Paul Long's Ramblings

Finally went to see Avatar yesterday. My wife and I waited till school had begun and so could enjoy watching the movie in the morning on a working weekday! Once again, we had most of the cinema to ourselves. Nice :-) The 3 D experience was really nice despite my getting a headache because of it for the first half an hour or so. The scenes on Pandora were brilliantly done etc BUT the storyline to me was really weak. The characters to me were pretty one dimensional. The hero who overcomes all odds (Jake), bad military guy (the colonel), the greedy corporation man, the mostly mindless soldiers who follow orders without question, a couple of geeks, a sexy macho tough woman who is at home with weapons (can't even remember her character's name - but it was Michelle Rodriguez - hehehe which tells you that I have noticed that this is her stereotype role in many movies - and even the LOST TV series). The noble (but still one dimensional) native (Tsu tey) who is the jealous territorial t...

It's been a busy but nice day. And even as I wrote this blog, I am enjoying winding down the day watching one of my favourite movies - Fifty first dates . I've seen the show twice already (on Astro ). There's so much I like about the show, despite some stupid slap stick scenes with Rob Schneider and some weird supporting cast. It helps too that I have been a Drew Barrymore fan since her debut in ET. It's not just a great love story of a guy for a girl and his willingness to sacrifice everything for her. It is also her great love for him and her willingness to sacrifice for him. Then it is equally about the great love her family and friends have for her and the sacrifices they make for her, and how too she cjooses to sacrifice for them so as not to be a burden to them. And background sub plots too revolve around friendships that Henry with his friends. Many memorable scenes, funny as well as moving .... " Nothing beats the first kiss" :-), The scenes with th...

Yesterday Jennifer and I went to our first movie since arriving in NZ. Been long overdue but we probably would not have gone if not for Faith giving us complimentary tickets. Thanks girl! :-) Basically we are too stingy to spend money on cinema tickets! LOL Of course Faith wanted us to go to the branch where she works - the main one with the huge screen and all the bells and whistles (IMAX etc) but going to the city centre is just something that we do not look forward to. So we went to much smaller one nearby in the West ... which to us was very nice. Only seven of us in the whole theatre as it was in the afternoon on a working and school day! I suppose even old big screen movies look great and sounds great when we usually watch TV on an old fashion mono sound CRT TV using an indoor antenna. Some people have been asking us to get "freeview" which is free to air TV with digital satellite quality but we can't be bothered. What was a bonus to me was that I had also just ha...