Mariano Roy

Me bitching about stuff

[3bigtacos-blog]

I approached Disney Pixar’s “Coco” with an optimistic mind. The almost identical story “The Book of Life” showed how beautiful classic Mexican art can be. Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla also did an amazing job on the musical score of “The Book of Life.”

With this bias in mind, I immediately wanted to compare the two films in competition with one another. After the first five minutes of the film, I realized that there was no competition.  Pixar must have hired experts to study Mexican families, and heavily incorporated the culture into the story. 

I found myself holding back tears during very subtle moments—because of how much it reminded me of my Mexican family back home. I think one of the most important aspects of seeing movies in theaters is to acknowledge public reactions. It’s important to recognize how other people receive the same information that you do.  So, I asked a couple of families what they liked about the film.  

One mother asked her son, in which he responded “I loved Dante!” (the dog in the film).  Another family seemed to believe that Day of the Dead was a holiday that was made up for the film (quickly filled her in). As for my own assessment of the movie, overall, I truly enjoyed it.  

Thought the plot is far from original, it draws on classic telenovela elements—which is a huge shift from typical Disney Pixar films. The characters weren't as enticing as I would have liked, however, the authenticity of typical Mexican households were there. I would have liked to have seen the women in the movie less demonized. I was somewhat disappointed with the music (with the acceptation of a few songs). La llarona is my favorite Spanish sung song, so I really enjoyed the adaptation.  

These criticisms are all me being nit-picky. Overall, I think the movie deserved a solid 8/10.

[3bigtacos-blog]

Bitching about DC

So I recently watched the new Justice League movie—and I have a lot to sat about it.

It got fairly bad reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, which comes to a surprise to me since Warner Brothers ones about one third of the company. They should have lied about the score.

While the story was all over the place, the major gripe I had about it comes down to two distinct errors.

First being, the villain. As a die-hard DC fanboy, I could think of plenty of better villains to introduce Darkseid (the villain that the DCEU is trying to lead up to).

Literally nobody knows why Steppenwolf was chosen to serve as the main villain. There’s such a limited amount of comic book content to draw from with Steppenwolf.  

The second problem I had is more of a systemic issue.  

Marvel has been building their fan base up for years with individual films—and had no problem scrapping the ones that they didn't feel comfortable with (cough, cough, Hulk, cough, Spiderman).

DC is trying to play catch up, and make money quick—which is backfiring on them.  The lack of fan service does not go unnoticed.  

What DC needs to do is start with a young justice league, and age them with their audience.  Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have proven to be timeless characters.

[3bigtacos-blog]

How Fly are you Really?

I’m just going to throw this out here.  Do any of us really know how airplanes work? If you ask anybody, they’ll probably tell you that the engine propels this 200+ ton hunk of metal through the air, and that little flaps on the wings make the plane go left or right. People like sir Isaac Newton would argue that you just add enough force to compensate for the weight, but you’re all smart enough to not buy that. We can see right through NASA’s lie—trying to convince you that flight is comprised of lift, weight, thrust and drag. What? so a piece of metal can just take to the sky because it has more lift than weight? Well I can life more than I weigh. Does that mean I can fly? No. It doesn’t. And how does “aerodynamics” explain the fact that this giant tank with wings can just glide through the air at over 700 miles per hour? Oh, I bet “thrust” explains that part, right? Wrong. If your mind isn’t blown yet, then let me leave you with this last note to completely blast the chunks of brain left on your head. How do those tiny little wheels on an airplane stay in tact after flying upwards of 700 miles per hour? Think about it.

[3bigtacos-blog]

Memoirs of a Starbucks Cashier

I understand you.  Trust me, I do.

You get up and question if this hamster wheel of a life is worth it.

Somehow, you find the motivation to get clothes on and into your car.  

You’re on your way to class/work and you need your caffeine fix in order to be a productive human being. I’m there with you—I promise.  

But, don't spray your goddamn negativity on my already soul wrenching job.  

First, when we ask how your morning is going, we could really care less about third snooze button you hit, or the biker that didn’t slow down for you crossing the street. Just like you don’t care about how we had to stand for a half an hour outside at 5:30 in the morning because maintenance forgot to unlock our building.

You want your coffee, I want to get paid. So let’s have a mutual level of respect for each other and respond with a simple “good morning,” as opposed to “I’ll take a triple shot hazelnut latte.”

Second, when we’re taking your order, holding your credit card to our face isn’t going to to make us work any faster. However, I will find imaginary buttons to press until your arm gets tired. And then point to the debit card machine that you’re supposed to swipe yourself.

And when you throw your five dollar bill on the table while I’m patiently waiting to receive it, I will drop your change on the hard counter—Then look at you while you struggle to pick it up.

Lastly, (and this is a more personal issue) why would you ever accept a bakery item that wasn’t warmed up? I understand time is an issue, but if you’re going to wait ten minutes to order, and another five minutes for you’re caramel macchiato, what kind of monster would accept a cold butter croissant? Thirty seconds in our oven and it will literally melt in your mouth. I take a genuine offense every time a person eats a cold danish. We offer to heat it every time, and I refuse to believe anybody prefers their bakery items cold.

So get your shit together and warm up your bakery items. You can actually forget the other two.