Archive for the 'Movies' Category
June 18th, 2008 by cybrpunk
So we’ve watched the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie (which I still say is an outrageuosly long title for a movie). Before that we refreshed our Indy knowledge rewatching Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. [Have you noticed that the first move now has "Indiana Jones and" prepended to the title on the newer releases? It wasn't like that when it released.]
So you would think I’d be all work out at this point of anything with a fedora and a whip. But I really want to play the new Lego Indiana Jones game. Muse and I played the Lego Star Wars II game on Playstation 2 for a bit but we never really got very far. I thought it was a lot of fun though and I can see how the Indiana Jones franchise could really take advantage of the Lego game formula.
I just need to add it to the ever growing list of games I want to buy before I leave Hong Kong. XBox360 and PS3 games are quite a bit cheaper here since the market won’t support the ridiculous $60 USD per title price that is charged in the United States. Most games releasing in Hong Kong start at or around $39 USD per title when they come out and you can always find some older/cheaper ones too. I will definitely miss that when I’m gone.
June 4th, 2008 by cybrpunk
I have to admit that I can’t remember when The Kingdom came out in theaters or if I’d even heard of it at all before I read the back of the DVD box at the local rental shop. I thought it sounded interesting so Muse picked it up yesterday for the weekly $10 Tuesday rental deal. And then we watched it at dinner.
After the first ten minutes I had to pick my jaw up from off the floor. Twice.
The kingdom starts and finishes strong and Jamie Foxx shows once again that he was meant to play dramatic roles in movies. The movie is powerful, emotional, action-packed and very suspenseful. And when I say action-packed I don’t mean like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie or the latest super-hero from Marvel Comics. I mean devastating explosions, realistic gun fights, painful car crashes…. Everything you could want in a movie I think.
As I’ve never served in the Middle East I can’t vouch for it’s true realism but this movie shows things that no other movie touches and everything seems more real than I could imagine. This shows both sides of terrorism and the challenges that our people face in dealing with the every day trauma from a personal, political and physical point of view.
I don’t think I can recommend this movie enough. It’s not for people who can’t handle some blood and suspense but it should be watched for those people because they probably have the most to gain from watching scenes like this. This movie doesn’t seek to shield us from life or glorify the trvial; it puts everything right up on screen and lets the horror of it all make a lasting impression on you.
May 30th, 2008 by cybrpunk
Warning: contains some minor spoilers but seriously, have you seen the previews?
Muse and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [omg could that title be any longer] at the theater in Tung Chung last Sunday. We laughed our butts off, usually for the expected reasons, for the first half and then it kind of shifted gears somehow. It was a great movie and I’ll buy it when it comes out on DVD but I think it was just too late to keep up appearances with the previous movies.
Harrison Ford is just as good in this version as he always has been although his character seemed to fluctuate quite a bit between an old man constantly thinking “I’m getting too old for this shit” and a hero that can do anything. In the first three movies he was a lot more consistent. The idea of him having a son was a cute idea even if the character was a little annoying. Short-Round had more personality. Him showing up looking like Marlon Brando was a bit odd and really set the tone for two hours of cliches and stereotypes.
We re-watched the first three movies prior to going to see this new one so we would be ready. One thing I noticed for the first time was how over the top, campy and completely unbelievable they were. I never got that from these movies before. Sure they all three showed some form of mythological magic in action against evil Nazis or evil Indians but they always seemed different. I guess now that I’m older (and wiser? nah) I had to suspend my belief in everything that happened so much more than in the past.
So when the new movie makes fun of itself or things in the previous movies it’s a nice hommage now and then but sometimes it was just too much. It seemed to ride on the hopes that the cliches and stereotypes it showed would carry it through and in some ways it did since all four movies are basically made in the old pulp fiction style of the Golden Age. I suppose the idea of aliens from another dimension are nothing new when thinking about the Azteks. And truthfully is that any harder to swallow than a box that melts faces, a man who can pull out a still beating heart from a human with his hand or a knight living forever drinking from a magic cup?
The special effects were very hit and miss. The ending sequence was pretty cool. However, as Abraxus pointed out in his post, the cemetary model that was used was really pathetic. Like him, I assumed we were supposed to be looking at an intentional view of a model and not the “real cemetary” as we were supposed to think. It was a total amateur presentation from one of the best special effects companies in the world which just made me shake my head in wonder as to what they were thinking.
I know it sounds like I’m bashing the new Indiana Jones movie and that’s really unfair. I’m a huge fan of the original movies and against my better judgement I still had extremely high expectations for the new movie. It was a fun, funny and entertaining movie. I would watch it again. It’s just that the Indiana Jones movies basically created the current Action/Comedy genre of movies that we have been evolving with since the early 1990’s and this movie just feels very retro and un-evolved. Not that that is a bad thing - it’s just not what was expected. I have no idea why.
