Apparently, this trailer was supposed to be in front of “I Am Legend,” but when I saw it on Sunday, this isn’t the trailer I saw… Thankfully, due to the wonders of the interwebs, it’s leaked online and I can watch it whenever I want…
…and lemme tell ya…Heath Ledger may not be Jack Nicholson, but I think he’ll pull it off quite nicely…
The Dark Knight comes out on July 18, 2008.
Apparently, this trailer was supposed to be in front of “I Am Legend,” but when I saw it on Sunday, this isn’t the trailer I saw… Thankfully, due to the wonders of the interwebs, it’s leaked online and I can watch it whenever I want…
…and lemme tell ya…Heath Ledger may not be Jack Nicholson, but I think he’ll pull it off quite nicely…
The Dark Knight comes out on July 18, 2008.
“I Am Legend” is (loosely?) based on a book written by Richard Matheson in 1954. According to the Wikipedia article, the book is essentially written about the daily life of Robert Neville (in the year 1976) as he deals with his daily activities, which consist of “mak[ing] repairs to his house, boarding up windows, stringing and hanging garlic, disposing of vampires’ corpses on his lawn and going out to gather any additional supplies needed for hunting and killing more vampires.”
In the book, a bacterial strain unleashed a pandemic on the world population, leaving Neville alone as the apparent “last man on Earth.” The bacteria induced vampire-like symptoms, and it were these effects that Neville sought to understand (i.e. why don’t they like garlic or sunlight?) and hopefully cure.
You can read through the Wikipedia article if you want, but the book, apparently, is pretty dissimilar from the 2007 movie (there are other movies based on the book, including 1964’s “The Last Man on Earth” and 1971’s “Omega Man“). Apparently, none of the movies have really hit the points that Matheson did in his book, but oh well…
In this version, Will Smith plays Dr. Robert Neville, a military scientist that stayed behind in New York City, “ground zero” for a newly airborne virus that was originally designed to cure cancer. After the virus spreads, it has a 90% kill rate: 1% are immune (including Smith) and the other 9% take on vampire-like symptoms…that then go on to eat the other 1%… He’s working to cure the disease, while at the same time trying to find out if he is really the last human alive. He spends his days hunting deer in New York City (and driving around a nice Shelby Mustang GT500…) and capturing vampires to test his treatments on, frequently with little success.
The movie itself is pretty good, I thought. It was an hour and forty minutes long, which was perfect…didn’t drag on too long (kinda like “Cast Away” seemed to, sometimes? Will Smith doesn’t have many people to talk to in this movie…) and had some truly suspenseful moments throughout. His performance was rather stellar, and he kinda carries the movie in that regard. The effects were interesting as well… The animals (e.g. deer, lions, vampire dogs…) were all CGI…and you could tell…but, they filmed parts of the movie in New York City with no people around. How exactly they faked grass growing in the cracks of concrete along the streets (CGI or plastic?), I’ll never know…but it looked really good…
My one complaint goes with the story, though… I read the Wikipedia article before seeing the movie, which perhaps was a mistake. There are certain plot elements in the book with regards to the vampires and how similar they are to humans that are pretty integral to the story, yet the movie touches on them briefly…and so briefly as to make me think they shouldn’t have been brought up at all. They mention these aspects fleetingly and you kinda wish that they’d develop them a little further…or not even mention it… One or the other…
Anyway, I thought it was pretty good. I won’t be buying the DVD, as I’m not sure it has much replay value, but it’s very much worth seeing. If you’re looking for a decent movie to see in the theaters this Winter Break, I’d consider checking it out…
My Prelim oral defense was on Wednesday…and was pretty friggin’ hard…but I got through it mostly unscathed. The exam consisted of a 20 min PowerPoint presentation generally reviewing all the stuff I put in my 25-page proposal, hitting the fine points and rationale, but not going through any specific experiments. This was followed by another 1 hr and 40 min worth of questioning on subjects peripherally related to what I’d written. A few questions were about why I’d chosen certain drugs, or why use this model for your experiments, or why this cell type, etc. Other questions were kinda related to what I was proposing, but mostly not.
