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Published on August 7, 2008 in Movies and Stuff. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

For the past couple weeks I’ve been thinking “shit, nothing’s been going on for me to write about here,” but then I realized I was just being lazy.  I mean, I haven’t really felt like writing a serious movie review, but there definitely has been some stuff worth mentioning, at least.

I saw Chromeo play at the House of Blues here in San Diego last week, which was awesome.  It happened to be P-Thugg’s birthday so they brought a cake out and sang for him.  Immediately after that they did a short Journey tribute.  Totally rad.  Here’s some video I took of it… sorry it sucks.

Later this month I’ll be seeing Radiohead and next month I’ll see Ratatat.  I can’t wait for those shows.

Before that was Comic Con.  My objective of not spending money was a devastating failure.  I bought Tachikoma, Fuchikoma, EVA-01, Paragoomba, and Bob-omb action figures, as well as 8 Samurai Executioner books and 2 Hellboy books.  Overall, the show was a laid-back experience.  We didn’t make a big effort to get there early on any day, and didn’t go to many panels.  The three panels I attended in full were Watchmen, Pixar, and Kevin Smith / Seth Rogen.  We tried to go see the Ghostbusters Game panel, but it was cancelled due to a “scheduling conflict” with the talent (aka Dan Aykroyd).  I also got some awesome t-shirts.  Among them are designs featuring Donkey Kong, Megaman, Watchmen, Ghostbusters, and Marathon.

Aside from that, I’ve gone to see some movies.  The highlight has to be the Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which I’ve seen twice now (once in IMAX).  This was the Batman film I’ve always hoped for.  Heath Ledger steals the show and sets the tone of the movie.

WALL-E (Stanton, 2008)

Published on June 30, 2008 in Movies. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

I caught a midnight screening of WALL-E last Thursday night.  The movie is simply amazing.  I think it currently tops my list as best movie so far this year.

The movie does a few interesting things.  It mixes in some live-action video clips, for one, bringing actor Fred Willard into the film.  The most daring thing the movie does is that it goes for long stretches without any dialogue aside for the very small vocabulary the robots have, limited basically to their names and a couple other words.  Both of these are risky moves for Pixar, but I think they were a rousing success, particularly the lack of dialogue.  It makes for one of the most heartfelt, funniest movies of the year.

Something else to note with WALL-E is the short that runs with the film, Doug Sweetland’s Presto.  Presto had me laughing harder than I have in a long time.  In the short, Sweetland channels Chuck Jones at the top of his form… it’s very trippy to see a Disney short done in the Warner Bros. style.  The short alone is worth the price of admission.

The Incredible Hulk (Letterier, 2008)

Published on June 17, 2008 in Movies. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I just got back from seeing Marvel’s latest comic book adaptation, The Incredible Hulk. Like with Iron Man, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Marvel seems to have learned its lesson and shaken off the stupid (refer to X3 and Ghost Rider, if you’re wondering). Let’s hope the lesson is permanent.

After the movie, Lannice mentioned the scuffle over the final cut of the film between Edward Norton and Marvel. This left me curious, so I did some reading. Norton and Louis Leterrier (the director) pushed for a cut that was about 20 minutes longer, a little more meditative. Marvel wanted a streamlined cut, the most commercial film possible. Marvel obviously won the argument. Some film blog got wind of this, broke the story, and branded it a “feud.” The story exploded, but apparently it’s way out of proportion, at least according to a statement Norton submitted to Entertainment Weekly. You can read the whole story and the statement here.

Anyways, I’m left curious about the alternate cut. Theres a total of around 50 minutes of unused material; I guess we’ll have to wait for the DVD release.

A sidenote: at last summer’s Comic Con, they had announced that Norton would also be working on the film’s script. According to another article I read, Norton did a page-one rewrite of the script, rewriting mostly the dialogue but also adding some scenes. When Marvel submitted the script to the Writer’s Guild, the previous writer, Zak Penn, won the arbitration and was given sole credit. The article says “the Guild tends to favor plot, structure, and pre-existing characters over dialogue,” but that’s still unfortunate.

Indy’s Delivery Service and the Kingdom of the Metal Gear

Published on May 26, 2008 in Movies and Video Games. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Today’s been a busy day. Pat, Morty, Derek and I continued our Metal Gear Solid 2 playthrough, going from the beginning of the Tanker section to just after the fight with Fat Man.

