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Daily Archives: 9 July, 2014
Turtle and Dugong: vulnerable, not commercial
Media ReleasesBy admin 9 July, 2014
FEDERAL MP Warren Entsch has blasted a Northern Territory Government department for treating turtle and dugong meat "like a snack food". Mr Entsch, the Member for Leichhardt in Far North Queensland, has received a copy of an email sent out by the Northern Territory Department of Corporate and Information Services (DCIS) Social Club, encouraging members…
Torres Strait at risk from PNG's TB epidemic
QUEENSLAND LIBERAL MP Warren Entsch has revealed his dismay at the spiralling tuberculosis crisis in Papua New Guinea, responding to reports yesterday that health experts are calling for TB to be declared as a public health emergency in Australia's closest neighbour. The move follows the release of a study carried out by the PNG Institute…


Cinnamon rolls are the perfect breakfast for Christmas day, but they take a lot of effort and preparation. These pancakes have all the delicious taste you want, and half the work. The best part is, they are gluten free for those who have an intolerance or are trying to eat healthier this holiday season.
Wow the family with this Christmas treat.


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Maniwa: A Wooden "Supercar" from Japan
supercars | wooden | May 1, 2014
If you wish to own your own supercar, complete with a giant rear spoiler, gull-wing doors and a glass engine cover — but you can't find a way to swing a Ferrari 458 Italia or Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4 — why not just build one yourself out of wood? This hand-built beauty was made for the Japanese company Sada-Kenbi by a group of highly skilled woodworkers.
If we want to look at the specs, the "Maniwa" is capable of top speeds of 50 mph, has a fully non-functional rear wing, operational gull-wing doors, mirrors, working headlights, and handlebar steering. The front seat is roomy enough for one and there is a rear bench seat with seating for two. Apparently, it's convertible only with no option for a ragtop.
This all-wooden car may not be able to compete head-to-head with other supercars, but its certainly more environmentally friendly and is sure to turn heads (maybe not in a good way). Frankly, it's the sort of sports car that you wooden want to be seen driving.
The Pagani Utopia Is a Rolling Work of Art… with 864 Horsepower and a Manual Transmission
Ford GT90: The Greatest Supercar That Never Was?
This Custom Pininfarina Battista Electric Hypercar Was Inspired by NYC

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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// Copyright (c) Microsoft. All rights reserved.
// Licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE file in the project root for full license information.

using System;
using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using Xunit;

public class FileInfo_get_DirectoryName
{
    public static String s_strActiveBugNums = "";
    public static String s_strDtTmVer = "2000/05/08 20:00";
    public static String s_strClassMethod = "File.DirectoryName()";
    public static String s_strTFName = "get_DirectoryName.cs";
    public static String s_strTFPath = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();

    [Fact]
    public static void runTest()
    {
        String strLoc = "Loc_000oo";
        String strValue = String.Empty;
        int iCountErrors = 0;
        int iCountTestcases = 0;

        try
        {
            /////////////////////////  START TESTS ////////////////////////////
            ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

            FileInfo fil2;

            // [] Vanilla case
            //-----------------------------------------------------------------
            strLoc = "Loc_2723d";

            fil2 = new FileInfo(Path.Combine("Hello", "file.tmp"));
            iCountTestcases++;
            if (!fil2.DirectoryName.Equals(Path.Combine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), "Hello")))
            {
                iCountErrors++;
                printerr("Error_5yb87! Incorrect name==" + fil2.DirectoryName);
            }

            // [] \Directory\File
            fil2 = new FileInfo(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar + Path.Combine("Directory", "File"));
            iCountTestcases++;
            if (!fil2.DirectoryName.Equals(Path.Combine(Path.GetPathRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()), "Directory")))
            {
                iCountErrors++;
                printerr("Error_78288! Incorrect name==" + fil2.DirectoryName);
            }

            if (Interop.IsWindows) // UNC shares
            {
                // [] UNC share
                fil2 = new FileInfo(new string(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, 2) + Path.Combine("Machine", "Directory", "File"));
                iCountTestcases++;
                if (!fil2.DirectoryName.Equals(new string(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, 2) + Path.Combine("Machine", "Directory")))
                {
                    iCountErrors++;
                    printerr("Error_67y8b! Incorrect name==" + fil2.DirectoryName);
                }
            }

            // [] Names with spaces
            fil2 = new FileInfo(Path.Combine(Path.GetPathRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()), "File.tmp hello.blah"));
            iCountTestcases++;
            if (!fil2.DirectoryName.Equals(Path.GetPathRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())))
            {
                iCountErrors++;
                printerr("Error_2987b! Incorrect name==" + fil2.DirectoryName);
            }

            // [] C:/Directory/File
            fil2 = new FileInfo(Path.Combine(Path.GetPathRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()), "Directory", "File").Replace(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar));
            iCountTestcases++;
            if (!fil2.DirectoryName.Equals(Path.Combine(Path.GetPathRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()), "Directory")))
            {
                iCountErrors++;
                printerr("Error_2y78d! Incorrect name==" + fil2.DirectoryName);
            }
            /*
                        // [] Ending with \\
                        fil2 = new FileInfo("C:\\Dir1\\Dir2\\");
                        iCountTestcases++;
                        if(!fil2.DirectoryName.Equals("C:\\Dir1\\Dir2")) {
                            iCountErrors++;
                            printerr( "Error_287gy! Incorrect name=="+fil2.DirectoryName);
                        }
            */

            // [] Multiple Subdirectories
            fil2 = new FileInfo(Path.Combine(Path.GetPathRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()), "Dir1", "Dir2", "Dir3", "Dir4", "File1"));
            iCountTestcases++;
            if (!fil2.DirectoryName.Equals(Path.Combine(Path.GetPathRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()), "Dir1", "Dir2", "Dir3", "Dir4")))
            {
                iCountErrors++;
                printerr("Error_283fy! Incorrect name==" + fil2.DirectoryName);
            }

            fil2 = new FileInfo("Dir1");
            iCountTestcases++;
            if (!fil2.DirectoryName.Equals(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()))
            {
                iCountErrors++;
                printerr("Error_758bb! Incorrect name==" + fil2.DirectoryName);
            }

            //-----------------------------------------------------------------

            ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
            /////////////////////////// END TESTS /////////////////////////////
        }
        catch (Exception exc_general)
        {
            ++iCountErrors;
            Console.WriteLine("Error Err_8888yyy!  strLoc==" + strLoc + ", exc_general==" + exc_general.ToString());
        }
        ////  Finish Diagnostics
        if (iCountErrors != 0)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("FAiL! " + s_strTFName + " ,iCountErrors==" + iCountErrors.ToString());
        }

        Assert.Equal(0, iCountErrors);
    }

    public static void printerr(String err, [CallerMemberName] string memberName = "", [CallerFilePath] string filePath = "", [CallerLineNumber] int lineNumber = 0)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("ERROR: ({0}, {1}, {2}) {3}", memberName, filePath, lineNumber, err);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
Winner's Bio
Boris Nemtsov
Former Russian Statesman
Award Winner 2015
Outstanding Campaigning for Democracy in Russia
Boris Nemtsov was a Russian statesman who served as a member of parliament, regional governor, and deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin and emerged as the most prominent leader of the pro-democracy opposition to President Vladimir Putin.
Born in Sochi in 1959, Nemtsov graduated from Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) State University as a physicist, gaining his Ph.D. at the age of 25 and joining the Moscow Physics Seminar led by Vitaly Ginzburg, a future Nobel Prize laureate. In the late 1980s, as the Soviet Union underwent rapid change, Nemtsov joined the democratic movement and led a successful effort to stop the construction of a nuclear plant in Gorky, enlisting the help of Andrei Sakharov.
In 1990, Nemtsov was elected to the Russian Parliament where he emerged as one of the most prominent voices for reform. Following Boris Yeltsin's election to the presidency and the defeat of a hardline coup attempt in 1991, he became governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region and launched an ambitious programme of market reforms, transforming his region into an economic powerhouse with high investment, infrastructure projects, small-scale privatisation, and thriving private enterprise.
"No greater contrast with the drab uniformity of Moscow could be imagined", wrote former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher after visiting Nemtsov in Nizhny Novgorod. "A combination of excellent local products, talented entrepreneurs and laws favourable to enterprise applied by honest and capable political leadership could generate prosperity and progress". In 1996, while an incumbent governor, Nemtsov collected one million signatures against the Russian government's war in Chechnya, personally delivering them to President Yeltsin and helping bring an end to the brutal campaign.
In 1997, President Yeltsin appointed Nemtsov first deputy prime minister of Russia, indicating that he saw him as his future successor in the Kremlin. Nemtsov's tenure was marked by efforts to rein in the influence of the oligarchs and increase government transparency, including with a requirement for officials to publicly disclose their incomes and property. As chairman of a special government commission, Nemtsov was responsible for organising the funeral of the Russian royal family murdered after the Bolshevik revolution. For several months in 1997, Nemtsov led in opinion polls among potential presidential candidates, but his popularity took a hit as oligarch-owned television channels launched a campaign against him. He resigned from the government following the financial crisis of August 1998.
Nemtsov's political comeback came in 1999 with his election to Parliament, where he grew increasingly critical of Russia's new president, Vladimir Putin – especially with regard to his crackdown on the media and military brutality in Chechnya. As Putin's system evolved into fully fledged authoritarianism, Nemtsov became the most prominent voice in opposition to the regime's abuses and corruption, organising mass street protests at home and successfully advocating for targeted sanctions against key Kremlin figures abroad. U.S. Senator John McCain has noted that "without Boris Nemtsov, we would not have had the Magnitsky Act" in the United States.
In 2013, Nemtsov won election to the regional legislature in Yaroslavl. He was planning to lead his People's Freedom Party into the 2016 parliamentary election and challenge Putin for the presidency in 2018. On 27 February 2015, Boris Nemtsov was murdered, by five bullets in the back, as he walked across a bridge in front of the Kremlin. The organisers and masterminds of his assassination remain unidentified and unindicted. The OSCE report on the Nemtsov case has concluded that "the main issue for addressing impunity is not the capabilities of the Russian law enforcement, but political will". Boris Nemtsov has been officially commemorated in Washington, Vilnius, Kiev, and Prague, where Russian embassies now stand on squares bearing his name.


