I made sure to see this movie before voting for our local bbs movie awards, since I've heard it praised so highly by critics and friends. I agree with all of them. United 93 is quite an accomplishment. Showing us the story of September 11th on the ground and in the air on United Flight 93, it feels somewhat like a documentary and an action drama, but the entire time it feels very organic - no exaggeration of the events - and lets the story tell itself in a very effective way.

I think World Trade Center was more difficult for me to watch than this movie, because that movie dealt with these events on a grander scale, and was built on an emotional foundation. This movie caught me up in the adrenaline of the moment for two-thirds of the story, and then gripped my heart as soon as the flight's occupants started calling home to say goodbye to their families.

United 93 was pretty much flawless in execution. I wouldn't have included the introductory scene of the hijackers praying since we didn't see background moments on the other passengers on the flight, but otherwise the presentation of the story is unbiased, which I think is key in its success.

This and World Trade Center show us different aspects of how people experienced the events of 9/11, and I think both are important for what they have to offer.

In a related vein, thinking about how I've coped with those events personally, I just thought I'd share a memory, in memory of someone. I just found out today that a guy named Will M., with whom many of us went to college, passed away last weekend when he fell asleep at the wheel on the way up to go skiing and crashed into a tree. I was more of an acquaintance of his, but one of the memories I do have of him was that, in the week(s?) after 9/11, I was studying and feeling down one evening, and Matt (who I think must have been Will's roommate at the time) invited me to go hang out at their place just to talk and feel better. I remember that Will was there and that he made me laugh a lot. It felt great to just hang out and feel cheered up because of the company of friends. It's probably something neither of them would remember, but it made an impact on me at that time when I needed it.

Anthony from Destructoid is as shocked as I am over Rush defending video gamers. I've found it rather ridiculous that this is happening yet again. Here's what Rush said in response to a caller echoing assclown Jack Thompson and others:

Not every video gamer goes out and murders 33 people on the college campus though. There's more to this than that. We can find all kinds of societal problems and ills, but the fact of the matter is that whatever you would look at as a bad influence -- video games as you mentioned -- it may desensitize people, but it doesn't turn everybody into mass murderers.

Wow, good for you Rush. I just always cringe when bad things happen and this whole blame game starts up again. It's insane and stupid. Of course, in the same call Rush when on to blame the shootings on things like "Godlessness in schools" and other such nonsense, but hey, that is to be expected.