Yeraze's Domain 3.0

This weekend Laura & I managed to make it out to see Ghost Rider (Official Site) starring Nicholas Cage.  It was alot of fun, and a surprisingly good movie.  So many comic book movies turn out like garbage, but this one was surprisingly good.  It’s no Lord of the Rings, but it’s got a pretty good story and I love the camera work.  Alot of work was put into the camera angles and lighting to closely approximate the look of a comic book.  Also, the special effects are amazing and well used.  I’m gonna have to buy the DVD when it’s released just to see how they made the motorcycle accident shot at the beginning of the movie, where he breaks his neck and shatters his helmet visor.  It didn’t look CG, but no stuntman would have attempted that.

So if you have the chance, go check it out.  I never did read the comic book, so I can’t comment about it’s relevancy to the source material.  It’s fun, action packed, and any movie with a cover of "Riders in the Sky" (by Spiderbait in this case) is worth checkin out
[tag:movie][tag:ghostrider]
Update 3/22/2007:  Looks like someone finally posted a music video for Spiderbait’s Riders in the Sky on Youtube, using video from the movie and the PS2 game. 

This weekend my Dad brought home DVD’s of Animusic and Animusic 2.  Apparently his company uses them at Conferences to demonstrate their audio amplifiers.  Not only do they have a fantastic mix of classical, techno, and pop to exercise all audio ranges, but they are simply mesmerizing and eyecatching.  I first heard of Animusic back at SigGraph 2000 when (I think) they won an award in the Electronic Theatre for their original animation "Pipe Dream". 

I could sit and stare at them for hours, each time catching more fine details that I missed before.  Details as small as that the xylophone keys or harp strings are actually sized correctly according to their sound, or how the mechanics work between the multiple instruments.  They’re simply astounding to watch, and I can only imagine the amount of time and work that must go into timing the video.  The actual rendering probably isn’t too bad, but setting up the Scenes has to take months for a single song. 

Not only is the animation fascinating and mesmerizing, but the music is simply good.  Lots of Drums, string instruments, bass, and synthesizers.  It’s not everyone’s thing, but I really enjoy it and it keeps the "Science Fiction" feel of the whole thing.  Rhianna loves it too, she’s watched it several times so far and every time she just sits in awe watching it, gently bouncing back and forth to the music or "air keyboarding".

If you’re interested, you can find clips of the songs on the Animusic site, and full versions of the songs are posted on YouTube (questionably legal, but there they are).  I highly recommend you pickup the DVD’s if you like them tho.  Not only will you be financially supporting a (hopefully!) Animusic 3, but the quality of the video and special features on the DVD blows away anything Youtube can manage.
[tag:movie][tag:dvd][tag:animusic][tag:cg]

Remember when you were a kid and the teacher would tell you something, and the first response out of any kids mouth was “Well, what if <insert preposterous scenario here>”.  Usually you were met with a befuddled “How could you possibly come up with something like that?” expression, or even the ageless “We don’t do what if’s“.  The game usually degenerated into a contest between two similarly aged participants to see who could come up with the most outlandish scenario.

Snakes on a Plane is the result of such a contest.  Now, I won’t go so far as to say it’s a good movie, but it’s definately a fun and entertaining movie if you’re in the right mindset.  The movie has pretty much every single embarrasing “What if a snake bit you <insert anatomy part here>?” acted out in gory detail.  The acting isn’t fantastic, especially the pilot who, in any real-world scenario, would have long-since been fired for sexual harassment.  But even with it’s faults, it’s a fun movie.  It had a few good scares (snakes jumping out of vents and such) and a lot of good laughs.  It’s got a little bit of gore, but not excessively so.  It does have nudity, but only one scene that I recall.

So all in all, it’s a 50/50 shot.  If you’re in the mindset of action/humor and not horror, then you’ll enjoy it.  I can only image the fun the guys behind MST3K (Now doing RiffTrax) would have with this.

[tag:movie][tag:snakesonaplane]

This weekend I managed to get Laura on her feet long enough to go check out Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, sequel to the earlier Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Rather than spend another tortuous session at the Bonita Lakes theatre, we returned to our local favorite: Cinemark Tinseltown 17.

