The Mojo Dojo

Movies from last year pt 1

2008-08-24T15:22:00.007+09:00

Movies I watched last year but haven't commented on yet. Yes, I'm that lazy.

Movie Review: The Fog of War (2003)
Picking the mind of Robert S. Mcnamara, one of the chief architects of America's war policy in WW2 and Vietnam. Amazing to watch, even if it's only to see how he can somehow compare himself to a man willing to burn himself to death to stop a war. 7/10

Movie Review: Why We Fight (2005)
A documentary examining past military undertakings by the US government up to and including their current occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. A very interesting and well made film but it doesn't contain anything new for anyone who's paid attention to American military aggression in the last century. 7/10

Movie Review: Death of a President (2006)
A mockumentary about what would happen if current US President George D Bush were assassinated. It's very skillfully done but I have to agree with many others that it is a bit tasteless to choose a real person to be the focus of a fictional assassination film. I don't like Bush either but that's now how I want him to be removed from office and I think this film would have worked even better with a fictional President. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Apocalypto (2006)
Mel Gibson's amazing view of the Inca Empire during it's decline into oblivion. The acting, sets, costumes, settings, are all breathtaking. But in effect this movie is just a big chase scene. Yet it all works very well. 8/10

Movie Review: Cache (2005)
A clever French film about a couple that find themselves being videotaped

Movie Review: The Constant Gardener (2005)

Movie Review: Syriana (2005)

Movie Review: Sicko (2007)

TV Review: Corner Gas (Season 4)

Odds & Ends

2007-12-28T14:52:00.001+09:00

Movie Review: Collateral Damage (2002)

Caught this on TV when nothing else was on. Worth a pass.

5/10

Movie Review: June Bug (2005)

An excellent look at a Southern family and their foibles. Highly recommended. The acting is superb. No wonder Ebert called this one of the year's top 10.

8/10

Movie Review: Mr. & Mrs. Smith - Unrated Version (2005)

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play 2 married assassins who's next targets are their spouses. Good action and fun.

7/10

Movie Review: Havoc - Unrated Version (2005)

2 girls from the good side of the tracks become enamored with LA gangsters and their lifestyles. This film is supposed to be the breakout part for Anne Hathaway but besides showing her doing some very unprincess like things it doesn't have much else.

7/10

Movie Review: Borat (2006)

Very, very funny. Borat pushes the edges of character comedy to the limit. Unfortunately the success of this movie spells the end of the adventures of Borat though.

9/10

Movie Review: The Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007)

7/10

Movie Review: The Great Raid (2005)

Based on the true story of a mission to rescue GI's from a prison camp in the Philippines. I didn't know much about this part of the War so I found it very interesting. Not a classic though.

7/10

Movie Review: The Matador (2005)

A great film with Pierce Brosnan playing the exact opposite of his usual James Bond-cool self.

8/10

Movie Review: Romance & Cigarettes (2005)

A fun musical from the mind of John Turturro.
7/10

Movie Review: Children of Men (2006)

Looks like a sci-fi version of 'Black Hawk Down'. Very gritty and realistic.
7.5/10

TV Review: Lost - Season 3

TV Review: Battlestar Galactica - Season 3

TV Review: Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season 3

Book Review: Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss
A very funny book about English punctuation. Worth a read, and wouldn't you like to know how to use a semicolon properly?

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice 8: The Final Reckoning - Jude Watson

Robert Altman: The Later Years

2007-12-26T02:37:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Player (1992)

Altman's classic skewering of Hollywood and its many players. Featuring virtually everone in Hollywood in cameos as themselves. A must see. 9/10

Movie Review: Short Cuts (1993)

Based on a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver. The formula; a group of seemingly unrelated people end up impacting on each other's lives. This style has been much copied recently but it all started with Altman. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Kansas City (1996)

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Miranda Richardson lead this wild night of Jazz filled mayhem in Kansas City in the 1930's. Leigh is great as a gruff talking woman who's kidnapped a Governor's wife in a bid to get her husband back from the mob. 7/10

Movie Review: Gosford Park (2001)

The clue board game come to life. A riveting look at both the privileged and working class at a country estate in England just as a murder occurs. The bumbling detective is hilarious and every part is played to perfection. 8/10

Movie Review: A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

A fitting farewell film by Altman. This film follows the bacstage antics of the castmembers of a popular live musical radio show. The cast is huge and everyone just IS their character. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin just shine and heck, even Lindsay Lohan is good here. 8/10

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The penultimate Potter book. Once again Potter is a little more moody and brooding than I'd care for, but this time he's got a reason. Voldemort is on the attack and things are at their most dire. The shocker ending is also great. What a setup for book 7!

Doin' the Time Warp

2007-06-10T00:20:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Timeline (2003)

A pretty weak movie based on a relatively weak book by Michael Crichton. A group of young research assistants go back through time to medieval France to rescue their elderly professor who is trapped there. At least in the book all the 'locals' spoke an incomprehensible old French. Here, that's not even brought up. Nothing to reccomend here, watch something else instead. 4/10

Movie Review: Master and Commander (2003)

Russel Crowe and Peter Weir's big screen adaption of a series of books of the same name. A British naval captain engages in a series of cat and mouse battles with an equally skilled French captain. An excellent movie that is well worth seeing. 7.5/10

Movie Review: The Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

A big action epic set in Jerusalem during the Crusades. Fantastic costumes, sets and action scenes. Unfortunately Orlando Bloom just doesn't have the persona needed to head a big movie. He looks good but he is the weakest link. 8/10

Movie Review: Dark Water (2005)

A Hollywood remake of a popular Japanese horror. I haven't seen the original Japanese film but this just wasn't scary. Jennifer Connelly and John C Reilly are excellent as usual, but there's just not much here. 5/10

TV Review: Desperate Housewives (Season 2)

Following a great first season, season 2 really fell on it's face. There was no real mystery this time around. The new family that moved in just wasn't enough to make this season compelling.

Robert Altman: The Middle Years

2007-05-23T22:54:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Long Goodbye (1973)

Elliott Gould takes over the iconic role of Philip Marlowe in this Raymond Chandler story. Unlike Bogart's version, Gould plays Marlowe as more of a wisecracker not afraid to insult a gang of goons right to their faces. Marlowe is pulled into a mystery surrounding his friend's wife's murder. Marlowe is convinced he didn't do it but the mob and the police think otherwise. Also contains Schwarzenegger's first film role as a mob enforcer. 7/10

Movie Review: Nashville (1975)

One of Altman's best. A huge ensemble cast portrays country stars, music fans, political organizers and everyone in between. The music is great and all the actors sing their songs themselves. Kung-Fu's David Carradine is especially impressive on the stage. Lily Tomlin is equally impressive just sitting in the audience and watching. In fact, I think it's more difficult for an actor to perform by doing absolutely nothing and she just nails it. Her face and eyes tell more than any spoken lines could. It's amazing how Altman was able to weave all these different stories and characters together as he did. He'd use this formula again in films like Short Cuts, Gosford Park, and A Prairie Home Companion. 9/10

Movie Review: 3 Women (1977)

This is a movie I definitely need to watch again. There is a lot going on here and I didn't realize how many layers there were until it was nearly over. A fantastic movie about two women (Shelley Duvall & Sissy Spacek) who share jobs, an apartment, and sometimes seem to switch personalities too. A little bit like Altman's previous film Images, this one also considers the issue of personal identity. 8/10

Book Review: What to Expect the First Year - Murkoff, Eisenberg and Hathaway

Required reading for new parents. Great month-by-month information and tips.

Book Review: The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year - Armin A. Brott

Another valuable read, this is basically a slimmed down version of What to Expect, just for new fathers.

Strange Stories

2007-05-13T17:49:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: October Sky (1999)

Based on the true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes. I borrowed this video from one of the English teachers at my high school who had shown it in a few of his classes. It's a good film for students as it encourages them to strive for more, to 'reach for the stars' as it were. Jake Gyllenhaal is good in the lead role as an inquisitive high school student not content to follow his father into the mines for the rest of his life. I was also impressed by Chris Sherman, famous for playing the Terminator geek in the American Pie series but here becomes a regular bookworm-type geek. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Mysterious Skin (2004)

I really knew nothing about this movie going into it but was very impressed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt steals the show as a handsome and charming boy who ends up as a male prostitute. He shares a connection with another boy, a former classmate, who is convinced that alien abductions are the cause of his mysterious memory loss. The truth is far more disturbing. 'Chloe' from 24 has a small role as another abductee. A depressing film, but still one worth watching. 8/10

Movie Review: Sideways (2004)

A hilarious look at two middle-aged men on a tour of California's vineyards. Paul Giamatti is the struggling writer always looking for the next great bottle of wine. Thomas Haden Church is his soon-to-be-married buddy who is looking for his next great lay. They meet up with a pair of great women who seem perfect for them. So of course they are going to screw things up and boy do they. Very funny and touching, this movie also features Lost's Mr. Friendly, M.C. Gainey, in a hilarious scene that ends with him running naked through the streets. Must be seen to be believed. 9/10

Movie Review: Garden State (2004)

Written by, directed, and starring Zach Braff. I've never seen the TV series Scrubs so this movie was my introduction to Mr. Braff. What a performance he puts on here. Braff plays Andrew, a mildly successful actor who returns to his hometown after many years for his mother's funeral. He encounters his father, a psychiatrist, who has had Braff on medication for years. Andrew reunites with several old friends and a beautiful newcomer played by Natalie Portman, a 'real character' herself. This results in a wonderful new state of mind for Andrew as he begins to fully experience life. Fantastic performances by Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm, plus a super hip soundtrack, help this little gem of a movie. 7.5/10

Movie Review: White Noise (2005)

I was intrigued by the trailers for this so-called horror film. What a flop. Michael Keaton plays a grieving father who is convinced his dead wife, and some scary others, are communicating with him via the white noise his TV and radio pick up. Completely unbelievable and idiotic, this was very disappointing. Amazingly enough a sequel was made. Some posters at IMDB complain that the sequel has little to do with the original but I think that should be its main selling point. 4/10

Robert Altman: The Early Years

2007-03-31T23:52:00.000+09:00

Upon hearing of Altman's death late last year I knew I would have to make myself watch more of his films. I had only see 3 of his movies and really enjoyed all of them. So I set myself upon a mission to find and watch as many movies of his as I could.

Movie Review: Mash (1970)

I remember watching the MashTV series as a kid. I didn't get all the nuances of the show but I still thought it was funny. Until now I had never seen the original movie though. This movie has quite a different feeling than the TV series. Firstly, I don't recall ever hearing a gunshot or explosion at any point in the movie. If it weren't for the casualties coming in I wouldn't have known there was a war going on in the background. Apart from one instance the doctors don't seem to be under any stress whatsoever, even in the middle of surgery they are having a good time and trading barbs. The pristine green football field that is used for too long in the second half of the movie also comes out of nowhere. Are these guys near the front lines or on a college campus? By the end of the movie I was getting a little disappointed in that this movie had nothing to do about war until I heard the final announcement over the hospital's P.A. system. Throughout the movie announcements were made about war movies that were going to be shown for the staff. The announcements were very sarcastic and stressed how unrealistic these movies were for those caught up in an actual war. The final announcement of the movie was a self-referential announcement about the movie Mash itself. It was only then that I realized that this entire movie was a work of absurdity, it had as little to do with real war as any of the other movies they had mocked. My opinion of the movie flip flopped immediately and decided it was a very good film. 7.5/10

Movie Review: McCable & Mrs. Miller (1971)

One of my old college roommate's father worked on the set of this movie. Set construction I think. What I didn't realize until I read about this film on IMDB is that it was filmed in my home province of BC in Canada. This has to be one of the grittiest Westerns out there, a real precursor to Unforgiven. It shows how dirty and uncomfortable life probably was for those living out on the frontier. It also shows the main gunslinger, here Warren Beatty, with a definite sense of fear in him. He's human. Julie Christie is also great as the not-afraid-to-speak-her-mind madame of the brothel who is McCabe's partner in nearly every sense of the world. The big shootout scene at the end is fantastic and very realistic. People get hurt. People are scared for their lives and hiding. Not as exciting as Young Guns but the tension is much higher. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Images (1972)

I knew nothing about this movie going into it and was completely blown away. If you like David Lynch's Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive you'll probably like this. The film follows a woman with severe psychological problems, possibly multiple personalities, through a vacation at a lonely cabin in the countryside. The crazy thing with this movie is that it is all shown from Cathryn's (played by Susannah York) point of view and I was never quite sure what was real or not. Some characters appear to just be figments of her imagination but I was never totally sure. Hard to follow at times but I found this fascinating. 9/10

Book Review: I Killed Hemingway - William McCranor Henderson

A struggling writer makes a deal with the devil; he agrees to ghost write a novel for a bigger-than-life character who claims to have murdered Ernest Hemingway. As the writer hears more and more stories he begins to believe less and less in their veracity. The hype surrounding this shocking new 'autobiography' pressures the writer to press on with his plan while his own literary intentions get pushed to the side.

Peaking

2007-03-29T22:55:00.000+09:00

TV Review: Twin Peaks (Complete Series)

One of my all-time favourite TV shows and my introduction to David Lynch. Unfortunately it went on for too long and the middle of the second season is very weak. However, I'm still eagerly awaiting my Japanese Season 2 DVD set.

Movie Review: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Panned by most of the critics and a box office failure, but this is one of my favourite Lynch movies. To even try to understand the movie you have to have seen the entire TV series up to and including the 2 hour finale. I remember seeing this in the theatre in Vancouver with a collection of hard core Twin Peaks fans. Everyone was cheering as the credits were shown at the beginning of the film. This was my first time watching the movie in widescreen (on the DVD) since then and I've only had the old full screen VHS version for all these years. Unfortunately I didn't find the presentation all that much better, as I did with my first viewing of Blue Velvet in wide screen. The extra documentary on the DVD wasn't very interesting but the main movie is just a fantastic dreamscape of disjointed times and places. 10/10

Movie Review: Eraserhead Stories (2000)

A bonus documentary on the recent Eraserhead DVD from davidlynch.com It's not an exciting presentation as it's mainly just Lynch talking into a microphone, but he weaves together fascinating stories from the early days of the AFI. 7/10

TV Review: Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 2)

More humour along the lines of season 1 but here it gets pushed even further. It takes a brave man to make jokes about himself being mistaken for a pedaphile or a rape survivor.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling)

Definitely the darkest of the series so far. It was a little unusual to Harry being so negative for so long. He is mad at just about everyone for most of the story. Unfortunately I heard the major spoiler of the book in a podcast before I had read it. I quit listening to that podcast shortly afterwards. What jerks!

International Shenanigans

2007-03-05T00:27:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Caught this classic Bond film on TV. I probably wouldn't have watched it as I've seen it many times before but this time it was in HD so... Wow did it look good. Those scenes in front of the pyramids really make me want to go to Egypt. It was a little disappointing to learn that none of it was filmed in Egypt but that says a lot about the set and props department for this movie. Well done. Unfortunately this film was a lot cornier that I remembered it to be. More funny than exciting. After watching this I'm really stoked to see the newest Bond film. 6/10

Movie Review: Phenomena (1985)

My new King of B Movies. This was just awful but bad in a very funny way. It had all the elements of a disaster: bad story, bad acting, cheesy soundtrack that didn't fit the movie, horrible lighting, crappy sets, extremely fake looking gore, and most importantly ... a revenge seeking knife-wielding monkey. This movie comes from the mind of the famous Italian horror director Dario Argento. I haven't seen any of his other films and this one doesn't really compel me to. Jennifer Connelly, in one of her earliest roles, stars as the son of a famous American actor who enrolls in a private girls' boarding school in Switzerland. Unfortunately the school and the nearby town have been plagued by a series of grisly murders recently. This doesn't seem to concern any of the students however as they are often walking around the surrounding woods smoking and meeting up with boyfriends. Maybe they're not worried because of the unusual lighting conditions there - no matter what time of night or how deep in the woods they are there always happens to be a spotlight nearby. Anyways, Connelly's character is a little different than the rest because she can somehow communicate with insects. This is all quite silly and really doesn't do much for the film but get her drawn into a hilarious sequence of violent encounters that don't seem to upset her in the least. For anyone that likes really, really bad movies this is a good one. 2/10

Movie Review: Beyond Borders (2003)

Angelina Jolie plays a high society British women who decides to go to Africa to lend a helping hand at a refugee camp. There she meets a handsome and highly dedicated doctor played by Clive Owen. Of course they fall in love and she follows him to Cambodia and Russia. The plot is mostly about the plight of starving hapless refugees in the beginning but by the time they are in Russia the film is all about the two lovers. I think the message of the film gets lost as the story devolves into a romance and the spirit of the film changes. 6/10

Movie Review: House of Flying Daggers (2004)

From the director of Hero Yimou Zhang this is yet another flashy but beautiful, wire-action wonder. A story of subterfuge within subterfuge. An army officer goes undercover and helps a blind woman escape from jail in order to find the secret assasin clan she belongs to. But no one is who they appear or say to be. This nice little thriller is fleshed out with fantastic, almost dream-like sword fight scenes. A fight scene that takes place high above the ground in a bamboo forest is especially beautiful. 8/10

Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code - Extended Version (2006)

This is about 13 minutes longer than the theatrical version. The majority of the new scenes don't add a lot but are nice moments taken directly from the original Dan Brown novel. If you haven't seen this yet it would be better to watch this extended version. 7.5/10

Sean Penn film festival

2007-02-09T15:16:00.000+09:00

When he's not protesting wars or lending a helping hand to Hurricane Katrina victims he's acting the hell out of any movie he stars in.

Movie Review: Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

I had never heard of this movie until I came the DVD in my brother's collection a few years back. I saw that it starred Sean Penn and was directed by Woody Allen so figured it would be worth copying; boy was I right. Penn stars as the self-admitted 2nd best guitar player in the world, Emmet Ray. He is supremely adept with the guitar but not so with the rest of his life. He can't manage his money at all and spends it on drink, cars, drink, women, drink, and maybe a few more women in there. Samantha Morton is great as his mute wife, Hattie, who is probably the only person in the world who could really love this talented jackass. Allen appears briefly throughout the film along with other music historians giving their takes on various stories about Ray. This film is presented as a documentary and I took it as such. It was only after reading about the film afterwars on IMDB that I realized it was all fictional. Kudos to the filmmakers for doing such a believable job. I really liked this movie. The acting is top notch and the music is fabulous. I've read some reviews where people say Penn's 'air-guitaring' is horrible but, being a non guitarist myself, I thought it looked like it was Penn strumming the strings. 7/10

Movie Review: 21 Grams (2003)

The 2nd in Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu's trilogy which also contains 'Amores Perros' and the recent hit 'Babel'. Wow, what a flick. Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro turn in breathtaking performances. The 3 tragic characters play very different kinds of people who are thrust together because of a chilling tragedy. This movie is completely non-linear in respect to time and many of the 'earliest' scenes are only shown towards the end of the film. After watching this masterpiece I can't wait to see 'Babel'. 10/10

Movie Review: Mystic River (2003)

2003 was a great year for the Penn. Here he stars with Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne as a grieving father looking to extract vengeance on his daughter's killer. Robbins and Bacon play two of his friends since childhood. They all have something they'd like to f0rget about their childhood though. Penn picked up the best actor award and Clint Eastwood was also nominated for best director. 9/10

Movie Review: The Interpreter (2005)

Unfortunately Penn only has a supporting role in this movie, and it's a rather forgetable role. This movie follows Nicole Kidman as a U.N. interpretor who just may have overheard a plot to assassinate an African head of state. Things get sticky because she is a former political radical from the same African country and would like nothing better than for a change of leadership back home. Penn plays a Secret Service agent who is trying to both protect her and figure everything out. I was hoping for some linguistic fun in this movie but there's really none to be found. 6/10

The best movies I saw in 2006

2007-02-07T14:27:00.000+09:00

Unlike the crap in my last post, these movies will be duly honoured in the 'Best of' column on the right.

Worst movies I saw in 2006

2007-01-30T11:31:00.000+09:00

Continuing my tradition of bringing shame to the worst offerings I had to sit through last year.

#10 - The Fast & the Furious
A dumber version, if that's possible, of 'Point Break'.

#9 - The Dukes of Hazzard
A dumber version, if that's possible, of the original TV show. At least the TV Duke bros weren't lobbing molotov cocktails at the local police.

#8 - Eight Crazy Nights
Adam Sandler's animated comedy isn't funny in the least.

