Jared’s Blog

A couple days ago, I arrived home and checked the mailbox to find Laura’s next Netflix selection, Battle Royale. Not having anything better to do, I popped it in. After 2 hours I was thoroughly entertained and a bit confused.

Being that it is a Japanese movie, there is no English audio, only subtitles. I missed the first few minutes since I was making dinner, but I soon became entrenched in the film. The premise of the movie is that it’s the turn of the millennium and Japan’s society is getting out of control. The youth are rebelling against the adults. To cure this societal breakdown, the adults decide to implement the Battle Royale Act which says that each year a random class of 7th graders will be selected to battle to the death. The game ends when only one student remains.

Apparently, the movie is banned from distribution in the US. The deaths in the movie range from humorous to downright violent, but this is clearly not the reason for such a restriction. I would venture to guess that the reason it is banned is because of the subject matter. With all the school violence of the 90’s, I’m sure the last thing anyone would want young people to see is a movie about their peers killing each other. I somewhat agree. Then again, I have no doubts this movie would be rated R and therefore not directed towards the age group it portrays.

The concept is interesting and quite thought provoking. Put aside the fact that these are 13-14 year olds and put yourself in their shoes. Could you kill your friends and peers. I know back in 7th grade I would’ve had no problem with some people, but some of my real friends I know I’d have a hard time with.

As I said earlier this was a great movie that really made me think. There are quite a few very graphic scenes, so if you’re squeamish, I wouldn’t reccommend watching this. I could’ve done without some of the cheesy teenage love subplots, but overall, I think this is a eye-opening flick.

Yep, I paid to see this movie. The original that came out a few years ago wasn’t all that bad. I actually enjoyed it. This one, I would say is better, but not by much. The basic plot is Umbrella reopens the Hive which leads to a widespread infection of an entire city. Of course Alice is back with super zombie powers. They also include a couple characters that look pretty close to the game which I found cool.

After walking out of the movie, I wasn’t one bit disappointed. Maybe thats because my hopes weren’t set too high. I found it entertaining though. If you saw the first one and hated it, don’t even bother with this one. If you liked the first one at all, I’d give this one a shot.

My biggest beef with this movie was the ending. Of course they had to leave it open for a 3rd movie. But they left a ton of shit wide open while too quickly resolving a bunch of other loose ends. I got all confused towards the end because I didn’t know where the plot was heading.

…where I think “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” is better than “The Village?”

I’ve watched 2 movies in the last 2 days; both of which have been stated above. The Village sucked. I wasn’t so disappointed last night right after I watched it, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like I just got duped out of 2 hours of my life. It’s built up to be this crazy horror movie, and it never gets there. Then there’s this twist at the end (which I predicted about 30 min into the movie) that totally ruins it. Complete and utter shit.

Tonight, I figured what the hell and saw Harold and Kumar. Now of course this is your average stoner comedy, but somehow during those 4 years of college I grew fond of them. Maybe it brings back all kinds of good memories. Maybe I am just so childish that I still think these types of stupid humor movies are funny. Either way, I laughed my ass off.

Now look at my opinions of those movies. The “summer blockbuster” just got its ass kicked by the “stoner flick.” Something is very wrong here. Some crappy, half-assed, eigth grade material is gonna make millions at the box office this week. While the truely entertaining movie won’t even get a mention. Strange but true.

I’m way too tired to go on right now, so instead I’m going to catch some shut eye and maybe I’ll post something more tomorrow.

Why are there times where I feel like I’m living the most generic life? Lately, it feels like I’m not doing anything significant. I go to work, I mess around on my computer, and I hang out with friends. I guess thats what everyone is supposed to do, but damn does it get boring. What’s even stranger is that a couple years ago, this would’ve been fine and a few years before that, this would’ve been ideal. But right now it’s just plain boring. Alright, enough with the monotonous. There have been a few highlights to my life in the last few days.

Last week, I applied for a car loan at the local credit union. I found out yesterday that I got pre-approved. I wrote $8500 on the application, so I guess I’m approved for up to that much. According to my mom, there is some room for movement on that. Add to that a downpayment of $1500, and I’m sitting at around 10 grand for a car. Unfortunately, I doubt I’ll find anything suitable that’s new for that. I’m going to do some searching this weekend and see what I come up with. My goal is to have a new ride by the end of next week and that’s a very real possibility.

The main reason I want to get into new wheels before the end of the week is because Warped Tour is a week from Sunday. Justin, Louie, Kristin, and Lauren will be joining me. The van would definately not be a good vehicle to take down there. It’s got enough room, but I’m not sure it would even make it all the way down there and no air conditioning would be hell. Personally, I’m going there to see Break the Silence the most. I know they’ll only have a short set, but I’m unbelievably hyped up for them. This year, they’ve got the usual mix of old favorites and new blood. Bad Religion, Anti-Flag, Avenged Sevenfold, Story of the Year, Yesterdays Rising, From Autumn to Ashes, NOFX, From First to Last, Taking Back Sunday, New Found Glory, and The Vandals are all bands I’ll be looking forward to seeing.

