Posts filed under "cinematic-score"
So yesterday I finally saw a celebrity I actually gave two shits about seeing. I creator who’s work I’ve actually enjoyed greatly. We went for a few drinks in Belsize Park yesterday and then decided to go for a bit of food after that. Of course, four people trying to decide on food sometimes can go smoothly and sometimes can go horribly wrong. Well in this case as we were walking up the road towards Hampstead and we see this little French restaurant that’s part of a hotel. I instantly dismissed it as not something I’d really like to go for, however Sophia had been there and recommended the food as being pretty good. So we go have a look at the menu and it was wide enough to allow us to actually cater for everyone’s crazy mood of food that night.
I was last in line and Stathi was right in front of me, so he quickly turns around to me and says ‘Dude, is that Helena Bonham Carter? I quickly turn around and say “Nah, her hair’s all over the place, she’s not looking as glam as i would expect”. In that split second what I hadn’t noticed of course was the person she was with. As we got seated, I did a quick glance over and lo and behold there was Tim Burton. See for me THAT is a celebrity. The actors are not the important bit (more on this later). The director is the captain of the ship. He’s the one that touches the movie in absolutely every single way, story, script, casting, sets, money, promotion, the whole lot. A great director will take unknown actors and make a great movie. A great actor won’t be able to make a bad movie great. He’ll play his part in a great way and shine himself but the movie doesn’t really benefit…not really because it still remains a pile of shit, regardless of how great the actor’s performance actually was. So I generally will follow directors, rather than actors (there are VERY VERY few exceptions to this rule). This little snippet was the source of a relatively heated discussion yesterday as i tried to explain to everyone that I was properly star struck by a creator’s who’s work I’ve been following since Edward Scissorhands, and well I liked Helena in Fight Club, a lot. But i wouldn’t exactly consider myself a fan of her body of work, since except for that movie I’ve only ever seen/heard her in….Tim Burton movies (Corpse Bride and Sweeny Todd).
So there you go, the first ‘celebrity’ that I actually was kinda star-struck. See NEXT week I will be 100% COMPLETELY and utterly star-struck as I am going for the Alan Moore signing in London. For all those that don’t know who Alan Moore is, you guys really have not been paying my attention.
So went and saw I am Legend with Willy Smith on sunday, without really thinking about it too much. First movie of 2008 I go to, so it’s good that i did come out with a smile on my face. Sure it was no 28 Days Later (not seen the sequel so I can’t comment on that one) because that movie was a lot more closer to home for me, since it was based in my current home town of London and I am Legend is based in NYC.
My favourite parts in both movies are what the survivors of these plagues actually do in their free time and the scenes around the completely deserted cities. From that aspect this movie really does capture this element in a great way. In a surprising way, Smith actually does a good job in his role as the military scientist who’s lived through the plague that hit mankind. He does seriously come off as a very likable character and the co-star Sam is also a great positive to the feel of the movie.
Ok, spoiler alerts from now on, so move along if you’ve not seen the movie yet.
So what fell for me? The main area for me which didn’t really resonate that much was the fact that Will Smith was a military scientist who is actively trying to find a cure. He doesn’t come across as that sort of character. Scientists don’t look or act like him (well at least not the scientists i’ve met in my life). They put far too much Hollywood gloss over it by making sure I saw him work out without a shirt on. From that respect it was just pandering to the female population which I just kinda rolled my eyes at and asked for the movie to move along with the story. I’m glad he didn’t fight for another shower scene again (like he did in I robot,..hmm must be a bit of a theme going on there with the ‘I’).
I wasn’t all that impressed with some of the effects for the zombies or nightwalkers or whatever they decided to call them. Something about their design just fell extremely flat for me. However having said all that many of the concepts surrounding the story were pretty fun to see pan out. Like why the movie is called I am Legend was a good one and the fact that they were created after a cure to cancer.
There are several plot holes in the movie, however overall it was a fun movie to watch. Nothing you can’t watch on a dvd or something, since I don’t think it’s terribly necessary to have the full cinema experience past the first 20-30 minutes.