#7 - Assault on Precinct 13
Another remake. The attacking police act more like lemmings than highly trained SWAT members. The ending... the ending...

#6 - Elektra
I'd consider myself pretty knowledgeable about older comics but I had no idea what was going on here. Annoying teen sidekicks don't help either.

#5 - Kicking and Screaming
I love Will Ferrell but this was tough to watch. A weak kids' movie where Ferrell isn't allowed to be funny.

#4 - The Pink Panther
This Steve Martin remake was just bad. I wanted to watch the originals again to wash the bad taste out.

#3 - Bewitched
Another awful TV series remake, and another stain on the career of Ferrell. He's not really to blame though as the entire story here was trash.

#2 - Catwoman
From 'Monster's Ball' to 'Catwoman' has any actress fallen further down the ladder of success? Multiple Razzie award winner and deservingly so.

***********************************************************************************

#1 - The New Poseidon Adventure
The Made for TV version created solely to deceive people who want to buy the new feature film 'Poseidon'. This movie is a perfect template for how not to make a movie.

Roads less traveled

2007-01-01T00:41:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Polar Express (2004)

Tom Hanks stars in this digital Christmas adventure. In fact he provides voices for 6 of the characters. The story, in short, is that a young boy who is losing his faith in Santa Claus embarks on a magical train ride to the North Pole to meet the fat man himself. Most of the film follows the train ride itself through a series of strange encounters and sudden predicaments putting the train ride at risk. They are pretty oulandish but keep the film's momentum going. I was a little confused by the homeless man who rides on top of the train. He seems to be invisible to even the other 'amazing' characters such as the conductor and has the ability to disappear at will. Is he supposed to be an angel or something? No hints are given here but he is even more magical than Santa's regular crew of characters. 7/10

Movie Review: I Heart Huckabees (2004)

I didn't know the first thing about this movie going into it and what a real treat it was. It's a fantastic ensemble piece with a philosophical penchant. Jason Schwartzman plays an overly dedicated environmentalist who wants to save the smallest pieces of nature he can. The film opens with him beaming about saving marshlands from developers when in fact he has only saved one roped-off boulder. Jude Law plays the executive hotshot who wants to use Schwartzman's organization to help him move up the corporate ladder. Naoimi Watts plays his sexy but ditzy girlfriend who is the face and jiggly body of the chain of 'Huckabees' stores until she goes through a personal evolution. Mark Wahlberg, who really steals the show, plays a troubled firefighter who is so concerned about the world's depleted oil supplies that he will only ride a bicycle to fires. Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin play a pair of existential detectives who try to demonstrate everyone's place in the universe and make everything all right. A very witty movie that touches on deeper issues, this is a real gem. 8/10

Movie Review: Napolean Dynamite (2004)

Great look at the life a 'geek' in the American midwest. Jon Heder plays Napolean Dynamite, a social alien who believes the skills most girls want in a man are 'nunchaku skills' and 'bow and arrow' skills. He does have a few friends though and they are just hilarious together. On his own he doesn't do as well as he is constantly being berated and shoved into lockers at his high school. His family, besides his cool grandmother, are a bunch of social misfits too. Not too much of a story here but this is a great slice of life film. 7.5/10

Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code (2006)

I'd recently reread the book by Dan Brown again before watching this. Overall I enjoyed the movie but I have both good and bad points to make about it. The bad. The beginning of the movie felt very rushed. They were out of the Louvre in a very short time. Now I know that they don't have the time to explain things at a leisurely pace like the book does but riddles were solved too quickly and history/theories presented too fast.

Audrey Tatou's character seemed to be really dumbed down from the version in the book. She's a cryptologist who's been trained by the Priory's Grand Master but other than deciphering the Fibonacci sequence at the beginning she really does nothing. In the book it was her figuring out the anagrams left behind, but here that skill is given to Hanks' character. That really weakens her character.

The ending. Whoa, where did that come from. For an ultra secret society they had all sorts of unimaginably valuable things not hidden all that well. And who were all those people? There seems to be a lot of members of the Priory living in that small Scottish town.

Now for the good points. I like how Hanks' character was more pragmatic than he is in the book. In the book he is all for believing in the Priory. The movie version is much watered down and openly debates Teabing on many contentious points. He very much seems to be in doubt about the whole story here.

I really like the scene where the image of St. John/Mary Magdalene from Leonardo's 'The Last Supper' was cut and pasted to fit neatly next to Jesus. I hadn't seen that trick before and it looked really good.

As I said before, forget all the controversy surrounding the material this is just a good thriller. Here's hoping Umberto Eco's 'Foucalt's Pendulum' becomes a movie someday. 7.5/10

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #7 The Captive Temple - Jude Watson

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan return to the Jedi temple on Coruscant to investigate a series of crimes being commited within the temple. Obi-Wan must deal with the sense of betrayal all the other Padawan feel about him while Qui-Gon suspects it is his former Padawan, Xanatos, who has infiltrated temple security.

Movie menage

2006-12-31T00:31:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Along Came Polly (2004)
I expected this to be just another dumb romantic comedy but I was pleasantly surprised. Ben Stiller plays a very anal retentive risk assesment agent who's wife cheats on him on their honeymoon. Jennifer Aniston is a free spirited former classmate. Will these opposites attract? Of course they will but it's a funny ride. The broken toilet scene has become a real cliche these days but the rest of the film was good for laughs. Philop Seymour Hoffman nearly steals the show as Sandy, a former child star who can't move beyond the one role that everyone remembers him for. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Closer (2004)
2 couples become entwined in this story about love, obsession, guilt and trust. The 4 leads give very strong performances but as all of their characters were total pricks I wasn't interested in what happened to any of them. 6/10

Movie Review: The Butterfly Effect (2004)
A bit like 'Donnie Darko', this is a pretty good sci-fi flick. I'm pretty biased in favour of time travel movies though. Kuschner suffers numerous black outs as a child and later on learns that he can travel back in time and change the events. He intends to make things better and right certain wrongs but the more he meddles the worse things seem to get. There are some apparent contradictions that result from his time hopping but I found this a very enjoyable movie that I've been thinking about a lot afterwards. The alternate ending on the DVD is also a real mind bender. 7.5/10

Movie Review: The Pacifier (2005)
Mr. Mom meets Mary Poppins meets Home Alone meets Commando. Vin Diesel plays an elite navy SEAL charged with protecting a household of spunky kids. You can guess what happens; he doesn't know the first thing about kids or babies (so there must be a scene with him having to change a diaper), he's gonna solve all their various problems, and he's gonna deliver an ass-whoopin to someone. Seriously, this is a kiddie movie and the little folk might enjoy this. Anyone with a slightly critical eye with see numerous faults though. Firstly, the opening scene where Vin leads his SEAL team on an amphibious assault is laughable. The wrestling match between Vin and the high school wrestling coach is too pathetic to be laughable. Apparently the high school wrestling coach doesn't know anything about amateur wrestling. This is obviously why he claims to have gotten the coaching position because of his black belt. There are no belts in wrestling. The biggest flaw though is that Vin's mission is to guard the family and their house because criminals want to steal something that is hidden inside it. How does Vin do this? By leaving the house empty for most of the day to sit at the school. He also leaves the majority of the family unguarded most of the time while he tries to help them out individually. While he is playing den mother to the littlest girl, taking the eldest daughter out for driving lessons, and directing the son's musical version of 'The Sound of Music' where are the other children and who is watching over them? Not a very effective plan in my opinion. 5/10

People with Problems

2006-12-28T01:38:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: House of Sand and Fog (2003)
This is a pretty dark drama with Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley. They play two tragic figures united by a dispute over a beach house. Connelly's husband has left her and has retreated into her family house. Unfortunately she doesn't have the money to keep it. Kingsley plays an ex-Iranian colonel who is forced to take menial labour jobs to maintain his family's image. When Connelly's house is seized by the courts Kingsley thinks he's found a way to help his family but Connelly isn't about to give up. Things spiral out of control into an even bleaker ending. I was pleased to see the same mother & son pair (Shohreh Aghdashloo and Jonathan Ahdout) from the season four of '24' playing Kingsley's wife and son. Despite the somber mood this is a fantastic movie. 8/10

Movie Review: A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Another film from my favourite French director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet (director of Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, and Amelie). This contains a lot of the same stylistic markings and subtlely inserted CG as his earlier films but this is quite a sad film. A young woman, Audrey Tautou of 'Amelie' fame, searches for her fiance who is missing and presumed dead from WWI. He was found guilty of trying to flee the trenches and is forced into no-man's-land where he disappears. Tautou's character never gives up on him and follows a series of mysterious clues to learn the truth. As in all of Jeunet's films the balance of beautiful cinematography, subtle but believable CG effects, wonderful music, and colorful characters makes this a movie to watch and enjoy. 8/10

Movie Review: Kinsey (2004)
Somewhat dry biopic about pioneer sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. The movie was well done but I think I'm a little tired of seeing Liam Neeson in the wise man role. He's a jedi in 'Star Wars', then he's Aslan in 'Chronicles of Narnia', now he's a sex expert. It's a shame though because despite his character's brilliance he's a flawed character and thus interesting. I just wish it wasn't Neeson in the role. I would have preferred to see a documentary about Kinsey with real footage of the key people involved. 7/10

Movie Review: Death Note (2006)
I caught this on Japanese TV. A young man named Light Yamagi finds a magical notebook. Writing someone's name in the book will cause them to die. Light begins writing down criminals' names and soon the police are searching for the mysterious cause of all these deaths. The police enlist a young computer hacker known as 'L', who never blinks and eats an ungodly amount of snack foods, to track down Light. Meanwhile, Light is visited by a Death God (I think it's his notebook) who only Light can see. This is based on a manga and I'm sure the CG Death God looks just like the character in the comic. However, he looks to me like a modelled character from a FPS game such as Unreal or Quake. He looks pretty good but doesn't fit in at all with the background. I couldn't follow all the philosophical discussions going on (it was all in Japanese) but I found the movie pretty interesting. Part 2 of the movie openned in Japan on Halloween and I'd like to see this sequal sometime. 7.5/10

TV Review: Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000 / Season One)
Written by and starring Larry David, the co-creater of 'Seinfeld'. Seeing as I've been in Japan since the end of 1998 I never got the chance to see this show. It's just like Seinfeld but much nastier. As it's broadcast on HBO the characters drop the F-bomb every once in a while and some scenes are too risque for the major networks. Larry David plays himself and the show usually involves him putting his foot in his mouth or doing something really stupid which comes back to bite him in the ass at the end of the show.

Superheroes

2006-12-24T22:09:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Incredibles (2004)

Another fantastic CG animated adventure from Pixar. Much like the comic book Fantastic 4, this family features a super strength dad, super stretchy mum, invisible force field casting daughter, and speedster son. The only missing character is the Human Torch. This action flick contains a lot of patented Pixar style humour. And you can only laugh when Samuel L Jackson voices a super cool ice hero. The story does seem awfully close to the story in the graphic novel 'The Watchmen' but it is a great watch. 8/10

Movie Review: Fantastic Four (2005)Well at least it's much better than the Roger Corman version. Like a lot of comic book adaptations this one falls pretty flat. The whole premise seems a little sketchy. Our cast of characters go into space to a privately funded space station that resembles the thing in Deep Space Nine. They're supposed to be monitoring a cloud of radiation that passes by. They miscalculate the time it will take to arrive and fall prey to the cosmic radiation. It's a little hard to understand why there are only the 5 people onboard the station, 1 of them being the owner of the company. With the majority of them running the experiment who is running the station? They certainly could have used another person to keep track of the radiation cloud. If someone had been checking on it at least intermitently it wouldn't have snuck up on them.
Otherwise, the Fantastic Four never look all that fantastic as they really don't do much adventuring here. I think the Incredibles showed off their super powers in much more exciting and interesting ways. The rumour is that the 2nd F4 movie will feature the Silver Surfer so hopefully it will be better. 6/10

Movie Review: Sky High (2005)

I don't remember why I was interested in seeing this one in the first place. The son of world famous superhero parents enrolls in a highschool just for future superheroes and sidekicks. There is some actual tension early on as the boy doesn't have any super powers and must deal with the shame and practical problems of super powered bullies. When his powers finally due bloom the movie turns into a stock young teen action movie. Kurt Russell is good as the super powered father and it's always fun to see former Kids in the Hall alumni Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald messing around in too-small parts.
6.5/10

TV Review: The Tick (Live Series 2001)

And I thought the animated series was good. This live version of the Tick is just hilarious. What a shame it only lasted 1 short season. Patrick Warburton (Elaine's thick boyfriend David Puddy from Seinfeld) is perfect as the moronic but nigh invulnerable Tick. Every episode is very funny and the main cast are all great. Check this out if you get the chance.

Book Review: The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales - Oliver Sacks

This 1985 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks describes the case histories of some of his patients. The title of the book comes from the case study of a man with visual agnosia. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat became the basis of an opera of the same name by Michael Nyman, which premiered in 1986.

The other essays in this book include:

"The Lost Mariner", about Jimmie G., who has lost the ability to form new memories due to Korsakoff's syndrome. He can remember nothing of his life since his demobilization at the end of WWII, including events that happened only a few minutes ago, and must struggle to form an identity. (The main character of the fictional film Memento has a similar condition, and obsesses with the identity of a certain "John G." or "Jimmy G.")
"The President's Speech" - about a ward of aphasiacs and agnosiacs listening to a speech given by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Each group saw flaws in the president's content and presentation respectively, flaws which escaped the notice of 'normal' people.
"The Disembodied Lady" - a unique case of a woman losing her entire sense of proprioception (the sense of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighbouring parts of the body).
"On The Level" - another case involving damaged proprioception. Dr. Sacks interviews a patient who has trouble walking upright and discovers that he has lost his innate sense of balance due to Parkinson's-like symptoms that have damaged his inner ears; the patient, comparing his sense of balance to a carpenter's spirit level, suggests the construction of a similar level inside a pair of glasses, which enables him to judge his balance by sight.
"The Twins" - about autistic savants. Dr. Sacks tries to connect with twin brothers by joining their game of finding very large prime numbers. He cheats and uses a book; neither of them can read or even do multiplication. They instantly count 111 dropped matches simultaneously noticing that 111 is three 37s. This event, with toothpicks in place of matches, and other of Dr. Sacks's observations on autistic savants, were used in the film Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman.

The above was copied from a wikipedia.com page. This is a great read that I recommend for anyone interested in some of the more unusual aspects of human psychology.

Fun on the water

2006-12-05T08:39:00.000+09:00

Seeing the made for TV version on TV here in Japan is what inspired me to watch the other versions of this disaster-at-sea movie. 'Titanic' has nothing to fear from these soggy stories.

Movie Review: The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

The one that started it all. A wave capsizes an ocean liner on New Year's Eve. The ship flips upside down and a motley crew of survivors must navigate their way upwards, towards the bottom of the ship, through a maze of perils. A decent movie formula that has been duplicated many times since. I was delighted to see Leslie Nielson in the role of the ship's captain early on but he plays the straight-man here unfortunately, nothing like his infamous Lt Drebbin. Gene Hackman is really good as the brave, nearly foolhardy priest who leads the rag tag band. Ernest Borgnine is also here as the doubting Thomas who provides the annoying counterbalance to Hackman. I haven't liked Borgnine in anything I've seen him in and this is no exception. This is certainly not a great, or even pretty good, movie but its campiness makes it a bit fun. 5/10

Movie Review: The New Poseidon Adventure (2005)

This made-for-TV movie was obviously rushed out to profit on the upcoming Hollywood movie. I think it's also supposed to dupe some people into buying the wrong DVD when they think they are getting the new big budget version. This was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Everything about it stunk. The plot was changed so that it's not a wave that overturns the ship but a bomb set by Middle Eastern terrorists. A brief explanation is given by a member of the crew as to why the explosion caused the ship to flip upsidedown but it really doesn't make any sense. All the shots of the ship are done with CG and they look REALLY bad. Smoke coming from one of the propellors underwater is just a bunch of black squares shooting out. The cast list is also stellar: Adam Baldwin in the lead (no relation to the Baldwin gang, but he was worse than the CG), Rutger Hauer (all down hill since Blade Runner), Steve Guttenberg and C Thomas Howell. You can basically predict who is going to die based on the fact that this movie was produced by the Hallmark comapany. The 'whore' who the married man sleeps with... dead. The real annoying guy... dead. And the dangers they encounter are just riduculous. In one room the characters have to cross a narrow beam one by one as a fire rages below. It's not just any normal fire though. No, this CG fire looks like the surface of the sun itself. I don't know what could possibly be burning down there to cause this. And while the ship is supposed to be sinking the entire time shots of the ship from the outside just after the flip and at the end of the movie show that it hasn't sunk at all. I must admit that IMDB has this movie clocked in at 170 odd minutes. Here in Japan we got a 2 hours version with commercials included. Thank the Emperor for small miracles. 1/10

Movie Review: Poseidon (2006)

This latest incarnation was supposed to blow too. However I didn't find it all that bad, especially after watching the first two films. Director Wolfgang Peterson (Das Boot, The Perfect Storm) certainly knows how to make a sea film. The CG here is great and the disaster is quite realistic and frightening. It's still not as goos as what was accomplished in 'Titanic' though. This time around it's Kurt Russell and Josh Lucas leading the survivors. Russell is good although he's basically playing the same part he played in 'Backdraft'. One particularily strong scene has the survivors trapped in a horizontal air vent as the water begins rising and engulfing them one by one. One of the women is claustrophobic and you really feel her fear as she begins thrashing about in the narrow space, trapped on the ladder under the others. Worth a rent if you're in the mood for an action flick. 7/10

And you think your parents are nuts!

2006-11-28T17:28:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Meet the Parents (2000)

Watched this comedy gem again and it still holds up. Stiller plays his usual hapless nice guy but this time he's stuck with the unfortunate name of Gaylord Focker. His fiance's father, played magnificently by Robert Deniro, is a former CIA man who likes to keep everyone on a very tight leash. Focker can't help but put his foot in his mouth and cause accidents wherever he goes. You feel sorry for the poor schmuch despite the fact that it is often his own stupid decisions that cause the havoc. Owen Wilson is hilarious in his too short appearance as the perfect ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately all of the actresses have basically throw away roles. They are even upstaged by Jinx the cat. 9/10

Movie Review: Meet the Fockers (2004)

I was far less impressed with the sequel. This time everyone gets to meet the Focker family and they have to been crazier than Deniro and company of course. The Fockers are played by Dustin Hoffman, a stay at home dad, and Barbra Streisand as a sex therapist. These 2 are quite good and it's revealed in one of the DVD's extras that they have been good friends in real life since before their careers took off. The jokes in this movie are just too obvious and in the end aren't really funny. They are forced to throw in a wacky uber-Southern cop to try and wring some laughs out of this. Wilson is also thrown into the mix at the end for no good reason and even he isn't funny. While this movie isn't Highlander 2 bad, its worth avoiding. 6/10

TV Review: Desperate Housewives Season 1 (2004)

Yukiko and I have been watching this on NHK 2's 海外ドラマseries. The first season was very good, a clever mix of comedy and mystery. It's also nice to see the women taking the strongest roles in a series. Most of the series' plots have been cleared up by the finale though so I wonder where the show will go in season 2. A new family that's obviously hiding something has just moved into the neighbourhood but is this enough to sustain another 24 episodes?

Book Review: Bad Twin - Gary Troup

This is the book written by a fictional character from the TV series 'Lost'. The author, Gary Troup, is supposed to be a passenger on the doomed flight from Australia. His manuscript for the novel 'Bad Twin' is found by some of the other characters and they are seen reading it in the show. The story itself is just your standard detective story. The detective is hired to find a missing twin that by all accounts is bad. His quest takes him to Key West, Cuba and Australia before he learns the truth. The links to the story in 'Lost' are pretty thin. The twins are members of the Widmore family. They work in the same building as the Hanso Foundation. That's about it. Although I don't see even that means anything because the story, even in the world of 'Lost' is only fictional. The most interesting tidbit I found was that Troup dedicated the novel to a stewardess for Oceanic Airlines called Cindy that he fell in love with. This is the same stewardess that is seen in the pilot of 'Lost' giving Jack his bottles of booze and chasing Charlie down the length of the plane. She may also have been one of the survivors from the tail section that was later abducted, but I'd have to watch it again to be sure. All in all, unless you're a big fan of 'Lost' I'd give this book a pass.

