Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a dark and twisted tale about a mother and the tragic loss of her daughter. Frances McDormand plays a foul-mouthed smooth talking country woman who seems to have reached the end of her wits. After almost a year since her daughter was brutally murdered and no news from the Police, Mildred (McDormand) calls out the police chief in a very public way, on three billboards.
This movie isn’t about catching the murderer of Mildred’s daughter. It’s not about how she was raped and burned alive. It’s also not about how small town police departments are often notoriously complacent. This movie is about exactly what the title says, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The billboards go up and the the small town around them comes crashing down. [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”An emotional ride with plenty of laughs, tears, and surprises.”[/perfectpullquote]
Sam Rockwell is becoming one of my favorite lesser-known actors. After Three Billboards… he cements himself on that list. Rockwell’s performance should land him an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Officer Jason Dixon. Throughout the film you can see his character evolve and by the end you start to feel sorry for him, even after almost two hours of hatred.
The rest of the cast is great and they all turn in amazing performances. Woody Harrelson somehow jerks the tears right from your face while still making you laugh. McDormand’s rough exterior eventually cracks and you can see the shining light that’s been trying to get out for the entire movie. John Hawkes has a great supporting role as Mildred’s estranged husband. There’s even a surprise role by Peter Dinklage. Dinklage’s portrayal of James is delightful and well-spoken as usual.
In summary, Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri is fun, but deep down it’s tragic. We are carried through various instances of death and despair but writer Martin McDonagh peppered in enough comedy to keep us sane.
Who should see this movie?
Fans of dark comedies, viewers looking for an original movie, and people who like great screen performances.
Who shouldn’t see this movie? People who don’t like natural (vulgar) language – It is rated R. That’s it. Everyone should see this film.
Score
9 / 10 – An emotional ride with plenty of laughs, tears, and surprises. One of the most original ideas I’ve seen in a long time.
Apple’s new flagship iPhone has been on sale for almost three weeks and you can’t go anywhere without hearing about it. The iPhone X (pronounced ”iPhone ten”) is the biggest change we’ve seen to the iPhone in a really long time. It’s also the first iPhone since the original where people were excited to see it and asked me how I liked it. It’s a lot like when I first started wearing my original Apple Watch, but a lot more people know about the iPhone X. The following review will be my opinion of the new iPhone, not so much the technical attributes it posses. Furthermore if you’re curious about the technical stuff check out Apple.com.
Screen
The first thing you notice on the new iPhone X is the screen. It’s big, bright, and very colorful. The screen goes from top to bottom and left to right covering the entire top side of the phone. This new OLED screen is my favorite part of the iPhone X. All the colors are vibrant and the black levels are so dark you can’t tell where the screen starts and stops. As a result this makes the iPhone X screen very pleasing to the eye.
iPhone 7 Plus (left) iPhone X (right)
When the screen is fully lit up you can see a tiny notch at the top of the screen where the earpiece is. This notch holds all the fancy iPhone X sensors that I’ll get to in the next section. The screen itself actually flows under this notch so anything that would be shown the in the notch section of the screen will be hidden. In photos, reviews, and talking about it the notch seems like a bigger deal than it actually is. After a day of using the iPhone X the notch becomes unnoticeable and unobtrusive. Most of all, this notched screen design will become one of the most iconic phone designs we’ll ever see.
Face ID
Gone are the days of using your unique fingerprint to unlock your iPhone. Now the iPhone X comes with Face ID (replacing Touch ID) as the biometric authentication process. To put it simple, Face ID uses the features of your face to unlock your phone. This process works in the dark, in the sunlight, and most noteworthy even when you’re wearing sunglasses.
My experience with Face ID has been fantastic. My iPhone unlocks more reliably than when I used Touch ID on my iPhone 7 Plus. There are a couple instances where Face ID doesn’t work, but they are very minimal and easy to live with.
TruDepth Camera system
Consequently the iPhone X doesn’t like my Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses so I have to slide them down to unlock my phone when wearing those. In contrast, My aviator-style Ray-Ban sunglasses work just fine.
Face ID is definitely the future and it can only get better from here. I was skeptical at first, just like I was before trying Touch ID, because all the previous face detection systems were utter garbage. Face ID has lived up to Apple’s marketing and I can’t wait to have Face ID on all the products I use.
