Movies we Love: Pirates of Silicon Valley

While out in Silicon Valley the past week for a job interview, I took advantage of the unlimited mileage on my rental car to drive around. Although one purpose of my driving was to get a feel for the area, in case I got the job, I also had another, more geeky reason. Some people like to search for haunted places, or purchase sketchy maps to find the homes of celebrities. Me, I spent my time driving around looking for the campuses and office buildings of the big Silicon Valley companies. I went by several brick and mortar buildings of companies that to most of us exist only in the ether of the internet: Oracle, Facebook, HP, VM Ware, and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Most of these were either on my way to and from the airport and interview, or were close to my hotel. A couple I found by accident while looking for a book store. But only one did I make a specific trip out of my way to drive by: the Apple campus bounded by Infinite Loop in Cupertino.

Apple, along with Microsoft, are at the center of Pirates of Silicon Valley, a 1999 made for TV film from TNT. Well, more accurately the center of the film is the story of Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) and Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall), and how their companies fueled the big PC revolution of the 1980s. The bulk of the film takes place in the late 70s and early 80s, and details the formation of both companies, the development of such early PC mainstays as the Macintosh and DOS, and Microsoft's cribbing of the Macintosh to build their first version of Windows, and culminates in Jobs being fired from the company he founded, primarily for being an unhinged asshole. Wrapped around the story is a presentation by Jobs after his return to Apple in 1997, a particularly contentious one where he announced Microsoft buying a stake in Apple. The movie ends with a giant image of Gates on the big presentation screen, much like the giant head from the famous "1984" Apple commercial.

A big part of why I like the film is because of where it ends. Pretty much nobody could have guessed in 1999 that Apple was about to have an even bigger second act. Although Jobs had brought the company out of its dreadful low point in the mid 90s, pretty much everybody thought it was still Microsoft's world to lose. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel detailing the last decade and a half, with John DiMaggio's Steve Ballmer playing a much larger role, of course. It's a case where being dated (like Back to the Future) helps, rather than hurts, the film.

Beyond that, though, it's a really well done movie, considering it was a made for basic cable movie. This isn't as surprising at it may seem today, as most cable channels have moved to focusing on creating new shows instead of movies. Back in the late 90s, TNT made several competently made movies, the best of which (in my opinion) is Pirates of Silicon Valley. It has some neat tricks, such as Steve Wozniak (Joey Slotnick) explaining how much of a BFD the Graphical User Interface was, or Steve Ballmer stepping out of the scene to highlight the significance of Microsoft selling DOS to IBM. Also, for a film based on true events, it is fairly accurate, which isn't always the case for even the best of these films*.

The best part of the film are the performances. Noah Wyle does an excellent job of not only looking like Jobs, but acting like Jobs. He nails the precarious balance of charismatic brilliance and passionate fury that pretty much made up Jobs. Anthony Michael Hall also does a great job with Bill Gates. The supporting cast does a mostly enjoyable job as well, particularly Joey Slotnick as the cheerful computer wizard Steve Wozniak and John DiMaggio as Gates' eventual successor Steve Ballmer**. What other movie can you see the voice of Bender Bending Rodriguez, Charlie's Mom from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and General Martok from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? None other that I am aware, that's what.

When I need something to put on while I am working, this is one of my go-to movies. For some reason it allows me to focus on what I'm doing, and motivates me to get it finished. I remember watching it multiple times whenever it showed up on TNT, and I may have even recorded it on VHS at one time, watching it any time I wished as long as I was near a VCR. Eventually I bought it on DVD, and have watched it many times since. Several projects I've worked on have gotten finished in part because I was watching this. While not a requirement for every one of my favorite movies, it plays a big part in why Pirates of Silicon Valley is on that list.

*See The Social Network

Valloween; Or, Community Returns to Form

Community had a somewhat rocky season 4 premiere last week, but this week's Halloween episode (it was supposed to air October 26th!) "Paranormal Parentage" was a funny, sweet, and a little bit spooky Valentine for fans.

The study group is meeting up at Greendale CC to head to Vicki's awesome Halloween party; Troy and Abed's "Calvin and Hobbes" costumes were absolutely adorable and perfect (seriously, Donald Glover rocked that tiger costume!), and the miscommunication between Jeff (as a boxer) and Annie (who was supposed to be his ring girl, but showed up as the creepy little ghost girl from the movie the Ring) was actually a pretty clever touch. Britta is inexplicably a ham.

