Saturday, August 30, 2008

Go Utes and other random stuff

Between laying retaining wall stones and pounding road-base flat with my Whacker, I took some time to watch the Utes game today. Lets just say, my guys are awesome! I loved watching them hand Michigan a thrashing. True, they only really played in the first half, and then checked out for some reason in the second, but they still held on to win over the winningest program in NCAA history, so that counts for something. I am thrilled that we still live in the mountain west, so we can still see Utah games on TV occasionally.

The other thing I want to talk about is my gripe. Dana and I just watched the movie Untraceable. Its a suspense thriller ala 'Seven', but without the good writing. And that is precisely my gripe. I cannot stand it when an otherwise intelligent movie uses stupid tactics or has people do asinine things to move the plot forward. In this movie, the savvy, super intelligent lead character is hot on the trail of some super-hacker/sociopath when he hijacks her car's computer through her OnStar system. Lights go out, engine kills, the whole nine yards. Mysteriously, the manual door lock is also put out of commission, so she has to break a window to get out.

Alright, up to this point the movie had been good. I actually felt a feeling of suspense. They had me. But then they turned Ms. Savvy von Detectivesky into a complete fool in one move. So she is out of her car making a call on an emergancy phone when suddenly the lights and all come back on in her car. Being the tough cop, she draws her weapon (which I can understand) and then walks back to her car (which, due to the car's vulnerability to electronic hyjinx seems like a very bad idea every way I look at it). She opens the door, the cab lights come on, and our plucky protagonist slides into the seat, looking for all the world like she is going to bo by some milk and bread. SHE DOES NOT CHECK THE BACK SEAT!!!

So, predictably, the bad guy rises up as soon as she puts the car in drive. He tasers her, which is his MO, and then drags her off to do unspeakable things to her, blah blah blah.

It completely ruined the movie for me. That is just lazy writing, right there. How am I supposed to feel compassion and interest in a protagonist who suddenly becomes stupid enough to win herself a Darwin award? Grrr.

Anyway, that is all. Carry On.

1 comment:

Allison Claire said...

I got the link for your blog off of facebook! Yeah for the Utes, finally somebody who is not rooting for the Y. I agree with you on the movies. I recently saw Babylon AD, it could have been good, but it wasn't.