Cameras
As an amateur photographer my smartphone camera is very important to me. The iPhone is not my only camera but I like to take a lot of photos with it because it’s smaller, lighter, and always with me unlike my Nikon DSLR. Last year I was excited by the new dual rear cameras on the iPhone 7 Plus. The added “telephoto” camera is very versatile and is even better on the iPhone X. The new cameras work very well in low light and the image is very clear. Previous iPhones seem to have a small increase in camera ability, but the fact that both cameras work identically at two different focal lengths is a huge leap over previous generations.
[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”It looks pretty, it feels great, and is a blast to use.”[/perfectpullquote]
The front camera hasn’t been changed, but it’s been supplemented by the new TruDepth Camera sensors which include infrared and depth sensors. The iPhone X’s front camera takes the same photos as the iPhone 7 but you now get depth mapping which adds the ability to take Portrait Mode photos. This still evolving feature is fun and looks cool, but it’s not a game changer. As a result I’d take the real depth of field on my DSLR any day.
Animojis
The iPhone X’s front facing TruDepth Camera system isn’t just for photos, Animoji is Apple’s way of putting you facial expressions on your favorite emoji characters. This is probably the killer feature of the iPhone X.
Panda Animoji
Being able to send someone a short video of your expressions and voice is endless fun and entertainment. This is one of the few areas Apple has been an innovator and I would bet it pays off big now and in the future.
Pros / Cons
The iPhone X isn’t perfect, but at the same time, it’s a huge leap forward for tech nerds like myself.
Pros
Great rear dual camera system
OLED screen is stunning in person
Face ID is more secure and easier to use
Cons
No home button; New interface could be confusing to some
Battery life is slightly worse than my iPhone 7 Plus, but still lasts all day
Front camera resolution could be better
Who should buy the iPhone X? Apple fans who want the latest tech, photographers wanting the best
smartphone cameras, and techie people who like being on the cutting edge.
Who shouldn’t buy the iPhone X? Users who want the same old iPhone interface, people who don’t want the latest technology, or folks who are afraid of the price.
The price of greatness
Let’s talk about price for a moment. All you read on the internet, hear on the news, and talk about at work is how this iPhone costs $1000+. While that is true, it’s not that big of a deal. Now let’s break it down a little bit.
Here are the costs of the current iPhone offerings and storage capacity respectively:
iPhone 8 (64GB/128GB) ———— $699/$849 or $35$41 per month
iPhone 8 Plus (64GB/256GB) —- $799/$949 or $40/46 per month
iPhone X (64GB/128GB) ———— $999/$1149 or $50/$56 per month
You can see the new iPhones range from $699 up to $1149. The iPhone X is not some outrageously priced hunk of junk. It’s worth the premium over the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. It comes down to if you can afford it or justify to yourself that you want to buy the iPhone X.
Most buyers will be financing this phone through carriers or Apple. Not many people will be shelling out cash for any of these iPhones. Also for even further comparison the top of the line Samsung Galaxy Note 8 costs $950.
In conclusion, the iPhone X is the future of what we’ll expect to see over the next few years and it’s going to be great. After three years of the same stagnant design Apple hit it out the park with the iPhone X. It looks pretty, it feels great, and is a blast to use.
Over the last six months since we’ve moved into our new home, our main bathtub drain has been getting slower and slower. This is not a new thing if you live with long-haired females. Recently, I was able to take a normal 10 minute shower and have the water rise past my ankles. This was the proverbial last straw.
Original Pipes
At our last house we had the same issue semi-annually and I invested in my very own drain snake. Previously, I would go through the tub drain or through the trap cleanout and snake it until I couldn’t snake it anymore. This would usually yield a large mass of hair-soap-scum nastiness that would leave the drain flowing like the Hoover Dam.
My previous successes gave me the confidence to charm my snake once again on this backed up drain. After a few attempts on what seemed too easy to be effective, I tested the drain. Immediately I noticed there was no change and threw down my champion snake in disgust. I retreated to the garage where I knew there was an access panel in the ceiling to the tub drain. As I was removing the access panel that the previous owner screwed AND glued, water began to drip. At this point I was fearing the worst…
Old house | Old pipes
Holy Pipe
To my surprise, under the access panel was an array of old corroded copper piping. Normally this would be fine as most mid-century homes in western PA have this infrastructure, but one of my pipes was missing a chunk. I concluded that my overzealous snaking caused this hole, but when I put my hands on the broken pipe, it almost caved under my grip. This was a ticking time bomb that was accelerated by my prodding. We have another shower in the house, but I decided this needed to be fixed, now. [perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”I’m grateful that I have a father who’s not only willing to help on jobs like this, but adds a great deal of knowledge to most projects.”[/perfectpullquote]
No drips
I called my home warranty company (AHS) and they assigned me a plumber whom I didn’t hear from for a day or two. After talking to the plumber’s office and not wanting to pay the service fee, I decided I could do this myself… mostly.
