Still more movies and stuff

Comic Review: Sin City series by Frank Miller
This is a series of mainly B&W adult graphic novels that done in the Noir genre. The stories are compelling and so is the artwork. Dashes of colour to highlight certain characters throughout the series also worked effectively. As I'm quite a fan of film noir it was nice to see the style so well represented in comic book form. I'm interested to see how the movie adaptation will compare, especially since Frank Miller wrote many times in his letters columns about how he would never sell out and that there would NEVER be a movie version of Sin City.

Movie Review: Dead Poet's Society (1989)
I showed this to some of my classes at school in the last week before exams. Most of the students really seemed to like it, although some did sleep through the entire thing. I saw this when I was in high school and really liked it. I found it even better this time because I can see it from a teacher's point of view. Robin William's character is really an 'ideal' kind of teacher that I'd like to be. Interesting to see Ethan Hawke in such a subdued role too. 10/10


Movie Review: Gung-Ho (1986)
I had considered showing this movie to my classes until I watched it again myself. I had liked it when I first saw it years ago but this time it was very painful to watch. I decided that it would be just plain embarassing to show this to my students. It's about a Japanese car company that takes over an American manufacturing plant in the 80's and how the 'lazy' American workers must adapt to the 'robot-like' Japanese management. Sure it's cheesy and full of stereotypes, but that's not what got to me this time. It was the Japanese they were speaking. It was terrible. I think the writers had just taken a few Japanese courses before they wrote the Japanese dialogue because it is ridiculous. It is all in the polite form that beginners learn but Japanese people rarely use. And since when would an employee of a big company call his boss by his surname? He would call him 社長さん　(President). Not only was the dialogue horrendous, but many of the Japanese speakers had terrible pronuciation as well. I think many of them are American-born Japanese. I notice that the lead Japanese actor, Gedde Watanabe, has only appeared in American movies so probably he doesn't know Japanese. One time when he is angry and starts yelling he is just blurting out nonsense that isn't even Japanese. The classic 80's style montages with electronic music blaring are quite funny though. 5/10


Movie Review: The World is Not Enough (1999)
Ugh, this reminded me of why I don't like James Bond anymore. I know it's supposed to be escapist fun but it is just sooo unbelievable. And how many times do we have to see him in a shoot out on the ski slopes? Denise Richards also demonstrates that while she is beautiful she couldn't act her way out a paper bag that has been pre-soaked in water. 5/10


Movie Review: Ong Bak (2003)
No stunt doubles, no computer images, no strings attached. They didn't need any stunt doubles because all the actors are stuntmen. This movie is about a young man in Thailand who must travel to Bangkok to recover the head of his small farming village's Buddha statue. The young man also happens to be an unstoppable Muay Thai fighting master. OK, so the story is really, really dumb, but god damn the fighting is good. They must have gone through a trainload of pain killers during the filming if this wasn't fake. If you like Hong Kong style kung-fu movies then this one is for you. The lead ass kicker, Tony Jaa, has quite a future cut out for himself because his action work is just incredible. 7/10

Even more movies and stuff

Book Review: Headhunter by Timothy Findley
This is quite a long, sprawling novel by Canadian writer Findley. Set in Toronto in a world that is only slightly different than our own. An ex-librarian believes she has released Kurtz from the novel 'Heart of Darkness.' A psychiatrist named Marlowe suddenly appears. The authorities are killing birds en masse believing that they are the cause of a deadly plague called sturnusemia that is sweeping the country.
This book is very well written and the main plot is very interesting. I'm never sure if the librarian is delusional or not. Unfortunately, the huge cast of side characters that keep popping in and out of the story make things somewhat confusing. If this book had been shorter than its 600 pages it probably would have been better.

TV Review: Battlestar Galactica Season 2
This show has improved greatly since the first season. A re-thinking of the classic 70's series of the same name, this show follows the last remaining humans of the 12 colonies after their planets are invaded by the cylons. I'm guessing that the budget of the show has increased a lot because the CG cyclons are much more present in this season than they are in the first one. Of course, having cylons take on human form opens up several new story possiblities as well as saving money for the production. The season finale was great. The reappearance of another battlestar, the Pegasus, causes serious problems as well as giving a nice nod to a similar occurence in the original series. Ironically, the captain of the Pegasus in the original series plays the part of the doctor onboard the Galactica in the new series.