Super duper ladies

2006-11-17T19:45:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Catwoman (2004)

I'll give Halle Berry credit for accepting her razzie award for 'Catwoman' in person. She really took it in stride. This movie was just plain awful. The only slightly interesting thing about the whole movie is Berry's Catwoman outfit, a sexy little leather suit that shows off more than it covers. Berry plays a meek advertising company artist who is unwittingly drawn into a criminal conspiracy. One dark and stormy night she is supposed to have a meeting with her boss at some shady looking factory on the outskirts of town. Her boss doesn't show up so she decides to go looking for and begins openning every door she can find despite the multitude of signs saying 'do not enter' or 'danger' or whatever. Seems reasonable doesn't it? She just happens to stumble onto a murder in progress and is left for dead by the villain. By the way, the villain is a woman with tough skin (caused by toxic makeup) played by Sharon Stone. Yep, tough skin, that's her super power. Anyways, Berry dies but is somehow brought back to life by a bunch of stray cats milling around and presumably peeing all over her. She now has the power of a cat, which seems to include super strength, agility, the power to scale walls and fight like Bruce Lee. Because all cats are great fighters aren't they? The director, someone named Pitof, adds a lot of funk and R&B music which really does nothing for the film. A colossal failure across the board. 2/10

Movie Review: Elektra (2005)I'm not all that familiar with the character of Elektra. All I know is that she is an assassin and used to appear in Daredevil comics. She also appeared briefly in the horrible 'Daredevil' movie. What made anyone think she deserved a movie of her own I'll never know. Jennifer Garner plays the cool killer here. She is completely wooden and emotionless, perhaps that is the way the character is supposed to be but I didn't give two shakes of a stick about what happened to her. She has a young sidekick played by Kirsten Prout, who despite being from my hometown of Vancouver, was just awful. Annoying, annoying, annoying. I guess she got the role because the actress practices Tae Kwon Do in real life. There is also an old mentor figure played by Terence Stamp called Stick, a blind martial arts teacher. I didn't buy his character for a second. They battle a bunch of super baddies with various weird powers. When they die they mysteriously turn into dust so I'm not sure what they are supposed to be. It was funny to see former K-1 fighter Bob Sapp as the evil strongman. He gets taken out by a falling tree which he didn't see. It's a little strange because he is the one who knocked down the tree in the first place. This movie falls flat on it's face because of it's poor story. With all the great unproduced screenplays floating around out there it's sad to see junk like this getting made. 4/10

TV Review: The Tick - Animated (1994)

Finally, a good review. Based on an independent comic book by Ben Edlund, this series is about the adventures of a nigh indestructible, nigh mentally incompetent super hero called the Tick and his regular Joe Sixpack sidekick, Arthur. They battle outrageous villains such as Chairface Chippendale, who has a chair for his head, and Dinosaur Neil, a simple paleontologist who is transformed into a rampaging dinosaur. This is one of the best super hero spoofs out there.

Dogs, Coolers and Minds

2006-11-16T15:11:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

This is a great heist-gone-wrong movie. Pacino plays the leader of a small band of ill prepared crooks who plan to rob a bank in broad daylight. They are supposed to in and out in only 10 minutes. They end up getting stuck there for over 10 hours as everything goes to hell. After the cops show up and the media and crowds of people aren't far behind. The film takes on a political stance as Pacino's character revels in the spotlight, making incediary speeches to the cheering crowds. "Attica! Attica!" I'm sure it was quite powerful when the film first came out. It's great to see Pacino's character pulling all the strings as he jaunts around in the street as hundreds of police and snipers can do nothing but watch. Pacino is great, as is John Cazale as the both pathetic yet frightening Sal. I liked everything about this movie until it's revealed that Pacino is robbing the bank to pay for his boyfriend's sex change operation. That was a little too weird and unecessary I think. However it's all supposed to be based on a true story which makes it all the stranger. 8/10

Movie Review: The Cooler (2003)

William H Macy and Maria Bello star in this clever casino movie. Macy is a 'cooler', someone with the ability to project bad luck onto anyone who might be on a streak. The thing is, his bad luck is permanent. He's unlucky in love and life, a broken shell of a man. He's forced to work for an old-school casino boss played perfectly by Alec Baldwin because he owes him money. He's also got Baldwin to thank for his shattered kneecap. Macy's luck begins to change when he falls in love with a cocktail waitress played Bello. As his bad luck disappears so does his ability to pass it onto others. This doesn't impress his boss too much. 8/10

Movie Review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Another movie from the mind and pen of Charlie Kaufman. Just like his previous hits 'Being John Malkovich' and 'Adaptation' this one is a mind blower. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet play an eccentric couple who've both had enough of each other and decided to have their partner wiped from their memories using a new futuristic technology. Things don't go exactly as planned however as it seems some things can't be truly erased. Kirsten Dunst and Elijah Wood have nice supporting roles as 2 staff members you'd never want involved in any sort of delicate prodecure as a memory wipe. 10/10

TV Review: 30 Days - Season 2 (2006)

From producer Morgan Spurlock (the 'Super-Size Me' guy) we get another season of people experiencing a new way of life for 30 days. I found season 2 to be a lot stronger than season 1. There were some real life changing experiences here. Such as the legal Cuban immigrant who is so strongly against letting in illegal immigrants that he arms himself and patrols the US-Mexican border. He lives with a family of illegal immigrants for a month and gets to see things from their point of view. He's pretty adamant in his ideas until he crosses the border over into Mexico to see his host family's old home. It's nothing but a bunch of brick walls next to a ditch. Not even any walls. It's very moving.
Other episodes include; an American worker going to India to meet the people who his old job was outsourced to; a pro choicer lives with a rabid group of pro lifers; an atheist lives with a family of devout Christians; and Spurlocks spends a month in jail.

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice 6: The Uncertain Path - Jude Watson

Obi-Wan finds himself in over his head when the planet he just helped free is on the brink of civil war again. The altruistic group of youngsters he was helping have changed since coming to power. Meanwhile, Qui-Gon finds himself embroiled in a string of thefts within the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

Furious Grimm Lord

2006-10-27T22:55:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Fast and the Furious (2001)

This is a movie that I never had any intentions of renting, or for that matter, watching at all. It was on TV in HD so I thought I'd give it a spin. The only good thing I can really say about this movie is that the cars were pretty cool. That's about it. Otherwise, this was a pretty clunky ride. I think this was Vin Diesel's break out movie but it's hard to see why. Other than looking a bit dangerous and aloof there isn't anything else to his performance. The cars were less stiff and flat than his character. The plot is simply ripped off from an older Keanu Reeves movie called 'Point Break'. Simply substitute car racing for surfing and bam you've got a new movie. Here we've got a group of street racers who are ripping off cargo from trucks during their spare time. The way they steal the things is absolutely ridiculous though. As they race down the freeways 1 car races in front of the still-hurtling-down-the-road semi-trailer. Then a masked criminal leans out the passenger window, shoots a hook from a crossbow into the front of the cab and climbs across to the truck, forcing it to stop. This is an insanely stupid plan. Luckily for our anti-heroes the truck driver doesn't do the smart thing or the panicky thing which would be to either:

slow down
speed up
turn left
turn right

Just about anything would fling this fool onto the road. Of course the movie has to end with a big race to see who's swinging the biggest carburator. I'd stick with Hanna-Barbara's 'Wacky Races' if you want to see some good asphalt action. 5/10

Movie Review: Lord of War (2005)

I was very impressed with this movie. Nicolas Cage finally gets a decent role again. Here he's a unscrupulous arms dealer who deceives his family and becomes one of the biggest movers and shakers in the bloodiest game out there (not talking about rugby here either). The opening credits play over the life of a bullet, from it's creation in a factory to it's final resting place in the forehead of a young African boy. This is a good indication that this movie isn't going to pull any punches and it really doesn't. A particularily movie scene has Cage and his brother working out the final details for a big sale, all the time knowing that their product will be used immediately on the village of refugees just behind them. Interestingly, IMDB states that no US studio would back this film and all funds were provided by foreign sources. 8/10

Movie Review: The Brothers Grimm (2005)

Ever since I saw 'Timebandits' I've been a huge Terry Gilliam fan. I became even more of one when I learned he was a member of Monty Python. His movies always have a real sense of 'fantasy' to them. 'Brothers Grimm' has this feeling but unfortunately it's not all that interesting. Damon and Ledger play the 2 brothers. While the historical pair simply gathered old fairy tales and publish them, our movie twosome are fraudulent ghostbusters. They charge handsome amounts to rid towns of ghosts and spirits that they themselves are 'staging'. Along the way they become enbroiled in a real mystical situation as an on witch, who lives in a entranceless tower, kidnaps children to regain her youth and skin tone. What makes this movie somewhat weak is that it is part slap-stick comedy, part fantasy, part horror, part romance. It can't really seem to decide what it wants to be and suffers as a result. 6.5/10

Boondock Saints - the whole story

2006-10-19T14:33:00.000+09:00

2 more great movies from Matt Kaufman's monthly 'Film & Booze Club Screenings' in Osaka.

Movie Review: Overnight (2003)
A documentary about bartender/band member Troy Duffy. Success drops in his lap when film producer Harvey Weinstein agrees to buy his screenplay, let him direct it, let his band provide the soundtrack, and even buy the bar he works at for him as gift. What more could you ask for? Well, Troy Duffy is such an obnoxious jerk that he manages to alienate his family, friends and business associates so much that he nearly loses everything. His 2 former managers, who he also treats like dirt, happened to be filming everything to document his 'success'. A delicious full course of schadenfreude. 7/10

Movie Review: The Boondock Saints (1999)
And here it is, Troy Duffy's masterpiece. Actually, it's not all that bad. A pair of young brothers in Boston become media heroes when they take the law into their own hands. Willem Dafoe, as usual, is great as a very gay FBI agent. The action scenes and shoot outs are well done but this movie seems to have borrowed a lot of it's style from Reservoir Dogs. Apparently, Duffy is working on a 'Boondock Saints 2' now. 7.5/10

Superheroes

2006-10-04T13:31:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Superman (Extended Version) (1978)
I haven't seen this since I was a kid so I was happy to watch it again on TV. And with Japan's free HD broadcasts it was a real sight on the new TV. It was very interesting to see this film again from a more mature viewpoint. When I was a kid I didn't notice how risque Lex Luthor's secretary/girlfriend, Eve Teschmacher, was. A buxom beauty with a penchant for low cut shirts. It came as no surprise that she was wearing a white shirt when she decided to jump into the swimming pool to rescue the Man of Steel. There are also some funny lines that I'm sure I didn't pick up on my in my innocent youth, such as when Lois Lane asks Superman "How big are you . . . er, I mean . .. how TALL are you". Overall the movie is still fun to watch. The special effects seem very primitive but they still work. Hackman is great as a slightly comical Lex Luthor, and who can forget Brando's precious few minutes as Jor-El. Sure there are numerous holes in the story (baby Kal-El's rocket travels from another galaxy to Earth in an impossibly short time, how exactly does Superman go back in time?) but it is a good family movie. 7/10

Movie Review: X-Men (2000)
As a lead up to the 3rd X-Men movie's premiere in Japan they showed the first 2 on TV. The biggest weakness with this movie is that while it's supposed to be about the X-Men, it's main focus is on Wolverine. Cyclops is made to look like a fool and the other team members are barely present. Prof X and Magneto, as played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are predictably excellent. 6.5/10

Movie Review: X2 (2003)
Another movie in HD on TV, very cool. I've reviewed this before so I'll keep it short. A superior movie to the original, lots of great action scenes and we get to see many more of the X-men in action. Colossus and Ice Man are also introduced, hopefully they'll get bigger roles in the 3rd film. 8/10

She blinded me with science...

2006-09-14T00:50:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Mindwalk (1990)
A great film along the lines of 'My Dinner with Andre'. 3 people, an ex-physicist, a poet and a former Presidential candidate walk through the ancient castle at Mont Saint Michael in France. Along the way they begin a conversation that touches on physics, politics, poetry, and many other points in between. It is a fascinating conversation that is further enhanced by the beautiful scenery and music of Phillip Glass. 8.5/10

Movie Review: What the Bleep Do We (K)now!? (2004)
This documentary discusses the limits of human knowledge. It looks at the state of current physics, psychology and biology. It also tries to tie them all into religious belief. The film consists of two threads, one follows a deaf woman through her day, the other feautures interview segments with various specialists about different topics. It's an interesting film with good CG effects but there appear to be some major weaknesses to the film's ideas.
Firstly, the film discusses quantum physics and the randomness that controls sub atomic particles. I thought this was very well done. It shows a lot of the strangeness and paradoxes that arise within the subatomic world, such as how an observer being present changes the outcomes of phenomena.
The movie also talks about an art display by a Japanese scientist named Emoto who apparently caused water molecules to change their patterns by simply inserting pieces of paper with different words (such as love, hate, etc) into the water. The film concludes that if our thoughts can change water then we can change anything. One character even says, "you can walk across water if you believe it enough." That doesn't sound like science to me. Other scenes show how our emotions, or addictions are merely caused by tiny chemical peptides in our brain. Once again, our thoughts, in this case happy thoughts, are the key to changing our emotions and neural networks.
Where the film really loses steam is when it begins talking about God. Various experts claim that what everyone thinks God is is wrong, and then they proceed explain what God really is. How are they to know? At least the scientific portions of the movie can fall back on experiments to verify their claims. This stuff about God is just more opinions.
I found it annoying that none of the experts are identified until the very end of the movie as the credits are rolling. I wanted to know who these people were and what their qualifications were to be making the various statements they did. It also turns out that one of the experts, a woman living in Seattle, claims to be possessed by a 25000 year old spirit of a man and has made a fortune charging people to attend lectures.
All in all the film interesting to watch but certainly isn't the revealing science film I thought it would be. It's really a 'New Age' film trying to bring science and religion together - which I think it fails to do. 7/10

Movie Review: What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole (2006)
An extended but recut version of the 2004 film. It covers most of the same points but features new interviews with many of the experts, some new participants, and some new animated shorts. It doesn't follow the deaf woman's story as much as the first film did but concentrates more on the technical parts of the film. Unfortunately, the 'Addicted to Love' musical number wasn't cut out. A good follow up for those who enjoyed the first film. 7.5/10

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice 5: Defenders of the Dead - Jude Watson
Obi-Wan finally starts acting his age. While trying to mediate peace talks on a world ebroiled in a civil war, Obi-Wan befriends a group of youngster the same age as him and gets swept up by the turmoil around him. His rebelliousness threatens to break up his relationship with Qui-Gon Jin.

Assault on old boy on fire

2006-09-01T20:18:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Ethan Hawke is a burnt out cop given the non-demanding job of shutting down an old precinct HQ. Laurence Fishburne is the mob boss being transported to a high security prison. Heavy snow forces the police bus to make a detour to the minimally staffed Precinct 13 HQ. However, a literal army of corrupt police officers is intent on storming the building and killing everyone inside.
This remake of John Carpenter's classic (which apparently is itself a remake of Rio Bravo) really falls on its face early. The whole movie hinges on the prisoner transfer bus being forced to stop at the nearly abandoned precinct building. This only happens because of a snow storm. If it weren't for this snow storm the bus would have continued to the high security prison where it seems unlikely that the corrupt cops could have attacked. The scenes of the corrupt police attacking are also awful. They are dressed up like SWAT members yet they only attack the precinct 1 at a time. Drea de Matteo, the sister from 'Joey', has nothing to do but show off her chest and spout stupid lines. Oh yes, she is also a better shot than the SWAT guys. And worst of all, the ending of the movie takes place in a forest that suddenly shows up next to the precinct building despite all the earlier setup shops that showed it to be in an industrial area. 4/10

Movie Review: Oldboy (2003)
Oldboy features the greatest possible revenge scenario since Eric Cartman made Scott Tenenbaum eat a chilli made from his parents. This Korean suspense film starts with a loud mouthed man being kidnapped and locked in a small rooom with a TV. 15 years later he is, suddenly, released. He goes looking for the people who put him there and and the reason why. This spills into a superb revenge thriller from many different angles. A deserving winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2004. 8.5/10

Movie Review: Man on Fire (2004)
Denzel Washington stars in this, yet another, revenge action movie. He plays a former government agent, now washed-up alcoholic who can only find work as a bodyguard in Mexico. His assignment, an adorable girl played by the always impressive Dakota Fanning. He tries to stay on purely working terms for her but soon falls prey to her charm. When she is kidnapped and reported dead Denzel switches to full revenge mode. He arms himself with some pretty big guns (including a rocket launcher at one point) and proceeds to tear Mexico City a few new A-holes. Visually this movie is great but the music was a little jarring. It's very nice music but it seemed Gaelic to me and did not match the Mexican background. 7.5/10

Book Review: America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction - Jon Stewart
A very funny 'Dummy's Guide to American Democracy'. If you like Jon Stewart's 'The Daily Show' you'll love this too.

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #4 The Mark of the Crown - Jude Watson
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan arrive on a planet that is in turmoil. The long ruling royal family is stepping down and elections are under way. Some don't want things to change though and intrigue ensues. This book has some nice twists and turns to the plot but isn't all that gripping.

Book Review: The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics - Gary Zukav
I figured this was going to be another 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', or at least another 'The Tao of Physics'. It turned out to be a relatively easy to follow layman's guide to Quantum Physics, at least the theories of Quantum Physics that were floating around 30 years ago when this book was written. I found it pretty easy to follow for the most part and very interesting. A good book for fans of physics who, like me, can't do the math.

War of the Worlds

2006-08-31T23:48:00.000+09:00

Book Review: War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
The classic Sci-Fi, aliens attack novel. I found it online at Project Gutenberg where anyone can read it for free... legally even. At under 100 pages it is a short read and required reading for any sci-fi geeks. I was impressed by all the scientific data within the story. It was quite educational. In this novel the attacking aliens are clearly Martians and the story ends with their threat not quite ended, as they seem to be colonizing Venus as well. Unlike the latest Hollywood movie, these aliens are not as tough. A few of them are destroyed by the British army during their onslaught. It's a fun read.

Audio Review: War of the Worlds - as performed by Orson Welles & the Mercury Theatre on the Air
I also found this available online in mp3 format. It's easy to see how many of the original listeners might have thought this was a real news cast at the time. It's presented as such, beginning as a series of interruptions to a live music concert. Unlike the original novel though this alien landing takes place in the Eastern United States. It is also told from the point of view of several characters as they are one by one silenced by the aliens. Old radio dramas are very fun and I'd like to find more to listen to.

Movie Review: War of the Worlds (2005)
Rewatched this after reading and listening to the older versions. I won't review it again but I will mention some interesting differences I noticed. Firstly, these aliens are never identified as Martians. This is probably because modern science has basically discounted the existence of higher life forms on the red planet. The strangest change is that the aliens in this movie seem to come down to earth in lightning bolts. Everything points to the fact that there vehicles had been buried in the earth thousands of years ago, if not earlier. The original novel and radio drama had the aliens and their vehicles come to earth in giant tubes. It doesn't really make sense that they would have planted their war machines so much earlier. Why would they want to use such old equipment? If humans had to use equipment even 100 years old it would seem ridiculous.

Petty problems?