When it’s cold and rainy, there’s nothing better than plumbing
On a cold, rainy, and boring Saturday my dad and I set out to get this problem fixed. It looks like an easy job, just replace the existing pipes and we’re done! Not so fast… the old plumbing had a vintage drum-style trap, infamous for getting clogged, which also needed to be removed. Our first trip to my local home improvement center yielded a bunch of stuff that might do the job. After careful planning, cutting, dry-fitting, hypothesizing, trimming, and thoughtful staring, we had a configuration that would work.
Cutting out the old piping was easy. A cut here, loosen screws there, and it all came crashing down. We put in a new drain system in the tub accompanied by an overflow down to a new trap and piping. After gluing the first part together we did a water test. No drips, success! The last thing we had to do was vent the pipes through the roof.
Plumbing complete
Venting the trap and drain to the existing roof vent would require another trip to my local home improvement store, and food. After dinner we assembled the remaining parts our masterpiece of amateur engineering. Another successful leak test and we were done.
Another job well done
The only part that remains is patching the ceiling in the garage where the access panel was. After a few weeks to make sure there are no leaks, I’ll patch this with some removable drywall. Hopefully I’ll never have to open that panel again as long as I live in this house (knock-on-wood).
Plumbing isn’t the easiest task to undertake, but it’s easy to understand. You have to get water from point A to point B, end of story. It’s more of a puzzle than a labor intensive job, you have to assemble the right pieces to get water to flow properly, and away from your house.
I’m grateful that I have a father who’s not only willing to help on jobs like this, but adds a great deal of knowledge to most projects.
First, I’d like to preface this review by stating that I have not kept up with all the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I’ve seen a few, but I’m by no means qualified to discuss how Thor: Ragnarok ties into the other films.
Thor loses his mane of hair
Now if you’re like me, this movie is a fun trip through the unknown. Characters come into the light that may have been in previous films as well as other lesser-known characters only the hardcore fans will appreciate. Die-hard MCU fans may see Thor: Ragnarok as breaking away from the winning formula. It’s light-hearted and possibly inaccurate script make it easy to criticize.
The music, story, and overall feel gave me an 80s/90s vibe which turns out to be a good thing in Thor: Ragnarok. Furthermore there’s not a single slow period or mind-numbing action overload like in many MCU movies of late. Great pace, interesting characters, and villain animosity keep you involved start to finish. Thor: Ragnarok got me interested it Super Hero movies again.
Not sure if this will be the end of the Thor films, but Ragnarok in Norse Mythology roughly means the final battle of the gods.
Who should see this movie? Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans of the Marvel character Thor, viewers who enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy.
Who shouldn’t see this movie? Fans of Norse mythology looking for a true to myth Thor movie, people who hate fantasy/magic/unbeliveable movies, and viewers who dislike somewhat cheesy comedy in action films.
Score
7.5 / 10 – Much better than I expected. I hope Marvel continues this trend.
Murder on the Orient Express is a remake of the 1974 classic of the same name. Both movies were adapted from the 1934 Agatha Christie novel also of the same name. If you’ve seen the original movie this story won’t be new for you, but the directing, acting, and sets are (obviously) different.
Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot
The cast of Murder on the Orient Express has a lot of heavy hitters like Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judy Dench, Willem Dafoe, and of course Johnny Depp. We also get to see some unknown and up-and-comers such as Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, and Lucy Boynton.
[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”Murder on the Orient Express had me questioning the entire plot about halfway through.”[/perfectpullquote]
Branagh is great as Hercule (not Hercules) Poirot throughout the whole film. I would love to see him play the character again in another story. His performance reminded me of Christoph Waltz’s portrayall of Col. Hand Landa in The Inglorious Basterds.