After that, the three of us went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, otherwise known as Indy 4. I enjoyed it, overall. Maybe it’s not as fresh as the other ones were, but it was quite fun. It’s refreshing to see Spielberg make something so light, although the movie doesn’t feel as agile as some of his other work.

Indiana Jones as Kiki

Indy must defeat Metal Gear Ray before he can deliver delicious cake to the lady down the street.

I was bored after dinner, so I watched Kiki’s Delivery Service. The movie’s really awesome. I find animated films like this really refreshing, especially after seeing the trailer tonight for Dreamworks’ latest CG monstrosity. I admit, I’m curious about Kung Fu Panda, but still.

I Am Legend (Lawrence, 2007)

Published on January 31, 2008 in Movies. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The latest version of I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, was a great movie ruined by a disastrous third act.

Will Smith stars as Robert Neville, lone survivor of an epidemic that has either killed or turned the rest of the population of New York into vampire-like mutants. Neville is a military scientist working on a cure to the virus, who by coincidence is also immune. He works tirelessly to find a cure for the virus, something he sees as his responsibility.

The first two acts of the film are solid.  It sets out exploring the nature of man, human love and family, and how it ties to an instinct for survival.  The film juxtaposes Neville and the mutants in an interesting way.  A man struggles to correct the mistakes he has made, and fights against the natural world he has perverted.

The third act is a disaster.  The movie feels like it’s rushed to conclusion, and all the effort spent setting up the film for a satisfying conclusion through the ideas of the first two acts is squandered as the movie is suddenly about god’s plan and divine providence.  It feels like someone threw away the last forty pages of the screenplay and replaced them with fifteen pages of a lost C.S. Lewis novel or something.  Rubbish.

Anyways, if you want to see this, wait for the DVD.  Perhaps it’ll come with a deleted ending that’ll make it more worthwhile.

More Ghostbusters Details!

Published on November 15, 2007 in Movies and Video Games. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
Ghostbusters Game Informer cover

Who you gonna call??

I was actually just talking to someone about this a week or so ago — the Ghostbusters game that was rumored to be in the works, a story I’ve covered here in the past.

Game Informer announced that their cover story for the December issue is an exclusive about the upcoming game! I’m glad this has resurfaced and been confirmed. The best part: Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd are writing the script, and they’re also set to voice the game along with Bill Murray!

This has the potential to be fantastic.

Also, this is unrelated to that Zootfly demo I posted about before.

[via Game|Life]

Update: Ernie Hudson is also voicing! SWEET!

You must admit, you brought this on yourself.

Published on October 22, 2007 in Movies. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Michael Haneke has remade his own brilliant movie, Funny Games. The original is German, and one of the most fucked up, brutal, terrifying movies I have ever seen. This also makes it very memorable. It’s an amazing movie, but of course, isn’t for everyone. While some people may dismiss it on the surface, the movie also contains significant thematic depth.

I’m not so sure why I’m so excited about this remake. Some of the shots in the trailer make it look like it’s a remake shot for shot, when compared to the original German trailer, but then halfway through the trailers are drastically different. I guess I want to see where Michael Haneke goes with it.

Continue reading ‘You must admit, you brought this on yourself.’

Probably for the best

Published on October 7, 2007 in Links, Movies and Video Games. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The Halo movie is “entirely dead.”

I’m sure it would have made a ton of money, but I’m also confident it wouldn’t have been particularly good.

D-War: Dragon Wars (Shim, 2007)

Published on September 24, 2007 in Movies. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a steaming pile of shit that stinks as much as this movie. This isn’t even laughably bad like the Wicker Man remake… it was just straight up bad.  As cool as the concept of an army of dragons fighting helicopters and tanks might be, it doesn’t save this movie.

If you want to see a Korean monster flick, skip this and watch The Host instead.

Shoot ‘Em Up (Davis, 2007)

Published on September 20, 2007 in Movies. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

I ended up bored with this movie. The action felt hollow, the main character wasn’t interesting, and the narrative was dull. I hated the writing; it’s full of really bad one-liners that aren’t bad in a good way, and I think Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti were wasted in this film. The movie fetishizes guns to the point of stupidity… I know that was the point, but it’s just too overt.

Check it out on DVD, if you must.