Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Movie "Pain & Gain" Released on Friday Falls Flat


The April 26 release of "Pain & Gain" is more pain then gain with few laughs and spotty drama which nets a one and half star rating.
This movie try’s miserably to be both serious and funny. With the exception of Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), the rest of the characters are OK at best. The writers and directors of "Pain & Gain" managed to take an all-star cast and harbor them behind black clouds on a moonless night.

"Pain & Gain" is based on a true story of three idiots in the mid-90s whose quest for money consumes their morality and common sense which cascades the American dream of big money into a deadly sea of greed.
Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is the serious Moe of an abysmal operation to extort money from Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub) with the aide of his friend and co-worker Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) and ex con Paul Doyle (Johnson).

Lugo (Wahlberg) is a personal trainer at Sun Gym in Miami and devises a plan to kidnap one of his clients, the very rich and hard to like Kershaw (Shalhoub), so he can claim Kershaw's entire fortune. Lugo's pal Doorbal (Mackie) reluctantly aides his friend along with Doyle, the ex con in the kidnapping of Kershaw.

The trio's first attempt to kidnap Kershaw is a failed attempt at comedy and follow through. Lugo, Doorbal and Doyle finally manage to kidnap Kershaw and torture him for the sole goal of big money.

The trio eventually manages to acquire their riches through nefarious means. Successfully eluding the police and enjoying the excesses of money, material things, women and drugs, along comes Ed Du Bois (Ed Harris), a private investigator who sees what the Miami Police Department missed.  
Through no fault of his own, even the acclaimed actor Harris could not save this movie. The story is draggy; the comedy few and far between and there is no tension in the drama.  

The only laughs for me came from the superb acting by Johnson who portrayed Doyle as a sub-moronic and hilarious coke addict. Other than his acting, the comedy was drab and the intensity of murder and mayhem was muddled in the indecisiveness of the film makers’ lack of communication to make a comedy or drama. Had it not been for Johnson's character Doyle, "Pain and Gain" may have earned a minus star rating.

Mixing comedy with drama only works if the comedy is funny and the drama is riveting. "Pain & Gain" was too long for starters and only one of its many great actors was utilized properly.

The movies strong theme of the dangers of getting swallowed by greed is solid, but its foundation was on soggy sand in the path of a tidal wave.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Nano Nano II, What Would You Do With Yourself in a Nanotechnology World?


Residing in the crevices of fact and fantasy, dwelling in the atoms of fear and knowledge, lies the ultimate technology high; nanotechnology.
Imagine a world without taxes, a place without unwanted deadlines and meaningless hours spent earning money for big oil, landlords and other merchandisers. To live without poverty and the loss of loved who become victims of time and cancer. Nanotech can provide all this and much more.
Nanotech is the answer to all that is positive and uplifting, the one thing that can make money obsolete, thus ending corruption in politics, big business and thrusting the world into a place that ought to be.

With nanotech there would be no starving people in the world thus squelching the use of the following lyrics by Neal Peart; "Hungry child in the desert and the flies that cloud her eyes, I get this feeling"...

With the advent of nanotech, the three classes of people would be reduced to one class. That one class of people would be much better than our current system of the three classes of folk; the rich, who do little work and pay no taxes, the middle class who do all of the work and pay all of the taxes and the poor who are present to scare the life out of the middle class, keep them showing up to those unrewarding jobs. The late comedian and philosopher George Carlin defined the current system of the three classes of people.
Nanotech would make money primitive and obsolete, enable everybody to have everything they wanted with the touch of a few buttons according the web site; http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/secret_projects/project263.htm

"Hello Nanotechnology, Bye, Bye Money!" by Benjamin "Quincy" Cabell V on the above web site provides the details for the anything box. In short the anything box is a device that creates matter, hence making it possible‎ to create things from nothing.
Eternal youth and life via nanotech is possible by replacing or repairing dying cells in the body. Yes this is currently pure fantasy. As of now matter cannot be created or destroyed. Science experts are working on ways to create matter and live forever with the emergence of nanotech.

"Nanotech Could Make Humans Immortal by 2040", said futurist Ray Kurzweil in his October 2009 article on the web page; http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138726/Nanotech_could_make_humans_immortal_by_2040_futurist_says

Kurrzweil's article refers to nanobots that may one day exist, taken like a pill and filter the blood stream for damaged or dying cells and repair or replace them all together. Nanobots would also have the means to reverse ageing. According to the above article anyone alive in 2040 or 2050 may live forever in a healthy and youthful body if they so desire.
Some people will always claim there would be no challenge in life if nanotech were a reality and I understand their point of view which is valid. Certain skeptics of nanotechnology claim we need to work or even toil for the things we need. I disagree with this way of thinking. I think life would be more challenging in a nanotech world.

Sure, if nanotech were a reality, anyone who wanted a car for example could simply push some buttons and have the color make and model of their auto of choice. If you want a car now, you have to work or steal for the money to pay for it, so in that aspect the nanotech way of life is much less challenging. Factor in the above example to pay for food and shelter as well. 
I still contend life would be more challenging with nanotech. With nanotech, people would no longer have to work unless they wanted to and everybody would have anything spawned from their imagination with the use of the anything box. Where's the challenge in that? If nanotech was in full force, what would people do with themselves? Just think how easy it would be to do absolutely nothing with your life.

Some people in this would work extremely hard at their job or jobs, have a nice dwelling, loving spouse, family and material things, but some of these people when their not at work, do nothing but relax is front of the boob tube (television set) on their free time.
A lot of people would do nothing but take up space if nanotech were a reality. Hence the big challenge in the emergence of nanotech, you no longer have to work and you can have anything from
a BLT sandwich to a really cool iPad with the touch of a buttons.
Again the question, what would you do with yourself in the presence of nanotech? Watch lame reality TV shows every waking minute, sleep, rise and do it all over again for the rest of eternity?
 
In a nanotech world I'd learn how to fly an airplane and helicopter for starters. I can't do that now
because of my income situation. I'd also land my helicopter on the top of a high mountain over looking fantastic foliage highlighted by a captivating water fall, and write book reviews from there.
Be skeptical all you want about nanotech if you choose, think it will be nothing more than a really cool science fiction book or movie, but think about the following. What if someone or a group of people had the idea for cell phones in the 1300s, the ideas for auto's and air transportation way back in the day or the thought of taking photo's, (color even) without having to paint portraits or landscapes six or 700 years ago?  

What will people dream up next? Taking pictures and watching movies on a portable phone?