Coraline teaser. Literally just finished reading Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, so this is perfect timing as far as I’m concerned, since it doesn’t influence the way I pictured Coraline in my head, which is decidedly different from this animated rendition of her. Still it’s good to see all these Gaiman movies coming out. First there was Mirrormask, then there was Stardust, then Beowulf and now Coraline. Kinda hoping we get Death soon because that would be pretty special.
New Batman trailer online. You know it’s going to be a good week when your monday morning starts with this AWESOME trailer. Summer 2008 can’t come soon enough.
You may (or may have not) noticed that things have been pretty quiet in the world of the ‘kode lately. I’ve kinda stepped a bit back from my online activities in the last couple of months as I decided to concentrate on other things in the lead up to Christmas, plus I’ve been out enjoying all the various Christmas parties and social events of the last couple of weeks as well.
The good thing about all of this is that it’s given me a great deal of time to reflect on things I want in my life; the year that’s past; what I hope the coming year will bring; what I’d like to change in the coming year and where I eventually want to be. I always write a massive end of year and this year will be no different, but I want to make sure this one goes out with a bit of a bang.
BKV7
However the first call of duty for 2008 is the launch of version 7 of the Broken Kode. It’s actually been a pretty weak year for the design of this site. I’ve kind of let it to it’s own devices changing backwards and forwards between designs, never truly finishing any of them. The reasons where that I wasn’t inspired enough. My brain was soo completely and utterly preoccupied with a bunch of other things that I wasn’t feeling that same level of creativity that I felt in years past. Thankfully my trip to Japan really solved a bunch of ‘artistic blocks’ for me and I’ve been slowly crafting version 7 quietly in the background. I don’t say this sort of thing, but the final product is probably the best thing I’ve ever designed. Thankfully it’ll also be the last time I redesign Broken Kode for many many years to come. I’m sure I’ll play around with the colour schemes and the images, but I’ve really allowed myself that maneuverability in the design. The thing about the whole process was the fact that I really did surprise myself in the outcome, as it looks NOTHING like what I had originally intended it to be when I started this process nearly a year ago. Yes, it’s taken a year to come up with something that I’m actually happy with. Thankfully the intro page, no longer looks like a straight blog and yet it probably drives more people to the content itself. The site will also have a new logo, which is actually somewhere on the net if you’ve got a keen eye you might have noticed it.
One of the areas of the design that I definitely didn’t expect was the fact that the design fits snugly into 800x600 screen resolution. That I think was just a happy accident rather than by decision, but based on my previous post about the EEEPC, I am glad that it worked out that way.
Publishing
Well, I’ve been looking at various print on demand outlets in recent times again. I’ve already tried Lulu, but now I’ve ventured to Blub as well. Blurb sports and extremely pleasant design and their software is extremely capable if you’ve got a PC that can handle the strain on CPU power. I’m going to write a full review of this service once I get my first copy from them, but creating a book from them took no more than a weekend. That included creating a cover and pulling all the images together.
Artwork
This has been my main occupation these last couple of weeks. It’s been a relief to get back into it all to be honest. The main thrust of this was the fact that I’ve got some of the best supplies for drawing from my trip to Japan. The paper and the pens I got from there were amazing. I’m sure I can find this stuff in London, however NOT at that price I’m sure and not as easily and readily as over there. In any case these tools have really helped me enhance my work and allow me to put detail into my work that I could never achieve before. I’m currently inking my work with a 0.05 nib Copic Multiliner which is one of the best pens I’ve ever used for inking work. Cheaper than the other crap I’ve bought and paid extremely high prices for and don’t give me the level that I’m looking for.
Work
It’s been one of the hardest and most fulfilling years of my life when it comes to work. I’ve been involved in some awesome projects and I’ve been hit hard by some very tough projects. Ultimately however life moves on and you learn for everything and the method of how things go and you enhance your knowledge and you pass it down as best you can to the next person in line. I’ve began thinking about things in a very different way right now. How to approach filing, how to approach teaching people, how to approach going about getting things done. I love throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. Always challenge, never conform if you’re not happy.
