So, I got this e-mail saying I needed to post if I wanted to keep my Xanga because "my username has been asked for". This is utter crap being my user name is Hoemke_YoSaggBrig. Anyone els think this is lame? I'll use xanga at my will not theirs. I do plan on using it. I just want to use it when I have something to say and I don't at this moment. LAME!

Here's my review of 300.

300: **1/2 out of ****

300 is the tale of the 300 Spartans who stood up to and defied the grand army of the Persians. This is about all the story you get for the film but I'll touch on that a little later. First lets start of with the good. This is a gorgeous film. The nicely polished green/blue screen effects are wondrous. They make the film look like the graphic novel has come right off the page and onto the big screen (it takes a true director to make film look like paper). The acting in this film is very good. I loved Gerard Butler's commanding performance as the Spartan king. He elevates the movie by leaps and bounds. In fact the film has no real weak performances at all. Everyone in the film looks absolutely of the time. The Oracle was amazing, and I loved the character of the hunchback, though I do not recall his name. Therein lies the first problem I had with this film. There was no strong character development. Beyond the hunchback and maybe one or two of the other characters they were all cardboard cut outs with biceps.

I loved the opening of the first battle where they are running at each other and they collide into mass chaos, but then it swiftly transferred into one overly stylized battle scene after another. The slow motion fighting was cool the first time you saw it but wore thin very quickly. If all the action had been sped up to real time the film would have been substantially shorter.

I also couldn't stand the digital blood. I found it distracting and cheesy. And what was with that random sex scene? It served no purpose to the story. But it was the monsters that really slammed the nail into the coffin. I just couldn't buy into the time period and the peril of the story when you had the Immortals running around looking like Dracula. I also didn't like that they introduced that giant globular looking beast who came in and decapitated on of the Spartans and you never see him again. i'm sure he's somewhere on the cutting room floor but it would have still been nice to see something happen to him. I'm also not sure why they increased the size of the Elephants. For some reason they are like three times as big. Same thing with the rhino.

I also thought that the two times that the heroes get attacked with arrows was right out of the film Hero, and they were put to better effect in that movie. My biggest problem had to be that I didn't find the film engaging in any way. The action didn't even grip me. I was bored and couldn't help feel I'd seen it all done before. Pretty much everything I liked about the movie I had already seen in the trailer. But a movie with a goat-man can't be all bad. It is worth taking a look due to, mainly, the look of the film but I'd definitely wait for DVD!

*THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER RIDDEN* (not that any of you will care)

     Today I watched School's Out.  It is the 1991, surprisingly graphic (containing tons of sex, nudity, language and all on public TV), TV movie made to bring closure to the series Degrassi Junior High/Degrassi High.  This has to be one of the most depressing films I have ever seen.  I'm talking The Empire Strikes Back depressing!  It follows the students of Degrassi High in their first summer after graduation.  Joey decides to propose to Caitlin on the anniversary of their first date, a commitment she isn't sure she's willing to make.  After getting the brush off, Joey gets driven into the arms of a lonely Junior named Tessa.  Soon after Joey and Tessa have sex Caitlin decides to rethink Joey's proposal.  Not knowing what to do he decides to play both feilds.  Joey's friends Snake finds this enfuriating and becomes distant with Joey.

     Meanwhile, Wheels has procured a shotty car that he plans to fix up and go traveling with across Canada.  Snake is concernded for Wheels because he has picked up a nasty new habbit, drinking.  Just four years prior Wheels' parents were killed by a drunk driver and Snake is afraid Wheels just hasn't gotten over it.

     Spike, having further problems with her daughter Emma, is stuck working non-stop.  When her co-worker Tessa tells her she is pregnant with Joey's child, Spike advises her to go to a Woman's Clinic.  Unable to tell Joey the news Tessa decides to abort the child and dump Joey.

     The film culminates with a big end of summer party where tensions come to a head.  Wheels and Snake have a row and nearly begin to throw fists when Lucy interjects and asks a drunk Wheels to take her out for fries.  Later, Snake accidentally tells Caitlin that Joey and Tessa have been sleeping together all summer.  Then comes the most famous scene in Degrassi history:

     After we see Caitlin dump Joey we get a slam cut to a horrible car accident.  lucy is being taken away by ambulance in a stretcher.  Police wrap up the dead, bloody body of a two year old child.  Wheels, seemingly unscathed, is taken away in handcuffs.  Joey rushes to see him in prison and is told that Wheels is facing 10 years for the death of the child.  He tells Joey he's pleading guilty.  Joey informs Wheels that Lucy is partially blinded, from glass to the eyes presumably, and that she is brobably going to be paralyzed for life.

     The film wraps up months later at the wedding of Alexa and Simon.  It is here Joey and Snake come to terms in a moving Chasing Amy-like moment.  Then Caitlin arrives.  Joey and caitlin talk about their long history and decides to call a truce and be "just friends" again.  The film closes with a beautiful dance between the two ill-fated lovers.

     For how depressing and tragic the film is, it feels right somehow.  It captures the feel of the show and the long lasting relationships between the charactors and cast perfectly.  It also, more importantly, creates a beautiful sense of closure that brings a tear to one's eye.  I really rather enjoyed the film and respect it for its raw ability to show teen life in the transition from high school to college.

     This film was followed up 10 years later by Degrassi The Next Generation following Spike's daughter Emma and having many guest appearences by former Degrassi folk such as: Spike, Joey, Caitlin, Snake, Mr. Radditch, Liz, Shane, Lucy, Wheels, and Heather & Erica.