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A few weeks ago, we got to attend the second night of the Banff Film Festival World Tour here in Madison. There were two films that have stuck with me simply for the determination of each of the adventurers.

In the first film, Dominic Gill rides a tandem bike from Point Barrow, Alaska to Puerto Toro, Chile. (Oddly, I tried to used Google Map's bike directions to go from point to point and it couldn't calculate a route.) He documents his adventure in the story, Take a Seat. With the tandem bike, he gets to pick up random people to help him; he even had a website that folks could sign up to ride with him. Overall, it takes him two years to complete the journey.

The second film chronicles Roz Savage as she was Rowing the Atlantic. She sets off on her journey completely solo. She has a satellite phone that breaks just over halfway through the journey. She has no other contact and no medical/supply drops. However, the British Royal Navy did stop by at one point. It takes her three months to complete the trip.

In the weeks since seeing the movies, I wonder and asked some folks, which one would you rather do? Two years of biking with the opportunity to stop and converse with locals, even convince them to ride your bike with you? Or, three months of solitude rowing yourself across an ocean? The results have been mixed. So, which would you rather do?

And when you're done here, be sure to check out the rest of the movies in the festival.

I first learned about Timothy Treadwell in Outside Magazine a couple of years ago. I heard from friends that a movie was made of his video tapes. They're reaction was polar and somewhat startling.

From the articles in Outside, I had my own thoughts going into the movie. My first inclination was that Timothy Treadwell was at least a naturalist, with proper training and thorough knowledge of bears and their habitats. The movie showed that he was none of the above. His foray into the wild was based on childhood love of critters and Teddy bears, and "coming in second to Woody Harrelson" for the bartender position on Cheers. In his clips, he continuously praised the bears for their friendship, and expressed love for the bears, foxes, and the entire scene. It all came to a head when watching a female bear excrete and his reaction went off the charts. Very, very odd.

The entire movie went back and forth between showing Treadwell's "love" for the bears, and the love his friends had for him. Many of his friends referred to his addictions to alcohol and drugs and hanging prior to heading into the bush. Kris pointed out that he just found another addiction by spending time with the bears.

I spent part of the movie wondering if Jane Goodall would've received the same distain if she had been mauled by Chimpanzes. She spent forty-five years studying the social and familial rituals of the chimps, and went on to world-wide recognition. What if Treadwell had survived? Would he have learned anything? Would he have been able to share it, change the way the world views bears? I don't know if anything scientific has been made of Treadwell's video or observations, but if it has, was his life worth it?

Overall, take away the opinions expressed by the commentator, Director Werner Herzog, and watch the movie for yourself. I found a deeply disturbed man who got exactly what was coming to him.

My brother started us off with a Netflix gift certificiate last year for Christmas. Since then, we've become full fledged members and everything has worked out great. Riding my bike indoors all last winter would've been very boring had it not been for the plethera of movies. Kris enjoyed getting the foreign and Colin Firth movies. (I still don't understand how that man is considered attractive.) Anyways...I got the list of movies we watched, added what we rated each one, and provided a one-line review.

"Super Size Me." I can remember when those three words meant so much more than the thirty-nine cents they cost. It was the summer of 1999. My last before the working world. I was interning for an engineering firm that had me stationed in the City of Waupun. I was up at 5 AM, on the road by 6, and in town by 7. I didn't have time to make a lunch in the morning, and was too lazy to do it at night. Enter McDonald's and the double quarter pounder with cheese meal. Super sized. I ate one nearly every day for lunch for the entire summer. I wasn't working out. I was too tired from working to do anything but go out with friends. (What was I supposed to do? I was in college.) So tack on many beers, none of them light, to the already growing number of calories. My only saving grace was to sweat during the day in khakis and polo shirts. (The dress code prevented anything less.) And it wasn't the summer to really be enjoying the outside (June, July and August weather stats. Note that July's average high was 85°F.)

Following that summer, I finished my last semester, graduated and got a desk job and ceased to workout, maintaining my high-caloric intake and poor grocery store habits. Scratch that. I rarely went to a grocery store. Instead, I bought a small chest freezer and frequented the frozen food section at Sam's Club. Pizza Pockets were my favorite. Two or three at a time, two to three times per week. The other nights were split between breaded buffalo chicken fingers, and and a dozen or so chicken nuggets. There were no accompaniments and the drink always included a left over Mountain Dew or fresh beer. I was getting fat. I knew it, but didn't care.

Why this memory, you ask? "Super Size Me." The movie struck a cord with me because of my diet this fall and my resulting eight loss. We watched it last Thursday (courtesy of Netflix, which rocks) based on the recommendation of many friends. It was extremely well done. Much more enjoyable than the other one.

And it seems like we watched it at the right time. The day after, Frazz runs a comic that sums up one of the main reasons obesity is a second biggest health threat in the US.

