John Carter Trailer - Disney does seem to like these sorts of things. It’s like they’re trying to recreate Pirates of the Caribbean, first with Prince of Persia and now with this. Hopefully the story will be as fun as former rather than latter…
Rise of the Planet of the Apes trailer - This looks interesting, except for a few things. The acting looks a bit hammy, with the dialogue just grating on me a bit (and it’s only a trailer), the super confident/pretty actors, that are meant to be science geniuses (which I don’t buy) and the font used for the text inbetween scene just felt like the wrong choice; but damn do those monkeys look creepy.
Murderbullets - Ok, I hate James Stokoe because I love him so much, or maybe I hate him because I love his art. Murderbullets is a 100 page prologue to a book while working on something else, he decided to stop and work on something else. I mean WTF? That’s like completely insane right? No, the page he’s drawn and is sharing on his site is COMPLETELY insane.
Zoolander Sequel - The first is a cult classic. Will a sequel be any good? I dunno, but if he can do an Austin Powers where the sequel is just as good as the first one, then I’ll be happy.
Lost Art of Inglourious Basterds - Some great looking pieces. Not seen David Choe’s work in YEARS so it’s nice to see he hasn’t shot himself or anything and he’s still producing great work.
Be still my bleeding heart. Yesterday I saw an interview on the BBC with Jean-Pierre Jeunet, whom I rate extremely highly as one of my favourite directors. Well amidst a pretty poor interview (that guy from’Hard Talk' really needed a kick in the head) Jean-Pierre let it slip that after ‘A very long engagement’ he spent 2 years working on the ‘Life of Pi’…basically one of my favourite books. Man that would have been AMAZING. Chalk that one along with ‘Dune’ by Alejandro Jodorowsky as the great movies we’ll never get to see.
Obviously it’s not all doom and gloom for the ‘Life of Pi’, we get Ang Lee to release his version in 2011. Can’t wait.
The Losers Movie - From the excellent series of graphic novels by Andy Diggle and Jock. It’s fresh, it’s fun, it’ll be better than the A-Team guaranteed. Also it’s got Stringer Bell! I mean c’mon this is the first thing I’ve seen him in, since The Wire.
I'm not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.Love this line, because it's soo true (at least for me). From an interview with Cormac McCarthy (via the Fireball)
R. Kelly - Trapped In The Closet - I’ve not heard of this ‘urban opera’, but seriously this is the funniest shit I’ve seen in a really really long time.
Up In the Air trailer - Juno was one of my favourite movies of last year. Something about the casting, the music, the overall feel of the movie just hit the right notes for me. Is Jason Reitman becoming a favourite of mine (I loved ‘Thank You for Smoking’ as well)?
Toy Story 3 trailer - Came out a little while ago, but I’ve been busy with other things. Part of me really wishes they left these characters alone and concentrated on new ideas (like The Incredibles and Up). In Pixar we trust, but is this a missed opportunity or one of those all to rare trilogies that is amazing?
The Men Who Stare At Goats - It’s always an event when you get this calibre of actors all in one movie.
This has got to be the biggest joke. The release date for Up is the 9th of October, while the release date for Ponyo is 10th of February. Seriously, when it comes to movie release dates, there’s an inherit problem with the UK distribution system. How is it that Greece gets Up released before us here? I mean, there’s no need for translating it either (for the kids), it’s all in friggin English!!!
DoubleTwist - Sync all of your devices from your mac. This would have been awesome back when I used a Blackberry. Now that the Pre has been announced for the UK, I’m considering it, even though I’m not going to be around for like 6 months at least, and the contract is a minimum of 18 months and 720 pounds poorer. Should I get an iphone 3GS, or wait till the summer and get myself the Pixi, or the new iphone 3GS2? Dilemmas.
Avatar Trailer - This is ‘old’ but it’s an important trailer to watch, seeing as how it’s going revolutionize the way cinema is shot and all of that good stuff.
The Carousel - If you want to know why Mad Men is one of the best shows on TV, have a look at this 3 minute scene from the show. Everything is perfect, from the music to Don’s fantastic voice. What’s special to me is that it obviously makes you remember things from your past. Fantastic television.
Thundercats Concept Art - What could have been, but sadly, won’t be. Hopefully in the years to come, the powers that be will see sense and make this money making machine!
Flynn Lives - Tron Legacy trailer. Watch it, then watch it a few times more.
BSG Worst Ending in the Sci-Fi History - I’ve not had a chance to read this yet, but this is definitely one of those rants that seem like they are really worth reading, when I’ve got a couple of hours to kill and feeling a bit BSG nostalgic.
The Chairs of the Incredibles - The movie I’ve watched the most times in the last few years. Everytime I need inspiration, I usually pop this into the player; and to my amazement, the amount of detail in this movie keeps surprising me everytime I rewatch it.
Toy Story Teaser Trailer - Pixar doesn’t stop blowing my mind. So simple and yet so effective. Best storytellers of our generation, full stop.
Sherlock Holmes Trailer - I do love Robert Downey Jr’s career renaissance of late, but I’ve got to say that I’m still not sure about this adaptation of Holmes…something just feels terribly wrong about it. I keep waiting for the voice over person to say ‘Holmes is back and he’s pissed off’.
New 9 Trailer - Looks even better than the first trailer and the story is much more apparent to me than in the previous trailer. Reading the first comment though, people laughing at the trailer is just ridiculous; which can only be attributed to people’s complete ignorance and the stereotypes of what animation is and what animation can be - you know who you are.
MacFarlane confirms Family Guy Movie - Will he learn from the Simpsons movie? Will he learn from the South Park movie? Is there anything to learn from that piece of shit, or will it also be just a really really long episode?
Princess and the Frog Trailer - The second movie to come out of Disney under John Lasseter’s directorship (and by that I mean, him being in charge rather than him directing the movies), and this actually looks absolutely stunning. It’s like Disney remembered what is was good at and put it in this movie. This trailer will take you back to when you were a kid.
District 9 Trailer (HD) - Interesting trailer. Not sure what to make of it or what the story will be like, but the production values and how they try and make it seem like a documentary put it on my definitely maybe list of movies to go and watch.
The Hunt For Gollum - Fan movie which was released for the Sci Fi festival in London. Seems to be extremely well made, and it’s there for free to watch.
Miyazaki’s Ponyo Trailer - The man has never stopped amazing me in the sheer depth of his imagination projected onto the screen. Can’t wait for this movie to come out.
When Worlds Collide - Spock Confronts the Ultimate Challenge. Comic from Paul Pope, to get you in the Star Trek mood, just before the movie comes out.
Watchmen on CBR - A whole slew of articles and videos covering the Watchmen phenomenon. Clearly Alan Moore' curse or spell didn’t really have any effect on the movie, and by the looks of things it’s going to kick some ass in the box office as well. I just got back from watching it, so there’s bound to be a review of it in due course.
Star Trek Trailer 3 - The battle for my favourite movie this year is most definitely on. This of all things might make me into a Star Trek fan…that really does scare me, but seriously, that trailer is immense. Absolutely loved the music and the general look and feel of it. Although having said all of that I bet that Star Trek purist will be outraged, mainly because this movie won’t be Star Trek boring.
Terminator Salvation / Trailer 2 - Oh now that is more like it. Is that NIN in the background?Maybe McG has created something worth watching, as long as I can get the whole Christian Bale outburst thing, I might even enjoy this.
Franklyn Trailer - Interesting looking new British sci-fi/fantasy movie that oddly has a very ‘Dark City’ feel to it.
<a href=“http://crackle.com/c/Angel_Of_Death" title=“Angel of Death Ep 1 “Edge” starring Zoe Bell | Crackle”>Angel of Death Debut - From the mind of Ed Brubaker comes this internet series on Crackle. Interesting to see if this format actually has any traction.
Monsters VS Aliens - The animation looks crisp, and from the trailer alone, I think the Blob is easily the breakthrough character.
Battle for Terra Trailer - Another animated movie I’m looking forward to watching this year.
Christian Bale Goes Bat S**t on Peter Griffin - It never ceases to amaze me how on the pulse Family Guy is with today’s pop culture. These guys never miss a beat.
This was a HUGE Battlestar Galactica Episode. This post is rife with SPOILERS, so if you’ve not seen the episode go somewhere else, nothing to read here.
No Exit answered many questions that have been lingering with most of us for years. As the EW review says, I definitely feel like i’ve deserved this particular episode dammit. I sat through years of BSG goodness, and dammit I wanted some resolution. However this episode didn’t give you everything. It answered (or tried to answer) a number of questions, however these are some of the questions outstanding.
Eventually these guys (over the course of several 1000 years) forgot how to do this, because they didn’t need know. The lingering question remained however was who nuked Earth? Was it themselves? Unfortunately this little interview snippet doesn’t really shed much light on that question. For the sake of argument let’s just say that a war began between the Cylons and Humans from Kobol. The 5 Cylons were warned (through the ‘Head’ characters) and so they went off to stop the same from happening to the rest of the colonies and trying to actually live together in peace.
Rorschachs Mask - Great making of video from the upcoming Watchmen movie. Interesting just how faithful they’ve tried to be down to the inkblots drawn on the mask. Shame that Moore will never see this movie as it’s probably going to be the one that is closest to his vision from all Hollywood adaptations.
Inglorious Basterds Trailer - And there you have it. Quentin Tarantino’s 7th movie (if you count Kill Bill as two separate movies).
Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Episode 15 Promo - No Exit - Don’t click on the link if you’ve not seen the latest episodes, because it’s got a pretty major spoiler attached. For all those who have seen the latest episodes, this one promises to be an even better episode that the last two that we’ve just had.
Images Reveal McG’s Terminator Salvation Vision - The last time I saw something like this was the production art for ‘The Matrix’. Hopefully the story won’t suck.
In anticipation of the new Watchmen movie (hopefully coming to a cinema near you), there is actually a slew of great books on offer to enhance the whole experience. If you’ve not read the source material, SHAME ON YOU. Your homework is to buy the Absolute Edition of this masterpiece and get reading. If you’ve already done that, don’t forget to grab the Dave Gibbons artbook, Watching the Watchmen.
If you are more into movie related books (I personally do like a good one), there is the standard Film companion (which is probably the weakest offering actually) as you can have the Art of the Film which is bound to be more interesting, especially when you get work by such greats as Adam Hughes (who has always been one of my favourite artists of all time). But possibly my favourite tie in book of the entire movie might have to be the Portraits book, which is a collection of black and white photographs taken during the making of the movie.
Don’t forget to read these books while listening to the official soundtrack. Yeah this movie is going to make someone a TON of money, some definitely from me.
Mary & Max - Quirky looking Australian animation (how many of those knocking about) that first appeared at the Sundance film festival. No trailer yet, or release date in the UK.
Planet 51Tease trailer - The little that is shown in this trailer definitely made me smile. Animation looks very crisp, in a Don Bluth kind of way, however its all about the story.
Slumdog Millionaire was released this week and it’s the latest effort form director Danny Boyle. I’d heard literally NOTHING about this movie but I knew from the way that it was being talked about that it might be a pretty good movie. I was wrong. It’s an EXCELLENT movie…see what I did there?
If you’ve not heard about it, starts off with the interrogation/torture of a young man who as we find out quickly is from the slums in Mumbai who manages to gets on the show ‘Who Wants to be a Milliionaire’. The story basically weaves the questions asked on the show with his life spanning across three time periods.
The situations and the character development is incredibly well paced and the story, much like the show keeps you on the edge of your seat. If I had a complaint it’s the fact that the ending that I came up in my head for the movie would have probably made it into more of a classic than it is destined to be.
Judge Dredd movie is go - While I thought the Stallone movie left a lot to be desired, one of the things that I did like about that movie was the sets and some of the props (not all of them). Hopefully DNA will take the good things from that production and actually have a decent story attached to it.
New Terminator Salvation Trailer - Looks pretty impressive from where I’m sitting and it’s only enhanced by the presence of Christian Bale.
Astro Boy Trailer at Moviefone - Love the music, love the little laugh, hate the fact that we’ve got to wait till October of next year to watch this movie, seriously?
Star Trek Trailer - Now in glorious quicktime.