Today, I announce my candidacy for re-election as Mayor of the Village of Rhinebeck. I have served on the Village Board for 4 years, with the last 3 as your Mayor. I was born at Northern Dutchess Hospital, attended K-12 at Rhinebeck Schools and enjoyed growing up here. My wife and I made the decision to raise our family here just as my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents did. My voter registration reads No Official Party (NOP) and in the three years that I have been elected I have appeared on the Democratic line three times and the Republican line twice. Due to a variety of circumstances, I have had the responsibility of appointing three Trustees to the Village Board. Each time I consulted with the other members of the board and looked for the best person, regardless of party affiliation. I chose one Republican, one Democrat, and one fellow NOP. There may be a place for party politics, but in my opinion the Village of Rhinebeck is not that place. I am committed to representing Village residents regardless of party affiliation and feel there is no excuse for contaminating the function of local government with the divisiveness we have become accustomed to during national and even state political races. Please visit Mayor Heath Tortarella on Facebook for more information. I welcome you to check back regularly, as I will follow up with additional posts that highlight recent accomplishments of your Village government and our goals for the near future. I hope you agree that the Village of Rhinebeck is a wonderful place to live and invite you to join our continued quest to balance progress with preservation that has attracted so many residents and visitors to our Village. HUMBLY, I ASK FOR YOUR VOTE ON TUESDAY, MARCH 21ST.


