Review: The Dark Knight

Incredible. Amazing. Disturbing. Powerful...

This is one of the best movies I have seen in a VERY long time.

It was also the most emotionally draining movie I have seen in a VERY long time. The film takes you up and down and keeps you on the edge of your seat and and struggling to keep up for the full 2.5 hours. It is so well written and so well executed that time stops, the adrenaline takes over and you never quite know where this is going. Christopher Nolan is my new screenwriting idol.

Every performance was very good. I was skeptical about the buzz around Heath Ledger's 'Oscar worthy performance'. I thought it's all just hype and people are only saying that because he passed away and it's just a ploy by Warner Bros. Marketing department... But as I watched him, I was disturbed, as was intended and I actually agree. It really was an oscar worthy performance. Watching him, and knowing he is no longer alive certainly makes his performance more powerful, but I think I would have still been moved even if he was still alive.

The story is exceptional. This movie is the new standard for the Superhero movie. The bar has just been raised.

They take classic Batman characters and situations and modernize them. They make it feel so real and so relevent that the plot and themes really hit home.

Go see it. Then go see Tropic Thunder to clear your emotional pallet!!

Movie Review: Get Smart

Movie Review: Get Smart

Your classic summer film. Advertised and hyped like crazy. Full of stars, big action sequences, and funny one liners.

Parts of the film felt forced to me. I felt there was too much reliance on gag humor, but that’s how the original series was so…
I thought it was fun, but I also felt it was weak in a few ways. The story wasn’t that great, but it wasn’t bad either. The twists were predicable and I knew how the film would end half way through it.

Anne Hathaway did well; not great or particularly exciting. Steve Carell was fun, he was a perfect match for the character and gave the lines well. Nothing struck me as great about any of the other performances.

I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Movie Review: Wanted

Movie Review: Wanted

Fast. Fun. Furious. Over the top.

I liked it but I thought it was a bit over blown at times. It basically works in the context of the story, but it left me with a feeling of ‘wow that was out of control’.

Angelina Jolie gave a great performance. She was definitely in her element in this film. Everyone else had a pretty solid performance as well.

The film has fun twists and will keep you entertained. I recommend it.

I give it 8 out of 10.

Drilling

Oil

Oil is a dirty business.

It always has been, and always will be. People are killed drilling it. People are killed fighting over it. Environments are killed when it’s refined, when it spills and especially when it’s burned.

It is widely known that there are alternatives for almost every use for oil. Cars can run on electricity, hydrogen, water and even sunlight. Starbucks is developing ‘plastic’ cups made from corn, that are biodegradable. Heating can come from wind power. So with so many alternatives for oil on the table why are we still using it?

Politics mostly. Money follows closely. Greed and power are not far behind. Remember how oil is a dirty business; well it’s dealings are just as dirty as it’s spills and stains.
Did you know a solar array about 40 miles in diameter could power our entire power grid?

America could have been halfway or possibly totally cured of it’s addiction to oil today had actions been taken in 2000. But we cannot go back. We must move forward. America cannot drill it’s way out of it’s oil addiction/problem any more than alcohol can cure the alcoholic. So why is there even a debate about drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge?

Politics mostly. Money follows closely. Greed and power are not far behind.

The arguments for drilling there are:

1. It will lower the Price of oil
2. It will lessen our dependence on foreign oil.
3. It won’t effect the wildlife or enviornment
4. There are 10 billion barrels of oil that are a boon for the economy

A closer look at the facts reveals the truth:

The Energy Information Administration does not feel ANWR will affect the global price of oil when past behaviors of the oil market are considered. "The opening of ANWR is projected to have its largest oil price reduction impacts as follows: a reduction in low-sulfur, light crude oil prices of $0.41 per barrel (2006 dollars) in 2026 for the low oil resource case, $0.75 per barrel in 2025 for the mean oil resource case, and $1.44 per barrel in 2027 for the high oil resource case, relative to the reference case."
"Assuming that world oil markets continue to work as they do today, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could neutralize any potential price impact of ANWR oil production by reducing its oil exports by an equal amount."

In conclusion; it will NOT lower the price of oil anytime soon, and when it does (if it does) it will at most be $1.44 a barrel which translates to pennies per gallon. Literally no more than 7 cents!!!

So will it lessen our dependence on foreign oil? Not anytime soon. And if they drilled in ANWR the oil would be sold on the oil market to the highest bidder. The oil is not just given to the US government or citizens to solve it’s oil woes. The oil is owned by the company that drilled for it. They will sell it much the same way a foreign oil company does.

Let’s pretend you have a field you raise cattle on. Then an oil company wants to drill on it. They say they only need a tiny patch. You say ‘okay’. Once they get the okay, they say ‘well we’ll need to build a road to the drill site. So they build a road that cuts your field in half, scaring the cattle and disrupting their migration route; even occasionally hitting a few. Then when they are shipping the oil away from the ‘small drill site’ it spills and contaminates the only watering hole on the field. The oil company promises to clean it up, but in the mean time you cattle have nowhere to get water, many of the cattle die and get sick or leave your field. You want to stop the oil company but you can’t, you want them to clean up the mess, but they won’t. Now you have nothing, the land you leased them is ruined. So now they want to build a pipeline that will officially divide the land and alter the landscape… The cattle and most other animals are gone and it will cost more to restore it (if you can) than the oil coming out of it is worth. So what can you do? Nothing. The only thing you can do is not let it happen.

When oil companies tell you there will be no impact, or that drilling will be clean, it’s a lie. There is no such thing as a clean drilling and shipping process. Spills continue to happen to this day. Not even six months ago there was a spill in the San Francisco bay. There was a large oil spill in Prudhoe Bay in 2006. Tar still washes up on the shores of Santa Barbara from the oil rigs off it’s coast. The oil rigs off the coast of Santa Barbara were promised and contracted to be removed once the project was done. That was over ten years ago and they are all still there. The cost of removing them rivals the amount of money the oil they produced. Why should we believe Alaska will be treated differently? The actions of the oil companies speak louder than their words, and there actions show destruction and messes everywhere.

The oil companies try and tell us that this oil will be a boon to our economy. They say that 10 billion barrels is enough money to balance our budget and bring thousands of jobs. But again, the jobs will go to the lowest bidder, and the money will go to the oil company. They do not drill out of the goodness of their hearts to help working class Americans. They drill for money. They get over 70% of the profits from drilling the oil leaving ‘America’ with an expensive mess and a small stipend that won’t do anything for the economy.

It will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to drill in ANWR. If we put that money into clean energy. If we focused on the solutions we could be 70% off of oil in ten years; before a drop of ANWR oil hits the market.

The bottom line is WE DON’T NEED IT.

Oil is the problem, NOT the solution!

Clean, renewable (already existing) energies are the solution. Lets put our time money and energy into them. That will create millions of new jobs, be a huge boon to our economy and put America once again at the forefront of the technology and moral world stage.

Don’t be fooled by the million dollar publicity campaigns of big oil. Don’t buy into the lies.

The Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge is one of America’s greatest treasures and a special place on the Earth.

Let’s keep it that way.