Stray Dog Strut

merry something

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:59:08 GMT

I'm not really celebrating anything today, but I wanted to say that I'm pretty sad that Harold Pinter died. He had a good run, though.

I watched the documentary Hearts of Darkness about the making of Apocalypse Now. It's fascinating. I'd always heard that the production was plagued with problems, but I didn't know how many of those problems were of Coppola's own making, and how bad things had gotten.

I also watched the documentary that came with the 30th anniversary edition of the documentary, about Coppola making Youth Without Youth. The pairing of the two films gives a strange insight-over-time view of his ideas and methods. I haven't seen the movie, but I've added it to my Netflix queue.

post-thanksgiving means christmas

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:05:19 GMT

I had no idea this existed until I was out clothes shopping today and heard this at the mall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P49MNDyf_Q

After looking it up once I got home, I discovered this also exists:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBKIngrCgqg

I like the first one better just because it sounds more like an actual Cocteau Twins song (and I do love the Cocteau Twins) but both are just, well, hilarious.

long time no post

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:44:30 GMT

There's a slightly expanded trailer for the Watchmen movie available here.

Apart from being a fanboy about a movie that hasn't been released yet, I'm just working for the next month and a half or so. Looking forward to starting up the writing again once I'm done.

I'm also in the market for a new PC since the video card on my desktop machine had the fan melt off of it. That was fun. Thinking about picking up an Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM and a TB HD. It would be a pretty significant upgrade; I still need to figure out what video card I want. Anyway.

superhero update

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:12:16 GMT

I typically don't like superheroes at all, so having a post that talks about nothing else is a little different.

I saw both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight for the first time a few weeks ago. I had rather low hopes for both, I must admit. Batman Begins starts out pretty well, though--the first act with Wayne in a foreign prison and going through the motions of figuring out his calling in life is kind of cool. I liked the Liam Neeson character and a lot of the backstory. The problem was that nothing that came after that interested me at all. Batman is one of my least favorite superheroes, so this isn't too surprising. I think he relies too much on gadgets and garbage and not enough on savvy and fighting. Don't get me started on stupidity like the Batmobile, the very name of which forever dooms it to being completely stupid. And that's my biggest issue with Batman, I think: he's got bat-this and bat-that and his weapons are shaped like bats and his vehicles are supposed to look cool and dark and bad ass, but they come off as clumsy and unwieldy and way too over the top. He starts out in prison and as a thief dressed in rags and he ends up using Batarangs and (god help us all) calling for help from a group of bats using ultrasound emitters. To make things worse, the villain was pretty lame and the plot to make everyone in Gotham go crazy using fear gas was utterly ridiculous and boring. To recap: I had low hopes going in, the first act made me think that this movie actually might be good, then the rest of the movie convinced me it really was crap and there was no hope for Batman anything. Batman is doomed to be lame, I think, just because of how ridiculous the entire character is. I hate the stupid gadgetry and that's what everyone else likes about the character. Oh, well.

Then I saw The Dark Knight and it was loads better, but still not that great of a movie. The whole deal with Batman going to Hong Kong to retrieve the Chinese businessman was unnecessary and should have been cut. I liked Heath Ledger as the Joker and think he did a good job, but I don't get the calls for Oscars and people saying what a great performance it was. He made a great character, that's true, but he didn't really have enough to do to make it some acting tour de force. The story called for him to show up and go nuts, then disappear until he had to come be nuts again. He was fantastic at being nuts, though.

I really did like the shot of the Joker driving the police car with his head sticking out of the window. For some reason, it was just a really pretty shot.

The storyline was pretty absurd, however, as apparently the Joker became a magical character with godlike abilities to be in eight places at once and pull off complex schemes that he concocted in two days. Oh, you think you caught me, Batman?!?! Well what you don't know is that I've secretly placed a giant death beam in space that is pointing at your face right now. Lulz!

That is not interesting in a movie. There was a decent job of piling on the tense and complicated situations toward the end, though, to show how Batman cut through everything and saved the day. Overall, not bad but not that great.

