Film

While I’m not nearly as much of a movie buff as many, I do like ’em and watch ’em when I can.

From Berkeley to the Matrix

by

Wired has a great article about the special effects of the Matrix and its upcoming sequels (and speaking of which, the full trailer for The Matrix: Reloaded has been released, and kicks much butt).

In the course of the article, Wired mentions that much of the inspiration and technology for the more eye-catching special effects in the Matrix films were drawn from a project called The Campanile Movie, which is fascinating in its own right. The basic concept is taking photographs of an area and then wrapping them around a 3-D rendered landscape in order to create a photorealistic virtual environment. They explain it much better than I do, though….

(via Jason Kottke)

I hope that something better comes along

by

SCENE: Evening in a bar. Our HERO walks into the the bar, pausing by the piano as the bar’s PIANIST plays an opening riff. The PIANIST looks up and greets our HERO as he plays lightly on the keyboard.

PIANIST: Evenin’! You look like you could use a drink.

OUR HERO: Yeah. I’d like a grasshopper, please.

PIANIST: [Calling to the bartender] Hey, can we have a grasshopper for the frog?

OUR HERO: Uh, that…that’s Kermit, Kermit the Frog.

PIANIST: Oh! Rowlf, Rowlf the Dog, here. Pleased ta meet’cha!

[ROWLF plays a fancy glissando on the piano]

ROWLF: I’m no Heifetz, but I get by.

[ROWLF continues to play lightly, as KERMIT looks out the window]

ROWLF: Lemme guess — broken heart, right?

KERMIT: Huh. Does it show?

ROWLF: Listen — when you’ve been tickling the ivories as long as I have, you’ve seen a broken heart for every drop of rain; a shattered dream for every falling star.

KERMIT: Exactly. She just walked out on me.

ROWLF: Eh, typical. That’s why I live alone.

KERMIT: You do, huh?

ROWLF: You bet. Finish work, I go home, read a book, have a couple of beers, take myself for a walk and go to bed.

KERMIT: Nice and simple.

ROWLF: Stay away from women — that’s my motto.

KERMIT: But I can’t!

ROWLF: Neither can I. That’s my trouble.

ROWLF: You can’t life with ’em, you can’t live without ’em.
There’s something irresistable-ish about ’em.
We grin and bear it ’cause the nights are long —
I hope that somethin’ better comes along.

KERMIT: I see what you mean.
It’s no good complainin’, and pointless to holler.

ROWLF: If she’s a beauty she’ll get under your collar.

KERMIT: She made a monkey out of old King Kong.

BOTH: I hope that something better comes along.

ROWLF: Ah, but what could be better, than a saucy Irish Setter,
When puppy love comes on strong?
Or a collie that’s classy…
A laddie needs a lassie…
A lover and wife gives you a new leash on life!

KERMIT: Uh — uh, was that a new leash on life?

ROWLF: Oh yeah. Uh, sorry about that. Two, three, four…

KERMIT: I don’t mean to scare ya, my friend, but I bet’cha,
come Father’s Day the litter bug’s gonna get’cha.

ROWLF: The urge is righteous but the face is wrong!

BOTH: I hope that something better comes along.

KERMIT: Still, it’s fun when they’re fetchin’,
and agree to see an etching,
that you keep at your lilly pad.
There is no solution, it’s part of evolution…

ROWLF: The pitter-patter of soles, the little feet of tadpoles!

KERMIT: Uh, Rowlf, tadpoles don’t have feet!

ROWLF: Oh. Sorry about that. Two, three, four…

KERMIT: There’s no limitation to mixin’ and matchin’.

ROWLF: Some get an itchin’ for a critter they’ve been scratchin’.
A skunk was badgered, the results were strong!
I hope that somethin’ better,

BOTH: I hope that somethin’ better,
I hope that somethin’ better comes along!