The one thing that disappointed me with Murder on the Orient Express is how the audience was given information over the course of the story. My opinion is based off the 2017 adaptation only, the novel may have it differently. Without spoiling anything (scroll to the bottom for spoilers) the audience is given way too much information too soon. Murder mysteries have this great tendency to sway the viewers opinions and then twist their minds at the end with the real outcome. Murder on the Orient Express had me questioning the entire plot about halfway through.
Who should see this movie? People who like murder mysteries, fans of Agatha Christie, and fans of the 1974 adaptation.
Who shouldn’t see this movie? Viewers who don’t like murder mysteries, hate French accents, or don’t have time to waste.
Score
6/ 10 – Not bad, not good, and probably not better than the original.
A white man living in 1950s cliche suburbia contracts the mob to kill his wife so he can collect insurance money and run off with his sister-in-law. This plan unravels faster than you can say Suburbicon.
Matt Damon struggling to get through this movie
First of all, I have a few problems with this movie:
The actress that plays Matt Damon’s wife and sister-in-law is the same person, Julianne Moore. They don’t look different in the beginning and then the sister-in-law character goes a step further and basically becomes the wife. [perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”…it carries a lot of white guilt through the whole film.”[/perfectpullquote]
We are given little to no information upfront about what is going on in Suburbicon which would be fine, but most of it never gets explained.
The characters are so bland, emotionless, and boring that you never feel for any of them. At the end I was thinking “Oh well…”
In addition to those problems, theres a bigger, more upsetting issue with this film. While the aftermath of the mob hit is going on, there’s an entire plot around a black family moving into this previously white-only neighborhood. Suburbicon spends so much time on this, you think it has something to do with the main plot, but it actually doesn’t. I’m not sure why it was written into this movie but it carries a lot of white guilt through the whole film.
I love the Coen brothers’ movies. They have written some great American classics such as Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and No Country For Old Men, to name a few. Lately their writing has been a snooze, literally. I fell asleep all three times I tried to watch Hail Caesar! That, Inside Llewyn Davis, and A Serious Man have all been very weak in my opinion. But, as a die-hard Coen bros fan, I had to see this movie.
Unlike other Coen brothers movies, Suburbicon is directed by George Clooney which probably made a difference, for the worse.
Who should watch this movie? Fans of the Coen Brothers
Who should not watch this movie? Just about everyone
Score
3 / 10 – Most of the acting was good, but the directing and writing was very weak.
A 10 year later sequel to the original Saw movies, Jigsaw reignites the series. A new game is being played, but who is running the show? Jigsaw (John Kramer) has been dead for 10 years, or has he?
Billy the puppet
[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Jigsaw stays true to its roots and delivers the twists and turns we have come to love from this genre.[/perfectpullquote]
My favorite horror movie series Saw is back and I feel better about it than I did the last time a sequel was made. There were some points during the movie where I saw bad acting and plot holes, but the whole thing is saved by the end. Jigsaw is a throwback to the first set of movies and feels very familiar, in a good way. The story is told in two places, one takes place in ‘the game’, and the other is basically an episode of The Glades, complete with Matt Passmore.
Overall it’s a great restart to the series and I wouldn’t mind seeing this go forward, a little.
I didn’t see this movie in XD or IMAX, but I don’t think it would be worth the extra price.
Who should watch this movie? Fans of the original Saw movies, people who enjoy a good psycho-thriller movie, and someone looking expand their horror horizons beyond the supernatural hogwash being churned out every year.
Who shouldn’t watch this movie? People who can’t take a lot of blood and/or gore, viewers who didn’t like the original Saw movies, and horror fans looking for ‘jump out and scare you’ action.
Score
7.5 / 10 – Jigsaw stays true to its roots and delivers the twists and turns we have come to love from this genre.
Tom Cruise plays a real life pilot in American Made who helps the CIA and Medellín drug cartel deliver goods across borders. Cruise decided to adopt an obviously fake Louisiana accent which goes a long way to making this movie somewhat annoying.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The fact that this is a true story is this films only saving grace.[/perfectpullquote]
Tom Cruise the pilot again
Barry Seal randomly gets recruited by the CIA and ends up living the lavish life with more cash than he knows what to do with. Throughout the whole movie, Seal gets in and out trouble almost too quickly. The whole film feels rushed just to get the end result which is you can see coming from a mile.
The true story factor kept this entertaining enough to finish. When the final scene cut and the credits rolled I was relieved to know that American Made was over.