I watched the first few episodes of Heroes the other day to see if it was any good, but I thought it was mostly five characters in search of a plot. I'm going to give it a few more episodes to see if it gets better, but I'm curious if anyone watches it regularly and can tell me if it does. I thought the writing was surprisingly not good and figured ordinary people with superhuman abilities would be a shoe in for an addicting show, but so far I'm not feeling it.

solzhenitsyn

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:18:11 GMT

I can't quite wrap my mind around Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, paying his respects at Solzhenitsyn's funeral. What a strange idea.

watchmen trailer

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:01:57 GMT

I love the Watchmen graphic novel to death, and while I have high, high hopes for the movie (yep, I'm a total idiot and I should be shot) the trailer did absolutely nothing for me. I don't get it. The story is really good and there are a lot of ways to use it to sell the movie, and they make it look like a really generic action movie. I mean, sure, it's pretty, but I don't think it would have sold me on seeing the movie if I didn't know what it was all about. It's probably just a teaser, I'm thinking? I dunno.

Anyway, it's available here if you haven't seen it.

Update! Okay, upon further review, the shot of the Comedian smiling after he just roasted someone with a flamethrower is kind of bad ass. It's growing on me.

the shining

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:09:19 GMT

If anyone loves Kubrick's The Shining (the mini-series doesn't exist to me) as much as I do this is pretty cool.

roger federer's secret tactic

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:39:46 GMT

Sometimes I think Random Joe Knucklehead is the best thing about Wikipedia.

By the way, if you missed the Wimbledon men's finals today, you missed out. For serious.

indiana jones and the temple of the legend of the last raiders of the crystal crusade ark of doom

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:43 GMT

So, I saw the new Indiana Jones, and it's not very good. It's not horrendous, but it's not very good at all. The main problems are really the script and Shia LaBeouf. The kid can't act. He couldn't act in Transformers (which is amazing, when you think about it) and he can't act in this. At all. No matter the character, he comes off as someone who is bland and uninteresting that's wearing someone else's clothes.

The script, though. Wow. I should go back and see the earlier films at some point, because I seem to recall the original Raiders as being something of a great time to watch and this was just kind of lame. The standard defense of any George Lucas sequel is "it's in the same spirit as the originals, you were just eight years old at the time, so you have higher standards now," but I've never believed it. It's been long enough that I don't really remember them, so it should be interesting. Also, that line from Apocalypse Now kept humming in the back of my head: "The more they tried to make it just like home, the more they made everybody miss it." Every time they tossed in some reference to the earlier movies or brought back a character, all it did was remind me of the stuff that I liked earlier and that they were now murdering.

Unlike a lot of people, I didn't have any problems with the choice of aliens, really, because it's just an excuse to hang out with Indy for a while, and that's fine, although I did figure out the entire plot of the film as soon as I saw the hangar doors with the number 51 closing in the background roughly 3 minutes into the movie. Hey, whatever.

The thing that sucks, though, is that I think a big part of Indiana Jones's draw is that he's so knowledgeable and right all the time; he's this magic fount of wisdom that knows a lot of shit and knows what to do in almost any situation. Whenever he starts off in hushed tones about how this wall contains ancient text from the Hyundai tribe of Gargantua and it means free slushees for all come Thanksgiving, he's earning the eight bucks I slapped down for a ticket. In fact, if he could just talk authoritatively about some weird shit, then get into a car chase, then go back to talking about ancient Hindus, that would be great. I'd be happy. He didn't do a whole lot of that in this movie, though.

Instead, he has a kid and gets married. What is it with every movie series turning into a soap opera? We must push our characters into family life toute de suite. Also, I was hoping this would be a super generic random adventure of his with no kids or fathers or brothers or mention of his past adventures, just random temples and maybe a better girlfriend than that woman from Temple of Doom. No such luck.

Cate Blanchett really looks good in that wig, though. And she had a sexy accent stowed away in her jumpsuit. That certainly helped.

