The following entries were tagged with “lasvegas”. They are displayed with the most recent entries first. (1–2)

21

Posted in , , , and on Sun, 13th Apr 2008 at 20:45

A generous person would regard it as a positive trait of mine—forgiveness, the ability to grant the benefit of the doubt—that I can tell everyone who will listen that a movie looks like it'll suck harder than a $10 whore but then I'll go tosee it anyway. As it turns out, 21 sucked a lot less than I expected. It's based on the book, Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, which I read and really quite enjoyed some years ago.

The movie diverges significantly from the book, which itself is a true(ish) story, but this turns out to its advantage in my view. The movie introduces an antagonist in the form of Laurence Fishbourne's Vegas security consultant, and wedges in the mandatory love interest too, neither of which I remember from the book. These changes ultimately make the story a better fit for the movie medium, though they're a little more on the formulaic side than any of us would have wanted.

In fact the whole movies looks like it came off the end of a production line, with fewer surprises than a transparent Kinder egg, but if it doesn't stand out as fantastic it also doesn't stand out as terrible. The gambling and maths angle appealed to me, and made it that much more enjoyable. In the end I wouldn't be confident in recommending it to someone who didn't share those interests.

Maybe sit it out and go play the slots instead.

Mountain View Update

Posted in , , , , and on Wed, 02nd May 2007 at 20:59

I'm still in Mountain View. I realise I've been pretty woeful at keeping this blog up-to-date while I'm away, so I'm going to try to put that right.

Since my last post I have:

Gone to a chili cookoff and eaten chili made with tequila and chocolate,

Climbed to the top of the highest tower in San Francisco and sneered at the city from above,

Hit on a waitress in Hooters, having decided that, no, that's not too cheesy; that's what they're there for,

Watched the Sun set over the Pacific,

Gone on a weekend-long road trip to Las Vegas, Nevada and visited the (allegedly) world-famous Comedy Club in the Riviera,

Not bought a guitar for $10,000 despite the overwhelming, or at least whelming, urge to do so,

Stood inside a capsule that used to be a part of the International Space Station,

Come second in a scavenger hunt in Golden Gate park and followed it up with food and drinks in a beach-side bar, during work hours,

and Got my ticket to see Spider-Man 3 on Friday.