Random Dialogue

I’ve seen movies before. You may have noticed me talking about them in the past. Red Zone Cuba, a movie I’ve thankfully only seen in MST3K format, is undoubtedly the worst movie I’ve ever seen. That film is a plotless wasteland, with terrible actors wandering endlessly across an arid part of New Mexico pretending to be Fidel Castro’s country.

That is not to say, however, that there isn’t room in my experience for terrible films. Alien Apocalypse (AA), a SciFi channel original film starring Bruce Campbell and Renee O’ Connor, is horrifyingly bad from start to finish.

Alan, Brian, and I gathered at Brian’s place Thursday evening with the hope of some campily bad science fiction. Unfortunately AA quickly plummeted past campy, dropped like a stone past bad, and after passing through the squishy depths of embarrasing slammed to the stop on the rocky substrate of offensive.

Alien Apocalypse follows the story of two astronauts who return to earth after spending 40 years in space. They left on a mission to place a probe in deep space, using cryosleep to maintain their youth during the voyage. They returned to find civilization in ruins and humanity enslaved by large termite-like aliens.

This already weak plot was traumatized by poor planning and production values at essentially every turn. Every single other actor in the film besides Campbell and O’Connor came off like community theatre rejects, shmoes who had been press ganged off the street just so Sci-Fi could have someone to spout a line or two. The aliens were extremely poorly done CG, explosion and stunt footage was very obviously reused, and the entire movie looked like it was shot in a small area of a national park.

The movie could have survived even this if the movie wasn’t so frustratingly poorly written. Dialogue is always a challenging part of any project, but the lines the movie’s script writer fed his actors would have made them seem like idiots even without their cringingly bad acting skills. On top of that, some of the writing just made no bloody sense. One character the protagonists meet claims to recall hearing of the probe mission when he was a youth, an event already established to have occured 40 years ago. When Campbell asks the man how old he is, he claims to be 35 years old. There is no indication that he’s joking, or senile. It’s just a stupid mistake.

Alien Apocalypse is easily the most amatuerish, slapdash, piece-of-crap movie I’ve seen in a long time. It’s very rare that I regret having seen a film. Even movies that I don’t particularly enjoy can usually be mined for amusing moments or workable aspects of the final film. This movie sucked hose from start to finish, and I recommend a rousing evening of doing your laundry before watching this film.

Another month, another review up on Slashdot. Going to try to be timely and stuff moving forward. Aiming for SC:CT next Monday. We’ll see how it goes.

Mechassault 2 and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident considered.

Just a few posts ago I was whining about the retched weather, and wanting spring to arrive. I’m not sure I can say this with conviction yet, but today’s weather would certainly indicate things have changed for the better. It’s a little breezy, or I’d probably be spending my first work shift out on the porch. I think I’ll save that for a day a little warmer and a little calmer.

I’m a little tired today, as I had some trouble getting to sleep last night. Spent quite a bit of time doing some mental gear spinning, about this that and the other.

This reflection was prompted by the loss this past weekend of a friend. While I didn’t get very close to many people at Doulgas Stewart, there were a few folks that I always enjoyed spending time with. Brian Knutson, PC Specialist extraordinaire, Creature Hander and Architect in Star Wars Galaxies, Night Elf Hunter in World of Warcraft, passed away this past weekend as the result of a car accident.

I’ve been thinking all day about the good fortune that I, my friends, and my family continue to enjoy. It’s been hard to think about everything that a 25 year old still had to do in his life. Brian was a good guy. He’ll be missed.

While Easter, as you can imagine, doesn’t really hold a lot of meaning for me as a Holiday, it is a good excuse to get together with family. Sunday morning we had brunch with Katie’s folks, Grandma, and Aunt. Some lovely quiche and conversation all around. In the evening we hung out at mom’s place with the extended clan, some of whom came from Chicago to see my tallish sibling, temporarily returned from Tokyo.

Monday was a day out and about on our feet, as we rand errands almost all day. Got the boy fitted for his tux, invitations ordered, worked on reception favours, browsed some books and snarked about movies. And, of course, any excuse to have some Rocky Roccoco’s.