One last complaint, I guess, is that I wish people would stop with the CGI. The monkeys looked fake, the groundhogs looked fake and I can't believe they really had him survive a nuclear explosion by hiding in a refrigerator. I mean, they really did.

some sort of mixed martial arts fighting thing

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:55:29 GMT

So Kimbo Slice beat Thompson, but didn't look very good doing it. I was hoping he would dominate the scrubs and get a chance against a real opponent at some point, but I'm not sure after that fight. His ground skills didn't look super, but his real problem is stamina. He was complaining after the match about going to the ground and getting back up repeatedly and he certainly looked tired during the fight. If he could improve his stamina without reducing his strength, he'll be a contender, but I suspect he has to do it in a hurry because everyone he fights from this point on is going to take him to the ground immediately, which means long matches because he can't just knock people out in 30 seconds down there.

the happening

Tue, 27 May 2008 21:48:49 GMT

The commercial for The Happening looks laughably, terribly, horrendously bad. The title doesn't help. But for some reason I really like the shot of people flying off the roof of some building. It's a decent shot. But given how bad every movie after The Sixth Sense has been, I'm thinking I'll wait for video to be offended.

boo

Tue, 27 May 2008 02:11:53 GMT

Goddammit.

so that happened

Tue, 27 May 2008 00:13:02 GMT

I finally figured out the exact reason that I don't like arena football. Field's too small.

spook country

Thu, 22 May 2008 02:31:34 GMT

I've been making myself read Spook Country for the past few weeks, just because it's William Gibson and I keep holding out hope he'll revert to his previous level of quality. This book is super dull. Has anyone else read it? Is it worth continuing? I'm a third of the way through it and absolutely nothing has happened.

falling in love magically solves every problem you've ever had

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:18:58 GMT

I caught Forgetting Sarah Marshall yesterday. It's not a bad movie, but it's not as funny as I had hoped it would be. Kristen Bell is great, of course, and it's nice to see Mila Kunis not act stupid for once.

It is, however, a huge male fantasy movie. Every secret fear and belief of the typical American male is on display, from the average-looking guy dating a hot TV actress to the stereotypical European rock star that sweeps your girlfriend off of her feet to the part where your ex-girlfriend bursts into tears and admits she's made a mistake and begs you to let her back and you deny her to the happy ending where the only solution to your problem is to hook up with an even hotter (?) girl. Oh, and the hotter (?) girl loves you because of your unique quirkiness that nobody else gets. Everything is on display here and fits the mold perfectly. It should have been called American Male Insecurities, the Movie.

Something that sucks, though, is that it's taken to the point where the guy believes his ex-girlfriend is somehow evil for breaking up with him, even when she gave a pretty damn good excuse for doing so. That's not enough, though, and he gets his revenge by leaving her in a sobbing heap and telling her what an awful person she is. It's the only part of the movie that is really quite terrible. The rest is inoffensive enough to work as an eager comedy and it creates a universe that is easy enough to buy. It's an extraordinarily predictable, color-by-the-numbers film, but it's a comedy, so I don't hold that against it.

Overall, it's enjoyable but, as I said, not as funny as I like comedies to be.

when everything's quiet will you stay

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:09:56 GMT

It's true.

carry your vast disease

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:13:13 GMT

I saw I Am Legend the other day and while it was alright (by which, I mean, not as terrible as I, Robot) it did a good job of ripping every interesting idea found in the book out of the story, kicking and screaming. I mean, they had to invent a new way to justify the title, because it just doesn't make any sense given the changes in the story. Oh, well. I liked the empty New York scenes, like I was supposed to and like they paid a billion dollars so I would, and the rest was forgettable. What sci-fi story will they ruin next?

I finished watching the second season of Veronica Mars and enjoyed it quite a bit. It was both better and worse than the first season, I think. The stories were a little too melodramatic and a little too frighteningly similar to an episode of All My Children, but the characters finally started to fulfill the emotional promises that were made in the first season. Their actions finally started to cash the checks their back stories had written.

