DasBlog was great while it lasted, but it was constantly using 500+ megabytes of memory on my server and just generally being a pain in my butt. So I switched to BlogEngine.NET. Things seem much faster, the worker process is using much less memory (80!) and to top it off, the back-end is driven off of SQL, instead of XML files. Yay for open-source software! If you’d like to check it out: http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/

At the request of my wife, and some other people, I’ve made another Wall-E “ringtone” (actually it’s more suited for your text message/etc. sound.) This one is of Wall-E saying “Ta Da!”

Enjoy.

MP3 Format

iPhone Format

Interested in the other ringtones? See my last post on Wall-E Ringtones.

Score: 6/10

This film started with the best of intentions, picking up right where 2006’s Casino Royale left off, but immediately shows it’s flaws. The first action sequence, a car chase scene, contains so many “shake the camera really bad” shots that it’s hard to tell what’s going on. This annoying effect continued throughout the movie’s other action sequences. I’m not sure who is directly responsible for placing this “effect” in the movie, but they need to leave Hollywood. Too many films are using this effect in their action sequences, and it doesn’t help in the slightest. I can only assume that director Marc Forster’s inexperience at filming action sequences let this happen. It just doesn’t work at all. But that’s not the only flaw of this film.

The usual Bond intro titles were terrible; I really cannot stand the film’s track “Another Way to Die”. The lyrics are nonsensical (can anyone explain to me what they have to do with the film’s plot?), as is the actual music—I mean, Jack White and Alicia Keys, really? Visually, they decided to use a different person to do the titles, and it really shows. Daniel Kleinman was responsible for the excellent GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day and Casino Royale titles, and none of his talent is visible here.

Plot-wise, the movie tries to throw too many relationship/connections at us and expect us to keep track of it all. My wife, myself, and our friends walked out of the movie asking quite a few questions about the plot, and what happened in general. I won’t dive into the larger problems with the plot (since they’d spoil it for you), but let’s just say that Bond seems to be indestructible in this film, and there are too many “convenient” moments, if that makes any sense. Daniel Craig is excellent as Bond, though, and I think he’s getting settled into the role nicely.

I wonder why they didn’t just hire Martin Campbell again to direct, since he did such a great job with Casino Royale (and GoldenEye.) Maybe he was busy with other projects, I’m not sure. But I would’ve gladly waited longer for Quantum of Solace in order to have a better end product. I am optimistic as to what a third Daniel Craig as Bond film could bring, but at the same time, if this is the direction the series is headed in, I’m not liking it.

(If you don’t get it, he’s a character from the new Battlestar Galactica TV show.)