, to handle yottabytes (1024 bytes) of data. (A yottabyte is a septillion bytes—so large that no one has yet coined a term for the next higher magnitude.)

It needs that capacity because, according to a recent report by Cisco, global Internet traffic will quadruple from 2010 to 2015, reaching 966 exabytes per year. (A million exabytes equal a yottabyte.) In terms of scale, Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO, once estimated that the total of all human knowledge created from the dawn of man to 2003 totaled 5 exabytes. 
—–

This type of facility, if actually scaled up to yottabyte level, could EASILY handle all voice communication on the commercial telephone network. And this isn’t a tinfoil fantasy, it’s being built right now. 

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)

Twilight 5: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012) –
Clint: 4/5 stars, 8/10.
Carolyn: 4/5 stars, 7.6/10.
Native ratings: 4.0/5 stars Netflix, 5.7/10 IMDB.

“Twilight sucks!”
It’s not so bad. It’s just Underworld with more romance and less action.

“It sends the wrong message to women! It’s Mormon propaganda!”
Uhhh… I watch South Park and Beavis & Butt-head and Family Guy. You think I care if a bad message is sent? My favorite horror franchise is Saw.

“The relationship is so dysfunctional! It’s a trainwreck. Why would anyone want to watch that?”
HellOOOOOOO… Dysfunctional relationships have always been great to watch! Natural Born Killers, anyone?

“Vampires that sparkle! What the fuck!”
Right… I forgot that when an idea, like vampirism, is introduced into the cinema world, that it means that any other movie using that idea should do it the exact same way. For this reason, I hate the Star Trek reboot and The Fly remake. Just kidding! The whole point of a media is for people to create different interpretations of the same concept. It’s like arguing that a metal song shouldn’t have horns. Limits are stupid.

So anyway…. Of the 5 Twilight movies, this was the best. The ending could be construed as a let-down, but this one really had the least romance and, I think the most action of any Twilight movie.

Plus, it’s over now, and that makes me happy, since it’s not the greatest franchise in the world. But it was good enough to watch all 5 movies. I think movie #2 was the worst of the 5.

LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1673434/combined

MUSIC: Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Dead at 49 | Billboard

Moment of silence for one of the best guitarists to ever grace metaldom. :/

LINK URL: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1560534/slayer-guitarist-jeff-hanneman-dead-at-49

[IMDB link] [Netflix link]

PLOT SUMMARY: A man is revived 200 years later, only to be used for an anti-government plot against a fascist police state government. Hilarity ensues.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): Ulcer surgery leads to complications.

PEOPLE: Written, directed, and starring Woody Allen. That’s almost always a sign of a bad movie, except in this case. Co-starring Dianne Keaton (Mad Money, The Godfather), except that this time it’s 1973 and she is a TOTAL BABE.

And yes, the same voice that did Hal in 2001 did the voice of the surgery computer. I thought that voice sounded familiar!

QUIRKS: Comedy, sci-fi, and political satire. Sci-fi comedy is a big recipe to success (see also: Futurama, Tripping The Rift, Hot Tub Time Machine), one that is often underutilized due to people hating sci-fi so much.

VISUALS: An almost Clockwork Orange-esque depiction of a future with a government gone mad.

SOUNDTRACK: Old jazzy music apparently recorded live at some pub. Almost a throwback to the vaudeville days, though I may just be talking out my ass since I know nothing of those days.

POLITICS: A great example of how generic people can end up being quite happy with a fascist, abusive, censoring “Big Brother” 1984-esque government, as well as being trained to exist in a state of learned helplessness. This movie is political without throwing it in your face. Comedy is forefront, but the satire and social commentary can’t easily be ignored.

GOOD STUFF: Lots of good jokes, great slapstick scenes, plenty of future-based humor, and plenty of biting social commentary. This is a movie that keeps you laughing almost all the way through; something that’s hard to accomplish.

BAD STUFF: It had its “Woody Allen is annoying and corny” moments, sort of like how Spaceballs had its “Mel Brooks is annoying and corny” moments. But these moments were fewer than with Mel Brooks’s stuff. I draw a comparison between the 2 of them for several reasons: They both have made a lot of movies that people think are funny but that really aren’t. They both use self-deprecating humor that often isn’t funny. Despite this, both have made at least 1 5-star movie. Mel Brooks’s magnum opus is History Of The World Part 1 (NOT Spaceballs!). And for Woody Allen, it’s this movie.

CONCLUSION: Pretty damn funny! I’m not big on old movies, so this is pretty much my favorite pre-1980 comedy. I *HATE* Woody Allen, so this is my favorite Woody Allen movie. That this takes place 200 years in the future, and has biting social-political commentary and crazy slapstick situations that are incredibly hilarious. I can’t quite put words to how funny some parts of this movie are. The 1970’s view of the future reminds me of A Clockwork Orange, but if it were a comedy. Pretending to be a robot is hilarious. Fighting futuristic jello is hilarious. People no longer knowing how to have sex without the use of a machine is hilarious. This film is full of laughs. I watched it many times as a child, and it was great to finally see this as an adult, and to finally truly understand all of the jokes and political commentary. This caused me to raise my rating of this movie from 3/5 stars to 5/5 stars.

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10. I upgraded my rating from 3/5 stars.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10.

The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 7.3/10, Netflix: 3.6/5 stars.

RECOMMENDATION: Even if you hate old movies, this is one worth checking out. Even if you hate Woody Allen, this is one Woody Allen film worth checking out.

MOVIE QUOTES: Lots of great quotes from this movie! Too many to list…

[a 22nd century historian shows Miles a videotape of Howard Cosell]
Historian: We weren’t sure at first what to make of this, but we developed a theory: we feel that when people committed great crimes against the state, they were forced to watch this.
Miles Monroe: Yes. That’s exactly what it was.

Dr. Melik: This morning for breakfast he requested something called “wheat germ, organic honey and tiger’s milk.”
Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.
Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or… hot fudge?
Dr. Aragon: Those were thought to be unhealthy… precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.
Dr. Melik: Incredible.
(more…)