Who should watch this movie? Fans of the Netflix series Narcos, Tom Cruise fans, and people that like movies about planes
Who shouldn’t watch this movie? Fans of popcorn movies, someone expecting another Top Gun, and the person wanting to be wowed by Cruise’s acting prowess.
Score
5.5 / 10 – The fact that this is a true story is this films only saving grace.
This past weekend my father and I decided to tackle one of the more annoying things in our new home. This is my first time having a garage, and as a guy I was really excited to work on projects and cars inside for once.
The Plan
The plan was to hang new lights and add some outlets on dedicated circuits. Of course a plan is a good start, but we had no idea what hurdles this house would throw at us during the process. I purchased four 48-inch LED shop light fixtures from Amazon and had them shipped to out home prior to project day.
After about an hour of planning and strategizing the morning of, we went to my local home improvement store to get the rest of the supplies. This was hurdle number one because my local store had some odd product choices. I was unable to find the outlets I wanted so we decided to go with 15 amp outlets and breakers, and utilize some parts I already had at home. When it came time to get the breakers, they only had twin 15 amp versions in the brand I needed. This was going to have to be fine. Later, at checkout, the twin 15 amp breakers rung up about five times more expensive than a single breaker (which they didn’t carry). Now we were forced to go to our original plan of 20 amp outlets and breakers, while spending more money on materials. Because you can’t just go to a store like this and buy what you came for, we also left with a new leaf rake.
Previous State
Old pull-chain light fixture
The wiring in the garage was about 75% original to the house (60s) and the other 25% was installed around the turn of the century (2000). In addition to the lack of new wiring in the garage, the entire home is only on a handful of circuits. If you’re not sure what that means, basically a lot of outlets go back to a single breaker. Have you ever tried making toast and watching TV and a breaker trips? That’s because the circuit was overloaded. Adding more dedicated circuits means less tripping.
Old workbench outlet/switch
I have a beer spare refrigerator in my garage that was previously plugged in to the only outlet in the entire garage, which was also located above my workbench. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it wasn’t for the light switch also located in the area. Whoever installed this wired it so that the outlets were only active when the light switch was on. To run the refrigerator I had to keep the only light in the garage burning at all times. That light was now located half above my workbench and half above the refrigerator rendering it mostly useless for working anywhere but the workbench.
Electrifying
My father, a retired electrician, decided it would be best to tackle the lights first as they posed the most unknowns. His foresight was very appreciated later in the day. The garage had some old pull-chain type light fixtures randomly placed in the ceiling in two places. We leveraged these as junction points for our new lights. Above the workbench we cut in a new box in the ceiling to power a new light in that area. The entire ceiling in the garage is plasterboard and insulation which makes it very hard to run new wires. Using a metal wire fish tape we ran a wire from one of the pull-chain locations to the newly cut opening, then ran another wire back to the other pull-chain location to link them all on a switch. The new LED fixtures were a breeze to install. They were flush mounted to the ceiling using plastic anchors and then we cut off the plug and wired them to the junction box. There was an existing switch by the garage entrance to the house which we wired to all four lights. By the time we did all of the wire fishing, wiring, hanging, and testing, it was dinner time.
New workbench power
After dinner it was dark enough to test the lights and wow were they bright. The locations we chose were perfect to balance the room and make future work a lot more convenient. Now we could use the new lights for phase two. Next it was time to run new circuits for new receptacles. We ran two wires from the electrical panel to the workbench, each on their own breaker. The first one was to power the refrigerator and existing radon remediation system. The other was a quad outlet for the workbench where I can plug in almost anything. While we were working, we decided to add another outlet directly below electrical panel, close to a garage door, for use outdoors. This was also on it’s own dedicated circuit. After more wire pulling, stapling, wire twisting, drilling, and testing, we had 4 new fully functioning 20 amp outlets in the garage.
Completed lights
Now that the work is complete it can only mean that I will do more work in the garage with the proper power and lighting. I went from one small florescent fixture and two incandescent bulbs to four very bright LED fixtures. I also upgraded our power outlets from one on a shared circuit to four spread over three circuits. All in a days work.
Wow… what a ride. Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem deliver two oscars-worthy performances in a new movie that could only have come from Darren Aronofsky’s mind. Riddled with symbolism, metaphors, and religious undertones, Mother! tries to be a lot more than it is. I appreciate Aronofsky trying to bring his thoughts and visions to light and while most of them worked, the movie will fall flat on most viewers.
