Invictus by William Ernest Henley


Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Unlike the short moving Henley poem, which Nelson Mandela had written on a scrap of paper in his prison cell Invictus at 2 hours and 15 minutes is a drawn out film that falls short due to being too drawn out, trying to hard to capture ones emotions and being about a sport that no one in the United States cares or knows much about.

Sure all the ingredients are there for an outstanding film. You have two great performances form Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, and a flubbing only one accented line Matt Damon as the captain of the South African national rugby team. It's a beautifully shot filmed almost entirely on location but the typical cliched sports story sells the movie short.

SO here is a trial run of something I hope to be able to turn into a daily feature at that other site I do work for. That's assuming they want it, and I can keep up enough to do it. 


A round up of posters that mostly movie geeks will get excited about is at Film Junk.

Speaking of Film Junk, they have been running down their top 20 picks of the decade. So far I tend to agree with all of their picks. 

There were lots of rumors about the post Avatar Cameron plans today. 

Twilight Eclipse (6/30/10) gets the lame blown up 35mm print IMAX 'Experience' treatment. As a reminder, this is nothing more than a marketing gimmick with a worse picture but better sound.


Another rumor item on a great many sites, Josh Brolin (W., No Country for Old Men) to be in Men in Black 3?

Universal Pictures announced via Twitter yesterday that The Wolfman (2/12/10) has been given an R rating by the MPAA for bloody horror, violence and gore. My interest based on other buzz in this pic went up based on this news.

The trailer for the Nic Cage starring Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean) produced live action/modern The Sorcerer's Apprentice showed up online today, and rounds up today's news. 

Be safe marry and all that other B.S. that is spewed forth at this time of the year. Planing on trying to do a daily column as a trial run for some other things starting perhaps this week. Will see how it goes, schedule has been thinning out lately so I think I shall be able to get it done.
As always click the pic for maximum effect and enjoyment...thanks for dropping by and reading my garbage.

Uncharted 2 is a sequel to the well received 2007 PS3 exclusive Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Having never played through the original game I picked up Uncharted 2 based onthe positive buzz that followed the game through early builds and its reception at E3 where several gaming sites declared it one of the best of the show and a front runner for game of the year contention.

Uncharted 2 is similar to the popular but dated Tomb Raider series. Blending elements of platform gaming, the occasional puzzle and plenty of action. Both share a spiritual kinship with the Indiana Jones film series, so much so that there are several moments in the game where I felt this was the greatest Indiana Jones game ever made. Uncharted is just missing the iconic character and his whip. You control Nathan 'Nate' Drake a self-deprecating, devil may care, cocksure, as the manual puts it  fortune-hunter. He has a shady reputation and an even shadier past. In this sequel Drake finds himself thinking he is out only to be pulled back in. He is a pretty smart guy regarding the history of mysterious sought after artifacts and locations and can't turn down an opportunity when presented to him. In these pursuits he often finds himself in situations that put him in way over his head and it seems, like Dr. Jones, is making things up as he goes along.