OK, so much for my updating at least once a week idea. Work has been a little busier lately and Michelle hasn’t been feeling 100% all the while Kira seems to be developing a temper as a couple more teeth start ripping through her gums.
I’m glad I don’t remember that process. They say that is one of the worst pains ever but truthfully how would you know? Babies can’t tell you how it feels or how it compares to childbirth, root canals or drawn and quartering. You can’t hook them up to a meter and see the pain on a graph. I guess it’s like most things… a guess.
Michelle and I took a little time last weekend away from the baby and went to have lunch at Red Lobster and then off to see Zombieland. If you haven’t seen Zombieland yet then you are truly missing out. It’s funny, goofy, scary (stupid clown), self-deprecating, a bit gory and full of action. There’s even a touching moment so there’s something for everyone. Meaning emotionally touching… not inappropriately touching… you know what I mean.
I’ve got a bunch of vacation days that need to be taken before the end of the year so I am figuring out how to plan that out. Everytime I think I have it all sorted something new comes up. It happened again today. Urgh.
Oh, I have a Playstation 3 now! Yay! Although I really don’t have any games for it. I got it used on eBay and it did come with Street Fighter 4 (which I really don’t like surprisingly) and Singstar (which is kinda fun but quite limited compared to other music games). So I don’t count those. I’m hoping to get the Game of the Year edition of Little Big Planet for Christmas because that just looks fun to me. Maybe I should download the demo and try it out first but it seems interesting. Plus God of War 3 will be out eventually although since the main guy involved in the first two is no longer part of the franchise I’m not holding my breath.
I got the old 60GB PS3 which is why I got it on eBay instead of going to the store. I picked that one specifically because it is the only model that has the hardware emulation for both PS1 andPS2 games built-in. So of course the first thing I did was play We Love Katamari. Because I just can’t get enough of rolling stuff into balls. Don’t ask because I don’t know.
The wife and I went to go see District 9 last night since we had sent Kira off to live with the gypsies a bit ago (she’s at Grandma Stinky’s, don’t you fret none). I’m not sure exactly what I had expected but I know that the movie has been getting some strangely good reviews and some interesting hype. I knew it wasn’t a typical alien invasion movie but that was about it. Obviously I hadn’t read the description from the link above.
First off – and to sum up – the movie was great. I see now what all the fuss is about. But the movie really should have gotten a sub-title. You know, a little extra title following a colon. It’s all the rage. And this movie would then have been titled District 9: Humans Suck. That also sums it up well.
The movie starts strangely enough in an almost Discovery Channel style documentary but don’t let that fool you. After some interestingly vague setup, the humans go about being assholes in general to the aliens. Then some strange things happen and some violence and then the movie completely shifts gears. I don’t want to give any details because I think the less you know going in to see this movie the better you are. Just take along an open mind with your five gallon bucket of soda and wheelbarrow of popcorn.
I say that because you probably won’t like some of the things you see. I’m not talking about the increased level of gore towards the end of the movie because the way it’s portrayed makes sense in the movie. It is never out of place and only strengthens the real horror of what you are seeing. That someone wrote a story that is probably the most honest depiction of how humans in general would react to aliens appearing on Earth. Some of you may disagree and you are entitled to that opinion but I think those who do need to take a look at the news.
What the story is really about is racism at the heart of it all. Sure there are awesome alien weapons and other things that had me saying “ohmygawddidyouseethatthatwasawesome!” like a five year old. But, in my opinion, the take-away from this movie is that humans can’t stand minor differences in people of our own race. How could those same people ever cope with dealing with another intelligent race that is thrust into our society? Bigger picture themes such as corporate greed, corrupt government agencies and a complete disrespect for life in the search for power also shine through at the appropriate times and bring it all together.
If you are squeamish, you may not like all that you see. That’s OK. That’s nothing compared to how the movie might make you feel about the ethnically different person sitting next to you.
You are a criminal. You may not have known that but if you are fairly media savvy then most likely you are a criminal based on this conviction of a comic book collector.
Here’s the quick summary: a man who is a prolific collector of Japanese manga (comics) was found guilty of child pornography because of artwork in a series of manga that he was importing depicting depraved sex acts with children. According to the article, this is a man who collected ALL types of manga and not just this style which puts him in the realm of what should have been considered an art collector. He faces up to 15 years in jail.