Mother!
A married couple are spending their days in an old house when uninvited guests begin to show up and cause disturbances. One thing leads to another and their happy lives are destroyed. Read below for spoilers and what I thought this movie represents.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The story unfolds quickly through the climax and at the end you’re left with questions, confusion, and possibly tears.[/perfectpullquote]
The first 30 minutes of this movie have no score, soundtrack, or ambient noise. It’s just you and the characters on the screen. This can be annoying if you’re in a theater with other humans who breathe, eat, and are just naturally noisy. The lack of music allows you to immerse yourself in what is going on between the on-screen characters. Jennifer Lawrence has great poise and there is not a scene in this movie without her. Javier Bardem shows many different sides and it’s his best performance since No Country for Old Men. The story unfolds quickly through the climax and at the end you’re left with questions, confusion, and possibly tears.
Who should watch this movie? Fans of Aronofsky, fans of great acting, and people who can look past blatant attempts of symbolism of our current society.
Who shouldn’t watch this movie? People looking for a movie to just entertain them, people who struggle with violent images, and viewers that do not wish to think about the meaning of a scene or character.
Score
7.5 / 10 – Very moving acting on top of a weak premise.
Coming into this movie, I didn’t know a lot about the Steven King novel, the 1990 TV miniseries, or this new version, which I feel made the viewing experience much better. I knew there was a clown, I’ve seen the red balloon imagery before, and I knew it was in the horror genre. Beyond that, I was just going on the hype and sales of this movie.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”#ff0000″ class=”” size=”28″]Skarsgård has what it takes to be nightmare fuel.[/perfectpullquote]
About a month ago, I signed up my wife and I for MoviePass, a service that allows you to see unlimited movies every month for a flat fee. This will be great for the fall season and hopefully into the future. Because of this, I will be trying to review every movie I see, so stay tuned! MoviePass is not giving me anything to write this, nor is anyone paying me anything.
It opens in the late 1980s with two brothers building a paper sailboat. The older brother Billy is clearly the babysitter in the family, and the younger brother clearly needs babysat. The younger brother, Georgie, has fears of the basement and when he’s forced to go down there nothing happens. This was a slow start for me, but then it immediately got better. See spoilers at the end for more.
The star of the show by far is Bill Skarsgård who played Pennywise (the clown). It was almost on par with Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. You could see the legitimate terror in the face of the actors when they had scenes together. Skarsgård has what it takes to be nightmare fuel.
Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise
Throughout this movie I was distracted by trying to figure out the mechanics of how the villain worked and how he could be defeated. The writers very early on spoiled the fact that they were going to be making a sequel, and by the end of the movie, it was painfully obvious.
Overall this movie was very entertaining and kept me interested the whole 2 hours and 15 minutes. If the same production team is involved in the sequel, it should do very well too.
Who should watch this movie? If you like Stranger Things, It Follows, and 80s horror movies, you will definitely like It.
Who shouldn’t watch this movie? Fans of modern/terrible horror movies like Paranormal Activity. It has more of a story and character development and less jumpy scary stuff. Also, if you have a problem with clowns, teenagers swearing, or blood/guts, you should stay home.
Score
8 / 10 – Great movie to better enhance the currently cliche genre
*Spoilers*
Do not read below if you do not want to read any SPOILERS!
The entire movie we are constantly reminded that in 27 years, blah blah blah, the clown/It comes back. The movie takes place in 1989 which is 27 years from 2018. I wonder when the next movie will come out and take place… The opening scene where Georgie meets and later gets killed by Pennywise was my favorite. This scene created the baseline of fear for the clown and also showed that this movie was going to have no mercy, even on the youngest kids. Hopefully in the future they do a better job of explaining the history of this ‘It’. We got a couple of stories that the Ben character researched, which made me hope for a deeper history lesson, but alas that may come later. Since I’m not a It originator, that may have already been explained in the book or miniseries.
Besides writing a check, how else can you send money to someone?
It’s 2017 and most people I know still write checks to give money to someone else. You would think by now technology has solved this problem of carrying a checkbook, writing out specific information, and bringing that to the bank. This ancient technique has finally been updates, for the most part.
