Bent Corner

It looks like quite a few NFL players have tested positive for steroids. ESPN is reporting that the New Orleans Saints have three players, Deuce McAllister, Will Smith, and Charles Grant have tested positive under the NFL’s steroid policy.

NFL players are taking steroids? What’s next, an ESPN report that players on the road cheat on their wives?

Of course players in the NFL take steroids. Men don’t naturally put on as much muscle as the average NFL lineman or any of the other strength position players without taking extraordinary messages. That includes lifting lots of weights and taking lots of supplements, including steroids.

Steroids don’t make you stronger. They don’t give you more muscles. What they do is allow you to heal and recover quicker. That means you can lift a lot of weights and spend less time recovering in between workouts. Some people mistakenly think steroids allow you to work less, but the complete opposite is true. They allow you to work harder and more often. [ESPN]

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If you’re not a fan of your computer’s operating system’s file manager, you really ought to check out muCommander. There’s a version for just about every operating system known to man. Remember that alien computer system in the movie Independence Day? The one that Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum uploaded a computer virus onto while docking with the alien mothership? Well, I think you can even download a version of muCommander for that operating system.

The list of available versions is that extensive.

The interface allows you to easily move files between directories through a two-panel view.  I think there’s other options as far as the display is concerned, but the default two-lanel system works great.  I try using two panels with Vista’s Explorer and it’s hard to keep the two displays up at the same time.

This software is free and it’s much better.

The superhero movie Hancock staring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron made over $107 million this holiday weekend.  The movie had been panned by critics.

The movie website Rotten Tomatoes have it a 37% on their “tomatometer”. That’s where they take published movie reviews and separate the positive reviews from the negative reviews. Out of the 167 reviews for Hancock, 106 of them were negative.

So why did so many people go see Hancock?

The movie studios wont stop making sucky movies if so many of the viewing public continue to go to the theater to watch them.  Going to the theater to see Hancock is rewarding bad behavior.  It tells the movie studios that they can make bad movies and people will go and watch.  Even if the critics let them know before hand, they will still go and watch.

Knock it off.  Do not go watch bad movies.

Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: Mark Protosevich, Akiva Goldsman
Staring: Will Smith, Kona the dog, Alice Braga, Salli Richardson, Emma Thompson

This movie was based on the novel by Richard Matheson. Scientists have cured cancer. Or so they think. They have taken the measles virus and reprogrammed it to destroy cancer. Unfortunately, the re-engineered virus has mutated into something that turns 10% of the human population into vampire zombies. It kills the remaining 90%.

It doesn’t kill everyone. A few people are actually immune to the virus. Most of them have been hunted down and eaten by the vampire zombies. Robert Neville — the Army research scientist superbly played by Will Smith — is immune to the virus. He is the last man alive in New York City. He also believes he is the last human on the face of the earth.

When he is not trying to shoot wild deer with his AR-15 on the streets of New York City, he is conducting experiments in his state of the art basement laboratory. He is trying to find the cure to this vampire zombie virus. Being that he was the last human left (or so he believes) I didn’t really understand his motivation.

There were a few things that never made much sense. Before Neville enters his brownstone apartment each evening, he can be seen pouring some kind of liquid from a plastic gallon dispenser. What was this liquid? Holy water? We never found out what it was. Also, flashback scenes show Neville wearing the Army insignia of a major, but other people refer to him has lieutenant-colonel.

I enjoyed the movie. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to watch it again the next day with the audio commentary track. The problem was there was no audio commentary track. I’m getting tired of DVD’s that don’t offer at least one audio commentary track. DVD’s that don’t include an audio commentary track might as well be VHS tapes.

Movies on DVD should always be in letterbox format and they should also include audio commentary tracks.