Posted 21:34 by Tycho

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you mothers out there. Without your help and guidance, none of us would be what we are today.

Now, for the news of the day:

1. If I didn't mention it before, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

2. Food is good. Yum.

3. Getting an internship is difficult.

Enough about today. Yesterday was fun, but I was wicked wiped towards the end (read wiped = tired for those non-slanged people out there). As such, I tend to do and say dumb things. And I have terrible aim with throwing things, such as the paper than you can roll napkins in.

Now, for the all-encompassing movie review from Kingdom of Heaven (secondary title: The Crusades.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS---YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
POSSIBLE SPOILERS---YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
POSSIBLE SPOILERS---YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
POSSIBLE SPOILERS---YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
POSSIBLE SPOILERS---YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
















Alright, the film could have definitely done without the father/son "drama" (I say "drama" in quotations because the most exciting part of that section was when you see a man take an arrow through the throat...which was made cooler due to the fact that the blood spurted and he kicked some corrupt-bishop's-cronies asses).

And what about teaching whomever the hell Bloom played the high guard for a sword? WTF mate! You need to be an expert to do that--and he was just taught how to fight with a sword. Not to mention he's asking to get his balls cut off.

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The one thing I REALLY liked about the movie was how it handled the two sides. Of course the Christians are the "good guys" and the muslims were the "bad guys", but the way they were portrayed was truly beautiful. It takes a line from We Were Soldiers in which the enemy is not shown as some horrible evil that needs to be defeated, but as fellow humans--just on the opposite side.

Battle scenes were done reasonably well, and while not particularly gory or explicit, got the point across.

Possibly the movie made gore necessary in keeping with Stalin's famous quote: "One death is a tragedy, while one million deaths are a statistic." I noticed that in the massive battle scenes, there was gore, but it wasn't overplayed like in Starship Troopers. The personal scenes, however, were much different. They were extremely bloody...when someone got their throat cut, they'd gurgle and clutch at the wound, while blood is spurting out like water from a garden hose. It reminded me of the scene in Army of Darkness where one hapless man was thrown into the pit of gory doom with a deadite and gets graphically volcano-ized.

The movie gets a nod for using music from The 13th Warrior, and another nod for putting that track at precisely the right moment. They nailed that one down.

And a double thumbs up for the usage of--you guessed it! BOILING OIL! I was giddy with glee when I saw it being dumped on Saladin's troops. Not because of the fact that it basically boiled people alive, but because it is more-or-less historically accurate. Plus its just damned cool.

Overall Rating: 7.5 of 10. Could have been improved, but definitely on the bright side of life.

Military tactics for the most part were good, though I was caught by surprise by the stupidity of some of them, but these moments were rare. Come on...BOILING OIL!


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