I don't remember a movie whose visual effects are of the scale of 2012, and only King Kong's are superior; The early scenes are much fun, with nice superficial touches reminiscent of Transformers; The whole thing is dragged by some family drama as well as an uninteresting John Cusack; Me loves the designs of the arks, and the 'chase' scenes, all an excuse to showcase the extravaganza that is the effects, are pure fun.
The first scene of Inglourious Basterds is top-class, for the performance of the weary farmer when forced to make an unpleasant choice, the sort where I feel self-death is better; Brad Pitt is quite limited in terms of talent but not charisma; Quentin Tarantino is a weirdo who possesses the freedom (perhaps too much) to paint whatever he pleases on screen, and luckily got the talent.
05 December 2009
01 December 2009
poll results for FLOSS favourites
23 October 2009
FLOSS and football
I just read an interesting analogy between FLOSS projects and soccer clubs with emphasis on what the former can learn from the latter. This is the sort of thing that isn't so obvious, and therefore eye-opening, alerting one that there's so much out there that FLOSS communities can learn from.
recent movies
Before Daniel-Day Lewis' oil driller in There Will Be Blood, I don't remember any other character in movie history as ruthless as Al Pacino's in Scarface; Lewis' however is tougher, darker, and even better-developed, rendering Pacino's seem a mere maniac. None of the other performances has any noticeable flaw either and the movie starts like a masterpiece (the first few moments of silence showcases class-act direction, the characters are amazing, etc.) and, though it never surfaces to the level of common fare, doesn't quite reach the pinnacle. The end leaves one wishing there could be more to the story, perhaps a bit of colour to an otherwise painful movie IE there's not a single ray of light, bar the barely-explored romance of the lead's son.
Interestingly, the entire work isn't as depressing as the story suggests, but rather more of an adventure, as well as a unique and powerful exploration of mining life, not to mention a graphical depiction of the dangers it entails.
On a much lighter note, I found Sponge Bob surprisingly good, given its bad taste crude animation style. Its humour and wit is top-class, but it's forgettable at the same time, especially since I find myself not remembering a thing -- unless I try harder -- a day after seeing it. It's unfortunately spoilt by mixing it with some live-action.
Ice Age 3 failed to live to the stellar expectations suggested by its immediate predecessor, although I liked the otherwise overdone one-eyed guide.
Chen Kaige's The Promise is nearly as annoyingly bad as his other overly-depressing piece of shit, The Emperor & the Assassin. Strange for a guy who excelled with Yellow Earth.
Interestingly, the entire work isn't as depressing as the story suggests, but rather more of an adventure, as well as a unique and powerful exploration of mining life, not to mention a graphical depiction of the dangers it entails.
On a much lighter note, I found Sponge Bob surprisingly good, given its bad taste crude animation style. Its humour and wit is top-class, but it's forgettable at the same time, especially since I find myself not remembering a thing -- unless I try harder -- a day after seeing it. It's unfortunately spoilt by mixing it with some live-action.
Ice Age 3 failed to live to the stellar expectations suggested by its immediate predecessor, although I liked the otherwise overdone one-eyed guide.
Chen Kaige's The Promise is nearly as annoyingly bad as his other overly-depressing piece of shit, The Emperor & the Assassin. Strange for a guy who excelled with Yellow Earth.
20 October 2009
revisiting 'Breakfast Club'
I remember with great fondness what an impact Breakfast Club had on me over 10 years ago. The characters are interesting, the dialogue decent, and storyline still got a punch. It's about schoolkids in detention, each interestingly an all too common movie cliche -- sportsman, prom queen, punk, brainy, weirdo -- and the movie is a good attempt at exposing the problems each goes through as they get more than enough of a chance to confide into each other. Oh, and Claire, prom queen character, is a babe really.
05 October 2009
Firefox > Epiphany
I've ditched Epiphany in favour of Firefox (Iceweasel in Debian) for quite a number of months due to Epiphany's lack of entry completion. On top of that, what Epiphany also lacks is downloads-resuming feature, although I haven't checked lately. The version I'm using, 3.0, is a serious memory hog though and some flash activity eats some serious CPU cycles too (though I wonder if there's any browser that handles that one more peacefully).
30 September 2009
recent movies
Jia Zhank-ke's Still Life is surprisingly-good, one because it's far better than his tremendously-overrated Platform, one because of beautiful camerawork. The story is handled with great skill, allowing one to lost in it, as if experiencing the pain of both poverty and lost parental love with the characters. It's also blessed with a beloved leading lady.
The documentary style has been employed elsewhere but there's nothing quite like District 9 in all movie history. Its weird and wonderful story starts off with nice comic touches and transitions into a harrowing tale of human torture, and ends as some sorta action-adventure of sorts, complete with superb visual effects (with some nice creature ideas -- check everything about the 'wearable' robot). Sure there's warts here and there, especially the (puzzlingly) underdeveloped storyline, and some formula here and there, but to have a gem like this emerge from South Africa is quite something. I nearly forgot to applaud the lead performance.
On a much lighter note is Monsters vs. Aliens which starts off like sub-standard fare until the US president shows up, the prison warder, and a whole bunch of other characters, adding serious comic punch. It's however way quirky, like no one wanted any awards.
The documentary style has been employed elsewhere but there's nothing quite like District 9 in all movie history. Its weird and wonderful story starts off with nice comic touches and transitions into a harrowing tale of human torture, and ends as some sorta action-adventure of sorts, complete with superb visual effects (with some nice creature ideas -- check everything about the 'wearable' robot). Sure there's warts here and there, especially the (puzzlingly) underdeveloped storyline, and some formula here and there, but to have a gem like this emerge from South Africa is quite something. I nearly forgot to applaud the lead performance.
On a much lighter note is Monsters vs. Aliens which starts off like sub-standard fare until the US president shows up, the prison warder, and a whole bunch of other characters, adding serious comic punch. It's however way quirky, like no one wanted any awards.
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