In short: It’s a great film. They manage to maintain the flavor of the original, which is rare in a sequel these days (Matrix Reloaded being a perfect example of a good movie but a poor sequel). The movie remains lighthearted and simply a joy to watch. The CG effects are, as is the norm these days, frequent and magnificent. Thankfully, they don’t overrun the rest of the movie. In fact, one scene in particular (the waterwheel battle) has my friends and I vexed as to how much is CG and how much is Live, and how in the heck did they get the Live shots?

My one complaint, and it’s a minor one, is that Disney has decided to remake their Pirates of the Caribbean ride
to match the now-successful trilogy. The ride was shut down for a few
months while they worked on it, and as I understand it is open again
now. It wasn’t shut down for very long so the modifications were minor,
which means they had to somewhat match the movies to the existing ride.
So there are a few scenes in the movie that really serve no purpose
other than to reinforce parts of the ride. Most notably, the scene of a
pirate being hoisted up and down a well while spewing water out of his
mouth like a fountain. Serves no point, kinda silly to see, but matches
the ride.

Now, going into the movie you probably already know that Disney is turning it into a trilogy so, just like in Back to the Future, there has to be a hook for the 3rd movie ( Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ). I was afraid that they would pick the most action packed moment and turn it into a frustrating cliffhanger, but I was pleasantly surprised. They pretty much wrap up everything major that’s going on in the movie, leaving you with a nice sense of closure. They leave two major things open which should be plenty to get part 3 rolling, and even give you a little teaser on what’s going to happen next.

So, I recommend it.  It serves no higher purpose than just being fun to watch, and it does a marvelous job at it.  Go check it out.
[tag:pirates][tag:movie][tag:deadmanschest][tag:disney]

So tonight I went with my Dad to see Superman Returns (Official Site) at the Bonita Lakes Mall theatre. 

The movie is amazing.  It’s so close to the original that you’ll swear it’s just been sittin in storage all this time.  From the scenery, to the same opening credit graphics, to the exact same chill-bump inducing orchestral theme-song, it’s all there and better than ever.  Brandon Routh makes an incredible replacement for Christopher Reeve.He must have studied alot because he’s got the same speech patterns, same mannerisms, and same befuddled behavior as Clark Kent.  Kevin Spacey plays Lex fairly well, but Lex doesn’t play an incredibly integral part in this movie, he’s mostly used as a plot device to keep things moving.  Kate Bosworth, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to quite fit as Lois Lane.  She resembles neither Teri Hatcher nor Margot Kidder, and has neither the mannerisms or attitude to really pull off the impulsive and frustratingly stubborn Lois we’ve come to expect.  It’s still a great movie tho, and definately worth seeing.

I will not go so far as to say it’s worth the $7.50 to see it in the Theatre tho.  The Bonita Lakes Theatre is an abomination to theatres everywhere and is a perfect example of how not to run a theatre.  During our showing I counted the sound dropping out over 10 time.  The air conditioning wasn’t on, so being inside was no relief from today’s record-matching 100-degree heat.  Even the audience was a travesty as my dad repeatedly had his hair pulled & seat kicked, we had a group of punks a few rows behind us playing drums on their goober boxes, and we had a 4-month old infant trying to nap on his/hers (not sure which) mother’s shoulder.  Of course, the showing started at 7:00 and a movie theatre isn’t exactly a “quiet” place so every time the music picked up or some other loud sound happened, we were all treated to the eardrum shattering infant screams.  Apparently someone mistook that sleeping infant as a 7-year old, since there is a rule about “No children under 6 except for G-movies or Matinees” that was obviously not enforced here. 
[tag:movie][tag:superman][tag:supermanreturns][tag:theatre][tag:rant]

Summer Movie Season is upon us. The DaVinci Code and X3 have already been released, and there’s plenty more on the way.