Golden Compass trailer in glorious quicktime. This movie cannot come soon enough…seriously. I’ve been waiting for this movie version for years now, since I read the first book (er hem, Northern Lights), 6 years ago now. Everything looks like it’s going to kick some major ass. If you’ve not read the book yet, shame on you.
Wanted trailer is out and about. For those in the dark, Wanted is an excellent little mini-series that was written by Mark Millar and drawn by J.G Jones, published by Top Cow several years ago. It was completely over the top and Mark Millar at the time made no secrets about whom he would have wanted to play the lead roles. So much so that the character designs were based on the actors they (along with Jones) would have wanted. So Halle Berry, Eminem. They got Angenlina Jolie and Morgan Freeman instead and the plot sounds pretty much nothing like the actual graphic novel…except in the looses possible way. Lets put it this way, it’s not going to be another 300, that’s for sure.
Iron Man trailer is up. I’ve officially come in my pants after seeing this trailer. It’s as badass as the first time you saw the Christopher Nolan Batman. I mean seriously everything about that movie looks completely brilliant. I’m a massive man in armour fan, my absolute favourite comic book character is a little known character called X-O Manowar from the Valiant comic days. The creators of that character cut their teeth and wrote/drew some of the most memorable Iron Man stories. Seeing as I’ll never get to see an X-O Manowar movie, this will have to do. Seriously I can live with that.
Kung Fu Rodeo has got two sets (first one, second one) of Batman photos. All I’ve got to say is that Christian Bale makes such a brilliant Bruce Wayne, and Ledger in the thin purple suit looks absolutely perfect. This movie can’t come out soon enough as far as I’m concerned.
Blade Runner Suitcase. We’ve been hearing about this suitcase for a while, but it’s not until today that I actually saw what they’re talking about. It’s a real fucking metal suitcase!!! Ok so I might actually go out of my way and buy it now. I was having a conversation with Steven the other day and he was asking to get the theatrical version which he actually prefers to the Director’s cut. Definitely will be interesting to see what he was talking about, because I’ve got to be honest, I can’t remember this movie in the amount of detail he seems to have remembered it. Nice suitcase though.
Set in the period between BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT, this brand new adventure follows BATMAN as he unravels a mystery over six original stories done in the style of Japanese Anime. Each of the six original stories has been written by a highly respected screenwriter or comic book creator. The talent includes Academy Award nominee Josh Olsen (The History of Violence), screenwriter of the BLADE films and BATMAN BEGINS David Goyer, and famed comic book writer Brian Azzarello, among others. The Batman Anime DVD is viewed as a perfect companion piece to BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT. The original stories introduce a number of classic characters from the DC Comics BATMAN universe as well as following up on characters and storylines that were introduced in BATMAN BEGINS.
I’ve got to say that I am COMPLETELY there, as the Animatrix was the only decent ‘sequel’ that the Matrix movies spawned. I’ve watched the first movie several times; same with the animated short stories that followed, but I have yet to see the sequels again since I saw them originally in the cinema. I was talking to Ryan about this and they’ve got to be some of the most anticipated movie sequels ever (after maybe Star Wars) and the single biggest disappointments ever (I’d say more than Star Wars because I actually liked the Phantom Menace).
Moore on season 4 of Battlestar Galactica. Sorry I couldn’t help myself. This was a panel that was discussed at San Diego, although none of the major comic book websites mentioned anything about it. There are some interesting little nuggets, like the fifth Cylon to be revealed towards the end of the series and the fact that D’Anna (Lucy Lawless’s character) is coming back as well for a few episodes. Also they mention Lampkin coming back which would be brilliant as he was the standup character to get noticed in the Season 3 finale.
http://www.brokenkode.com/moore-on-battlestar-galactica-season-4
The first Dark Knight teaser is up and ready to be watched. I’ve just been watching Nolan’s Memento and I’ve got to say the guy has yet to disappoint me which is such a rare quality in any creative person.