2006-08-29T22:44:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Envy (2004)
Despite it's 2 mega comedy stars (Jack Black & Ben Stiller) this movie barely made it to a US theatrical release and then bombed when it did. It was only the success of 'School of Rock' which led to it's eventual release. Later, Jack Black would publicly apologize for this movie. It's the story of two neighbours; Stiller plays a hard working but by the books guy while Black is an underachieving dreamer. Black's character comes up with a silly idea for a spray to do away with animal poop that winds up making him fabulously wealthy. Stiller becomes envious and a series of mini-disasters ensues. The whole premise of this movie contains enough to fill about a 10 minute SNL skit so this 90 minute movie goes on far too long. 6/10

Movie Review: Identity (2003)
John Cusack and 9 strangers are trapped in a motel in the middle of nowhere. A storm has wiped out the roads and the phone lines are down too. On top of the meteorological problems somone is killing them 1 by 1 too. I figured this would just be a remake of the Agatha Christie story 'Ten Little Indians' but luckily this is not the case. This is a clever suspense film with a twist ending that explains away all of the apparent inconsistencies within the main movie. Any film that kills off Jake Busey is also a winner in my book. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Another film by director Stephen Frears, the talent behind such classic films as 'My Beautiful Laundrette' and 'Prick up your Ears.' This is a compelling drama about an illegal Nigerian immigrant in London. He is trained as a doctor in his country but is forced to work as a taxi driver and a hotel concierge to survive. His roommate (Audrey Tatou from 'Amelie' fame) is breaking the rules of her visa and a couple of immigration officers are looking for her. The Nigerian doctor is cleaning up a hotel room when he discovers a human heart stuffed down a toilet. This sets off a chain of events where we get to see the hardships immigrants endure to stay in London. The characters also get some serious payback at the end. Highly recommended. 7.5/10

The toils of women

2006-08-17T00:05:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Irreversible (2002)
Some time ago I commented about movies that were really good but I couldn't watch more than once. Irreversible is another movie like that. It's a French film that plays in reverse, somewhat like the film 'Memento'. However, the characters in Irreversible don't suffer from amnesia and the more we watch the more we learn their motivations for their earlier/later actions. The film opens with a pounding techno beat and an almost sickening, spinning camera. This leads into the first scene very well as we follow two very angry young men as they go deeper and deeper into a sick and twisted gay, S&M club/dungeon. The camera follows them for a long time which enhances the obsessiveness of their search. Eventually they find the man they think they are looking for and a fight ensues. Once again, the camera never stops as the brutal ending of the scrap drags on and on and on. It's very tough to watch. It isn't until at least the halfway point of the film, as it moves backwards chronologically, that we learn what prompted their desire for revenge. A woman they care for is raped and beaten in a downtown underpass. As with the earlier violence, the camera once again shows every agonizing second of this assault. It goes on for a very long time and we can't escape the brutality anymore than the poor woman can. Thankfully, the remainder of the film shows the characters involved in scenes of love and friendship. Many of the things they say and do are glaringly prophetic/ironic considering what happens to them all. It's a very powerful movie that was brilliantly put together. Watch at your own risk though. This is certainly not a date movie. 8.5/10

Movie Review: Monster (2003)
It's no wonder that Charlize Theron won the Oscar for Best Actress for this movie. What a performance, I would never have guessed it was her in the lead role. Kudos to her for not just allowing herself to appear this way, but really becoming the character. This movie is based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer and was eventually executed. It's the sad tale of a woman who is abused throughout her life and ends up killing her Johns. Christina Ricci is also very good as the lesbian lover who ultimately betrays Aileen to the police. 8/10

Movie Review: Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003)
Based on the fictional book of the same name by Tracy Chevalier. A friend had lent me this book a few years ago to read. The movie is very much in sync with the book. It gives a fictional account of a young woman working as a servant for the painter Johannes Vermeer and how she becomes the model in his famous painting called 'Girl with a Pearl Earring.' Despite her low position in society she really 'connects' with her artist employer. This connection is not romantic at all but she also has an artistic soul. Just like the book, this movie is very well done with good acting, good costumes and great sets. It is an interesting human drama that seems very realistic. 7/10

TV Review: 24 Season 5 (2006)
I've watched all the previous seasons of 24 and this one is probably one of the best. However, the same old formula is really starting to wear thin on me. The 'shock ending' from last season really didn't have much of an impact here. Here are some of the things you can expect in season 5, that have happened in nearly every other season:

1) there will be a mole in CTU
2) CTU security will be compromised
3) Kim Bauer will show up for no reason (other than to be put in harm's way briefly)
4) Jack will demonstrate his mastery over all fields & specialties
5) CTU leadership will change hands several times
6) Clowie will be able to hack into anything, anywhere, at any time
7) Jack will always find 1, and only 1, important clue at each encounter with a suspect
8) someone will be wrongfully tortured at CTU

That darn Bush!

2006-08-10T01:30:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Loose Change (2006)

Vol 1 of Loose Change is very similar to the film '911 In Plane Site'. It contends that the attacks of 911 were all orchestrated by the American government. The proof of this giant conspiracy is alleged to exist in the extensive video and photos shot on that fateful day. Just like '911 in Plane Site', Loose Change claims that the planes that hit the WTC were not hijacked passenger planes but modified, possibly military, aircraft. This is based on 2 points. 1, a Fox reporter said on air that the 2nd plane to hit the WTC didn't have any windows and had markings that didn't match any known commerical service. And 2, a strange dark bulge on the bottom of the plane, and a flash right before impact with the building, are identified as a missile strike and an attached launching pod on the plane. No 1 is easily debunked as the reporter later admitted to being over a mile away from the WTC where it would have been impossible to see any details on the plane. Actual wreckage from the plane (with window frames) was later found in the debris as well. No 2 is just ridiculous as it would be nearly impossible, as well as useless, to launch a missile from the plane milliseconds before crashing into the building. What would be the point? People familiar with that model of plane have quickly identified the dark bulge in the video as the shadow of the landing gear bay on the bottom of the plane. Loose Change also states that it wasn't a passenger jet that crashed into the Pentagon but a missile or a military jet. This disregards the eyewitness testimony of hundreds of onlookers who gave statements saying they watched the plane crash into the building. The video also looks at various photos and asks, "where's the plane? Where are the bodies?" Other websites have photos showing some of the bodies recovered from the site so this argument seems moot as well. Lastly, Loose Change claims that Flight 93 never crashed into a field in Pennsylvania and implies that it was all faked. Although the pieces were small, bodies and wreckage were also recovered from this site.
Vol 2 of Loose Change wisely drops the entire pod and missile theory from the planes that hit the WTC. However, it does add new 'info' to the flight 93 story. An A.P. story, quickly retracted, stated that Flight 93 had landed in Cleveland due to a bomb scare. 'Loose Change' jumps all over this story and claims that this proves flight 93 didn't crash. What about all the phone calse then? The film claims that they were all faked. They say that cell phones won't work on board airlines. Voice imitating software was used to fool everyone. Now this is just ridiculous.
These are interesting watches but pretty easy to dismiss. This site does a good job of refuting most of the points here. 6.5/10

Book Review: House of Bush, House of Saud - Craig Unger

This book investigates the numerous connections between George Dubya Bush and the royal family of Saudi Arabia. There are also some very tenuous links to Osama Bin Laden. While interesting, these links probably exist for all recent American presidents and top CEO's of energy companies.

Daylight swing pirates

2006-07-31T21:29:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Daylight (1996)

If this movie hadn't have shown on TV, and if I hadn't have had anything better to do, I never would have watched it. A typical Stallone action movie I figured. And it was, although it wasn't all that bad. Stallone plays a former disgraced EMS commander who is drawn back into action when a catastrophic series of explosions caves in a major tunnel under the Hudson River in New York. Sly must team up with rag-tag band of survivors to escape before the tunnel floods. I've read that this is pretty much a remake of the Poseidon Adventure but, as I haven't seen that, can't vouch for it. This turns out to be better than I thought it would be. Sly's character is, thankfully, the silent type and his role depends more on his actions than his bad line readings. It was fun to see Viggo Mortensen in an admittedly brief pre-LOTR role. The somewhat silly final escape is balanced out by the spectacular explosions and fire that begin the whole escapade. 7/10

Movie Review: Swing Girls (2004)

Pretty much your basic sports genre movie wrapped in a tuba. A bunch of misfits gets together and through a series of montages become great at what they do. You know the drill. This movie followed on the heels of the very successful movie 'Water Boys'. I wouldn't hesitate to call this movie the female version of that. A bunch of girls inadvertently end up giving their school's entire brass band club a bad case of food poisoning. Figuring it will be a good excuse to get out of their other classes (apparently the band club doesn't have to attend regular classes) they all join the club. The only problem is that none of them can play any instruments. Except for the 2 punk girls who play electric guitars. Of course they're all terrible but they end up falling in love with playing instruments. The regular band members recover and suddenly the new girls are on their own again. Some of them decide to make their own band and play swing music, thus the Swing Girls are born. For reasons unknown to me the 2 punk girls join this band too. It's strange because a) it's not their style of music and b) why would they want to join a band when the others can't even play their instruments yet? The most impressive thing about this movie is that all the music in it is performed by the actresses. Many of them couldn't play any instruments before this film and had to learn. 6/10

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
This is a very fun, action-filled movie. Even better than the first one. Johnny Depp is great as usual. This time his character Captain Jack Sparrow must confront Davy Jones and his crew of cursed, mutated sea thingies. There's also a Kraken which is far better than the one in 'Clash of the Titans'. Davy Jones and his crew are entirely CGI creations but they still perform better than Orlando Bloom, the weakest link in this story. The mythological world of the Pirates really shines in this movie and I'm looking forward to seeing the 3rd one. 8/10

Book Review: 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marques

How long did it take me to finish this book? A year? I was 3/4 of the way through this book when I left it on a train one day. 6 months later I found an e-book version on the Internet and started again from about the halfway point. It's no wonder that García Márquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature, this book is fantastic. It tells the history of a fictional small town in Columbia from it's first settlers to it's final inhabitants. One influential family is present the entire time and this book follows them through several generations. It's both funny and poignant. It does get a little confusing though because the same names are continually used for each member of the family. For example, there are 5 Jose Arcadios and a staggering 20 Aurelianos. Still, this is a definite must read book.

Waiting for famous hitchhikers

2006-07-26T19:17:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Almost Famous - Bootleg Edition (2000)

The longer, director's cut of the movie. Having seen the original quite a few years ago I only noticed 1 new scene. The movie follows a brighter-than-average teen who gets his big break to write for Rolling Stone magazine. His first assignment is to follow around Stillwater, a band on the verge of making it big. He befriends, the band, their band-aids, and is privy to all the excitement, politics, and in-fighting that follows the group across the country. This longer version is still fantastic and quite possibly the best rock n' roll movie ever. The music is great and it's amazing to think how the actors played all their own instruments and did a multitude of performances to prepare for their big concert scenes. The story is based on the real life experiences of the film's director, Cameron Crowe. 9/10

Movie Review: Waiting for Guffman (1996)

Directed by, and starring, Christopher Guest (the mind behind that other great rock movie, This is Spinal Tap) 'Waiting for Guffman' is a hilarious, nearly completely improvised comedy. With a cast including Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara (of SCTV fame) it's easy to see how such a project would succeed. Without cracking a smile, the cast persorms the ridiculous story of an no-talent, former New York theatre drama as he casts a crazy ensemble of not just untalented, but plain awful local actors in a musical that he hopes will make it to broadway. It's all played very serious which makes it all the more funny. 8/10

Movie Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
I really like the original BBC radio play and I really like the err, trilogy of books. I really didn't like this movie though. The only funny moments in the movie are the cut scenes where computer graphics would demonstrate small entries from the Guide. I'm sure that many were disappointed. 5/10

A mixed bag of nuts

2006-07-12T10:31:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Aikido: The Path Beyond Thought (2001)
I've never had the best impression of Steven Seagal. He's famous for hurting his stuntmen and a lot of the things he's said in the past are pretty unbelievable ie - he was a hitman for the CIA. His aikido is excellent though. I've seen him do a demonstration once before in Japan but this video is full of him showing off his stuff. After he was declared to be the reincarnation of a Buddhist monk he began to wear Tibetan style clothes and it is strange to see him practicing aikido in these threads. Only of real interest to Aikido practicioners. 8/10

Movie Review: Ken Park (2002)
Another film from Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, the minds behind such whimsical romps as 'Kids' and 'Gummo'. Like those films 'Ken Park' is about a group of young teens in what seems to be a relatively small town. They all seem to come from problematic and violent homes. The openning scene shows a skateboarding kid blow his brains out in the middle of a skate park. Other, quite graphic, scenes show the kids drinking, doing drugs, being beaten by their parents, having sex with each other, masturbating, and maybe even smoking a cigarette or two. It's very powerful stuff and, to give credit to the cast, seems very realistic. Thematically it seems the same as Clark and Korine's earlier movies although it's a bit more shocking and graphic. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Swimming Pool (2003)
This French film is about a British crime novelist who stays at a beautiful house in France while writing her latest book. Her publisher's daughter (it's the publisher's house) unexpectedly turns up and intends to stay at the house as well. She is not shy in the least bit and enjoys sunbathing topless and bringing home various men to coucher with her. Of course, as per the rules of Angela Lansbury and 'Murder She Wrote', where a crime novelist goes can a crime be far behind? Did I mention there's a swimming pool too? A fun, sexy movie but the twist at the end isn't too unpredictable. 6.5/10

Looking for love, and diamonds.

2006-07-02T09:58:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Wedding Crashers (2005)
Owen Wilson & Vince Vaughn are two best friends who specialize in crashing weddings in order to pick up girls. They have a long list of various rules to help them out but everything comes crashing down when Wilson actually falls in love with his intended prey. These guys are very funny, especially Vaughn, who's forte is to play a sleazy, fast talker. Wil Ferrell has a nice little role as the wedding crashers' mentor who has become even shallower - picking up girls at funerals. The movie is good for a laugh but the story is so predictable that you'll know what's gonna happen by the time the openning credits roll. 7/10

Movie Review: The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
This movie is far better than it should be. Steve Carell plays the nerdy 40 year old with no real goals in life. No real goals other than to increase his collection of valuable toys and action figures that is. When the other guys at his work find out he's a virgin they set out to 'help' him. There are lots of laughs and many real tender moments as well. I knew Carell was really funny but I didn't know how sympathetic a character he could be too. 8/10

Movie Review: The Pink Panther (2006)
The first movie I've seen from 2006. Steve Martin plays the infamous Inspector Clouseau in this prequel to the original series. I'm a big fan of the original series. I like Kevin Kline. I like Jean Reno. For the most part, I like Steve Martin. However, I didn't like this movie. It just wasn't funny. For one thing there was no Kato. For another, Martin's accent is just horrible, and not in a funny way either. If you haven't seen this one yet I'd stay away from it and stick with the classics. Vivre Peter Sellers! 4/10

A good old Lynching

2006-06-22T22:44:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Industrial Symphony 1: Dream of the Broken-Hearted (1990)
The Dream of the Broken Hearted
This was originally presented on-stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City on November 10, 1989. The show was part of the opening reception for the school's annual New Wave Festival. Filmmaker David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti created the live show based on the dreamy pop music of singer Julee Cruise. Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern (who were shooting Wild at Heart at the time) star as a couple in the midst of breaking up. The performance also stars Michael J. Anderson, who was the Little Man From Another Place on Twin Peaks.

Movie Review: Wild at Heart (1990)
Next to Dune, I think this is Lynch's weakest movie. Surprisingly, it won the Palm d'or at Cannes. This was probably due to Lynch's TV show Twin Peaks being so popular at the time though. Wild at Heart stars Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as two lovers being pursued by a bizarre medley of killers. The cast and the acting are great. Willem Dafoe is especially good as Bobby Peru, the slimiest character ever to appear on film. He does have nice teeth though. What I didn't like in this movie were the number of totally strange and unneccessary scenes. While Crispin Glover is great in his scene as Dell, the psychotic, rubber glove fearing, cochroach 'loving' cousin, the scene was totally pointless. The pure style and beauty of all of the scenes, however, still make this movie much better than most Hollywood fare. 8/10

Strange Mix

2006-06-14T11:59:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
Hmmm, what to say about this movie. It fits into that horrific little niche of movies like Caligula, the Passion, and Schindler's List that are so realistic and scary that I only need to see them once. Salo is about 4 noblemen in Fascist Italy who decide to live out the Marquis De Sade's last book in a private villa before the Allies kill them. A group of young men and women are kidnapped and turned into slaves for their sickest desires. What follows are scenes of rape, torture, and degradement as I've never seen before. It was tough to watch but is certainly an important movie that shows how unbridled power leads to corruption. If you don't think you can handle people being forced to eat each other's excrement then this isn't the movie for you. I don't find it all that surprising that the film's director, Pier Paolo Pasolini, was murdered shortly after he completed the film. 8/10

Movie Review: Backdraft (1991)
I saw this years ago but recently re-watched it with a class at my school. This is Ron Howard's action piece about firefighters and the fires they fight. 2 brothers work in the same firefighting brigade in Chicago. The younger brother struggles to prove that he is as good as his fearless and heroic brother. A deadly arsonist is also on the loose. The story is pretty mediocre, as is the lead performance by William Baldwin. I'm certainly glad that he got his in the South Park movie. The other actors are very impressive though, Kurt Russell, Robert DeNiro and Donald Sutherland are especially good. The best character in the film, the one that really steals the show, is the fire itself. Perhaps this is why the Universal Studios Japan attraction based on the movie doesn't feature any human actors, just the fire itself. I thought the ending was also a lit rushed and weak. The movie was entitled 'Backdraft' because an arsonist is preparing elaborate traps, called backdrafts, to kill certain people. However, when the arsonist is first seen in the movie he has suddenly changed his M.O. This sudden and unexplained shift in tactics leads to the arsonist's identification. Within the logic of the story it didn't really make sense. 6/10

Movie Review: Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
It's 1989, and a devoted Socialist in East Berlin suffers a stroke and subsequent coma. When she awakens 10 months later her entire world has changed. The Berlin Wall is no more, the two Germanies are once again reunited. Fearing that any undue stress will cause another heart attack and kill her, her son attempts to manipulate people and events so that she never learns the truth. This is all the more difficult because the world around them is literally changing. Advertisements for Coca-Cola and McDonalds are popping up everywhere, her favourite communist brands of food are no longer available, and there is a sudden flood of immigrants. Somewhat like the movie 'Life is Beautiful', this a is a fun movie about deception in the name of love. 8/10

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice 3: The Hidden Past - Jude Watson
A rather forgettable tale of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as they battle oppression and punitive amnesia on an alien world.

Not Without My [Son or] Daughter

2006-06-07T12:50:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Forgotten (2004)
This Julianne Moore starts off well enough, a mother struggles to deal with the fact that everyone around her seems to have forgotten about her son that died a few years earlier when the plane he was in disappeared. They haven't just forgotten about her son mind you, they say she never had a son. Perhaps it's all just in her head. But then another parent with a child in the missing plane also remembers that he had a daughter. It all gets very X-Files when the FBI throws itself into the mix. Unfortunately a weaker than weak ending leaves this movie with an incredibly sour taste at the end. ********SPOILER******** Aliens?! C'mon. 5/10

Movie Review: Flightplan (2005)
Along the same theme, Flightplan has Jodie Foster searching every nook & cranny in a spectacularily huge jumbo jet to find her missing daughter. No one else saw her daughter, the crew say she never checked in, and Foster is taking medication because her husband just died. Is she making it all up too? Sean Bean (Boromir for LOTR) continues to impress as the captain of the aircraft. This, very Hitchcockian, thriller is well conceived and the setting of the jumbo jet is great; it's big enough to hide things but small enough to be claustrophobic. However, the end of this movie also shows a breakdown in logic. Foster's actions at the end are totally reckless and seem more like a quick resolution to the plot than a well thought out plan. 7/10

Adam Sandler Film Festival

2006-04-26T11:56:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Eight Crazy Nights (2002)
Adam Sandler's animated Christmas/Chanukah adventure. Sandler voices Davey, a drunken misfit who always seems to be on the wrong side of the law. Juvenile basketball referee and volunteer extraordinaire Whitey (also voiced by Sandler) offers Davey one last chance to avoid jail time. Apart from a few scenes, this movie is relatively unfunny. The musical numbers are alright but the lyrics seem awfully forced. Finding rhyming words isn't always that easy I guess. Most annoying to me was Whitey's voice. This is a character that Sandler has used before on his comedy CD's and is apparently based on someone he knew in his youth. But this high pitched voice is like thousands of alley cats simultaneously dragging their claws across miles and miles of chalkboard. It's hard to endure for an entire movie. This is a below average holiday movie that is probably a little too crude for young kids. 4/10

Movie Review: 50 First Dates (2004)
Next to Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore must be the best onscreen couple. Reuniting after the success of The Wedding Singer the two are again an irrisistibly cute couple. The situation this time, however, is that Barrymore's character has suffered a serious head injury in a car crash years earlier. She cannot remember anything that happens to her, or has happened to her since the day of the crash. Every morning she wakes up without any memories of the previous day. Enter Sandler's character, a womanizing aquarium doctor (typical eh?) who tries to make Barrymore fall in love with him each and every day as she continually forgets who he is. The result is that we get scene after scene of Sandler trying to be super cute and funny to impress her. The notion of Sandler as a petty womanizer is introduced at the beginning of the film but then completely forgotten. He is the most dedicated boyfriend I've ever seen. Sandler's congenital twin Rob Schneider is also along for the ride of course. With a dash of tanning cream he is supposed to be a native Hawaiin. As per usual, he has no real purpose in the movie other than to say a few stupid lines here and there, take the occasional beating, and make Sandler look less creepy than Schneider is. The ending of the film cheats somewhat by skipping over obvious difficulties. Still, it's a nice romantic comedy. 7/10

Movie Review: Spanglish (2004)
Coming on the heels of my linguistics program I expected this film to showcase a lot of linguistic borrowing, code-switching and interference. This was not the case though. I also expected this to be a light romantic comedy in the vein of Sandler's other movies. This was also not the case. Sandler, Tea Leoni and Paz Vega (the beautiful star of Sex and Lucia) form an uneasy love triangle in this drama. Sandler is a renowned chef but passive husband. His wife, Leoni, is a domineering wife and mother who is highly competetive. Vega is their smart and down-to-earth housekeeper who only speaks Spanish. They each have children who bring further complications to the party. I was very impressed with this movie, I think of it a as a slightly watered down version of American Beauty. However here, Sandler doesn't want to sleep with any of the kids. 8/10

Can old TV shows become good movies?

