This is apparently quite old. Who knew Claire Dane was such a great dancer ?

Ben Lee, totally your loss.

No tags

An event film worthy of the description.

The story in itself is fairly light weight. Markedly different to the scripts that have floated around for quite a few years. Pretty much standard fare so no surprises here.

Real D is passable, at least to my old eyes. It does deliver stunning colours. The whole movie is a seamless whole. No jarring transition between CGI and real footage. Theres much talk of the uncanny valley being bridged. I’m not so sure. The animation itself is top notch and everything has a sense of presence and weight.

The thing is its all set in an alien world. So there’s just enough familiar to register the CGI as real. Yet just surreal enough to not nag that suspension of disbelief.

Sigourney Weaver is a great presence to have. Sam Worthington, who seems everywhere at the moment, handles the lost naive lead well. Great to see Michelle Rodriguez in a solid role.

Cameron’s keeps the high standards that he sets for himself. The characters are a little short hand. But its delivered with such sure direction, editing and visual style that the short comings aren’t glaring. Its an uncompromising film and left me drained.

Definitely bears watching again.

No tags

I know. Christopher Nolan gives them to him. Caught an early screening of the Dark Knight yesterday. This is by far and away the best movie I have seen this year.

Its seamless. The story is solid. Its totally character driven. There is action albeit choppy and sudden in the same way as the last. Filmed as realistically as possible. Giving it a solid grounding. All the more spectacular for it.

I won’t spoil the film. All I’ll say is that where the 1989 Batman was mostly a one trick pony. Relying on Nicholson to propel most of the movie. Good for its time.

This new installment is a wonder to watch as it unfolds. Dark and full of flawed characters. Enjoy.

My only caveat would be that its not for small children. Its very much adult fare.

No tags

With each and every trailer for the Dark Knight. I see how well Heath Ledger has taken on the role of the Joker.

Some would say that Jack Nicholson put his stamp on the character. He certainly did. Giving Batman a worthy villain to play off.

Here too Heath Ledger does as well. In a muscular lean way. Putting aside the costume and makeup which may or may not be his decision.

Each time I watch the trailers, I’m totally blown away by his performance. He radiates deadly manic intent. A wild edge thats tempered by intelligence. Right down to his skew wiff posture and body language. At least from what I can glean.

Where Indy 4′s trailer had me a little uneasy. The Dark Knight looks to be a truly great. I’ll reserve judgement until I see it though.

So sad that there will be no more from him.

No tags

See it for yourself. Its Indiana Jones. It has Harrison Ford back in the Fedora.

It totally delivers. Action. Fun. Archeology. Bad guys. 50s nostalgia. Pulp goodness.

Thankfully Spielberg cancels out Lucas and / or vice versa.

Maybe not as great as Last Crusade or Raiders (which introduced the character). But right on the mark.

No tags

What a year. My heroes. Creative people who’ve influenced me. Given great inspiration and enjoyment are all passing on.

Gary Gygax, Dave Stevens. Now Arthur C Clarke.

Inevitable but sad.

No tags

No tags

I get my entertainment from a wide variety of sources. DIVXs, CDs, DVDs.

I’d been using the Mac Mini as a media centre for the bedroom for awhile now. It worked splendidly. However I needed a UNIX box so I pulled it back down to the study.

This has left a gap in the entertainment system. So I’ve been investigating a couple of options.

Apple TV.

Small and quiet. Has wireless 802.11N and a 40Gb hard disk. Uses Front Row as the controlling software. Itunes to buy music, play music and access podcasts. Its only capable of 720p. Reviews say it handles H264 video with no problems.

Don’t know if it can handle DIVXs. More than likely transcoding would be needed. No inbuilt DVD player.

All for $449. Given its an Apple product its more than likely to run smoothly. However its designed to run in a very specific role and won’t do anything else.

Xbox 360.

Large and noisy. Has a power supply that is positively hulking. The big sales point is that its a next gen gaming console as well as a media centre. It can stream from a Windows box as a media extender but only using network cable. The interface is apparently very good.

Has a builtin DVD player. HD-DVD player as an addon is apparently $295. DIVX requires some configuration.

List prices. The base XBox is $499. Its $649 for the full media centre option which includes a 20Gb disc, HD cables and remote.

This is a flexible option but is hella expensive.

Summary.
Spend a little more and get alot more. Of course the fully kitted Xbox with HD-DVD runs out to $950. But then I could play games as well.

