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. 

Saturday, June 22, 2024

DVD/Movie Review: The Sixth Sense

 


The Sixth Sense is a 1999 thriller directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, and Haley Joel Osment in the main roles and Olivia Williams in the main supporting role. Donnie Wahlberg has a brief but pivotal appearance at the beginning of the movie, and Mischa Barton (who would later go on to star in the hit series The OC) has a small role toward the end of the movie. It was actually Shyamalan's and was a very surprising hit and ended up being his breakout hit. It also saw a shift in Willis' career from action hero to taking on more dramatic roles. In it, Willis stars as a child psychologist named Malcolm Crowe, who is attempting to help a young, troubled boy named Cole (played by Haley Joel Osment). He is the only child of a single mother (played by Toni Collette ), who is trying to figure out how to help her son. I will not go into too much detail for the handful of people who may not have seen it by now, but if you are aware of Shyamalan's other movies, there are twists in this one that you may or may not see coming. In fact, it was probably this movie that led him to get overzealous with the plot twists in his subsequent movies, which got more and more silly over the course of time (at least for a while).

The DVD extras include deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as trailers and TV spots. A good amount of material. The picture quality of the DVD (at least the initial release) is okay, but not great, even when upscaled playing on a 4k TV with a 4K blu-ray. But, given the initial run of the DVD is now over twenty-years-old, that is not surprising. Overall, the movie is excellent. It is a blend of a drama and jump-scare thriller (not really a horror movie per-se). It is well written and very well acted, all the actors, especially Osment being so young, doing a wonderful job in their roles. It is definitely the best of Shyamalan's movies that I have seen (I have not seen some of the more recent movies like Split and Glass yet), and it is definitely worth checking out.

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