“We send a reporter to the scene, he asks the transit police if he can go into the tunnel, they say no, he says okay, I go on the air every eight minutes and say, ‘Still no news on that disabled train.'”

broderic on September 17, 2013

Pulled from the Shelves: From Up on Poppy Hill

The great animation director Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement this past week. He’ll be sorely missed, but if Ghibli continues to make animated films as lovely as From Up on Poppy Hill, the studio is in good hands.

From Up on Poppy Hill is directed by Miyazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki. The father wrote the screenplay based on a shojo manga from the early 80s. Ghibli films are known for their leading ladies. Choosing a shojo manga heroine is natural. Although, this is the first time one can say that Ghibli is doing a moe film.

Moe? Yes. It’s got plenty of tropes from anime of the last few years: twin tails, seifuku, school clubs, school setting. For a second, From Up on Poppy Hill feels almost like any anime lately. That doesn’t really detract from it. I’m only noticing because of the amount of anime I’ve been watching.

The plot revolves around young love. The heroine falls for the charismatic editor of the school newspaper. She helps him in saving the old club house building from being demolished. They are meant to be together but certain family ties stand in their way.

It’s a simple film. Girl meets boy. Girl falls for boy. Boy falls for girl. They both are in love. Plain and simple.

I bought the Blu-Ray/DVD combo and I have both discs in both TVs ready to be watched. The English dub is completely different than the original Japanese. Goro Miyazaki trusts his viewers to understand what’s showing on the screen. The English dub doesn’t; it opens with a voice over from the heroine setting the scene fro the rest of movie. The Japanese version opens with just the soundtrack playing following the heroine as she wakes up, prepares breakfast, and gets ready for the day. We are meant to infer what’s happening, let the story unfold, and figure out the setting. That’s trust by showing and not telling.

Animation is not a genre. It’s a technic. This film could easily have been live action. I’m glad that Ghibli did it animated. Animation isn’t just for kids. Plenty of stories can be animated. I wish more directors chose it. Thank you Hayao Miyazaki.

4 of 5 stars.

“Okay, who did I hire as news director here?”

broderic on September 14, 2013

Wired commemorates 50 years of X-Men by offering up 10 essential X-Men story lines. The usual suspects are there, Giant Size X-Men #1, Days of Future Past, The Dark Phoenix Saga, as well as mid 90s comic desolation crossovers and latter day reboots. They’ve hit a good set of stories and arcs to give an overview of the who, what, and why of the X-Men. But like all lists that try to categorize something I have more than a passing knowledge of, it’s missing a few arcs that I would deem essential.

I’ve been an X-Men fan since I started reading comics. I am still picking up the latest issues even when I have no idea what is going on. Now, I’m not familiar with the mid and late 90s X-Men, but I want to add to that list.

I would add a few of the first issues: The X-Men #1-3. I own a copy of #3 with the Blob as the villain. Any list about the X-Men should include the origin stories!

I would add the run of classic Chris Claremont from the mid-80s. These were the stories I grew up on. I would start with the Shi’ar/Brood arc (#155) and run through the Wolverine/Mariko wedding in Japan (#174). That’s at least twenty issues of Claremont. It’s not leaning on John Byrne, but Claremont on his own.

I would add the Fall of the Mutants arc. The story line I came back to reading the X-Men after a couple years off.

I would add Inferno because that was the last meaningful arc I read.

I have yet to catch up to all the X-Men comics. There’s been a lot that happened to them. I should try to catch up on some kind of wiki.

“I own a lot of Euro Disney.”

broderic on September 13, 2013

I had plenty of blog posts in me this past week.  Some ‘Link of the Day,’ maybe a normal post about something on the internet, but Blogger has been bloggered for a bit.   I sent in bug reports/site feedbacks using the normal Blogger feedback form. I wrote with sarcasm.  I wonder who reads those forms and if I will get a response.  Hopefully, the profanity in the message will not keep them from seeing that it’s a real request and that they should fix the issue.

