Yeraze's Domain 3.0

I just saw that they’re turning everyone’s favorite hyperactive mexican freedom-fighting mouse into a movie.  But check out this description?
“Speedy s going to be a misunderstood boy who comes from a family that works in a very meticulous setting and he s a little too fast for what they do ” said Anne Lopez. [...]

This is hilarious..

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Last night Laura & I had a date night and went to go see the new Underworld III: Rise of the Lycans. We had alot of fun, and to my surprise it’s a really good movie.
The movie is a prequel, long before the events of Underworld 1 & 2. It details the rise [...]

The footage they show here is so incredibly close to the graphic novel, it’s spooky.  This has the potential to be a fantastic movie.
YouTube – NBS Nightly News with Ted Philips, March 11th 1970.
ps: I’m also testing a few new WordPress tweaks with this post

Last night, Laura and I went to see The Dark Knight at the local Malco.  1 word: AWESOME.

Heath Ledger’s performance is everything they say.  His character, the Joker, has fantastic dialog and monologues, which you have to attribute to the writing staff.  But the mannerisms, the voice, the laugh,  that’s all Heath Ledger, and he does amazingly well.  From the initial "Pencil Trick " all the way to the final showdown, he’s an psychopathic anarchist with no regard for anything but chaos, and it’s completely believable.

The one actor I have not heard much about is Aaron Eckhart who plays Harvey Dent, Gotham’s new District Attorney.  He has an equally impressive showing as he slowly turns from Gotham’s White Knight into Two-Face. 

The entire movie is fantastic, and a great sequel to Batman Begins.  Plus, it’s got trailers for Watchmen and the new Terminator Salvation movie starring Batman himself as John Connor. 

[tag:batman][tag:movie][tag:darkknight][tag:heathledger]

Last night Laura & I went to the Midnight Premiere of Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix (the 5th movie in the series).  This was the first Harry Potter movie I’ve been to where I had read the book prior to seeing the movie.  That being said, my review of the movie is slightly biased since I went into the movie with a certain expectation of what I would see.

It’s a pretty good movie, although they deviated fairly significantly from the book.  Both through omissions of fairly important scenes and details, and through changing minor details, the movie was alot different that I expected.  This film also has a new director, making the look and feel of it quite different.  Of course, the 5th book has a drastically different feel from the previous ones anyway, his touch just makes it even more so. 

This movie starts with Harry & Dudley fighting it out in the local park, when they suddenly get attacked by Dementors.  From there, Harry is expelled from Hogwarts, put on Trial for underage wizardry, reinstated into Hogwarts, and begins his usual school year. But this year there are forces working to undermine Dumbledore & Hogwards in the form of the new Defense against the Dark Arts appointee, Dolores Umbridge.  It’s a good story, and Imelda Staunton makes a perfect Umbridge.

But with all the Action, and the sheer size of the book, the movie feels "rushed".  Just as one scene starts to get interesting, they whisk you away to something else.  It feels like you never really get a firm grasp on what’s going on because things move so fast from one topic to the next.  As a quick analysis, I pulled the movie runtimes from IMDB & the book pagecounts from Google & VeritaSerum.com and made the following chart:

So pretty quickly you can see that they’re covering material 1.5x faster than the previous movie, 2x as fast as any other movie.  Also, they leave out several major parts of the book.  SPOILER ALERT, Don’t continue reading if you want to be surprised.
[tag:harrypotter][tag:orderofthephoenix][tag:movie][tag:review]

More than meets the eye, indeed.  When I first heard of the Transformers movie, I was really excited.  But the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be a complete trashing of the childhood cartoon I loved.  Once the original cartoon went off the air, Transformers pretty much vanished for a few years before they returned with the popularity of CGI animation.  Then, Beast Wars came around.  This was a complete departure from the original cartoon, now with the Autobots and Decepticons (called the Maximals & Predacons) fighing off some kind of virus that turns them into Animals.  After that series, pretty much every cartoon started from scratch.  One cartoon had the transformers in hiding, searching for "Energon", while another cartoon had them widely known and accepted as the saviors of mankind.  Each cartoon was a pretty significant departure, and it was pretty unknown which one they would go with.

Then word came out that Micheal Bay was directing it.  Micheal Bay has a.. Spotty career.  He’s directed movies I love, like The Rock, and movies I didn’t, like Pearl Harbor.  He’s also directed some oddball films like Playboy Video Centerfold, so with a Micheal Bay  movie you never know what to expect.

I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, however.  This films takes bits and pieces from several cartoons and conglomerates a pretty good story.  This time the Autobots & Decepticons (Only 3-5 of each) are searching for "The Cube", also known as the "All-Spark", the artifact that alone holds the power to create new Transformers and rebuild their home planet of Cybertron (now destroyed).  Starting with Bumblebee, several of the classic characters are introduced, each with a decidedly 2007 sports-car twist.  There’s alot of humor involved, and the film has some pretty good jokes involving "lubricant".

