A Q&A I did with Jesse Brown of CBC's Search Engine has just been posted on the website for the Ryerson Review of Journalism.
In the article I ask Brown about the transition of his show from CBC Radio One to being a podcast. Here's a sample:
I knew the show wasn’t coming back. If CBC didn’t bring classical music back, after the kind of response it got for the changes to Radio 2, Search Engine wasn’t coming back to FM radio.You can find the article here.
The Wachowski Brothers mark their directorial return after a five years off with the kid and LCD-user friendly Speed Racer.
The Plot:
Speed Racer, looks up to his brother Rex Racer who races cars. However, Rex Racer gets killed and then Speed Racer needs to race to win. Or something. The plot is inconsequential when it isn't incomprehensible.
Good:
• This movie REALLY looks like a cracked out acid trip. There's a weird hyperactive energy here that's all over the place. The final race where Speed wins (spoiler I guess, sorry), ends with a 2001-esque sequence that plays out like a hyperactive visual orgasm. It takes the style of the old cartoon and ramps it up.
• The movie is at it's best when it's really pushing how over the top it is. Whenever their crazy shit is going on you can't tear your eyes away.
• The kid and the monkey are distractingly annoying less often than you would expect (although they are still distractingly annoying).
Bad:
• The plot.
• Any sequence where the hyperactive style goes away and it becomes more like a regular movie. There are two scenes in particular where Speed is getting a pep talk from his parents that just DRAG.
• The kid and the monkey.
• The idea that Racer X could be anyone BUT Speed's brother Rex. Seriously.
• It was too long.
Overall:
It was impressively insane. I don't know if it was enjoyable though. Not really.
The first summer movie hits, and it features one of the more interesting Marvel heroes and the Robert Downey Jr.'s second coming (or third coming, or maybe fourth).The Plot:
Tony Stark is a super-genius and a playboy, making billions as the head of Stark Industries, the world's largest weapons manufacturer. After a successful sales call in Afghanistan, Stark is kidnapped and taken captive by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings. They want him to make them a bomb. He makes a suit of robotic armour instead, and then escapes. Having a crisis of conscience, he decides to make a new better suit and become a superhero. Iron Man is born.
Good:
• Hits all of the necessary superhero story points perfectly.
• RDJ portrays Stark as capable, narcissistic, caring and a little crazy. It works.
• The suit is pretty bad-ass.
• The movie has a sense of child-like wonderment tempered with a realistic gravitas. Only not that pretentious.
• Simply fun from start to finish.
• Best post-credits Easter-egg ever.
Bad:
• Jeff Bridges's bad guy seems a touch too over the top and buffoonish in the movie.
• The stereotypical terrorists.
• Not quite enough Iron Man.
Overall:
Very few summer blockbusters hit the sweet spot of FX, characterization, cheezy fun, seriousness and pace as Iron Man. Although may not be the best summer blockbuster coming out this year (although who knows), it may well be the most easy to enjoy without reservation. Worth seeing on a big screen.
Jackie Chan and Jet Li are the pillars of the Hong Kong and Chinese marital arts flicks making there way to North America in the last fifteen years or so. Too bad that they waited until they were old to team up.The Plot:
Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano, the poor man's Shia LaBeouf) is a kid from Boston who likes Kung Fu movies. He gets roughed-up by street thugs, finds a magical staff and falls off a roof. When he wakes up he's in The Forbidden Kingdom, a version of ancient mythological China. Now, with the help of a drunk and possibly immortal vagabond (Chan), a kind-of assholish monk (Li) and a love interest who talks only in the third person (Yifei Liu), he must return the magic staff to the Monkey King (also Li) and defeat the evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou).
Good:
• The action is better than most American produced martial arts movies (this is probably because of the Chinese funding and choreography).
• It's certainly Jackie Chan's best American movie.
• The pace is somewhat breezy. It doesn't drag.
• It plays the hero's quest angle fairly well.
• It's kind of fun how they explain Chan and Li playing multiple roles.
Bad:
• You can really see the political aspect between how much presence Jackie Chan and Jet Li have in the film. About 20 minutes in it seems strange that Li's monk character hasn't been introduced yet (although he has showed up as the Monkey King), and I realized that it was because that would have unbalanced the movie towards Li and away from Chan. On the same note, the fight between Li and Chan is quite good (considering how old they are), but ends in such a draw as to seem pointless.
• The story arc of the movie is fairly predictable.
• The white lead is bland.
• When kung fu shows up in the "real world" at the end of the movie, it seems out of place.
Overall:
Not something to go out of your way to see if you aren't a fan of the genre, but not crazy terrible like some were predicting it would be. It does work fairly well as an actiony kids movie.