• Today while viewing X3, I saw a preview for the new Superman Returns (Official Site) movie. I have been waiting for some “reasonable” trailers to appear, showing some of what was going to happen in the movie, and today I finally saw one. Evidently this time Lex Luthor has discovered the Fortress of Solitude and the crystals that “grow” it, and uses them to reshape the earth in his image. Not really sure how well Kevin Spacey will do as a Bad Guy, but he did ok in A Bug’s Life, so I guess we’ll just wait and see.
• Pixar’s Cars opens
  soon. It’s a kid’s movie, sure, but with George Carlin & Larry “The
  Cable Guy” voicing parts, one has to believe there’s plenty of adult
  humor as well.
• “The Lady In The Water” (Official Site) is M. Night Shyagmalan’s latest bigscreen feature. I loved his previous work, although The Village was pretty much a flop. This one looks like it could go either way.
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Official Site) Now, didn’t the last one of these flop? 
• Click (Official Site) – The return of Adam Sandler, although the “Universal Remote” gag is a bit old.   I have a feeling the “Hulk ANGRY” gag from the preview is the best part of the movie.
• Pirates of the Carribbean II – Did we really need a sequel?  Granted, the first one was much better than I had expected, but getting one movie from the ride was impressive enough.  Is there really enough material to warrant a second, or even a third?
• Clerks II (Official Site) – Now here’s one to look forward to.  Kevin Smith brings Dante & Randall back for another adventure… I doubt I can get Laura to see this, but I hope to catch it one way or another.
• Snakes on a Plane – And who can possibly forget this hot topic of Hollywood?  A movie so ridiculous, it has it’s own Wikipedia Entry.  More proof that Hollywood doesn’t  understand that the falling box office isn’t due to piracy, but too many drugs in the writing department.
• Along the same lines, there’s “My Super Ex-Girlfriend“, where Luke Wilson dumps a superhero Uma Thurman, and she goes on a psycho-girlfriend revenge streak to win him back.  Just what we need, Wonder Woman meets American Psycho.
• Also saw a preview for “Ghost Rider” (Official Site)
  starring Nicholas Cage as the Ghost Rider himself. While not
  technically part of the “Summer Movie Season” (Release date is Feb 07),
  looks like we’re gonna be deluged with previews all summer long. The
  way previews are nowadays, we’ll pretty much know the entire movie by
  August.

I’ll probably only get to see 2 or 3 of these in the theatre, the rest will be Rentals or HBO.  Snakes on a Plane, that’s definately a rental.  While there are a few gems, it seems that Hollywood is still cranking out alot of the same ole crap over and over again.

For alot more movies, you can check out the Yahoo Summer Movie Guide .
[tag:movie][tag:summer]

Today Laura & I took off to see X-Men 3: The Last Stand.

The movie starts shortly after the 2nd one, with Scott (Cyclops) still mourning the death of Jean Grey, and “Mutant Registration” has been forgotten in favor of the new “Mutant Antibody”. All the favorites are back: Wolverine, Professors X, Storm, Magneto, Rogue. Even some of the lesser players from previous movies have come back. And, of course, there are plenty of new mutants with strange and incredible powers.

If you enjoy the Mutant On Mutant action of the fighting, or the Mutant on Military action in some of the previous ones, then you definately won’t be disappointed. They’ve now discovered creative ways to combine their powers, so that now Magneto hurls cars that are ignited in air by another mutant, raining flaming debris. If you were more into the character building and internal turmoil of the mutants, then you may be a little disappointed in this “final” installment of the series.

You may have noticed that I put “final” in quotes. Well, that’s because while this is the final X-Men movie, it’s definately not the last time you’ll some of these characters. Hugh Jackman already has a new movie entitled “Wolverine” exclusively about his character’s background in development, for release in 2007. Ian McKellen has a movie entitled “Magneto” for release about the same time, detailing his & Charles first meetings while he was in the Nazi Concentration Camps. So while we may not see the X-Men united again anytime soon, we definately won’t have to wait very long to see them again individually.

Also, I was surprised by the gusto of the directors & writers to *Spoiler Alert* kill or neuter so many important characters. I won’t give names, but even if the X-Men return in force for another movie, it just won’t be the same.