New Star Trek trailer - I will say this again, I be shouldn’t excited about this, but damn does that look good. (via Joen)
Just came back from seeing the latest instalment of Bond. The truth is that I actually really enjoyed this movie, for all the reasons that I think a lot of people didn’t enjoy the movie. For me there was only one ‘bollocks’ Bond movie moment (the parachute scene) that made me groan a bit and then the rest of it was just pretty hard hitting action. There is a lot to like in this movie if you’re interested in some Bond character development (so he’s not just a womanising, gin drinking, gadget using, one-liner throwing, 2-D character. What we get here is something more refined, something slightly more believable (as much as that is possible in a Bond movie). There are elements in the story that just don’t really stack up for me. Mainly the water dam plotpoint seemed far too weak a motivation for the ultimate ‘villains’. The scene in Austria was incredibly clever and I thought the execution of that scene was very well done.
Final word, product placement wasn’t as annoying as it is in most other Bond movies. Usually it’s painfully obvious, whereas in this case although there was product placement, it wasn’t as bad as all the good guys drive a BMW and all the bad guys drive a Mercedes.
★ ★ ★ ½ out of ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Latest Watchmen Trailer - No new footage, but at least there is some more dialogue in there. Music by the Muse.
Gaiman discusses the worlds of Coraline - Great little interview with Neil Gaiman on the upcoming stop-motion 3D movie by Henry Selick.
Download the Dark Night Screenplay - Easily one of the best movies this year (via Andy Diggle on Twitter).
Electric Sheep Magazine - One of the most original internet magazines (not blogs) I’ve seen in a good while revolving around film and cinema.
Battlestar Galactica season 5 to begin airing on the 16th of January - 11 hours in total of BSG goodness, with a reported 3 (or more) hour finale?? So many levels of awesome.
Money Shot Archives for the upcoming Kevin Smith ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’ movie - very funny webisodes.
Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke trailer - it’s been a while since we got a movie that’s completely insane and has a bit of character (was Fight Club so long ago). Can’t wait for this.
Continuing on the Watchmen theme (there’s going to be a lot more of this in the coming months I’m sure) Empire have a breakdown of the new trailer to the graphic novel.
Watchmen Trailer is out; and it’s a complete peach of a trailer. It’s kinda harrowing that Moore isn’t interested in the movie, because if anything Snyder really does seem to have made something special here. ‘Based on the graphic novel illustrated by Dave Gibbons’ - what a shame, Alan Moore’s name should be there as well.
Continuing my coverage of the last season of Battlestar Galactica, I saw the latest episode ‘Guess what’s coming to dinner’ and all I can say, is that I was absolutely amazed. This is the reason I watch Battlestar Galactica. This is not hyberbole, what I say that this was my favourite Battlestar Galactica episode ever; and here’s why.
Everything in the episode came together as the story actually started moving forward and all the stars and the moons were aligned with all the actors and actresses actually delivering some of the best performances of this exceedingly excellent
That’s two in two movies I’ve watched this year, both of which have been absolutely supreme. So much so I can claim that this one is also in my top ten of the year (the other being Persopolis). Caramel is basically the Lebanese Amelie. Believe me I don’t say such things unless I actually mean them, but everything about this movie was a joy to watch.
The movie is set in Beirut, and considering the times that Lebanon is going through right now, it was extra special for me and heartbreaking at the same time to watch this movie as I got to see more elements of the country and the people celebrated rather than destroyed. What’s even more special to me about this movie is that it portrays the city as something vibrant rather than how it is traditionally shown broken, battered and bombed. It gives it a certain filter and lets it shine slightly. Sure there are times when I felt that it would have been nice to show the city at night, but that’s a minor point and the director Nadine really gives us a Beirut to wonder about.
The story centres around 5 women living and working in Lebanon and how their romantic lives evolve along with the expectations of the world they inhabit and their families and upbringings. The great thing about this movie is that none of the characters are perfect, in fact all of the women are far from perfect, they’re all real and that adds the most amazing layer to the whole story. They each have their own problems and obstacles to overcome which slowly unfold throughout the movie.
My only fear is that people in the Western world may not appreciate some of the situations and customs that inhabit the story. While they’re not crucial to the enjoyment and understanding of the story, it adds a whole other dimension to the story that they are portraying, in a certain way you have to be Lebanese to appreciate that this is actually true and it’s the reality. Specifically the police scene and the hotel scenes. Trust me when I say this, that’s all true, no dramatisation for the movie.
The director Nadine Labaki (who also wrote this) does a masterful job of injecting so much humour and warmth into this movie, which is where the direct comparison to Amelie comes from. It’s been a while since I was given a set of characters that were all likeable and beautiful in their own right. In my view this is probably one of the hardest things to do in a movie and Nadine hit all the correct notes on this front.
One thing I want to comment on is the beauty of the lead actress and fundamentally the sex appeal that she oozes and that is lacking in a lot of American shows that I watch. It struck me as odd that this woman who isn’t stick thin as is required by the 10pounds-added-by-the-camera world that we live in. Sex appeal cannot be brought or added on, it’s just there, in a Marilyn Monroe kind of way.
Finally I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the excellent soundtrack that was chosen and composed by Khaled Mouzanar (whom the director I believe is engaged to, good name btw son) which fits the movie feel to a glove and adds yet another exceptional layer to the movie.
I honestly don’t want to give much more about this movie other than it’s something that people who enjoyed Amelie would find the same kind of magic in this movie.
Went and saw Persepolis on saturday and was completely blown away by the experience, so much so that I definitely put this in the top 10 new movies I’ve seen this year (not that I’ve seen 10 movies this year, but I will by year’s end). The movie expertly depicts the dichotomy of someone from one place trying to find their place in the world. Unfortunately the story is one that people from the Middle East can relate to instantly. I say unfortunately because the situation of people leaving their countries for the haven of somewhere safe is all to much a reality for people in the Middle East. For many of us this is the world. War, civil or otherwise, narrow-mindedness and general stupidity are all part of every day life.
The film is directed by the graphic novelist, Marjane Satrapi and is effectively her story that she wrote and drew about in two books of the same title, Persepolis. The story deals with her life during the Iranian revolution, how it effected her family and the war that came afterwards with Iraq before it starts dealing with life for a woman in Iran.
Visually the movie is one that grabs you. It works so grandly as an animated movie because it doesn’t shoehorn any one actor or actress to the role. It also can do things in a humorous way without making it look slapstick. I suppose that is one of the most perfectly executed elements of the story. It allows humour within a terribly serious topic. Inbetween messages of hardship the story still allows elements of joy to come through.
After the end of the movie, I told Yiota that my mum would love to watch this movie. I think it’s definitely something that all feminists should watch mainly because the women shown in this movie, Marjane Satrapi her mother and grandmother are true representation of modern clever Arab/Persian women. Women that actually struggle and fight within the boundaries that have been set around them.
In story doesn’t show the lead character always in a complete shining light as it does take her through her journey and I’m sure showing things that she’s definitely not proud of but had to show the differences in culture, the difference in why she would go back to Iran, knowing the life that would await her.
I really want to see this movie again because of how it was structured, and it’s been a while since I’ve said that about a movie. For my money this movie gets my recommendation as something you owe it to yourself to watch.
New extended Batman Trailer. Even better and more polished than the last. It’s got more of Harvey Dent in it and the Joker gets to speak more. Seriously it’s definitely going to be like 1989 all over again with this one. Christopher Nolan is a GENIUS…and I don’t use that term very often.
So the title of the new X-Files movie was released at the New York Comic Con that was held this past weekend and it’s ‘I want to Believe’. Which alludes in some respect to that poster on Mulder’s wall in the first season…not sure if was on the wall in other seasons as well. The thing is that when I found out about this, my first question was, ‘Does anyone give a shit?’ I was a massive X-files fan for the first 3 or so seasons and then I effectively gave up completely on the show. Apparently it went on for 9 seasons in total and had that movie (which I might have watched, or not,…obviously memorable).
So seriously is this movie something people have been clamouring for? But then again does Hollywood ever give you stuff that you’re clamouring for?
For those of you in the dark, Frank Miller (he of 300, Sin City and the Dark Knight Strikes Back fame) will be directing the Spirit movie, in case you missed it. This is based on a great little series that was created by the great Will Eisner. The website is up and they’ve got the first poster up (which I think is BRILLIANT). Love the quote:
My City Screams. She is my Lover. And I am her Spirit.
Fucking love it. This movie can’t come out soon enough as far as I’m concerned.
Sky Crawlers - The new Mamoru Oshii film (you know the guy how did ‘Ghost in the Shell’ 1&2 and the excellent ‘Patlabour’ 1&2
Battlestar Galactica season 4 trailer is online. It seems it’s an old one, but i really like what they’ve done with the shadows coming in and out. The good news is that at least it’s coming in March, as originally I thought Sci-fi was going to try and put it out in April. Is there any news as to how far into everything the team is in the development of the series? ie will we be expect some more waiting in between episodes or are they going to show the whole thing in one chunk (yeah I know wishful thinking and all that).
This past month and a half have allowed me for some reason to watch more movies than I watched nearly all of last year. I just finished watching ‘Stardust’ which is based on a story written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Charles Vess. I believe I’ve got the book somewhere in Greece but I never got around to reading it and alas I’ve not had the chance to buy the book again. For some reason last year I missed this movie when it was in the cinema last year. I wanted to watch it but didn’t make enough of an effort to go and see it. As it turns out I was probably missing out on one of the few great movies from last year.
The best way to describe this story is a modern day fairy tale but with soo much charm that it leaves you with this stupid smile on your face after finish watching the movie. The story begins in Wall, called this because of a great big wall that separates it from the city of Stormhold. Tristan trying to win the love of his life, Victoria promises to bring her a fallen star they both saw fall (on the other side of the wall) before her birthday, which is one week. I’m honestly not going to try and ruin anything but the star isn’t exactly what he originally bargained for and the story that unfolds is one of the most pleasant, fun and ultimately romantic movies I’ve seen in a long time. Stranger still was the choice of the actual director of the movie, which was none other than Matthew Vaughn, of Layer Cake fame. Not exactly the kind of movies I’d expect from the man but he’s definitely creating a body of work that makes him one of my favourite directors in recent times. There’s a quality to this movie that harkens back to an era in the 80s where they used to make fun fantasy and sci-fi movies. Movies that had heart.
And before anyone mentions that I’m writing this review on Valentines day, seriously this has NOTHING to do with the retched day that is coming upon us (happy love day everyone, only the few Simpsons fans got that reference), it’s just an unlucky coincidence that I’ve just finished watching the movie. If you’re looking for a great movie that will leave a smile on your face after you’ve finished it, then this is one for you.
So yesterday I finally saw a celebrity I actually gave two shits about seeing. I creator who’s work I’ve actually enjoyed greatly. We went for a few drinks in Belsize Park yesterday and then decided to go for a bit of food after that. Of course, four people trying to decide on food sometimes can go smoothly and sometimes can go horribly wrong. Well in this case as we were walking up the road towards Hampstead and we see this little French restaurant that’s part of a hotel. I instantly dismissed it as not something I’d really like to go for, however Sophia had been there and recommended the food as being pretty good. So we go have a look at the menu and it was wide enough to allow us to actually cater for everyone’s crazy mood of food that night.
I was last in line and Stathi was right in front of me, so he quickly turns around to me and says ‘Dude, is that Helena Bonham Carter? I quickly turn around and say “Nah, her hair’s all over the place, she’s not looking as glam as i would expect”. In that split second what I hadn’t noticed of course was the person she was with. As we got seated, I did a quick glance over and lo and behold there was Tim Burton. See for me THAT is a celebrity. The actors are not the important bit (more on this later). The director is the captain of the ship. He’s the one that touches the movie in absolutely every single way, story, script, casting, sets, money, promotion, the whole lot. A great director will take unknown actors and make a great movie. A great actor won’t be able to make a bad movie great. He’ll play his part in a great way and shine himself but the movie doesn’t really benefit…not really because it still remains a pile of shit, regardless of how great the actor’s performance actually was. So I generally will follow directors, rather than actors (there are VERY VERY few exceptions to this rule). This little snippet was the source of a relatively heated discussion yesterday as i tried to explain to everyone that I was properly star struck by a creator’s who’s work I’ve been following since Edward Scissorhands, and well I liked Helena in Fight Club, a lot. But i wouldn’t exactly consider myself a fan of her body of work, since except for that movie I’ve only ever seen/heard her in….Tim Burton movies (Corpse Bride and Sweeny Todd).
So there you go, the first ‘celebrity’ that I actually was kinda star-struck. See NEXT week I will be 100% COMPLETELY and utterly star-struck as I am going for the Alan Moore signing in London. For all those that don’t know who Alan Moore is, you guys really have not been paying my attention.