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nathanzoebl
One Man. Many Movies.
Fave Reviews
Uwe Boll: Modern-Day Ed Wood or Biggest Hack in Hollywood?
Yearly Wrap-Ups
2004 Best/Worst
1999: The Greatest Year in Film? A Review Re-View
Posted by natezoebl
In 2017, there was a great disturbance in the Force when Star Wars Episode 9 director Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) was unceremoniously jettisoned. He had spent over a year developing a script for the concluding film in this new Star Wars trilogy (he's still listed in the credits for story) and I guess the producers must have had some strong feelings. Trevorrow was out and J.J. Abrams returned to close out the saga he had kicked off with 2015's The Force Awakens. It felt like a safe choice, the return of an artist best known for dabbling in other people's established worlds. 2017's The Last Jedi, written and directed by Rian Johnson (Knives Out), was, to say the least, divisive with the fanbase. It made sense to jump back in with Abrams who had delivered a fun, lively kickstart that made box-office records. Surely Abrams and his army of magicians would steer the franchise into safe territory and provide a satisfying ending to the character he created?
Note: I promise to keep this review free of significant spoilers beyond some minor plot points. If you want to avoid reading anything further until after having seen the film, I understand.
The Emperor (Ian McDiarmid) is alive and well and offering a fleet of planet-destroying starships if Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) will kill Rey (Daisy Ridley). She's trying to uncover hidden clues about her parentage and still believes she can reform Kylo from the dark side. Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) are chasing after a series of artifacts to find the secret location for the Emperor's secret planet and rebuild the fledgling resistance. Kylo and Rey are headed for a final confrontation to determine whether they turn to the light side or the dark side.
It is with a heavy heart that I feel like I have to admit that there wasn't a single storytelling choice that I enjoyed in The Rise of Skywalker. It feels like Abrams and company were in a mad panic after the divisiveness of The Last Jedi and retreated to the safety of nostalgia and fan expectations. This feels like the producers made a list of fan demands and then acceded to them. It certainly feels like an overblown course correction, let alone discarding major changes and characters from Episode 8. Now fan service in itself is not a negative; there is such a thing as good fan service and bad service. The difference is that bad fan service relies heavily on pandering and reference points, leaving an audience unchallenged, and that certainly feels like Episode 9, a movie ever beholden to its calcifying past. My anecdotal evidence already tells me that many fans will love this movie, more than likely the same contingent that found such stinging fault in Episode 8, and I don't wish them ill. I'm happy for them. For me, Episode 9 is a mess of bad plotting, rushed pacing, truncated character arcs, useless cameos, and a reheated Return of the Jedi climax that was as boring as it was exhausting and dispiriting. It's supposed to be an end to this new trilogy, and a trilogy of trilogies, but the backwards-looking franchise will never be done paying homage to its cherished past while it eats its own tail until it vomits. This movie is so eager to please as many fans as possible that it feels like an anxious hostage.
I think it was a major mistake for The Emperor to come back into play this late. The very reappearance already cheapens the sacrifice Darth Vader made in Return of the Jedi, and it begs the question what has this evil old man been doing for three decades? Has he just been hanging around his completely empty rock planet sitting on his uncomfortable rock throne? Abrams throws some haphazard lip service that Palpatine was really behind everything, we just never knew it, but that feels cheap. It's like in 2015's Spectre when Christoph Waltz emerges and says, "Hey James Bond, while you've never met me until this moment, I'm responsible for every bad thing that happened in your life, not those other bad guys, and I just didn't feel like saying anything." It wasn't a satisfying plot development then and it isn't now. The "boss' boss" manipulating in the shadows is simply an aggravating shell game. If Palpatine lived even after the second Death Star exploded, then what's to say if he can ever be defeated? Even if he is toppled in Episode 9, what's stopping him from being resurrected in Episode 12 to serve as another quick excuse for a major villain? This decision to bring him back to life also taps into a further reverence for bloodlines that The Last Jedi was valiantly fighting against. Star Wars may take place in a different galaxy but it frustratingly feels like only three families populate it. The Last Jedi proposed that you didn't have to come from select magic bloodlines to be somebody important, that your past was irrelevant, and now Abrams and company sharply reverse course, hugging the concept of the Chosen One until it bursts. It feels creatively starved.
Too much of the movie's 142-minute run time was devoted to hasty, convoluted plotting that served little else than to fill time. By the concluding movie in a trilogy, there should be no moments left to fill time, nor should we really be introducing new worthless side characters rather than using the people we've already established. The first 90 minutes of this movie could be condensed to "get a thing to get a thing." It's one superfluous obstacle after another, one item to gain another, that reminded me of video game fetch quests. Even worse, none of it felt like setbacks or difficulties because the movie was rushing through every sequence. If we have to rush through to cover four abbreviated action set pieces, why can't we consolidate to two really good and developed action set pieces instead? A great way to make your movie forgettable is to cram it full of disposable plotting and short action sequences that never take off. I kind of liked one lightsaber battle along the surf of the ruins of a Death Star (of course there has to be another Death Star!) but that was it for the action. There wasn't anything onscreen that even came close to replicating the thrills or suspense from Episodes 7 and 8. I felt more suspense in The Last Jedi for Rose's doomed sister than I did for anyone in Rise of Skywalker. There was space where Abrams and company could have expanded and developed important themes and given characters room to grow, but the pacing feels so breathless in order to distract from the hasty plot retreats.
Characters feel like they zapped to the end of their character arcs because that was what was expected, but why they reached these milestones feels arbitrary from a plotting standpoint. It reminded me of, I'm heartbroken to even say, the final season of Game of Thrones; fans didn't object on their face to character destinations but the journey to reach these points felt like it was missing key moments to serve as connection. Why redemption now? Why tempted by the dark side now? It plays more like Abrams said, "Well, we ran out of time folks, so let's skip to the end." Looking back on the trilogy, it was clearly Rey and Kylo's story first and foremost, but the supporting characters ultimately feel abandoned and wasted. Finn had a great perspective, a Stormtrooper who defects, but that unique position is cast aside by introducing a new side character that serves no purpose other than to remind you that Abrams must have really not liked Rose (Kelly Marie-Tran). Seriously, Rose is sidelined to study monitors. Abrams tapped an old Lost alum, Dominic Monaghan, for this thankless duty, so why can't Rose at least be the sidekick? We don't need another new sidekick this late. Poe is another wasted character. He learns greater responsibility and teamwork in Last Jedi, but he's really just a Han Solo stand-in, the rakish rogue quick with a quip. Episode 9 gives him an old flame but not much in the way of additional characterization. He feels the same from his first scene in Episode 7. Oh, and all the forced cameos Episode 9 makes time for feels almost like a Star Wars reunion special. That's including the awkward use of existing General Leia footage to cobble together something for her. I'm wishing more and more that it was Leia that went badass kamikaze in Episode 8 as her exit.
At every point, the movie seemed determined to undercut itself when it came to themes, when it came to character growth, and when it especially came to sacrifices and stakes. There are four fake outs when it comes to deaths. What's the point of sacrifices when it can just be reversed with little explanation? What's the point of learning when the Force can just serve as a magic hand-wave solution for anything you need? There are some pretty remarkable leaps in what exactly the Force can do in Episode 9. The Rise of Skywalker even resets some pretty inane things, like Kylo Ren gluing his smashed helmet back together or a certain character getting a long-overdue medal for valor. The themes Abrams works with are extremely broad and lack the questioning of the inerrancy of the Jedi order from Episode 8. It's also confusing when the theme is that your destiny is not written by your station when the movie repeatedly elevates the mythic at the expense of the nuance and human. It's like saying your past doesn't dictate your future while slavishly venerating the past at the expense of the present story.
Given the budget, talent involved, and Abrams' natural pedigree for blockbuster filmmaking, Rise of Skywalker still has moments of grand spectacle and fun. The actors are still enjoyable to watch and Adam Driver (Marriage Story) is the definite MVP of this new trilogy. His character is, by far, the most interesting and the one that goes on the biggest emotional roller coaster. Abrams slides in some rather pleasing visual compositions. The score by John Williams serves as kind of a greatest hit collection of his many themes over the course of the 40-year saga. The denouement feels right, even if I quibble with the final line spoken. There are things to like, plenty, and I know many fans will find even more, but the good is trounced by the mistakes and miscalculations which just happen to be the really big stuff (plot, resolutions, characterization, action development, structure, payoffs, etc). Abrams himself has joked that he's really good at starting stories and not so great at finishing them, so maybe choosing to have Episode 9 function as a conclusion not just to three movies but to three times three was overburdening.
I've seen it twice now and given some time to think it over, and I think I'll declare Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as my least favorite of the nine core movies. I know these are inflammatory words, and for an easily-inflamed fanbase, but my level of disappointment is immense. I've enjoyed both of the previous Star Wars saga installments but I wasn't quite expecting this. I groaned throughout the movie more than I laughed. Even the much-derided Phantom Menace had less at stake, and that's why I hold the disappointment of Rise of Skywalker as the more grievous of the two. It had much to accomplish and much to payoff and its missteps cast a shadow over the previous movies. It also reconfirms for me my worry that there will only be a small world for Star Wars, a set of pre-approved parameters that creatives must adhere within, taking the same pieces and delivering variations of the same story. There are definite ideas that could work here with Episode 9, but the rushed pacing, inconsequential plot filler and side characters, and its use of nostalgia as a heat shield (look at that cameo please!) doom its execution. As much as Abrams wants to reject destiny, his Star Wars are still driven by a devotion to destiny. We won't be getting another Star Wars for several years until 2022 and I think that's a good thing (also without the Thrones writing team now too). The producers need some distance to determine where to go next. I just hope they understand they have an awfully big universe of untapped stories at their disposal and a wealth of eager storytellers with fresh ideas. Star Wars will always be Star Wars but it can also be much more if it wanted to be.
Nate's Grade: C
Posted in 2019 Movies
Tags: action, adam driver, aliens, andy serkis, billie lourde, chris terrio, daisy ridley, domhnall gleeson, drama, j.j. abrams, john boyega, keri russell, lupita nyong'o, oscar isaac, richard e. grant, sci-fi, sequel, star wars
Think of this action-comedy sequel as the enjoyable DLC to 2017's main campaign. The Next Level feels rather familiar as it dishes up slight variations on what made the 2017 Jumanji reboot so enjoyable, namely a game cast ready to be silly and physical, fun and flourishing action set pieces, and a clever satire of video game mechanics. The excuse to get the gang back together one year after events from the first film is flimsy, but I didn't care because I enjoyed these characters and especially the actors playing their in-video game avatars. The twist this time is a body swap that involves two elderly men (Danny DeVito, Danny Glover) joining the mix, allowing The Rock to do his best… old Jewish man impression? It certainly doesn't come across like DeVito, as funny voices isn't exactly a specialty for The Rock, but it hardly matters. There's still more worlds to explore, new obstacles/levels to be tackled, and with the body-swap mechanic, a fun switch-up for the main actors to portray a variety of characters inhabiting their bodies. I was extremely happy that the film rejected recycling jokes from its predecessor. It would have been very lazy (a.k.a. lazy) to simply go back to a few funny wells that worked the first time, but every time the film brings back an element from the first adventure it builds off of it rather than rehash a reference point. Once again Karen Gillan (Avengers: Endgame) steals the show. The humor isn't as gut-busting or satisfying as the previous incarnation but part of that is because we now know what to expect from this renewed franchise, and The Next Level manages to deliver what a fan would request while finding enough variations and tweaks to make it feel like its own movie, even if it won't live up to the high standard of entertainment that came before it. If you were a fan of 2017's Welcome to the Jungle, I'm confident you'll walk away relatively satisfied and smiling from The Next Level. However, chart this as another movie that ends with a preview of a sequel that I wish I had seen instead of the movie I got (stay tuned through the immediate end credits). Jumanji: The Next Level is a worthy sequel to one of the more fun, clever, and visually inventive action-comedy franchises. As long as they can maintain this level of quality, I'll happily pre-order the next edition.
Nate's Grade: B
Tags: action, awkwafina, body swap, comedy, danny devito, danny glover, fantasy, jack black, jake kasdan, karen gillan, kevin hart, nat wolff, sequel, the rock, video games