Tomorrow we have game, and Wednesday I’m hoping to rope Paul into some Poker. The reality of the situations remains to be seen.

This is pretty much the most stressful day I’ve had since I left DSC. Many thanks to the Fuitadnet admins Bender, Rahul, and Tushar for their assistance in making sure that it wasn’t a calamity.

Earlier today the cpanel10 server, the fine physical body which houses Randomdialogue.net, was taken down and wiped because it had been compromised by the evils of the internet. A complete reinstall of the server was required, and it was uncertain whether a data restore would be possible. Regrettably I found when I went to check my backup from last week that it was corrupt and unusable. It’s been a long day waiting to hear if I would have to weep over the fallen form of RD.net.

As you can see, all’s well that ends well.

A somewhat exciting end to a relatively quiet and enjoyable week. Tuesday’s game was fun, as was a large poker sit down here in my home on Wednesday, and a spot of miniature painting here last night with Eva and Alan.

Paul arrives back in town in just an hour or two, here on a break from his teaching duties in Japan. I’m hoping to wrangle him to the poker game next Wednesday, and will definately enjoy seeing him while he’s here.

As much as I like movable type….I have to say I’m very glad I’m not looking down the possibility of having to completely remake my web site.

The first novel set in the Eberron campaign setting, written by Richard Baker, surprised the crap out of me. It was actually pretty good. While I greatly enjoy the Eberron setting, writing a good setting (or a good sourcebook) is not the same thing as writing a good novel.

The City of Towers follows the tale of a quartet of soldiers, late of the Great War. They’ve come to Sharn in the wake of the Mourning, the cataclysmic event that ruined the country of Cyre and created the wasteland known as the Mournlands. While they journey to Sharn with a joyful purpose ahead of them they quickly find themselves in the middle of an ever deepening mystery.

The novel is replete with interesting characters, a vivid background, and one of the best representations of a roleplaying setting I’ve ever had the chance to read. Despite a somewhat claustrophobic story (once in the city, they never leave Sharn) Baker manages to show us the exoticism and variety of the continent of Khorvaire. The characerizations are competent and the dialogue is capable and comfortable. Neither of these particular pieces of the story are extremly memorable, but the texture of the novel is such that these weak elements are more than made up for by the quality of the setting.

The weak point of the story overall is the way in which Baker weaves together the elements of the mystery. Though I was never confused by the story structure, there were a lot of elements thrown at the reader in a pell-mell fashion. The goal of novels based in a campaign setting is to be inclusive. I read Dragonlance novels long before I ever played in the setting, and one of the reasons I ended up enjoying my gaming experiences on Krynn was the background gleaned from the novels. While I’ve gamed in the Eberron setting before, and thus had no problems following the elements of the novel, I’m not sure that someone who didn’t have such a background would have followed the story as well. This seems like a poor choice on Baker’s part, in general.

Despite these issues, I really enjoyed the novel. It was a great look at the living background of the Eberron setting and was the perfect compliment to my own excursion in an unfamiliar city.

I have had a perfectly lovely weekend. I’ve said that before, but this time I mean it. Not that I’d lie to you.

Friday night we had dinner with my mother and ventured to Nedrebos to choose the tuxedos for the wedding. We had dinner at Biagi’s, and though my last few experiences there have been underwhelming my food was delicious this time around. We spoke about details of the wedding, talked a little bit about family (as you do), and embarrased me in front of the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with (again, as you do).

We spoke with a lovely woman at Nedrebo’s and chose the tuxedos that we’ll be wearing in August (pic in the Winter gallery). For the record, imagine it with a royal blue vest, black cravat, and a royal blue pocket handkerchief. I expect, nay demand, that we will look sharp on the day in question.

Last night folks got together at the club house here at Nantucket. We utilized the plasma screen and sound system to watch The Incredibles, and the made-for-the-DVD short Jak Jak Attack. The short was well, well worth it.

Other than the norm, not much going on thiscoming week. I am quite okay with that.