Tales from Earthsea by Goro Miyazaki (the son of Hayao). File this under “I hadn’t heard anything about this until yesterday” sections. This movie seems to have all the right ingredients. It’s an adaptation of the great Earthsea story (which I’m a huge fan of). It’s being done by Studio Ghibli, who are to me like Pixar, they can do no wrong. Finally it’s directed by a Miyazaki, so it’s bound to be great right? I was like, oh cool, it’s his son doing a movie. That’s bound to be interesting.
Then I started thinking, hang on, I’ve never heard he had a son that was into animation. Seems like there has been a series of in house fighting over the fact that Goro was given this movie to direct. Surprisingly the main instigator to all of this was his own father. Reading around further (article from the latest Little White Lies) shows that the father/son relationship has completely broken down and is practically non-existent really. Honestly, this has kinda taken away from the movie from me. It’s not a particularly happy story but alas a new Ghibli movie is always cause for celebration.
The movie is out in cinemas in the UK as of the 3rd of August. Loads of good links over at the wikipedia page. You can read Goro’s translated production blog over at Nausicaa.net
Just got back from watching the Transformers with Yanni. To be honest, I really don’t think I could have watched this movie and enjoyed it as much as I did with anyone but Yanni. See we both grew up watching and playing with the Transformers. We’ve had countless arguments about them , with them and because of them.
So what did I think of the movie? First off, this isn’t a movie for everyone. Not everyone is going to appreciate the whole idea of transforming robots. If you’re a guy in your mid to late 20s this movie was made for you and me. Classic lines like:
You’ve failed me once again Starscream.
Echo straight out of the cartoons we would watch on a Saturday morning. The story was adequate in that it chugged along and there was something there in-between the awe-inspiring action scenes. I don’t usually get like this, but this movie was all about the robots, transforming and kicking the shit out of each other.
Forget the bullshit attempts at humour, I swear that asshole who tried to write the American Pie riff needs to be taken outside and given a good kicking. It had absolutely no place in this movie. I’m sure it was some toss-jockey producer saying that they need more humour in the movie. Some of the humour was done well, like with Bubblebee and his great music choices at the beginning of the movie.
Can someone explain the relevance of the Australian chick and the fat man? Comic relief and what exactly? Easily the most REDUNDANT characters I’ve ever seen in any movie. Also I’ve got to say that John Turturro’s role was a tad bit annoying. I love John (Big Lebowski being his crowning achievement as far as I’m concerned) but what the hell was this role all about?
Anywho, enough about the peripheral characters, lets concentrate on the stars of this movie, namely the Autobots. It’s great how they explained the whole morphing into cars and whatnot, that was very nicely done. What I didn’t really care for was the whole product placement within the actual fekking movie. Was it really necessary to have the whole Ebay thing? Or every car being a GMC? Or what about Nokia being Japanese as well? Or the Pepto Bismol? I mean seriously great chunks of this movie was nothing more than one big advert.
However all of that disappeared, the second you saw Bubblebee transform into the newly supped up version of himself. Or Optimus Prime transforming for the first time. Starscream and Megatron transforming in mid air, combined with the sound effects and the music is enough to make you forget about all the short comings of the movie, because basically they COMPLETELY kicked it out of the whole theatre. I’ve never seen anything like that. It was meant to be larger than life and the effects delivered every step of the way.
Bring on the sequel.
Wall-E teaser trailer up. Wall-E is the new movie coming from Pixar next year. From the brief 20 seconds or so of actual Wall-E time it really does seem that this is the most detailed animated outing to date (check out the scene with Wall-E bringing up the dust around him).
Easily one of the best new animated characters I’ve seen in a good long while (I put him in the same league as Homer Simpson, Pinky and the Brain, Daffy Duck, Bender). Ryan game me the second season of Family Guy earlier this week and I’ve just caned the whole lot. Obviously the real star of the show is Stewie, the maniacal baby genius. Whenever there’s a show that’s got any decent amount of Stewie in it, you KNOW it’s going to be good.
It’s really strange but it seems to me that Fox gets some decent programmes made as pilots or proper TV series which are genius, they get this loyal following and then they cancel the shit, only to bring it back a couple of years later with their tails between their legs. In this case they canceled it not once but twice before bringing it back (the word dumbass comes to mind but hey at least they rectified the situation).