ROWLF: Beep-bop-biddy-biddy, doom-bom-diddy-diddy, dom-bum-um-ummm…

[KERMIT walks off]

ROWLF: It’s not often you see a guy that green…had the blues that bad.

The only way out is in

by

I just got back from seeing The Core.

In an effort to kick-start my brain back into gear, I think before I go to bed tonight, I’m going to have to watch something that actually has decent plot, interesting characters, and — most importantly — some semblance of scientific crediblity.

Armageddon should do nicely.

No, really, it's not propaganda

by

Whether or not you’re old enough to remember seeing them in theaters (I’m not), you may very likely know about the old MovieTone newsreels that used to be shown in theaters before movies. Well, it looks like they’re going to be back, in the form of short films created by soldiers currently overseas.

“We fell on this idea of recreating films that looked like and were the length of the old Movietone forms of the 1940s,” said Marine Lt. Col. Jim Kuhn, military producer for the undertaking called the Movietone Newsreel Project. Kuhn says the objective is to put together a short film that combines the commentary of real-life soldiers with the kind of footage civilian journalists would be unable to get.

The planned films based on the Iraq conflict mark the military’s second attempt to create a modern, government-sponsored version of the wartime Movietone, a short-film format that was popular among studios in the days before television news broadcasts were widely available. The first effort by the Navy and Marines, titled Enduring Freedom, was based on footage collected from troops in Afghanistan.

Enduring Freedom was not without its Hollywood flourishes, including the fast pace of an action movie and a soundtrack reminiscent of a happy-ending scene in a big-budget drama. O’Connor, a former producer of Marines recruitment ads, says the films are crafted as documentaries and “are not propaganda.”

I may not remember Movietone newsreels, but I do remember when I could go to see a movie and actually be able to see a movie. Now, in addition to all the commercials and ads before we even get to the trailers, we get government sponsored and produced propaganda as well?

Pardon me if I’m not jumping up and down for joy.

Rocky Horror Muppet Show

by

Frank N. Piggy? Miss Piggyfurter?

What do you get when you cross a love of the Rocky Horror Picture Show with a love of the Muppets?

Some of the most truly bizarre pictures I’ve ever seen — the Rocky Horror Muppet Show. Apparently the troupe that does this is based here in Seattle — I have got to find out when this goes on and show up!

Also, while it’s not the best (ahem…most amusing) review I’ve read on their site, the notorious ultra-conservative Christian movie review site CAP finally got around to posting their RHPS review.

Ignominy in this cult flick included homosexual song and talk, homosexual presences and practices, and vulgar behavior such as a man’s head between a man’s legs behind translucent drapes; detailed statue nudity, nudity in plain view and behind translucent drapes, intercourse behind the same; inappropriate touch (both hetero- and homosexual) and begging for it, very brief clothing, group licking/kissing; transvestism, adults in underwear, suggestive (homosexual) eye movements; vulgar positioning in very brief clothing, explicit homosexual song/dance; expressions such as “There’s no crime in giving yourself over to pleasure” speaking to trying homosexuality. Among the non-sexual ignominy were the three/four letter word vocabulary, God’s name in vain both with and without the four letter expletive, an unseen but heard pickax murder, raygun murder, cannibalist meal of Meatloaf (I wonder from where that idea came). There is more, a lot more but the point is made for the wholesome moviegoer.

(Muppet pics via BoingBoing, CAP review via The Zen Room)

On battling stereotypes

by

When you’re a member of Suncoast‘s ‘Replay’ membership program, one of the benefits is their Request magazine. It’s about what you’d expect from this type of magazine — 50% advertising, 47% advertising thinly disguised as content, and about 3% that’s actually somewhat interesting to read.

The current March/April issue has a rundown of six top Oscar contenders: Nicole Kidman, Jack Nicholson, Julianne Moore, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Anniston, and Robin Williams. In the article, there were two quotes from Nicholson and Hanks that really stood out to me in the differences between how the two actors confront the stereotypes they’ve been saddled with — and illustrates why I tend to think more of Nicholson than I do of Hanks.

