Movie Review: Pirates of the Carribean 3: At World's End

Yet another series that continues to go way downhill after a string first entry. Pirates 3 is way to long and way too weird. I would certainly like to have been in the script meetings because the film would be a lot better if there had been some hacking and slashing and burning to get the story down a tighter narrative. As it is, the film is 2 hours of action scenes and 1 hour of exposition that makes no sense. Let's face facts, even though betrayal and ulterior motives are both major themes in the first two films, when half a dozen people betray each other in the space of 30 seconds, it just ceases to matter. This happens several times and pretty soon I found myself wishing everyone would just shut up and fight. Which does happen eventually, so its not a total loss.

The most disappointing aspect (aside from Keith Richards attempt at acting - although he does a good job of looking swarthy and menacing) is that there is about 10 minutes of setup for the next movie. At this point I can guarantee that there will be a Pirates 4, and given the current trend it will suck. So really, I would have been much more satisfied if the climatic battle which would have settled things once and for all had actually materialized rather than being set up and unceremoniously abandoned moments before the first shot had been fired.

In short, go see it if you have three hours to kill, the acting scenes are at least very entertaining. Just don't expect any real story and don't plan your day around it. I made the mistake of going to a 10pm showing and realized that I don't like driving around at 1:30 in the morning.

And the Leafs played golf...

All the Leafs fans across the country who have been cheering for the Senators to lose since the start of the playoffs where again sorely disappointed on Saturday as the Senators showed the top-seeded Buffalo Sabers the door with a 3-2 win. The series ended at 4-1, a figure identical to the victories over the Penguins and Devils. I'm sure those of you who follow hockey already know all this, I just like to rub it in for the hardcore Leafs fans who insist on defending what has been a losing team for the past decade, by the extremely rude method of insulting fans of other teams. Just a little further reminder that while your team is playing golf, mine is going to the Stanley Cup finals. You can't argue with results.

The western conference remains undecided, the Ducks-Redwings series may not be finished until Thursday. Personally I'm more concerned about the Sens facing Detroit in the finals, owing to the extreme depth Detroit has at every position. Seriously, its scary. Anaheim is built a lot like Ottawa both in speed and physical presence, although they may be slightly bigger overall. Of course, there are no easy opponents in the playoffs.

Now live from the palace...

Well, a large 2-bedroom seems like a palace after some of the places I've lived. All our stuff is here, unpacking is quite another matter. Right now there is not enough shelving to unpack all the books, so that floats higher on the priority list. Bought a router today, an essential in a two-computer household with high-speed. Which in itself is progress, hell, a quantum leap from dial-up.

While at Future Shop I spent some time drooling in front of a 42'' widescreen plasma tv... then I realized that in a couple more months I may have $2000 available to buy it. Which is almost as shocking a thought as the first time it really dawned on me that I have a car and therefore can skip a lot of tedious time on the bus when it comes time to do errands.

So, yeah, at the close of week 2 at my new job I am really starting to see my quality of life rise to where I wanted it to be coming up through university. Which is a big weight of my shoulders after a year and a half of struggling along in Ottawa and wondering if it would ever get any better.

If you where expecting a conclusion to all this, I don't have one. Hey, not every post needs to have a point. Peace.

I got wheels

Lots has been happening. My first week at work went fairly well, although I haven't been able to do much while the wheels were spinning on security clearance, computer access, etc. Hopefully this week an cubicle will become available and I will have a proper office as opposed to being on a side table in someone else's workspace.

The hardest part so far has been the commute, I've pretty much had to make a different arrangement for every day as spots became available. I was planning on waiting a couple of months before getting a car (easier to obtain financing, and more ready cash for down payments), but after the last week I had to make some wheels a top priority. I put my fiancee to work looking for a used car as she is not working at the moment. Low and behold, I come home to see that she's found five or six options for me, plus an insurance quote.

We decided on a 2003 Ford Focus. Its a 4-door with the SE (mid-level) trim package, low mileage, and quite a few extras (auto, a/c, power what-have-you, alloy hubcaps and a spoiler), its pretty sweet. All that's left to do is wait for the bank to approve the financing, which won't happen until Monday. So Monday after work, things should be ready to go, the dealership will do the registration for us and everything. Vroom.