“Everyone knows standardized tests are fundamentally racist.”

broderic on September 8, 2013

My Panasonic Blu-Ray player is the worst.

When it plays through the special features, it hangs. Nothing. Usually, it should return you to the special features menu. It doesn’t. I have yet to figure out how to get it back. I usually restart the machine, and when I say restart I mean a hard shutdown pulling the plug with a restart. Remind me to never play a special feature through.

It’s also slow to respond to user input. I have no idea when I press the on button when it will actually respond. So you press it two or three times and now you may have shut it off.

There is no navigation back to the main menu. It’s a little pop-up which doesn’t seem to show everything. Is this Blu-Ray? Can they get software developers on this?

“Let’s see, there’s Indigo, Sapphire, Sky, and Standard Blue.”

broderic on September 2, 2013

The War on Fat: Dog days of August.

August

It goes up this time of year. If I was losing ground the previous month, then I’m giving up gains this past month. It’s what happens.

Basically, I just felt like eating.

Also, I spent the month offline not working out to let my elbow heal.

It’s time to return to some serious work. Can I really get down under 200 pounds by the end of the year? Not sure. It’s going to have to be salad and yogurt or some kind of diet to get me going. And I just lowered the bar!

“Joe, this doesn’t look like a stun gun.”

broderic on September 1, 2013

Closed Circuit

I think I’m the only person living in America wanting to go see Closed Circuit. It’s because I’ve got the hots for Rebecca Hall. So, I tricked my mom to catch an early Saturday show. It bored the hell of her. I was too busy looking at the beauty on the screen to see that it was really a average pot boiler.

The film’s plot is about 2 English barristers (they wear wigs!) who have to defend an accused terrorist. Eric Bana is the terrorist’s main lawyer who gets the job after the original defender jumped from a building. Rebecca Hall is the terrorist’s special activist for the top secret trial. Both have a sordid history in the past which may conflict with their sworn duty, and both have to defend themselves from a higher power keeping them from unravelling the true mystery of the terrorist bombing.

The film plays out as you expect it. “Trust no one.” When terrorism is on trial, question all motives from the terrorist to the prosecution. Every one is under suspicion.

The movie even though boring at times is thoroughly adequate for a late summer/September release. You’ll forget about it by the time the leaves change color. You’ll remember it when it comes time to think about Rebecca Hall.

3 of 5 stars.

The World’s End

broderic on September 1, 2013

The World’s End finishes up the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead being the other two. On a side note, I searched my blog for an entry for Shaun of the Dead, but the movie came out a month before this blog started in May of 2004. I can’t believe that movie is almost 10 years old. I can believe this blog is almost 10 years old and devolving slowly to no entries.

Anywho, while this film was as enjoyable as the others, it’s not as good as Hot Fuzz, my favorite. Mostly, its unhappy ending contributed to a less favorable impression. It’s a bleak ending with the world literally ended. Oops, spoiler alert!

The film is two films: the first about reclaiming past glories and the second an alien invasion flick. Simon Pegg tries to regain his mojo by returning to the ultimate mistake of his youth, not finishing a bar crawl in his old home town. He recruits the very same crew to redo it almost 20 years later when they are in their 40s. His crew are more responsible adults. They’ve gotten on in their lives. They don’t wear the Ministry shirt and black trenchcoat of their youth. They were respectable adult clothes. Pegg is stuck in the past. Yet the future is about aliens who have taken over their old home town and the world in order to bring Earth and her inhabitants to the future. Pegg wants to stop this. He’s selfish in both dragging his pals as well as keeping the world from joining the ‘Federation.’ Who knows how to be an adult? And is it worth it? His cohorts think so.

I love drinking movies! I was all set for the bar crawl. It’s like Beerfest. Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! It’s always a riot when thinking about drinking as much as possible. I feel that even though I no longer drink that I want to get rip roaring drunk again. I’m going on my own Golden Mile.

4 of 5 stars.