Movie Review: Jaws (1975)
Caught this one on TV here. What is this 30 years old now? However it still provides great suspense. Luckily we don't really get to see the shark much so it never looks like a 30 year old animatronic. Definitely one of Spielberg's all time greats. Oh how old Richard Dreyfus has gotten. 9/10

Movie Review: There's Something about Mary (1998)
Rewatched this after a few years and it is still hilarious. Great cast, funny gags, the Farrelly Bros at their best. 8/10

Movie Review: Shallow Hal (2001)
Perhaps the Farrelly Bros sweetest movies. A man who can only see woman for their looks is hypnotized by motivational speaker Tony Robbins so that he will see every woman based on their character, not their physical appearance. Of course the most beautiful women he find next turns out to be extremely fat, but he can only see her as true beauty. Despite the fat jokes this movie is not cruel. The best role I've seen Jack Black in. 7/10

More stuff I read and watched a while ago.

Comic Review: Star Wars: Sith War This series picks up right where Dark Lords of the Sith finished off. Uliq Quel-Droma and Exar Kun lead the galaxy into war. Uliq Quel-Droma and his forces, with the Mandalorians (early Boba Fett style mercenaries) attack Coruscant while Exar Kun sways a group of young Jedi Knights to murder their teachers and follow him. Exar Kun fights with a nasty double-bladed lightsabre, just as Darth Maul will much later in Episode I.

Comic Review: Star Wars: Redemption This story takes place some years after Sith War. Uliq Quel-Droma, stripped of his force powers, must deal with the guilt over all the harm he caused. When he is killed at the end his body disappears, revealing that he was still a Jedi Master. This was similar to the ultimate fate of Darth Vader at the end of Episode VI. As in that movie I didn't like how one final good act can redeem the many evil acts that a character does previously. It's seems an awful lot like a Christian death bed repentance. It doesn't seem to mesh with the other Eastern philosophical concepts that fill the Star Wars universe - such as the living force/chi/ki concept and all the teachings of Yoda.

Comic Review: Star Wars: Jedi vs Sith Approximately 3000 years after the last series and we find a world consumed by war. An army of Jedi's fights against an army of Sith. A very weak story that follows around a group of children that I couldn't care less about. The only good thing about this series was at the end when a Sith general wipes out his entire army just to kill as many of the Jedi as possible. The last remaining Sith decides that from this point on there will only be, a master and an apprentice.

Book Review: Star Wars: Bane of the Sith This short story tells us more about the last remaining Sith Lord, Lord Bane. He flees to the ever-popular 4th moon of Yavin to find relics from Freedon Nadd.

Book Review: Broca's Brain - Carl Sagan Not as good as his previous book 'Dragons of Eden' but still very interesting. Very ironic that he found the preserved brain of Professor Broca in a jar in Paris. It spends far too much time debunking the theories of Dr. Velikovsky, a quack in the 60's who believed that many of the miracles in the Old Testament can be explained by a giant meteor that shot out from Jupiter, nearly collided with the Earth twice, and then settled into an orbit around the sun. This comet is now known as the planet Venus. You'd think it wouldn't take too much to discredit this guy but it's the longest chapter in Sagan's book. His other chapters about AI, space travel, etc, are dated but still fascinating. He's a very engaging writer and I'm sure he was a heck of a lot of fun to talk to or just listen to.