While it's become somewhat fashionable to call Frozen overrated, I still think it's a great movie with an even better soundtrack, songs that I can instantly think of and hear them immediately in my head. I figured Disney would be very careful about a Frozen sequel out of a tactic understanding that they didn't want to damage their brand. It was six years ago so I figured they hatched a sequel worthy of the big screen and legacy of their billion-dollar hit, but what I received with Frozen II was more akin to a direct-to-DVD sequel that is meant to jump start an afternoon cartoon series called Elsa's Magical Friends. Prepare for mediocrity, folks, and start dialing back those expectations. The story revolves around Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) discovering her past, traveling to a magical land, meeting magical tribes of creatures, and helping to unite a divided people. The sloppiness of the storytelling is staggering. The plot is filled with exposition and the world building is clunky and unclear, designed more to move things along and set up cute creatures ready for holiday merchandise. The characters arcs are nebulous, in the case of Elsa considering she's never longed to discover a past, and resoundingly lightweight in the case of everyone else; Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) is worried about having the perfect proposal (yawn), and Anna (Kristen Bell) wants to support her sister but also doesn't want her to march off into danger needlessly (yeah, and…?). Olaf (Josh Gad), the magic snowman, remarks about the nature of change, but by the very end of the movie nothing has really changed, and that's even after a gigantic potential sacrifice that Anna makes by her lonesome. I felt some emotional pull for the characters but that was because of the holdover of my feelings for them and less because of the situations they found themselves in with this sequel. And let's get to the songs, which are shockingly forgettable. I was forgetting them even in the middle of them being performed. There's no "Let It Go," but there's also nothing as low as the troll song, but what we're left with are milquetoast ballads and tunes low on hum-worthy melodies. The best song might actually be a jokey power ballad along the lines of Bryan Adams where Kristoff sings his woes. That's right, a Kristoff song is maybe the best track in this movie. That feels like a pretty big indication something went wrong. It felt like the kind of quality you'd expect from a direct-to-DVD sequel's array of new songs. Frozen II feels so bizarrely perfunctory and routine, absent a cohesive theme holding everything together and providing a firm landscape to direct the characters, and going through the motions. It's not a story that adds greater depth to this world. If you're expecting something along the lines of quality from the first Frozen, it's better to simply let those feelings go. And what's the deal with Elsa's neck on the poster? It's far far too long.
Nate's Grade: B-
Tags: animated, disney, idina menzel, josh gad, kristen bell, musical, sequel, strong heroine, supernatural
Mike Flanagan has taken the mantle from Frank Darabont and become the best film adapter of Stephen King's stories. Doctor Sleep is a sequel to The Shining but it's a sequel to Kubrick's movie version, which King notoriously hated for its alterations. We follow an adult Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) as he struggles with addiction in the wake of his family's tragedy linked to the Overlook Hotel. He starts a new life for himself as a hospice worker, aiding the elderly into a peaceful demise (where he earns the titular nickname), and he takes it upon himself to mentor a young girl, Abra (Kyliegh Curran), who has the same "shining" powers that he has. Trouble is others are looking for these same gifted few, namely Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her gang of traveling undead mutant vampire people feeding off the "steam" or life force of the super-powered they kill. They're after Abra and her abilities so Danny must rescue her and eventually head back to the source of all his nightmares. This is a relatively solid sequel that has enough intrigue and suspense to cover over the dull parts. It takes too long to get going and then finishes things up too quickly, especially with a climax at the reawakened Overlook that is beginning to hit a groove with nasty ghostly suspense. It felt like I was watching Stephen King's X-Men with his assortment of super powered people banding together and tracking each other down. The gypsy-like caravan of villains are pretty disposable and lacking strong personality or menace. Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) is fun to watch even if she doesn't feel that threatening. The rules and limitations feel vaguely defined and refined. The nods to the original Shining are selective and bring their own degree of power, as does seeing different actors portray these famous characters in flashback. Flanagan has reverence for both King's source material and the beloved 1980 film, and bridging the two is a source of enjoyment. The characterization overall is pretty slack and there aren't much in the way of genuine scares. It's creepy, it's occasionally atmospheric, and it's also really long and drawn out, clocking in at 151 minutes, which is even longer than Kubrick's movie. It's an epilogue that gets by on the emotional investment and resolution it provides for Danny while setting up a larger universe of super "shining" psychics. If you don't care about one, there's at least some degree of the other to prove entertaining albeit also being underdeveloped. Doctor Sleep (a wasted title) is a workable balance between two masters of horror.
Tags: addiction, book, drama, ewan mcgregor, ghosts, horror, mike flanagan, rebecca ferguson, sequel, stanley kubrick, stephen king, supernatural
By general consensus, it's been 28 years since the world had a truly great Terminator sequel. What has been so challenging for filmmakers to continue this franchise? The absence of creator James Cameron is obvious, as it's hard to find anybody with the blockbuster acumen to fill that empty director's chair. I submit that I think it's because the Terminator franchise is, at its core, a very limited franchise of stories (I never saw the short-run TV series starring Lena Headey as Sarah Connor). It's about a killer robot after its target. That's it. There's some time travel jazz thrown in but that's never been given tremendous contemplation, especially 2015's brain-hurting alternative timeline reboot, Terminator: Genisys (with Headey's Game of Thrones co-star Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor). Now comes another attempt to revitalize this dormant franchise with Terminator: Dark Fate and this time they're not just bringing back Arnold Schwarzenegger but also the original Sarah Connor as well, Linda Hamilton. The early trailers and ads did not exactly give me much optimism. It looked like the same. Another killer Terminator. Another good Terminator. I saw little to earn enthusiasm. Then the positive reviews poured in. I'm here to report that Dark Fate is the best of the sequels, a satisfying mix of action, character, and world building, but I'm also ready to let this series go away into its own dark fate.
Sarah Connor (Hamilton) has been hunting down different Terminators for the last twenty years. Her path crosses with Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), a Mexican autoworker who happens to be a very big deal to a future human resistance against future angry machines. Grace (Mackenzie Davis) is a future soldier sent back through time and given enhanced speed, strength, and endurance. She is to serve as protector for Dani, though Sarah seems to feel she has a claim to that position as well. Together the women will try and outrun a new Terminator model, the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) and seek shelter from an unlikely ally, a retired and reformed Terminator (Schwarzenegger).
The Terminator franchise has been one built upon chase scenes, trying to escape a nigh unstoppable being and find refuge while it lasts. Because of that and a generally simplistic "save X to prevent future Y" goal, the franchise can often be reduced to a series of successful or unsuccessful set pieces, and as the movies continued the characterization flattened out, replaced by an influx of humor (Terminator 3), grimness (Terminator 4), or confusion (Terminator 5). What made the Cameron movies special was his magical ability to apply character to action, pushing everything forward so that every set piece felt naturally developed, with organic complications and mini-goals relating to the arcs and needs of the people on screen. The action in Dark Fate gets closest to that Cameron gold standard with some engaging sequences of big screen violence but tailoring it better to specific location and character dynamics. When Grace first rescues Dani, it's at the factory where, oh great irony, machines are replacing human workers. The machinery of this factory floor gets utilized for the rough and tumble activity. There's a mid-air collision that goes through a series of stages as things get worse and worse, including an extended sequence of zero gravity fisticuffs that is extremely fun to watch. The action is solid throughout.
Thankfully, the strong action under director Tim Miller (Deadpool) is aided by the storytelling core of three strong women. Arnold doesn't even come back into the picture until much later. Each of these women has a different style to her, a different personality, and a different goal, whether it's killing all Terminators first, spare the future leader at all costs, or looking for a sane middle ground that keeps everyone alive. It's refreshing to watch the franchise return to its roots of strong female lead characters being given the reigns. The screenplay by David S. Goyer (Batman vs. Superman), Billy Ray (Captain Phillips), and Justin Rhodes puts the spotlight where it belongs and tweaks some of the politics of old; Dani is derisively told by Sarah that it's a woman's womb that presents the biggest threat to the system, as they share the notoriety of being mothers of future male saviors. There's a level of polish given to the characters that I appreciated, providing room to have them butt heads in a manner that felt genuine. There are some significant differences that makes this trio interesting but also satisfying when they work together for their common survival. The general mystery around the back-story of our genetically-enhanced human being Grace was a plus rather than another blank slate robot bodyguard.
Hamilton is back and so is Arnold, though he was also pretty central in 2015's failed alternate timeline reboot. Fortunately for the audience, Dark Fate actually gives them things that matter. Both are given characters going through a sense of loss and rediscovery, working together to rid the world of a common evil, one out of vengeance and duty and the other out of penance. The interplay between them is rich in dramatic potential, as is the prospect of a Terminator model that wants to be moral without having its programming fiddled with by some enterprising human. This is a Terminator that wants to change and adhere to a code of ethics and principles. That's interesting, and adding layers of personal animus just makes it more interesting. The screenplay lets the characters have enough little grace notes, smaller moments to breathe and remind you that these action stars were also more fleshed-out characters once long ago. I'm not going to say there's some great lost play somewhere in a Terminator movie, but I was very appreciative of some of the smaller, more contemplative moments that dwelt on accountability and redemption. It's not just all apocalyptic doom and gloom, there can be room to explore mature characterization too.
Another aspect I was not expecting was how politically relevant Dark Fate would become with the U.S. immigration crisis. Our heroes are traveling north via a caravan of immigrants, and for a while it felt like I was watching Sin Nombre but with killer robots. Then they have to sneak across the border and are captured and placed in crowded detention centers. There's an entire jail break sequence with Terminators in an ICE-style prison. The evil Terminator makes use of the government surveillance network to track the other characters on their trek along the border, using the machinations of a police state to hunt down these fugitives. There's not much in the way of commentary to be afforded beyond the simple empathy of watching other human beings struggle for a better life and being treated as less than human by an indifferent bureaucracy. There's even a mixed-race blended family that serves as a focal point of a change of conscience. There's a refreshing amount of diversity. I wish the movie had gone even further or staked more with commentary but I also suppose there's a reason that none of this was seen in advertisements. I suppose the Dark Fate filmmakers didn't want to turn away the dollars of any sensitive conservative ticket-buyers.
I have some general questions not so much for this movie, though they do apply, but for the Terminator franchise as a whole, and I figure I should address these as a separate section:
1) Why does the future only ever send one killer Terminator robot at once? If the goal is to kill one special target and it seems one Terminator keeps getting foiled, why not send more than one to accomplish the mission? Maybe there's some technological limitation of time travel where only one machine can be sent at a time and there needs to be sufficient time to recharge. If you're machines, you got time, and the way time travel works, it would not matter when robots were sent, just that they are arriving at the same date. I began to envision what this might look like and started composing a comedy sketch in my head where a classic Terminator T-100 knocks on a door, asks about seeing John Connor, and then an old landlord says, "Oh, he sure is popular today, come on in." It's here where the T-100 would come inside and be seated in a room with other Terminator robots throughout the ages. What would then proceed would be an argument among the many Terminators over who deserved to be the one to kill John Connor. One would say they were transplanted 30 years prior and had been waiting diligently until this moment in time, another would argue they are the most advanced, newer model and would have the best likelihood of success, and another would argue they had gotten the closest to him, etc. I'm sure someone may have already had this same idea but it amused me highly.
2) We've had shape-shifting Terminators since the first sequel in 1991 and there hasn't been too much variance on them after. The problem is once we enter into the liquid metal, body-reshaping era, there doesn't seem like there's much more advancements to be had. The Terminator in the third film could also do some technical wizardry. The fifth one made use of nanobots, I think. I've tried to forget much of Terminator: Genisys, including the spelling of the subtitle. With Dark Fate, we get a new Terminator who can… have its metal skeleton jump out of its body… and serve as a duplicate? I don't really know whether once the skeleton leaves if the "body" is more vulnerable or whether there are limitations. It's unclear world building. Also, there are tentacle-enhanced Terminator robots seen in the future that would be deadlier. Regardless, none of these updates are as big a leap as the T-100 to the T-1000 and its shape-shifting. You have a master hunter that can take on any face, so why does it keep settling on the same face even after its targets know who they should be running from? Why do the shape-shifting Terminators not adopt a host of disguises in order to get closer to their prey? If I knew one face in the crowd to run away from, I would think my predator would not want to keep that face. I can understand from a filmmaking standpoint why you'd want a default look so the audience knows which character is which visually. I feel like these killer robots are undervaluing the shape-shifting.
