Wow, I thought I'd seen the directors cut. Either I suppressed the memory or I somehow missed seeing it. Because that is terrible.

The rest of the directors cut is on the whole better. But that scene wrecked it.

Just got home from the theater. Went to the movies for the first time in more than a year. What did we see? Cloud Atlas. And in my opinion, one of the best movies I have EVER seen.

This movie had something for everyone: Drama, Love, Comedy, Action. Slavery, Boats on the Water, Modern Day, Science Fiction (holy shit the scenes of Neo-Seoul in 2114 were worthy of an entire movie of their own, and now I REALLY want to play Shadowrun). Political Intrigue, Storytelling, Espionage, Betrayal...

Tom Hanks deserves an Oscar nomination for his acting in this movie. As does Halle Berry. And Hugo Weaving. And Jim Broadbent. And Doona Bae. And everybody else in this movie. Not to mention the movie itself, the special effects, the makeup, the score, the screen adaptation from the book. If this movie doesn't win at least 1 Oscar - and just to be clear, I think that the Oscars are just another excuse for Hollywood to get together and congratulate each other on how awesome we are all supposed to think they are - then something is wrong is modern society.

I don't normally go to the movies. The last movie I saw in the theater was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Yeah, it's been more than a year since I've been to the theater. I see about 1 movie per year in the theater, and this one I had to see based on the previews. And the previews do zero justice to it.

If you go to see any movies in the next month, do yourself a favor and go see this one. The concept of life, death, and the people we know and meet in our lives is mind-blowing. The first hour will keep you confused, the second hour will start to piece it together, and by the end of the third hour you will be asking why there isn't more.

PS - As a bonus, the trailer to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was shown. Oh, I can't WAIT for this movie. December 14, and I may end up seeing it over the holidays.

To be honest, I'm sick of all the comic book rehashes. First of all, when you keep changing lead actors after only a movie or two, and then you screw with the plotlines in the prequels (which is becoming an overused excuse to keep rehashing), it really starts giving me a headache. For instance, you can't make a movie about spiderman becoming spiderman while he's with MJ, then suddenly hey! Here's a movie about spiderman BEFORE MJ!

As gamers, we should all know the sin of suspension of belief. And don't even get me started on all the things wrong with the Transformers movies!

Hollywood is trying to hard to 'play it safe'. I'm all for sequels to great movies, but there's a point where enough is enough...Let's start bringing in original writers, with great original screenplays, like the original days of Hollywood's greatness. At this rate we'll be seeing Kiefer Sutherland playing Indie in a new Indiana Jones movie, and Chris Rock playing Luke Skywalker in a prequel to the first Star Wars prequel

Just seen Skyfall. Excellent film - better than Quantum of Solace by far.

Hammie is glad to hear that. Almost anything would be better than Quantum of Solace but I'm glad they made a better film

Just got back from Wreck it Ralph and I thought it was very cute. Great for kids, but mom and dad would likely catch the video game references, too.

And honestly, one character was the female Commander Shepherd from Mass Effect! Hammie always plays her (granted, a red headed renegade Vanguard and a Chinese paragon infiltrator never did fit the 'model' so to speak) but it was really cool. I even thought some of her scenes were clear shout outs to ME 2 and ME 3 given the background art and such

Good fun; take the kiddies if you have them. If not, take the spouse! If you're under 25, you might not get all the references, but it's still a good movie

I loved Wreck It Ralph! Had that definite Toy Story of video games kind of feel, but it was a lot of fun...

Tho I didn't get a FemShep vibe from Sergeant Calhoun.. Hero's Duty felt like more of a nod to Halo.. Or just arcade shooters.. I got an SC2 vibe (marines killing bugs), but that's cuz I had SC2 on my mind due to MLG Dallas this weekend..

It was a lot of fun.. Kids enjoyed it too.. Highly recommended!

If you google 'Sgt Calhoun + femshep' you'll see I wasn't the only person who picked up on that

I thought the scene where she finds the 'bug eggs' was a clear shout out to the mines in ME3 where the Krogan help you (Grunt's part of the game).

Not solely ME3, but enough that I thought it was the 'main reference'.

I've never played the Mass Effect series, but I still noticed all the familiar 'action video game' tropes associated with her character... I think it's more a case of Calhoun and Femshep drawing on a lot of the same tropes and references. But I'll have to get my lazy butt around to playing Mass Effect to better guess at that.

As for the movie, I really liked it, though I'm interested what the overall reaction from gamers is going to be. The specific references to video games is only heavy in the first 1/3, after about that point it pretty largely sticks to the original characters and settings with some cameos here and there. But on its own merit it's a very good Disney flick, and the kids I brought with (an 11 year old girl and 7 year old boy, both li'l gamers) absolutely adored it.

...and I might have cried. Once. Damn you, John C. Reilly!

I was actually waiting for her to say 'I should go' at one part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlXZGnQXo8g

Did you cry during the 'car wreck'?

Hammie is too much of a dude, but I thought it was funny and had it's moments. I liked Fix it Felix's 'aw shucks/golly jeepers' persona, too

My one friend was going 'It's like the whole movie was a shout out to 'Rampage' except that you don't eat people or die!'

I agree, though, that on its own, it was a good movie. Great for kids, mom and dad will love the references (you have to be older to catch them all). Hammie loved seeing Ryu stop by for a drink or hearing Zangief talk about his feelings