Why the hell didn’t anybody tell me how good this show actually was? I mean I’ve not watched Entourage, but that’s really my fault as people have told me it’s good so I’ve got no excuse; but Family Guy should have more people ranting and raving about it. Yes I’m blaming you. All of you. You know who you are.
DAMMIT LOIS!!!
30 Days of Night trailer is up. And the good graphic novel to movie adaptations continue. After the success of both Sin City and 300, it seems that those people involved in moving stories from one medium to another have learnt not to fuck around with the concepts and just try and be as faithful as possible. For all those wondering what the story is about, check out the review I did on Splash Panel a while back.
Major SPOILERS abound in this post, so move on if you’ve not watched this yet.
I didn’t realise what the deal was with the season finale and I only watched the first half, thinking that was it. As I found out, the season finale is actually 2 episodes long, ooops. So here are my quick thoughts on the season in general and these final episodes:
Charlie - It’s weird but I started liking this character towards the end. Originally I couldn’t really connect with the character in any way but he’s evolved into someone that has developed friendships with both Hurley, Jin and Desmond, while at the same time sorted out his love for Claire and even came clean about his involvement in Sun’s abduction.
Mikhail - Why won’t this fucker stay dead for the love of god. There has got to be something going on here which is just really annoying. Nothing seems to work on this psycho. I really thought he was going to actually do something about not following Ben blindly but the idiot goes and kills the other women.
Ben - Loved the scene were Jack pummels Ben. That was brilliant. Get that bloody smirk of his face, the little shit. Of course the half assed dialogue between Ben and Jack doesn’t really help. I mean if it’s really the end of everything and it requires Ben to go there in person to try to stop them, then why the hell won’t Ben just tell him the full implication of what is actually going on here and maybe Jack won’t run into things blindly, instead of blackmailing him? What’s he trying to prove? Of course if any of us were in Jack’s place we’d probably do the same thing, trying to get everyone off the island.
Lock - What a dick. I’m sorry but what’s the deal with this guy. He won’t kill his father, but will get Sawyer to do it, but he’ll kill some woman he has no idea who she is by throwing a knife in her back. So he’s already overstepped every possible boundary he could but he won’t go forward and do the same to Jack? What he decided to learn restraint right at the end? What the hell’s that about? Where the hell is Walt? And what the hell is he doing back on the island? How the hell is Lock back on his feet? Is he got the same healing powers as friggin Mikhail?
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Jack and Kate - Ok the flash forward. That was very cool indeed. It was a great build up which basically answered a bunch of questions and then gave us a whole slew of new questions. So we know that they eventually make it off the island. Jack cannot come to terms with it and has completely broken down even though he’s completely the one that will probably do it.
We don’t know who’s in the casket. Is it Ben? It would make sense since nobody came to see him at the funeral. He doesn’t have anybody there that know him anyway. We don’t know who Kate has to get back to before they find out she’s away. Is it Sawyer?
Saturday evening, Jackie, Fern and I went to the 6th Annual Sci-fi and Fantasy Festival in London. This was part of the anime all-nighter. We started off the night at 12 and finished at 9am in the morning. I’ve never done this sort of thing but I’ve got to say that it was a lot of fun, mainly because I can say that I actually made it through and I only slept through one movie, which to be honest was pure garbage (I’m actually referring to “LE CHEVALIER D’EON”). That isn’t to say that there wasn’t any rubbish movies (fucking hell Highlander was utter shit), but rather I didn’t feel the actual urge and need to sleep through them.
All of that aside, for me however the night absolutely peaked with ‘Paprika’. I’ll go so far as to say that the entire night was worth it mainly due to Paprika. This is the new movie from Satoshi Kon. The man who’s given us Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers gives his best movie to date. He’s now in that league of directors that are truly destined for greatness. He’s up there right now with the likes of Christopher Nolan and Brad Bird. The sort of person that you actively hunt his older stuff because you want to see if there was genunie sparks of genius back then and he’s been building since then.
