Movie Update

Slightly slower week for movies, but I did manage to squeeze a few in.

• Zombieland - I think this will prove itself as a good go-to movie for some maniacally gruesome and funny zombie action. Gives me the urge to watch Shaun of the Dead again. 8/10
• Ghost Writer - An incredible movie with great atmosphere, character and intrigue to keep me gripped and interested. 8/10
• Grown Ups - Really just a wretched piece of work. I guess it has some redeeming values but the comedy felt very contrived. 4/10

Blu Alien

I couldn't help but get wrapped up in the excitement of the upcoming Blu Ray release of the Alien Quadrilogy. There are a few things that make me hesitant, first and foremost is the increased standards I have for disc purchasing. It's tough.

The biggest problem here is what I'll assume: these movies are only available in a package, and not individually. Is this a big deal? It is. I have never seen the third and fourth Alien movies. Shameful. The first two are such masterpieces I guess the desire to watch the others was minimized.

I bought those real nice, numbered collectors editions of the first two on DVD many years ago. Of course the quality was great and all, the packaging was fantastic but I never looked at the special features. It would take years for me to realize that just didn't need them; in fact I would tease myself with purchasing Superbit editions such as Panic Room and The Fifth Element. All the bits were devoted to the picture and sound, nothing wasted on relatively useless features.

So I started writing this with the intention of bringing this page to your attention: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare2/alien.htm It's hardcore; like, Rocklords hardcore. What got my attention and the reason I was browsing to it initially was a bit of fuss on the aspect ratio and cropping that was coming on these Blu Ray editions. Clearly, with the comparisons there seems to be, but nothing worth getting excited for. Just look at all the extra detail you're getting! What's really terrifying on these sorts of pages are the graphs comparisons the bitrates of the various editions. Also, the design is atrocious.

In the end I won't be making an effort to purchase these...simply because I don't want the complete package. Eventually they have to release these individually, and perhaps do away with the silly extra's discs. 

Feed Her!

Absolutely disgusting. Absolutely fascinating. Absolutely ridiculous.

Quite a few months ago I downloaded this trailer not knowing what it was about; Cale and I viewed it. We recoiled in horror and laughter. Obviously not a movie that was coming to a theater near you, I had to spread the word. The Human Centipede would become a joke and before you knew it, the film was all over the internet. Oddly enough, I saw this on Netflix and couldn't help myself: morbid curiosity got the best of me.

So the film centers around two American women, lost in the woods of Germany, who get caught up in an evil, mad scientist's jonesing to build a human centipede. That is, sewing three people together...well, I won't go into much detail. You can find more on the web; it's pretty disgusting, and quite the spectacle. The movie definitely delivers gross outs, terrible scenarios and questionable character actions. Instead of following the road when their car breaks down, the girls decide to tromp through the woods.

But, a movie like this doesn't have to make sense, it just has to entertain. And I was fairly surprised to find the quality of the film to be "up there." I was expecting a pretty low budget movie without that Hollywood gloss, but it was there. What's adding to that whole sentiment is how this idea gets pitched, accepted, budgeted and filmed. Who wants to be a part of such depravity? Well, the movie probably deserves the 5.1 rating it's receiving on IMDB, but I question the decision to produce a sequel (of course, it was probably quite inexpensive to make, and hence, pretty profitable).

Who knows though, perhaps this will be a cult phenomenon years down the road, as we gobble up special editions and recuts while we bask in the nostalgia of such a horrible idea.

Southland

Well, where do you even start? This show had me on edge constantly. I can even describe how into this show I would get; so much so that I couldn't watch the whole series/season episode to episode. I had to wait weeks between. You have to figure that a part of why it took so long was because I just didn't want the show to end.

Apparently, the entire series was filmed at once (all thirteen episodes), and the first seven were aired as season one. For some reason, NBC decided to drop the show and the second season, really the last half of the first, was picked up by TNT and aired. And, according to Wikipedia a new season is coming out January 2011. This is tearing: will the "re-imaged" be anywhere near as "crackling" as the original? I sincerely doubt it.

