She blinded me with science...

Movie Review: Mindwalk (1990)
A great film along the lines of 'My Dinner with Andre'. 3 people, an ex-physicist, a poet and a former Presidential candidate walk through the ancient castle at Mont Saint Michael in France. Along the way they begin a conversation that touches on physics, politics, poetry, and many other points in between. It is a fascinating conversation that is further enhanced by the beautiful scenery and music of Phillip Glass. 8.5/10

Movie Review: What the Bleep Do We (K)now!? (2004)
This documentary discusses the limits of human knowledge. It looks at the state of current physics, psychology and biology. It also tries to tie them all into religious belief. The film consists of two threads, one follows a deaf woman through her day, the other feautures interview segments with various specialists about different topics. It's an interesting film with good CG effects but there appear to be some major weaknesses to the film's ideas.
Firstly, the film discusses quantum physics and the randomness that controls sub atomic particles. I thought this was very well done. It shows a lot of the strangeness and paradoxes that arise within the subatomic world, such as how an observer being present changes the outcomes of phenomena.
The movie also talks about an art display by a Japanese scientist named Emoto who apparently caused water molecules to change their patterns by simply inserting pieces of paper with different words (such as love, hate, etc) into the water. The film concludes that if our thoughts can change water then we can change anything. One character even says, "you can walk across water if you believe it enough." That doesn't sound like science to me. Other scenes show how our emotions, or addictions are merely caused by tiny chemical peptides in our brain. Once again, our thoughts, in this case happy thoughts, are the key to changing our emotions and neural networks.
Where the film really loses steam is when it begins talking about God. Various experts claim that what everyone thinks God is is wrong, and then they proceed explain what God really is. How are they to know? At least the scientific portions of the movie can fall back on experiments to verify their claims. This stuff about God is just more opinions.
I found it annoying that none of the experts are identified until the very end of the movie as the credits are rolling. I wanted to know who these people were and what their qualifications were to be making the various statements they did. It also turns out that one of the experts, a woman living in Seattle, claims to be possessed by a 25000 year old spirit of a man and has made a fortune charging people to attend lectures.
All in all the film interesting to watch but certainly isn't the revealing science film I thought it would be. It's really a 'New Age' film trying to bring science and religion together - which I think it fails to do. 7/10

Movie Review: What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole (2006)
An extended but recut version of the 2004 film. It covers most of the same points but features new interviews with many of the experts, some new participants, and some new animated shorts. It doesn't follow the deaf woman's story as much as the first film did but concentrates more on the technical parts of the film. Unfortunately, the 'Addicted to Love' musical number wasn't cut out. A good follow up for those who enjoyed the first film. 7.5/10

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice 5: Defenders of the Dead - Jude Watson
Obi-Wan finally starts acting his age. While trying to mediate peace talks on a world ebroiled in a civil war, Obi-Wan befriends a group of youngster the same age as him and gets swept up by the turmoil around him. His rebelliousness threatens to break up his relationship with Qui-Gon Jin.

Assault on old boy on fire

Movie Review: Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Ethan Hawke is a burnt out cop given the non-demanding job of shutting down an old precinct HQ. Laurence Fishburne is the mob boss being transported to a high security prison. Heavy snow forces the police bus to make a detour to the minimally staffed Precinct 13 HQ. However, a literal army of corrupt police officers is intent on storming the building and killing everyone inside.
This remake of John Carpenter's classic (which apparently is itself a remake of Rio Bravo) really falls on its face early. The whole movie hinges on the prisoner transfer bus being forced to stop at the nearly abandoned precinct building. This only happens because of a snow storm. If it weren't for this snow storm the bus would have continued to the high security prison where it seems unlikely that the corrupt cops could have attacked. The scenes of the corrupt police attacking are also awful. They are dressed up like SWAT members yet they only attack the precinct 1 at a time. Drea de Matteo, the sister from 'Joey', has nothing to do but show off her chest and spout stupid lines. Oh yes, she is also a better shot than the SWAT guys. And worst of all, the ending of the movie takes place in a forest that suddenly shows up next to the precinct building despite all the earlier setup shops that showed it to be in an industrial area. 4/10

Movie Review: Oldboy (2003)
Oldboy features the greatest possible revenge scenario since Eric Cartman made Scott Tenenbaum eat a chilli made from his parents. This Korean suspense film starts with a loud mouthed man being kidnapped and locked in a small rooom with a TV. 15 years later he is, suddenly, released. He goes looking for the people who put him there and and the reason why. This spills into a superb revenge thriller from many different angles. A deserving winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2004. 8.5/10

Movie Review: Man on Fire (2004)
Denzel Washington stars in this, yet another, revenge action movie. He plays a former government agent, now washed-up alcoholic who can only find work as a bodyguard in Mexico. His assignment, an adorable girl played by the always impressive Dakota Fanning. He tries to stay on purely working terms for her but soon falls prey to her charm. When she is kidnapped and reported dead Denzel switches to full revenge mode. He arms himself with some pretty big guns (including a rocket launcher at one point) and proceeds to tear Mexico City a few new A-holes. Visually this movie is great but the music was a little jarring. It's very nice music but it seemed Gaelic to me and did not match the Mexican background. 7.5/10

Book Review: America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction - Jon Stewart
A very funny 'Dummy's Guide to American Democracy'. If you like Jon Stewart's 'The Daily Show' you'll love this too.

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #4 The Mark of the Crown - Jude Watson
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan arrive on a planet that is in turmoil. The long ruling royal family is stepping down and elections are under way. Some don't want things to change though and intrigue ensues. This book has some nice twists and turns to the plot but isn't all that gripping.

Book Review: The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics - Gary Zukav
I figured this was going to be another 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', or at least another 'The Tao of Physics'. It turned out to be a relatively easy to follow layman's guide to Quantum Physics, at least the theories of Quantum Physics that were floating around 30 years ago when this book was written. I found it pretty easy to follow for the most part and very interesting. A good book for fans of physics who, like me, can't do the math.