Naked Paul Toast’s Insights

We go to the movies a fair amount. In order of how much I enjoyed them

1408: A Stephen King short story. Really liked it.

The Bourne Ultimatum: Have seen all the Bournes, Really liked them all. Matt Damon is a terrific actor.

Ocean’s Thirteen: I like the Ocean movies, really liked 11, a little disappointed in 12, 13 back on par with 11.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End: You’re either a fan of the franchise or you’re not.

Hairspray: Surprisingly I liked this movie. I usually don’t like comedies nor musicals. So does John Travolta, get an oscar for best actor or actress? He was outstanding.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: I’ve read all the books, seen all the movies. The “kids” are getting to old for the characters.

The Simpsons Movie: Saw it at the drive-in, probably wouldn’t have seen, except we wanted to go to the drive-in.

Five years ago, June 2002, I was looking at the new Volkswagen Beetle. Saw an area about contacting them about the new Beetle. For fun, I decided to ask them if the new Beetles counted in the Punch Bug Game.

Subject: Product Information
From: NakedPaulToast
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 15:07:31 -0400
To: xxxxxxxxxx@vw.com

The other day I saw a silver Volkswagen Beetle and so I punched my friend John and said, “Punch Bug, silver, no punch backs”.

He said, “The new Beetles don’t count for punch bugs, only the old beetles count.” I think he’s wrong.

Do the new beetles count for punch bugs?

Thank you,

Naked Paul Toast

(more…)

Went to see 1408. I really liked it. It’s a Stephen King short story within Everything’s Eventual. It’s about a writer who travels the country writing about haunted houses he stays in. He doesn’t believe in haunted houses, but that doesn’t matter to his readers.

And then he stays in room 1408. A typical Stephen King haunting.

After the movie we got talking about the shear number of King books and short stories that have been made into movies or mini-series.  Wiki lists about 90 conversions to some media. Sure, some of them are pure crap, and it’s a given that they rarely meet the quality of the book or short story. The guy’s contribution to the Hollywood is unparalleled. Some of them really are classics.

(more…)