Having watched both Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers, I’ve got to say that Paprika is without a doubt his crowning achievement, so far (he’s still at the start of his game as far as I’m concerned). The highest accolade I can give this movie is that it is to Japan what Amelie is to France. Yes it’s that bloody good. This movie completely captured my imagination. Right from the intro to the movie with the titles I knew I was watching something special here. It gave me that same warm feeling you get when you watch the Amelie intro for the first time (you know where she’s doing all these things that you used to do when you were a kid as well). In this case it just had this incredible charm to Paprika’s fleeting around the place dodging people who are chatting her up and getting around town.
So what is Paprika all about then? It’s very very difficult to explain to be honest as I will fail miserably since it’s a movie which is pretty difficult to put within a genre. However a brief synopsis (without any spoilers), a revolutionary new psychotherapy treatment called PT has been invented. Through a device called the “DC Mini” it is able to act as a “dream detective” to view inside people’s dreams and explore their unconscious thoughts. The story follows (in part) Paprika, who is using the DC mini trying to help psychiatric patients.
The imagination in each frame is amazing. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud, smiling all the time. What’s funny is that the movie isn’t a sugar coated Disney fest. It’s just that the way in which the movie is told and the colours and characters and music all contribute to an amazingly uplifting experience. It’s a surreal journey where you actually understand what is going on at the end and are clamouring for more.
The other aspect of Paprika which I am incredibly impressed with was the score. Few people combine the movie with music very well, so much so that you are hungry to hunt down the music. People like Tarantino are masters at this, however the music in Paprika is so integral to the mood of the movie and really enhances every frame it’s unreal. The music is by one Susumu Hirasawa, and is an essential part of the success of the movie for me.
In the past few years I can point to a couple of movies that I have watched again and again and really enjoyed every time. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Clerks 2, Amelie, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service. I can definitely add Paprika to that list when it comes out of DVD.
Golden Compass Cut Sheet. I know they’re calling it the Golden Compass, but it my eyes it will ALWAYS be Northern Lights. I mean seriously I think that’s pretty fucking stupid calling it something completely different in America to England, but anyway. For those that don’t know what I’m talking about, go out and read the best book you’ve never read, Philip Pullman’s classic His Dark Materials Trilogy. Then you can come back and thank me for pointing this masterpiece out to you. I accept donations of all kinds.
I’m going to post a collection of one liners that are rattling in my head, probably going to make it into a regular sunday evening thing:
The Offspring Greatest hits album dualdisc is pretty damn good listening. Reminds me back to when I was 13 and was about to take on the world. 30 was a lifetime away.
So we’re talking with Rosie and Dom about ethnic minorities and how it’s actually a lot less than you might expect. I know that statistics are made on the spot in general, but the one quoted seemed a bit low, which lead to us talking about the first wave of the black community into Britain in the 50s and 60s and how people of a certain age who had not seen black people until that stage felt/dealt/reacted with the new world order. Which then triggered the memory of me meeting my first black man, must have been 12 years old or something; I honestly can’t remember his name, but he was from Mauritius. I remember he was a very softly spoken guy and very very gentle in nature. The only thing that made an impression on me was his hands and how the palms were slightly coarser than mine. Such a strange thing to take back.
Lewis Hamilton is a great little rookie, however I’m really not liking the shitty HYPE that British media seems intent on throwing his way. I mean seriously you see this shit year after year. They build them up just so that they can slap them down when they put a foot wrong. Really shitty as far as I’m concerned, and I don’t blame Ron Dennis trying to shield his driver from all that bullshit.
Clerks II is how a DVD should be made. It’s got about 6hours of extra material and Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier have seriously spent a lot of time to make it a special experience. You’re not buying the DVD just to watch the movie a couple of times. It’s really about the DVD experience and really using it, with multiple commentaries, bloopers, interviews, behind the scene footage and the list goes on. I put this up as one of the great DVDs of last year, easily.
Just watched Christopher Nolan’s first movie, Following. Seriously, it’s one of the better indie films I’ve seen in a really long time. Black and white, shot in various locations in and around London, check it out, great little twist at the end.