The Apple TV is a neat unobtrusive solution that probably involves the least fiddling.

The last alternative is I shift the Mini back up to the bedroom. Buy a new PC as a Linux box since it costs the same as the fully kitted Xbox.

No tags

Got to see Casino Royale last night.

Excellent. Taking the same route as Batman Begins. The production team focuses on a young Bond whose just earned his double o rating. A smart move as it gives Daniel Craig room to move with the character.

As a concept Bond suffers from the same issues as Batman. Its all too easy to lapse into a formula as the hero is fully formed. Forcing the plot to revolve around ever more flamboyant and outrageous villains. This is mined for huge laughs in Austin Powers.

I was never all that bothered by Craigs selection. Somehow it seemed like a PR stunt. Craig grounds the character solidly. Playing Bond as a dark troubled man. Smart and funny when he wants to be. Vicious and brutal when he needs to be.

I haven’t finished Layer Cake yet. But what I have seen, certainly explains his selection.

The writing team comes up with a smart funny script placing Bond firmly at the center. Keeps the gadgets and gizmos to a minimum. Neither do we get the typical Bond villain.

All but the last action set pieces are white knuckle thrills. All the Bond conventions get turned on their head. I can only wonder where they can go from here as the same formula wouldn’t work again.

Theres eye candy aplenty for both guys and girls. Craig is super buff. His wardrobe taking full advantage of the fact.

Connery is still quintessential to me. Followed by Pierce Brosnan. However the last two films verged on the ridiculous. Stealth boat, stealth car anyone ? Fun flicks on DVD. I didn’t see them at the cinema.

Other spy films like the Bourne series were taking the genre in more interesting directions.

I’m willing to place Craig third but I’ll need to see the followup. Early Moore is good but the later films are total dreck. Dalton and Lazenby got short shrift.

Lazenby was striving for what Craig and the current team managed. However coming off the back of Connery. Theres just no comparison unfortunately.

Definitely a must buy when it hits DVD. I’m dying to see the next Bond.

No tags

Finally made it to this pop culture expo. Last years was huge but I was too busy to go. Cleared some time and went this year. The last convention I went to was quite some time ago. I dimly recall it was the last time that Dave Sim came out to Australia. That would date it as being in the previous millenium.

The very fact that its a pop culture expo means that things have changed quite a bit. Most decidedly for the better. Theres a broader spectrum of stuff. So there are girls about. Not just girl friends (although theres quite a few of those too). Predominantly teenagers although there were some families and older folk (that would be me).

There was a good selection of activities. Good use of the Olympic Park facilities was made. The expo was centralised into two areas. The main area occupied a small number of rooms for the talks / guest appearances and a general amphitheatre showing videos to take a break.

The dealer rooms were all held in one expo hall five minutes away from the main section.

There seemed to be less international guests and of lower profiles. Nonetheless they were entertaining. The headliner was Summer Glau. She did Q & A on Friday night and Saturday. She was very open and generous during her talks. A good sized crowd of folks turned out to see her.

Clare Kramer gave a very good talk. Came across as very confident and relaxed. She handled a good range of questions. The best were about her opinion on what qualities are needed to be a good actor.

Kevin Weisman also gave a confident and funny Q & A. His experiences on Alias were great. Amusing that he was the only one allowed to improvise. He was very surprised about the widespread love for his part in Clerks 2.

Mira Firlan was interesting. It was good to discover some of her background and what drives her as not just an actor but as a person. She filled us in on the goings on in the post B5 world. Along with her new work in Lost.

Its interesting that everyone nominated their current work as the most favourite (if they had to choose). A common running theme was that TV work was extremely hard and long. That fun and practical jokes were not appreciated by the production companies.

The surprise for me was Crispin Freeman. I like anime but have a preference for manga. Although I don’t read or watch either all that much. I caught the last half of his dubbing class. This involved hauling audience members out to go through an actual dubbing. Immensely amusing and showed exactly how hard it is.

I only caught the last five minutes of his mythology talk as I’d gone to the Kevin Weisman Q & A. What I heard was great and I’m sorry I missed it as Kevin was also doing a session on Sunday. Crispin had quite a rockstar following. He actually looks quite like a manga / anime character. He was signing at a stall and was asked to sign a girls chest (a boobignature if you will). Much to the bemusement of his significant other or agent.

Paradoxically with the huge popularity of Japanese manga and anime in the US. All the production companies are having trouble staying in business. That corners and consequently quality was dropping.