Basically it takes a very specific "cop show" to get me interested; when I was a bit younger my dad and I spent some time watching Adam-12, and if this makes any sense, it had that same rawness as Southland does. It just had cops doing what cops do best. Of course, if I were to watch that old series now that comparison between the two shows is probably razor thin, but that's the way I choose to remember it.

This show as quick, emotionally engaging and sharp; the characters were fantastic, the intro complete with that music is pure classic, the narration is tight and binding. I would be satisfied if the series ended as it did; in and out with a bang.

Movie Update

In keeping with the (requested) bullet lists, and the fact that I do enjoy them, here are some movies I've seen in the past week or so, and oddly enough, a numeric rating indicating how much enjoyment I got out of it. Or perhaps the numbers don't mean much, you be the judge.

• The Killer Inside Me - A slick little movie with a great performance by Casey Affleck; 7/10
• Cloverfield - I was scared to watch this movie again, one, because the monster is slightly scary and two, I was worried my enjoyment of it would be sullied. Both are true (just a tad), but I got a real kick out of the it; 8/10
• Shutter Island - Was I supposed to know "the deal" the entire time, or was the movie spoiled for me before? Either way you take it, this was a fantastic movie; 9/10
• THX 1138 - I recall liking this more the first time I saw it years ago. My mind just wasn't into it this time though; 6/10
• Evil Dead - Really, just a classic. 10/10

Photography in Motion

One of the things I always wanted to try out was some motion in photos, and this past summer I had an opportunity when I tagged along with my sister and niece to Canada's Wonderland. The goal of this type of shot (there must be a term for it, but I'm terrible, and don't have it) is to capture your subject in focus, while their surroundings are blurred, showing that they are, in fact, moving.

Alright, enough with the clumsy description!

First Outing in Urban Exploration

We went exploring some abandoned structures a few weeks ago, here is a small photo gallery of the adventure: Abandoned Durham A couple of the images are below, but click on the link for the full gallery; and more offline if you are interested.

Grain Elevator in Pontypool - that's right, from the movie!

Notable Trailers

I've been struggling with a method of putting up my trailer watching habits for so long, I figured the towel is thrown, and just let it flow.

• True Grit - Well this trailer rocks; I've never been a huge fan of westerns, but this remake has me interested in seeing both. I remember my dad's Beta copy of True Grit laying around the house when I was a kid.
• Paranormal Activity 2 - It's hard for me to put into words: I'm interested in this because it doesn't look like they are trying to hide the fact that this is a cash-grabbing sequel, and with that in mentality, the film could be a nice, consumable horror movie.
• The Tempest - Julie Taymor strikes again; Titus garnered my weird interest, and this looks even more so: visually striking and full of interesting characters. What more could you expect from a modern adaptation of Shakespeare?
• IP Man - Most likely won't be seeing this in theatres: just way too ridiculous (but also looking kind of fun)
• 127 Hours - Yes, this is a must watch. 'Nuff said.
• Skyline - Another War of the Worlds with the absolute bleak, no-win situation. Premise looks good but the giant bug-tongues got me laughing.

Memory Conversion

I was tasked with converting a number of old high school-era videos into some kind of digital format, with the obvious choice being DVD. It doesn't matter what you choose, however, because the purpose is the same: preservation. Being the procrastinator that I am, I am just now getting around to it, and there are moments of course, that the goal of preservation becomes questionable.

Do you just leave these memories alone? The mind has already constructed them in detail of it choosing, suppressing the bad, enhancing the good and scrubbing the ugly. A video camera preserves, without judgement and objectively, your memories for you. Watching them can take an emotional toll.

But there are good moments; seeing a group of friends driving in a car you once loved, seeing the fashions (and how they haven't changed that much for some) and laughing at some of the ridiculous things we used to do. And of course, the bad: cringing whenever you see or hear yourself and dreading those embarrassing moments. In order to do this sort of project, you must be willing to step back and realize: what's done is done, you were who you were and you're a better person for it now. Or whatever helps you sleep at night, your call.

