Posts Tagged movies
Star Wars Trek
May 18
old.
I still get that twinge of jealousy with all his equipment that would have cost a pretty penny back then. Not to mention his parents never seem to care about him wardialing thousands of calls on their line. My parents freaked out everytime a computer would dial me. But how else would I join those wionderful BBSes and get my TradeWars on?
WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars
Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
Now we can finally all go buy a damn movie player. Even though we won’t notice that much difference over regular DVDs. And now Microsoft can scramble to change their XBOX360, or not.
click the link at the top or the link below to see the full press release. Read the rest of this entry »
Cinematic Titanic
Dec 2
Joel Hodgson and some of the original Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew have set up a website for a new show they are making: Cinematic Titanic.
Fromt he blog/description, it sounds like it will be in the same format as MST3K, with B-movies and silhouettes and all. J. Elvis Weinstein and Trace Beaulieu are also in on the project, and the three of them happen to be the original cast of MST3K.
Interesting at least. I’m not sure why they are going back to old roots, but I hope its from inspiration and not from lack of living expenses. Mike Nelson’s Rifftrax were mildly funny to me, but nothing that made me laugh as much as MST3K. But I wonder if this project is in response to Rifftrax’s apparent success.
Children of Men
Dec 29
It’s the week of dystopian movies for drzy. I just watched Children of Men tonight.
I am a tad biased, as my favorite type of books and films are social sci-fi of dystopian nature, but really most sci-fi films have a relatively bleak look at the future, even if it isn’t our own future. (or, even a long time ago… in a galaxy far far away) For the books there are many, but these type of films are few and far between. And pretty much all of the films are based on or influenced by a particular book anyways.
Anywho, the film was very good. I’m not a big fan of Clive, but he’s done a decent job in all the movies I’ve seen him in, including this one. I’ll try not to give out any spoilers here beyond what the trailers show. Man has somehow accidentally engineered fertility out of our human equation. In so doing, the world plunges into chaos, and those countries left standing become racist/nationalist to an extreme. There are rebel groups fighting the power, and there are people who are now considered subhuman that are herded into camps.
The characters in this movie are remarkably deep and original, especially considering their limited screen time. Michael Caine was awesome, as only he can be. Chiwetel Ejiofor I have a fondness for since Serenity, and he definitely does not disappoint. Julianne Moore was ok, but I’ve never thought she was that great. Even the side characters manage to have a distinct personalities rather than being Guard #1 or Police Officer #7. The characterization is the real triumph of the movie.
For those looking for an action film, you may want to skip the first half. Sure there is a bit, but most before the half is marked with philosophy and discovery. Things pick up towards the end in a stark turn towards all out war.
As with many of these films, there is no clear resolution at the end. The glimmer of hope just becomes a tad brighter.
I recommend it as worth the ticket price and maybe even worth a second viewing, if only because you are like me and had metalhead days that flattened your hearing, so that UK accents are harder for me to decipher. Much of the dialog is very good.
I also rewatched Dark City today which furthered my dystopian trend. And… I saw Rocky Balboa last night, which surprisingly was a good movie that was enjoyable.
youtube has a great snowball effect going. First they stole all the thunder from Google Video with their superior tagging, searching, and embedding. Then people started posting old 80’s series, and now there are full length movies on the thing.
Here’s some retro luvin’:
Well, not exactly.
But this is a hypnotizing video montage of how they used Brando’s earlier role in the movies and updated it, complete with a speaking part.