The dealer room had a good mix of the usual suspects and new stuff. Kings Comics were upfront with a good sized stand. They had Gary Frank as their guest. I’m not a big one for signatures or sketches from anyone so I just hovered for awhile.

Weta Collectibles had a small selection of excellent products. Chief was the sculpts from the HellsGate London computer game. They had the game trailer playing. Quite impressive graphics but it didn’t seem to have any game play in it. In the display cases as well, were a range of fifties inspired science fiction weapons. Complete with case and ammo. Very cool.

Also present were the new Superman Returns sculpts. The boxes were quite large so I’d imagine the actual product is too.

Towards the centre was artists alley. Two back to back stands of local artists which was great to see.

There was a group called Novus Ordo. They specialise in costumes. They had a good selection of well made Star Wars costumes and props (R2 units, carbonite Han Solo and such). Various costumes were modelled both in the hall and outside. Their Mara Jade and Grievous costumes were exceptional.

All up it was a fun experience. A good selection of guests and activities. The facilities were good. Food was readily available if a little expensive. At least there were healthier alternatives to the usual fare. Parking was easy.

Would I go again ? Possibly if they have guests who interest me.

BTW excuse the graininess of some of the shots. I was practicing low light with no flash. Faster lens are in mind.

No tags

I’d long planned to watch this film. However the rapid turnover of Hong Kong films on DVD mean that if you don’t get in early. Chances are you won’t get it at all.

Having missed it when it first came out. I had no luck finding a copy, even the sequels at the local Chinatown stores. Luckily with the release of the Departed, a deluxe two DVD edition appeared.

I guess I can’t really add a lot to the already glowing praise to this film. No greater homage can be given if Martin Scorcese decides to do a remake. I certainly hope Alan Lau and his production crew get a piece of the action.

This is an amazingly sophisticated and smart piece of cinema. Sure the story has a few holes but the general premise is great. The lines between good and bad, duty and ambition blur together. The characters firmly drive the story.

The tension as the characters maneuver and plot is palpable. Tony Leung’s performance is a corker. Its quite a nihilistic film. Tightly editted. Virtually nothing is wasted. The acting is understated and solid.

If the Departed comes close than it will be great. I still can’t get over the idea of Scorcese doing a remake.

No tags

The movie. From Frank Miller’s graphic novel based on the Spartans legend.

Whoaw !!!!!

No tags

The first in what looks like an adaption of a novel or series of novels. It appears to be a lot like DragonRiders of Pern.

Whats interesting is that they’ve netted Jeremy Irons as the wise mentor, John Malkovich as the tyrannical king and Robert Carlyle in a role I couldn’t see in the trailer.

The scenic snowy backdrop looks alot like another New Zealand production but I can’t be sure. Will need to do a bit of digging.

Update: It is indeed based on a series of books. Carlyle appears to play an evil dragon rider / magician.

No tags

Through amazing coincidence that is Hollywood. There are two dramas about magicians coming soon. Not getting out to the cinemas all that much so I’ve been checking everything out over at quicktime.com.

The Prestige by Christopher Nolan. It has a major cast, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlet Johanssen and Andy Serkis.

Then there is the Illusionist by first time feature film director Neil Burger. This has quite a good cast with Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and girl of the moment, Jessica Biel.

There is quite an art to movie trailers. Generally they need to hook an audience without giving away the show entirely.

The problem I have with the Illusionist is that its trailer is quite muddled. It seems to involve a love triangle between Edward Nortons magician, Rufus Sewell’s Crown Prince Leopold and Jessica Biel’s Princess Sophie. Paul Giamatti gets to play the hapless police inspector rousting Edward Norton.

Apparently this is all set in Vienna and everyone speaks in faux European accented English. It all sort of rubs me up the wrong way.

The Prestige simply lets everyone talk in their original accents. Even Christian Bale. Its not as jarring. The trailer is much more straight forward. Delivering the basic storyline and some depth to the characters.

I know which I’d see at the cinemas.

No tags

Wow. Thats a great movie. Took number one son to see this today.

The production team took the original movies and refreshed the Man of Steel for today. Conveniently ignoring movies three and four which I’ve purged from my memory mostly.

Superman is an extremely hard concept to work with. You can only go so far with “Truth, Justice and the American Way”. However Bryan Singer and the writers came up with a solid story that works.