Right now I'm just doing the analog to digital conversion; this process is done in real time of course, and for my setup, I do not have any sound. This, I know right now, is a good thing. Later on, the video must be de-interlaced and converted to something a little more practical for casual viewing, at which point I'll probably have a little more insight into what I've witnessed.

True Blood: Travesty

When you have seasons of television available, do the seasons get titles? Individual episodes do, but when you see these on shelves, it's always boring "season six" or "volume two." They should get on that.

The third season of True Blood has wrapped up and, being generally "excited" for each episode, I watched them on a weekly basis. I was only a few in when I first wrote about the third season, but now that the whole debacle is over, I can easily say this was a massive disappointment. There are a number of things wrong with this season, but the most offensive is how characters have entire story arcs that go nowhere and don't cross paths with other stories. Even in season two things came together, but here, you have a situation where, for example, Sam's story is completely irrelevant to the interests of the series. Not once does his new found family of shifters and dog-fighting matches cross paths with Sookie, Jason, or any bit characters. The whole arc is there just to fill time.

So that sort of thing goes on, then there is the terribleness of the characters themselves: Jason goes from absolute idiot to courageous protector randomly and unevenly. There are too many meta-humans? The werewolves are presented as weak, stupid and trailer trash. It's unfortunate such a magnificent beast is treated like garbage, although we should keep in mind the show's headliner are still vampires. And now they are introducing witches and wizards? Fairies? Spoiler: they should have left "what is Sookie" alone.

About the only good thing, looking back, is Eric. Just give this guy his own show. Skaarsgard is fantastic and I'm keen to see more of what he's done [watch Generation Kill] and will be doing. You know he's the star: at the very end of the last episode, he is buried alive, but instead of making us wait a year hanging onto the cliff, we wait about two minutes before he shows up again.

Many of these shows make it hard to wait for the next season, but I am definitely not awaiting the next now.

Netflix Primer

The first time I streamed something over the Internet was most likely fourteen years ago when I first hopped onto "high speed" service. High speed quoted simply because by today's standards, well, let's just say it's come a long way and I would love to post about those days some other time. The method of delivery was Realplayer, unfortunately still around and because of those terrible years, has a horrible stigma around the name (to me, at least, I assume everybody hates it). What was streamed? I have no idea, but an educated guess would be a movie trailer.

Essentially the quality was terrible, there was lots of buffering and yeah, the quality was horrible. But what can you expect in terms of quality back then? I remember downloading Quicktime movie trailers back then that were about 240x152 or something ridiculous like that. So you can imagine what a stream would be. Overall not a great experience, and something that I wouldn't go back to until my hand is forced with sites such as Youtube. Quality is getting better, as is the whole experience.

So you can now stream a few minutes, in high quality, but a whole movie? I've ignored the whole scene, only taking a peek at a few articles here and there, until Netflix launched in Canada a few days ago. So there are lots of questions but we'll get right to the point: can I stream high definition onto my television and watch a movie without interruption? The first test would be yes, yes you can.

Now, Primer is the definition of a low-budget, indie flick so the quality cannot be superb, and perhaps is not the best movie for testing a streaming service like this, but quality be damned, this movie is one of the best. Just one last note on the quality: it did have some of those "streaming artifacts" and blocking present, so in considering choosing this format or a disc, the disc is always going to win. But something must be said for the convenience of selecting a movie and you watching it within seconds.

They say Primer was filmed for $7000 but you would never know it: the low-budgetness is built right into the film: a young group of what we can only call inventors, are inventing. They are cost-conscience and using whatever they can around the house. We have no idea what they are building and it doesn't matter. They speak in another tongue that you should be able to understand, and you sort of do, but moving onto the next scene it hits you that you are still unclear what just happened.

And then you are watching a movie about avoiding doubles and time travel. Things get interesting and tense, as the movie progresses things start making sense but it's still unclear how this device works, but don't worry, it's not relevant. This movie has such lofty ideas and doesn't hold back; you appreciate the ability and freedom to analyze what you've just seen after the movie is done.

I'm still not entirely sure what happened in the end but that's not going to get me down. Primer is a blast to watch, and reaffirms my faith in science fiction film-making: it's more about the ideas than the special effects.