Furthermore, in the movie, an interviewee in the movie vocalized a thought I've been carrying with me since I lost my weight. When will the obese be socially criticized for being overweight? And will they be told to correct it at the same time? Most places, smokers are shunned to stand outside to fulfill their addiction. And, as the interviewee shares, they are even given grief for lighting up at a table of friends. Nearly every time I pass an obese person, I develop a bit of scorn and disappointment that they've taken their own body and severely trashed it. "Why don't they want to lose weight?" If you're ever in Wisconsin, look at the people around you. How many are overweight? Too many.

As a result of the movie's success, there are no super size options at McDonald's and just recently, the vending machine industry is starting a campaign to provide healthy food alternatives in schools.

Again, an extremely well done movie. It deserves your attention and the attention is has garnered. Keep reading to know how fat I got.

What an amazingly shot film with stunning panoramic views of harsh and harrowing landscapes encountered by two young, arrogant, British men. I've been spoiled by the UltraSreen's® size as of late, and thusly frustrated that I was watching such excellent scenery on such a "small" screen. I enjoyed the documentary feeling of the movie, with the voice-over and interviews carrying the dialog of the three men involved. I would've liked to see a bit more emotion from anyone, mainly to validate my own horrific thoughts. However, the filming and story telling overlayed with action scenes of the movie allowed vicious thoughts of myself cutting the rope connecting me to my climbing partner in order to live. Lots of "Whatifs?" and "Ohmygods!" throughout.

Highly Recommended.

Over the past two weeks, I've been evaluting the new subwoofer. We got the Polk PSW404 to match the center and rear speakers. But, once upon opening the box, it looked too big. I started to think we could get away with the next size down. But we have a two week grace period, so I decided to evaluate its performance. To complete the evaluation, we rented some movies that we normally wouldn't have. Along with watching several movies over the holidays, I've seen more than my usual share the past three weeks and I thought I'd write one-line reviews of each.

• Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: Ummm...WOW. Best way to conclude the best movie epic ever.
• How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days: I know, I know. But actually, it was quite humorous and entertaining, though predictable. Plus, my boy Cory Claffey-Koller assisted the director excellently. You could just tell the movie benefitted from him.
• Seabiscuit: Excellent feel good movie, but it didn't make me cry like it has other dudes.
• Phone Booth: Really short. At 1:15, I felt like I got ripped off by Blockbuster for the $4 rental. Plus, I thought they'd blow more stuff up.
• S.W.A.T.: No, I'm not sweet for Colin. The action scenes were good with some really, really, reeeeaaaaallly weak dialouge. The character interaction led me to believe that I was in Screenwriting 101.
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle: Before you start yelling, this was strictly for the subwoofer, not me. I thought the Enzo Ferrari had the best body. Forget about those 40 year-olds. This movie is totally skippable otherwise.

Final eval on the sub I think is to keep it. I think we'd miss the power if we took the step down.

I watched 'Matrix Reloaded' again the other night. (Thanks, sweetie.) I tried watching for what it's worth, without delving deep into the greater meaning of things, like others have done. I noticed one major thing and it's major role in the movie; The antiquated, heavy metal, industrial nature of Zion and the ships.

The first view of Zion is of the monstrous doors opening into the monstrous cave. Oversized gears, weights and cables control the doors, which ache to open and close. Yet, ships float effortless around and land gracelessly within. Then Neo and Counselor Hamann philosophize about the need for the old, creeky machines. All the machines and ships appear old and rusty, like they salavged them from the surface and that's all they've got.

It's the rust that changes the entire plot. If the rusty, delapitated walkway in the third ship hadn't fell when the cripple limped across it, then that operator wouldn't have gotten gorged, and Trinity wouldn't have had to go into the Matrix. Because Trinity went into the Matrix, she dies, but not before Neo makes his choice (because it is all about the choices), and saves her with some cool computer graphics.

But why do they have ships that can hover? Why do they have extreme computers that rain green letters. They have real-time hologram displays of the sentinals. Can't they get some Rust-Oleum and grease?

Hilarious. "It's so go good, ya know? When it first touches your lips?" We spent two nights watching all the extras on the DVD, although the commentary was lacking. I expected a bit more effort on insight into the film. But, when you think about it, I doubt it was challenging to act in this film. The movie definitely kept me laughing. One of the classic college film along with Animal House, and Van Wilder.

There are "must-haves" for every collector. Even for people the recreational buy DVDs, there are a few titles that must be had. Indy now joins the list with a release this November 4th. (Just in time for the Holidays.) But I am a bit afraid of the marketing campaign already.

While Paramount executives wouldn't comment on specifics of the marketing campaign, suffice it to say that this will be the largest marketing campaign that the home video division has ever undertaken, second only to "The Godfather" box set release, one Paramount executive said.

After suffering through the painful Collateral Damage HBO showed Sweet, a short film about a guy who struggles through some different relationships. It made me laugh out loud. (Which was desperately needed after 'Ahh-nold'.) Unfortunately I caught the last showing this month. Catch it if you can.