Dean's Thoughts on Entertainment

The Village

After a horrendous weekend of driving up to Maine and back me and Julie treated ourselves to M. Night Shyamalan's newest film The Village. It was excellent as his other films have been, and if you liked The Sixth Sense, Signs, and Unbreakable than this will thrill you. Its a suspenseful movie so be ready for some intensity however it is PG-13 and family friendly in its content. The acting was on par with his other movies, once again demonstrating his casting prowess with the selections of Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, and Adrien Brody. You'll recognize most of the cast beyond those names, but these are the noteworthy stars. There is a certain feeling I get when I watch one of his movies, I can't quite explain it but I become very self-aware or maybe self-analytical afterwards. I think it is because I see a portion of myself in each of his films, like I really share the same dreams as the characters in the movie. I don't know if that is part of the brilliance of M. Night, or if these films happen to speak to me more so than they do to others. But I do really enjoy them, and think a lot on them. As usual this is to be owned, and should be at least seen.

ESPN NFL 2K5

In a bid to take the helm of power away from EA's giant Madden franchise, ESPN sped up their release date and dropped the price to 20 dollars hoping to get the sneak attack on Madden which clearly has the corner on the market. I bought 2k5 at Target for 16 bucks and it is worth every penny and then some. I wasn't always a big Madden fan, I have 2004 on my computer but its running game was always frustrating to me. They call it realistic, but it isn't that hard to run for more than 4 yards in Football. Somebody busts open for huge yardage at least twice in every game on TV so Madden should do likewise. ESPN however is a bit more friendly, although they drop passes when wide open a little more than I would consider realistic. Both games are very good, however the drop to 20 bucks eliminated every concern I could possibly have. There is no way on Earth that Madden is 30 dollars better than 2k5 if it is even better at all. And with the addition of the VIP profile memory, which records your friends tendencies and strategies so that the computer will simulate them when they are not around, I think ESPN took the forefront and is looking to lay the smackdown on Madden. Now Madden might go a little deeper for you HARDCORE football gamers out there but for any casual gamers, you have no reason to drop the coin for Madden. I hope 2k5 pisses in Madden's arrogant eye.

Final Fantasy X-2

I bought this at a resale shop cheap and although I haven't beaten the final boss of the original I think I might just move on to the sequel anyway. I'll let you know how it is, however my gaming time is short and 2k5 is real tempting.

Buffy

I really want Buffy Season 1 on DVD for less than 21 dollars. If any of you were thinking of offloading it, I will purchase it. While we are on the subject I would buy Seasons 2-4, and 6 for 30. Actually if you have any TV show DVD box sets contact me, it would be my PLEASURE to buy them.

The Reason for the Season...is Pleasin'

The reason I went up to Maine was to participate in the Wedding of my two friends Joe Ramsay and Randi Clark. It was a wonderful wedding and I would like to wish them a good Honeymoon. Although they won't read this before they go or even while they are on their honeymoon and why would they. So I might as well say, Hope you had a good time. Greatly assuming that they will even read this when they get back. Anyway God Bless.

George your next...Prepare Yourself.

Uno Mas

Its pretty funny, but Joe gave me an engraved knife with the words "Uno Mas" on them which was from the movie Shanghai Noon. In the movie Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson are playing a goofy drinking game and continually say "Uno Mas" which translates "One More" so they keep playing the game. When Joe was a freshman and I was his RA we used to stay up real late playing Harry Potter Uno, and we kept saying "Uno Mas" to keep each other from leaving and going to bed. Definately the best way to play Uno, plus the Harry Potter Deck made the game more fun by allowing for stupid smack talk like, "Oh well how about a little Hermoine Joe?", or "Eat some Scabes, Punk", "AH HA Snape". It was lots of fun. Anyway, after receiving the gift I eventually just realized how much movies infiltrate my life, for instance I bet almost 40% of the things that I say in dialogue are quotes from a movie or show. Currently, I am borrowing heavily from Chappelle Show and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. And beyond that 40% about half of the remainder is said in the flavor or style of some movie character. You might say this is pathetic, and I might agree. But I like it. Its a CELEBRATION.....Send Dean McCarthy some Emails AH HA HAHAHA.