Adventures From My Netflx Queue: L’illusionniste

broderic on October 28, 2011

Last year’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film went to Toy Story 3. In the Annual BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool, most everyone picked it for the winner and the other one for How To Train Your Dragon was most likely a fat finger vote. I think we all need to change our minds. I have just watched the forgotten choice, Sylvain Chomet’s L’illusionniste and couldn’t be more impressed with it. Toy Story 3 can’t compare to L’illusionniste.

The story tells the tale of a magician in 1959 whose fortunes are running out in Paris. He gets a billing in remote Scotland at a small pub wherein he meets a young lady. Impressed with his magical prowess, she follows him to Edinburgh, Scotland. The magician treats her like his daughter buying clothes and gifts for her while trying to keep up his illusionist trade. Yet, the era of magic as entertainment is dwindling and his ill fortune follows him so that it is impossible to make a living doing sleight of hand.

The film reminds me of the joie de vivre first 10 minutes of Pixar’s Up and the silent melancholia of the early part of Wall●E. It is mainly a silent movie as the film makes do with gestures to convey the emotions of the story. What little dialog there is and what little speeches there are end up sounding like Esperanto. Chomet’s animators make it all work though. The emotion of every scene is clearly conveyed in the hand drawn animation. The lack of words do not hinder such a sweet tale. It makes it all the more poignant. There is still a place for hand drawn animation.

In last year’s Oscar Pool, I rooted for L’illusionniste to pull off an upset. It didn’t but most likely because no one saw this movie. When you do, you’ll change your mind. Toy Story 3 will just be a slight cream puff of a movie while L’illusionniste will be a full banquet of delight.

5 of 5 stars

Link of the Day [10.28.11]

broderic on October 28, 2011

Android shoots itself in the foot.

One of the things that I wonder for all those Android fanbois is if they consider OS fragmentation a good thing for non-fanbois. I mean your all elite and shit, but what about your mom. Is the many versions of Android OS worth it for you average person? They don’t care right until they buy an app (or download a free one) that doesn’t work on their phone because it only works for a particular version.

And developers, can they really write apps that take advantage of things if you don’t know what the hardware is going to be?

We were discussing flashlight apps in work today and a co-worker showed us one on his phone. Someone asked if it supported flashing, strobing, or signaling. He said yeah and proceeded to show us. While it was flashing out an SOS, it also was beeping. Another co-worker asked why do you need it to beep. He then tried to turn it off, but the app was unresponsive. He made an excuse for it. I didn’t say anything, but I wondered how can you live like that.

Eventually, Google will understand. They’ll figure it out the they have to be more than an ad salesman in the tech world.

http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support

Soups-on

broderic on October 27, 2011

This soup looks interesting to make. Scratch that. The stock, dashi, looks interesting to make, because if that’s all there is to it. Well, I’m gonna go get some konbu and bonito flakes.

Link of the Day [10.25.11]

broderic on October 25, 2011

With winter quickly approaching and autumn finally settling in, I was thinking about making my home a little more energy efficient. I plan first to get a storm door for the front entryway, because I believe my front door is like a hole in the wall and it lets out a lot of the heat. Then I thought about a new programmable thermostat add it so that
I can control when and how much my furnace or AC goes off. I wondered how easy this would be to do. But then I got to thinking it would be nice to have a connected thermostat to check in on during the day.Well, some dudes are trying to change the thermostat industry. Looks promising. Maybe I should get a job with them.http://www.nest.com/

Je Te Veux

broderic on October 24, 2011

Cute asian playing Erik Satie’s “Je te veux?” That’s what I want to hear in the morning. Waltzes get no love nowadays, but you can’t deny that the 3/4 time signature is pretty. 1-2-3, 1-2-3, up-down-down, loud-quiet-quiet. It’s a fine for a musical interlude in the day. May this waltz smooth out the rest of your day.

1962-2011

broderic on October 23, 2011

brooks_robinson_topps_1962

Currently bought a few of packs of Topps Heritage 2011 baseball cards. They replicate the 1962 Topps cards, but with current players. I hated it first because I really didn’t like the original cards. It grew on me though and now I like the look of the 2011 Heritage cards and have a particular liking towards the original. Here’s a favorite Brooks Robinson card from my collection. It’s 1962! I’ve had this one since the 1980s!

The Three Musketeers (2011)

broderic on October 23, 2011

All you need to know about The Three Musketeers (2011) is that Milla Jovovich stars as Mlle de Winter. She’s the muse to Paul WS Anderson as she has starred in lots of his movies mostly Resident Evil. You could’ve told me that this was directed by Pitof or even Kurt Wimmer of Ultraviolet infamy as the movie progressed it had that campy feel of the worst of the worst films of this past decade. Yet, it didn’t sink towards Uwe Boll infamy because it was campy enough to entertain, and that’s all we want from a movie — entertainment.

The movie had structural similarities to the Dumas book. Besides Milady de Winter, you had the cardinal, the 3 musketeers, the Buckingham and d’Artagnan. De Winter schemes with the Cardinal. The 3 musketeers befriend d’Artagnan. Those are the similarities. The rest of the plot could’ve, but could not be from the book. Sky ships! De Winter as a ninja?! The fat guy? Was this in the book?

Yet it was all fun. Pure entertainment. Like a resident evil, but better as things weren’t as hokie. Campy but never dumb. Stupid but never retarded. Almost, almost straight from the mind of Dumas, but twisted into a steam punk novel. Ridiculous, but entertaining.

So the changes got me thinking about the original novel. I bet you the original serializations were treated as campy fun as well. Pure entertainment. Now we have to wait for the next installment.

3 of 5 stars

Paranormal Activity 3

broderic on October 22, 2011

There are some harrowing moments in Paranormal Activity 3, but the advertised last 15 minutes sinks the movie. I think we all left the theatre feeling slightly ripped off.

I didn’t see the second one. At least with the first one the motivational scare felt organic, part of the story. With the final 15 minutes of this one, it felt tacked on. Something to explain it all. You don’t need to do that! It’s all paranormal — beyond normal. Nothing will make any sense.

Also, if you show it in the trailer, it’s gotta be in the movie. It some kind of rip off if you ask me. And that’s how I felt. Ripped off. That’s not to say I wasn’t frightened at times. Bloody Mary! The ghost in a sheet! The clean kitchen! Yeah, I was averting my eyes. That’s just me.

Overall, it was not like the first one because that one was scary. The static camera shots just make me nervous. The lack of a musical soundtrack even more so. Without a musical cue, you don’t know when to be scared. They did attempt to have a rumbling bass noise to help, but it wasn’t enough to signify a scary moment.

If you watch it in the theatre, watch the cheapest showing. It’s really short.

2 of 5 stars.

I like Pie

broderic on October 21, 2011

felix_pie_2010_topps_national_chicle

Sadly, no longer with the organization, Felix had his worst year as an Oriole. This is a 2010 Topps National Chicle. I like these cards and I like the way this one looks. If only Felix could’ve been as great as he looks on this card.