Saturday, August 28, 2004
Hero worship
Well, I just returned from having seen the latest Jet Li movie entitled Hero. From the previews and such, I (like everybody else) went in expecting an action moive along the lines of Crouching Tiger, Hiden Dragon. As I expected, the movie was subtitled with all dialouge in Chinese. However, the action was somewhat less than expected. Not to say that there wasn't plenty of wire-fu and even some bullet-time effects thrown in there for that extra touch, but overall the feeling of the movie was artistic. I'm trying not to tell you so much about the movie as to spoil it, however, I do want you to be adequately aware of what you would be going to see.
What not to expect:
1) Blood
2) Continuous fighting
3) English
4) Understanding audience (many people left mid movie proclaming various vulgar things about this movie)
5) Happy Ending
What to expect:
1) Beautiful scenery
2) Great choreography
3) Great fight scenes when applicable (except for one, but I'll let you figure that one out)
4) Brief lesson in Chinese History and caligraphy
5) Philosophy about war/fighting
I hope that while I haven't given away enough to spoil the movie, I've given away enough so that only the people who don't mind movies such as this will see it. Personally, I think I was one of 4 people in the audience who enjoyed it, but that's mainly cause the majority was dissapointed in the lack of American style action movie.
What not to expect:
1) Blood
2) Continuous fighting
3) English
4) Understanding audience (many people left mid movie proclaming various vulgar things about this movie)
5) Happy Ending
What to expect:
1) Beautiful scenery
2) Great choreography
3) Great fight scenes when applicable (except for one, but I'll let you figure that one out)
4) Brief lesson in Chinese History and caligraphy
5) Philosophy about war/fighting
I hope that while I haven't given away enough to spoil the movie, I've given away enough so that only the people who don't mind movies such as this will see it. Personally, I think I was one of 4 people in the audience who enjoyed it, but that's mainly cause the majority was dissapointed in the lack of American style action movie.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
The Edge of Gotham City.
Batman's been all over the place lately. The first volume of the critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series was recently released on DVD -- which I highly recommend -- and the first teaser trailer has been released for next year's Batman Begins, the fifth modern-era film and an apparent "relaunch" of the Batman franchise.
(And what a relaunch! It's being helmed by Christopher Nolan, the cerebral director of Memento and Insomnia fame. Christian Bale, a relative unknown most famous for American Psycho, is the Dark Knight. Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, and Katie Holmes costar. Michael Caine is Alfred, and Gary Oldman is the future Commissioner Gordon. That's right. Gary Oldman is Jim Gordon.)
But amidst all that you may have not noticed this bit of news: a new animated series, "The Batman," is scheduled to debut Saturday, September 11th, on The WB. There's already a mini-site and an IMDB page for it, and there's a good bit to be gleaned from both.
Some things change, some remain the same. The vintage look of the 1940's appears to be gone, but the "noir" most definitely remains. Both the Bat and the Joker aren't quite the same -- and that's the understatement for the Joker -- but they don't seem to have "lightened up" to appeal to younger viewers. Even the voice actors for both have changed, but what little I've heard sounds good.
And the familiar blood-red sky continues to haunt Gotham City.
A QuickTime movie of the opening is already at the WB site (direct link here), and it reveals that the producers have moved from a "vignette" opening to a montage, and from Danny Elfman's now-classic orchestral theme to a guitar-based theme song.
I think that the new theme's a nice touch. Rather than try to compete with Elfman's score -- as the last two Batman films did, much to their embarrassment -- they keep it dark but make it modern. And as IMDB confirms, they found an excellent musician to produce the theme: U2's guitarist, The Edge.
(And what a relaunch! It's being helmed by Christopher Nolan, the cerebral director of Memento and Insomnia fame. Christian Bale, a relative unknown most famous for American Psycho, is the Dark Knight. Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, and Katie Holmes costar. Michael Caine is Alfred, and Gary Oldman is the future Commissioner Gordon. That's right. Gary Oldman is Jim Gordon.)
But amidst all that you may have not noticed this bit of news: a new animated series, "The Batman," is scheduled to debut Saturday, September 11th, on The WB. There's already a mini-site and an IMDB page for it, and there's a good bit to be gleaned from both.
Some things change, some remain the same. The vintage look of the 1940's appears to be gone, but the "noir" most definitely remains. Both the Bat and the Joker aren't quite the same -- and that's the understatement for the Joker -- but they don't seem to have "lightened up" to appeal to younger viewers. Even the voice actors for both have changed, but what little I've heard sounds good.
And the familiar blood-red sky continues to haunt Gotham City.
A QuickTime movie of the opening is already at the WB site (direct link here), and it reveals that the producers have moved from a "vignette" opening to a montage, and from Danny Elfman's now-classic orchestral theme to a guitar-based theme song.
I think that the new theme's a nice touch. Rather than try to compete with Elfman's score -- as the last two Batman films did, much to their embarrassment -- they keep it dark but make it modern. And as IMDB confirms, they found an excellent musician to produce the theme: U2's guitarist, The Edge.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
New Continent Discovered...
This weekend, while Michele and I were watching water polo (a very interesting sport, actually) between the U.S. and Russia, the announcer filled me (and the entire world) in on something that I never realized. As he was discussing the U.S. team, he stated that "It seems that this team has played on just about every continent recently, with the exceptions of Arctica and Antarctica, of course." Wow, it's a wonder I ever passed geography. I totally forgot about the lost continent of Arctica!?! I guess it's just a good thing that I decided to go into math education instead of any sort of social studies. Sheesh!
Monday, August 23, 2004
"My name is Inigo Montoya..."
"You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Actual caption: The Olympic mascots Athena , right, and Phevos fence during the interval between two semifinal rounds at the 2004 Olympic Games at the Helliniko fencing hall in Athens Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, link)
I'm sure we can all do better -- and if y'all like this li'l caption contest, I'll start others and encourage y'all to start your own.