In the end, I got 5 “yes” votes (out of 5) and was given a form letter from the dean saying that I need to be done by 2012. I certainly hope I don’t take that long, but hey…whatever…
Anyway, now I’m going to chill until after Christmas and then get started in earnest on the following:
1). I need to fill out the paperwork for “Advancement to Doctoral Candidacy,” get my signatures and get it sent off to the Dean’s office. Essentially, I’ve been a “graduate student” and now I’ll be an official “doctoral student,” which allows me to have fewer credit hours per semester (I only have 12 left that I need to complete…between now and 2012…heh…) and still remain a “full-time student.” It’s really just a formality, but still…can be annoying to get it all done…
2). Related to #1, I need to form a Doctoral Thesis Committee. This committee is separate from the one that I took the oral defense with, but can consist of the same members if so desired. These people are going to be in charge of pushing me along to make sure I’m not actually here until 2012. I’ll have to present my data for them every once and awhile (a few times a year?) and they’ll be the ones that decide when I’m done. They’re also there to “protect” me from my boss (which won’t be a problem…) so that she doesn’t keep me around too long doing lots of work when I could be out on my own… That’s their job, at least, but they won’t have to police Dr. Macarthur much, I expect…
3). Write up a paper for publication on the data I’ve obtained thus far. I want to get it started so I know what other experiments I need to start to fill out the paper. As Dr. Macarthur says (and I agree with), any paper should “tell a story”…so have a beginning, middle and end. I’ve got the beginning, certainly, and bits and pieces of “middle” and “end”…most of it being done, but I think I could use a bit more data to make the whole paper more complete.
4). I’ve got to present a paper on February 12th for “Journal Club.” This is done once a year (all students do it) and we have to pick a paper that we want to present in front of the department during lunch. It’s supposed to be pretty informal…but sometimes isn’t… 😛 Regardless, I’ve got to pick a paper first, then write up a PowerPoint presentation on it and generally know what I’m talking about with regards to the document. I’m not terribly worried about it, but it’s something else to complete…
That’s about it! Relatively downhill from here… I’m shooting to be done in early 2010, but if all my data comes in beautifully (as I know it will… :-P), then I could be out in late-2009. We’ll see…
Brooke just wants to go to Europe…so, the sooner the better for her… 😛
Yeah, I’m sure we all remember Knight Rider…and how David Hasselhoff drove a lovely Pontiac Trans Am. Well, they don’t make Trans Ams anymore, meaning that the production staff of the new made-for-TV-movie-and-hopefully-new-show-pilot coming out next year didn’t have a car to use.
Well, it was recently “leaked” that the car being used (and announced officially shortly?) will be, indeed, a Ford Mustang Cobra GT500KR. Please note the red lights on the hood of the car…
Yeah, baby… 😀
Yeah, I’m sure we all remember Knight Rider…and how David Hasselhoff drove a lovely Pontiac Trans Am. Well, they don’t make Trans Ams anymore, meaning that the production staff of the new made-for-TV-movie-and-hopefully-new-show-pilot coming out next year didn’t have a car to use.
Well, it was recently “leaked” that the car being used (and announced officially shortly?) will be, indeed, a Ford Mustang Cobra GT500KR. Please note the red lights on the hood of the car…
Yeah, baby… 😀
What does Isaac’s Dad do when he finds out his 15-year-old son is smoking marijuana? He unwraps that new copy of Guitar Hero III that was under the tree and puts it up for sale on eBay, along with a lengthy discussion as to why it’s for sale. Needless to say, Isaac probably isn’t all that pleased… Personally, I find this to be a very creative punishment…but Dad probably should have taken the Wii away, too…
Please note that the “lengthy discussion” is quite amusing…and also, as of today (6:45 pm), this $90 game is going for $224… I think Dad should buy himself something nice…
So, now does the title make sense? Hope so…I was proud of that one…
Update: The auction ended this evening…and I checked at 8:50 pm and it sold… After 42 bids, it went for $9,100.01… All I can say is…wow…
You know, normally, I’d be rather annoyed by the on-going Writer’s Strike, especially for the reason(s) outlined in the final panel above (click on it to actually read the thing…a bit small above, eh?)… However, considering that I’ve needed to study for the past, oh, month, it’s been more on the “tough love” side of things…giving me little to do at night except read through a paper.
On the other hand, now that I should be done with studying (for the most part) this Wednesday, I’ll be looking for things to entertain me… I’ll get most of that from “Super Mario Galaxy,” as I’ve put off buying it until after my Prelim (so I wouldn’t be distracted), but at this rate, I won’t have new TV shows to watch until, oh, March… (Thankfully, I have been promised new episodes of “Monk,” “Psych” and “Stargate: Atlantis” beginning in early-January. I hope those episodes keep coming and don’t disappear after a month or two…)
Mixed blessing? Perhaps…
Brooke decorated our tree (a real one!) and wrapped all the presents. I was worthless. ‘Nuff said. 😛
Brooke decorated our tree (a real one!) and wrapped all the presents. I was worthless. ‘Nuff said. 😛