So went and saw I am Legend with Willy Smith on sunday, without really thinking about it too much. First movie of 2008 I go to, so it’s good that i did come out with a smile on my face. Sure it was no 28 Days Later (not seen the sequel so I can’t comment on that one) because that movie was a lot more closer to home for me, since it was based in my current home town of London and I am Legend is based in NYC.
My favourite parts in both movies are what the survivors of these plagues actually do in their free time and the scenes around the completely deserted cities. From that aspect this movie really does capture this element in a great way. In a surprising way, Smith actually does a good job in his role as the military scientist who’s lived through the plague that hit mankind. He does seriously come off as a very likable character and the co-star Sam is also a great positive to the feel of the movie.
Ok, spoiler alerts from now on, so move along if you’ve not seen the movie yet.
So what fell for me? The main area for me which didn’t really resonate that much was the fact that Will Smith was a military scientist who is actively trying to find a cure. He doesn’t come across as that sort of character. Scientists don’t look or act like him (well at least not the scientists i’ve met in my life). They put far too much Hollywood gloss over it by making sure I saw him work out without a shirt on. From that respect it was just pandering to the female population which I just kinda rolled my eyes at and asked for the movie to move along with the story. I’m glad he didn’t fight for another shower scene again (like he did in I robot,..hmm must be a bit of a theme going on there with the ‘I’).
I wasn’t all that impressed with some of the effects for the zombies or nightwalkers or whatever they decided to call them. Something about their design just fell extremely flat for me. However having said all that many of the concepts surrounding the story were pretty fun to see pan out. Like why the movie is called I am Legend was a good one and the fact that they were created after a cure to cancer.
There are several plot holes in the movie, however overall it was a fun movie to watch. Nothing you can’t watch on a dvd or something, since I don’t think it’s terribly necessary to have the full cinema experience past the first 20-30 minutes.
Coraline teaser. Literally just finished reading Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, so this is perfect timing as far as I’m concerned, since it doesn’t influence the way I pictured Coraline in my head, which is decidedly different from this animated rendition of her. Still it’s good to see all these Gaiman movies coming out. First there was Mirrormask, then there was Stardust, then Beowulf and now Coraline. Kinda hoping we get Death soon because that would be pretty special.
New Batman trailer online. You know it’s going to be a good week when your monday morning starts with this AWESOME trailer. Summer 2008 can’t come soon enough.
You may (or may have not) noticed that things have been pretty quiet in the world of the ‘kode lately. I’ve kinda stepped a bit back from my online activities in the last couple of months as I decided to concentrate on other things in the lead up to Christmas, plus I’ve been out enjoying all the various Christmas parties and social events of the last couple of weeks as well.
The good thing about all of this is that it’s given me a great deal of time to reflect on things I want in my life; the year that’s past; what I hope the coming year will bring; what I’d like to change in the coming year and where I eventually want to be. I always write a massive end of year and this year will be no different, but I want to make sure this one goes out with a bit of a bang.
One of the areas of the design that I definitely didn’t expect was the fact that the design fits snugly into 800x600 screen resolution. That I think was just a happy accident rather than by decision, but based on my previous post about the EEEPC, I am glad that it worked out that way.
Golden Compass trailer in glorious quicktime. This movie cannot come soon enough…seriously. I’ve been waiting for this movie version for years now, since I read the first book (er hem, Northern Lights), 6 years ago now. Everything looks like it’s going to kick some major ass. If you’ve not read the book yet, shame on you.
Wanted trailer is out and about. For those in the dark, Wanted is an excellent little mini-series that was written by Mark Millar and drawn by J.G Jones, published by Top Cow several years ago. It was completely over the top and Mark Millar at the time made no secrets about whom he would have wanted to play the lead roles. So much so that the character designs were based on the actors they (along with Jones) would have wanted. So Halle Berry, Eminem. They got Angenlina Jolie and Morgan Freeman instead and the plot sounds pretty much nothing like the actual graphic novel…except in the looses possible way. Lets put it this way, it’s not going to be another 300, that’s for sure.
Iron Man trailer is up. I’ve officially come in my pants after seeing this trailer. It’s as badass as the first time you saw the Christopher Nolan Batman. I mean seriously everything about that movie looks completely brilliant. I’m a massive man in armour fan, my absolute favourite comic book character is a little known character called X-O Manowar from the Valiant comic days. The creators of that character cut their teeth and wrote/drew some of the most memorable Iron Man stories. Seeing as I’ll never get to see an X-O Manowar movie, this will have to do. Seriously I can live with that.
Kung Fu Rodeo has got two sets (first one, second one) of Batman photos. All I’ve got to say is that Christian Bale makes such a brilliant Bruce Wayne, and Ledger in the thin purple suit looks absolutely perfect. This movie can’t come out soon enough as far as I’m concerned.
Blade Runner Suitcase. We’ve been hearing about this suitcase for a while, but it’s not until today that I actually saw what they’re talking about. It’s a real fucking metal suitcase!!! Ok so I might actually go out of my way and buy it now. I was having a conversation with Steven the other day and he was asking to get the theatrical version which he actually prefers to the Director’s cut. Definitely will be interesting to see what he was talking about, because I’ve got to be honest, I can’t remember this movie in the amount of detail he seems to have remembered it. Nice suitcase though.
Set in the period between BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT, this brand new adventure follows BATMAN as he unravels a mystery over six original stories done in the style of Japanese Anime. Each of the six original stories has been written by a highly respected screenwriter or comic book creator. The talent includes Academy Award nominee Josh Olsen (The History of Violence), screenwriter of the BLADE films and BATMAN BEGINS David Goyer, and famed comic book writer Brian Azzarello, among others. The Batman Anime DVD is viewed as a perfect companion piece to BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT. The original stories introduce a number of classic characters from the DC Comics BATMAN universe as well as following up on characters and storylines that were introduced in BATMAN BEGINS.
I’ve got to say that I am COMPLETELY there, as the Animatrix was the only decent ‘sequel’ that the Matrix movies spawned. I’ve watched the first movie several times; same with the animated short stories that followed, but I have yet to see the sequels again since I saw them originally in the cinema. I was talking to Ryan about this and they’ve got to be some of the most anticipated movie sequels ever (after maybe Star Wars) and the single biggest disappointments ever (I’d say more than Star Wars because I actually liked the Phantom Menace).
Moore on season 4 of Battlestar Galactica. Sorry I couldn’t help myself. This was a panel that was discussed at San Diego, although none of the major comic book websites mentioned anything about it. There are some interesting little nuggets, like the fifth Cylon to be revealed towards the end of the series and the fact that D’Anna (Lucy Lawless’s character) is coming back as well for a few episodes. Also they mention Lampkin coming back which would be brilliant as he was the standup character to get noticed in the Season 3 finale.
The first Dark Knight teaser is up and ready to be watched. I’ve just been watching Nolan’s Memento and I’ve got to say the guy has yet to disappoint me which is such a rare quality in any creative person.
Tales from Earthsea by Goro Miyazaki (the son of Hayao). File this under “I hadn’t heard anything about this until yesterday” sections. This movie seems to have all the right ingredients. It’s an adaptation of the great Earthsea story (which I’m a huge fan of). It’s being done by Studio Ghibli, who are to me like Pixar, they can do no wrong. Finally it’s directed by a Miyazaki, so it’s bound to be great right? I was like, oh cool, it’s his son doing a movie. That’s bound to be interesting.
Then I started thinking, hang on, I’ve never heard he had a son that was into animation. Seems like there has been a series of in house fighting over the fact that Goro was given this movie to direct. Surprisingly the main instigator to all of this was his own father. Reading around further (article from the latest Little White Lies) shows that the father/son relationship has completely broken down and is practically non-existent really. Honestly, this has kinda taken away from the movie from me. It’s not a particularly happy story but alas a new Ghibli movie is always cause for celebration.
The movie is out in cinemas in the UK as of the 3rd of August. Loads of good links over at the wikipedia page. You can read Goro’s translated production blog over at Nausicaa.net
Just got back from watching the Transformers with Yanni. To be honest, I really don’t think I could have watched this movie and enjoyed it as much as I did with anyone but Yanni. See we both grew up watching and playing with the Transformers. We’ve had countless arguments about them , with them and because of them.
So what did I think of the movie? First off, this isn’t a movie for everyone. Not everyone is going to appreciate the whole idea of transforming robots. If you’re a guy in your mid to late 20s this movie was made for you and me. Classic lines like:
You've failed me once again Starscream.
Echo straight out of the cartoons we would watch on a Saturday morning. The story was adequate in that it chugged along and there was something there in-between the awe-inspiring action scenes. I don’t usually get like this, but this movie was all about the robots, transforming and kicking the shit out of each other.
Forget the bullshit attempts at humour, I swear that asshole who tried to write the American Pie riff needs to be taken outside and given a good kicking. It had absolutely no place in this movie. I’m sure it was some toss-jockey producer saying that they need more humour in the movie. Some of the humour was done well, like with Bubblebee and his great music choices at the beginning of the movie.
Can someone explain the relevance of the Australian chick and the fat man? Comic relief and what exactly? Easily the most REDUNDANT characters I’ve ever seen in any movie. Also I’ve got to say that John Turturro’s role was a tad bit annoying. I love John (Big Lebowski being his crowning achievement as far as I’m concerned) but what the hell was this role all about?
Anywho, enough about the peripheral characters, lets concentrate on the stars of this movie, namely the Autobots. It’s great how they explained the whole morphing into cars and whatnot, that was very nicely done. What I didn’t really care for was the whole product placement within the actual fekking movie. Was it really necessary to have the whole Ebay thing? Or every car being a GMC? Or what about Nokia being Japanese as well? Or the Pepto Bismol? I mean seriously great chunks of this movie was nothing more than one big advert.
However all of that disappeared, the second you saw Bubblebee transform into the newly supped up version of himself. Or Optimus Prime transforming for the first time. Starscream and Megatron transforming in mid air, combined with the sound effects and the music is enough to make you forget about all the short comings of the movie, because basically they COMPLETELY kicked it out of the whole theatre. I’ve never seen anything like that. It was meant to be larger than life and the effects delivered every step of the way.
Bring on the sequel.
Wall-E teaser trailer up. Wall-E is the new movie coming from Pixar next year. From the brief 20 seconds or so of actual Wall-E time it really does seem that this is the most detailed animated outing to date (check out the scene with Wall-E bringing up the dust around him).
Easily one of the best new animated characters I’ve seen in a good long while (I put him in the same league as Homer Simpson, Pinky and the Brain, Daffy Duck, Bender). Ryan game me the second season of Family Guy earlier this week and I’ve just caned the whole lot. Obviously the real star of the show is Stewie, the maniacal baby genius. Whenever there’s a show that’s got any decent amount of Stewie in it, you KNOW it’s going to be good.
It’s really strange but it seems to me that Fox gets some decent programmes made as pilots or proper TV series which are genius, they get this loyal following and then they cancel the shit, only to bring it back a couple of years later with their tails between their legs. In this case they canceled it not once but twice before bringing it back (the word dumbass comes to mind but hey at least they rectified the situation).
Why the hell didn’t anybody tell me how good this show actually was? I mean I’ve not watched Entourage, but that’s really my fault as people have told me it’s good so I’ve got no excuse; but Family Guy should have more people ranting and raving about it. Yes I’m blaming you. All of you. You know who you are.
DAMMIT LOIS!!!
I didn’t realise what the deal was with the season finale and I only watched the first half, thinking that was it. As I found out, the season finale is actually 2 episodes long, ooops. So here are my quick thoughts on the season in general and these final episodes:
Charlie - It's weird but I started liking this character towards the end. Originally I couldn't really connect with the character in any way but he's evolved into someone that has developed friendships with both Hurley, Jin and Desmond, while at the same time sorted out his love for Claire and even came clean about his involvement in Sun's abduction.
Mikhail - Why won't this fucker stay dead for the love of god. There has got to be something going on here which is just really annoying. Nothing seems to work on this psycho. I really thought he was going to actually do something about not following Ben blindly but the idiot goes and kills the other women.
Ben - Loved the scene were Jack pummels Ben. That was brilliant. Get that bloody smirk of his face, the little shit. Of course the half assed dialogue between Ben and Jack doesn't really help. I mean if it's really the end of everything and it requires Ben to go there in person to try to stop them, then why the hell won't Ben just tell him the full implication of what is actually going on here and maybe Jack won't run into things blindly, instead of blackmailing him? What's he trying to prove? Of course if any of us were in Jack's place we'd probably do the same thing, trying to get everyone off the island.