May 12th, 2008 by cybrpunk
It’s Monday and I’m sitting at home still un-showered and working on comics. Today is a public holiday here in Hong Kong. It’s Buddha’s birthday! Who am I to argue? Sadly though, public holidays are a double-edged sword. Sure you get the day off, but unless you feel like pushing through crowds of people everywhere you go, you pretty much just sit at home all day. Like I’m doing.
We say Iron Man on Saturday afternoon and it was awesome. I’m a bit of a fanboy when it comes to comic book to movie adaptations and I know many of them aren’t that great. Iron Man definitely lived up to the hype in my opinion though.
After the movie, Muse and I split up and went with our friends to different places. Me and my friend went to Sham Shui Po to go to the computer and game malls to look for a Sony PSP for me. I thought about getting a second hand system but decided it was too much risk for too little discount. So I went for a new one. Unfortunately all the cool colors of the new ’slim’ PSP are all twice the price (or more) of the standard black, white or pastel colors. So I found a shop that still sold the ‘fat’ versions. They had a few of the limited Japanese releases so I went for one of those. Just to make Colin jealous if nothing else.
Oh yeah, that is a metallic blue Sony PSP. Only released in Japan but everything ends up in Hong Kong eventually. Sometimes I love shopping here in Hong Kong.
April 12th, 2008 by cybrpunk
Here’s something I didn’t know when I bought the book I Am Legend: it’s a short story collection. I Am Legend is only the first 159 pages and then the rest of the book is all additional short stories by Richard Matheson. Nowhere on the front or back of the book does it say that. The only way I even knew was once I started reading it and saw the odd table of contents. Why does it matter? Because most of the other stories were kinda crappy.
As good as the story of I Am Legend is, it’s not as strong as the legend the book itself has become. Richard Matheson’s writing does not age well. The namesake story was written in 1954 along with about half the other stories in this book. And it reads like someone from the 1950’s wrote it. It is hard to future proof any creative work of course but for those people under the age of about 30 will probably have a hard time understanding many things in this book. For the baby boomers out there, you will be right at home.
The reason I say this is because in the “future” of 1976, the protagonist must deal with Willys station wagons with 3-speed manual transmissions and a choke. What’s a choke you ask and what does it have to do with cars? Then stick to the updated Will Smith movie, you will probably be disappointed by the original story. The other stories in the book fare no better and there are some glaring problems with continuity and editing even in this re-release of the legendary story so I can only assume that these are Matheson’s actual mistakes at this point and no one will ever correct them.
The story of I Am Legend is good. It’s extremely dated and the pacing is slow and deliberate but it’s good. Most of the rest of the book is fluff that was probably written for various low-rent magazines at the time of their writing. One stand-out is the story called Prey which if you’ve seen the classic 1970’s movie Trilogy of Terror, you will recognize right off. The story of the homicidal Zuni fetish doll is much better in print than the version in the classic movie.
I’d still recommend reading I Am Legend if only for the namesake story but with the caveat that you may not be old enough to get all the outdated references and terminology. If that sort of thing doesn’t bother you though and you don’t mind a few confusing edits here and there then by all means pick up a copy and read it. It may not age well but it’s still potent enough.
February 18th, 2008 by cybrpunk
And now we see the last few nails in the coffin for HD DVD. I had mentioned a few days ago that the format war was over but the news over the past couple of days is just rubbing salt in the wounds. Retail leviathan Wal-Mart has announced that it will no longer carry HD DVD following Best Buy’s earlier decision. And though there were rumors of Toshiba completely dropping HD DVD over the weekend, we still don’t know if those rumors are true. According to Toshiba today, they are still weighing their options in this increasingly Blu-Ray market.
In my opinion Toshiba should just get out while they can and before the downward spiral catches more unwary consumers in it’s wake. Everyone knows that most people who buy technology are at least relatively clueless (much to the dismay of us obsessive research techies) and it won’t be long till stores that are still selling the remainder of their stock of HD DVD hardware and movies start looking with customers with the word “SUCKER” stamped on their forehead. It will happen; it always does. And those unlucky people who invest in HD DVD at this stage of the game (or later) are going to be very upset when they can’t find any more red cases floating in the sea of blu.
January 31st, 2008 by cybrpunk
Muse and I watched the Will Ferrell movie Stranger than Fiction last night. Considering it didn’t do very well in theaters even though it had a great cast, I thought I’d put my two cents in for the DVD rental crowd. To sum it up quickly, if you’re looking for an original movie with a wonderful cast and some witty humor as well as some serious thought then you should run out and rent this movie.
For those of you who don’t like the grotesque quantity of Will Ferrell movies dealing with goofy parodies of sports or make-believe psuedo celebrities, this is the movie for you. Ferrell truly acts in this movie and though his quirky nature comes through from time to time, he’s playing a real person in this movie and he’s actually quite good at it. Truthfully, if he would make more movies like this instead of the make-a-quick-buck movies that are basically SNL skits gone wrong, I would have a hell of a lot more respect for him as an actor instead of just a fairly funny guy who does dumb movies.