How am I going to get people to go to these movies with me OR The Electric Dreamstate Summer Movie Preview
May 2:
Iron Man
This one will be fairly easy. There's a good amount of buzz going around about it and people seem interested. Also, as the first blockbuster of the season, people aren't fatigued yet.
May 9:
Speed Racer
And we run into trouble right here. Ostensibly a kids movie and a crack dream at the same time, Speed Racer doesn't appeal to everyone. Personally I really want to see the epic acid-trippy primary-colour car-orgy being sold here, but others might not be as interested.
May 16:
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Eh, I could take or leave this one, but I'm kind of interested because I absolutely do not remember the plot of Caspian. There is fighting, and this is where the talking mouse Reep-a-cheep shows up I think.
May 23:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
This one is easy, everyone wants to see a new Indiana Jones movie. The real challenge is getting them to wait until Saturday to see it (I work Friday nights).
June 13:
The Incredible Hulk
A few weeks off (the Sex and the City movie is in between) leads us to our first double week. I secretly really want to see the new Hulk movie. Yes the directing will be workman like compared to Ang Lee's Hulk (by far the most visually interesting modern superhero movie regardless of what you felt about the overall product), and the movie is supposedly 1/5th fight scene (set on Younge Street, New York). But that doesn't matter. The 13-year-old inside of me wants to see Hulk Smash.
The Happening
Even harder to sell than The Incredible Hulk, The Happening is the latest from pretentious genre auteur M. Night Shyamalan. I found something to like in three of Shyamalan's major releases (with two being good movies), and I'm interested to see if he can pull his career together.
June 20:
Get Smart
I think that Carrel can make this work. And I have a soft spot for the Rock. Also I don't want The Love Guru to win the weekend.
June 27:
Wall•E
This Pixar animated movie has almost no talking (or characters at all other than the titular Wall•E) for, supposedly, the first third to half of the film. Hopefully I can convince people that to go to a kids movie with no talking. I think the novelty may do it.
July 4:
Hancock
The good-olde July 4th Will Smith movie. Sure this looks stupider than stupid ... but he picks up a whale and throws it into a boat! Woooo! Woooo!
July 11:
Hellboy II
Being sandwiched between Hancock and The Dark Knight isn't the greatest for Hellboy II's chances, either in the box office or for getting my friends to see it with me. The first movie was fine, if unexceptional, but the second doesn't have to be bogged down by introductory origin crap. Also evil Nazis and Cthulhu.
July 18:
The Dark Knight
This one won't be a problem. Even those who didn't like Christopher Nolan's 2005 take on Batman will probably want to see Heath Ledger's final role. Next!
July 25:
X Files: I Want To Believe
The problem here is that a) many people left the X Files with a fairly sour taste in their mouths (people say it was the last two seasons, but it was really the last four or so) b) the show has so much baggage from the mythology episodes that no one knows what's going on and c) many people are unaware this is coming out. Getting people to care will be tough, even if the movie is a "monster of the week" type story in the style of the early seasons.
August 8:
Pineapple Express
The problem with Pineapple Express isn't that people don't want to see it, it's that I don't think they really understand what it is. As far as I can tell it's fully an action-comedy with an emphasis on the "action" part. Audiences seem to think it's another Apatow stoner comedy. Will the bait be pulled away too soon for the switch to work?
The summer movie season is almost upon us, and once again I return to this blog. Let's start out with a nice point form review of last weekend's Judd Apatow Brand™ comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.The Plot:
Peter Bretter (Jason Segal) is a music composer on the CSI-esque show Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime and dating one of the stars of the show Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). She dumps him and he goes on vacation to forget her ... only she's at the same resort as him with her new boyfriend.
Good:
• Some hilarious moments, many related to full-frontal male nudity.
• Did a good job making the sentimental scenes have jokes in them, and remain funny.
• All of the leads acquitted themselves well. Surprisingly Mila Kunis was probably the stand-out, having finally outgrown her Jackie character from That 70s Show.
• Stays funny throughout, despite being a bit long.
Bad:
• Unfortunately the plot focuses on several sitcom like contrivances (the fact that they're at the same resort, they have rooms next to each other, ect).
• It is a little bit long.
• Although it fulfills the Apatow formula fairly well (R-rated jokes, characters with depth, kind-of more sincere than you expect), it has become a formula at this point and isn't as surprising.
Overall:
The film is hilarious, but will be just as worth while on video.
This list is fairly mutable. Next week I might rank another movie in a different slot based on my mood. I also haven't seen the following movies: Gone Baby Gone, The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford, Into the Wild and Knocked Up. Any of these might end up slotted in somewhere. Additionally, I walked out of the room about halfway into my room mate watching Hairspray.
Honourable Mention 4 - Beowulf
I'm not sure that I would put this on a "top" list, but it hangs together fairly well and the final fight between the dragon and Beowulf was the best spectacle scene in a year of spectacle. I don't know how this will look without the big screen and 3D though.