2006-04-24T00:37:00.002+09:00

Movie Review: Bewitched (2005)

This nearly made it into my Will Ferrell film festival page. The idea behind this movie is that a real witch (Nicole Kidman), who is trying to lead a normal non-magical life, is cast in the role of Samantha in a remake of the old TV show 'Bewitched'. Ferrell plays a cocky actor who wants to revitalize his career by playing the role of Darrin the new show. Of course they fall in love and Kidman, desite her vows not to, uses magic here and there. The movie is remarkably unfunny and totally unromantic. The funniest moments were clips from the original TV show. This movie probably would have been much better if they had not attempted the post modern makeover and just did an exact remake of the original show. 4/10

Movie Review: Starsky & Hutch (2004)

A remake of the popular 70's action show. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson take the lead roles and are joined by their usual pack of buddies, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell. The story is pretty simple but the cast are good together. There are some funny moments and it's cool to see that Torino racing around (and getting totalled during the end credits). 6/10

Movie Review: The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)

A remake of the 80's series that I used to stay up late to watch. This movie has none of the charm of the original. The good old Duke boys here (Johnny Knoxville and Sean William Scott) are just a couple of idiots. The only redeeming scenes in this rehash are the great car racing scenes. The most disturbing part is when the good old Duke boys basically try to kill the police officers chasing them by throwing molotov cocktails at their cruisers. At the end of the movie the governor of the state simply pardons them of all crimes (could he really pardon them of attempted murder of police officers?) just because they are local heroes. 5/10

A little Lynch

2006-04-14T16:58:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: David Lynch - Don't Look at Me (1989)
A French made documentary about the man himself. This covers his work up to and including Blue Velvet. It's also shot in a style reminiscent of Lynch's work, with the camera hiding behind a set of blinds, and using lots of TV's within the scenes. It shows Lynch working on a new screenplay and discussing some of his paintings, his fears, and his desire to make a film based on Kafka's Metamorphosis. For a man who doesn't like to talk about his films much this is probably the most we'll ever get to hear him say about his films. 7/10

Movie Review: The Cowboy & the Frenchman (1988)
Lynch's short film contribution to a collection called Les Francais Vus Par. It has a cast of Lynch regulars (including Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Nance). Stanton plays a nearly deaf rancher who encounters a hyper-stereotypical Frenchman, complete with baguettes, wines, French Fries and escargots. The film is slow paced and pretty amusing with a couple of musical vignettes that keep it on the bizarre side of things. It's included on the David Lynch Short Films DVD. 7/10

Book Review: What to Expect When You're Expecting Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Esenberg & Sandee Hathaway
A gift from my sister-in-law Ann. A great, month by month guide to what is going on with mum and her baby.

Book Review: The Expectant Father Armin A. Brott and Jennifer Ash
Another gift from Ann. This book is a smaller version of the above book but written for fathers to be. A nice addition to the above book.

New Simpsons Movie!

2006-04-05T11:30:00.000+09:00

Will it suck? Probably, but I hope not.

Great little Blue Velvet spoof

2006-03-30T14:23:00.000+09:00

There are plenty more spoofs like this available here at IFILM.

The Will Ferrell Film Festival

2006-03-16T22:18:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Elf (2003)
After a series of hilarious bit parts in other comedies (Old School, Jay & Bob Strike Back, Zoolander, etc) Will Ferrell finally gets a leading role. Here he plays Buddy, a human raised as an Elf in the North Pole, who tries to ingratiate himself with his recently discovered father in New York. Apart from some funny fish-out-of-water moments this movie isn't too funny. It's really aimed at a younger audience and goes for cutesy more than funny. 6/10

Movie Review: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - Unrated Version (2004)
Ferrell plays an extremely self centered anchorman in San Diego in the 70's when news casters were the coolest cats out there. He and his sexist buddies have to deal with a diligent, intelligent and beautiful new female anchor played by Christina Applegate. I first started to watch this movie last summer while at my brother's place in Ohio. Admittedly I was pretty tired at the time, but I found the first half of the movie to be really stupid and completely unfunny. Then I fell asleep. This time I found the movie hilarious. Still dumb, but very funny. I guess your mood plays a big part in how you appreciate things. Steve Carell was also very funny as the dimwitted Brick Tamland. I'm looking forward to seeing his big movie, the 40 Year Old Virgin. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004)
This is a bonus film included with the Unrated Cut of Anchorman. It is billed as a seperate movie but in fact it is just a collection of alternate takes, extended scenes, and a major plot line that was cut out of the original film. Ferrell and friends take on a group of eco-terrorists in San Diego that are unsure of what they really want to say. It's amusing but easy to see why this plot was excised from the movie. It is a great addition to Anchorman for those that enjoyed it. 7/10

Movie Review: Kicking & Screaming (2005)
Ferrell plays a father who, despite being bullied by his over-competetive father for years, decides to coach his own underachieving son's soccer team. The thing is, his father is coaching the best team in the league. As with most sports movies you can see where this movie is going right from the start. The good points - Robert Duvall and Mike Ditka are good as overbearing coaches. The bad - none of the kids' characters are developed at all, the soccer scenes are really bad, and Will Ferrell is just not funny. I don't think he's all that good as the straight guy. He wants to make the same transition that Jim Carrey has but I don't think he has the screen presence to do it. 4/10

Movie Review: Melinda & Melinda (2004)
Not a Will Ferrell movie per se but a Woody Allen movie. 2 playwrights debate whether life is more like a comedy or a tragedy. They imagine the same set of characters (played by different actors) going through alternate stories of both tragedy and comedy. This is a really fascinating idea and I enjoyed watching it. Ferrell plays a role in the comedy side of the story. Unfortunately the comic divide isn't all that funny until it hits the halfway mark. This movie doesn't quite live up to the great idea behind it. 6.5/10

A Taste of Magic

2006-03-12T21:52:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Perhaps I saw this movie too soon after reading the book. The book was just fantastic (see the earlier post about the book) but as with the rest of this series each book keeps getting longer and longer. The movies stay about the same length though, so more and more keeps getting cut out. This is understandable but many things I was looking forward to seeing from the book just weren't here. The entire house-elf subplot was dropped. This was a justifiable cut but it would have been nice to see Dobie again. Important information about Neville was only subtlely shown. The ending of the movie was also much weaker than the book which put the entire story on a war footing. What was here was good but I was a little disappointed. 7/10

Movie Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (2005)
I really had high hopes for this movie going into it. As a youngster I loved the entire Narnia series and I thought it would have a little bit of that 'Lord of the Rings' feel to it. It didn't have any of that feel to it, although it sure tried to. I'm positive that they purposely copied some of the scenes from LOTR exactly. Perhaps this was in homage to LOTR but it just seemed like a cheesy rip off to me. I haven't read the series in a long time so I've forgotten many of the story's small details. This means I can't blame some of the plot holes on the movie because they might be in the original book. What didn't I like about this movie? Well, for starters, I thought the CG looked bad. They looked very fake. Even worse than they sometimes did in Star Wars. Probably my biggest problem with this movie is the sense of scale. Narnia is supposed to be this whole new world, but I never got the sense that it was very big. We see all these exotic creatures but I never got the feeling that Narnia was big enough to contain them all. In LOTR Middle-Earth felt big, while Narnia feels as if it could fit inside that wardrobe. 6/10

Movie Review: Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Tim Burton's latest. Next to Corpse Bride that is. First off I'll admit that I haven't read the book or seen the original Gene Wilder movie. I did read all the reviews that said Johnny Depp's version of Willy Wonka is a parody of Michael Jackson. I disagree. Michael Jackson is no where near as funny as Depp's Wonka. This was a very fun movie with great characters and sets. The music and dancing were very fun but sometimes jolting as they brought the story to a standstill. This was obviously intentional though and the musical numbers were very memorable. For me the most disturbing part of the movie was the character of the Oompa Loompas who were all played by Deep Roy. He's a strange looking man and it was wierd to see all the digital copies of him. According to IMDB he received a 1 million dollar salary for all the work he did on the film. Good for him. 7/10

Extreme Danger

2006-02-25T15:36:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Open Water (2003)
The Indie hit, the 'Blair Witch', of 2003. Based on the true story of two divers who are left behind by their dive boat in the middle of the ocean. No one really knows what happened to the divers afterwards as their bodies were never recovered. Much like the film 'The Perfect Storm', this movie speculates on what might have happened to them. Most of this speculation revolves around sharks. This movie is a tight thriller and is worth watching. I find the way that this movie was produced just as interesting as the movie itself (I also think the same thing about Blair Witch). The crew consisted of only 3 people and there were only 2 key actors. The film was shot on weekends and holidays over a period of a few years as the film making couple had full time jobs to attend. All of the sharks used in the film are real and the couple were right out in the middle of them in a number of scenes. 8/10

Movie Review: Touching the Void (2003)
This film is a recreation of an actual climb and it's awful aftermath. In 1985 two young, British climbers were the first to climb a deadly peak in Peru. Of course, as most climbers say (or at least, as I've read that most climbers say) getting up a mountain is the easy part. Getting down is the hard part. After successfully reaching the summit, one of the two climbers suffers a serious injury on the descent and ends up dangling over a fissure. His partner, left with no other options, is forced to cut the rope and find his own way down the mountain. Here is where the story really starts...
Based on the best selling book of the same name this is a gripping tale. And unlike other Hollywood crap about mountain climbing this is the real deal. 8.5/10

Movie Review: The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Big special effects movie by the man who brought us Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla. OK, to be honest, I had never intended to see this movie. The above list of disappointing movies is the reason why. One of the podcasts I listen to had a special episode about the science in the movie and I wanted to see it before listening to the show. As it turns out, the podcast in question hadn't been archived so I couldn't listen to it anyways. To my surprise, however, I didn't find the movie all that bad. Oh sure there are plot holes bigger than the icebergs banging into New York harbour, but I didn't mind it all that much. I think this is probably the best movie that Roland Emmerich has made.
In short, human-made pollution has altered the earth's environmental balance so much so that a new ice age descends on the northern hemisphere with the speed of an Olympic short course speedskater. Dennis Quaid plays an environmental researcher who just can't get the people in Washington to listen to his 'crazy ideas'. Meanwhile his son, Jake Gyllenhaal, is having his own problems (of the cute, female variety) in New York. In the middle of a blaring snowstorm and killer termperatures, Quaid literally hikes from Washington D.C. to New York to help him. This little jaunt through the snow and ice, in such a short time, is the most unbelievable bit of the movie (besides the actual ice age that starts). 7/10

Book Review: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
Wow, of the first 4 books this one is by far the best. Besides the usual cast we get the return of: Sirius Black, Doby the house Elf, Lord Voldemort, Wormtail, Lucius Malfoy and Moaning Myrtle, we also get to witness the Quidditch World Cup and the legendary Tri-Wizards tournament. This book really seems to be setting up big things for the next book(s?) which I'm really eager to read now. The end of the story felt like the 'Council of Elrond' chapter in Lord o the Rings where the forces of good begin to marshall their forces for the upcoming battle. Wow, bring on the next one.

These are not travel guides.

2006-02-18T14:04:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Amistad (1997)
This is a Spielberg drama that takes place in the 19th century. A group of slaves takes control of their ship and they land in America. They are immediately placed in jail and a series of court dramas ensues. Various parties (such as the Queen of Spain, the owners of the boat, and the American navy offices who boarded the ship) all claim that the slaves are their property. Djimon Hounsou (from Gladiator) is brilliant as the unofficial leader of the slaves. Mathew McConaughey is less convincing in his role as an attourney. While not as powerful as Schindler's List this is still a strong movie about some of the deplorable things humankind has done in it's not-too-distant past. The scenes showing the horrendous treatment the slaves endured during their trip from Africa to Cuba are especially haunting. 7.5/10

Movie Review:
Last Life in the Universe (2003)
This is a mesmerizing movie about a Japanese man living in Bangkok and the Thai woman he befriends. There is also a complicated mix of Yakuza hitmen, vendettas, car accidents, and halucinations. This movie leaves a lot of questions unresolved at the end of the movie so people who like movies that are all neatly tied up by the end may be disappointed here. In fact, I think 3 different endings were shown at the end leaving the viewer to choose which one he or she prefers. This is just my impression though and I may be wrong. This is really one of those movies that requires multiple viewings. 9/10

Book Review:
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
Feynman won a nobel prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics. He also worked on the Manhattan Project and contributed to the official government report on the destruction of the space shuttle challenger. This collection of short stories reveals Feynman's brilliance, love of safecracking, and a great admiration for his father who instilled in him a desire to understand how things work. It was a little strange to read about how this great, but very funny man, was celebrating at the news of the 'success' of the atomic attacks on Japan.

Put Up Your Dukes

2006-01-30T22:58:00.000+09:00

Nope, not a bunch of John Wayne movies but a couple of great boxing movies.

Movie Review: Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Well it's no wonder why this movie did so well at the Oscars. It is simply great. It's the story of a no-longer-young, very stubborn, female boxer and her partnership with an equally stubborn trainer who at first wants nothing to do with her. Duff and Eastwood are magnificent as the pair. Freeman is also great in the 3rd leg role of the boxing gym's manager. There are a number of smaller characters who are nevertheless very memorable. Each character is very human with a range of emotions and varying reasons for why they are who they are. The boxing scenes are very good but this isn't really a movie about boxing, it's a movie about determination and friendship. 10/10

Movie Review: Cinderella Man (2005)
Based on the real life of James Braddock, this is also a great boxing movie. Braddock was a man who very nearly achieved greatness in the ring before the great depression put him and his family in the poor house. Even in the bleakest of times he remains a noble and honest man. Miraculously, he gets another chance in life, another shot in the ring. He is set up to take a fall but instead makes another run for the title. Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger are very good as the main characters but it is Paul Giamatti as Braddock's manager who shines the brightest in his supporting role. 8/10

More Movies for the New Year

2006-01-30T22:17:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Goodbye Girl (2004)
Caught the 2nd half of this Neil Simon story based movie on TV. For some reason Daniels is sharing a New York apartment with Healey and her daughter. He's a down on his luck actor. She's had a few too relationships with actors go sour in the past. So of course they become involved. The dialogue is very witty (as I'd expect in a Neil Simon story) but otherwise the story just seems like an edgier version of a Friends' episode.

Movie Review: What Planet Are You From? (2000)
I'll admit up front that I'm a Garry Shandling fan. When I was much younger I used to like his TV show, 'The Gerry Shandling Show', and I'm a big fan of his last TV project, 'The Larry Sanders Show'. This was pretty disappointing though. Shandling plays an alien who comes to earth to impregnate a woman and return with the baby to his home planet. His race has become so technologically advanced that they don't require emotions. Reproduction only occurs through cloning. I forget if they explained it in the movie or not, but there are no females on his world. Thus a lot of the jokes revolves around Shandling's character trying seduce woman despite his complete inexperience. However, much of this premise is almost lost completely when Shandling is first introduced and he breaks into smiles every so often (so much for not having any emotions). 6/10

The Best Movies of 2005

2006-01-18T01:21:00.000+09:00

As opposed to my worst movies of 2005, my best movies of 2005 have been given a place of honour on the right of the page. Most of these movies were not made in 2005 but merely movies that I saw in the previous year. I guess I should explain my scoring system as well, just in case anyone cares, which I'm sure no one does. Firstly, only movies that I've seen for the first time can be considered for top movies of the year. This is so that personal favourites (such as Blue Velvet) that I've seen many times don't make the list every year. However, new versions of older movies, extended cuts or director cuts, are eligible.
All my movie reviews contain a score from 1 to 10. Anything from 1-5 means I didn't like it and the lower the number the more horrible it is. A 6-10 means I like it to a varying degree. A 6 means I slightly enjoyed it but don't want or need to ever see it again. A 6 movie might be worth watching on TV if you've got nothing better to do. 7 is a pretty common score, it means a movie might be worth renting. 8 and above are very good and recommended. I reserve 10's for truly stupendous movies and very few make the grade.

The Worst Movies of 2005

2006-01-07T19:10:00.000+09:00

I'll do the best films in my next posting but even the worst films deserve their place of dishonor. The Razzies are always a good place to check out bad films and performances. I should clarify that my worst movies of the year may not be movies that were made in 2005. Movies tend to come to Japan about 6 months after they debut in North America. Movie theatres here are also very expensive so I usually only go to see the most visually exciting movies on the big screen. I also don't have the time I used to have in my care free university days.
So without further ado, I present the worst movies I saw in 2005.

#10 Hellboy
I was very disappointed in this one. A very big budget that should have been spent on just about anything else.

#9 Cradle 2 the Grave
No surprise here. Jet Li and some rapper in a movie about cage fights and stolen diamonds.

#8 One Million Years BC
Almost no story, grunts for dialogue, cavemen in fur sneakers?

#7 Mission to Mars
Shoddy science and shoddy story = shoddy movie

#6 Land of the Dead
Can't believe I've seen this in some best movies of 2005 lists. Lame zombie movie with lame story about class struggles.

#5 Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Maybe I'm being too hard because this is a kids' movie but this had me cringing.

#4 Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous
Apparently FBI officers assaulting civilians on camera is an acceptable practice now.

#3 The Flintstones
Despite the stellar cast this movie was just awful. Any original Flintstones cartoon is more entertaining and, thankfully, much shorter.

#2 Taxi
The original French movie was stylish and funny. This Hollywood miscopy is nothing like it. Queen Latifah's new Hollywood star is a little less shiny because of this clunker.

#1 Star Wars: The Holiday Special
Not technically a movie, it's a TV special, this is probably the worst thing I've ever seen recorded on a strip of film. I'm also including the horrendous short films I made in university here. At least they're not as annoying and painful as this. 40 minutes of Wookies growling? Princess Leia singing? What were Bea Arthur, Art Carney, Harvey Korman and Jefferson Starship doing here though??

A crude Christmas

2005-12-31T02:53:00.000+09:00

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #2: Dark Rival - Jude Watson
The sequel to the story that began in Jedi Apprentice #1 The Rising Force. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon find themselves on a bleak and remote mining world. Obi-Wan still hopes to win over Qui-Gon and become his Padawan. But Qui-Gon must first deal with his previous Padawan, a rogue named Xanatos who is manipulating a plan to take over a rival mining company. Qui-Gon must choose between his past, Xanatos, and his future, Obi-Wan, while the fate of the entire planet hangs in the balance.
While very short, this is a good read. Jude Watson's storytelling style and dialogue holds true to the movies and feels very much like a real 'Star Wars' story.

TV Review: Seinfeld Season 1
We rented this on DVD here so Yukiko & I could enjoy it together. It's surprising just how good this show was even in it's debut season. The Pilot episode was very interesting as it didn't contain Elaine, Kramer was called Kessler, and Jerry's apartment was pretty different.