There are numerous ways to send money to another individual or business, whether is to pay a bill or a gift, a lot of services exist for this sole purpose. Venmo, PayPal, Square, and PopMoney are three popular services, but it seems most banks offer their own version. These money sharing services often charge a fee when using a credit card, but most of the time there is no charge to use debit from your checking account. The issue with using an app to send money is that the funds live in the app and the recipient has to withdraw or transfer the money to use it. In rare instances, someone may keep the funds in the app and use it elsewhere, this is common when using PayPal. Think of someone you know that you’ve written a check to in the past. Odds are that they wouldn’t know what to do if you send them money via Venmo.
Enter Apple’s solution to this problem: Apple Pay. Ever since Apple debuted Apple Pay in 2014, I’ve been wondering how I can use this to pay another individual. While not as simple as holding your iPhone up to an NFC reader, Apple proves they have taken the time to think this through. Basically, you can send someone money through your iPhone to another person who has also has an Phone through the iMessages app. The way they do this is by giving you an Apple Pay gift card that you can load money on to send to other people. The great thing about this gift card is you can use the loaded/transferred funds anywhere that accepts Apple Pay, right from your iPhone. You can also transfer this money to your bank account, which should be free to do. If you send money to another person through Apple Pay by using a credit card, you’ll be charged a fee of about 3% of your transfer amount. This is to pay the credit card fees, so Apple isn’t making any money of this transaction. This transfer fee is standard throughout all the popular money sending services, but differs in actual percentage.
A lot of retailers are moving to this “gift card” scenario where you load money on to a card and use that to pay, usually through a smartphone app. Starbucks is the biggest one I’ve used and they entice you to use it with rewards resulting in free items. The kicker with Starbucks is you can reload your card using Apple Pay, which makes this new system work.
Apple Pay person-to-person will be launching later this fall. This new money transfer system will take a very long time to catch on, if ever. The older generations, who actually use smartphones, will probably never get on this program. Don’t expect that $10 birthday check from your grandparents to go away any time soon.
My wife and I are in the market for a new SUV this fall. We are looking to replace our 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, not because we hate it, but because our lease is about to come to an end. There are so many options out there that fit our needs, which could be why this segment is becoming the most popular among car manufacturers today.
Feature Rich
We have a very specific wishlist for this next SUV, mainly because of what we have already been accustomed to. Most of the items are luxuries or technology based goodies that we feel every car should have.
Remote start
Heated / ventilated front seats
Large panoramic sunroof
Heated steering wheel
Apple CarPlay compatible stereo
LED daytime running lights
Factory-installed hitch
Powered lift-gate
Not that bad of a list right?
In addition to those refinements, we really need a car that has an engine that can really move when we need to. We previously had a vehicle with an undersized engine and while it was good on gas, merging onto the highway proved to be somewhat dangerous. Some of the options we’re looking at vaulted us into the luxury SUV space which we didn’t want to tread in. Companies like BMW, Lexus, and Jaguar have great offerings but we did not want to get in on the low-end of their trim levels to meet our budget.
Narrowing It Down
In January of this year, we traveled to Detroit for the North American Auto Show to take a look at some potential new models. We came away from this show mostly disheartened by the fact that our beloved Jeep was not changing and thus not keeping up with the influx of technology in this space. The early leader leaving the show was the newly redesigned GMC Terrain. Remember that car I mentioned earlier that had a very underpowered engine? That was a 2013 GMC Terrain with a 4-cylinder lawnmower engine that would redline going up the slightest hill. Needless to say, we only owned that car for about six months. There was some hesitation to lean towards the new Terrain, but the new 2.0 turbocharged engine seemed like a good upgrade that we’d be happy with. Leaving the show I was just about set on getting the new Terrain, in fact, if they would have offered a trade right then and there, I probably would have taken it. They didn’t offer me a new 2018 GMC Terrain on the spot, so we decided to sleep on it.
Fast forward eight months and we’re still looking at new cars coming out and deciding what we’re going to do. We have a slight deadline because our lease is set to expire sometime in October of this year. Lots of time ahead, but we aren’t taking this decision lightly. While the GMC Terrain is still in the running, we’ve had some other potentials come into view. The 2017.5 Nissan Murano checks all of our boxes and looks pretty cool too. We took a Sunday trip to our local Nissan dealer (because they are closed on Sundays) and eyeballed some new Muranos. This spelled bad news for the Murano because it just doesn’t look at good in person as it does in promotional photos. Now back to one again, the original GMC Terrain that started courting us in January.