The story delivers on a scale that makes demands of Superman. Luthors plot and its consequences stretching Superman to the limit. Making us dare to think that perhaps even Superman may fail. Typically the resolution doesn’t quite work logically but then we are talking superheroes.

The little touches are great like watching Superman orbitting the earth filtering for emergencies with his senses. Which allows the designers to break out the Alex Ross graphics.

The only vestiges of prior travesties (both actual films and potential scripts) is the production credit to Jon Peters.

The production team clearly love the concept. We get iconic Superman moments that bring to the screen the early comics and amazing new action sequences that are truly breathtaking.

It does fall flat a little as its a very mannered and gentle film. It juggles a few themes and story threads. But drops them occasionally. It didn’t grab me in the same way the originals did but it certainly brought back alot of memories.

Brandan Routh channels Christopher Reeves and shoulders the Superman mantle with confidence. Perhaps Superman is the ultimate character actors role. Its more about easy grace and casual confidence.

He does pull off the comical Clark Kent / Christopher Reeve stuff as well though.

Kevin Spacey is excellent as Luthor. I can see Gene Hackman in Spaceys portrayal but he adds an extra touch of danger that wasn’t there previously. This is a Luthor not to be crossed.

Nice to see a different facet of Kevin Spacey. Here again its more of a character acting style. Especially as he strikes a measured tone between chewing on scenery and comedy.

Having said that I love Lex in Smallville where the medium allows much more character.

Kate Bosworth doesn’t quite work. But then she’s labouring under the weight of Margot Kidders version. She just seems a bit too young and not quite enough firebrand.

Theres alot of fun casting as well. Noel Neill as an heiress and Sir Richard Branson as a shuttle engineer. Frank Langella plays Perry White well. Jimmy Olsen was extremely creepy.

Familiar Australian faces, Peta Wilson as a PR flack and Ian Roberts as one of Luthors henchmen.

I could see a little of Sydney in Metropolis. Especially the runaway Mustang charging down Martin Place and the shots around Wynyard plaza.

Definitely a home run. The big screen works well for this one. I can see why Mark Singer jumped ship to direct this.

No tags

Cruising through the new movie trailers over on Quicktime. Came across “The Lake House”. A lushly filmed romance flick.

The interesting thing is that it stars Keanu Reeves as the lead. To me, Keanu comes across quite wooden in most of his films. I genuinely like him and most of the films he’s done.

However he’s remarkably expressive in this film. I’m not sure if its the direction or the sound. But theres more dynamic range from Keanu then I’ve come to expect in this trailer alone.

No tags

He said there would be no release of the original unadulterated versions of the trilogy on DVD. The excuse being that the restoration of the original prints left no hope of there ever being an original set.

Has he sunk so low that he’ll cave at the meerest hint of more money flowing into his already huge vault.

Is he not already capable of diving into said vault with no fear of harm. Ala Scrooge McDuck. Truly he has gone to the Dark Side.

Of whom do I speak. If you haven’t guessed. George Lucas. Of what do I speak of. The original Star Wars trilogy.

Like a sucker, I bought the updated boxset for the sake of having a DVD version for my kids to watch. All because I believed that Mr Lucas wasn’t going to release any other version.

To be fair, the boys have got a huge amount of enjoyment in watching these DVDs.

No Mr Lucas. I will resist your mind tricks. My childhood memories are well and truly locked away. Far from your dark revisionist hands.

Cause Han always shot first.

No tags

Headed over to Bondi Junction Greater Union to catch the Cory Doctorow talk last Wednesday. It was free so the price was right.

He’d been invited to talk about DRM and new digital media by Popcorn Taxi.

The talk itself was very entertaining. Cory couched DRM within a historical context. That new technologies have always shifted the business paradigm. In the case of new media, the shift is back to the cult of personality. Where the internet allows content producers to not only deliver directly but more importantly to have a direct conversation with the consumer.

He pointed out that he himself doesn’t have a clear picture of what business models will work for the future. Only that his direct involvement via his published works, helps him to work out where next to go. He considers its an ongoing process.

The talk went further into the activist areas. Highlighting that individuals can and need to play a part in the DRM debate. Pointing out examples of how the EFF have made significant efforts to keep individuals freedoms with regard to copyright.

I’m not sure the activist parts interested the film and TV makers in the audience. Nor did they really seem to grasp the fundamentals of the new technologies and capabilities available to them.

Most readily apparent when Cory asked that the audience be able to reproduce and record his talk freely. This was after the Popcorn Taxi staff stated that no photography or recording of the talk was allowed.