Movie Review:Bad Santa: Badder Santa Unrated Version (2003)
What a treat this film was. I was happily suprised when the opening credits rolled and the director was revealed to be Terry Zwigoff. I really liked his earlier, very quirky films about introverted but creative loners such as Crumb, and Ghost World. This film and it's main character are nothing like them however. Billy Bob Thornton plays the complete opposite of his character in Monster's Ball; here he is a loud, foul mouthed, Santa Claus costume wearing con man who like to drink, get in fights, and engage in anal sex with fat women. His life finally makes a change for the better when performs the good deed of beating some teen age bullies senseless. This is a very dark comedy that had me rolling with the gigglies. Certainly not a Christmas flic for the kiddies though. 9/10

Mountains, Prairies, and Rock & Roll

2005-12-28T19:22:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Holy Mountain (1973)
I've seen some wierd movies in my time. I'm a big fan of David Lynch, Peter Greenaway, David Cronenburg and Lars Von Trier. I've seen 'Un Chien Andalou' and both 'Tetsuo the Iron Man' movies. This movie may take the cake though. Not only does it take the cake but it eats it, poops it out and then smears it into a quasi-religious symbol on a freshly painted white wall. This movie has quite a cult following and I first heard of it and it's bizarre director Alejandro Jodorowsky while I was in university. The movie clearly has 3 parts. The first part by far the strangest. It begins with a very Jesus-like character being resuscitated by an armless and legless midget. Then he is strung up on a cross while small children throw stones at him. Afterwards, he strolls through a city in Mexico and witnesses very shocking things. Tourists gawk and take pictures while soldiers rape and kill civilians. Toads in bright little costumes recreate the Spanish invasion of Mexico. A group of scantily clad women (prostitues I think) began following him around. One of them is accompanied by a monkey. Finally, he scales a very tall building and finds an alchemist inside. The alchemist knows some kind of kung-fu-like fighting style and proceeds to smack this Jesus character upside his head. Afterwards the alchemist takes him under his wing and shows him how to turn his own feces into gold. It's a very beautiful moment. Part 2 has the alchemist introducing Jesus to his future team of super friends, 8 other successful people from different fields. Each of them is introduced in turn in short segments and they are each as crazy as as the next. The 3rd part has the alchemist leading his followers up a mountain to find the 9 people who control the world. They mean to find them, kill them, and take their places. Along the way they each have strange visions - such as drinking milk from the teats of an old bearded man. At the end they reach a table with 9 cloaked figures only to find out they are just manequins. The alchemist turns to the camera, it pans back to reveal the film crew, and he says that it was all just a film. Visually this movie very impressive. For such a small budget Jodorowsky did an amazing job. Someone must have a put a lot of time into making all those cute toad costumes. A very strange and confusing film where you'll be constantly trying to understand what is going on, but an impressive tour of the director's subconscious. He had some big cahones to make a film like this. 8/10

Movie Review: Open Range (2003)
My reaction to this movie was the same as when I watched the movie 'Tombstone'. It's very well done with good acting and a good story. However, it is just your typical western movie with nothing new. It's nothing I haven't seen before. It's not like 'Unforgiven' which broke all the rules and is, in my opinion, the best modern Western. Open Range features Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall as free range rangers who are leading their herd through America. Along the way, they meet up with a greedy 'Rancher' who doesn't like them filthy free rangers. The rancher kills their employees and event their dog. This leads to a huge gunfight (which I'll admit is very well done) to decide the fate of a town. In this town Costner meets a woman (the only woman in the film) and of course they fall in love. 7.5/10

Movie Review: School of Rock (2003)
I'm a big Jack Black fan and was worried because I'd heard that this movie wasn't all that funny. Luckily I liked it. Black was great as the manic fake teacher trying to convert a class of elementary students into a kick ass rock band. Sure it's completely unbelievable. How could no one at the school notice a band practicing all day every day? Why did the furious parents all suddenly forget their grievances when they reach the Battle of the Bands concert? But it's funny, the kids are great musicians and the music is awesome. You've gotta just go with it. 8/10

TV Review: Lost Season 1
40 some odd survivors of a plane crash must learn to live on a tropical island. They were so far off course that rescue seems unlikely. Dangerous wild animals and some kind of monster lurk in the jungle. They may not be alone. Everyone is carrying extra baggage and it's not the kind you wheel around behind you. You can't trust everyone you're marooned with. It's a great idea and I really liked the first season. There are some minor continuity problems (why hasn't the fat guy lost any weight after a month on the island? Why out of 40 characters do we only know 7 of them?) but the story is developing very well. What worries me about a continuing series like this (I mean that it's not a mini-series with a definite ending all penned out) is that it may turn into a bad Gilligan's Island remake. Just how many mysteries can this island contain? How many other people can there be on it? Despite this... I'm stoked for season 2.

"I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert."

2005-12-26T14:57:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Blue Velvet (1986)
I may be biased because David Lynch is probably my favourite film director but I think this is one of the best movies of the 80's. Modern film noir at it's best. Kyle McLachlan plays an amateur sleuth who decides to hide inside a woman's closet to see if he can learn any secrets. Dennis Hopper plays one of the most terrorfying film villains anywhere. It has many classical Lynchian elements; dreams, strange images, bizzare sound effects, and strange, mutilated people. Perhaps the weakest moment of the film is a conversation between McLachland and Laura Dern outside a church where they discuss her dream about robins coming to save the world. But in Lynch's world of dualities this too good to be true scene balances the incredible powers of darkness that the characters must also confront. Like most of Lynch's films, viewers either love it or hate it. There is no middle ground. Even people who hate it though must admit that it moves them, which is no easy task for a film to do. 9/10

Movie Review: Myteries of Love (2002)
A documentary on the Blue Velvet special edition DVD. Contains archival footage of Lynch talking about the movie and new interviews with all the stars. Funniest bit was how Dennis Hopper got his role by telling Lynch, "I am Frank Booth." These days Lynch refuses to really talk about his movies because he doesn't want to affect how his audience interprets them. Mostly funny stories and anecdotes about the making of the movie, it's a good book end for fans of the movie. 6/10

Movie Review: King Kong (2005)
Well movies don't come much bigger than King Kong. At first I questioned why Peter Jackson even bothered with this remake. I hate seeing movies being remade when the originals are still perfectly entertaining. This wasn't a money grab by any studio however, it was Jackson's dream to make a new version of Kong. And what a remake it is. The film really breaks into 3 parts. Part 1 shows a swarthy movie director (Jack Black, who did better in this dramatic role than I figured he could) trying to organize a film shoot on an unknown island. His producers won't give him any more money and his leading lady has quit the project. Enter Naomi Watts, a hard working vaudeville dancer who is as down on her luck as the rest of the depression era city. Part 2 has the cast and crew reach Skull Island, which is inhabited by wild, crazy-eyed natives, dinosaurs, giant insects, and need I mention... King Kong. There are some amazing action sequences here as humans and apes alike battle to survive. The running of the brontosauruses is something to behold, although a little unbelievable to see Jack Black so deftly avoiding their stampeding legs. Kong enters a battle royale with a pair of T-Rex's that is exciting but ends up in a vine covered ravine where the combatants must fight their way to the bottom, from vine to vine. Action scenes like this have been popping up a lot lately since Jurassic Park when the SUV gets stuck in the tree and chases the kids down. Frankly I'm a little tired of this schtick now. Probably the scariest things on the island are the giant insects, which are as big as the dinosaurs. With their numbers why haven't they taken over the entire island? Some kind of giant tubeworms that swallow people limb by limb were really well done and just disgusting. The final part of the film has Kong creating havoc in New York City. Some of the scenes are very beautiful and it's amazing to see the emotions in Kong's eyes. Lots of reviewers are calling this one of the best films of the year and I have to disagree. While it's worth watching, it's not one of the best. 8/10

Meddling with Muggles

2005-12-15T22:33:00.000+09:00

I'm over halfway through the first season of Lost. I am truly sucked in now and must finish the season off. It is quite good but still very formulaic. There are also many small flaws that may become more annoying as the show progresses. First of all, despite the fact that there are over 40 survivors only about 7 of them do enough to warrant receiving a name. Perhaps they are pooling all their toiletries together but the men have really short beards after being stranded on the island for so long. On the other hand, the women all have impeccable hair still. Bruises from fights seem to heal very quickly. The guy who struggled for an entire episode with a drug addiction seems to have kicked the habit very quickly and it is no longer an issue. Even though they made it very clear in the beginning of the series that burying bodies would just draw dangerous animals, they now bury everyone (and not very deeply either). These are only small complaints though and the show is fun. I really want to know what is going on there.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Wizard People's Version) (2001)
A new narrative to the first Harry Potter movie by a fellow from Texas by the name of Brad Neely. It's somewhat like the MST2K material but here the entire story is redone. Harry Potter is a raging alcoholic that runs into challenge after challenge as he looks for his next drink. I think the whole concept of fans making 'alternative narratives' for movies is great but this one turns out to be only mildly amusing. If you'd like to check it out yourself you can download it here.

Movie Review: Millions (2004)
Latest flic from director Danny Boyle. Unlike many of his previous films which were quite edgy (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, the Beach, 28 Days Later) Millions is pretty much a good family fare movie. It's about a small boy, mysteriously named Damien, who lives with his older brother and widow father. He has memorized details about all of the famous Catholic saints and truely believes in them. So much so that he is often visited by (or at least has visions of) them and receives advice. He believes that his recently passed away mother must have joined their holy numbers and frequently asks if they've met her. One day, as if it has fallen from the sky, a sports bag full of pound notes finds its way into his hands. And with the UK's country about to switch to the Euro, he only has a short time to use the money before it becomes worthless. Much of the film involves the small boy and his brother finding ways to use the money. The older brother uses it to gain prestige and respect at his school while Damien is intent on giving it to the needy. The movie takes a darker turn when the real source of the money reveals itself and wants it back - somewhat of a throwback to Boyle's earlier film 'Shallow Grave'. There is a smidgeon of CG in the movie but it is done very subtlely and really adds to the magic quality of the movie. 8/10

Movie Review: Prince of Egypt (1998)
The animated story of Moses. Apart from a few Disneyesque comedy moments (this film is by Dreamworks by the way, not Disney) this is a pretty serious movie. The animation was just brilliant. The parting of the Red Sea, in particular, was fantastic. The cast is also very impressive:

Val Kilmer .... Moses/God (voice)
Ralph Fiennes .... Rameses (voice)
Michelle Pfeiffer.... Tzipporah (voice)
Sandra Bullock .... Miriam (voice)
Jeff Goldblum .... Aaron (voice)
Danny Glover .... Jethro (voice)
Patrick Stewart .... Pharaoh Seti I (voice)
Helen Mirren .... The Queen (voice)
Steve Martin .... Hotep (voice)
Martin Short .... Huy (voice)

I didn't really like Kilmer voicing both God and Moses. He used 2 slightly different voices but it was fairly obvious. I read that at one point, early on, in the creation process they were going to use a woman's voice for God. They figured that would raise too many shackles and then decided to use an amalgamation of the entire cast's voices for God. But in the end they just went with Kilmer. It's very well done and worth a watch for those interested in the subject matter. 7/10

Movie Review: The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)
I'm actually a little embarrassed to say I saw this one. One of Yukiko's coworkers lent us the DVD so I felt like I had to watch it. I figure that if someone lends us something without our asking for it they must be recommending it, right? Well this movie is definitely geared for the 6-12 year old girl market. A sequel that has a college age Princess of some non-fictional European country look for love in order to qualify to become queen. There are plenty of silly pratfalls, cooking mishaps, spontaneous hip hop dance interludes, and even sliding down ramps on bed mattresses. If all that sounds great to you then ... 4/10

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #1: The Rising Force by Dave Wolverton
The story of Obi-Wan Kenobi as a teenager, training at the Jedi temple, hoping to become a padawan to the famed Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn. It's very short at just over 130 pages, but a nice look at Obi-Wan before he becomes the confident Jedi we see in the movies.

playing catch-up

2005-12-05T17:35:00.000+09:00

School is done for the year and now I can relax and try to catch up on some movies. I'm only a few years behind the scene I think. I've also just started watching the 1st season of Lost. It's pretty intriguing so far.

TV Review: Corner Gas - Season 2
Not quite as good as the first season but still very funny. If you liked Northern Exposure I'm sure you'll like Corner Gas.

Movie Review: Taking Lives (2004)
This movie tries very hard to be the next 'Seven'. Unfortunately it tries too hard and is much too obvious. The beginning of the movie was very surprising though. In fact, I thought I was watching the wrong DVD at first as the story was unfolding in a completely different direction than I expected. Angelina Jolie plays an FBI agent in Montreal trying to solve the case of a serial murderer. She's very sexy in the role but not very believable as a hardened law officer. 24's Kiefer Sutherland has a small role but I'm afraid that to me he will always be Jack Bauer now. He's so identifiable with his role on '24' that I find it distracting when he does anything else. 5/10

Movie Review: Monster's Ball (2001)
What an amazing movie. No wonder Halle Berry won the Oscar for best actress. What a tour-de-force by everyone involved. The movie comments on race relations but is really the story of two lonely people who undergo extreme losses before finding each other. 9/10

Movie Review: The Big Fish (2003)
A real tear-dabber from the mind of Tim Burton. A son who has only heard bigger than life tales from his father attempts to learn the truth before his father passes away. Great acting by a big, splendid cast with a touch of subtle special effects really make this movie great. 8/10

Movie Review: Dances with Wolves (Special Edition) (1990)
The 4 hour extended version of the movie that swept the 1990 Oscars, including best picture. The scenes that were cut only add to the movie and make it more enjoyable for those liked the original. We get to learn what really happened to the troops stationed at the abandoned fort, how Stands-With-Fist's husband died, and other information. This version of the film also adds a little ambiguity to Costner's character's view of his new native friends as he witnesses the grisly remains of some hapless white hunters that were slaughtered by the tribe. Alongside 'Unforgiven' I consider this one of the great modern Western films. 9.5/10

Matt Kauffman movie madness

2005-11-30T17:56:00.000+09:00

Book Review: Star Wars: Legacy of the Jedi - Judith Wilson
A common character links these stories of Jedi masters and their padawan learners. Yoda & Dooku, Dooku & Qui-Gon, Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan and Anakin. It's interesting to see Dooku as a young man and his relationship to Qui-Gon when they are both relatively young. It leads nicely into the Clone Wars and while being good overall, it isn't an exceptional read.

TV Review: 24: Season 4 I watched this again with Yukiko on DVD. Perhaps the best season of 24 yet. Most, but not all, of the annoying characters from seasons past have been dropped. Other seasons had a definitive halfway point where a completely different plot takes over but here there is one consisten story running through all the episodes. Of course there are plenty of inconsistancies and 'convenient' happenings but that is to be expected. Once again, Jack Bauer is the master of all things and must personally take responsibility for just about everything that occurs. I was kind of hoping they'd find a way to replace Kiefer Sutherland by now, or at least lessen his importance to the show, but that doesn't seem likely now. I hear rumours of a 24 movie project too. Maybe they can find someone besides Middle Eastern terrorists to use next time around.

Movie Review: Jawbreaker (1999)
My friend Matt lent this video. To me it tries really hard to be the next Heathers but it falls seriously short. 3 cool girls accidentally kill one of their friends in the middle of a birthday prank. They try to cover it up and shenanigans ensue. Pam Grier has a small, pointless part that really adds nothing to the plot. In fact it diminishes from it a little. She arrests someone even though there is direct evidence implicating someone else. She also doesn't bother asking several obvious questions to the last person to have seen the victim. The kids are all good looking and drive nice cars so it is really nothing more than an edgier version of Beverly Hills 90210. 5/10

Movie Review: My Best Friend's Birthday (1987)
The short feature at this month's movie club with Matt Kauffman. This is Tarantino's first ever film, a short film he made while working at a video rental shop in California. It's in B&W and several of the characters and situations were later reused in his screenplay 'True Romance'. Tarantino appears in the film and he is the best actor of the bunch. There is no ending to this as the final reel was apparently destroyed in a fire at some point. This little experiment isn't really noteworthy other foreshadowing Tarantino's brilliant future films.

Movie Review: Braindead (1992)
An early film by Peter Jackson. Wow, this is surely the bloodiest movie I have ever seen. Bloodier than any slasher flick, bloodier than the entire Evil Dead series combined. Not for the faint of heart. A bite from the dreaded 'rat monkey' starts off the mayhem as the victim dies and becomes a bloodthirsty zombie. More of an absurd comedy than a horror really, the final 1/3 of this movie is one big blood-soaked, lawnmower-pureed mess. 8/10

Scary Bunnies

2005-11-17T00:02:00.000+09:00

Book Review: 鉄腕アトム　Atom Boy －　手塚治虫 Osamu Tezuka
Japanese manga about the adventures of Astro Boy. The main story has him and a group of other robots fighting the evil roboids. He also beat up some punks in Mexico. It's a kids' comic so I was a little surprised at the level of violence in it. Immediately after a deadly battle where several people are killed, Astro Boy is invited to Mexico City to play. That was a little strange for me.

Movie Review: Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Mork & Mindy' (2005)
A made-for-TV movie about Robin Williams' career making role as Mork from Orc. It was pretty nostalgic seeming the classic series reenacted. The actor playing Robin Williams did a fantastic job and really pulled off Williams non-stop lunacy. The movie details how the show changed directions on the whims of the producers, Mork's beginning as a wacky guest character on Happy Days, and the tragic death of John Belushi. 7/10

Movie Review: The Brown Bunny (2003)
Before I got to the end of this film I was thinking about all the horrible things I could say about it. Such as:
it's a real road movie, half of the movie is shots of the road. The other half is shots of houses going by and static shots of his face while he's driving. Not that these weren't interesting (the music was cool too) but there was far too much of them.
Then I got to the 'infamous' oral sex scene. It was completely unerotic but what was shocking to me was what was coming out of his mouth. Yes I said HIS mouth. This meek, lonely man was suddenly throwing out horrible insults at his girlfriend. Why was he doing this. Then a major revelation occurs which completely changes the whole perspective of the film. It really blew me away. I'm sure a second viewing of the movie with this new information would completely change the experience. Unfortunately it would be pretty tedious to sit through all those driving scenes again. It was very daring for Gallo to make a movie like this where the audience really has to endure 80 mins of non-action before everything is turned on it's head. In many ways it's similar to Gus Van Sant's movie 'Gerry'.
I first heard about this movie when it premiered at the Cannes festival in 2003. Roger Ebert really panned it at the time and it was called the worst movie to ever be shown at the festival. Apparently Gallo later trimmed down about 26 mins in editing. Ebert really liked the shorter version and gave it a thumbs up. His review of the shorter version is quite interesting. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040903/REVIEWS/409020301/1023
Certainly not a movie for those lacking in patience, but a great payoff for those who can get through it. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Below (2002)
A very sub-par submarine horror. It's hard to believe that this movie was penned by Darren Arnofsky of Pi and Requiem of a Dream fame. The cast does a good job but the story is just full of plot holes that point to a weak script. For example, why would a woman who was believed to have aided a German saboteur and had been found sneaking inside the captain's quarters, be allowed to roam about the ship in such a dangerous situation. Even stranger is why the captain of the ship feels the need to, completely without reason or prompting, explain to this possible traitor the details involving the death of the former captain. That whole speech came out of nowhere. I had to watch it again because I thought I must have missed something to explain why he would suddenly reveal this information to her. 5/10
** SPOILERS **
The revelation that is the ghost of the murdered captain cursing the ship adds more questions than answers. This man was supposed to be a good captain who liked his crew and was liked in return. Why would the ghost murder the entire crew when only 3 of the officers were responsible for his death? And if the ghost was capable of manipulating physical object and using them to kill crewmembers, why didn't it just go after the 3 officers directly?

a real mixed bag

2005-11-11T17:46:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Frequency (2000)
A heart warming sci-fi/suspense mix. Stars Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel (Jesus from 'The Passion of Mel Gibson) as a father and son seperated by 30 years. Bizarre solar activity allows the two to communicate over a ham radio set. The son, a homicide detective, is able to warn his father, a firefighter, about his impending death in a warehouse fire. His father manages to survive and subsequently changes history. These changes result in a serial killer avoiding death as well, allowing him to continue his spree. The father and son try to catch the killer across 2 different times. I'm a sucker for time travel stories so I quite enjoyed this one. There are a few internal consistencies within the story's time traveling logic but it's still a good watch for sci-fi fans. 7/10

Movie Review: Something's Gotta Give (2003)
Great movie about an older man who likes to play around with younger women until he finally meets a woman his own age who is more than a match for his eccentric personality. Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton are great in the lead roles while Keanu Reeves has a nice turn as a free thinking doctor. 8/10

TV Review: Corner Gas - Season 1 (2004)
My friend Dan introduced me to this little comedy gem from Canada. It follows the lives of a few people in the small town of Dog River, Saskatchewan. With so much time on their hands they can't help but rip on each other. It's very funny but not crude. Well the episode about the world's biggest hoe was a little crude, but generally it's spic & span clean. Not as groundbreaking or controversial as Kids in the Hall but still a great watch.

