Ferrari Challenge for Wii

Just picked this up yesterday at Sam's Club. Fortunately we only paid about $15. I was very excited to pick this up. I really enjoy racing games, but this game suffers from a few problems that others mention. You can read the reviews online from others, but suffice it to say - the in-car camera is like being inside a tunnel, and the controls are difficult to manage. I have quite a few racing games from those that are very arcade - "Mario Kart" to several versions of "Need for Speed". Some are better than others, and with the Wii controls there are certainly much better ways to control the car. The nunchuck controls are the only ones I have even come close to mastering. Sound and graphics were cool, but they should have focused more on playability.

Knowing - enough not to waste your time

Last night we decided to rent a movie. We chose Knowing - with Nicolas Cage. What you will see from this image is - he is the only reason to watch it.

In general I like him as an actor - but I think he made a mistake when choosing to do this role.
Warning this contains spoilers - if you want to watch this movie do not read any further - just know that it is stupid and you will be disappointed.

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The movie starts out interestingly enough. We see some kids working in their school room and a teacher talking about a time capsule. Makes sense - the trailer talks about knowing about impending disasters and what would you do. There were several places where it seemed like there were opportunities to do so much more with the movie and the mysterious number sequences he uncovers, however the movie seems to miss every opportunity at suspense and settle for cheap every chance they can. Here's a few details:

Cage plays an MIT astro-physicist although he never lives up to this potential. Throughout the movie he does a surprising amount of stupid things.

Random stupidity - the kids sing "This little light of mine!" a children's Christian gospel song - being sung at a public school in Massachusetts - the most liberal state in the union and nobody was there from the ACLU taking exception

There is a plane crash that happens just after he makes an interesting discovery regarding the number sequence, and he attempts in vain to save several burning passengers. Eventually the first responders tell him to go away - which he does with little discussion or drama.

We spend untold minutes of screentime wandering around in the dark with diver quality flashlights ala X-files.

Cage's kid has some wild dream that, as near as I could tell, was a test of the special effects crew's capabilities but little else.

At one point he makes a call to the FBI to warn them of what will happen instead of stating: "I am an MIT professor, please listen to me when I tell you something" which could have led to all manner of intrigue and discussion regarding the number sequences, what had happened, what will happen, etc. instead, he yells into a random pay-phone "something will happen at location X tomorrow - get everyone away or they will die" which would clearly put him on the terrorist watch list.

Later in the sequence he walks up to a random cop and asks why they haven't cleared the area - surprise all law enforcement starts chasing him

When chasing and being chased in the subway he is cornered by several cops, he states rather bluntly: "you should arrest him" and points to the person he is chasing, they instantly unfocus on Cage and focus on the other guy.

He frequently abandons the children in his charge to go investigate random things.

The end of the movie was off scale high on the stupid meter. With about 20 minutes left in the movie and no realistic ending, we throw in a random car chase where a woman essentially kidnaps his son and in the middle of the chase Cage pauses in his pursuit of his CHILD to spend a few minutes with the now dead woman he has known for 36 hours, this enables him to see an intriguing black rock

Finally, we go completely implausible with an ending involving aliens rescuing mere earthlings from impending disaster and over the top stupid dialog between Cage and his son.

We also have a token reference to Noah - 2x2 animals and some (I think) reference to "The Matrix" with two white rabbits.

Finally, while the entire movie is set in and around Boston, when disaster strikes big time - New York City is what we see - hello continuity department where are you? Poor New York City- always the place to destroy - Independence Day, Armageddon, Sudden Impact, The Day After Tomorrow, I'm sure there many others.
I'm sure there are more specific stupid things - but that's all I can think of right now.