My buddy, Wyman Lee, has moved his blog to WordPress. He thought about Blogger but found that people usually move off of blogger to something better. Even though he doesn’t post very often, check him out especially if you have some interest in asian films.
The new Bond film opens this weekend. There’s a lot of chatter on the net about it. Lots of people are excited and I hear that it is getting some decent reviews. Here’s a link to a page with many of the theme songs from past bond films. I never new how cool they sounded. While certainly there are a few clunkers, putting all these onto your iPod would be cool. Someone rip these for me.Anyway, there are a few that are cool. Check out the “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” theme song and you’ll find the precedent for “The Incredibles” theme. Garbage, a favorite band, did “The World is Not Enough” and it sounds like them. “You Only Live Twice” was sampled by Robbie Williams for “Millennium,” but it still is a cool tune. I am going to have to see if the iTunes Music Store has all these.And of course Bond’s Theme song is rather cool as well.
Wow! Next week is the week of Thanksgiving. Boy time is flying by!
I’m going have to post my wish list soon to help those unfortunate
enough not to know what to get me.
There once was a blogger who wrote a review about the movie, Stranger Than Fiction. He had seen it the previous night. Now, it wasn’t the movie he went to see, but since that was sold out, it was either Stranger Than Fiction or The Return. Being tired of trite horror films since Halloween had just past and not wanting to watch a movie from behind the brim of his ball cap, Stranger Than Fiction was the only choice. He bought a ticket as did his companions, waited a half hour before getting seated, and patiently watched the film unspool before him.
While devouring a ridiculously large bucket of popcorn, he felt that the movie was trying too hard. That it was too clever by a half. It was as if the writer and director wanted to out clever Charlie Kaufman’s writing and out wit Michel Gondry direction. The “meta” style and “wink-wink” that the plot represented indicated to the blogger that the story was very much about a story. The flashes of graphics thought to enhance the picture were gratuitous and show-offy. He was so aware that this was going to be another movie he would not like.
Yet, there was some doubt. How can he not like it when the main character gets the girl? He thought the writers would surely make it a dream, but no it was real. The audience cheered this development. How can you not like it when the fictional writer had ten years of writers block? He knows how that feels. He was pulling for her hoping that she would write, “Fish for sale! Fish for sale!” referencing another of filmdom’s infamous writer with writer’s block.
Can this movie win him over? It did! The characters live happily ever after. Imagine that! Love conquers all. Live your life as if dying tomorrow would not be bad. The cliches he had to think about. They would’ve made him give this film a terrible review, but in the end, he has to admit…
…3 of 5 stars. Much better than expected.
Back in the day, magicians ruled entertainment. I found it hard to believe. You’ll also find this movie hard to believe once you realize that it is truly fictional. The conceit of this movie turns upon the idea that science can conjure up something truly fantastical. That scientists through there work create an unreality that is macabre. This movie asks us to believe that magicians practice magic, but scientists practice a dark art. The revelation at the end wherein we learn that Tesla was a mad genius who produced a scientific body that defies science. No wonder Thomas Edison and his thugs had to discredit him; his work was not science but magic. And the magicians’ illusions were not slight of hand, but pure fantasy.
Hugh Jackman I can’t take seriously. For me he is always a comical character. I don’t know why, perhaps it was his role in Kate & Leopold. No matter, he was a distraction.
2 of 5 stars.
My brother worships at the altar of Sid Meier. He’s played all of the Civilization games, and has even met the dude. (He should get a job with Firaxis).
I on the other had have complete fascination with Will Wright. On my first PowerBook, the estemable PowerBook 140, I had two of his games, SimEarth and SimAnt. Unfortunately, my brother crashed that machine by playing Civ on it all day. Anyway, SimEarth and SimAnt were fun simulations which I played most of the my senior year in college. SimEarth was my favorite. I could never get some bigger mammals to rule the world. They all ended up being little fuzzy creatures populating the planet. The best though was crashing meteors onto the place and stir up the dust to kill your planet off. I think I want to put that onto my PowerBook 190, but it’ll probably run too fast.
It looks as if Will Wright is making a new game that is similar to SimEarth. It sounds cool. I hope it runs on a Mac.
Several new posts! Wow!
I’m just trying to move the long ghost story post off the front page.
Also, it’s el dia de los muertos. Pay respects to your dearly, departed relatives. Or get some Mexican skull and skeleton stuff. Perhaps next year!