A good talk. Thanks to Popcorn Taxi for organising it.

No tags

Upfront I’m going to say this is an excellent film.

The critics and naysayers are talking out their backsides. There are some issues but majority of the book is intact. There won’t be any spoilers as I’m only addressing some general critiscisms.

I’d originally read the series in the Warrior anthology and later in colourised form from DC / Vertigo. However that was quite a few years back so I came to the movie with only a vague gist.

Initial reviews and Alan Moore’s press left me with alot of concerns. This is a book that I love. For me, its placed in a time when amazing new ground was being broken for comics.

The movie held my interest for the entire length. Because the series has a finite storyline it adapts well as it can concentrate solely on the story without the need for setting up sequels. The initial opening scenes worried me immensely, V’s introduction had such heavy stilted dialogue that it really threw me. However this settles down as they dial back V’s theatricality.

The Wachowski brothers rejig the storyline to some degree. They tightened up V’s schedule and reorder some of his actions. This actually plays quite well. The biggest changes revolve around Evey and her motivations. Her situation is alot more desparate in the book as opposed to the movie.

Having come back and reread the book after the movie. The book is very complex exploring the views and relationships of the people in power. These have been removed from the movie to keep the storyline clearly between V and Evey. The totalitarian government is reduced to a steretypical one. This may have weakened the threat to the audience.

The one plot point I could take issue with but didn’t, is the eventual fate of Evey as planned by V. But to keep it would require an additional character and expanded storyline. Perhaps they felt it sufficient with the rather large superficial change they make at the end by having people protest dressed as V rather than just as they are.

My biggest issues with the film are as follows:
1) The typical Hollywood requirement to draw all the plot lines together and not leave them lie.
2) The placing of the storyline within our real world concerns. This will date the film heavily.

Hugo Weaving delivers a great performance given that the audience never sees his face. He conveys everything with his voice. His body language is heavily restricted by the strong directing and lighting on the Fawkes mask. It looks like they were following David Lloyd’s artwork heavily.

Natalie Portman turns in an understated but solid performance. Evey is a complex role. She undergoes a life changing experience which Ms Portman conveys well. Her bearing and demeanor by the end is totally different. I think she was incredibly hard done by for her work in Star Wars. When James McTeigue, a first time director, can draw a solid performance.

Stephen Rea is a standout. He takes a stereotypical role of the worldweary police detective and makes it special. The role of Mr Finch is pivotal but is drastically reduced. However Mr Rea manages to convey the character and his revelations with just dialogue.

Given the production teams pedigree I was concerned that V would rely on alot of SFX. Thankfully it doesn’t. There is one flourishly fight scene but its at the end. James McTeigue turns in a solid directing debut.

This is an excellent effort. The Wachowki’s and the production team understand the material. V is a concerted effort to translate the book to film. The film does the graphic novel justice and stands on its own merits.

Go see it.

P.S. if this commentary seems disjointed its because I lost half of it somehow during the writing.

Addendum (with some spoilers):
The graphic novel clearly depicts anarchy versus totalitarianism. However V (the character) isn’t only about anarchy. There is more to his plans than than.

The movie is vaguer and ends typically with the “people” revolting (thus making everything right with the world). Alan Moore skirts the typical Hollywood ending and went with something more realistic and satisfying. However that was part of the storyline that was dropped and most likely robbed the film of something original to say.

Herein most likely lies Moore’s dislike of the film.

However the film doesn’t go out of its way to push a specific political line. Other than a general humanist viewpoint. It actually mirrors the book in that regard.

No tags

Why is it that anime production companies keep releasing English conversions in blocks of four or so episodes per DVD ? I want TV series in a season block. Like they do for everything else.

Then I can sit down and plow through an entire season without having to remember what happened the last time. Not to mention the expense of purchasing individual discs. Throwing in a box to put the set in doesn’t float my boat either. Its just more packaging consuming my already rapidly shrinking shelf space.

I can understand it being partly economics. Its cheaper to clone region 1 releases to other regions rather than build new menus and strike new masters. Plus I see the same problem that happens with translated manga, in keeping all the discs in stock.

But how is someone supposed to get into a series when they can only get the middle episodes and need to wait for a rerelease of preceding discs ?

Consequently I don’t buy region four TV anime series. I’ll hunt down a boxed set from another region. As long as I can get English subtitles I’m good.

Feeling a bit testy as I’m up late watching system backups run. So excitement.

No tags