Movie Review: Taxi (1998)
The original Luc Besson produced film in French. It's much better than the awful American version which I reviewed some time earlier. This is much funnier and it's amazing how much the lead actor, Sami Naceri, looks like Adam Sandler. 7/10

Movie Review: Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pompoko (1994)
The English name is just Pom Poko. This is one of Japan's famous anime director Miyazaki's older films. He still uses the same themes in his later works though. Here we have a tribe of badgers that are threatened as human development turns their woodlands into paved streets and 2 story houses. As per Japanese legends though, some of these badgers can change their shapes. So the badgers declare war on the humans and trick them by playing various kinds of pranks on them. Mostly just tricks to scare them, but some are very fatal. I thought it was rather strange that a common fighting tactic of the male badgers was to stretch their testicles into large spring shapes and then bounce into their adversaries. No, I'm not making this up. 7/10

Movie Review: Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
This documentary was just fantastic. The director had originally just planned to make a short film about party clowns in New York but it turned into this huge project about a family that was torn apart when the father and one of the sons were convicted and sent to prison for child molesting. Flash forward 30 years later and the son is out of jail and still trying to prove his innocence. Many of the original witnesses now claim that nothing happened and that the police pressured them to lie. What's true, the film leaves you to decide. But the large amount of home video the family took during the time of the trial, and the interviews with all involved then and now are just fascinating to watch. 9.5/10

Movie Review: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)
The Family Guy animated movie. Not really a movie, just the final 3 episodes of the new season all put together. There is a common story running through all of them but it really doesn't hold up. Only the first 1/3 was really funny. For a series based on comedic asides and quirky pop references such a long story just doesn't work. 6/10

Stuff I read or watched a while ago

Comic Review: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
1000 years after the previous series, Knights of the Old Republic is actually 2 seperate stories which do little more than introduce some new Jedi, Uliq Qel-Droma & Nomi Sunrider, and a few more locations, notably the planet Onderon which is in the midst of a civil war.

Comic Review: Star Wars: Freedon Nadd Uprising
Back to Onderon where the spirit of a deceased Sith Lord, Freedon Nadd, continues to wreak havok.

Comic Review: Star Wars: Dark Lords of the Sith
Finally, a great series in the vein of the movies. Uliq Qel-Droma, upset by his mistake which causes the master of his Jedi master, tries to fight the dark side by learning it's ways. Meanwhile, the Jedi Knight Exar Kun's fascination with the Dark Side leads to his conversion.

Movie Review: Hitch (2005)
Will Smith plays a dating-coordinator to help men catch the women of their dreams. Can he do the same for himself? Of course he can, is there any doubt? Not bad as an in-flight movie. 6/10

Movie Review: Robots (2005)
Young kids might like it but I was pretty disappointed in this one. The robots acted and said things that were very unrobotlike and didn't make much sense. Apart from Robin Williams it really wasn't funny and he was basically just reprising his role from Aladdin. 6/10

TV Review: Revelations (2005)
Boy did this 6 part series really blow. Ostensibly about the Book of Revelations and the end of the world but in fact it really didn't deal with either. A nun teams up with a skeptical professor to stop the birth of the antichrist that will bring about the end of the world. It's not explained why the nun would be opposed to this because the end of the world marks the second coming of Christ does it not? I thought Catholics would be in support of this. Anyways they fail and the anti christ is born but nothing happens anyways. Very anticlimactic. Bill Pullman plays the professor who is seeking revenge against the Satanist who killed his daughter in some wierd sacrificial ceremony. Oddly enough, his son is upset that Pullman is angry at the satanists?! His son is then kidnapped by the satanists and quite easily brainwashed into joining them. Besides the ridiculousness of these scenes Pullman is just painful to watch. I liked him in 'Lost Highway' but he doesn't seem to be able to do anything in movies besides being quiet and brooding. Apparently this was supposed to lead into a continuing series but was cancelled. Maybe there is a God after all. 5/10

Movie Review: Lost Boys (1987)
Caught this on TV while I was in the States. What a classic, my all-time favourite vampire movie. It's lost it's shine a little from when I watched it a a teenager but it's still great fun. Even I like the Cories back then. 7/10

Movie Review: Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005)
I never saw the original and now I have no intention to. Just awful. Predictable action comedy with Sandra Bullock. Apparently beating innocent civilians up in public, on camera, is perfectly acceptable now. Especially for the FBI's spokesperson. Not even worth watching if someone gives it to you. 4/10