Sunday, December 19, 2004
Primer: My friend politely summed this one up:
This was a very challenging movie.
I agreed, and added that I might understand it after the third viewing, but that it would probably take ten times through to catch all the dialogue. It just didn't stop, didn't even take a breath. And I thought
Memento (2000) mucked about with time. None of the
Star Treks can touch this movie on their most paradoxical days.
Because I was so lost, well, first of all, I can't spoil it for anyone, and, second, I'll stick to how it impressed me, because it really did. #1 in my mind right now is writer, director, editor, composer - yes, even that wicked score was his creation - producer,
Shane Carruth.
This math guy has created something, well, it sure seemed grounded in science, really special in any case; and for pennies it seems.
From the movie's Web site, 'Amazingly, given the film's impressive production values,
Primer cost about $7000, or, as Carruth says,
the price of a used car.
'
#2 is the quality of the sets, the calibre of the cast (so many rookies!), the razor-sharp dialogue - they knit such an intense experience; it was mesmerizing. Actually, and I mean this with the greatest respect, because I
did buy what that movie was selling, it had a
Blair Witch intensity. In both cases, there was a point beyond which I wasn't watching fiction anymore, science or otherwise.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Forensic Evidence: Fingerprints: Well, it isn't as polished as
CSI - with that wicked choice of opening song,
Who Are You by The Who - but it's a Canadian show that I'm proud of. You can learn a lot. The cases and investigators are real (at least, I'd be surprised to learn otherwise).
I hadn't heard of the
Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), for instance. Now law enforcement can use palm prints as well, which typically make up 40% of the prints found at crime scenes. I'm assuming that in saying "the necessary storage space was prohibitive" prior to AFIS, the officer was talking about physical space.
The human side of the case always gets me too. The story doesn't end when the criminal is punished for his crime, and this episode was another example of that. One year after the victim's murder, and two years before the murderer's conviction, the victim's fiancée committed suicide.
The Venture Bros.: The Incredible Mr. Brisby: You are so lucky I had milk earlier.
*shudder* I'm gagging just typing that. This guy
McCulloch is sick, I tell you, sick!
I THOUGHT THE COLD WAR WAS OVER!
:-D Oh man, some wicked quotes in this episode. Molotov Cocktease (the voice of
Mia Barron): is that not
the best name for a villainess? :-)
Friday, December 17, 2004
Princess Mononoke: What to say, what to say? The movie is a powerhouse: at times chilling you like death gripping your spine, at others capturing the horror of war all too well, and still managing some very poignant moments.
The depiction of rage and hate was like nothing I've ever seen: black ooze, flowing and yet somehow alive; we've only begun when it's completely consumed
Nago: to see it pouring out of his eye socket, and then to hear that bass grumble. Could anything be more unsettling?
I enjoyed it almost as much as the first time I saw it. Something that struck me more so this time around - and the bonus feature included on the DVD tabled this - was the complexity of the characters; their motivations are all their own. While Lady Eboshi (the voice of
Minnie Driver in the English version) isn't a villain per se, she is a blind force that Prince Ashitaka (the voice of
Billy Crudup in the English version) is still trying to temper when the movie ends. Her all too human ambition will brook no questioning:
I'm going to show you how to kill a god... The trick is not to fear him.
She is a leader: awesome and terrible.
The Venture Bros.: Home Insecurity: Baron Ünderbheit (the voice of
T. Ryder Smith); where do they come up with this stuff? The shot of him in the show's opening sequence is just genius. All the villains, actually, look raving mad. :-) "A lab partnership is a sacred trust..." :-D All I could think of was the time I almost burned my eyebrows off with a
Bunsen burner. :-)
And of course no
Venture Bros. post would be complete without a comment on Brock. My favourite line in this episode was his stuttered "Sh-sh-shave" re: the
Sasquatch. His bulging eyes in the rearview mirror were classic! :-)
The Venture Bros.: The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay: Huh, so this was the pilot, eh? The animation was a bit choppy compared to the other episodes I've seen, but it was still very good. Brock's lines weren't as funny either, but his less than sane moments more than made up for that. :-)
The title baffled me until I found
the TV Tome page for the episode: I guess the
United Nations Headquarters is in
Turtle Bay, New York City, NY. More trivia from the TV Tome page:
The ninja's name, Otaku Senzuri, is a joke in itself. In Japanese, otaku (literally: house, formal) is a word used to describe a nerd or a fan of something and senzuri (literally: thousand rubs) is a word for masturbation.
The Venture Bros.: Ghosts of the Sargasso: Clearly poking fun at
Scooby-Doo, Where are you? this time with the pirates pretending their ship was haunted. Brock's (the voice of
Patrick Warburton) "You will all die - horribly - before this night is done" attitude was great. :-)
Monday, December 13, 2004
The Venture Bros.: Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic: Pretty good. :-)
The throwback to Scooby-Doo that I mentioned in my last post was overt in this episode: Hank's (the voice of
Chris McCulloch,
the show's creator) outfit - no, not the
Aqua Man pajamas - :-) was identical to the only one I ever saw Fred (the voice of
Frank Welker) wear.