Okay: Tangent. I never know whether to expect anything between Annie and Jeff; of course it's been hinted at pretty heavily since the Season 1 finale, but I almost feel like choosing "now" to expand their relationship (or close the lack there-of) would seem a little tired since the writers have already settled on Britta and Troy exploring their relationship. I hate it when shows shoehorn as many couples as possible at one time, especially when it's relationships within the main cast. At any rate, I liked that Annie stood up for herself when Jeff said "are you naive?" and she replied "I'm sure as stuff not your sexy little ring girl!". You go, Annie! That being said, she felt more like her early Community self as opposed to the more confident and clever girl she's (supposedly) grown in to.

The episode itself centers around "rescuing" Pierce from his panic room - along the way, spoooky mishaps happen to the study group as they divide up to search the house and look for the passcode. Could it be the ghost of Pierce's overbearing (and extremely racist) father? Unlike last week, the B and C plots didn't feel rushed or cheap. Britta is intent on solving Jeff's own daddy issues, and Shirley (unintentionally) shakes Troy's confidence in his ability to keep up with Britta. Abed finds the secret security room and watches the events unfold from behind the revolving bookshelf. Annie, in an act of meta so meta that it's just mindblowingly meta, reveals that she hates reference humor. Touche, Community. You do not disappoint. On the whole, though, the humor was somewhat low-key. It's not that most of the jokes didn't land - it's just like the show wasn't even trying to raise the bar humor-wise. It was a comfortable and reassuring "shhhhh, don't let the last episode give you the wrong impression."

Hawthorne Manor was a real treat to finally see - we'd heard so much about it from when Troy was living there, yet it's taken this long to get a proper glimpse of the place. And, of course, Torg the Norwegian Troll is missing from his rightful place on the bookshelf. Much like Pierce himself, the decor is stuck perpetually in the 1980s and giant picture of Chevy Chase Pierce, in his glory days, adorns his bedroom.

Now, I love Community and its doses of whackiness and suspension of disbelief (especially with the Halloween episodes). However, as much as I felt this episode will hopefully be indicative of a season that can only go up from here, I really am looking forward to a plot in the study room, at Greendale, with the characters grounding themselves and dealing with slice-of-life issues. The Study Group has a way of finding and amplifying the craziness among the normal goings-on at Greendale CC and I really like those episodes the most, I think (for example, their extreme and overblown hatred of Todd is really funny to me).

Finally, I love that Britta is ready to start her journey of becoming a Spacetimian.

Abed's Happy Community College Show: a Review

At last! At last! Community has returned to us! And to...semi-disappointed reviews? A slight bump in ratings? Oh...that doesn't sound good.

A lot has happened since Season 3's finale; Creator Dan Harmon was fired by Sony, prompting the hiring of two new Showrunners, Chevy Chase finally showed himself out, NBC only ordered the front half of a season, making Community's 4th season a sure 13 episodes long. Talks of cancellation were abound, and fan groups banded together to spread the word about the show. Adding insult to injury, the show's cries of "we're not too meta and high concept to be enjoyed by everyone!" were drowned out by another "lol look at nerds they're so nerdy! NERDS!" joke on the Big Bang Theory, which gets all the ratings ever.

A lot of the criticism behind the Season 4 opener "History 101" had to do with the "feel" of the show. Now, full (yet possibly redundant) disclosure: I actually haven't watched the episode yet. I wanted to get down these feelings of anxiety and anticipation after hearing word that OMG COMMUNITY ISN'T THE SAME ABANDON SHIP!

That's not fair. I'm going into this, my beloved show, with the hopes that the episode isn't on par with the season as a whole if it is truly bad. On the other hand, I've heard people say that the quality is equal to that of some of Harmon's weaker episodes, so that gives me a little insight as to what to expect.

Well, everyone, give me your hands, show me the door, I cannot stand to wait anymore:

"History 101"

The cold opening was genuinely pretty good; a multi-camera sitcom whitewash (complete with laugh track) that relied completely on identifying things and saying that they were things while whacky hijinks ensue (like everyone showing up with the SAME HIPSTER GLASSES!). I'd like to believe this was a not-so-subtle "Fuck YOU" * to NBC, the Big Bang Theory (as Abed makes some sort of half-hearted nerd joke the likes of which Sheldon Cooper would utter), and maybe the whole idea of the generic Sitcom formula that seems to thrive these days despite having been done to death. We go on to find out that this is Abed's "happy place" inside his mind - he'd started out with a babbling brook, but decided to incorporate aspects of his own life into it. As Abed is established as seeing things through rose colored tv-trope lenses, the show cuts to a meta version of the opening credits (referenced in the title of this blog post). Abed's internal happy place aside, I'm sticking to the idea that the cold open was definitely a message of some sort - would it take Community selling its soul to finally get the ratings it deserves? WOULD THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY, NBC?