So here’s the problem – this is a victimless crime. There is no one who has been hurt… no one who has been wronged… no one to be compensated. These are drawings of fictional characters. And the law has been left purposely vague (although less vague than the first iteration) so that it can cover things it was never meant to cover. So now a comic collector is being put in jail and resources that could have been used to catch and prosecute real child pornographers has been wasted.
Welcome to the new world that allows for an idea to be illegal. The most common anology to this is that if we play a video game that has us kill a virtual person are we then considered a murderer? Sounds far-fetched doesn’t it? Now think about every school shooting over the past few years and how many times video games were blamed as influencers of the mentally flawed people who commited these crimes.
So where does the line get drawn? Do we need to burn every copy of Lolita? Should fans of Dakota Fanning get thrown in jail for watching Hounddog? I guess we can’t make any more gang movies… ya know, unless no one dies of unnatural causes in them. Slumdog Millionaire should have been X-rated based on this kind of thinking (oh wait, everyone loved it and it won awards).
What’s your opinion? (please read the article or be familiar with the case before venting)
Haibane Renmei DVD box art
I just finished watching the last few episodes of Haibane Renmei. It’s not the typical anime that would normally appeal to me and I hadn’t even heard of it till I happened to see clips of it from an anime music video. It’s only 13 episodes long and it’s a sad but sweet story that I really enjoyed.
The pacing of it and the feeling I got while watching this show was similar to how I feel when watching My Neighbor Totoro for the ump-teenth time. Which is a good thing because I absolutely love Totoro. Haibane Renmei just seems similar to me for some reason. There’s no real action, no bad guy, no ‘obvious’ conflict. I wrote more but deleted it. If anyone is actually inspired to watch this short series, I’d hate to give away any clues as to what happens. All I want to say is that this is the type of story that will have the more sensitive types with at least a few tears.
And for those who see the characters in this have halos and feathered wings and immediately dismiss the show then it’s your loss. The characters may look something like angels but there’s nothing religious about the series. It has its own mythologies and beliefs that, as far as I could tell, should offend no ones sensibilities.
If this sounds like something you’d like, I would definitely recommend at least a rental. I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles. I know some people are put off by subtitles but they aren’t bad at all here. The dialog is easy to follow.
Bachelor life is starting to get to me I think. I’ve played so much Beautiful Katamari that I think my hands have permanantly contorted into grasping claws. Which is actually rather convenient for playing XBox games to be honest. Makes typing hard though.
Add to that bizarre Japanese game the fact that I have been watching nothing but Japanese language movies and TV (with English subtitles of course) and I’m relatively sure I can here The Vapors invading my internal soundtrack. And that’s never a good thing.
As you can see from my Most Recently list over on the right, it’s been kind of crazy. I’m also watching Kagemusha but I didn’t get to finish it last night due to various phone calls and laundry, but that’s another that will be added to the list. I actually haven’t completely finished watching Haibane Renmei yet either so please do not post anything about that or any spoilers (that pretty much means Insomnic). I would hate to have to kill you in your sleep.
I’m currently downloading Neon Genesis Evangelion so I can continue this craziness. I can’t get an English version here in Hong Kong, so… well… piracy to the rescue! Don’t worry MPAA, it’s still on my Amazon Wishlist.
Perhaps I’ll get some sushi for lunch today. Hmm….
It’s actually been a few weeks since I watched The Last King of Scotland on DVD. I wasn’t even going to write about it but it’s just been kind of nagging at me. To say that I had no idea what it was about before Muse and I watched it is a huge understatement.
So for those of you, who like me have no idea what this movie is about, let me tell you what it isn’t. It takes place in Africa, not Scotland. [Umm.. OK.] It’s about a tyrant who takes over a country in Africa but used to fight for the British and has some bizarre love of all things Scottish. [What?] There is a young Scottish guy in the movie who moves to this country but he is not a king. He’s a doctor. [So confused.] The tyrant considers himself to be the titular last king of Scotland because… well I have no idea why frankly. [Honest.]
It is a pretty good movie though. I don’t think it was as great as it was made out to be. The character of the young Scottish doctor is a complete moron and deserved far worse than what he got. It was hard to sympathize with anyone in the movie because most people got what was coming to them. But the story was decent and the acting was great. There was quite a bit of nudity, sex and blood and gore as well which was unexpected.
So, fair warning, this movie is not about some bizarre story of a black king ruling Scotland. I suppose that sounds more like a Martin Lawrence movie anyway. But really I had no idea….
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.
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.
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.
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.
October 16, 2009 12:24 pm | 