I think my favourite scene had the polar bears riding the motorcycles with machine gunners in the sidecars. They looked so determined to kill Brock; it was great!
The Venture Bros.: Careers in Science: My coworker burned a bunch of
The Venture Bros. episodes for me, saying that they were great, but that it might take me a few episodes to get into it. I have to say, after the scene in Brock's (the voice of
Patrick Warburton) cabin - "I hacked up something pink, about the size of a small kiwi, but I don't feel anything missing so I'm sure I'm fine" - I was sold. Heck, every one of Warburton's lines had me smiling at least.
I loved the animation too. It really worked with the humour. And the dialogue was excellent as well. That scene where the woman talking on the cell diagnosed her problem as someone trying to fax her? That was classic! Because it's true! And there's something about the combination of the animation, the dialogue and the story (of this episode anyway) that was very
Scooby-Doo. (And that's a good thing, by the way; for whatever reason, I loved that show when I was a kid.) :-) Fantastic stuff. I can't wait to watch the rest of the episodes I have here.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Alexander (2004): I'm overwhelmed, to put it bluntly. A bit out of my depth in history that I haven't read about since secondary school, to be honest. I watched
CNN's interview with Robin Lane Fox on
his role as the movie's historical advisor about a week or so ago:
NISSEN: Oxford University scholar Robin Lane Fox is author of the closest thing there is to a biography to Alexander [he wrote The Search for Alexander and Alexander the Great: A Biography --John]. He was chief historical consultant on the new film.
FOX: Great pains were taken to make it an epic drama with unusual reference to history.
Unusual is definitely apt. I'm left feeling that
Stone made this movie as a testament to the man first, and as entertainment second, or possibly third, to, as a friend put it, his own brilliance as a director; which is not a criticism, by the way. I don't mind being asked to commit a few hours of my life to explore and learn; the key for me is knowing that up front, and the critics certainly prepared me for this challenging viewing.
The only problem in this particular case is that, apparently, despite the qualified advisor,
Alexander breaks from what we know of the man's life at times, and I was none the wiser. Hopefully the DVD will include some director commentary on this artistic license. I do plan on watching this one many more times. Again, it was overwhelming this first time through, and I'm sure I missed a lot.
I can only imagine the nightmare of filming those battles. The movie included the most horrific - simulated, I'm sure - violence against animals I've seen in recent memory, and, of course, the people faired no better; think
Braveheart (1995), I guess. I really enjoyed the reddening of the perspective after Alexander's (
Colin Farrell) near-fatal wounding. It dramatically intensified the violence of the scene for me.
Boy, this post is all over the place. Oh well, I can't end it with no mention of the guy who fell asleep in front of us: it couldn't have been more than an hour in when I heard this incredible half-stifled pig-like snort from the seat in front of me. It was so loud! I looked at my friend and asked, "Was that guy asleep?" I couldn't believe it. "Oh yeah," my friend replied. Completely unconscious! Weird.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
...And Justice For All (1979): There's law; and then there's order,
said Judge Rayford (
Jack Warden), patting his now-holstered six-shooter. Just as Rayford brought order to his courtroom in his own way, this movie was about how the law and men live when they meet on the street, one on one. In a few words? Again, Rayford captured it beautifully:
It sucks.
Note: spoilers follow...
But, if you're up for that message, this movie tells a moving story. I don't know whether the ending was supposed to be uplifting - along the lines of "Kirkland (
Al Pacino) stood up for what he believed in, kids, and that's always something to be proud of" - but all I could see was this picture of an older, fatter, bitter, lonely Kirkland, unemployed and waiting to die. I mean, he would've been disbarred at the very least; hell, he was so over-the-top in that courtroom, I was expecting to see him in a psychiatric facility in the next scene. Of course, all I got was a clipped shot of the courtroom steps and the credits, which, I would have to say, was the most disappointing aspect of the whole movie: a fantastic buildup to... well, in my mind, Kirkland throwing it all away. As my wife said, that scene just screamed mistrial, and who knows how the new one would've gone. Let's just say there were better ways to ensure Judge Fleming (
John Forsythe) got the maximum penalty.
However, I don't want to leave with the wrong impression. Pacino got an
Academy Award nomination for his performance as Kirkland, and with good reason. I remember one scene where he's eating Chinese food with his-soon-to-be girlfriend, Gail Packer (
Christine Lahti), and his mouth's just a-goin'. I'm serious! I've
never seen Pacino eat like that, and I've watched a lot of his movies. I turned to my wife and said, "That's it. He is Kirkland. He's decided that this is how Kirkland would eat, so here it is." Great stuff. Take my upset over the ending as an indication of how good the hour and 45 minutes that proceeded it were.