Lock - What a dick. I'm sorry but what's the deal with this guy. He won't kill his father, but will get Sawyer to do it, but he'll kill some woman he has no idea who she is by throwing a knife in her back. So he's already overstepped every possible boundary he could but he won't go forward and do the same to Jack? What he decided to learn restraint right at the end? What the hell's that about? Where the hell is Walt? And what the hell is he doing back on the island? How the hell is Lock back on his feet? Is he got the same healing powers as friggin Mikhail?
Jack and Kate - Ok the flash forward. That was very cool indeed. It was a great build up which basically answered a bunch of questions and then gave us a whole slew of new questions. So we know that they eventually make it off the island. Jack cannot come to terms with it and has completely broken down even though he's completely the one that will probably do it.
We don't know who's in the casket. Is it Ben? It would make sense since nobody came to see him at the funeral. He doesn't have anybody there that know him anyway. We don't know who Kate has to get back to before they find out she's away. Is it Sawyer?
Saturday evening, Jackie, Fern and I went to the 6th Annual Sci-fi and Fantasy Festival in London. This was part of the anime all-nighter. We started off the night at 12 and finished at 9am in the morning. I’ve never done this sort of thing but I’ve got to say that it was a lot of fun, mainly because I can say that I actually made it through and I only slept through one movie, which to be honest was pure garbage (I’m actually referring to “LE CHEVALIER D’EON”). That isn’t to say that there wasn’t any rubbish movies (fucking hell Highlander was utter shit), but rather I didn’t feel the actual urge and need to sleep through them.
All of that aside, for me however the night absolutely peaked with ‘Paprika’. I’ll go so far as to say that the entire night was worth it mainly due to Paprika. This is the new movie from Satoshi Kon. The man who’s given us Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers gives his best movie to date. He’s now in that league of directors that are truly destined for greatness. He’s up there right now with the likes of Christopher Nolan and Brad Bird. The sort of person that you actively hunt his older stuff because you want to see if there was genunie sparks of genius back then and he’s been building since then.
Having watched both Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers, I’ve got to say that Paprika is without a doubt his crowning achievement, so far (he’s still at the start of his game as far as I’m concerned). The highest accolade I can give this movie is that it is to Japan what Amelie is to France. Yes it’s that bloody good.
This movie completely captured my imagination. Right from the intro to the movie with the titles I knew I was watching something special here. It gave me that same warm feeling you get when you watch the Amelie intro for the first time (you know where she’s doing all these things that you used to do when you were a kid as well). In this case it just had this incredible charm to Paprika’s fleeting around the place dodging people who are chatting her up and getting around town.
So what is Paprika all about then? It’s very very difficult to explain to be honest as I will fail miserably since it’s a movie which is pretty difficult to put within a genre. However a brief synopsis (without any spoilers), a revolutionary new psychotherapy treatment called PT has been invented. Through a device called the “DC Mini” it is able to act as a “dream detective” to view inside people’s dreams and explore their unconscious thoughts. The story follows (in part) Paprika, who is using the DC mini trying to help psychiatric patients.
The imagination in each frame is amazing. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud, smiling all the time. What’s funny is that the movie isn’t a sugar coated Disney fest. It’s just that the way in which the movie is told and the colours and characters and music all contribute to an amazingly uplifting experience. It’s a surreal journey where you actually understand what is going on at the end and are clamouring for more.
The other aspect of Paprika which I am incredibly impressed with was the score. Few people combine the movie with music very well, so much so that you are hungry to hunt down the music. People like Tarantino are masters at this, however the music in Paprika is so integral to the mood of the movie and really enhances every frame it’s unreal. The music is by one Susumu Hirasawa, and is an essential part of the success of the movie for me.
In the past few years I can point to a couple of movies that I have watched again and again and really enjoyed every time. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Clerks 2, Amelie, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service. I can definitely add Paprika to that list when it comes out of DVD.
Golden Compass Cut Sheet. I know they’re calling it the Golden Compass, but it my eyes it will ALWAYS be Northern Lights. I mean seriously I think that’s pretty fucking stupid calling it something completely different in America to England, but anyway. For those that don’t know what I’m talking about, go out and read the best book you’ve never read, Philip Pullman’s classic His Dark Materials Trilogy. Then you can come back and thank me for pointing this masterpiece out to you. I accept donations of all kinds.
I’m going to post a collection of one liners that are rattling in my head, probably going to make it into a regular sunday evening thing:
The Offspring Greatest hits album dualdisc is pretty damn good listening. Reminds me back to when I was 13 and was about to take on the world. 30 was a lifetime away.
So we're talking with Rosie and Dom about ethnic minorities and how it's actually a lot less than you might expect. I know that statistics are made on the spot in general, but the one quoted seemed a bit low, which lead to us talking about the first wave of the black community into Britain in the 50s and 60s and how people of a certain age who had not seen black people until that stage felt/dealt/reacted with the new world order. Which then triggered the memory of me meeting my first black man, must have been 12 years old or something; I honestly can't remember his name, but he was from Mauritius. I remember he was a very softly spoken guy and very very gentle in nature. The only thing that made an impression on me was his hands and how the palms were slightly coarser than mine. Such a strange thing to take back.
Lewis Hamilton is a great little rookie, however I'm really not liking the shitty HYPE that British media seems intent on throwing his way. I mean seriously you see this shit year after year. They build them up just so that they can slap them down when they put a foot wrong. Really shitty as far as I'm concerned, and I don't blame Ron Dennis trying to shield his driver from all that bullshit.
Clerks II is how a DVD should be made. It's got about 6hours of extra material and Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier have seriously spent a lot of time to make it a special experience. You're not buying the DVD just to watch the movie a couple of times. It's really about the DVD experience and really using it, with multiple commentaries, bloopers, interviews, behind the scene footage and the list goes on. I put this up as one of the great DVDs of last year, easily.
Just watched Christopher Nolan's first movie, Following. Seriously, it's one of the better indie films I've seen in a really long time. Black and white, shot in various locations in and around London, check it out, great little twist at the end.
Diet is going well. I must have had a serious fat day last Sunday because I'm about 2kg less this week. Part of that I guess is the running, part is the diet changes, part is the psychology as well I guess. I'll keep the updates on this going.
I bought an ipod shuffle last week, first Apple product I've ever bought myself, and I've got to say I'm loving the size. It's like part of my clothing now. It never runs out of juice and it stores enough music to last me my runs, my trips to work and around the place. It would be nice to have a display but when it comes right down to it I don't think it's completely necessary for the function that I am using it in. Does this mean an Apple mac isn't far behind,...hmm probably not.
So Ubuntu Feisty Fawn came out this week. I downloaded it for my laptop. They still hadn't sorted out the bugs that I had reported that I had confirmed that had tried to help solve, that worked in 2 previous versions. I'm talking my laptop into the office to get Windows installed on the machine. I want to swear at Canonical, but alas it's not completely their fault, although it's really annoying not to have this sorted. Renders my laptop really annoying to use to be honest, so much so that I haven't been using it for the past couple of months properly.
SMODCAST (love that name as well, especially how Kevin introduces it and everything). Easily one of the best podcast's I've heard in a really long time (thanks for the heads up Michael). I've gotten into listening to dvd commentary while working on something as I can actually get through a lot of things, and listen the plethora of commentaries that I generally have no real time to listen to.
First look at the original Iron Man grey suit. I’m actually really looking forward to this. A marvel movie that doesn’t completely suck. To be honest ever since X-men 2 and Blade 2 the Marvel movies in general have been a let down. So much so that I’ve not seen Elektra, Ghost Rider or Fantastic Four.
So I’m talking to Fern yesterday on Facebook, and when I say talking I actually mean ‘Wall-ing’ her (yeah it’s not the technical term for it but alas it sounds funnier). Anyway, so she’s dissing 300 and calling it gay porn or some such rubbish, so we started talking movies. I asked her whether or not she was excited for the new Chinese flick that’s getting prepped for release in the UK this weekend, Curse of the Golden Flower. Her response, I’m quoting here:
It's one of those Chinese films for foreigners. The trailer didn't even have any words! Even if it features Jay Chow.
See the thing is I’ve heard this kind of response nearly EVERY time I’ve asked someone Chinese about a Chinese movies that makes it into Western theatres. For most people the Chinese outbreak came with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Ang Lee a few years ago. I was raised on a staple diet of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies. So much so that my parents have had to watch Drunken Master 1 & 2 several times over with me because I kept renting it from the video store again and again, mainly because I’d seen all the ones in the store and because I loved the interaction with his Master when he was training him. I also loved the food scenes, where you know he’s going to eat the entire house, then get drunk, then not have any money to pay then have a big massive fight. To be fair though I’d not really experienced the full extent of Asian cinema, not by a long shot.
So today I decided to goad Irene into telling me what the deal was with the dislike of Chinese people to exported certain exported Chinese films. So she gave me the standard foreigners line, followed by a curve ball (I’m not actually quoting Irene here but work with me people I’m getting to my point):
It's nothing we haven't seen before, since the 1950s. In fact some of the better stuff weren't movies but TV series.
That’s fucking interesting. Where the hell are they? What are they called? What’s the deal? Name them. Of course they’ve all got Chinese names. C’mon guys it’s not my fault I’m not Chinese, I’ve come to accept that you’ll never hand me the Chinese menu at the restaurant (you know the one with all the authentic good stuff), why are you being stingy with your bloody cinema and tv programmes?
So I’m asking everyone that knows of any good Chinese series (preferably set in the Emperor Chinese era) that are actually ‘good’ and not for foreigners (but with subtitles) for me to get into. After all Battlestar Galactica won’t be back for like at least 6 months, Prison Break won’t be back for a similar amount of time and Lost can only keep my attention for like 45 minutes a week.
Ok if in case you didn’t read the title of this post, it has the word spoiler in it for a reason, not interested in finding out what has happened on the end of the third season then pretty please with a cherry on top go somewhere else and you don’t ever need to blame me for ruining anything for you. Good everyone else here?
Watched it yesterday and I’ve got to say I was pretty damn excited about this episode. I got back home at a normal time and went straight to downloading the episode. All the while I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The big massive revelation; who is the Cylon, who is the Cylon. I don’t get one I get 4 of them, definitely didn’t see that one coming, especially Saul as one that’s come out of NOWHERE. I’m sure they’ve thought this one through, but seriously how the hell does that actually work? He’s like over 50 years old and that’s how old the Cylons are right? At least that’s what we were originally led to believe.
So I did a bit of researching. Ron Moore’s podcast isn’t up on the scifi channel yet however if you look around you’ll be able to find a couple of interviews scattered around the place where he talks about things.
The biggest twist of couse was definitely Starbuck’s appearance at the end of the show. I honestly didn’t expect that. I’ve got to say that while listening to Ron’s commentary regarding the reasons to kill off Starbuck never rang true with me. It seemed as though it was all about the AUDACITY of it all, which felt a little bit on the weak side. It’s nice to see how they’ve pulled one of the best cons in recent television history. ‘Kill off a character’, have actress in on it as well so all her interviews point that she’s going to be moving on, don’t insert her name in the credits of the actual episode and then have her come back right at the end. Of course there are a lot of unanswered questions but it’s definitely one of the better endings on the show which always has pretty spectacular cliffhanger season endings.
Also I really loved ‘All along the Watchtower’ cover by Bear McCreary and his brother, definitely will be getting that once it’s available from somewhere.
Frank Miller’s 300 had my money several times over from the moment I heard it was going to be made. Then came the trailer and I nearly came in my pants several times over (I know not a pretty vision but at least I’m being truthful). Then I shared the trailer with Stathi and Christos and while I thought I was excited, these guys were even more excited about this movie than I was. Honestly between the three of us we’ve probably seen the trailer like 3000 times.
I can’t count the number of times we’ve quoted the lines:
"Blasphemy? Madness? THIS IS SPAAARTAAA!"
So to say that we were completely hyped for the movie is a slight understatement. So how do we celebrate this momentous occasion of the release of 300? We book the top section of Everyman cinema in Hampstead (much more about this glorious cinema theatre in a moment) and pack it with 40 something Greeks. To say there was a bit of atmosphere in the theatre, is once again a slight understatement. Half of us screamed the above line when Leonidas said it.
