Marcus Yallow decides to ditch school with his friends to play an alternate reality game called “Harajuku Fun Madness”. After dodging RFID security, gait recognition systems, and school hall monitors they close in on the ARG’s latest clue. That very moment two Al Queda bombs detonate and destroy the nearby East Bay bridge. Over 4,000 people are killed. In the confusion immediately following the explosion, Marcus and his friends are taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security. What follows is a horror story of privacy and human rights violations, political paranoia, and espionage.

Little Brother reads like a Tom Clancy novel as told by William Gibson. It features cutting edge technology and techniques with a smart-ass sense of humor. Doctorow has a way of making the present feel like the future. There are so many moments in this book where I got to thinking seriously about my privacy. We put so much information about ourselves in to various systems and its just waiting to be collected into a complete profile. I doubt this comes as a surprise to anyone, but when you stop to think about it in reference to what could be done with your info it can be terrifying.

You can download it from here: http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/

If you love it (like I do), buy a hard copy.

In other news, it’s fucking hot. It was 111 degrees today and the A/C in my van has quit working. Unfortunately, my van’s A/C is used the R12 refrigerant. Its hard to get except by mail order and even then there is no guarantee that it will work. I might take it to the shop, but so far I’m told they want $150 just to test the system. Damn! My Escort has working A/C but its not insured, it’s out of gas, and the battery needs to be recharged. It’s not a lot of work, but its enough. Maybe tomorrow.

I’m disappointed that most of the comments on the IMDB entry are really negative, but hey that’s their problem. It’s got to be Lucas. People hate him. They have expectations that will never be met because they’re basing them on childhood experiences with jaded adult skepticism. If you approach it like a 10 year old, you will have a much better experience. I know that the 10 year olds in the audience sure loved it. Spielberg and Lucas still have the magic.

One of the things you might notice is that there are google ads. Yeah, I hope to make a little money off this. I’m sure google ads generate very little in revenue. But my hosting costs less than $10 a month so maybe I can get it to pay for that.

Only one little snag. It’s seems like I’ve hit a movie drought lately. I need to start watching some more films. I think I sent back the last 3 netflix films unwatched. It’s just been tough to find the time and the desire. I just need to move some other types of films up in the queue I guess. Damn you netflix! When are you going to implement a randomize feature for my queue?

I sat through the obligatory trivia/local real estate agent ad slide show, the “First Look” 20 minute commercial, and finally got to the trailers. Good trailers can set me up for a great experience and this set didn’t disappoint. We saw the trailers for: Speed Racer (wow, colorful), Wanted (where the hell did they get that script from that comic series), Iron Man (yes, please), The Dark Knight (double yes, please), The Forbidden Kingdom (will I have a new kung fu obsession?), and Hancock (interesting). All together a nice little package of trailers. However things almost failed when the film actually started. I’ll get to that in a second, first a little plot synopsis (I won’t spoil anything that you won’t learn in the first 5 minutes, don’t worry).

10,000 B.C. is the story of a tribe of ancient hunter gatherers struggling to eek out an existence in the frozen wastes of ancient Earth (sort of). A hunter returns with a lone surviver of a slaughtered tribe; a blue eyed girl that fits in with a prophecy foretold by the tribe’s medicine woman. You know, that old chestnut. The rest of the film is basically CGI infested action and caveman fights. There are mammoths (I mean mannocs in the parlance of the film) and tigers. There are loads of spears and more whooping and shouting than your average super bowl party.

To be honest, I really enjoyed 10,000 B.C. and more than that, it was refreshing to see a good caveman adventure. They just don’t make them that often. That being said, I do have a few issues with the film:

1. The variety and proximity of the ecoregions they live in is really wacky. They start off in the frozen wastes and walk (yes walk, like on foot) through at least 3 separate and unique ecosystems in a period of a few days or weeks. These ecoregions include frozen tundra, steaming jungle, desert wastes and Saharan plains. It’s like they live in Azeroth.
2. The child actors in the beginning would have made me walk out if I saw the film by myself. They are so bad that they put a good 10 minute taint on the film after they are gone. Also am I wrong or did the girl grow up to be white?
3. I won’t ruin anything, but I’ll just say certain cultures are probably not located in time or space as depicted in the film

All of this is just whinging on about trivialities. After all, what did I expect from the director of The Day After Tomorrow? Just watch the fantastic special effects, dig the awesome sound effects and watch Camilla Belle bounce around. If you want realistic, rent Quest for Fire or Clan of the Cave Bear. Don’t take it too seriously and no one gets hurt. Just remember, there may be guys like me cracking “unga-bunga” and Captain Caveman jokes in the theater.

He joins a large multi-national corporation that owns a variety of companies and proceeds to fuck over every co-worker on his way to the top. The thing is that he comes out looking like the nicest, most dedicated employee ever. People admire him, women love him. But through it all he’s conniving psychopath.

Erin is going to love it. It’s only 9 episodes, but I bet that is enough.

I watched Gangs of New York and at the risk of sounding unpopular, I really dug it. Daniel Day-Lewis was very good as Bill “The Butcher” Cutting. And though I usually dislike DiCaprio (that right old bastard from my alma mater), I thought he gave a good performance. I’ve never really thought much about the Civil War era or about the Irish Immigrants, but this film gave me a lot to think about. Recommended for fans of secret societies and the underworld.