I went and saw I, Robot last night. I liked it. Judging from the reviews I read after I got home, people either loved or hated it. The CGI was bad ass and the plot had a decent number of twists. The thing has late summer blockbuster written all over it. Personally, I’m not a fan of Will Smith, but he usually puts on a decent performance. If you’re into Sci-Fi, you’ll probably like it. As with every movie that’s based on or derived from a book, I’m sure some liberties were taken. Actually, from what I read, about all they used was Asimov’s 3 rules of robotics. I’d give it a B+. It’s a pretty good movie, but not one of my favorites.

Tonight I took a few hours to watch a movie. I watched Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. I know by just mentioned that name, I’m invoking a whole slew of images and thoughts in your mind. I know exactly what you’re feeling. I’ve run the gammut of feelings on Michael Moore.

There was the time when I had no idea who the guy was. That was in the spring of 2001 after the attacks of September 11th occurred. I was introduced to him at first by my Communications professor Karyl Daughters. She went to see him when he gave a talk at St. Cloud State. I really thought nothing of it. Later that fall, I took another class with Karyl. In it, we watched Roger and Me. I found Moore too biased and annoying. At that time I also really didn’t have much of an opinion on politics or war.

Things began to change after I saw Bowling For Columbine. Immediately after seeing it, Michael Moore became someone I looked up to. Later I had heard that he’d pieced together parts of Bowling For Columbine to make some of Charlton Heston’s comments look worse than they were. I don’t really know if these statements were true, but they evoked doubt in my mind.

So Michael Moore wasn’t the hero I’d thought of him as before. He was still doing what I thought was right. I couldn’t really believe what the news caster was telling me anymore. This guy seems to be on my side.

When it came to Fahrenheit 9/11 I had my doubts, but I also had my own feelings. I wasn’t hard to get my attention. I sat fixated throughout the entire thing. And when it was all over, I felt like applauding. Instead I came here. The natural thing to do would be to encourage every person to watch this movie because it agrees with my viewpoints. I’m not going to do that. Watch it if you want. All I ask is that if you do, seriously consider the viewpoints presented. Take a good look at how the United States is being run. Then ask yourself if this movie, right or wrong, is worth the hype. I think it is. I think that at the very least it shows that people are curious about this type of thing. That not everyone is a mindless zombie believing everything they’re told.

Just think about it. That’s all I ask.

I’m sitting here enjoying one of my Christmas gifts. Fight Club on DVD. It’s just classic. I had been hounding my dad to see this movie and my mom finally bought it for me so we can watch it. I’m listening to the commentary by Brad Pitt, David Fincher, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter and it’s just great. There’s so much more to this film than you can ever get in the first couple times watching it.

On to that ever so famous Christian holiday. If you know me, or if you’ve read my bio then you know I’m not Christian and therefore I shouldn’t be celebrating Christmas. Unfortunately, I don’t have the heart to tell my parents. And actually I’m going to miss it. It’s not so much the presents, but how everyone is genuinely nice. Anyway, I’ll give a rundown of the gifts I got. A Pizazz pizza cooker, a $20 gift card to Best Buy, a $25 gift card to Sam Goody, Two Towers Extended Edition DVD, Fight Club DVD, The Matrix Reloaded DVD, a 128MB PNY USB 2.0 Thumb Drive, a MN Wild jersey, a MN Wild hat, a pair of MN Wild pajama pants, a pair of MN Wild shorts, a MN Wild long sleeve shirt, tickets to a MN Wild game, Joe Boxer pajama pants, Adidas cologne, a pair of khaki pants, a pair of boxers, a $10 gift certificate to the local movie theater, a sweater, and a bunch of stocking stuffers. All in all, I was really surprised at what I got. It was the first time in a long time I didn’t know so much exactly what I was getting. Like I said before, going without Christmas is going to seem unnatural the first few years, but I can truly say I could go without all the presents and the commercialism. The shear amount of pressure to buy, buy, buy is sickening. People overspend themselves entirely way too much around this time of year. Do some research, and you’ll quickly learn that much of the world’s debt is accumulated during the month of December. A sad, but true, fact.

Fall semester grades came out today. I managed a 3.25 GPA this semester. I was pretty surprised I did so well. I think this is my best semester yet. The thing is, I didn’t feel like I worked that hard in classes. I had two classes I was just dreading because I knew they would be very hard and they turned out to be not so bad. I guess I can appreciate the work I put into them now. The grades certainly made my parents happy. I think I might even get a break on my car insurance. This brings me to my last semester of college… maybe. I’m definitely on the lookout for a job. In fact to today I applied for a web design job with Polaris Snowmobiles. But I saw way too many of my friends end up unemployed or working somewhere that you don’t need a 4 year degree. I’ve got a backup plan. If by the end of March or beginning of April, I don’t have anything promising, I’m going to go to school for another year or go to grad school. I figure I can take out more loans and I won’t be so much worse off. Chances are the job market will be better in time, I’d be qualified for more, and I get more time to learn some things I don’t get taught in class like web design or graphics design. I’d be more than happy to land a job in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area making enough to pay the bills. In fact, that’s my ideal future. Chances are, things won’t quite happen that way, but a guy can hope.

Lastly, I’ve put up a few more things in the artwork and about me sections. Check them out. Also make sure you read my friends blogs’ sometime.