Movie Review: Sin City (2005)
An amazing visual treat. The movie was filmed completely on a green screen stage, apart from the actors everything was CG. This is a very faithful adaptation of Frank Miller's comic book series, and he was given a co-director's credit due to his visual choices and style that were virtually lifted off the comic pages. It's very graphic and raw, definitely not for the easily frightened movie goer. The acting is also top notch. Mickey Rourke and Benicio Del Toro are especially good while Elijah Wood is excellent as the very quiet and subdued sicko called 'Kevin.' I was a little disappointed to read that Jessica Alba agreed to take the part of the stripper named 'Nancy' and then later refused to appear naked in the film. Nudity for the sake of nudity isn't necessary in a film, but it's an important part of her character and the environment she works in. If she was a true actress she should be willing to take on a character's role and all that it entails. Bailing out after signing onto the movie was very lame of her. 9/10

Attack of the Killer Zombies from Planet Earth

2005-11-06T19:17:00.000+09:00

Some days you just want to watch zombie movies. This was one of those days.

Movie Review: Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Best zombie movie ever. Well, 28 Days Later was great too but technically those weren't zombies. Zombies that can run are seriously scary. A group of survivors hide out in a shopping mall while thousands of zombies congregate outside. And if it's got uber dramatist Sarah Polley in it you know it has to be good. 8/10

Movie Review: Land of the Dead (2005)
This was tough to watch after just seeing Dawn of the Dead. Now we're back to slow paced stiffs who I sort of felt sorry for. This pic has 1 zombie who's a little brighter than average and organizes the zombies into an army. Their target is a fully funtioning city that acts as an oasis against the undead. The other story unfolding is a weak morality play about the corruption inside the city that is masterminded by Dennis Hopper. John Leguizamo also stars in it but for some reason I can never take him seriously, he always seems to be trying too hard. 4/10

Movie Review: Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Funniest zombie movie ever. This one was great. A bunch of beer drinking, wisecracking, farting slackers in London are so tuned out of things that they don't notice everyone around them has turned into zombies. When they finally do get a clue, they come up with a plan to get to the best possible place to hide out. That place, of course, is the local pub. Definitely a top Indie hit. 8/10

Still more movies and stuff

2005-10-28T14:55:00.000+09:00

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

2005-10-24T18:05:00.000+09:00

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

Stuff I read or watched a while ago

2005-10-13T18:25:00.000+09:00

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

From now on, pics will be in the middle

2005-08-30T03:04:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Connie & Carla (2004)
Another film from the mind of writer/actress Nia Vardalos (writer/lead actress My Big Fat Greek Wedding). This time she's teamed with, in my estimation, the top Australian actress Toni Collette. Basically, they are two going-nowhere-fast lounge singers who witness a mob killing. They leave town in a hurry and in order to make ends meet in their new city they take up singing at a nightclub. The twist is that it's a drag queen club and they must pretend to be men pretending to be women. The whole setup with the mob is pretty weak but the movie is fun with great musical acts. David Duchovny has a nice little role as well. 7/10

Movie Review: Ocean's Eleven (2001)
I've heard the sequel is not all that hot but this was fun. I'm sure the cast had a great time making it. And what a cast. The movie is just your typical heist movie and while it doesn't do anything very innovative or original it doesn't aspire to do anything other than have a good time. 7/10

Movie Review: The Real Cancun (2003)
I think this was based on the MTV show called 'The Real Life' which tries to pass off 'unscripted' footage of young 20 somethings in a million dollar house as being 'real life'. Of course with all those cameras and the knowledge that millions of people could be watching you anything but real life ensues. This movie takes 12 young guys and gals to the beaches of Cancun for 1 week of 5 star waterfront accomodation, unlimited free booze, and access to daily parties, wet t-shirt contests, etc. I'm sure everyone has had this real Cancun experience, haven't you? Of course it boils down to people pairing off, fighting over stupid things and getting upset over even stupider things. 4/10

Ray Harryhausen Film Fest

2005-07-27T00:49:00.000+09:00

The following films (featuring the old Hollywood magic stylings of Ray Harrhausen) were shown recently on NHK2.

Movie Review: Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

I thought this would be fun to watch with Yukiko so she could see where my name came from. However, the Japanese subtitles always had the name 'Jason' pronounced as 'Yason'. This is probably the correct Greek pronunciation but now Yukiko has taken to calling me Yason. I'm sure this was a special f/x marvel when it debuted but it is awfully dated now. Wouldn't want to have been in Harryhausen's shoes when he did the animation though. Apparently he could only complete 1/2 second of animation footage a day. Hercules was far too skinny too. I think I could have kicked his ass. 6/10

Movie Review: One Million Years BC (1966)

A beautiful, curvy Raquel Welch is the only thing going for this movie. Back in the days when primitive man + woman walked the earth, danger abounded. Be it from lack of food, cataclysmic earthquakes, hungry dinosaurs, or giant spiders. Yes, giant spiders. Add to this the challenge of having no language and you've got a movie filled with grunts that convey the entire spectrum of human feelings. Luckily none of the hapless characters had any trouble finding hair or skin products as everyone looked perfectly groomed all the time. Fun for 1 viewing as long as you swear never to watch it again. 4/10

Movie Review: Clash of the Titans (1981)

As a wee lad I was really into Greek mythology so I have a sweet spot in my heart for this movie. I remember seeing it in the theatre with my brother when it first appeared. Surprisingly, except for some weak special effects, it still holds up very well after all these years. And how couldn't it hold up, what with all the gods of Olympus, Medusa, the Stygian witches, Calibos and the unforgettable Kracken. I'd somehow forgotten the mechanical robot that Athena gives Perseus in the second act, but after watching the movie again I understand why. A highly advanced robot just doesn't fit in with the rest of the story. 7/10

Japan-centric Films

2005-07-27T00:47:00.000+09:00

All 3 of these films were viewed at Matt Kauffman's monthly Japan-File film night in Osaka. Worth going to if you like seeing obscure Japan related movies.

Movie Review: Death Ride to Osaka
Jennifer Jason Leigh stars in this old 1983 made-for-TV movie. They must have jazzed up the home video version though because there a few topless dancer scenes included here. Supposedly based on a true story, a naive American girl signs up with a Japanese hostess club with hopes of jump starting her singing career. It only takes a short time to learn that she's not just there to sing, but to provide company for slimy, rich, old Japanese men. Any girls who resist the management receive a transfer to Osaka, never to be seen again. It's pretty campy but according to all-knowing Matt this movie caused a virtual panic in America after it was shown and the number of young women bound for Tokyo dwindled to nearly nothing. 5/10

Movie Review: Tokyo Pop
Young American singer heads to Japan with dreams of making it big. And she does, but realized she is just the most recent flavour of the month. I thought Carrie Hamilton (daughter of Princess Leia) did a really good job and her voice was very good. Sad to hear that her career didn't really go anywhere after this starring role and that she died of cancer a few years ago. 7/10

Movie Review: Tokyo Cowboy
A lonely, cowboy enthusiast Tokyoite goes to rural Canada in search of the cowgirl pen pal he wrote to as a teenager. He arrives only to find out that she's not interested in him at all. In fact she's not interested in men at all. Her mother, who he stays with, is in denial about the whole thing. Our Tokyo cowboy then falls in love with his pen pal's roommate/girlfriend and she shows some feelings for him too. Quite complicated for a simple culture clash film this movie felt like a precursor to Lost in Translation. 6/10

New Movies

2005-07-27T00:44:00.000+09:00

Actually got the chance to see a bunch of new movies at the theatre recently. Besides the new Star Wars I was able to see:

Movie Review: The Ring 2
Definitely not as good nor as scary as the first Ring movie. Luckily it was better than the Japanese Ringu 2 which changed the killer into a virus of some sort. Apart from a few shock moments which were lifted straight from the previous Ring this one didn't have any real scary moments. The ending looked promising as it appeared that the mother may have to kill her son to save him (which would have been very powerful) but of course the movie bailed on that for the happy ending. I also don't understand why every kid in horror films these days has to try to recreate the Sixth Sense kid's personality. 5/10

Movie Review: Batman Begins
Finally, the Batman movie I've been waiting for. A darker, scarier version of the man in the mask and black cape. No nipple guards on the suit this time around. While he is definitely super haman, he is not superhuman. After each clash with criminals he looks like he's been through the meat grinder and must try to hide the bruises. What surprised me most was the humour throughout the film which worked perfectly. Morgan Freeman, as Batman's weapon designer, gave some of the best lines of the movie. My only disappointment in the film was how Bruce Wayne went through some kind of ninja training in the Himalayas. A little hokey, and not in line with the comic book character, but it explains his abilities pretty well. 9/10

Movie Review: War of the Worlds
As this was a Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise production I wasn't expecting anything too earth shattering. Perhaps that's why I was as pleased as I was. Going in with low expectations can make a movie more enjoyable. Told entirely from Tom Cruise's character's P.O.V. was an interesting choice and really connects the audience to him. The audience is just as curious about what is going on as he is. The CG was excellent and Dakota Fanning, who plays Cruise's daughter, really steals the show. 8/10

More Star Wars Madness

2005-07-27T00:11:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Star Wars: Clone Wars
The animated adventures of Obi-Wan, Anakin and friends. Roughly 2 hours in length, this series began on the Cartoon Network as a series of 5 min short episodes divided into 2 seasons. I didn't like the 'Samurai Jack' style of animation at first but it grew on me. The first series just shows a series of battles and situations from the Clone Wars. There's lots of action and we get to see close up how powerful the Jedi are and how adept the Clone Troopers are at fighting. Unlike the movies, here the Jedi have near god-like powers and are seemingly undefeatable. Compare the scene in Episode II when a group of nearly 100 Jedi are surrounded and nearly defeated by the Droid army to the episode here when Mace Windu, alone and without his lightsaber, defeats a much larger of robots with little difficulty. Amazing to watch but the animated Jedi seem to be on a different power scale here. The 2nd part of the series is the best part and it ties really well into Revenge of the Sith. Anakin is put through his final trial and officially becomes a Jedi Knight. General Grievous is introduced and after seeing him whip some Jedi ass the story finishes with the Robot armies attacking Coruscant and kidnapping Chancellor Palpatine. This of course is where Revenge of the Sith starts so it almost necessary viewing to fully understand the story. 8.5/10

Movie Review: Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
Definitely the best of the new trilogy. Prequels are a tricky thing because while the audience knows what will eventually happy (in the sequels) there is plenty of room for a film maker to flesh out details and add things that will change how we perceive future events. That's exactly what Lucas did here and I think he did it well. It's very ironic that Anakin eventually crosses to the dark side for love. However, once his original incentive is gone it's a bit of a mystery why he doesn't revert back. The real weakness of this movie was the romantic dialogue between Anakin and Padme. Some of it just stunk. And not a mildly annoying stink but a 2 month old, moldy tuna sandwich kind of stink. While I'd expect this from Lucas (there were real clunker lines in Episode II) Tom Stoppard is credited with helping, if not rewriting, a lot of the dialogue. Tom Stoppard is one of my favourite playwrights, it's pretty hard to believe that the author Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, and Shakespeare in Love could come up with this drivel. It's also interesting to see that Ron Frick is given a cinematography credit. 8.5/10

Movie Review: Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi (DVD Special Edition)
Someone recommended I watch this one after seeing the new part 3 so that I would have a better understanding of Vader's sacrifice at the end when he decides to save Luke and kill the Emperor. That was a good call. I wonder know if Vader was really trying when he fought Luke here. He defeated him easily in Episode V, but was outmatched here. Vader was supposed to be the most powerful Jedi of all but here he loses to Luke who's only had minimal training. The major change in this DVD version is the fact that Hayden Christensen's body is superimposed over the original Anakin Skywalker actor at the end of the movie when Yoda and Obi-Wan make their final bow. I know that Lucas did this to tie the two trilogies together but it really doesn't make much sense. If Anakin had redeemed himself in order to appear alongside the other Jedi again why wouldn't he show up as he was when he died? 8/10

Star Wars madness

2005-07-26T10:05:00.001+09:00

Movie Review: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (DVD Version)
No need to talk about this movie much, but this is my first time watching the new DVD version. Many people are complaining about how George Lucas keeps tinkering away with his movies. While I tend to agree that once a movie is released the creator should move onto other projects I don't have too big a problem with Lucas making small changes. JRR Tolkien revised a chapter of his first novel, The Hobbit, to make it fit with his second project, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it was a great improvement. My real problem with Lucas is that he keeps making changes and says that he intends to keep doing so in the future. Sounds a bit like Microsoft and their security problems doesn't it? When will it be finally finished? This seems like a money grabbing scam because he knows all his die hard fans will buy every edition he makes so he keeps stringing them along. What most of them are clamoring for are DVD's of the original, unmodified films. Lucas refuses to release them. When the Special Edition videotapes of the trilogy were released, with new scenes, music, characters, etc, it was advertised as the 'definitive' Star Wars. Turns out not to be the case. The new DVD edition contains a few small changes. Jabba the Hutt has been re-coloured to more resemble the Phantom Menace version of himself. And the infamous 'Han Solo vs Gweedo' duel has been redone again. The ending, while exciting, still is pretty confusing though. Knowing that she is being tracked, Princess Leia still leads the Empire straight to the hidden rebel base. A great animated short about this can be seen at howitshouldhaveended.com . Still very fun though. 8/10

Movie Review: The Star Wars Holiday Special
Possibly the worst thing I've ever seen. It was a real ordeal to sit through this monstrosity. The story about this treasure is this, as a build up to the original release of Empire Strikes Back this TV special was made unleashed on the public. It was universally hated and Lucas has never allowed it to be broadcast again or distributed. The rumour is that he tried to buy every negative of the show and destroy it. There are still copies floating around the net and on Ebay though.
The story goes as such, Chewbacca is trying to get back to his home planet to celebrate Life Day. He and Han Solo are having troubles with Imperial forces though. So most of the story revolves around Chewie's family at their house. His family includes his wife Malla, father Itchy, and son Lumpy. And no, I'm not making this up. The first 10 mins of the show follows the family around their living room as they grunt, make awkward gestures, and generally do nothing. 10 mins! The original cast all make appearances, luckily brief ones. However Princess Leia has to sing a song with the wookies and it is painful to watch. There were also plenty of guest stars doing comedy, singings songs, etc... I couldn't help but feel for the members of Jefferson Starship as they appeared in a real cheesy number. You can find out more about this pile of Gungan doodo at the unofficial Star Wars Holiday Special web site. 1/10

Movie Review: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (DVD Version)
A couple of obvious changes here. First of all, in the scene where Darth Vader talks to the Emperor, Ian McDermid (Palpatine from the new trilogy) has been inserted as the Emperor. Also, the dialogue has been changed so that the Emperor informs Vader that the young rebel who destroyed the Death Star is the son of Anakin Skywalker. Still the best of the bunch. 9/10

Movie Review: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
At least Jar-Jar Brinks was a horribly conceived CG character. What was Jake Lloyd's excuse? Actually I can't blame the kid too much. That was all Lucas' doing. The DVD shows the final kids selected for the role of Anakin and there was 1 boy who seemed great. He actually had a bit of a dark side to him. His readings were great too. Unfortunately Lucas picked the worst of the bunch. The Jedi fight with Darth Maul saved the movie. I wasn't too impressed with all the droids either. Seems like Lucas is steering away from showing humans dying as he did in the original trilogy. Methinks he is getting a wee bit soft. I didn't like the whole midiclorines thing too. Makes the force more of a scientific, measurable force than a mystical one as it was in the original trilogy. 6.5/10

Movie Review: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Stupid name but pretty good movie. Less Jar-Jar and more Jedi makes me happy. Some real clunky dialogue between Anakin and Padme but seeing Yoda in action more than makes up for that. Great to see Christopher Lee in such a strong role too. Between the new Star Wars trilogy and the Lord of the Rings trilogy he has landed some great villain roles recently. Samuel L Jackson just rocks as Mace Windu too. His purple lightsabre is super funky. 8/10

2005-07-13T14:57:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
Caught this one on the NKH movie channel. It's been so long since I first saw it that I figured perhaps I could be more objective now than when it was first released to such bad press but big money. Despite the bad accents, hokey history and unrealistic battles this movie is pretty fun. Alan Rickman definitely steals the show. What's with Costner using a stunt-butt for his swimming scene? 6/10

Movie Review: Silmido
South Korea's top grossing movie of all time. Based on the true story of a collection of criminals that are turned into a highly trained military team of killers with only 1 mission; to kill the North Vietnamese leader. It's pretty well done but the jingoism gets a little too much. It's like a Korean version of a Michael Bay movie, lots of flag waving and nationalistic songs. 7/10

Movie Review: Team America: World Police
Trey Parker's latest opus. Thunderbirds meets South Park. A team of highly trained international agents battles terrorism at home and abroad with no regard for civilians, national monuments, political correctness, etc... All done with marionettes. For fans of South Park and people not offended easily. Puppet sex has never looked better. The soundtrack is hilarious too. 7.5/10

Movie Review: Fubar
My friend Dan showed me this little gem. I didn't know anything about it going in except that it was a small budget Canadian movie. It's a mockumentary about 2 hard rocking, hard drinking guys in a small town that are blissfully unaware of the rut they are stuck in. A little drama enters the picture when 1 of them develops testicular cancer but surprisingly the humour remains. A great little film and a classic presentation of 'traditional' Canadianese. 7.5/10

Comic Review: Star Wars: Fall of the Sith Empire
This is the big story that 'Golden Age of the Sith' led up to. Unfortunately it wasn't very exciting. The Sith's armada follows Jori Doragon's hyperspace trail back to the Republic where the invasion begins. It seems that the Sith Lord's main power is to cast illusions that make his forces seem greater than they are. Once his spell is broken, which happens because of an unbelievably large oversight, the Sith are easily defeated. Too easily. They weren't even able to conquer small worlds. Besides this major fault there is an important inconsistancy with the earlier series. In the previous series Jori escapes the Sith Empire with the aid of the Sith lord. She was on very friendly terms with him and unaware of his plans to invade the Republic. However this series begins with Jori desperately trying to warn the Republic of the coming invasion. It's never explained how she learned of this. The story ends with a Sith Lord being sent into exile and setting up a base on a moon of Yavin, which will be the Rebel base in Star Wars Episode IV. That's a neat tie-in.

2005-07-12T18:03:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: Resident Evil: Apocalypse

About as dumb as the first one, no wait, a little bit dumber. At least the first one didn't have girls riding motorcyles off of big ramps, jumping off, and nailing various creatures with pinpoint accuracy as she fires her two pistols while flipping safely to the ground. The movie started out a little better as the events from the first film cause the inhabitants of Raccoon City to panic and try to leave the city limits only to be stopped by the Umbrella Corp's private army. This was reminiscent of the old Dawn of the Dead movies, but then it just got unbelievably stupid. Even Milla Jovovich's pointless, tacked on semi-nude scenes couldn't save this one. 6/10

Movie Review: National Treasure

What happened to Nicolas Cage? Didn't he used to appear in good films? Is he really desperate for money or what? Sean Bean is about the only redeeming thing in this national disgrace. It blatantly tries to cash in on the popularity of the book DaVinci Code. Cage deciphers old Templar writings and gleams that the secret of the legendary Templar treasure is revealed on the back of the American Constitution. So they have to steal it, before the bad guys do. The stupidity is pretty thick at times and it can be pretty hard to get through. Example in point, the film opens with Nicolas Cage and friends somewhere in the Arctic Circle looking for a ship that was lost hundreds of years ago. Based on the last known location of the boat, according to documents, and deducing the rate of ice accumulation and movement, the boat should be just about here they say. Of course it only takes Nic Cage one dig with the shovel before he hits something. And what does he find? Well it's the ship's bell with the name of the missing boat clearly labelled. How convenient. Most would probably think it woud be more difficult to find under all that snow and ice. Well you'd be wrong! And I hear there's going to be a sequel. Shudder. 6/10

Movie Review: Saw

2 men wake up, trapped in a small, dirty room. They are chained to the walls. A bloody, dead body lies between them. They have to get out. Very interesting premise to the movie and it is done pretty well. A little too heavy on the flashbacks though. Sometimes they are so long that you forget about the protagonists completely. I also found it a little difficult to accept Cary Elwes in a serious, dramatic role. He's from Princess Bride and Men in Tights for gooness sake. I always wanted to laugh at him. 7/10

Movie Review: American Splendor

Based on the real comic book writer Harvey Pekar's comic books and life, this is a great film. With comic book frames neatly integrated into the film it really synthesizes the two mediums well. I hadn't heard of Pekar before this film but he is a really interesting person, as are the assorted zanies he knows who worked their way into his comics and this movie. Definitely worth seeing. 8/10

Bunch of movie reviews

2005-07-05T19:20:00.000+09:00

Movie Review: The Long and Short of It
This is a short film presented on the Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers DVD, extended version. It was directed by Sean Astin (Sam) and the cast and crew are all various people from the LOTR production. The story is very simple, with no dialogue, about a very tall man and a very short woman helping an average sized man put a poster on a wall. Then they all board a bus together. That's it. I don't consider it a film but more of an exercise in film making. Probably very good practice for the crew in terms of film making, but not very rewarding for an audience to see. In fact I enjoyed the short 'making of' video a lot more. 5/10

Movie Review: Triplets of Belleville

This is a really bizarre French/Canadian animation about an old woman, an old dog, and her son who is kidnapped during the Tour de France race. There is absolutely no dialogue and the story is told entirely by music and images. And what strange images they are, this is no Disney flic. Everyone is drawn in very distorted shapes. The cyclists have gigantic, muscular legs. The dog is basically all muzzle. Centainly interesting for anyone who likes animation. 6/10

Movie Review: Music of the Heart

Meryl Streep, Angela Basset and a fine cast of kids do a great job in this based-on-a-true-story film about a music teacher who turns around inner-city kids' lives with violins. Even I felt a tear swelling as the kids got to play in Carnegie Hall with all the violin professionals. And this was all done by Wes Craven, the master of horror. You have to see it to believe it. 9/10

Movie Review: The Flintstones

Many years after the fact I have finally watched this movie. Got it from a used DVD shop for 400 yen. Hopefully I can get half that back when I return it. What a waste, this movie has a great cast and it is all wasted. John Goodman and Rock Moranis are hilarious, and it even has Twin Peaks' Kyle MClachlan to boot. They certainly spent lots of money on the production so it's a mystery as to why they didn't care about the script. The story is awful, and a 3 year could predict the ending. Not even die hard Flintstones fan will like this stone age mockery. I just hope the big screen version of the Simpsons, coming soon, is nothing like this. 4/10

Bunch of book reviews

2005-06-29T23:46:00.000+09:00

Book Reviews:

The Blair Witch - Comic
Nothing here which hadn't already been told in the first movie and the much better done 'Blair Witch Dossier' book. Supposedly a young man got lost in the same forest where the movie happens and when he emerges he has basically gone crazy. While institutionalized he draws a series of bizarre pictures and stories which are the basis of this comic book. At least it was short and a quick read.