In conclusion, it’s a great action-movie. While it fails a bit in character development (Who is Kitty, and why doesn’t she have any family? What’s Beast’s story? etc) it definately makes up for in action.
[tag:xmen3][tag:movie][tag:review]

Tonight Laura and I went to see The DaVinci Code.  She was a big fan of the book, and try as I might I’ve been pretty unsuccessfull in “avoiding” all the media about it.  Seems every time I watch TV there’s either a News Story about it, or a special on the Discovery Channel debunking it.  Even without reading the book, I felt like I knew the entire story.

All in all, it’s a pretty good movie.  The story is interesting, albeit pretty flimsy.  Using the “San Greal” vs “Sang Real” trick made popular by Holy Blood, Holy Grail, it starts with an odd museum curator’s murder and turns into a search for the Holy Grail.  Of course, the grail is not a cup but rather the last surviving descendant of Christ.  With the religious aspects aside, the puzzles and connections alone are interesting to any hacker-type.  From the “Cryptex“, to the Rose Line vs the Rosslyn Chapel, to the “Missing Orb” at the tomb of Sir Issac Newton, the story is ripe with riddles and puzzles to keep you guessing.

Of course, it’s hard to talk about the story without getting into the Religious implications and aspects of it all.  Frankly, I’m not gonna bother.  There’s plenty of other stuff out there about it, go read that.  In my mind, it’s a great fictional story. 

But, if you are going to go see the movie, maybe you want to read some of these first (or afterwards, if you don’t like spoilers):

• HowStuffWorks.com “How the DaVinci Code Doesn’t Work” – A great resource listing all of the technical errors in the movie.. Containing such classic gaffes as paintings in the wrong museums, and the completely wrong statement about Alexander Pope at Newton’s funeral.
• Wikipedia’s Entry on “The DaVinci Code” – A good collection of various information about the story and the book’s history since release
• And of course, the Official Website

In conclusion, it’s a fun movie.  I didn’t get the whole “changing the world” angle that some people are trying so hard to put into it, but I did enjoy the ride.  Some people seem to be treating this as a factual Research Paper, but it seemed pretty obvious that it’s fiction to me. Tom Hanks did a pretty good job with it, and any movie with a Mini chase scene gets a plus by me.  I loved all the references to DaVinci, although sadly the major one (the Cryptex) was apparently made up for the book.  It’s fun, tho, and I recommend it for that reason alone.  Laura, who’s read the book, said it was surprisingly close to the book, but left a few “treats” for those who had read it (Such as the identity of the stranger watching over the Rosslyn Chapel).
[tag:thedavincicode][tag:movie][tag:davinci]

Today Laura & I went and picked up Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, the Family Guy movie that was created while they were off the air.

It comes in both a censored & uncensored version, both of which are absolutely hilarious. It’s definately not safe for TV, but fans of the show will recognize a few of the smaller skits have shown up in the latest season. It doesn’t hold anything back, either, everything from why they were off the air to religion to Tivo winds up in the crosshairs. It’s good for a laugh, and a must-have for fans. Definately 5 of 5.

Today Laura & I finally got out to go see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I had read the book many many years ago, but mostly forgotten it. Most of what I remember comes from the old Animated verison I saw as a child on TV.

In short: The movie is simply amazing. The story is perfect, and the special effects rival even the Lord of the Rings. Seamless interaction between the actors & CG characters, and the environments are breathtaking. I highly recommend everyone go see it. Except small children: The death of Aslan is a rather dark moment, and suitably so, but probably not fitting for small children. The movie has some good tear-jerking scenes in it, and for child actors they do an amazing job. Also, the final battle in the movie is 10x better than anything I ever saw in Lord of the Rings. The initial charge, how it gets so eerily quiet and in slow motion right before the first two bodies slam into eachother at full speed, it’s amazing to watch.

Also, while we were there we saw previews for some other interesting films:

• Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest the Sequel to the original, with most of the original cast.
• Cars the new film from Pixar, you gotta see the Cars Trailer.
• Over the Hedge Hilarious CG Comedy from the creators of Shrek, starring Bruce Willis as the Raccoon and William Shatner as a melodramatic Possum. Looks good for a laugh. Checkout a trailer for the great “Humans worship food” speech.

Looks like this summer may be good for movies.