Tag: reviews

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Star Trek vs Star Wars

startrekStar Trek vs Star Wars. This has been a long running debate. But regardless of the arguments Star Trek has always been the more scientific and, I dare say, more intellectual series. In short, more mature. Star Wars has always been more kid-oriented. Every succeeding release sees more and more characters destined for the toy store. Still, a lot of people, including yours truly, watched it because of the action. Mindless action but, hey, it’s fun!

With the latest Star Trek movie, they reinvented and modernized Star Trek.  They added flash and bang demanded by the new generation of viewers. But the best thing is that they managed to do this without dumbing it down… too much. And guess what? It’s all good.

Star Trek is a restart. The movie takes us back to when the USS Enterprise and its intrepid crew were just starting off. Of course, to put continuity into things, there is a link to the previous Star Trek movies and TV shows, which in this case is not really previous but from the future.

And since this involves time travel, as you have guessed, everything got mucked up good. A peace-loving turned vengeful Romulan villain got warped into the past and in an instant almost aborts Kirk. But Star Trek won’t be the same without Kirk so he was allowed to escape impending doom.

Soon after, a geriatric Spock arrives, also from the future, and was instantly captured the the waiting Romulans who then use the technology in his ship to destroy, of all planets, Vulcan. Star Trek without Vulcan?!? I guess Star Trek is still Star Trek without it. But what about the younger Spock?

Thankfully, Spock is already by then at Star Fleet where he embarks with Kirk and the rest of the gang on the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Their first mission was to stop the Romulans and, as expected, they did. How they did, is a really good watch ;)

Rating: 4/5

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Benchmade Pika II

benchmade-pika-iiSince I lost my Gerber EZ-Out, I’ve been looking for a suitable replacement. I looked far and wide but haven’t been able to find one until recently: The Benchmade Pika II. It reminds me of the Benchmade AFCK which is a knife I’ve always liked. But there’s more to it than that.

Let’s begin with the blade. It is 3.5″ long and is a modified clip-point with a partially-serrated edge. It has a big nice round ambidextrous thumb-hole. The steel is 9Cr13CoMoV from China but it’s said to be equivalent to 440C steel which has the highest strength, hardness and wear resistance of all the stainless alloys. Pretty good so far.

The handle is made of glass-filled nylon with molded “triple-grip” pattern. It was the thing I least liked about the knife as it was too intricate but it does seem to work. Polymer handles are pretty tough by themselves as I’ve experienced with my Gerber EZ-Out but Benchmade chose to further reinforce it with a steel inner lining. Nice but could be a problem when exposed to saltwater.

The locking mechanism is lockback.  A lot of people don’t like lockbacks and opt for a whole bunch of new technologies like axis locks. But lockbacks seem fine to me so far. The lockback mechanism on the Pika II seems very well made with no slack or wobble whatsoever.

The clip is the one of the best thing about the Pika II. It is small, light, and very strong. But best of all, it can be relocated to 4 positions. You can carry the Pika II any way you like! There’s also a provision for a lanyard. Well-designed, indeed.

The Pika II is part of Benchmade red box line: “Best in class value”. The knives in the red box line are low-cost, well-designed, fully-functional, and made in China, Taiwan to be precise.

There’s actually nothing wrong with that. Over a decade ago, I got myself a clip-point lockback that was made in Taiwan. It had a good, sharp, stainless steel blade. The only thing wrong were some chrome plated fasteners that eventually rusted. But it did it’s job, and well. I expect the Pika II to do the same.

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CD-R King HDD Enclosure

CD-R King sure has come a long way.  Starting with selling tacky and cheap CD-Rs they have become the purveyor of the tacky and cheap electronic gadgets. This is not to say the stuff they sell are useless. On the contrary, they’re quite usable once you get past the awful looks.

Case in point, I needed an enclosure for my 320GB 3.5″ HDD. It had been freed up of archiving duty upon the arrival of my Buffalo Linkstation. To reward it for months of hard work, I decided to get it an enclosure. The problem is that the prices ranges from P1,200 and up. Too much a reward considering 320GB HDDs cost about P3,000 these days.

So with heavy feet, I walked into one of the ubiquitous CD-R King branches. The stacks of goods were there, the line was there, the poor service was there. But I owe my HDD so I persevered and finally, it was my turn. I pointed at the enclosure (turo-turo high tech, yesh) and the sales lady showed it to me.

I checked the enclosure out and I decided it wasn’t bad at all. For P580 you get a nifty aluminum enclosure. It actually looked reasonably good except for a tacky translucent blue front plate. It the usual power cord, USB cable, driver installer (who needs those?) and a tacky and cheap plastic chrome stand. But best of all,  it even includes a tacky and cheap screwdriver. With a package like that, who can resist, yeah? So I paid for it, went home, put in my HDD, and now it’s spinning merrily away on my sister’s desk doing backup work.

Now if they can only fix the long lines and poor service…

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Doubt

doubtDoubt is about Sister Aloysius, a ultra-strict ultra-conservative nun who is the headmistress of a school. She is on a crusade against Fr. Flynn, a progressive-minded priest who is teaching at the school. She is quite sure that the priest is engaged in illicit activities with an altar boy/student.

The movie does not attempt to form an opinion for the viewer. Instead, it relies on the main character’s portrayals: Sister Aloysius’ accusations against Fr. Flynn and her absolute lack of doubt, Fr. Flynn’s passionate justification of his actions some of which are actually observed by the viewer. These portrayals is what carries the movie and it is quite impressive.

However, considering the not-so-recent news  about the past actions of priests, most viewers would probably have an opinion similar to Sister Aloysius. Perhaps, without that influence, the movie would have been even more thought-provoking.

Rating: 4/5

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Appaloosa

Appaloosa is a western along the lines of those maverick hero-for-hire adventures pioneered by Akira Kurosawa (in his case it would be katana-for-hire) and westernized, in both senses of the word, by quite a few filmmakers. The movie follows the story of Virgil Cole (Ed Harris), a traveling lawman-for-hire (nothing new, yeah?) and his sidekick Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) as they ventured into a troubled town, gets hired by the terrified populace, and tracked down the terrorist villain. But not without some twists and turns, of course.

Still, the storyline is not one to follow the roads less traveled but hey, that’s what timeless tales are made of. Remember those? The ones you want to hear over and over from your grandparents at bedtime? The movie is long, almost (but not quite) epic in feel. And that’s already the version horribly butchered by the MTRC and/or the cinemas. And yet, it was able to keep my attention with the right combination of humor, [cheesy] romance, and action, and storytelling.

Word is that there’s already a sequel in the coming. If it’s anything like this one, then they can count on me to be one of the first to watch it (especially if someone gives me a premier ticket).

Rating: 4/5