Honourable Mention 3 - Juno
The movie just seems to be a bit to pleased with itself to really slot into a top spot, but I did enjoy the movie for all the reasons that everyone else did. The film is already being hurt by its own success and it has already become cool to dislike it for its forced quirkiness. I might also just be putting it here just because my list below is so dude-centric.
Honourable Mention 2 - Wristcutters: A Love Story
You know how much money IMDB says Wristcutters made after it was "released" in theatres in November? $231,551. It was getting good reviews coming out of Sundance. In 2006. I have no idea why this quirky comedy about love after suicide couldn't find its way on the indie scene, and I wish it luck on the DVD circuit.
Honourable Mention 1 - Charlie Wilson's War
This breezy (in a good way) movie is about a real senator who was integral in getting the US to supply the mujahadin against the Soviets. It stars Tom Hanks, was directed by Mike Nichols and was written by Aaron Sorkin. It was also a good ending away from being my top film of 2007. As it is it's not quite good enough to get into my top five.
5 - The Bourne Ultimatum
The best threequel in a year of threequels, the third Bourne movie still somehow maintains the series's trademark of tense action and intelligent thought. Personally, I liked the fact that almost two movies later, Bourne is still messed up by his girlfriend getting killed. The thing does lose a bit of the realistic mayhem that the previous movies got so right (it ended up being quasi-realistic mayhem), but I think that's okay as the series built to its conclusion.
4 - Hot Fuzz
About two-thirds of the way into Hot Fuzz I didn't know if I was sold on it. It seemed less like a parody of a cop/buddy movie and more of a weird quasi-comic remake of The Wicker Man. Then everything paid off in one of the most hilarious and over-the-top sequences I've seen in years. I want to see it again right now.
3 - There Will Be Blood
There are problems with There Will Be Blood (the final few scenes with the son seemed a bit off to me), but the movie is relentless. This is mostly because of the central performance by Daniel Day Lewis as a man who's obsession with succeeding over all others feeds his seething hatred of humanity.
2 - Zodiac
This is the only movie that I can remember seeing on home video where I was captivated as if I was watching it on the big screen. It's a weird movie that stands between a fictionalized account and a straight-up reenactment of events. It's long and meanders, but damn if I didn't get absolutely caught up in the slice of history presented here. It's too bad this came out in March and no one saw it.
1 - No Country for Old Men
The first note of music in No Country for Old Men comes quietly and ominously as the end credits begin to roll, and it feels like the movie is finally allowing you to let out the breath that you've been holding in for the whole two hour running time. The Coen Brothers' last couple movies have been disappointments, but the filmmaking here is so confident and outright perfect that it's almost impossible not to become enraptured by it. Some people have poo-pooed the ending of No Country, but the more that I thought about it the more that I couldn't see it any other way.
To put this in perspective I will use an obscure reference. Do you remember the season two finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation? For those who don't here is a refresher. Riker beams down to a planet and then gets pricked by the stinger of a creature that looks like a log. He then goes back to the ship and has a clip-show in his head. If the Simpsons episode where Bart shakes Homer's beer too much is the best clip show ever, then this is the worst. Clips are arranged in a nonsensical way and the entire proceeding is almost impossible to sit through. It was also, as mentioned before, the season two finale. The episode completely derailed the narrative momentum of the show. It was an episode created because there was a WGA strike.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I'm personally on the side of the writers. The fact that they don't get any money for shows sold on the internet is ludicrous (if someone is profiting, the writers should get paid), and it smacks of terrible Hollywood accounting. If there are any big updates I'll post 'em here.
To commemorate the fact that Super Mario Galaxy is coming out very soon (Monday officially I believe), I'm posting this video for the last true Mario game, Super Mario Sunshine.
(For those of you reading this on facebook, you will probably have to click through back to the blog, I'm pretty sure Facebook won't import the movie)
EDIT: Galaxy isn't coming out until the 12th. Sorry guys.
The word "read" is in quotation marks because I actually listened to most of these via audio book. They were universally unabridged versions though, so it isn't like I missed anything.
I saw Live Free or Die Hard tonight and I'm of confused by it. It isn't Die Hard 4. It's not really a Die Hard movie at all. It's as if the Die Hard movies were translated into an internet meme and then reconstructed into a movie. Just like Chuck Norris' never really was like the persona that embodies Chuck Norris jokes, neither did John McClain ever act like the unbeatable super-hero shown in LFoDH. John McClain is the guy who gets his feet all cut up by glass and then bleeds everywhere and limps into the final showdown. Not the guy who jumps out of a moving car at 50mph and then shows no ill effects five minutes later.
I purchased a Hard Drive for my Xbox 360 and downloaded some games over the last couple of weeks. I also downloaded Ninja Gaiden for the NES on the Wii.