There has always been one wildcard in our race, but it only had the support of half the votes. I have really admired the Volvo XC60 since it’s redesign last year, and even added it to my list. Volvo is a great car company, and they know it, which is why the are now moving up the price list and becoming more of a luxury brand than ever before. My wife has never been impressed by either the XC60 or XC90. “Volvos are for old people, and I’m not old yet” exclaims my wife every time I mention the Volvo SUV. I’ve realized that’s a fight I cannot win, and thus we move on.
The Winner
A strange, almost divine series of events have unfolded lately that lead us to pick our next SUV. I was doing more research as I always do and found that the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokees were soon entering production. I thought to myself, “I wonder what’s new on the 2018 model year?”, turns out, just enough. The upcoming Grand Cherokee updates included one key feature that was missing from all previous Grand Cherokee models, Apple CarPlay. This was the one feature we had to have, not because it’s cool, new, and easy to use, it’s because most car infotainment system are downright horrible. The ability to essentially mirror your iPhone on your car’s screen for music and maps is monumental. Along with the addition of CarPlay, Jeep brought back a new special edition trim called High Altitude which fits our styling tastes perfectly. The basics of this special edition are removing all the chrome accents, including the Jeep badges, and replacing them with matte finish dark accents. This creates a very modern take on a more luxurious trim.
If all goes well with finances and timing, we will be leasing a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee High Altitude in white.
How I Did The Research
Over the last 10 months I’ve been researching mid-size SUVs as they are announced and adding them to a spreadsheet to compare the specifications. I have posted it here so that you all can see the various types of specs I was comparing and how the different vehicles stack up. You’ll also notice that I went after specific trim levels on each SUV and only cared about certain features. This was mostly due to the fact that almost all SUVs in this class are going to perform the same and have the same overall sizing.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about my research and hope this will help someone else make a decision on a very large purchase. I will definitely post an update once we finally get our new SUV.
Apparently some people have been sending naughty photos to nearby people using Apple’s AirDrop. While amusing, this could be startling to most people or down right perverted to minors.
To change your AirDrop settings, head into the Control Center — the menu that appears when you swipe up from the bottom of your screen. Just look for “AirDrop,” and it should tell you what your settings are. Tap the icon to turn off receiving completely, or you can choose to receive files from just your contacts or from everyone. (Those using Apple’s iOS 11 in beta can change these settings from the “General” menu of the settings app or by using 3D Touch on the Control Center panel that includes the switches for airplane mode and WiFi.)
This fall Apple will be releasing a new feature for your iPhone that could save your life!
Do Not Disturb… While Driving!
A new feature included with the upcoming release of iOS 11 will put your iPhone into Do Not Disturb mode while you are driving in your car. If you are not familiar with Apple’s Do Not Disturb mode, it suppresses all notifications and sounds while enabled. This is especially useful while you sleep if you keep your iPhone near you all night long. The kicker for the driving mode is when you get an iMessage it will reply to that person with a customizable message describing how you are driving and not getting notifications. If for some reason this person needs to reach you, they can reply URGENT to the automated message and their original message will be sent through. You can even set a contact list of people who get right through to you, bypassing Do Not Disturb. Of course this is all fine until you want to use your iPhone while you’re in the car. When you go to unlock your iPhone while Do Not Disturb is on you’ll see a pop-up on your screen letting you know this mode is turned on. You’ll need to tap I’m Not Driving to let your iPhone know that it’s safe to turn off Do Not Disturb mode. This is just another step Apple is taking to ensure your are driving safely.
You should turn this on.
The number of cell phone related car accidents is on the rise and while we wait for autonomous cars, this is a great step to lower the number of incidents. This can also be a way for some people to break the awful habit of having to look at their phones every second of the day. Your eyes and mind should be focused on the road and other drivers, not your SnapChat or Instagram feed. I’m hoping Apple puts out a huge ad campaign around this feature so that more people will use it. I wouldn’t go as far to say that Apple should turn this on by default, but it definitely deserves some attention.
Ive been testing this mode for about a month now and it has been great. I’ve been guilty of checking my notifications, sending messages, and browsing social media in traffic or at a stoplight. I’m ready to kick that habit and Apple’s new Do Not Disturb while Driving is a great feature
This past weekend my father and I decided to tackle one of the more annoying things in our new home. This is my first time having a garage, and as a guy I was really excited to work on projects and cars inside for once.
