The Search for #869

I was perusing my list trying to find something to complete this weekend and I came across #869. 869. Get one of those guns from "Black Hole"

Now seriously, am I the only person who grew up in the late 70’s and early 80’s who thought this movie was awesome? Sure they were playing on the Star Wars hype but so what? The script was penned by the infamous Alan Dean Foster who is a better writer than George Lucas. The cast was impeccable for the time. Maximillian Schell as the evil Dr. Hans Reinhardt, Anthony Perkins of Psycho fame as the acolyte Dr. Alex Durant.

And Roddy McDowall and Ernest Borgnine for goodness sake!

Not to mention the voice of Slim Pickens!

This movie came out in 1979 when I was 8 but I remember certain parts of the movie as if it was yesterday even though I haven’t seen the movie again since.

I bought a model of V.I.N.CENT. that year and thought the guns the sentries used were revolutionary. I’ve wanted one ever since. So today I perused the usual places such as eBay and google trying to find one of these things. No dice. I can’t find it any where. So I may have to settle for making my own. I did find this web site dedicated to making your own.

http://www.restrainingbolt.com/otherprops/pics/bhsb/sentryblastertutorial.html

Well, until I make it, I’ll keep looking.

After all, Dr. Reinhardt in the movie said, “The word "impossible," Mr. Booth, is only found in the dictionary of fools.”

In my quest to finish “The List”, #371 has taken up most of my time so far. A list of the top 250 movies of all time as voted on by the I.M.D.B. visitors. The current list can be found here. http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

Usually, I try to work in one or two movies from the list every weekend and this weekend it happened to be three. Chinatown, Lawrence of Arabia, and M. I also happened to catch the new flick Iron Man at the theater on Saturday.

This list has given me the opportunity to see some real gems of motion picture beauty such as M by Fritz Lang, but has equally subjected me to lengthy pieces of crap such as “There Will Be Blood”. Here are some recaps and reviews.

Iron Man…each time they do a ‘superhero’ flick lately they get a bit closer to perfection. Iron Man was one of my favorite comics as a kid and I kind of grew apart from him when I got older. This film sparked my interest all over again. Especially with the insinuation at the end of the movie about a possible Avengers movie in the future.

I don’t think life could get much better than that and this list on IMDB will be constantly changing as movies for Captain America, Thor, and Black Widow come out.

Must see movie of 2008. Makes There Will Be Blood look like a gargantuan waste of time. Jon Favreau quickly reminded me of why I think we could hang out.

Robert Downey, Jr. has always been one of my favorite actors after Chaplin, but I feel confident in saying he’s my very favorite now. Kudos to him for getting his life straight.

Bottom line: 5 out of 5

“M” is a German film from 1931 that I would have never seen if not for the list. Directed by Fritz Lang, the famous director of Metropolis, the subtitled film stars Peter Lorre as a child murderer. When the cops start raiding the underworld due to mounting pressure to find him, the underworld comes together and hunts for the murderer themselves. The soliloquy by Lorre at the end of the movie was amazing and made me want to perform in front of an audience again.

Final analysis: 4 out of 5

Lawrence of Arabia: Good only because it’s based on a true story.

Chinatown: Good only because it’s Jack Nicholson. Hated the ending.

Go see Iron Man…today!

#791 Figure out What the Hell a Sudoku is

As part of #914 Establish “Mark off list” day, I designated the first day of every month as that day. Here it is, May 1^st and it’s time to mark something off of the list.

This also helps fulfill #525 Blog at least once a month for a year.

Today, I chose something I could complete quickly and easily because I’m at work and I can’t be running around all over the place today.

#791 Figure out What the Hell a Sudoku is

At the time I made the list, I obviously had come across one of my son’s Sudoku puzzle books. As anyone could have seen from walking through a bookstore or browsing the magazine rack, Sudoku puzzles have become quite the rage over the last couple of years.

And it’s driven me crazy watching Parker complete these things when I had no idea what the object was. So…I looked it up.

It’s actually a logic based puzzle that was invented by an American. The modern puzzle was invented by an American architect, Howard Garns, in 1979 and published by Dell Magazines under the name "Number Place". It became popular in Japan in 1986, after it was published by Nikoli and given the name Sudoku, meaning single number.

The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid.

That’s it. That’s the great mystery.

Well, that was easy. I guess at least now I have the option of picking up one of those puzzle books in a gas station when on vacation. You know the kind, the rack of puzzles right next to the Mad Libs.