The odd thing is how poorly this showed in theaters. The critics gave quite favorable reviews. Ferrell plays alongside Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifah and Emma Thompson to great effect. And yet it made only a fraction of the box-office dollars that his other bizarre movies made. Don’t take me the wrong way, I enjoyed Talledega Nights and Anchorman but they pale incomparison to Stranger than Fiction now that I’ve seen Will Ferrell in a role that shows that he really can act and not just be loud and stupid.
Like I said, this is a truly original movie, so don’t expect anything typical. And pay attention. It’s not the most complicated plot, but there’s lots of little things you might miss if you don’t sit down and enjoy the movie. I highly recommend it and I hope some of you out there take a chance on it.
January 30th, 2008 by cybrpunk
*Note: I broke this out from the end of yesterday’s post as it was fairly irrelevant to what I was talking about. Plus I want more people to watch the trailer. It’s funny.
CJ7 comes out here in Hong Kong on the 31st and I really would like to see that one in the theater. If you aren’t in Hong Kong you probably aren’t familiar with this new movie from Stephen Chow (of Kung Fu Hustle & Shaolin Soccer fame). I can’t understand the trailers at all but it’s partially animated and it looks funny. I checked the theater today and made sure that it will be shown with English subtitles which is good. Here’s a link to the main site so you can see the trailer with subtitles.
January 29th, 2008 by cybrpunk
I’ve been wanting to see Cloverfield but I’m a little hesitant because of the “shaky handycam” style of shooting that the film uses. Comparing the movie to the Blair Witch Project certainly doesn’t help my enthusiasm either since that was one of the worst movies ever made. I’m fairly certain that Plan 9 had better writing and acting that the idiotic Witch movie. But I digress….
I’ve also been hearing that the monster(s) are completely off camera through most of the movie (if not all, I can’t tell from the reviews) and that also disappointed me. At least at first. When I saw the previews, I was thinking Cloverfield was something along the lines of a Godzilla movie which will always appeal to me. Then I realized that this is supposed to be a scary movie and scary movies don’t necessarily show the monsters very much. Some do with varying degrees of success but most good horror movies keep you guessing about the creatures and it’s limits. Maybe then Cloverfield uses the monster minimalism to its advantage. I need to see it to know for sure.
I read this article regarding the success of movies that kept the monsters hidden and was surprised in the choices they made in some cases. Sure Alien and the original The Thing make sense but I would never have thought of Jaws or Rosemary’s Baby as monster movies along those same lines. The theory holds true, I just never thought of movies like that in the same way as something like Alien. Some other classic monster movies that worked well because of keeping the enemy hidden would be the original Amityville Horror (that pig demon outside the window scared the shit out of me when I was little) and the first Nightmare on Elm Street (if you think about it Freddy really wasn’t shown all that much as a whole till fairly late in the movie). If I remember correctly, the monster/spirit in The Entity was never shown at all throughout the whole movie even though Barbara Hershey takes a hell of a beating throughout.
But then I started thinking about Aliens and how great it was in spite of the fact that the Alien creatures were shown practically non-stop. And then I realized that as much of a thriller/horror movie was, the sequel of Aliens was pure balls-to-the-wall action movie. Aliens didn’t try and be scary so it didn’t need to hide the monsters. You need a good cross-over movie like Pitch Black to show the differences as well as how hidden monsters can still be fairly scary even in a action movie if it’s done right. The scene where the guy lights up the dark with the alcohol flame from his mouth like a circus performer captures the mood perfectly in my opinion.
Bottom line is that I want to see Cloverfield because of the potential and I’m hesitant to see it because of the potential. I’ll probably end up waiting for the rental.
January 23rd, 2008 by cybrpunk
The first thing I see in my e-mail this morning when I wake up? Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his New York City apartment yesterday. The same Heath Ledger that starred in Brokeback Mountain and was cast as The Joker in the upcoming Batman movie The Dark Knight.
Filming was already well under way for the Dark Knight as I saw here in Hong Kong and from the insanely long trailer for the new movie I saw at the theater before I Am Legend started.
It’s not too often that a major actor dies in production of a major movie. A similar loss, only under much different circumstances, would be Brandon Lee who was mortally wounded while filming super/anti-hero movie The Crow.
They’ve yet to announce if Ledger’s death will affect the release of the new movie, but with a July release date, I somehow doubt they had all the footage they would need for the final cut before now. It’s sad to see anyone die, but it would be even worse for the work that the cast and crew of the two Chris Nolan led Batman movies to be lost because of this tragedy. I would hope they can finish the movie and honor Heath Ledger in it’s completion.