3) Why do the Terminators have to work harder, not smarter? You have one target, usually, to murder to wipe out futures, so why take any chances with one assassin limited by their bipedal arms and legs? Why not send a thousand drones to blow up one human from the sky? Why not place a reward on the Dark Web and see how long it might take? Or, even better, why not send a robot with a nuclear bomb in its chest? That way all the Terminator needs to do is get its target in slight visibility and boom. It's not like the machines seem to be worried about collateral damage.
4) No matter how many Judgment Days are averted, it seems like there will always be another down the line, so is mankind just biding its time before an eventual robot apocalypse? In the timeline of Dark Fate, mankind eventually creates a new A.I. that eventually attacks its human overlords, and it's a new albeit delayed Judgment Day. Does this mean that the franchise is locked into an endless cycle of repetition, where victory just means postponement? A central theme throughout the series is "making your own fate," the rejection of destiny, and the fluidity of personal choice and agency, and if the movie says, "Eh, human beings will keep making the same mistake over and over no matter how many interventions," doesn't that conflict?
I'm sure there are more questions for the Terminator franchise to be had but I'll leave it at those. Dark Fate is the most accomplished of the Terminator sequels, post-T2, but this is still one franchise that feels low on creativity and interest. The prospect of another Terminator movie doesn't fill me with any palpable degree of excitement. Even with this sequel that serves as yet another reboot, I'm not excited for further adventures. If there's another movie, I'll see it but mostly out of a sense of obligation. If this was the last we saw any of the original Terminator characters, it works as a fitting sendoff and as satisfying an ending as any before. What started as a special sci-fi series with one of the greatest action sequels of all time has become just another franchise on the decline with a fading brand name that studios keep picking at every few years, reassembling with new pieces that they hope might convince audiences there's still vitality. Dark Fate is a perfectly good action movie with more thought and polish then I anticipated, finding legitimate reasons for bringing back its stars of old and giving them meaningful things to do. I had a good time with the movie but feel like this is one franchise that is ready for a merciful termination.
Tags: action, arnold schwarzenegger, billy ray, david s. goyer, james cameron, mackenzie davis, robots, sci-fi, sequel, thriller, tim miller
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019)
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is strictly made for writer/director Kevin Smith's fanbase, so does trying to play outside this cultivated audience even matter? Honestly, there's no way this is going to be anyone's first Smith movie, so it's already running on an assumed sense of familiarity with the characters and stories of old, which is often a perquisite to enjoying many of the jokes (more on this later). It's been 25 years since Clerks originally debuted and showcased Smith's ribald and shrewd sense of dialogue-driven, pop-culture-drenched humor. He's created his own little sphere with a fervent fanbase, so does he need to strive for a larger audience with any forthcoming movies or does he simply exclusively serve the existing crowd?
Jay (Jason Mewes) and his hetero life-mate Silent Bob (Smith) are out for vengeance once again. Hollywood is rebooting the old Bluntman and Chronic superhero movie from 2001, this time in a dark and edgy direction, and since Jay and Silent Bob are the inspirations for those characters, even their likenesses and names now belong to the studio. The stoner duo, older and not so much wiser, chart a cross-country trip to California to attend ChronicCon and thwart the filming of the new movie, directed by none other than Kevin Smith (himself). Along the way, Jay and Bob discover that Jay's old flame, Justice (Shannon Elizabeth), had a daughter, Millennium "Milly" Falcon (Harley Quinn Smith) and Jay is the father. Milly forces Jay and Bob to escort her and her group of friends to ChronicCon and Jay struggles with holding back his real connection to her.
One of my major complaints with 2016's Yoga Hosers (still the worst film of his career) was that it felt like it was made for his daughter, her friends, and there was no point of access for anyone else. It felt like a higher-budget home movie that just happened to get a theatrical release. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot feels somewhat similar, reaching back to the 2001 comedy that itself was reaching back on a half-decade of inter-connected Smithian characters. There is a certain degree of frantic self-cannibalism here but if the fans are happy then does Smith need to branch out? This is a question that every fan will have to answer personally. At this point, do they want new stories in the same style of the old or do they just want new moments with the aging characters of old to provide an ever-extending coda to their fictional lives?
I certainly enjoyed myself but I could not escape the fact at how eager and stale much of the comedy felt. Smith has never been one to hinge on set pieces and more on character interactions, usually profane conversations with the occasional slapstick element. This is one reason why the original Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back suffers in comparison to his more character-driven comedies. Alas, the intended comedy set pieces in Reboot come across very flat. A lustful fantasy sequence never seems to take off into outrageousness. A drug trip sequence begins in a promising and specific angle and then stalls. The final act has a surprise villain that comes from nowhere, feels incredibly dated, and delivers few jokes beyond a badly over-the-top accent and its sheer bizarre randomness. There's a scene where the characters stumble across a KKK rally. The escape is too juvenile and arbitrary. A courtroom scene has promise when Justin Long appears as a litigation attorney for both sides but the joke doesn't go further, capping out merely at the revelation of the idea. This is indicative of much of Reboot where the jokes appear but are routinely easy to digest and surface-level, seldom deepening or expanding. There's a character played by Fred Armison who makes a second appearance, leading you to believe he will become a running gag that will get even more desperate and unhinged with each new appearance as he seeks vengeance. He's never seen again after that second time. There are other moments that feel like setups for larger comedic payoffs but they never arrive. The actual clip of the Bluntman and Chronic film, modeled after Zack Snyder's Batman v. Superman, is almost absent any jokes or satire. There are fourth-wall breaks that are too obvious to be funny as they rest on recognition alone. There's a running joke where Silent Bob furiously taps away at a smart phone to then turn around and showcase a single emoji. It's cute the first time, but then this happens like six more times. Strangely it feels like Smith's sense of humor has been turned off for painfully long durations on this trip down memory lane. The structure is so heavily reminiscent of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back that there are moments that repeat step-for-step joke patterns but without new context, meaning the joke is practically the repetition itself.
The problem with comedy is that familiarity can breed boredom, and during the funny stretches, I found myself growing restless with Reboot as we transitioned from stop to stop among the familiar faces. I enjoyed seeing the different characters again but many of them had no reason to be involved except in a general "we're bringing the band back together" camaraderie. It's nice to see Jason Lee again but if he doesn't have any strong jokes, why use him in this way? Let me dig further with Lee to illustrate the problem at heart with Reboot. Jay and Silent Bob visit Brodie (Lee) at his comic book shop, which happens to be at the mall now. He complains that nobody comes to the mall any longer and he has to worry about the "mallrats," and then he clarifies, he's talking about actual rodents invading the space, and he throws a shoe off screen. I challenge anyone to find that joke amusing beyond a so-bad-it's-fun dad joke reclamation. I kept waiting for Smith to rip open some satirical jabs on pop culture since 2006's Clerks II. In the ensuing years, Star Wars and Marvel have taken over and geek culture and comic books rule the roost. Surely a man who made his name on these topics would have something to say about this moment of over saturation, let alone Hollywood's narrow insistence on cash-grab remakes. I kept waiting for the Smith of old to have some biting remarks or trenchant commentary. Milly's diverse group of friends (including a Muslim woman named "Jihad") is referred to like it's a satirical swipe at reboots, but there isn't a joke there unless the joke is, "Ha ha, everyone has to be woke these days," which is clunky and doesn't feel like Smith's point of view. There are several moments where I felt like the humor was trying too hard or not hard enough. As a result, I chuckled with a sense of familiarity but the new material failed to gain much traction.
I do want to single out one new addition that I found to be hysterical, and that is Chris Hemsworth as a hologram version of himself at a convention. The Thor actor has opened up an exciting career path in comedy as highlighted by 2017's Ragnarok, but just watching his natural self-effacing charm as he riffs about the dos and don'ts of acceptable behavior with his hologram is yet another reminder that this man is so skilled at hitting all the jokes given to him.
Where the movie succeeds best is as an unexpected and heartfelt father/daughter vehicle, with Jay getting a long-delayed chance to mature. It's weird to say that a movie with Jay and Silent Bob in starring roles would succeed on its dramatic elements, but that's because it feels like this is the territory that Smith genuinely has the most interest in exploring. The concept of Jay circling fatherhood and its responsibilities is a momentous turn for a character that has previously been regarded as a cartoon. His growing relationship with Milly is the source of the movie's best scenes and the two actors have an enjoyable and combative chemistry, surely aided by the fact that Mewes has known Harley Quinn Smith her entire existence. This change agent leads to some unexpected bursts of paternal guidance from Jay, which presents an amusing contrast. There's a clever through line of the difference between a reboot and a remake, and Smith takes this concept and brilliantly repackages it into a poignant metaphor about parenthood in a concluding monologue. Smith's position as a father has softened him up a bit but it's also informed his worldview and he's become very unabashedly sentimental, and when he puts in the right amount of attention, it works. There's an end credit clip with the late Stan Lee where Smith is playing a potential Reboot scene with Stan the Man, and it's so sweet to watch the genuine affection both men have for one another. I'm raising the entire grade for this movie simply for a wonderful extended return of Ben Affleck's Holden McNeil character, the creator of Bluntman and Chronic. We get a new ending for 1997's Chasing Amy that touches upon all the major characters and allows them to be wise and compassionate. It's a well-written epilogue that allows the characters to open up on weightier topics beyond the standard "dick and fart" jokes that are expected from a Smith comedy vehicle. It's during this sequence where the movie is allowed to settle and say something, and it hits big time.
The highly verbose filmmaker has been a favorite of mine since I discovered a VHS copy of Clerks in the late 90s. I will always have a special place reserved for the man and see any of his movies, even if I'm discovering that maybe some of the appeal is starting to fade. I don't know if we're ever going to get a Kevin Smith movie that is intended for wide appeal again. Up next is Clerks 3, which the released plot synopsis reveals is essentially the characters of Clerks making Clerks in the convenience store, which just sounds overpoweringly meta-textual. He's working within the confines of a narrow band and he seems content with that reality. I had the great fortune to attend the traveling road show for this film and saw Smith and Mewes in person where they introduced Reboot and answered several questions afterwards. Even though it was after midnight (on a school night!) I was happy I stayed because it was easy to once again get caught up in just how effortlessly Smith can be as a storyteller, as he spins his engaging personal yarns that you don't want to end. As a storyteller, I'll always be front and center for this gregarious and generous man. As a filmmaker, I'll always be thankful for his impact he had on my fledgling ideas of indie cinema and comedy, even if that means an inevitable parting of ways as he charts a well-trod familiar path. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is made strictly for the fans, and if you count yourself among that throng, you'll likely find enough to justify a viewing, though it may also be one of diminished returns.
Nate's Grade: C+
Tags: ben affleck, chris hemsworth, comedy, comic book, craig robinson, fatherhood, indie, jason lee, jason mewes, joe manganiello, justin long, kevin smith, matt damon, movies, reboot, rosario dawson, sequel, shannon elizabeth, stoner, val kilmer
It Chapter Two (2019)
To be fair, It Chapter Two was always going to be the less interesting half. There's a reason when they thought they would only get one movie that the producers and writers decided to focus entirely on the childhood storylines, and that's because it's the superior material. Director Andy Muschietti and most of the same team from the 2017 film return with a bigger budget, a bigger running time, and some new famous faces (not counting the cameos). At a whopping 169 minutes long, It Chapter Two rumbles into theaters as a big scary surefire hit, enough so that no other Hollywood studio scheduled a competitor during its release weekend. As anyone who saw the 1990 TV miniseries can attest, the adult half of Stephen King's story is the harder slog, and Chapter Two makes it even sloggier (I'm making this a new word starting now).
