Daybreakers

This past weekend I watched Daybreakers. First off…much better than the last horrible movie I watched, but I do like Vampires :) Of course this movie was not as good as Blade, but I don’t think anything will be for quite some time.

The movie takes place in 2019, and the vampire virus has spread out from the underbelly of humanity and taken over the world like a plague, turning almost every human into the walking dead. But of course as the vampires’ numbers rise, the human population dwindles. The vampires have turned to capturing and harvesting humans in laboratory farms in hopes to survive until scientist can come up with a synthetic blood supplement that will satisfy the vampires’ craving.

But the scientists are not working fast enough and a sub-culture of vampires is starting to arise from starvation. These creatures are aggressive and bat like…looking more like the horror film version of the walking dead then the romantic Bram Stoker version. These creatures are violent and attack humans and vampires alike. The process in becoming one is slow and the police have managed (until now) to keep it at bay.

The main blood supplier in the US is a company called Bromley Marks and this is where Edward Dalton (played by Ethan Hawke) works as a hematologist. Edward tries desperately to find a synthetic blood, both to save the vampires from starvation, but also because he still feels sympathy for the humans that are being captured and farmed. Secretly he begins to refuse human blood, causing him to slowly begin to change.

Edward’s brother, Frankie, who is a human hunter comes to visit Edward on his birthday, and realizes that his brother is refusing human blood. In the mist of their argument, a sub-culture vampire appears in Edwards house and attacks them. This is when it becomes apparent that the police are no longer keeping this treat a bay and starvation is spreading among all social classes of vampires.

Edward meets and rescues a group of humans trying to escape and he becomes involved with them, experimenting and trying to find a way to cure the cursed. This is where the movie starts to stray a little and I begin to become less interested in it.

The movie is actually good and I did like it. I wouldn’t have recommended going to see this movie in the theaters (not worth the $40 it would have cost for 2 tickets & popcorn) but I do like vampires and I knew I would eventually have to see it and $4.99 was worth it. If you like vamps, and haven’t’ seen it, don’t pay over $5.00 but check it out.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

So about two weeks ago, I went to go see The Sorcerers Apprentice with my girl. Usually I am fairly quick to post a blog about a movie, but after being tortured for what seemed like 5 hours, I had no urge to go home a write a blog about this excuse of a movie.

We decide on the movie because we both like Nicholas Cage, the CGI looked pretty spiffy and we both liked the plot. “Where did it go wrong,” you ask. I put the full blame on Jay Baruchel and the character he played, “Dave”. I must say it was really strange seeing him, because I remember him from Knocked Up and I am pretty sure he played a stoner or something in a movie so seeing him in this…was just odd.

The movie starts in the past and tells the story of Balthazar Blank (Nicholas Cage). Balthazar, Maxim Horvath and Veronica are the 3 apprentices to Merlin. However, Horvath betrays them to Morgana, Merlins greatest enemy, and Morgana murders Merlin. While Balthazar and Veronica are fighting Morgana, Veronica absorbs Morgana's soul into herself to destroy her. But when Morgana starts to possess Veronica and kill her from inside, Balthazar imprisons both in a Grimhold (a nesting doll).

Before dying, Merlin gives Balthazar a metal dragon telling him that it would find the Prime Merlinian, the Merlin's successor, and only he could kill Morgana. Balthazar searches for that kid for centuries in vain, and while looking he has to ward off evil magicians who are intent on freeing Morgana, each one he traps in a new layer of the nesting doll.

Finally in 2000, Balthazar comes across a young Dave Stutler on a school trip. Cut to the year 2000, we see a kid waking up and getting ready to go to school. Balthazar then asks Dave to take the metal dragon in his hand. As soon as he does, the dragon comes to life, wraps around his forefinger and folding its wings, becomes a ring. He is the Prime Merlinian. However we know it can’t be that easy, right. While Balthazar goes to get something, Dave accidentally frees Horvath from the nesting doll. Balthazar and Horvath fight and both of them are imprisoned in an urn for 10 years.

10 years later it is 2010 and Dave is in college studying Physics and he is some kind of genius nerd (like worse than Sheldon on the Big Bang dork…although not as cocky). Over time Dave has managed to repress the memories of what happened when he met Balthazar, but he can’t forget forever and both Balthazar and Horvath are released from the urn. Balthazar must find Dave before Horvath can get to him first and kill him.

Of course you need the girl…which happens to be Becky, a girl that Dave had a crush on 10 years ago. Obviously she is too pretty and “cool” for him, but you know how movies go. Balthazar manages to find Dave first (by a hair) and rescues him…more than once, because Dave is such a dork, and convinces him to become his apprentice and fight Morgana.

What can I say, yes, the plot was really good, but OMG I was so sick of Dave (the character) before the movie was half over. It is of course a kids movie so don’t waste your time (unless you have kids) we all know it is going to be a happy ending so do something else with the 2 hours or bring a strong drink.

Excel Trick - Combining Data From Two Columns Into One

My fun tricks with Excel just keep coming. Recently I posted a blog about how to split data into multiple columns. That is great and can come in handy, but sometimes, you need those first and last names in the same column. It is easy to just type them if there are 5-10 but when you get into the hundreds and thousands…not so much.

Let’s say A1 contains “Lady” and B2 contains “Dame”

Insert a new column in after B and in the new C column type

=A1&” “&B1

Boom

C1 now says “Lady Dame”

Hopefully this not only saves me next time I am trying to remember this fun trick, but for those of you who find it can from now on remember that combining two columns in excel is not as hard or time consuming as some think!