Tag: Sports

A.I. Movie Festival: Classic Intelligence!

Movies
Comments
A Depressed Press SeriesPart 12 of 12 of A.I. Movie Festival

HAL 9000In the past few weeks I’ve covered over a dozen examples of A.I. in film. They’ve ranged from simplistic, overly fantastical, stories of 8-bit computers achieving sentience and emotional beach-balls causing national disasters to serious, cerebral explorations of what the true meaning of intelligence, life and existence really is.

For each movie that I covered, there are a dozen more that I neglected. To close on a high-note, then, I’d like to touch on a handful of classic personal favorites that have helped to mold the genre.

(more…)

A.I. Movie Festival: Unnecessary Intelligence!

Movies
Comments
A Depressed Press SeriesPart 6 of 12 of A.I. Movie Festival

Jinx, Space CampA.I. has provided filmmakers with a wonderful tool to explore the human condition. We can guiltlessly examine the absolute best and worst aspects of ourselves in a safe and approachable way. The reflective interaction between man and machine has produced some of the most iconic moments ever set to film.

Then there are other times. Times where A.I. is introduced and your only reasonable reaction has to be “What the fuck?” Here are two of those times.

(more…)

Movie Review: Goon

Movies
Comments

IMDB, Goon“Goon” on IMDB

Sport/Comedy, 92 Minutes, 2011

I’m a fat guy.  I spent my high-school days reading comic books and watching “Star Trek” while not being invited to parties.  I never got along all that well with the jocks and sometimes really didn’t get along with them.  “Battlebots” may be the closest thing to a sport that I’ve ever followed.   In spite of all of that I love sports movies.

Not all of them, of course, but the anthem movies – the under-dog / come from behind / fuck-ups-make-good movies – I adore those.  Actual sports are overly complicated, overly commercialize, they often make superstars of despicable people.  Also the time you have to invest is insane!  Movies are simple, direct and give you honest heroes; and all in a couple of hours tops!

For what it’s worth: if I were to suddenly want to get into sports I think that hockey would probably be my choice.  It’s big enough to really sink your teeth into but still small enough that money hasn’t been able to completely ruin it.  It’s fast and relatively simple compared to the three big balls (“foot”, “base” and “basket” in case you don’t know).  This movie celebrates hockey, specifically one of the more unsavory (but iconic) aspects of it.

(more…)