The Losers Club from Derry, Maine have all grown up as 27 years have passed from that fateful day that they battled the evil Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) and lived. Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) has stayed behind, cataloguing the events of the small town, waiting for the return of their nemesis. He alerts his old friends to once again return so they can take care of Pennywise as he feasts once again on the children and adults of Derry. Bill (James McAvoy) has become a famous and frustrated horror author. Beverly (Jessica Chastain) has married an abusive man. Richie (Bill Hader) has become a famous standup comic. Ben (Jay Ryan) has slimmed down and become a wealthy architect. Eddie (James Ransone) is with another overbearing woman and fraught with anxiety as an insurance risk assessor. Stanley (Andy Bean) is conflicted about returning as he views himself the weakest of the group. The old gang revisit the town of their youth and take turns remembering what they had selectively forgotten through the years. Only they can band together to stop Pennywise but they must all work together to survive yet again.
Every time It Chapter Two was cutting back to its numerous childhood flashbacks (more on that in a moment) I was reminded how magical this younger cast was together, how much more I cared, and I was secretly wishing the movie would just stay in the past for good. In short, the adult versions of these characters are pretty boring. They each only have like one note of added characterization for the ensuing 27 years after we've seen them, meaning I guess according to the movie that whomever you are in middle school is who you'll be as a grown-up? That's a scarier thought than anything Pennywise has to offer. It's as if our understanding of them was put on hold for those 27 years as well, so there's too little to unpack, or what's there seems peculiar and unsatisfying. Richie's big personal secret that Pennywise taunts him with seems decidedly less scandalous in our modern age. Bill has to suffer people telling him the ending to his book was unsatisfying. He also has survivor's guilt over responsibility for the death of his little brother, Georgie. Beverly is with an abusive husband who she leaves in the opening scene. So that seems to be the end of that development. Ben is still nursing his crush from middle school on Beverly; the man hasn't moved on from a middle school crush! He's gotten rich, gotten in shape, and still waiting for this one girl to like him, which is a weird message. Maybe the movie is positing that all of the characters have been emotionally "on hold" since the childhood trauma they cannot remember, put in a stasis as much as Mike who elected to stay behind when the others wanted to get away. That feels like excuse-making to me. These versions of the characters just aren't that compelling and given little to do and too much free time.
Structurally, this movie is a protracted muddle and could have sliced out a healthy 45 minutes. The first act checks in with each character for us to see where they are in life and then concludes with their reunion at a Chinese restaurant. The uncomfortably long second act follows each character wandering around the haunts of Derry and essentially having their memories activated. It follows a formula that gets to be rather redundant. The adult goes to a place, they have a scary flashback about that place as a child, then they have a scary moment as an adult. It means each character has two linked scary moments/set pieces to go through, and there are at least five characters to get through, which means this whole sequence takes up like an hour. Also trying your patience is the fact that there is no new information. You're watching the characters try and remember things that you, the audience, already know, so it gets to be rather boring. Then there's the extended ending that is undeserved for a two-part franchise. The ending gets drawn out so long, with so many little minor stops, that my father said, "It's like everyone came up with a different ending scene, they voted and they all tied, so we got them all." A Lord of the Rings-style sendoff was not needed for these characters. The misshapen and drawn out structure is a result of adapting a book where the narrative drive was from the childhood experiences using the adults more as a conduit to explore trauma and as a means to finally deliver a last confrontation. It's hard to assemble a full movie out of that material but this doesn't feel like it (pun intended?).
It Chapter Two is also noticeably less scary than the original movie. Part of this is because we have a baseline of expectations from the childhood spooks, but it's also because the horror doesn't seem to have the same level of care and craft attached. Because of that formulaic middle, there's less an anticipation for Pennywise's big scares and more a resignation. It's a skipping record of scares, waiting for the non-scary thing/person to become the scary Pennywise. With the 2017 It, the scares were able to develop in fun ways, playing upon their childhood fears, and were developed with careful craft to heighten the tension. Pennywise was genuinely terrifying. Now in the sequel, because the scares aren't delivering the same impact, the movie veers too often into comedy, which only further de-fangs the power of its demonic clown. The 2017 It naturally understood that its horror would take steps into the goofy but that made it scarier. With the 2019 sequel, the human characters are calling out the horror tropes, which doesn't work. This is even more noticeable and unhelpful when the big scary scenes all involve some CGI monster. There's very little actual Pennywise in this movie and too many dull CGI monsters rambling about. Then there's a terrible over-invested secondary villain with a childhood bully breaking out of a mental hospital and being instructed to kill the adult Losers. Every time the movie kept cutting to him, I sighed. He doesn't deserve the amount of screen time and importance he seems to have been given. I don't care about this guy and the movie shouldn't waste time trying to make me care.
The returning assets are welcomed, providing a sense of continuity that helps carry over our good feelings and good times from the 2017 hit. Muschietti (Mama) is a talented director and an excellent mood setter, but he's also excellent at directing child actors. There's one standout scene in It Chapter Two that would rank with the quality of the previous film. There's one scene that follows a little girl with a splotchy birth mark on her cheek as she follows a firefly under the bleachers at a high school baseball game. Waiting below in the shadows is Pennywise, who plays upon her insecurity of her facial deformity, and his own, to promise her a better life. It's the one moment in the movie I actually felt something close to fear. Muschietti draws out the development organically and plays upon the mounting dread, holding onto a moment of Pennywise frozen, like the creature below the facade is trying to remember what to do next. It's a stellar little moment, beautifully directed and written, and it's almost completely superfluous to the main story. The child actors are all still outstanding, even if some of them get a slathering of de-aging CGI to make them look more like their pre-puberty selves (sorry Finn Wolfhard). Then there's the breakout sensation Skarsgard (Assassination Nation) as our favorite dancing clown. He's under served by the story problems and the hazy rules leading to his eventual confrontation. I enjoyed every actual appearance from the character and Skarsgard's eerie command over his physicality, the way he can simply move through a scene or fixate his face, is astounding. The degree of his brilliance in this role will get downplayed because of of its genre but he is doing remarkable acting here.
The adult actors all deliver capable and even great performances with what little they have. It doesn't take a great actor to act scared, as judged by the litany of low-budget horror available, but it does take a great actor to try and funnel that into the narrow band of a character. Chastain (Dark Phoenix) is enjoyable, because she always will be, but her character is meant to sleepwalk through the movie, putting together the memories of old and becoming more aware. It makes for a restrained performance, which works for an adult woman raised with abusive men, but it can also mean that Chastain is given less material as an actor to work with. McAvoy (Glass) breaks into a childhood stutter when he's really freaked out but even his character seems to vacillate between under-performing and over-performing, especially when he's obsessed over saving one little neighborhood kid who probably views him as the real danger. His character was the unquestioned center of the 2017 It, but that center seems more with Richie with the 2019 It. Hader has taken a surprising and very affecting turn into darker dramatic work with HBO's Barry, and his performance is the best of the adult Losers. He has his expected funny moments but it's the sadness and anxiety that coats his words that Hader is able to bring out. His is the character that seems to open up the most through the second installment and Hader was a terrific choice to facilitate this.
It Chapter Two falters in comparison of the first film where the qualities all felt so wonderfully organic, arranged, and developed. It was a grade-A funhouse of goofy terrors. The sequel is far far too long, misshapen structurally, overextended, underdeveloped, lacking in sustainable tension, overusing CGI and comedy, and strands the talented actors with little to do. I heartily enjoyed the first chapter and that's why I'm feeling as let down as I am for Chapter Two. It's certainly not a bad movie. It still has enough slick technical skill and good acting to warrant a viewing if you're a fan of King's novel or the 2017 movie. Just be prepared for a longer, duller, and less satisfying concluding half that seems to be running on half the imagination. It might work well enough but it only makes me appreciate the charms of Chapter One even more.
Tags: andy muschietti, bill hader, bill skarsgard, book, clowns, drama, horror, james mcavoy, jessica chastain, sequel, stephen king, thriller
Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
It took nine movies but we can now put the Fast and Furious franchise to rest, and that's because we now have Hobbs & Shaw, the spinoff that took the best parts of the franchise and ran away. What started as a film about underground street racing in 2001 has morphed into an over-the-top superhero spectacle where their superhuman power is being really good with cars, as well as not adhering to any laws of physics. Now they've cordoned off The Rock and Jason Statham, attached the director of Atomic Blonde and give me Idris Elba as the villain, who openly proclaims himself to be "black Superman." Why do we ever need to go back to Vin Diesel and his pit crew ever again? Hobbs & Shaw is a big blast of action overkill fun. It's not without its flaws and limitations but it's exactly what it set out to be.
Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is trying to enjoy some rest and relaxation with his daughter but the world isn't going to be save itself. He's recruited to team up with the wily Deckard Shaw (Statham) to recover a missing sample of a super virus that can be programmed to kill anyone on the planet. The key is finding MIA MI6 agent Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), accused of killing her team and absconding with the virus. She also happens to be Shaw's estranged sister. The real villain is a super mercenary Brixton (Elba) who is engineered to be a superior killing machine. His mysterious employer wants to recruit Hobbs and Shaw to the cause, but in the event of their refusal, death is always an option. The Shaw family reunion makes the majority of the movie a three-person chase film that ultimately pushes Hobbs to go back home to the Samoan family he left behind decades ago and they haven't forgotten their prodigal son.
Once again, the main draw of a Fast and Furious movie are the eye-popping action set pieces, and Hobbs & Shaw has its fair share of excitement and satisfaction. There are a couple standouts, notably a climactic helicopter face-off involving a chain of racing vehicles and the concept of lift, but really none of the action will displace the top moments from this increasingly insane franchise. Director David Leitch (Deadpool 2) doesn't have any signature moments that stun like that extended, fatigued fight sequence in Atomic Blonde, but he definitely taps into the moment-to-moment fun and absurdity. A chase down the side of a building is not remotely realistic, but with Leitch there's an added sense of comedy by making it another contest between Hobbs and Shaw. That macho posturing can liven up an already enjoyable scene and give it a personal edge that ties into the charisma of the stars. So even when the action is cooking at a lower level, focusing on that charisma elevates the sequence. The action pumps at a constant pace with plenty of explosions, tumbles, and powerful fists. The movie follows the latter Fast and Furious mold by not even trying to resemble reality. When Brixton's super hands-free motorcycle acts more like a living Transformer, it doesn't matter because the movie isn't building a reality where something like that would seem like an exaggeration. I laughed more at moments like that and smiled rather than scoffing at its disconnect from crafting some kind of baseline sense of reality.
I will say the action beats could be shaved down, especially as the movie teeters to 135 minutes long. It's not exactly the kind of action cinema like Mission: Impossible where the set pieces are so brilliantly constructed with organic complications. These aren't quite at the level of spectacle or immersion of a Fury Road or even the Justin Lin-era of Furious land. There are few sequences that couldn't be pared down because often the beats are the same beats just with more of them. I wished there had been a greater variety of action sequences or at least an interesting series of complications, the lifeblood of great action movies. There are a few standout moments with larger-than-life imagery but mostly the action has a very same-y quality that can feel repetitive. That's where the comedic perspectives can help. A hallway fight is enjoyable but lacks impressive fight choreography, but what saves the scene is the comedic exasperation at the end for Shaw and again tying it to the ongoing competition with Hobbs.
Beyond the explosive action, the real draw is the cast and they are overloaded with charisma. There's a reason somebody at Universal decided to slice off these two characters because they are clearly the only characters many people ever cared about, because both actors have an innate charm that pops off the screen. Watching the two of them butt heads and trade insults and glares is an ongoing pleasure. It reminds one how big personalities can effortlessly carry big Hollywood action movies when you have the right stars together. They do form their own sort of combative bond and understanding by the end, but one wonders if their banter will get old if it doesn't evolve over the inevitably commissioned assembly of sequels. The Rock and Statham get some big laughs and hearty entertainment squaring off and working together for even bigger destructive power.
