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Super 8 movie review

ET mixed with Aliens mixed with Jurassic Park. Add in a lot of intelligence. Then you have Super 8.

My 15-year-old son and I saw Super 8 last night. We thoroughly enjoyed it. J.J. Abrams, the director of the TV series Lost, added that same level of suspense to the film – except you don’t have to wait five years to solve the mystery.

Visually, it’s stunning. The crashes and attacks are totally in your face. The slow-moving scenes are treated with care and respect.

There is way more character development than most action movies provide… a teenage romance is almost the film’s centerpiece.

The PG-13 rating is appropriate. My 10-year-old daughter would have been too scared. And some of the kids swear like sailors.

Verdict? Go, if my description makes the film sound appealing to you. It may be the best film of the summer.

Finally, here’s another worthy review from my brother: on Amazon. (Scroll down on that page.)

Still photo courtesy of collider.com.

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A SXSW sight

There are not many places where you can see disposable wallet-sized guitar pick shells discarded on the pavement. South by Southwest Music Festival is one.

Just noticing the shiny bits for you, once again.

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Wall of strings

Last weekend, Heather and I went to see the Colorado Symphony perform Mahler’s 9th Symphony. It was excellent.

Normally I see wild loud indie rock music, but it’s nice to experience something different on occasion.

Sitting in the third row, we didn’t have the best seats for hearing or seeing the full orchestra. But it was loud. And it was powerful. The fourth movement was truly a wall of strings.

So if you’ve never been to a major symphony performance, I’d urge you to branch out and give it a try.

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Name three bands or musicians that you hope to see live some day

I’m not going to answer. However, I will tell you one band I wish I had seen, back in about 1976… Little Feat. Their two albums, The Last Record Album and Feats Don’t Fail Me Now were incredible.

Alas, I won’t see them live now. I’m generally not into seeing old bands in their current forms. Most of the time, they are a sad shadow of their former selves. My son saw U2 a few weeks ago. I would have gone to that show, except for how I greatly prefer seeing live music in much smaller settings.

By the way, I would love to hear your answer to which three bands or musicians you would like to see. (And thanks to Plinky for that great prompt.)

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A really really bad car

Nissan recently came out with a two-door convertible SUV – the Murano CrossCabriolet. It gets bad fuel economy, carries little, performs poorly, looks ugly, is hard to see out of and doesn’t do off-road very well. And it looks ugly.

A reflection of how hard this vehicle is to categorize is that Car & Driver magazine and Automobile magazine both gave it really unusual reviews. One was an epic poem – “The Oddity”. The other was a Q & A, in which the reviewers asked, “Does it do this well?” for 4 different categories, and the answer in every case was: “No.”

(My apologies if you just bought one. And also, please know that I have nothing against the regular Murano.)

The photo came from Car & Driver magazine.

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