Discussing his role in About Schmidt, Nicholson had this to say:

More difficult, [Nicholson] says, is crafting a performance real enough to make the audience forget everything they know about the personality behind the character. “Almost anyone can give a representative performance when you’re unknown. The real pro game of acting is after you’re known — to ‘un-Jack’ the character and get the audience to invest in a fictional person. In order to keep growing as an actor, you have to learn the devices that keep you from just relying on what works for you.”

Then, regarding Road to Perdition, Hanks said this:

…Hanks insists that changing his image wasn’t the reason for taking the dark role. “That would take into an account a falsehood that it’s possible to change your image. You can’t do it,” he says. “[The audience] walks into a theater with a preconceived idea of everybody in the film, but hopefully that switch goes off, and you just watch the movie.”

In other words, while both actors know that they’ve been sterotyped — Nicholson as absolutely insane, and Hanks as the “nice guy,” Hanks just shrugs his shoulders and does his thing, while Nicholson actively works to challenge himself both in his roles and his acting to stretch both himself and his audience’s perception of him.

Good for you, Jack.

Movie Quiz

by

A movie quiz from Dave Hyatt. I didn’t want to open up his comments to make my stab at the answers, since I’d probably see other people’s answers, so I’m doing it via Trackback. I’ll start with the quiz, and put my answers in the rest of this post. You can use the comments if you want to play along, too!

  1. “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
  2. “I came here to do two things: chew some bubble gum and kick some ass. And I’m all outta bubble gum!”
  3. “…also left a man’s decapitated body lying on the floor next to his own severed head. A head, which at this time, has no name.” “I know his name!”
  4. “Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.”
  5. “Anyway, David, when they find out who we are they’ll let us out.” “When they find out who you are they’ll pad the cell.”
  6. “Do you think there really are people who can just go up and say, ‘Hi, babe. Name’s Charles. This is your lucky night’?” “Well, if there are, they’re not English.”
  7. “A hundred million terrorists in the world and I gotta kill one with feet smaller than my sister.”
  8. “The first boy I ever kissed ended up in a coma for three weeks. I can still feel him inside my head. It’s the same with you.”
  9. “Just so we’re clear, you stole a car, shot a bouncer, and had sex with two women?”
  10. “Yeah, man just kinda…you know, you got these claws and you’re staring at these claws and you’re thinking to yourself, and with these claws you’re thinking, ‘How am I supposed to kill this bunny, how am I supposed to kill this bunny?'”

Read more

More on Animatrix

by

Back in October, I mentioned an upcoming DVD release called ‘Animatrix’ — a series of short animated films set in the universe of The Matrix. It turns out that of the nine shorts that will be on the disc, four are going to be released to the web, and the first has just been posted.

Very interesting stuff, as it turns out. Well animated, and at least in this epsisode, fleshing out the back-story of the universe, taking a look at the creation of the machines and beginnings of their rise to power. In fact, I think that one of the sequences in the short — a robot on trial for the murder of it’s owner — reminded me of one of Asimov’s robot stories, though I can’t bring to mind exactly which one. Or I could be remembering something else, which is entirely possible. In any case, I’ll definitely be picking up the DVD when it finally hits the streets.

(Via /.)

I want Trinity for my birthday

by

What is the Matrix?

Not being a football person, I didn’t bother to watch the Superbowl today. In fact, I didn’t even remember that today was Suberbowl Sunday until somewhere partway through the game, when Rick and I were at a diner and heard people in the next bar reacting to something or other in the game. Sports just aren’t my thing.

Anyway, one of the big deals about the Superbowl is always the various commercials and trailers that are shown during the game, since it’s always got such a huge audience. The majority of these generally wouldn’t concern me any more than the Superbowl itself would, but I did find out that the latest trailer for the next two Matrix films was released, and is already available on the net.

Yummy.

Very yummy.

Count me in.