Logan, for instance, finally earned my love and respect by fucking with Hannah's dad, the cracked out plastic surgeon who was being paid to testify against him in court. The scene where the good doctor confronts Logan about dating his daughter, only to have Logan unexpectedly turn the tables on him was one of my favorites of the series. I still don't think he should be dating Veronica, though. Too much time was spent early on with his declaration of character. I'll go so far as to say that should they end up together, it's due to laziness of writing. There's no change to be had. But I can accept him now.

Also, Weevil getting Thumper killed was pretty awesome and he has maybe earned his gang membership.

The surprise ending with Beaver? What the hell? I'm not sure I buy it, particularly the rape. And what's with him turning out to be gay due to molestation? All of those kids Woody Goodman laid hand upon became gay? Maybe he wouldn't let Mac touch him just because of the previous bad experiences, but the rape of Veronica seems to suggest he had something else in mind. I don't know.

I'm gonna watch the third season soon, I think.

ne1 goat?

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:44:21 GMT

I'm stealing the idea from petdance because I hadn't heard of the site before, but I threw together a quick mix of songs that I've called The Best Song Ever (or at least the best songs from my favorite musicians) at one point or another:

http://rnb.muxtape.com/

Let me know if you find anything interesting.

all eyes are on me now

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:00:04 GMT

I'm in the middle of having one of those weeks, even though it's only Tuesday. At least the Cubs game yesterday was almost perfect (except for, you know, losing.) Fukudome!

I've been watching the second season of Veronica Mars as well. In some ways, it's better than the first, but in others it's starting to slide down the slippery soap opera cliff. It's hard to say how I feel about it until I finish the season out.

Here is some Peaches for you. Great song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4yndU6NqUE

ok.

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:56:13 GMT

podling has convinced me to make up with Netflix. You should now recommend movies for me to add to my queue.

feelms

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:15:22 GMT

After seeing four of the five movies nominated for best picture last year (I have no interest in seeing Atonement, although I thought I did until I saw the trailer), I would probably place them in this order, best to worst: Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Juno.

I tried to rent Gandhi on kmattoo's advice, but my video store had their copy stolen like eight months ago or something. Seriously, what up TLA? Also, all the DVDs I rent are scratched and make my DVD player want to barf. I'm thinking about going back to Netflix, but I don't know. Having to wait for the mail could just never scratch my immediate gratification itch.

I also saw Adaptation. yesterday. That screenplay is all kinds of smart.

duke of new york

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:22:40 GMT

I've started playing around with Twitter. Yeah, I know, I'm six years behind the times. I'm arenbe there if anyone is interested, but there's a pretty good chance I'll get bored with it after eight minutes.

dosvedanya

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:28:19 GMT

I think my five most hated words in the English language are operation currently prohibited by disc.

I own it! Or I rented it! Let me do whatever the hell I want with it!

Also, this is a tip to people making DVD menuing systems. I really like to watch movies. Something I hate, however, is when I see bits and pieces of a movie before I actually see a movie. The only thing I want to know about any movie is whether or not I'm interested in seeing it. If I could avoid seeing the trailer for the movie, or the plot of the movie, or the actors in the movie, I gladly would, but this is usually impossible because they help me determine if I want to see the movie in the first place. That's fine. What's incredibly stupid, however, is when I pop a DVD into the player and have to sit through a scene from the movie before it will let me play the damn thing because whoever wrote the menuing system thought it would be super stylish to not just have a listing of options, but instead show bits of various action sequences or introductions of characters or audio of a quote-worthy line. Knock it off. I got the damn DVD in the player! I'm about to watch it for real! You don't need to ruin it for no reason other than to piss me off. Just let me hit play and you can go back to making flash intro sequences for websites or something.

Also, here's some Laibach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q5mlb3Bjzs

yikes.

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:51:57 GMT

Well, at least now you've heard of my alma mater.

take more, give less

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:24:08 GMT

I realized today that the only thing between Dr. Dre and Eazy-E on my iPod is Dressy Bessy. Quite frankly, I'm not sure some prissy girl-fronted indie pop band has it in them to combat the mutual rage and animosity between two of hip hop's finest.