Mad Max: Fury Road - aka George Miller slapping every CGI-heavy action director in the face, ever

I'm jumping on the bandwagon and giving Mad Max: Fury Road a HIGH RECOMMENDATION for an action movie. Awesome choreography, excellent cinematography (some seriously gorgeous visuals), an exciting and dangerous universe. Yes, the movie has a serviceable story and isn't the best for character development, but there are some rich characters and lots of great themes to make up for it.

We seriously missed out by WB/DC not letting George Miller direct a Justice League movie. I'm guessing I'd rather rewatch Fury Road than any of the DCU movies.

This is the best event movie so far of the year. See it in theaters with big crowds. Go in only with the expectation of great action and you should be pleasantly surprised.

Scott McCloud's The Sculptor review

I'm a bit conflicted on Scott McCloud's long-awaited graphic novel "The Sculptor," although it's probably actually disappointed. I respect the craftsmanship, artwork, vulnerability and love that went into the graphic novel, but the characters... Though they felt very real and human, they came across as selfish, immature and egotistical (as expected for people in early-mid 20s). I often wanted to slap some sense into them.

On the whole, while I like its overall message - that art is important and can change the world - to a certain extent, it's rather self-indulgent, but not necessarily enough to detract from the overall book. There are some cool ideas and very sweet moments in the book, I just didn't enjoy all of the choices, particularly with regards to the characters themselves.

Rating: Recommended. I enjoyed it more than Bryan Lee O'Malley's Seconds, which is similar in concept, but different in execution. Funny how both are about very talented selfish flawed people (borderline assholes).

Musings on Life, Success, Happiness

Life is an RPG, structured with progression and the lessons of the WWE. One will be more successful with a good party, as this is a team-based experience.

There are plenty of cheat codes to life, which makes it feel like one big joke (in a good way), so find the humor in everything.

The challenge is to become an Influencer and happiness is decided based on which level of influence you are willing to work towards and either achieve or are complacent with.

Your industry of interest doesn't matter. The challenge is all the same.

Rashomon quick thoughts

Rashomon is an interesting movie. A bit dated now for it's narrative structure, with the first half or so kinda meh, but definitely picks up steam in the second half. There are a lot of great themes and elements that are contextually important, but my modern day entertainment lens just gives this an "interesting" rating.