Diet is going well. I must have had a serious fat day last Sunday because I’m about 2kg less this week. Part of that I guess is the running, part is the diet changes, part is the psychology as well I guess. I’ll keep the updates on this going.
I bought an ipod shuffle last week, first Apple product I’ve ever bought myself, and I’ve got to say I’m loving the size. It’s like part of my clothing now. It never runs out of juice and it stores enough music to last me my runs, my trips to work and around the place. It would be nice to have a display but when it comes right down to it I don’t think it’s completely necessary for the function that I am using it in. Does this mean an Apple mac isn’t far behind,…hmm probably not.
So Ubuntu Feisty Fawn came out this week. I downloaded it for my laptop. They still hadn’t sorted out the bugs that I had reported that I had confirmed that had tried to help solve, that worked in 2 previous versions. I’m talking my laptop into the office to get Windows installed on the machine. I want to swear at Canonical, but alas it’s not completely their fault, although it’s really annoying not to have this sorted. Renders my laptop really annoying to use to be honest, so much so that I haven’t been using it for the past couple of months properly.
SMODCAST (love that name as well, especially how Kevin introduces it and everything). Easily one of the best podcast’s I’ve heard in a really long time (thanks for the heads up Michael). I’ve gotten into listening to dvd commentary while working on something as I can actually get through a lot of things, and listen the plethora of commentaries that I generally have no real time to listen to.
First look at the original Iron Man grey suit. I’m actually really looking forward to this. A marvel movie that doesn’t completely suck. To be honest ever since X-men 2 and Blade 2 the Marvel movies in general have been a let down. So much so that I’ve not seen Elektra, Ghost Rider or Fantastic Four.
So I’m talking to Fern yesterday on Facebook, and when I say talking I actually mean ‘Wall-ing’ her (yeah it’s not the technical term for it but alas it sounds funnier). Anyway, so she’s dissing 300 and calling it gay porn or some such rubbish, so we started talking movies. I asked her whether or not she was excited for the new Chinese flick that’s getting prepped for release in the UK this weekend, Curse of the Golden Flower. Her response, I’m quoting here:
It’s one of those Chinese films for foreigners. The trailer didn’t even have any words! Even if it features Jay Chow.
See the thing is I’ve heard this kind of response nearly EVERY time I’ve asked someone Chinese about a Chinese movies that makes it into Western theatres. For most people the Chinese outbreak came with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Ang Lee a few years ago. I was raised on a staple diet of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies. So much so that my parents have had to watch Drunken Master 1 & 2 several times over with me because I kept renting it from the video store again and again, mainly because I’d seen all the ones in the store and because I loved the interaction with his Master when he was training him. I also loved the food scenes, where you know he’s going to eat the entire house, then get drunk, then not have any money to pay then have a big massive fight. To be fair though I’d not really experienced the full extent of Asian cinema, not by a long shot.
So today I decided to goad Irene into telling me what the deal was with the dislike of Chinese people to exported certain exported Chinese films. So she gave me the standard foreigners line, followed by a curve ball (I’m not actually quoting Irene here but work with me people I’m getting to my point):
It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, since the 1950s. In fact some of the better stuff weren’t movies but TV series.
That’s fucking interesting. Where the hell are they? What are they called? What’s the deal? Name them. Of course they’ve all got Chinese names. C’mon guys it’s not my fault I’m not Chinese, I’ve come to accept that you’ll never hand me the Chinese menu at the restaurant (you know the one with all the authentic good stuff), why are you being stingy with your bloody cinema and tv programmes?
So I’m asking everyone that knows of any good Chinese series (preferably set in the Emperor Chinese era) that are actually ‘good’ and not for foreigners (but with subtitles) for me to get into. After all Battlestar Galactica won’t be back for like at least 6 months, Prison Break won’t be back for a similar amount of time and Lost can only keep my attention for like 45 minutes a week.
Red State? Kevin Smith’s new movie is going to be a ‘horror’ movie? Seriously didn’t see that one coming. How’s he going to put Affleck in that one?