Kirby (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) is a terrific addition as a strong-willed, kickass heroine first and a potential love interest for Hobbs second, which amusingly upsets Shaw. Kirby has an above-it-all air to her that makes her seem like a natural match as a sister to Statham. Elba (Molly's Game) is settling into a groove as a go-to heavy (Star Trek Beyond, The Jungle Book) and even while threatening a global pandemic he can't help but be smooth and charming. This is the best cast ever assembled for a Fast and Furious movie, and you throw in unexpected comedy cameos, Helen Mirren, and an extended Samoan family, and the movie begins to stake out its own claims on a world separate from Diesel's boring "family."
Hobbs & Shaw is a combination of 80s action movie attitude, 90s bombast, and 2010s outrageous set pieces, lead by two of the more charming men Hollywood has at its punching-kicking disposal. That's actually a pretty good word, "disposal," because the movie is designed as nothing more than a breezy two hours at the movies with your biggest tub of popcorn. Of course the studio has larger plans and envisions it as a way to keep the Fast and Furious franchise alive and diversified. Hobbs & Shaw has little more on its mind than giving its audience a good time, and it easily achieves that aim. I may not feel the need to watch Fast and Furious movies again like I do other action franchises that provide more emotional investment, practical stuntwork, and structural brilliance, but that doesn't mean I won't happily consume the next entry. As long as The Rock and Statham are in place and feeling good, so too will the eventual audience.
Tags: action, david leitch, eddie marsan, eiza gonzalez, helen mirren, idris elba, jason statham, sci-fi, sequel, spinoff, the rock, vanessa kirby
Spider-Man: Far From Home arrives as the tasty dessert to the epic five-course meal that was Avengers: Endgame. It picks up weeks after the events of the climactic chapter, starting right away with the consequences in a clever, albeit light manner. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is excited to go on a class trip to Europe and has big plans to confess his true feelings to his crush, MJ (Zendaya). He's pulled into hero work by a testy Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who needs Spider-Man to stop a group of inter-dimensional elemental monsters. Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal), dubbed "Mysterio" by the Italian media, is the last survivor of that other dimension and looking for assistance to thwart them and save this Earth. Peter tries to live a "normal life" and balance his superhero duties, but his secret life is increasingly intruding upon his actual life, especially as the world looks for the next superhero to step up in the absence of Tony Stark. Far From Home is an enjoyable road trip movie that feels like Junior Spy Hijinks for the first half. It's funny but I definitely felt like the filmmakers weren't fully engaged in telling that story, so I was left a tad disengaged. There's a big reason for this and it's a turn that comes halfway through, and from there out the movie is mostly great. The action sequences are directed with flair and even better visual acuity by returning director John Watts (Cop Car), there are some vivid nightmarish hallucinations that are glorious and disorientating. Gyllenhaal (Nightcralwer) becomes much more interesting in the second half and makes better use of the actor's comic and dramatic range. It almost feels like some of the staid back-story from the first half is a satirical point of the second half, but you have to get through it all first. This bait-and-switch storytelling structure leads to certain pluses and minuses, and had it gone on much longer it would have more negatively affected the overall enjoyment factor. The first post-credit scene is definitely a game-changer in the world of Spider-Man and has a fantastic character debut that made me cheer and will be big especially for fans of the recent hit PS4 game. Far From Home doesn't have the polish and brilliant structure of 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming but it's a Spidey sequel that doesn't lose track of the characters, presents an interesting villain as something we haven't quite seen before, and has a good sense of humor while still being able to thrill and chill. The MCU is in a different world now after Endgame and with Holland and company leading the way, I could use more of this Spider-Man pronto.
Tags: action, comedy, comic book, j.k. simmons, jake gyllenhaal, jon favreau, jon watts, marissa tomei, marvel, samuel l. jackson, sci-fi, sequel, super hero, tom holland, zendaya
The Toy Story franchise has been the gold standard for Pixar with three excellent movies, the last of which was released back in 2010. When the Pixar bigwigs announced they were making a fourth entry, I felt some degree of concern. The hidden world of toys still felt like an interesting world with more stories to be told, but did we need to revisit Woody and Buzz and the gang? Everything ended so beautifully and perfectly with the third movie, with the toys getting their sendoff from their original owner and a new life in the possession of a new child, little Bonnie. I've been more wary about this movie than just about any other Pixar film because the audience had something that could be lost, namely closure. If they harmed that perfect ending in the crass desire to extend the franchise for an extra buck, it would have been aggravating and depressing to disturb something that felt so complete. It's like when Michael Jordan came out of retirement (the second time) to be a shadow of himself for the Washington Wizards in order to sell tickets for the team he was part owner of. Nobody wanted that. I'm happy to report that Toy Story 4 is a treat of a movie and a worthy addition to the franchise.
Bonnie is gearing up for kindergarten and nervous about the change. She isn't allowed to take toys with her to school, though that doesn't stop Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) from tagging along. In her desire for a friend, and with a little assist from a certain cowboy, Bonnie creates a fork-figure named Forky (Tony Hale), and amazingly it comes to life. Woody tries valiantly to convince Forky that being a toy to a child is the greatest gift but he's also really reminding himself now that he sees his influence waning with Bonnie as he's selected for play time less and less. During a family road trip, Forky escapes and Woody leaps to find him, both of them coming into the clutches of Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), an antique doll missing a functional voice box who has her sights set on Woody's voice box. It's at this small-town pit stop for a carnival that Woody discovers Bo Peep (Annie Potts), an old flame he never thought he would see again. She's assured, happy, and preaching a life of being independent from a kid. Woody has defined himself for so long by one identity, and now he must decide which to follow.
In many ways, Toy Story 4 takes themes and questions from the third movie and improves upon them, making what could have been a retread feel like a do-over you didn't know you desired. It's been many years since I saw the third film but I recall the major themes being the fear of change, reconciling one's self-identity, and the courage of letting go and starting over. The toys had to recognize that their owner was growing up and their old place wasn't going to be the same. This same issue finds new life in Toy Story 4 primarily through the lens of Woody, who finds himself on the decline with his kid's interest. He's not offended or upset by this but is still trying to provide what assistance he can as a beloved toy, even if that relationship becomes more and more one-sided. His identity is in selfless sacrifice for another, but with the re-emergence of Bo, he is now contemplating a life on his own, a life without a kid. This alternate path never seemed a possibility until his former flame stepped back into his life. It challenged Woody in a way that feels more personal and more relevant than it did with 3, especially with the removal of a larger external threat to occupy the attention of our main characters. This places a renewed focus on Woody's internal dilemma beyond his role as leader and protector.
Toy Story 4 might also be the weirdest movie of the franchise, which really elevates the comedy into another realm. I thought the characters played by Jordan Peele (Us) and Keegan Michael-Key (Predator) were going to quickly wear out their welcome; they seemed to be a heavy part of pre-release teaser trailers. The filmmakers don't overdo them and use them in clever ways, which is a compliment that can be applied to every new character in this sequel. The plushies by Key and Peele have a hilarious running gag of their increasingly absurd plans to attack a woman, and one instance deliciously prolongs the eventual punchline, becoming more bizarre and macabre to the point that I lost control from laughter. Keanu Reeves (John Wick 3) is fun as a very Canadian Evel Knievel motorcycle driver, and the weird references to the Canada-ness of it are played completely straight, making it even funnier (his laments with the French-Canadian boy's name made me snicker every time). There's a trio of action figures, Combat Carls, and one of the three is always left hanging for high-fives and he just leaves his arm up waiting, silently pleading, and then lowers it in defeat, and it's hysterical even just as a background gag. The ventriloquist dummies are routinely played for creepy laughs and physical humor. There's a running joke where Buttercup, the unicorn voiced by Jeff Garlin, is always suggesting getting Bonnie's father sent to jail no matter the circumstances. It's these touches of weirdness that make the movie stand out that much more from the three others.
The villain of Toy Story 4 is given a surprising sense of poignancy, enough that I genuinely sympathized with her plight. She's a damaged doll used to being behind glass, isolated and separated from the children she wishes to be part of. She views her salvation in fixing in her damaged voice box, her perceived disability. She's after what Woody has physically, the voice box, but it's a means to an ends to have what Woody has had emotionally, the love of a child in need, the connection she yearns for. I won't spoil what happens with her but even when there are setbacks the film and the characters don't give up on Gabby Gabby. Her perspective and desires are still seen as valued, and the eventual resolution of her character put a lump in my throat. She wasn't really the villain after all. She was just another toy in pain looking for acceptance and having to adjust her identity. I feel like there is a conscious disability empowerment message implanted in Toy Story 4, namely that those who are disfigured, disabled, or seen as "broken" can continue to be valuable and that their lives don't end.
If this serves as the finale of the franchise, it will end on a fitting and resonant high-point. As much as Toy Story 3 was about change and acceptance, this sequel does a very respectable effort of personalizing that message even more to one central character's dramatic arc. It also works wonderfully playing off of our collective investment in the character over the course of four movies and twenty-four years. There are some drawbacks to this approach. It makes the majority of the other toy characters feel like they have little to do on the sidelines, other than fret about retrieving Woody and Forky. Buzz is given a cute joke about listening to his inner voice but it doesn't amount to much more than a cute joke. The inclusion of Forky feels like an exciting and even daring addition, tackling some existential questions and how and when toys are "made" and brought into being, and he presents these for a while. Once we get to our carnival setting and Forky is captured, he seems to be forgotten about. He's more a motivation point for Woody than overtly anything else. I suppose you could make the analysis that Forky represents how Bonnie is moving on even with invented toys at the expense of Woody. However, these are minor quibbles considering the quality and emotional involvement of what Pixar has produced.
It goes without saying that the animation is beautiful but what amazed me is how expressive the faces of the characters could be, even when they were relatively inflexible toys. The relationship between Woody and Bo actually has a surprising amount of nonverbal dramatic acting to communicate nuance. As the years go by, I continue to be further and further amazed at the Pixar animators and their abilities.
As protective I was over Toy Story 3's perfect ending, I am happy to say that Toy Story 4 more than justifies its own existence in this hallowed franchise and even improves from the third film. The themes are something of a repeat but the filmmakers have elected to focus almost entirely on Woody and his personal journey, and it makes the loss and possibility more robustly felt. In many ways the film is an exploration on relationships and the need to redefine ourselves, to move onward when the time is right, and to try something new even if things get scary. Between Woody and Gabby Gabby, ostensibly the hero and villain of the piece, they're looking for meaningful connections where they can. They may be secondhand, they may be disabled, but that doesn't mean they aren't worthy of affection. This is a joyous movie that finds time to be wonderfully weird and often funny. It might not have the set pieces or ensemble showmanship of the prior Toy Story tales, but what it does have is a character-based emphasis on the most complex figure in this universe of toys. The conclusion is moving and satisfying and I don't mind admitting that tears were shed. I even teared up at different other earlier points. Toy Story 4 could have gone a lot of different ways but I'm relieved and appreciative with this new sendoff we've been granted.
Nate's Grade: A
Tags: action, animated, bonnie hunt, christina hendricks, comedy, drama, fantasy, joan cusack, jordan peele, keanu reeves, keegan michael-key, pixar, sequel, tim allen, tom hanks, tony hale, wallace shawn
She's Just a Shadow (2019)
Like a Boss (2020)
Black Book (2006)
Twisted Pair (2018)
The Spirit Inside Me
Noirvember
action aliens animated bad movies ben affleck biopic book brad pitt comedy comic book coming of age cops crime dark dark comedy demons disney documentary doomed romance drama fantasy foreign gay george clooney ghosts gory heist horror hugh jackman indie j.k. simmons johnny depp killers as leads liam neeson marvel matt damon mental illness meta military monsters motherhood movies musical mystery oscars period film politics pretentious quirky remake robots romance samuel l. jackson satire scarlett johnansson sci-fi sequel serial killer seth rogen sex sex comedy spies sports spy thriller strong heroine sundance super hero supernatural thriller time travel true-life TV show uwe boll video games war