It’s strange but one of the things that annoys me about cinemas is that the experience seems to have been diluted. I’m talking in a general sense here. It’s no longer something special, it’s no longer something that is truly an experience in every sense of the world. Thank god someone remembered this and made the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead, North London. Basically it’s very small little venue however there are different levels of seating throughout all of which are larger than usual, with little tables to the side of them. The side seats are leather with foot rests and all of them have champagne bottle holders. The ambience in there is amazing. Seriously I kept looking at just how beautiful the place was and how great all the colours worked together seamlessly. The screen isn’t the largest, the sound isn’t this amazing THX (at least I don’t think it is) but it’s definitely one of the best cinema’s I’ve ever been to. This enhanced this movies completely for me even further than if I watched it in your run of the mill movie theatre.
"A new age has begun. An age of freedom, and all will know that 300 Spartans gave their last breathe to defend it."
The story is a timeless one, depicting one of the greatest if not most important battles in history, completely stylised of course with loads of magicians and huge monsters people and weird freaks, however believe it or not it’s not the story that counts here but how it is delivered. You see this story has been told several times before, however never like this. Some of the fight scenes in here are some of the most brutal you’ve ever seen in a swords and sandals epic. Forget all the rubbish that is Troy and Alexander and open your eyes to 2 minutes of pure Spartan maddness cutting through one guy after the other. Then chilling out and eating an apple over the dead. It’s meant to be over the top. It’s meant to be completely manly in nature. The dialogue just drips of testosterone and I think that’s one of it’s greatest qualities. You don’t get enough movies where the guys are completely hard as nails.
A distinct success of the movie was use of colour filters throughout the movie. From the soft yellows used for Sparta to the blues used for scenes with the Immortals. The darker browns used for the fight scenes made the red capes sand out even more. Make no mistake this movie isn’t for everyone (although I wish it was). For a start it’s an 18, which means this movie is violent, has got scenes of a sexual nature (read: soft porn) but there isn’t any real swearing as Miller didn’t really have any of that in his book.
I've got to say that the casting in most cases (except for Leonidas's son, who thankfully had nothing to say) was completely inspired. Gerard Butler was an AWESOME. Gerard held your attention completely. His voice was worth EVERY penny they paid him as he truly made you believe in the Spartan way. Never retreat, never surrender.
The choices Vincent Regan for the Captain and David Wenham for Dilios were also chosen very well. I loved Lena Headey as the Queen, that was also pretty damn inspired casting. However for me the surprise casting was for that of Xerxes; I have NO idea how the hell they managed to make Rodrigo Santoro actually look like Xerxes but it's incredibly impressive stuff.
From a comic book point of view it was completely faithful to the style. The additional areas were actually very very well done. The scenes with the Queen showed just how hard she was. It was an welcome addition to the story while I am a purist in these things I think if it’s scenes that don’t take away from the actual original source material then I have no problems with it at all.
As I continue my review of 2006, go read part 1 if you want to find out my thoughts on The best of the Net 2006, I’m turning my attention to movies. Interestingly I think this year has been one of the worst years for movies in a really long time. That isn’t to say that I haven’t enjoyed a good number of movies this year, it’s just that I found less time for movies this year, which I can probably attribute to the lack of quality flicks being shown this year.
Most disappointing movie of 2006 for me personally was X-men 3. Seriously they were on auto-pilot for that movie. Another minor disappointment for me was Superman Returns. Not because it was a bad movie, but rather because it wasn’t as great as I actually really wanted it to be.
However the PRUNE of all prunes surely has to go to Rocky Balboa (and that’s considering some of the stinkers I’ve seen this year, I mean it’s got Last Holiday for fuck’s sake). I mean seriously what the hell were they thinking when they got round and signed all the contracts for this? It’s one of the most ridiculous concepts I’ve ever heard and it’s really strange that Hollywood is so lame that it has to create another sequel. They should have stopped after 2 and called it a night. Hell I might even stomach 4, but seriously Rocky 6? I haven’t even seen this and sure as hell am not going to bother wasting my time with it. What next Die Hard 4? Oh shit yeah they’re going to be making that.
The Prestige, the new Christopher Nolan movie is like getting Christmas early. I mean how could the following ingredients possibly disappoint. You get Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine, David Bowie all in one movie, set in turn of the century London, revolving around magicians and the ultimate magic trick.
Seeing as how becoming a magician was one of my first dreams of what I wanted to become when I was older, you can imagine how giddy I felt watching this movie. It wasn’t slightly good, it was bloody good. Watching the movie there was this sense of urgency, tricks and double tricks, twists and turns. You always were thinking how is that trick done, how do they do it, what’s the deal with it all.
Bale is awesome as he’s definitely beginning to take over as one of the premier actors you go for when you need a solid performance. Michael Caine is doing a spectacular job as always. In fact with regards to the acting (and casting for that matter), everything was completely spot on.
One of the first things you find out about the movie is why it’s called the Prestige. I’m not going to ruin it (unless you’re really into magicians, then you probably already know, I didn’t), as I wouldn’t be able to it the same justice as Michael Caine does in the first few minutes of the movie. The story centres around two rival magicians who go through life trying to achieve greatness. As you can imagine with a movie coming from the Nolan brothers we’re going to be dealing with a non-linear timeline with many twists and turns (I mean come on, what else would you expect from those that gave you Memento, one of the all-time classics of modern cinema.
Nolan has definitely routed himself as one of my favourite directors as he’s currently three for three in my book. He’s definitely taken over from David Fincher who has disappeared into the ether of late (wasn’t Panic Room the last Fincher movie?).
Abracadabra.
The transformers trailer actually looks pretty damn good. This might be pretty old news but I hadn’t heard anything about it on the net.
I’ve been meaning to talk about the latest season of Battlestar Galactica since it began airing 3 weeks ago now. For all those who don’t know what I’m talking about, go here and read (which reminds me I really should go back to my old posts and format them accordingly, how embarrassing). Without a shadow of a doubt the great TV show that is currently on the air. Groundbreaking in many ways and essentially just a damn good story.
Matt beat me to the punch with his review on the latest Battlestar Galactica episode (season 3, episode 4) Exodus Part 2, but it most definitely was a complete rocket (no pun intended). As of right now I’m going to get into details so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE with a cherry on top, go somewhere else because I’m going to be throwing SPOILERS. You’ve been warned.
So what did I like about this episode? So many great moments to think about. I absolutely loved the scene with the Galactica jumping into the atmosphere and launching the Raptors; classic scene, the flames the idea itself and a flawless execution.
Gaeta is a great little character. If there was one person that I think would be me on that show it would be Gaeta, except I would have definitely pulled that god damn trigger. In any case I’m still holding that Baltar is a fraking Cylon, based on the completely dodgy way in which he escaped his ‘death’ in the pilot. Everything blows up and he’s hiding behind Number 6’s skinny (and incredibly lovely legs). Bollocks the man is a Cylon.
The scenes with Tigh and Ellen were brilliant. I think Saul is a complete fuck up however he’s been put in a pretty bad position time and time again. Most people would have cracked under the pressure. He kind of has, however at the same time he keeps fighting, even though he probably wishes he would die. Listening to Ellen give her final goodbye was just great. Here you had a woman that obviously would do anything for you, and has had to. This is war and in war you do ugly, terrible things, in order to survive. I don’t think Ellen was evil, more like completely stupid and misguided, but she loved her husband, after a fashion.
The Pegasus coming to the rescue was completely predictable and I was wondering when they were going to get rid of that ship. There can be only one Battlestar, although Bill’s now back to being a Commander rather than an Admiral, which is a shame, I really liked that growth of character.
Speaking of growth in character, that is actually one of the most important aspects of this little jump the writers have put into this particular season. All these character are now even more fucked up and damaged than what they were before the invasion. Now the inter-relationship politics are even more intense, however we have no idea what caused this rift. What happened in that one year. I guess we can expect to find many of these questions answered in the coming weeks. I’m going to try and do this analysis on a regular basis.
Also for some reason, listening to the podcasts, while I do like the fact that the team is actually doing these, some of the magic is actually taken away from the show by them talking about their practical consideration, room and the cost of an episode. I dunno, I guess the show really does suspend my disbelief that I don’t want anything to bring it back.
Democrcy Internet TV Platform - in all it’s open sourcy goodness. Just in time for the new Battlestar Galactica series (how the hell did so many months go by since season 2 ended, it really does seem like an eternity), the new My Name is Earl series and the new Lost series (still need to finish watching the rest of Season 2).
A new Pixar animation is generally cherished over here in Casa Broken Kode; then again do you blame me? After all they ‘sand the underside of the drawer’ (it’s a policy they have at Pixar regarding how much car and attention they give to their movies). The last couple of features from Pixar have been absolutely amazing. From the brilliant Finding Nemo, to The Incredibles, to Monsters Inc, every one of their movies, OOZES with characters and colour and story. Each movie has a clarity of vision and a crispness and love of one’s craft that the viewer generally cannot help but be drawn into these magical worlds that they create. With an introduction like that and knowing how hard it is to follow up on any kind of successful feature, be it a website, film, graphic novel, album, how does Cars fair in comparison?
The story in simple terms follow Lightning McQueen as he tries to travel to California along Route 66 in order to compete in a race for the Piston Cup (Daytona or something similar I guess, don’t know much about America motorsports). McQueen is not a very pleasant chap. He’s obnoxious, he’s over confident and he doesn’t have any friends. His trip to California takes a bit of a detour as he finds himself in the middle of Radiator Springs. A town where life has passed it by. It’s here that he learns that there’s more to life than just racing. All very inspirational, all very cotton candy type stuff, which is part of the problem.
I’m going to give you the bad news at the start of this review simply because it’s easy to be done with that aspect of it all, so that I can concentrate on the stuff I actually liked. The story believe it or not is actually the worst part of this movie. The reason is because it felt too formulaic for me. As I was watching this movie, I started remembering a couple of the previous Pixar movies and they all seem to follow a very similar story structure and then I remembered who was directing this. It’s a Lasseter movie. He’s a great director, don’t get me wrong, but the story and structure of his movies follow a pattern. Once you’ve watched them as many times as I have, you notice this pattern and can see it coming. With regards to the story, I guess this particular one is only better than ‘A Bug’s Life’ which I swear I can’t even remember what the story was actually about. I remember all sorts of dialogue from the rest of their library, but not that one. I don’t think Cars will be that unmemorable, it’s just that it’s not what I’m going to remember this movie by.
Another aspect of this movie that sticks out is that you honestly have to been American, or have visited the states to fully appreciate this movie. It’s about Cars. It’s for people who generally like cars and everything that comes with this sort of thing. I’m not a massive car fan in general, although I love Formula 1 (or at least I used to until this year which is driving me [no pun intended] further and further away from the sport) I’m seriously not this car aficionado. My cousins (and especially my brother I’ve noticed) can’t stop talking about cars but I’ve got to admit that the whole topic BORES me to tears. Seriously.
Which brings me onto the elements of the movie that I will remember very clearly and constantly chuckle about. The stars of this movie, wasn’t the animation itself, unlike previous Pixar outings, but rather the characters. It’s all about the characters. In a clever way the creators over at Pixar tried to make a car that everyone could associate themselves with.
My favourite car without a doubt was Guido. The guy was too cute in every sense of the word and he embodied a lot of things that I can relate to intimately. Every scene the car was in (along with Luigi) where the classic scenes. When he shows up at the drag race with the massive Italian style Afro I nearly fell of my seat. His ultimate display of skill in the final minutes of the movie and his subsequent ‘Pit Stop’ were absolutely brilliant. I really want to know what he shouts out in Italian because I’m pretty sure it’s another fantastic set of lines (for all those in the dark he apparently can only say two words in English, ‘Pit Stop’). I will most definitely be getting a Guido for my birthday (I’ve already started hinting to people that I’d like one). The interaction between the army car and the hippy was brilliant. ‘Hey man, RESPECT the classics’. I even found ‘Mater’ mildly amusing.
The guys at Pixar did something different in the final scenes of the credits. Rather than showing ‘outtakes’ like they usually do, they decided to extend things a little bit and actually try and poke some fun in another way. Some parts were pretty damn funny, while others could have done with a little bit more fun injected in them. The little ‘Mack’ section was absolutely hilarious. Really very funny.
‘Cars’ was without a doubt well worth the cash I slapped down to watch it. Was it as good as the other Pixar movies, not really no. It’s terribly tough trying to beat a lot of their movies and I think that’s the problem they face. They bettered ‘A Bug’s Life’ but not the other ones. It had it’s charm and introduced us to some classic characters and a decent yarn to keep you occupied.
