I for one am looking forward to riding this express.....

Don't just sit there, click on something!!

Jordan Rising Reviews Walle-E

I'll admit it. I love Pixar. I suppose it's not really uncool anymore for a 28 year old man to enjoy cartoons, since Pixar has elevated the dualistic grown-up-jokes-within-a-kids-cartoon thing to an art form.

But I really love Pixar. I buy their films, and sometimes watch them again.

Wall-E was a bit of a departure for Pixar, and from the outset, I want to say that my opinion of Pixar, if not entirely this movie, remains overwhelmingly positive. I say this because of Pixar's refusal to rest on their laurals. With the success of films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, it would be easy for them to shift into neutral and pump out 10 or 12 films similar in plot, tone and character.

With Wall-E, it's evident they did no such thing.

As you've no doubt read, the striking thing about this film is the lack of human voices throughout the film. In fact, aside from a few clever advertisements, human beings don't even enter the film until the latter part of the second act, and even then, are regulated to buffoonish side characters for the most part.

No, the majority of the movie's character interaction is done through a complicated series of beeps, clicks and robotic sounds, as well as robotic facial expressions . . . well, as close as you can get.

My overall impression was that this film was very, very ambitious, and resulted in a less accessible effort than their previous films. Pixar tried something very difficult; create a major animated work without the strength of voice acting. I applaud their attempt, and I believe that they did as well as modern animation would allow them to do.

The movie didn't allow me to immerse myself totally as other Pixar films have, and my young nephews and niece struggled to stay engaged during the middle of the film. However, the experience itself is very rewarding, and I found myself constantly chortling about how they'd accomplished getting across the intent of the characters without speaking. In fact, that's kind of the whole point. Little Wall-E CAN'T talk or express himself as he'd like, and for that we find a kind of kinship.

A worthy film, but you'll have to work for it.

The Dack gets nostolgic with the X-Files......

The Dack was raised on X-Files and while others can claim devotion to Star Trek or Star Wars Friday Nights at the Dack's was the place to be at least for the people I hug out with.

This tradition continued for every season (well, at least until the crappy ones without Fox Mulder) even though the locations and people might have changed, watching X-Files is something I will always remember.

Because the last several seasons were pretty disappointing the Dack's expectations were set fairly low. The story for this film's only attachment to the famed sci-fi television show is three characters in this movie, which I believe was both the best and worst idea for this movie. By choosing to not even touch most of the story thread that ran through the series Chris Carter and Co. risked disappointment from the fan base....however much of that fan base moved on a considerable time ago......so this movie seemed like a fresh look at the relationship between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson better know as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. This relationship is what made the series such an interesting show....Mulder the believer and Scully the skeptic, solving mysteries. And that is exactly what we get. While who the believer and who the skeptic are change several times these two actors have such on screen chemistry one can't help but be interested. The only thing this movie could have used was a little more epic feel. The scale seemed only a tad to small for the big screen but it's an understandable problem considering the budget wasn't huge. For the most part the acting around Duchovny and Anderson defiantly felt big screen which helped. Amanda Peet who surprisingly manages to keep her clothes on, Billy Connolly and, Xzibit all do a decent job filling their rolls. The actual crime being investigated was interesting if not just a little strange. For the Dack the X-Files felt like a welcome visit from an old friend, you sit back enjoy each others company, catch up with what has been happening in your lives, find out how you've grow as people. With I Want To Believe, I was happy to see how Mulder and Scully had grow both as individuals and well...... no more from me, go see it if you want to know.

X-Files scared up enough for sixDacks, and if you go be sure to stay for some of the unusual credits the Dack has ever seen.

July 25 Weekend........... the Dack watch....

So the weekend is almost on us again and there is one movie on the top of my list.......The X-Files. It case you don't know what I am talking about, check out this trailer.


The Dacklight of the week is the new Transformers movie logo........ I can't wait till this movie hits theaters next summer!!!


OH, and if anyone finds one of these shirts please think of the Dack.

Craving 3D......Journey to the Center of the Earth....If you have too.

The Dack loves new innovative ways of watch movies so when there is a chance to see something in 3D, I jump in feet first. I hadn’t seen a 3D movie in at least 15 years when Beowolf came out last year. Although Beowold was a decent film, it was animation and didn’t really seem to use the 3D to engage the audience as much as it could have. Having seen Beowolf both in 3D and not, I can honestly say the 3D version didn’t really add anything special. Although my experience was lack luster with Beowolf it got me excited for my next 3D adventure.


This weekend I finally got to set off on a new 3D adventure……… or Real D as the credits told me when Journey to the Center of The Earth began. Although, I’m a huge fan of the movies I’m not a huge fan of opening credit sequences….. unless the names start moving around and flying at you!!! Yep, that’s right the opening credits are 3D (no, I’m not going to call it Real D….. what the heck does that even mean?!?). But before I get ahead of myself… I knew before the movie started that this was going to be the 3D adventure I had been hoping for when we got not one but two trailers in 3D! I wish I could tell you that this movie lived up to all my excitement but the Dack can’t lie. Journey (no, not the band) was not a good film. It was actually pretty bad but it was fun to watch in 3D…. which was used throughout the movie to my amazement... things were flying at me constantly which made even Brendan Frazer brushing his teeth and spitting at me exciting!! As for the actual merits of the movie the Dack wonders how anyone could sit through this movie if it wasn’t in 3D. Journey to the Center of the Earth was obviously designed to be seen in 3D……and not only seen but at times it felt like a showcase for what today’s 3D can do… which is remarkable but 3D can not save a movie. Not even the presence of Brendan Frazer who brings a solid performance can save the plot…or help the other actors who seem like they are just running through the motions as they act in front of green screen…Frazer is obviously very comfortable there having done three Mummy films which had plenty of special effects. Now that I have experienced a movie that uses 3D in such awesome ways I excited for the future when a movie can blend 3D with a good story, acting, and directing. That will be DackD!!


Journey to the Center of the Earth only manages to discover fourDacks and that’s only for the 3D version....the adjusted Dacks without 3D would only be oneDack.