Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

 



Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatization of the hunt for, and the subsequent raid to kill Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Quaeda, and the money behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The movie stars Jessica Chastain as Maya, a young CIA analyst working for the unit that was tasked with Hunting down Bin Laden. The character is based on a real person but is kind of an amalgamation of all of the women who worked in that unit. Maya is singularly focused on tracking down a lead regarding the courier whose name was given up by a tortured detainee, and after following many dead ends, ends up panning out. The movie is directed by Kathryn Bigelow who also directed The Hurt Locker. The movie gets an undeserved bad rap as glamorizing torture. I never got the impression that the movie was glamorizing it in any way. I looked at it as acknowledging that the government did torture detainees and not skirting around or whitewashing that fact. Whether the actual information that resulted in the courier's name being given up came about as a result or torture or was dramatized for the movie does not, in my opinion, take away from the quality.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great in HD. There are not a ton of extras, but what was included is good. These include a making-of documentary, a featurette on the building of a duplicate of bin Laden's stronghold, a piece about training the actors playing SEALs, and a featurette with Jessica Chastain discussing her character.

Overall, the movie is well-written and very well-acted. Chastain is a tour de force in this movie, bringing intensity and passion to every scene. She definitely earned and deserved her academy award nomination. The movie is not a straight-up documentary and does dramatize some events and material, but includes a lot of real events in the story (such as the bombing at the base that killed several military personnel and CIA officers) and gave a detailed account of how the actual raid went down. It is definitely worth checking out.

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