Saw ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ yesterday. Got me some thoughts about it, but as you can expect I’m going to be talking about story details, so consider this your SPOILER WARNING. Don’t look further if you’ve not seen this movie yet.
Dead Man’s Chest follows on from the previous Pirates movie. The movie begins as Elizabeth and William Turner’s wedding is interrupted by the Royal Navy or some authority as they place them under arrest. However this is not just to uphold the law, it would seem the Commandant has ulterior motives. He blackmails Turner into going out to find Captain Jack Sparrow and retrieve his compass, that as you remember from the previous movie, didn’t work.
Meanwhile Captain Jack is in a whole WORLD of trouble as it seems he struck a deal with Davey Jones for 10 years of being a Captain of the Black Pearl in exchange for his soul (and 100 years of serving on Davey Jone’s ship). Of course Jack’s not all that keen to get going with this plan, so he’s trying to find a key that unlocks Davey Jone’s chest.
That’s as spoiler free as it gets people, from now on this really is your final warning. So anyway I really didn’t understand the reason why Davey Jones took his heart out and put it in that chest. I know SOMEONE mentioned something in the movie, but honestly it whizzed by so quickly I have no idea what the actual reason was, so if you picked this up, please do tell. I guess that’s one of my complaints about the movie. They had so much story to tell that someone was a bit asleep at the wheel when they went and edited this thing. Not much editing happened as far as I’m concerned. I could have done without the cannibals scenes or that whole ridiculous fighting scene on the spinning wheel thing. The whole scene with Elizabeth and the two other pirate monkeys on the beech was pretty cringe worthy as well.
The thing I will say however is that it’s Johnny Depp’s movie. I pretty much guarantee that if Jack Sparrow wasn’t in this movie, NO ONE would bother watching it, because to be blunt, everyone else pales in comparison to what the man does. His eyes and his facial expressions are spot on. The carefree way in which he’s constantly running around the screen is also really funny. He’s definitely got all the best lines and he’s the kookiest character of the lot, which means a lot really. He also claims the best scene in the entire movie, where he utters: ' Hello beastie'. Very cool scene.
Regarding the rest of the story, it was pretty standard fun with a great little ending with Barbosa making his return. Dunno how he did it but I’m sure they’ll be explaining it sometime next year when the third one is released.
I was particularly impressed with ILM’s effects on this movie, which seriously did showcase all that they can do with regards to integrating all sorts of things with the live action. From the destruction of various ships by the aforementioned beastie, all the way to Davey Jone’s octopus beard thingy. One point that I’d like to mention was the great use of colours in this movie. The apple eaten by Barbosa right at the end, to the costumes and the various beaches around the place, colour plays such an important part in this movie.
Better get comfortable, because you’ll need to be as the one thing that can definitely say about this movie is that it is LONG. It’s about 45 minutes longer than it really needed to be. There was a slew of sections in this movie that simply dragged on longer than I would have wanted. Ana mentioned it at the same time as me, because every time you thought it was going to end, it just kept going. Paradoxically, I have never yawned as much coming out of movie in my life. It’s not that I was bored or anything, probably just tired but it was very strange.
I did enjoy this movie, with the exception that I thought it was far too long in areas, but that’s the beauty of DVD, where I’ll be sure to fast forward those areas I thought stretched out too long.
Go buy the DVD version of an open-source movie? Open source as in you’ve got full access to all the elements that went into making the movie. I know sounds completely crazy but very cool at the same time. I’ve been waiting for this for a good long while, ever since I heard about it all those moons ago. If you’ve not tried Blender and want to try your hand at 3d modelling, you really don’t have very far to travel, and nothing to pay for your visit either.
Just finished watching the latest trailer for the Superman Returns movie and I’ve got to say that Bryan Singer seems to have HIT the nail on the head. He’s actually made this character seem like a great deal of fun. There’s a certain optimism in the entire trailer and the fact that the characters are playing off the actual stereotypes is something that comes across incredibly well. Then again you’d need some pretty stellar actors to pull it off well, and I can think of no one else that does it better than Kevin Spacey. His line at the end of that trailer is priceless. Can’t wait for this….and I’m not even a Superman fan (with the odd story as an exception).
I was meaning to write about this last week but I got caught up in other things and once again missed reviewing this movie. It’s not a new movie, however it holds a special place with me as it’s my feel good movie. It’s the movie I watch on a Sunday when I’m slightly depressed “…that it is a Sunday and that Monday’s UGLY UGLY head is slowly poking out of the infested mutant pipe that spawned it”. In case you didn’t catch that I really hate Mondays.
It’s the story of Amelie and if you’re a guy by the end of the movie you’ll be wishing you find yourself a French lady just like her (movie is in French and set in Paris). Every part of this movie screams class. From the opening titles that show a little Amelie doing things that children do to amuse themselves. This is then followed by a lightning fast narrative that picks up random occurances of life, until we reach the birth of our title lady Amelie Poulain.
The casting of little Amelie is incredible and the director Jean-Pierre Jeunet doesn’t fall into the trap of letting his children stars actually talk. I’ll try and elaborate on this a little bit. One of the things that is a big no-no in Hollywood because it generally spells the death of that movie commercially (and most cases critically as well) is using animals as the driving stars or children (there are of course the rare occasions where it all works in a magical way; Sixth Sense comes to mind, but that was an incredibly unique movie anyway). Little Amelie acts the role, but by not speaking and letting her eyes and actions speak we get a lot more convincing performance. It’s a subtle trick and I doubt it would work on me again but because it’s done so well in this movie I love it.
The entire setup is the fact that Amelie was not getting the attention she craved from her father. So much so that the only time he would have any physical contact with her is when he was giving her monthly physical check. This act would get her excited that her heart would beat so hard giving her father the impression she had a heart condition. Thus she was taught at home and made her both odd and closed to the outside world.
The movie follows her life from birth till the present moment as she struggles to find a purpose in life. At the same moment it touches the lives of many people around her. What’s very fun is just how inventive her sense of justice is and how she would go about making sure that justice is served.
One of the most amazing things in this movie is the use of colours. For me at least it set the standard with regards to rendering colours for a film. In fact the only other movie I can think of that comes close to the level of attention to the colours and the use of filters is the chinese epic ‘Hero’ (which I’ll be sure to review at some point as well). The colours leap out at you and add a layer that would have made the movie a lot less rich if they hadn’t obviously given it the attention that it required. By doing this the film is given a distinct look that is different from the very start. Greens and reds are used to dynamic effect.
The acting in this movie is very well done and the all the characters are very well thought out. This is the first movie I’ve seen with Audrey Tautou in it, but she got a fan for life as she plays her part in the most sublime fashion ever. She’s the obvious contender to Audrey Hepburn’s classy movie star queen title (must be something in the name to be honest).
Finally I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the superb soundtrack which gives that French flavour like no other movie can do. Once again another superb layer that is added which elevates. It’s like all the stars were aligned at the right time to make sure this movie was one of the greats.
If you’ve not had the chance to watch this superb movie then I seriously recommend you stop what you’re doing and make sure you secure it for tonight or this weekend. If you’ve got to buy it or rent it or whatever your life will be that much better after you’ve watched this gem captured on celluloid.
Not really what I was hoping to hear, but the Firefly Season 2 news that has been making the rounds, doesn’t seem to be anything but a lot of hot air and one fan’s dream. It’s nice that he likes it so much and stranger things have happened but I doubt we’re likely to see another Firefly series which is a crying shame. If you’re more interested in new Serenity stories head over to Splash Panel as I’ve just done a review for the gap between Firefly season 1 and the Serenity movie.
…meanwhile if you’re interested in what Lois Lane will look like look no further than Just Jared. Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor is easily the best thing they could have possibly done. Inspired casting if you ask me.
In keeping with the X-men theme of late, from Joblo (thanks to The Beat), we’ve got some pictures of all the X-men characters. My favourite is definitely Colossus and as I mentioned before the beast.
Go have a look at it. Yeah I know something you would expect this sort of thing over at Splash Panel but like I said the content there is SOO specific that it just doesn’t fit in there. So checking out this trailer all I can say is that I like the fact that all the characters are back in action. It’ll be fun to see another X-men movie. Having said that there are a couple of things that I thought looked a little weak.
The first being Angel and just how wrong he looks. He’s meant to be soo much more imposing, and yet in this shot looks completely wrong. The casting looks wrong. Just everything looks wrong.
They got the Beast SPOT ON, which originally I was pretty scared they’d screw up, but it seems they spent most of their time sorting out his look and should have maybe spent some time looking at that horrible Angel look. I thought it was nice seeing Colossus in there as well, can’t wait to see him in full metal cladding.
I’ve not heard much about the story, but I’ve got to say that’s the one aspect I’m exceptionally scared of. The story could signal the death of this franchise which would be a shame as I truly enjoyed the first two movies (X2 more than X-men). Here’s hoping for the best, and expecting the worst.
Empire describes it as “Akira for the 21st Century” but watching this movie reminded me more of the mid 90s when I first watched Ghost in the Shell. Sky Blue apparently took 7 years to create. To say it’s spectacular sounds to me like to do a diservice to the amount of painstaking detail that the animators have chored over to create, it’s more than spectacular. I remember when I first saw Ghost in the Shell I was absolutely amazed by the sheer grandness of the design. The animators where having fun showing off this world they’d created. 10 years later the production team behind Sky Blue do one up, and surprisingly the results haven’t come from Japan as you’d expect but rather from Korea. If this is a glimse of things to come from the Korean animation scene, I honestly can’t wait to see what Japan will fight back with, because make no mistake, Sky Blue has set the bar with respect to animation.
The story centres around the city of Ecoban. In a world where no one has seen the colour of the sky, it’s been raining for over 100 years. The existence of Ecoban depends on the work force called the Diggers. Before the catastrophic events that lead to the natural disaster, a certain group anticipated the upcoming downfall. They built Ecoban to make sure that they survived. They locked the doors and didn’t let anyone in. Those stuck on the outside became the diggers. This obviously caused a great deal of hostility between the two groups.
My only gripe with the movie was the weakness of the american voice over actors, who did feel a bit forced. Not as fluid and convincing as I’ve come to expect from my animated endeavours.
I wish I could describe the sheer imagination of the world the animators showed off in this movie, but I think the best way for you to understand is to watch it.
The Superman Returns teaser trailer is up and it did give me goosebumps. Mainly the Marlon Brando voice to be honest. The music was completely spot on, created all the atmosphere I could have hoped for. I will echo a couple of comments I’ve heard online about the fact that it doesn’t really look like Metropolis and more like Gotham, but I think that’s just the trailer. My favourite part is easily the jump scene in the fields.
Saw this movie last week, but due to various problems, it’s taken this long to talk about. Just to warn everyone
MAJOR SPOILERS COMING UP. IF YOU'VE NOT SEEN THIS YET, AND ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT THE STORY, TURN AWAY NOW. DON'T LOOK FURTHER, JUST GO READ SOMETHING ELSE.
Right from the start of this movie you could tell this was going to be a good Sci-fi flick. The smaller-than-usual-budget-for-a-sci-fi-movie (apparently $40 million) however does come through in the lack of overly elaborate sets. This was arguably the one aspect that did make the movie seem less fit for the big screen than anything else (i.e lack of big name Hollywood actors etc). Although the story does journey to different locales, the real life sets were less than spectacular.
That isn’t to say that it’s a cheepo movie. Money has been spent on this film. This movie would have been the best Firefly episode ever made. The CGI used here was superb, and there were shocks, spills and revelations. I enjoyed seeing the worlds that Firefly/Serenity inhabit. That aspect has always been missing from Sci-fi TV series. Battlestar Galactica does do a gallant job of trying to rectify this situation, in that the sets don’t look the same from one shoot to the next, however BG doesn’t really show much in way of new worlds, so they don’t need to spend much money on the CGI.
For me although Kaylee was originally my favorite character, she quickly turned to my number 2 or 3, as River easily took over that role towards the end of the Firefly show. With the Serenity movie she’s established herself as the number 1 character of the show, by a long way. Apart from the fact that I’m completely gone on Summer Glau, she’s also the quirkiest character there. I’d question whether she looks 17, however it seems that the youth of America need to be told that they have to look like 25 year olds. Can anyone say Beverly Hills 90210?
