Monday, August 23, 2004

New Semester

I'm starting a new semester at PBCC tomorrow. I'm taking four classes. I think I'll do well this term. We'll see.

I'm actually looking forward to learning this fall. Not only from my classes but also by my indepentdent studies. I just finished House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger. And I am going to read Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies. House of Bush was a good read. And the narrative flow made it an easy one. It is very insightful. It could possibly be used as a reference tool as a result of the painstaking detail that Unger goes into. I enjoyed it.

But it is independent studies like these that I will be focusing on. I tried to sign up for some courses that could help me on the way (e.g. International Politics, Middle-Eastern History) but I was not so lucky. So American Lit. is going to have to do. Wish me luck.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Quick Movie Review: Collateral B+


I first saw the trailer for
Collateral on Apple.com. But I didn't watch the trailer in its entirety. I knew I wanted to watch it from the first five seconds of the trailer. It only showed Jamie Foxx sitting in his cab and Tom Cruise getting in. Everything seemed so calm- a little too calm as if a storm was about to come. I was sold at that point.

So after dodging ads for the movie for a month, I finally saw it last night. I hoped that my expectations wouldn't alter my experience. I wasn't disappointed. Micheal Mann's direction was superb. I love how he took his time with the story. It gave me time to absorb the complexities of the characters so that I could care about what happens to them.

The acting was on point too. Tom Cruise created a rich character in Vincent. He was polite and menacing. I already knew Jamie Foxx was a good actor. He was great in Ali. And I know he'll do fine in the upcoming biopic of Ray Charles, Ray. Jada Pinkett-Smith did a good job too. B+