BH-C-253 strong magenta background, spewing M + C developer.
Parts manual for BizHub 420/500 and 361/421/501.
Miscellaneous Firmware changelog/release notes for Bizhub C250?
Jamming DF-611 Paper Jam after paper is through???


Hello talk budgie people! I came back after a while just to see how's everyone doing! I know I missed a lot here, everything seems a little different!
During the last year I've been very busy and still am! I work in a different city and come back to Thessaloniki in the weekends! My budgies are fine, my mom takes care of them now.. there are times that I miss them!
Lina is going to be nine years old next month! Aries is doing great, he is three now and Nick is five! the weather is very hot these days, today it was 38 C! but they are staying inside, the fan is on all day and they are doing better!
I missed you guys! I hope everyone of you is fine and take care of yourselves!
Hello again! Welcome back Things have changed a little bit on here, but it's still such a helpful community, I'm glad your budgies are doing well.
I'm glad to hear Lina, Nick and Aries are all doing well. It's amazing that Lina is going to be 9 years old next month -- where does the time go?!
It sounds as though you are keeping quite busy.
I'm glad you dropped by and hope to see you around again soon.
I am sorry for the late answer! I have missed everything here.. I hope I'll see everybody soon enough and everyone's budgies are safe and well!


Indianapolis is conveniently located in the middle of the country and in the heart of the Midwest. We're proud to be the #1 convention city in the U.S. as well as offer the #1 International Airport in the country. Being the center of the Midwest, Indianapolis understands hospitality and strives to offer an enjoyable, relaxing and ultimately an unforgettable experience.
Right in the heart of the circle city, you'll find the historic Omni Severin Hotel. It's the longest running Four Diamond hotel in Indianapolis and within walking distance to some of the best attractions Indy has to offer. Within steps of our front door you'll have access to over 300 restaurants and shops including the famous St. Elmo Steakhouse. Omni Severin is within one block of Lucas Oil Stadium where you can tour the facilities or see a Colts game, Bankers Life Fieldhouse where you can watch the Indiana Pacers or catch a concert, and the Indianapolis Convention Center that. It is also connected to the Downtown Circle Centre Mall for all of your shopping needs! If you'd rather spend time outside, Indianapolis offers the Cultural Trail to easily get to the different Cultural Districts and neighborhoods of downtown to visit such as the Eiteljorg Museum, Indiana State Museum, the Indianapolis Zoo, White River State Park or unique shopping in Fountain Square or Mass Ave.
Indianapolis is excited to be known as the "Racing Capitol of the World!" The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) offers a variety of races throughout the year including Indy Cars; the most famous race being the Indy500 and Nascar with the Brickyard 400. Indianapolis is also home to the NFL team the Indianapolis Colts, the NBA team the Indiana Pacers, the WNBA team the Indiana Fever, the minor league team the Indianapolis Indians as well as the ECHL team with the Indy Fuel.
Weather can be unpredictable at times since we do experience four seasons so be sure to check in advance.
Learn more about downtown Indianapolis.


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Q: Attempting to set up Dual boot Win8.1/Ubuntu 16.04 and struggling Using an Asus X551CA laptop running Windows 8.1.
I created a USB flash installer for Ubuntu 16.04 and attempted to install Ubuntu alongside Windows. During the install an alert came up suggesting that UEFI may not be the best option and inviting me to go back. Assuming that Windows may have been installed using BIOS (Legacy CSM in Asus-speak) I followed the guidance and the install completed fine. However there was no option to boot into Windows when I restarted.
I ran the installer again and opted for the UEFI route on the assumption that Windows was using UEFI, and that if I installed Ubuntu on the same basis this would resolve my problem. Same result - I was able to boot into Ubuntu but no sign of any option to boot into Windows.
Went back to the first install option and when complete ran boot-repair. Output is at http://paste2.org/fnFnN2mP
Now deeply confused and seeking guidance. Thanks in advance.

A: Run sudo-update grub from terminal.
Grub will automatically detect Windows boot partitions; however, Fast startup must be disabled, and Windows must not be in a hibernated state.

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