Star Wars: Golden Age of the Sith
Pretty disappointing. Didn't capture the Star Wars feel at all. And for a series entitled the Golden Age of the Sith we really didn't get to see much of the Sith's supposed glory. In fact, the most interesting part of this entire series was a short history of the Sith in the first pages which explained where the Sith came from (which is really what I wanted to know). Apparently long before even this story (which is supposed to be 5000 years before Star Wars: A New Hope) there was a long conflict between Jedi. The defeated Dark Jedi fled across the galaxy to a primitive planet populated by a people known as the Sith. These Sith revered the Dark Jedi as gods and were cross bred with them. So that's where the 'Sith' came from. The actual story in this series is about a brother and sister who inadvertently stumble across the Sith empire and are tricked into showing them the way to the Old Republic, and then it ends. Really this series is nothing more than a lead-in to the next series which I'll review later.

The Messianic Legacy - Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln
Weak follow up to 'Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.' This one focuses more on the Priore de Sion organization as it is today. However, the number of false documents and child-like behaviour on the PS's side lead me to believe the current incarnation is nothing but a hoax.

Old Tales of Japan - Yuri Yasuda
Much like the original Grimm Brothers' stories, these were far scarier than I would have thought kids' stories should be. Some of the 'cuter' moments include: a sparrow's tongue being cut with scissors; a badger killing an old woman then cutting her up, putting her into a soup and eating her; a dog being bludgeoned to death with a shovel. These stories seemed to have been Disneyized lately though because when I mentioned these things to my Japanese friends they didn't know all the horrible details.

The Riemann Hypthesis: The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics - Karl Sabbagh
And I thought I was a nerd, these guys take the cake, then divide it by the inverse square root of the sum of 3 imaginary acute angles. While the equations were very dense, and there were quite a few of them, the stories about the various mathematicians working on this problem were fascinating. It's amazing to consider that so many brilliant people are devoting so much time to a problem that may be unsolveable.

The Simpsons and Philosophy - William Irwin
Heavy on philosophy, light on Simpsons. While it was very well written I found that the essays based on philosophers I was more familiar with weren't very interesting. The essay on Bart and Nietzche was excellent though. However, I'm very interested in Nietzche but haven't read that many of his works so that may explain it. More geared for readers looking for an introduction to general philosophy than Simpsons fans looking for a laugh.

The Great Switcheroo pt 2

2005-06-27T19:24:00.000+09:00

Okey dokey, here are the remaining reviews from 2005 up to the present.

May 2005:

Movie Review: The Pianist

There's a reason why Polanski's movie was nominated and won so many Oscars, it's plain excellent. About a Jewish classical pianist living in Warsaw during WWII, this is a harrowing tale of pain & suffering. For me it completes a triumverate of amazing Holocaust movies; Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful, and now, the Pianist. 9/10

Movie Review: Shall We Dansu?
The original Japanese version. Beautiful in it's simplicity, a Japanese salariman goes looking for love but finds it inside a pair of shoes, his own. No I'm not talking about shoe gnomes but ballroom dancing. 9/10

April 2005:

Movie Review: Hellboy
I've never read the comic book that this movie is based on but I sure hope it is better than the film. Apart from the fine Hellboy costume I don't have much praise for it. The story begins with the Nazis attempting to make contacts with some H.P. Lovecraftish, Cthulhu demons who will destroy the world. How this will help the Nazis out I don't know. Anyways, they are foiled by a crack troop of American GI's (of course) but not before one small, red demon baby comes through the gateway. Jump to the present this demon baby has grown up into a big cigar smoking, crime fighting demon. Oh and the same Nazis are still around too. Very disappointing. 5/10

Movie Review: Constantine
I saw this one at the theatre with my friend Dan. I think he liked it more than me though. I read that everyone was comparing this movie to the Matrix so I was expecting something pretty good. But, as with Hellboy, I was pretty disappointed. The story, a man named Constantine (I can't see any connection to the Roman Emperor of the same name) knows he can't enter Heaven as he attempted suicide at one point in his life. He also fights half-breed demons who are attempting to change the balance of good/evil on Earth. The hokey ending was bad enough for me, but I can't help but cringe when I see anti-demon automatic weapon he uses. Not quite as bad as the one used in Van Helsing but a close second. Keanu Reeves character was completely unsympathetic so I really didn't care what happened to him. That and the numerous short jaunts to Hell (despite his stated fear of the place) really got tiring. Hey, it only took me 5 months to see my first movie of 2005, off to a slow pace this year. 6/10

Movie Reviews: My Big Fat Greek Life
The short lived TV sitcome based on the hit movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Featuring all the same cast, with the notable exception of the movie husband, this show only lasted 7 episodes. Sure it follows the typical TV sitcom formula but it is still pretty good. Perhaps because Yukiko and I are a young, international-marriage couple we could sympathize with the characters a little more than most. SCTV alum Andrea Martin really steals the show. 7/10

Movie Reviews: Cradle 2 the Grave
I only watched this one because I knew it had several UFC fighters in it. Even their scenes were painful to watch though. The plot - stolen diamonds, a kung fu cop who ends up with the most unlikely of partners, poorly choreographed cage fights, stupid offroad bike stunts. Yes it's all here! The only thing I took out of this movie is the realization that my friend Toshimitsu really looks like Jet Li. It's uncanny. 5/10

Movie Reviews: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Based on the life of TV game show guru Chuck Barris who besides creating; the Dating Game, the Newlywed Game, and hosting the Gong show, claims to have been a CIA hitman. Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by George Clooney this movie really drew me in. The off-camera antics of the game show contestants is pretty hilarious and a lot of original clips are used. Do I believe that Barris was a CIA hitman who killed 30 people while chaparoning his dating game winners? Not for a second, but it makes for a great story. 8/10

Book Review: Appleseed
OK, not really a book but a manga review. I saw the movie version of Appleseed some months ago with my friend Dan and we were both confused. It contained the key Japanese anime elements of transforming robots, mysterious energy sources and young women in mini-skirts. Apart from these things we couldn't understand what was going on. Well, we saw it in a theatre in Japanese with no English subtitles so perhaps it was just our lingual deficiency holding us back. So procurred the English language translation of the original Japanese manga in hopes of discovering what I was missing. Apparently nothing. This 4-volume, 3000 pg or so manga really had no coherent storyline whatsoever. I'm sure I understood the whole thing better before I even started reading it.

Movie Review: Where the Heart Is
A poor, pregnant teen is abandoned by her redneck boyfriend outside of a Wal-Mart where she is forced to secretly live until her baby is born. I figured the movie would probably just stick around here a la Career Opportunities but it didn't. It went on to show the girl grow up into a young woman confronting her fears, new careers, her good-for-nothing-leave-you-at-Walmart ex-boyfriend, and even a tornado. Actually I think the movie should have spent focused a little bit more on her time at Walmart because while it didn't seem like a long time it is explained later that she lived there for months. And she didn't just live there, she took full advantage of the food court, exercise and camping equipment. I don't buy the fact that she was never discovered by the staff that stocks the store at night during the whole time she was there. Natalie Portman does a much better job here than she does in the latest Star Wars trilogy but that's probably because she has a much more interesting character to portray and she isn't bogged down by Jar-Jar. 6/10

Movie Review: Shark Tale
Coming out so soon after 'Finding Nemo' this movie is always going to be unfavorably compared to it. And while it's a fine film on it's own it pales next to Nemo. The story, a smart mouthed little fish from the bottom of the reef befriends the vegetarian, pacifist shark son of the mafia shark family. Pretty predictable story with some nice 'comment on society' gags but that's about it. Will Smith and Robert Deniro do a pretty decent job with their characters but what happened to Jack Black? He is one of my favourite comedians but I hardly recognized him here. Did he just phone in his lines or what? In this day of digital recording I suppose he could have. 7/10

Movie Review: Collateral
A philosophically inclined hitman hires a stuck-in-a-rut taxi driver to assist him for 1 night's work. Another great piece from director Michael Mann that is quite similar to his previous film 'Heat'. Taking the cue from Heat where one of the most dramatic scenes involves the 2 stars Deniro and Pacino talking over coffee, this film has the 2 stars locked in conversation together for nearly the entire film. And it works. And while it's no 'My Dinner with Andre' it's pretty captivating stuff. Hopefully Jamie Foxx will be as good as Tubbs in Mann's upcoming remake of 'Miami Vice'. 8/10

March 2005:

Joseph Campbell - Oriental Mythology
Fascinating look at the interconnectedness of several Eastern Mythologies and religions.

Jack Kerouac - On the Road
Best travel story I've ever read. Sure a lot of the slang is out of date but I felt like I was in the car with these guys. First Kerouac book I've ever read, but definitely not the last.

Michael Ondaatje - The English Patient
Very different from the movie. Not only includes an extra character, and Italian thief, but tells 1 story for each of the main characters, whereas the movie only focused on the English Patient's tale. Great read. I especially enjoyed reading about Kip, the sapper, and his stories of disarming mines.

Dan Brown - Angels & Demons
Certainly no Kerouac, but a great plot. A Harvard symbologist must match wits with the illustrious and shadowy Illuminati to save the papacy. Great for conspiracy buffs.

Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code
Better written than his previous outing (A & D) but I wasn't as impressed with the plot. Perhaps because this was mostly lifted from the pages of 'The Holy Blood & the Holy Grail'. The stuff about the Divine Proportion was great though. I hadn't heard of that.

Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln - The Holy Blood & the Holy Grail.
What a coincidence, I was in the middle of re-reading this when I got to Dan Brown's stuff. I was a little more skeptical this time around but it is still a great investigative effort. The research these guys put into the book is very impressive. I won't give out the main details here for anyone who is interested in reading 'The Da Vinci Code' or seeing the movie that is due out sometime with Tom Hanks. One of their more interesting propositions is that the infamous 'Protocols of Zion' document in fact has nothing to do with any Jewish conspiracy but instead is a document about the Priore de Sion.

Carl Sagan - The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence.
Interesting multi-discipline look at human evolution. His ideas on the evolution of right handedness are very interesting. It is very dated though. For example, he mentions that the new video game 'Pong' is an example of how computers can teach abstract scientific principles such as Newtonian gravity.

Movie Review: Das Boot
The 3 1/2 hour Director's Cut. Story of German U-Boaters and their hardships at sea during the War. Life inside a small, cramped submarine for months at a time certainly wasn't nice. Not to mention all the guys trying to sink you. Remarkable for the fact that this film was made entirely in German, yet all the cast were able to dub their own lines in English for the international version. 8/10

Movie Review: The Ring
American version of classic Japanese horror movie. While it had some definite 'shock' moments, this one has nothing on the Japanese original. 7/10

Movie Review: Scary Movie 3
Lucky timing. This movie is a great spoof of the Ring, Signs, and 8 Mile. As it's directed by David Zucker (of Airplane, and the Naked Gun series fame) how could it not be good. This kind of gag comedy seems to be the only thing Charlie Sheen can pull off these days. Oh how long ago Platoon and Wall Street were, weren't they Charlie? 7/10

Movie Review: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Based on a series of childrens' books that I'd never read nor heard of before. 3 kids' parents die in a fire and must go to live with a rather, shall we say, eccentric relative. Jim Carrey is great in the lead role. I found him hilarious and probably kids do too. John Cleese is very funny in a supporting as a snake expert. 7/10

Movie Review: The Terminal
Found this movie very 'Gumpish'. Sweet, funny talking guy finds himself in a bad situation and meets the woman of his dreams. I liked it though. Based on a true story, a man from a non-descript Eastern European country becomes confined to JFK airport after a revolution in his country invalidates his passport. He learns to live very comfortably at the airport and makes many friends along the way. 7/10

Movie Review: Finding Neverland
Based on the life of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie. Once again Johnny Depp does a good job this role didn't seem to demanding. He was basically just looking happy and starry eyed most of the time. The kids were the real treat. The boy playing 'Peter', Freddie Highmore, was fantastic and showed a wide range of emotions. It's nice to see that he won a few awards for his performance. 8/10

Movie Review: Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow
Along with Sin City and a few others, this is considered one of the first fully digital, live action movies. Apart from the actors everything was done via blue screen. So the film looks very good for the most part. It captures the feel of the old Flash Gordon style serials very well. It is really reminiscent of 50's sci-fi, big robots, clunky laser beams, and damsels in distress. The story was as clunky as the laser beams though and I quickly lost interest in it. 5/10

Movie Review: Alfie
Ugh, a Jude law double bill. What was I thinking? Anyways, this movie is based on a completely original notion: let's have a young, randy playboy discover that a string of meaningless sexual encounters will leave him feeling empty and alone. Apart from the original 'Alfie' starring Michael Caine this idea has never been shown on the big screen before. Fortunately the many women who he meets along the way were interesting characters to distract me from the blandness that was Alfie. 6/10

Movie Review: Taxi
God in heaven I hope the original Luc Besson film is better than this piece of crap. Bad movie, bad movie! Supposed to be a comedy but the only time I laughed was at the very beginning when a helmeted, acrobatic bike courier was revealed to be Queen Latifah. The story, if it can be called that, is that a cop investigating a series of bank robberies (involving beautiful Brazilian models who also happen to be racing drivers) can't drive. Enter Queen Latifah, the ex-bike courier who has just started her taxi driving career. She dreams of being a Nascar driver and somehow had the money to super charge her taxi into the fastest car on the planet. Not only that, but the taxi appears to be normal. With the push of a button all the special features emerge, a-la James Bond. A very generous 3/10

Movie Review: Keeping the Faith

Caught this one on late night TV. Romantic triangle involving a Catholic priest, a Rabbi, and the 'Dharma' from Dharma & Greg. Sounds dumb but I enjoyed it. Nice to see Ben Stiller in a dramatic role too. 7/10

Movie Review: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Finally watched the new extended DVD version. With 50 additional minutes the movie's running time clocks in at nearly 47 hours. With all the documentaries and extras it should take me about 14 years to get through it all. I love the new scenes. The death of Saruman, while very different from the book, was great. If you're a LOTR nerd like me you'll love it. Otherwise, save half your remaining life and give it a pass. 10/10

Movie Review: Kung Fu Hustle

The 2nd film I've seen from Hong Kong director Stephen Chow. This one bears a strong resemblence to his last work, Shaolin Soccer. They are both kung fu action/comedies with lots of outrageous CG effects. The story is very weak but the effects are outstanding. 7/10

Movie Review: Trois Couleurs: Bleu

The first of Kieslowski's 3 Colour Trilogy, representing the 3 colours of the French national flag. The first film involves a woman who's daughter and famous, composer husband have just died. Finding herself suddenly independent she tries to disappear into normal society but old friends and her husband's unfinished work keep calling. 8/10

Movie Review: Trois Couleurs: Blanc

I saw this one as somewhat of a comedy. A Polish immigrant's French wife leaves him when he can't perform in bed. On top of this he loses all his money and his passport. He is forced to return to Poland hiding in a suitcase, only to be 'stolen' from the airport and beaten up by a gang of disappointed thieves. Having hit rock bottom he comes up with an ingenious plan to turn him into a successful business man so he can exact his revenge on his ex-wife. 8/10

Movie Review: Trois Couleurs: Rouge

A model hits a dog with her car. She looks for the injured dog's owner only to find out he is a retired judge that is using eavesdropping equipment to listen in on his neighbours phone calls. This strange set of circumstances leads to a beautiful friendship and a fantastic resolution that involves the 6 main characters from each of the trilogy's films. I was saddened to read that the director died shortly after completing the trilogy. They were great films and I reccomend them to anyone who doesn't mind reading subtitles or can understand French. 9/10

Movie Review: Mission to Mars
Basically a remake of Kubrick's 2001 except it's nowhere near as good. Even the great cast can't save this clunker. 4/10

Movie Review: City by the Sea
Crime drama with Robert Deniro and the young guy who played Harry Osborne in Spiderman as his son. Deniro is a cop and his estranged son is wanted for murder. This movie is well done but quite slow paced and depressing. 6/10

Movie Review: Analyze That
The 2nd half of my Deniro double header evening. Enjoyable but not as funny as its predecessor as the jokes start to wear thin. 7/10

February 2005:

Movie Review: Ali G indahouse
Hilarious British comedian Ali G's first feature film. Yes it's pretty dumb but it provides lots of non stop jokes. Ali G, a rapper wannabe from the 'ghetto' of Staines and Langley Village rises to become Britain's newest MP. Predictable jokes about class differences abound but they are done in a clever and cheeky way. 7/10

The Mojo Dojo

Movies from last year pt 1

Odds & Ends

Robert Altman: The Later Years

Doin' the Time Warp

Robert Altman: The Middle Years

Strange Stories

Robert Altman: The Early Years

Peaking

International Shenanigans

Sean Penn film festival

The best movies I saw in 2006

Worst movies I saw in 2006

Roads less traveled

Movie menage

People with Problems

Superheroes

Fun on the water

And you think your parents are nuts!

Super duper ladies

Dogs, Coolers and Minds

Furious Grimm Lord

Boondock Saints - the whole story

Superheroes

She blinded me with science...

Assault on old boy on fire

War of the Worlds

Petty problems?

The toils of women

That darn Bush!

Daylight swing pirates

Waiting for famous hitchhikers

A mixed bag of nuts

Looking for love, and diamonds.

A good old Lynching

Strange Mix

Not Without My [Son or] Daughter

Adam Sandler Film Festival

Can old TV shows become good movies?

A little Lynch

New Simpsons Movie!

Great little Blue Velvet spoof

The Will Ferrell Film Festival

A Taste of Magic

Extreme Danger

These are not travel guides.

Put Up Your Dukes

More Movies for the New Year

The Best Movies of 2005

The Worst Movies of 2005

A crude Christmas

Mountains, Prairies, and Rock & Roll

"I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert."

Meddling with Muggles

playing catch-up

Matt Kauffman movie madness

Scary Bunnies

a real mixed bag

Attack of the Killer Zombies from Planet Earth

Still more movies and stuff

Even more movies and stuff

More stuff I read and watched a while ago.

Stuff I read or watched a while ago

From now on, pics will be in the middle

Ray Harryhausen Film Fest

Japan-centric Films

New Movies

More Star Wars Madness

Star Wars madness

Bunch of movie reviews

Bunch of book reviews

The Great Switcheroo pt 2