*flag waving*
Norway will over the course of today and tomorrow finally provide equal marriage options for homophilic and heterophilic couples. About frickin' time!
*more flag waving*
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Thoughts on Cloverfield
In the interest of disclosure: I had already read reviews of the film and knew who was going to die and how. Oh, and I strongly dislike watching "home videos," an aesthetic Cloverfield aimed at in its exposition.
Cloverfield failed to engage me on any successful level. While I enjoyed and was swept up by the shaky-cam cinematography of the Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield's was too artificial for me to suspend my disbelief; it just felt pretentious and made me continually aware that I was watching a disagreeable movie.
The one moment that caught me was the obvious 09.11.2001 reference / exploitation; since that day, anyone who saw and experienced watching the fall of the World Trade Center towers (in-person or on TV) will likely connect the implosion of high towers to that day.
The more I think about it, the more Cloverfield's cinematography strikes me as that of a first-person shooter game as opposed to the BWP. See the end part of Doom, the movie, for another example of this FPS cinematography; I suspect that Cloverfield and Doom match up in this regard.
The characters were stock white, yuppie persons and the actors had a thankless job in portraying such dead-on-arrival roles. Just about none of their moments were memorable (except for the "main dude" bit).
Something finally struck me about many of these monster-disaster movies when watching Cloverfield: was there a massive circus in one of the other boroughs or possibly a freebie-evening at a Teddy Bear Workshop in Queens? Manhattan was utterly childless on the evening the Cloverfield monster struck.
The Cloverfield monster was by far the most interesting part of the film.
Cloverfield failed to engage me on any successful level. While I enjoyed and was swept up by the shaky-cam cinematography of the Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield's was too artificial for me to suspend my disbelief; it just felt pretentious and made me continually aware that I was watching a disagreeable movie.
The one moment that caught me was the obvious 09.11.2001 reference / exploitation; since that day, anyone who saw and experienced watching the fall of the World Trade Center towers (in-person or on TV) will likely connect the implosion of high towers to that day.
The more I think about it, the more Cloverfield's cinematography strikes me as that of a first-person shooter game as opposed to the BWP. See the end part of Doom, the movie, for another example of this FPS cinematography; I suspect that Cloverfield and Doom match up in this regard.
The characters were stock white, yuppie persons and the actors had a thankless job in portraying such dead-on-arrival roles. Just about none of their moments were memorable (except for the "main dude" bit).
Something finally struck me about many of these monster-disaster movies when watching Cloverfield: was there a massive circus in one of the other boroughs or possibly a freebie-evening at a Teddy Bear Workshop in Queens? Manhattan was utterly childless on the evening the Cloverfield monster struck.
The Cloverfield monster was by far the most interesting part of the film.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Birthday wishes
I am just going to post some of my birthday wishes on here. That way I can just direct people to my blog should they happen to ask "what do you want for your birthday?"
7,5 kg støpte håndmanualer (x2): http://mobech.no/?prod=1218
The Movies; Stunts and Effects expansion: http://www.amazon.com/Movies-Stunts-Effects-Expansion-Pack/dp/B000FTHEPU
Pirates of Silicon Valley (DVD)
fun and surprising toys
7,5 kg støpte håndmanualer (x2): http://mobech.no/?prod=1218
The Movies; Stunts and Effects expansion: http://www.amazon.com/Movies-Stunts-Effects-Expansion-Pack/dp/B000FTHEPU
Pirates of Silicon Valley (DVD)
fun and surprising toys
Monday, March 10, 2008
The Grudge (Gellar version)
*I know that this is not particularly divergent*
The Grudge with Sarah Michelle Gellar is one of the most pointless films I have seen. It is a remarkably lame attempt at a horror film; at most, it provides a few cheap scares without much of an effort to connect the scares into one coherent whole.
The haunting is itself more than enough to work it; the non-chronological timeline of the film gives it a choppy feel and detracts from whenever the film builds up a scare. The flash editing of horror shots (where we are shown something horrible / grotesque for a second and then cut to black) is pretentious, in effect "cock-blocking" us from appreciating what little the film offers of horrific sights.
At least in the television series (which I didn't much care for either), there was one scene where the I was outright disturbed by the film.*
*it's the scene where the homicidally jealous Takeo calls up the object of his wife's infatuation and then begins bashing a bag against the pavement; he explains that the bag contains the fetus he has cut out of Kayako. Now, that's some nasty sh*t.
The Grudge with Sarah Michelle Gellar is one of the most pointless films I have seen. It is a remarkably lame attempt at a horror film; at most, it provides a few cheap scares without much of an effort to connect the scares into one coherent whole.
The haunting is itself more than enough to work it; the non-chronological timeline of the film gives it a choppy feel and detracts from whenever the film builds up a scare. The flash editing of horror shots (where we are shown something horrible / grotesque for a second and then cut to black) is pretentious, in effect "cock-blocking" us from appreciating what little the film offers of horrific sights.
At least in the television series (which I didn't much care for either), there was one scene where the I was outright disturbed by the film.*
*it's the scene where the homicidally jealous Takeo calls up the object of his wife's infatuation and then begins bashing a bag against the pavement; he explains that the bag contains the fetus he has cut out of Kayako. Now, that's some nasty sh*t.
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