Starting from the beginning young-River, looks NOTHING like the older version. IMHO that’s easily the worst casting of the movie. Not that the little girl was a bad actress (like a certain mini-skywaker), but she just wasn’t a good match. This was more than made up for by giving River the best scenes and the best lines.
If I hadn’t watched Firefly, I’d say that not enough information was given about Book, and his death meant little to the audience that were not familiar with the movie. Same goes for Wash. Good way to end his life on screen however:
I'm a leaf on the wind
The Operative is a suitably evil bad guy, although I’d question Mal’s decision not to kill him on several occasions. His opening scene is one I’ll remember for a while. Just the coldness of his actions are pulled off very well. I never cringed once when I saw him on scene, which I generally do when I see the ‘typical bad guy’.
Inara didn’t get much time on screen, which is a crying shame as she does a very good job of challenging Mal’s authority/ideas and plans. I’m glad they progressed that aspect of the relationship, even by the slightest amount.
As a Firefly fan, I was impressed by the overall package of a movie it was. I'm still on the fence about whether or not it truly required a full length feature movie in the cinema, as something deep down felt like it just didn't belong there. The Firefly fans are going to take a lot from it than anyone else that's for sure.
Just as a sidenote, if you’re interested in finding out what exactly happened in the 6 months between the end of Firefly and the start of Serenity (i.e why Inara and Book left), then check out the upcoming Serenity mini-series in trade paperback from Dark Horse (it’s written by Joss Whedon and apparently very well drawn, I’ve only scoped out the covers which are brilliant).
I’m going to do you two favours with this post, so I’m hoping you all send some love my way. This can be in the shape of money donations or buy me something from Amazon, I’m not too fussy. The two things I’m going to save you are TIME, which as we all know we don’t have enough of and some of your hard earned CASH.
DO NOT, under ANY circumstance go and watch the new Guy Ritchie, pile of stinking, tumor-inducing, shitty excuse for what he’s calling his new movie, Revolver. Don’t bother watching this on DVD, don’t watch it when it’s on TV eventually, don’t watch it if a friend comes over and the only other thing on TV is some reality TV program, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE. This isn’t one of those reviews where they’ll be very cool and include it in the packaging (like Fight Club).
I thought about this and the problem is that Guy Ritchie actually thinks he’s as good as Quentin Tarantino. The two previous movies I’ve seen by Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking barrels and Snatch) were both very enjoyable affairs. Revolver on the other hand can only be described as that bit of food that’s stuck in between your teeth, that decides to come out 3 days later.
It’s not that the acting was bad, because it wasn’t. The actors read their lines and did their thing. I can’t really fault the camera work, or the sets or the music, which were all pretty well done as well. Unfortunately what was really lacking in this movie was the fact that both the actual writing/dialog and direction were both truly sub par. Endless reams of self-analytical bullshit, compressed into this stream of drivel, that make you go,‘WTF did he just say?’ In fact the closest approximation I can give you in terms of how bad it got, was the dialog in the 2 Matrix sequels.
Yeah, that bad, honest, I wouldn’t be going on like this if it wasn’t.
I suppose it’s because I’m a fan of his previous work, that I feel like he cheated me of a decent movie here. The core concept and ideas if were given to Tarantino would be brilliant. And another thing, why would you do an animation in a movie (and a bad one at that) so close to Kill Bill? I mean at least that scene had a purpose, nearly a year since I saw that scene I can still tell you about it. I only saw this animated sequence yesterday and I can only remember one small part of it!
I know he’s better than this, so what was he thinking when he was editing this? Whatever Ritchie is smoking, I seriously don’t want ANY of it.
Finally saw Howl’s Moving Castle yesterday. Laurent and I have been talking about watching this on the big screen for nearly a year now, as we’re both MASSIVE Miyazaki fans. In fact coming to think about it, I don’t think you can possibly watch a Miyazaki movie and not become a fan of his. Every new Miyazaki movie should be savored because in my opinion they honestly don’t come out as often as they should, which if I had it my way would be every single week.
The thing I liked the most in the movie was the characters who were all extremely well defined. The thing that made me laugh was how all the male characters came off as incredibly CAMP (read: slightly fruity in case you’re not familiar with the term camp), and to a certain degree I couldn’t really take them seriously. My favourite character without a doubt was Turnip Head, who is a fantastic addition to the number of characters under the Studio Gibli umbrella. A really pleasant surprise as well was the voice of Billy Crystal for Calcifer, who did an excellent job.
The world that this movie was set in reminded me of Kiki’s Delivery service a great deal, however for some strange reason I didn’t think the animation was even as close as polished as it was in Spirited Away, which remains my favorite Miyazaki movie ever.
Having said all that coming out of the movie you’ll have a massive smile on your face, since it’s such a great piece of cinema. As Laurent put it:
"There's still hope in this world"
Every once in a while you see something, read something, hear something that takes you back a few years and you start remembering all sorts of things in your life that seem to be from a different world; you were a different person, the world around you was completely different. The memory is so vivid that you even start remembering smells. That’s how I felt when I watched Leon again.
Leon (or as it was renamed in the US, The Professional) was released something over 10 years ago. I must have seen it a year or so after that. This was my first ever exposure to Luc Besson. I remember watching that movie and falling in love with every aspect of it. 10 years on I find that it lives up exceptionally well. Nothing looks dated, which is such an exceptional achievement in my opinion. This movie was probably the one movie that made me hunt down writer/directors before any other movie.
In case you haven’t seen it, go now and buy it, download it, rent it whatever, because you owe it to yourself to treat yourself to a classic. Story centers around Leon and Matilda. Leon is played by Jean Reno, Matilda is the 11 year old Natalie Portman. In the mix we’ve got Gary Oldman who very nearly steals the show, if it wasn’t for the exceptional acting by the two lead characters.
Set in New York, the story talks about the relationship a professional killer, or ‘Cleaner’ builds with an 11 year old girl as he trains her in the ways of the hired mafioso kill. We’ve got fantastic characters, corrupt cops, classic performances, and killer (no pun intended) action scenes. Not spoiling anything, but the movie also ends with what is the BEST movie song ending EVER, (‘Shape of my heart’ by Sting).
Now turn away because I’m going to start talking in detail about the movie. Consider this your SPOILER WARNING.
For those who haven’t seen the special edition, come closer while I tell you what you’ve been missing out on.
The special edition includes some seriously amazing additions. I remember when in University, people knowing my affection to the movie would always tell me of deleted scenes that had sex scenes between Leon and Matilda. I’m here to tell you that in fact that is COMPLETE and UTTER BOLLOCKS.
The movie has several new scenes, some of which I can’t believe he removed from the final cut. I think it was M. Night Shyamalan who said that directors generally end up removing their best scene from the final cut, and I think the Russian Roulette scene is easily one of my favorites of the entire movie. I’ve just got this hunch that Luc Besson felt the same thing about that scene as well.
My one main gripe however is that the director/writer of this movie wasn’t involved in the production of this DVD. I find that exceptionally strange as it seemed like such a personal project.
Most of the actors were on call for some interviews. Notable exception of course is Gary Oldman, who at the time of the movie’s release was the only ‘star’ in the credits. The movie obviously propelled everyone involved to another level, but Gary Oldman played the role in a manner no one else could come close to. I used to hear a lot of criticism that every single character that Oldman played was always over the top. In a way he was typecast, but at the same time in the best possible way. His Captain Gordon in Batman Begins was exceptional, his Dracula (which I’m not a fan of vampires) was brilliant, he was fantastic as the Devil in that 10minute movie directed by Tony Scott and Clive Owen in there. For my money however his role in Leon was him at his best.
If you were ever a fan of this movie, then it will be money well spent in getting this special edition version. It’s worth everything you pay for it and more.
I only got to finish the series years after the fact, but the first season still holds up pretty well. My love for the series was only fueled with the release of the exceptional Macross Plus during the late 90s. That was a brilliant Anime series. The story was superb, the animation was ahead of anything else out there at the time. The characters were very well done, the music was very memorable, and it was a very stylised series.
The Comic So after 3 years of waiting, we’re ready to see the next wave of Robotech. The new series by Wildstorm, with art by Udon seems like it’s going to be a complete monster hit (for the fans at least), and I’ve no doubt that Tommy and Jay will not disappoint with the story. What’s nice is that it actually ties into the upcoming movie release…
The Anime A sequel? Damn that could go both ways. I honestly didn’t know they were working on a movie. I know that the first Macross Movie was meant to get restored (has that been released yet?). Seems like the trailer for the movie (The Shadow Chronicles) was shown in San Diego, so that should be making the internet rounds soon enough. Target is for a late 2005 release, but I’ll bet it won’t be out till 2006 at least.
One of the very few Alan Moore graphic novels I’ve not had the chance to sit down and read. I know, shocking. I’m an absolute Alan Moore nut. Even on a day of bad digestion where he’s trying to knock off a few pages to get some money (to feed his cats) and while he’s struggling to understand why we all exist Moore could write circles around EVERY SINGLE WRITER on the planet. In ANY medium. The man knows no boundaries and his visions are better formed than most people’s lives.
So what hope do I have that this movie will be better than previous Alan Moore incarnations? Well lets consider previous endevours into translating Moore’s vision to the silver screen:
I hold little hope for V for Vendetta. I really would, but history repeats itself far too often. However with Moore disassociating himself completely from the movie, we’re left thinking, hmm another turd? Still though, that’s a pretty amazing poster…
I don’t play computer games. Takes too much of my very precious time. I’ve got a list the size of my arm in terms of things I want to do that playing video games just seems like a complete and utter waste. However the only PS game I own is Final Fantasy VII. I loved everything about this game. The characters, the plot, the graphics, the gameplay everything.
So I’m in WHSmiths (magazine, bookstore, dvd you get the picture store) and I’m flipping through the latest 3D World mag simply because I thought the cover image was completely unreal, go have a look, and anyway I notice a little piece about something called Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
Seems they’re making a movie based on those characters, chronologically set 2 years after the end of the game. This won’t be a theatrical release but will go straight to DVD. My only reaction to that was AWESOME. I mean this is basically what I originally wanted to see when I watched Final Fantasy: Spirit Within. This is going to be huge, and that’s before I even got to see the trailer. Seems I’m well behind on this news as there’s several sites that have popped up to cover this massive event. It’s a massive event because FF7 is still Squaresoft’s best selling title ever. My magic eight ball tells me this movie is going to be huge.
Honestly I can’t wait to see this movie.
Related Links: http://www.adventchildren.net http://www.square-enix.co.jp/dvd/ff7ac
Last week I bought the Firefly box set. This was an actual impulse buy. My housemate at University, 3 1/2 years ago now, was heavily into Buffy at the time. I couldn’t get into it for the life of me. The reasons where very simple, I couldn’t get into the whole concept, and Buffy herself was a complete and utter bitch. Anyway at the time I was heavily into Babylon 5 (still am, long post about that some other time). So I’ve heard of Joss Whedon. Hell I’m a comic book fan so I know the man is a fan as well, and that Buffy was essentially his version of the X-men, funny since he was apparently going to direct the next X-men instalment, and he’s writing X-men for the next year as well. Anyway, back to Firefly.
Firefly for those in the dark about these things is Joss Whedon’s third television series. After Buffy and Angel, he came up with this Sci-Fi Western. It aired for 11 episodes, even though 14 were made, and much like the great Clerks Animated Series it got yanked off the air before it could find it’s audience. Fox does seem to like to fuck around with what’s good, much like removing Futurama. So we have this box set which includes 4 DVDs and has all 14 episodes including the unaired ones.
There’s a lot to like about this series. For a start it’s a new Sci-Fi series, which I’m always on the lookout for. The computer technology has improved by leaps and bounds since the early days of Bablyon 5. What I didn’t realise was that this series takes the tired and tried Sci-fi genre and turns it around. See while this series is set 500 years in the future, the landscape out there is so dispersed, that it all reminds you of the Wild West. An interesting concept and one I thought really couldn’t work, but it does, really well.
The story follows a freelance shipping crew on board the Firefly-class spaceship. Having said that they’re not just shipping stuff, they sometimes smuggle stuff. And when I say stuff, the actual merchandise could be anything.
One of the main things that this type of series usually struggles with is finding actors to pull off the lines and the scenes convincingly. I’m glad to report that so far in the episodes I’ve watched the cheesy rubbish has been kept to a minimum and the hammy acting has not surfaced yet.