It’s a good movie, and the effects are really impressive.  The action scenes are frantic and frequent, but the camerawork leaves alot to be desired as the action is frequently so close-up that you can’t tell which transformer’s giant metal hand is flying across the screen in a blur.    Nonetheless, it’s a great movie.  Peter Cullen returns to voice Optimus Prime, which was a real treat for someone familiar with the original series.  There are also rumors of a Transformers 2, which would fit well with the ending of the film.  WIth the sequel, tho, they would need a much stronger plot as I think most of this film is being carried on the "Wow" factor of seeing the transformers on the big screen. 

Gotta give this one a 5/5.
[tag:Transformers][tag:movie][tag:review]

This weekend, Laura & I used some Regal Cinema giftcards (Thank you April & Nathan!) to go catch Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.  This movie picks up right after the 2nd one:  Dave Jones is gainfully employed by the East India Trading Company, Beckett has taken to slaughtering pirates (and anyone associated with them) en-masse, and Will & Elizabeth are working with Captain Barbossa to rescue Jack Sparrow from "Davy Jones Locker".

All that said, the movie is 2 hours and 48 minutes, and full of entertainment.  From the naval battles to the sword fighting, to the simply fantastic voyages of sailing to Davy Jones Locker and the improbable escape.  The special effects are, again, fantastic.  The acting is great and Jonny Depp pull of the "New and more-insane" Jack Sparrow perfectly.  My only complaint is the number of plot holes in the movie.  Such obvious ones as 1) 1 day ashore for 10 years at sea, What man in their right mind would agree to that? 2) Who is Calypso, and where did she go at the end of the movie?  3) What’s the deal with Beckett & Sparrow? 4) Why are Davy Jone’s crew half-fish (that becomes a question when you see the end of the movie).  There’s lots more, but it seems they almost generate more questions than answers.

Nonetheless, it’s a fun movie to watch, just like the first two.  If you go watch it, make sure you stay through all the credits.  There’s a short scene at the very end of the movie, a kinda "And they lived happily ever after" moment, although it fits in with #1 above.  I give it 4 of 5 stars.
[tag:pirates][tag:worldsend][tag:movie]

My mom picked up the DVD of Happy Feet last week, thinking that Rhianna would like it.  Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a slow builder and Rhianna wouldn’t stay still long enough to really get into it.  Later that night, tho, we all sat down and watched it.

In short, it’s a cute movie.  It’s the story of "Mumbo" the penguin who was dropped by his father "Memphis" as an egg.  Because of this he’s "different" that all the other penguins.  In his tribe, the penguins all sing their heartsong (Which range from Memphis’s Elvis hits to other’s later Rap songs), but Mumbo doesn’t have one.  Instead he can dance, and does so incessantly and continuously.  This leads to him eventually being outcast from the tribe and finding another tribe where he’s accepted for his dancing skills, and eventually he returns triumphantly to his own tribe to get the girl.

From here, the movie takes an odd turn as the elders of the tribe blame Mumbo and his heretic dancing for the scarcity of the fish (?)  that the tribe has been enduring.  This starts a pretty blatant political angle to the movie where he goes to find the "aliens" (Humans) and explain to them (us) that we’re stealing their fish.  It’s not as blatant as the Inconvenient Truth, but it’s a similar message, albeit wrapped up in cute fuzzy penguins and adlibs from Robin Williams.

It’s a cute movie, and the CG is impressive.  Ranging from beautiful landscapes to several hundred coordinated penguins in breakout song and dance numbers, it’s a sight to see.  The musical selections are pretty good too, covering the gamut from R&B to County, from Rap to Monk Chants.  It’s pretty funny too, with most of the jokes voiced by Robin Williams as "Ramone" the penguin.  It’s cute, and I think Rhianna will enjoy it if we can get her to sit through enough of it to get to the first song & dance number.
[tag:happyfeet][tag:dvd][tag:movie]

Last weekend Laura & I caught "The Prestige" on Video-on-Demand.  It’s the story of 2 fledgling magicians, Robert Angier (played by Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (played by Christian Bale), locked in a fierce rivalry over an illusion named "The Transported Man".  Borden is responsible for the accidental death of Angier’s wife in a water-tank escape gone wrong, and the two constantly attempt to sabotage and one-up each other on stage.  The movie draws it’s name from the 3rd part of every illusion, "The Prestige" where the vanished object returns with a great flourish.

The movie starts off very confusingly.  The entire movie is a flashback, with the opening scene being the death of Angier’s character described during the trial of Borden for murder.  The entire movie is Borden decrypting and reading Angier’s journal, which is convoluted further as Angier’s journal is about him decrypting and readin Borden’s journal.  Luckily, about 20 minutes in you get used to it and it all starts to flow alot easier.

As the story develops you find out why the two men hate each other so, and the incredible lengths they’ve undergone to not only destroy each other but to create fascinating new tricks.  They also unveil alot of magic’s secrets, showing how various tricks are performed and how they’re created.  Eventually the story takes a fascinating turn as Angier recruits Nikola Tesla recreate the pivotal trick.  From here the movie takes a surprising turn toward a Science Fiction end as Tesla unveils his Alternating Current work.

It was a fantastic movie, with several twists and turns and not one, but two great twists at the end. Even Laura loved it, although I had to fill her in on who Tesla was (Sad to see such a pivotal scientific figure reduced to Science Fantasy).  Aside from the klunky start, it’s a fantastic film I highly recommend.  4 of 5 stars
[tag:movie][tag:theprestige]