Ninja Gaiden on the Wii Virtual Console
Still as bloody hard as I remember it being way back in the day, the game is helped immensely by the fact that the Wii allows you to turn off your game and save your progress. Although it's frustrating in a few ways that it's sequels aren't (the fact that you can grab onto most walls but can't climb them leads to situations where you just postpone your inevitable death), the platforming action is tight and when you do succeed it feels like you've accomplished something. Worth $5.
Settlers of Catan on Xbox Live Arcade
This is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the hit German board game Settlers of Catan. I've heard Settlers mentioned on numerous video game websites as being a "hard core" game, which confuses me a bit. As far as board games go, it's really more of an entry level game designed to ease people into games more complicated than Sorry. Something like Risk is more complicated (though not better designed) than Settlers. Compared to the even the most basic multiplayer online-game it's actually amazingly simple and new player friendly.
As for the port itself, the game is given more audio and visual fidelity than I think it really needs, but I'm not complaining. The trade interface is elegant and the A.I. is actually amazingly smart, although it's sometimes annoying when an A.I. won't trade with you from the very beginning of the game (that happens with real people too though). If you're going to play the game online and not in Real Life this is the best version by far. The game flow plays elegantly and you never feel like you're waiting around for other people too much. Anyone who likes board games and has Xbox Live gold should get this game.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on Xbox Live Arcade
This was an excellent game when it came out on the PS1 ten years ago and it's an excellent game now. In fact, I would have gladly paid two or three times the amount the asking price for it.
The game is, quite simply, a copy of Super Metroid with a Castlevaina skin pulled over it and some light RPG elements added in. It never achieves quite the level of absolute excellence that Super Metroid did, but that isn't especially surprising because Super Metriod is one of the best games ever made. However, C:SotN is one of the best games for the PS1, and is better than most of the Xbox 360's full priced library.
The negatives: 1) the game is still a bit short (but for the price it's actually quite long), 2) the graphics are the best 2D that 1997 could offer, so they are excellent, but a bit dated and 3) The game really feels like it should have more than 200 Achievement Points.
If you have a 360 and a Hard Drive, you should download Symphony of the Night.
Hmm, John Rambo always seemed like a crazy stupid idea for a movie (hell First Blood II: Rambo and Rambo III are stupid ideas for movies too). I don't know if this footage to sell the film to distributors changes my mind on that. But it could be okay. I guess.
EDIT: Oh yeah. NSFW
The first good trailer for Transformers just came out. One that actually makes me want to see the movie.
If you haven't seen it yet you get get it by clicking here. It's the one marked "Exclusive".
Don't get me wrong, I'm not some sort of crazy transfan who's up in arms that they added flames on Optimus, but everything I had seen from the movie so far looked shitty regardless of how closely it stuck to the premise of a 25-year-old toy line.
Though I guess it doesn't matter what I think so much, because I was going to see the movie anyway. That's just the kind of nerd that I am.
Many of you haven't seen the latest movie from the producers/writers/stars of Shaun of the Dead. You should; it's awesome. I'll post more when I'm not at work.
I saw two movies today.
Ghost Rider
Do any of the following apply to you?
• You saw the cover of any Black Sabath album, or the cover of any album with the words "Bat", "Out", "of" and "Hell" in the title and thought "man I want to see that made as a movie?"
• You're interested in seeing a movie about Ghost Rider.
If you answered yes to either of those questions then you will like the Ghost Rider movie. Otherwise, not so much.
Smoking Aces
Probably my favorite of the post-Pulp-Fiction Pulp-Fiction rip-offs, Smoking Aces is worth seeing if you don't mind a bit of violence. Much better than the last major attempt at a pPF Lucky Number Slevin. Those staying away because they don't like Ben Affleck shouldn't worry. He isn't in it much.
So I've been fairly negligent of this blog. Sorry about that for the five to ten of you who are still reading this.
Anywho, Best Buy offered the first four seasons of E.R. for $15 each, which is crazy low. I ended up purchasing all four during various trips to Best Buy during the holidays.
Generally the show is fairly good. Not great (although it does have its moments), but solid above average story telling. Sadly you can tell that the original concept, which was perfectly portrayed in the pilot episode, of mixing big stories (OMG breakup!, this man is GOING TO DIE!, AIDS!, ect) with small stories (working 80 hours a week is hard, growing up is confusing, I feel overwhelmed by life, ect), was almost completely discarded by the end of the first season in lieu of just telling the big stories. If that makes any sense.
So yeah, if you see E.R. on sale for $15 a season, it's worth it, at least for the first season.
So I'm 26. Yeah.
I've left this blog off mostly because I had about 700 words of a Zelda review which I wasn't happy with. So I'm just going to post all the review you need: the game is good: play it.
I'm going to post a video later today when I'm less drunk.