Now, that being said, the tone itself does feel a bit off. Not Multi-cam laughtrack off, but there's something happening here that I can't put my finger on (and I'm not talking about Dean Pelton in a dress riding through the cafeteria in a chariot announcing "The Hunger Deans"...that's pretty normal). It's not Jeff's admission of his graduating "early", or New Jeff at all, or Abed's brink of mental breakdown at the idea that the Study Group has only a limited amount of time together. Is it the directing? The lighting? The cinematography? Was the catering spread subpar?

Is it because the group dynamic is broken up so early in the episode? The Study Group is barely in one place at the same time, instead opting to show Pierce and Abed side by side, Annie and Shirley together pulling pranks, Britta and Troy being progressive and making wishes, Jeff doing...the tango. Even the "Greendale babies" segment wasn't that out of the ordinary...but at the same time it wasn't hilarious.

Heart? Is the episode missing heart? The organic kind of feeling that this is actually a school, where it took people time to get to, and the people in the background are trying to get to class or eat lunch, and things happen in a way that's only meaningful to the Greendale 7 (and therefore to the audience as well)?

Okay, the ABED TV Blinde/Blonde promo was pretty funny.

"Can somebody tell me what the hell we just did?" I'm kind of confused, too, Pierce. For once, we're on the same page. I mean, the plot makes sense. The jokes are there. But nothing seems finished, or fleshed out. Jeff's characteristic "speech" at the end seems wasted because the episode wasn't set up correctly for it. The reviewers were right; it wasn't a great episode. It could have been so much more, and it should have been.

For all the people I've been bugging to get into Community, I urge you not to judge the series on this episode. Thank you for tuning in and giving it a shot; if possible, please go back and watch the first three seasons. You'll see why I love the show and really want it to thrive to Six Seasons and a Movie, but not at the cost that the latter half of the series loses what makes it so special in the first place.


* Sorry, dad, for the language.

Live from Arkham Asylum (and City)

Sorry I haven't contributed much to this blog (or any of mine, for that matter) lately - aside from just being in a general Cabin fever funk I've been catching up on my neglected Steam library.

A few months ago I purchased Arkham Asylum GOTY and Arkham City GOTY on Steam during one  particularly awesome sale. There they sat, undownloaded, unused, with the likes of Bioshock 2, Star Wars KOTOR, and Sonic the Hedgehog (I'm reeeaally behind, you guys) among others.

On a whim I decided to play through Asylum, knowing it had gotten rave reviews and was considered to be one of the best superhero video games ever made. What followed was a marathon of play-through, sleep, and searching for Riddler clues without using the various secret maps if I could help it. I quickly found that my favorite tactic was the inverted takedown, where I, as Batman, take down various gun-wielding thugs by stringing them up by the ankles from a gargoyle. Usually by the time I cleared a room a nice pile of inmates had formed under one of them, a look of grotesque satisfaction upon the gargoyle's face that mirrored my own. (This screenshot is from City, actually.)

Asylum was particularly fun in that the gameplay was almost surreal in a sense; the first fight against the two Titans was probably one of the most amusing and anxiety-ridden game fights I've ever had. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, and was especially confused when one Titan starting beating up another Titan. The confusion was replaced with joy once I realized I could ride around on their backs and destroy stuff. I imagined Batman's internal monologue to be along the lines of "wheeeeeeee!".

Having won the game by putting the ADD ridden Joker back in his place (Hahaha Batman I will defeat you!..Is that Jack Ryder's helicopter?) I finished the Riddler challenges...and found out that none of my achievements had been registered neither by Windows Live nor Steam.

Now I'm in the middle of Arkham City and find myself frustrated by the prospect that I (as Batman) may be dying of Joker AIDs. Apparently overdosing on a formula that turns one into a giant supermonster with bones sticking out all willy nilly does a number to the body.  The prospect of the Joker dying is actually really, really depressing to me - I mean, he's a psychopath and all around asshole and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, but it's still kinda sad. However, I had read awhile back that Mark Hamill was retiring from voicing the Clown Prince of Crime after City and I could see no better send-off than letting the Joker go out with a bang. And Joker AIDs, which he has spread to about 2000 people in Gotham, apparently.  (Full Disclosure: AIDs is never funny. However, the Joker does many things in poor taste, so I deemed it appropriate to refer to his mysterious illness in the game as such.)

The only issues I've had game-play wise with City were controls. It's taken a bit of finagling to accommodate easy to access controls using a laptop (without a mouse) but I think I've got it figured out now. Prior to the control modification I had come to the conclusion that I would not make a very good Batman (for many of the same reasons outlined here). That, and the fact that Andrew pointed out that I would never get through saying anything in the "Bale voice" without laughing hysterically.

I've therefore made the decision to repeat all of Batman's lines with aforementioned gravelly, ridiculous voice.

That's all for now; I've got some political prisoners to rescue!