The characters for me are brilliant. It didn’t take me long to find my favourite. Without a doubt it’s Kaylee. For a start I think she’s really cute, and secondly she’s a very sweet character and they’ve given her enough quirks for me to actually care about her. I really love that she takes it personally when someone doesn’t respect her ship. I also like River. The actress Summer Glau does a great job of playing the messed up character.
In the pilot, I really liked Captain Mal only in the beginning. However after watching a few more episodes, I’m really starting to warm up to him. I’m starting to like his attitude to certain things, because originally I didn’t like how he treated everyone around him, but he slowly grows on you, not instantly mind you but eventually.
My favourite scene so far has been an episode where the crew is interrogated, Zoe and Wash (wife and husband), basically get asked the same question, ‘Do you love each other?’ The answers that each give are brilliantly executed and real. What you think I’d ruin it for you?
Now what’s impressed me the most is the sound. Seriously, from the music to the sound effects. What I love the most is that ‘Serenity’ doesn’t have any sound in space, because well that’s how it would be; No thrusters, or burners giving off noise, no laser sounds in space, nothing. The writers have obviously done their research since the spaceship does have a rotating component to simulate the gravity inside the actual spaceship, a nice little nod to Babylon 5 there, wouldn’t have known that little fact. It’s not explained in the series, but people like me would find fault in the series if it didn’t exist.
One concept I can’t really understand is the idea of how Companions have gotten such an elevate status. Just don’t really understand the thinking behind how we got to this location. Inara is played by the really stunning Morena Baccarin, but somehow I still prefer Kaylee because of her next door demeanour.
The good news people is that if you ever get a chance to see this excellent series there’s more to come. Currently we’ve got Serenity the movie coming to a movie theatre near you, sometime towards the end of the year. See that’s really good. Since it started life as a television series but all the actors etc are coming back for more but this time on a much larger scale. Personally I can’t wait to get into this series more and then see all the extras, hopefully they’ll make many more instalments because I’m hooked, and I think if you give this series a shot you could get hooked as well.
I’m surprised all the usual comic book websites haven’t picked this up. Usuaully they’re the first to pick this sort of thing up, soo what I’ll do is I’ll talk about it here and then I’ll send them an e-mail shouting and scolding them.
Seems there’s a company called Untamed Cinema that as you guessed it, makes movies. Their latest project is called Grayson, as in Dick Grayson AKA Robin or Nightwing depending on how involved you are with the Batman universe. Now I don’t know about rights of these things, I’ve known DC Comics characters being used in other ‘personal’ projects but this is pretty cool. So at best this is a bit of fun, that will never be released, still though…it’s pretty cool nevertheless.
So what’s the story. Seems the director maxed out 4 credit cards, got some friends along and made this extended preview. I guess he was trying to get this idea he had out of his head, and good for him. He’s really made a fantastic bit of film, that looks great, for the budget. That would be $18,000, give or take a few.
Oh sure it’s not the most perfect piece of film history, he does try and put a bit too much here, and shows absolutely every character that could fit into this story.
The story follows Dick Grayson as he searches for the murder of Bruce Wayne. For me the best part of the entire ‘movie’ was the Dick Grayson scenes. He’s done well here. It actually looks like an older Grayson. The appearance of Barbara is also very nice addition to the story. One thing they’ve tried to do, although not as successfully as I’d like but is completely understandable given the budget, is the acrobatic nature of Dick. It comes out every once in a while, but it’s just not enough.
It’s a 149meg download and requires quicktime, so be prepared.
There’s also a Pieces of the Puzzle documentary for download, which to be honest I found a hell of a lot more enjoyable than the actual piece itself. Finding out what this poor guy had to go through in order to achieve his vision is really a great story in and of itself. Highly recommend you download this as well.
Their website is packed with stuff for you to download, from the poster in hi res to the wallpaper.
[link via Chris diclerico]
So I watched Kiki’s delivery service,…again. I guess Miyazaki’s movies are starting to replace my eternal crush on Amelie. Whenever I need to be inspired I always tend to gravitate towards the man’s work. The english translation leaves a lot to be desired from in certain areas, but nothing could take away from the magic of this classic. Think back to when Disney movies were actually good. Well this is better, because it’s not talking down to you in that it has to break out into a song. Don’t get me wrong nothing wrong with songs, but there was a time when Disney thought (still think I could give two monkey’s) that if it was animated it had to have a friggin singalong soundtrack to it.
Then the big ugly mouse comes out and say something as stupid as traditional cel animation is dead. Damn dawg, did anyone mention this to Miyazaki? The man creates worlds and characters that seem real even when they don’t look it. If you’re a creative soul, in any sense of the world really, you owe it to yourself to reach out and experience Miyazaki. I guarantee you’ll come back for more, whenever you need inspiration.
There should be more people like me in Holllywwooood (think Bill Hicks when saying that in your head). Loads of new goodies over at the official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Why am I a genius you ask? If I may refer you to this here post from over a year ago. See that’s why I’ve got a blog. So I can prove I had these ideas back in the day. My favourite line is this:
Still I think it would make a brilliantly funny Sci-fi movie, something like Galaxy Quest, just completely brilliant,..
That teaser trailer is brilliant and every time I see the DON’T PANIC title I crack up. Probably because it reminds of school a bit. Basketball was very big in my school, the unfortunate thing was that whenever Slieman used to get the ball, some how you could feel the PANIC in his movements and eyes. He’d tense up so as to not fuck up, ultimately Stathi the bastard copped on and kept yelling DON’T PAAANNNIIIICCC, every time he had the ball. Needless to say he’d panic even more.
Good times.
Just saw this on the scifi channel website. For all those in the dark, this to me was the granddaddy of fantasy novels. I read this before Lord of the Rings, and it was awesome. I’m thinking of reading it again. They’ve got a decent cast there as well. Definitely one for the DVD collection when it eventually comes out.
To be honest it takes a lot more to get me excited about a movie these days, not because I don’t want to get excited about a movie, but because the quality of movie is pretty poor that are being solicited. However we’ve got the below mentioned I, Robot, and there are a few more little things that I do actually want to have a look at.
Batman Begins.
The official movie website is here. Today was the first day of the teaser trailer. It’s AMAZING. Very dark but everything looks right. I’m still not sure about Christian Bale who is Bruce Wayne, but I’m hoping the movie will change my mind. I mean have a look at the batmobile man, it’s completely unreal.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
I like Angelina, I like the look and feel of this movie, it might actually be a really well put together little film, or it could be a complete and utter crock of shit, I’m hopeful as the cast seem to be pretty good.
SIN CITY.
As far as everything goes, this is the ultimate in comic book to movie adaptation. The entire movie is being filmed, PANEL BY PANEL from 3 seperate graphic novels. The dialogue is COMPLETELY in tact. Some of the lighting, and comic book tricks are being mimcked completely. Here’s a small list of the people involved: Josh Hartnett Bruce Willis Jessica Alba Mickey Rourke Quentin Tarantino Robert Rodriguez Benicio Del Toro Jamie King Rosario Dawson Elijah Wood Clive Owen Michael Clarke Duncan
3 Directors, One movie, 3 Graphic Novels. One Sin City. Looks like to be one of my altime favourites and I haven’t even seen it yet, but that’s ok, I’ve already read the script and seen ALL the storyboards…
Not really sure about this movie. I know the hype around this one has begun, and there are loads of reports about it being pretty poor where story is concerned, and that this is more a Will Smith type affair than an Alex Proyas type movie. Alex Proyas for those in the dark is the supremely talented man behind the original Crow and Dark City. Since those two movies I actually haven’t seen him do anything. I guess this is coming back with a vengance really bringing in a blockbuster of sorts, but I’ve got to say that something about getting Will in there does actually reduce the credebility for me. Call me crazy but I would have loved it more if another unknown actor was put in there instead.
I guess I’ll have to wait and pass judgement when I’ve actually seen the thing. Could be good, could be rubbish, I’m still on the fence about this one, even though I really should be clamouring to watch it.
New ‘Star Wars’ movie title revealed
CNN.com - New ‘Star Wars’ movie title revealed - Jul 25, 2004 Out of complete boredom I actually typed in cnn.com and there it was in full glory the actual name of the new Star Wars movie : Episode Three.
Star Wars - Episode III : Revenge of the Sith
Watched it last night. Very well put together littl documentary. Lots of food for thought. The thing is as with any media you’ll see it as biased propaganda, but the thing that it shows is how the western world has been subjected to the other side’s propaganda for so long, I think it’s healthy to have a look at the other side of the coin.
The problem is discarding the movie because that’s what you feel it is only. Micheal Moore shows all his sources, reveals where he got his information, which is bloody public knowledge. Anyone anywhere in the world can access most of that information if they really wanted to. If you’ve ever read Stupid White Men, you’ll know that Moore puts all his references in the back of the book, so if you think he’s lying, well go check it for yourself, because guess what, Moore’s done his homework.
For me none of it was particularly shocking as I’m Lebanese and therefore cynical about the motives of the American and British government and the whole fiasco that is the UN. I know it’s all about money, and a complete disregard for humanity, as long as you line your pockets. The whole war on terror, again another scheme that I could see right through, there was nothing there that was new to me.
To me I really couldn’t help but feel ready to cry when I saw the Iraqi woman talking about how her house was blown away, how he family was dispursed and how none of them were milititant but civils. I watched her and seeing as I was listening to her in arabic, even though she said a few words slightly differently, it was pretty much all understandable, she signified the way all arabs the world over feel about the current situation. The frustration in her voice was unbearable. I couldn’t help but think about how Lebanon was destroyed, and now it’s Iraq, and they tried to wrap it in a coat of lies and deceit; and nobody cared enough, all those ignorant assholes that would defend their country’s right to act, I’d like to grab them by the hair and show them these scenes of the little girl completely dismembered so that they can listen to Britney Spears and Kylie, while watching fucking shit TV, feeling all safe now that the terrorists are taken care of.
I was reminded while watching the war ‘or trying hard to avoid the propaganda but couldn’t’, just how much Iraqi lives, are obviously much cheaper than American or British lives, and that truely makes me sick.
You know however that this little movie will get people thinking and you know that it will eventually be followed by other people also willing to show what is being done in their name.
I should not be getting excited but what can I do it’s my inner geek. I know it will be crap. I know it’s going to annoy me no end, but it’s going to be amazing nonetheless, because it will be the end of the most major sci-fi fantasy series ever created, till now, in the future who know, but at this moment little can take away from the old ones, and there’s always something nice about the news one, even though they generally are crap.
Oh yeah and btw this is NOT the official poster, you can see Liam Neeson in the credits, and well a few minor photoshop blunders. However this movie will be coming to a cinema near you on the 25th of May, 2005
Right so I finally saw KILL BILL Volume 2 yesterday. Before I continue I’m going to say that this review has major SPOILERS. I’m going to be talking about everything I liked and disliked about the movie in detail, so be warry. If you’ve not had a chance to see it, go somewhere else, come back once you’ve actually seen it.
Right now that that’s out of the way let’s get down to the task at hand. Tarantino’s 5th movie. This was completely different to the first one, and yet it was a natural extension. While the first one had the emphasis on style over content, a bombastic romp into every movie tarantino loved watching, his homages to all kinds of cinema coming through, this volume actually felt like a tarantino flick. It had loads of scenes that made you uncomfortable, like in Resevoir dogs and Pulp fiction, and at the same time it had many scenes that made me laugh and smile and came off as very tender moments.
The scenes that made me feel the most uncomfortable were the ones of Uma in the coffin. Everything about how that entire scene was shot showed a man who knew how to keep the audience on the edge of their seats even though they KNEW she would come out of it ok, since he tells us right at the very beginning of the movie. That’s what made this movie good, in that everything is spilled out for you and yet you still forget about the girl even though that’s the first thing that he shows you at the beginning of the movie.
David Carradine was AMAZING. I used to watch him regularly on the TV series Kung Fu, he was the grasshopper and his master was blind. A disgraced Shaolin Monk he wondered the american wild west, it was a classic TV series, which he tarnished by appearing in the follow up with his ‘son’. Geeze what a load of rubbish. He’s lost some weight and he actually looks brilliant in his black suit.
Uma also impressed me no end. The training scenes looked brutal and she carried those off just as well as she did the scenes with her daughter, the crying with Bill, the entire package was done in such a way that I thought this was a worthwhile movie. I got my money’s worth of movie, felt saticfied and can’t wait for Quentin’s next movie, which hopefully shouldn’t take 5 years to come out.
