Travel and Plague

Behind on blogging, and personal projects due to spending a weekend traveling and then bringing back a sick family. Not me though, just everyone else. As a result production was delaying again on the Puppy movies, cast was sick and crew was busy taking care of them.

Trip was great. Got to see a ton of people that I usually only get to see once a year, so it is always a treat to get in an extra visit.

Off topic: I found out today that MMA is not legal in New York. I find that somewhat disappointing, because I think the sport is a money train and that local events, promotion and associate TV could be lucrative.

Movies I've seen since I posted last: Kung Phooey! , I Robot, Rize, Invincible.

Kung Phooey! Was pretty funny, but I was warned that the dubbed version is no good, so stick with the subtitles on this one. If you enjoy classic Hong Kong cinema I think you'll also enjoy this movie, I well put together satire that doesn't stoop to parody. 3 out of 5.

I Robot. Good movie. A little predictable for the most part, but a very unexpected reveal at the end. However, it falls kind of short of the Isaac Asimov stories that it is based on. I'm not complaining about character or plot changes, but a loss of the central theme and message of the material. 2.5 out of 5.

Rize. Documentary about Krumpping. (spelling question: 1 or 2 p's in that word?) Krump is a style of dance, let's say urban or originating in the African American neighborhoods of LA and Oakland. However I would say the style has gone mainstream, as it was one of the styles on FOX's So You Think You Can Dance last season. The documentary was very well put together and featured profiles of people who live in a very dangerous place and choose it put their passion into dance rather than violence. The story was very powerful in a chicken soup for the soul with a edge of depressing realism sort of way. There was one sequence that I was somewhat unhappy with where a visual comparison was drawn between Krump and primitive African dance. With no context for the comparison I felt it was a bit too risky to leave it so open to the audience to interpret what the film was trying to say. But, still 4 out of 5.

Invincible. The standard fell good, based on a true story, sports movie. It was put together well, but other than the a-list cast, it wasn't anything that rose above movie of the week. It was entertaining and while I could get in the effort that was put into making the film stock match the look of movies from the 70's, and the energy of the football scenes, I think that if the ensemble cast was paired down and we were given a little more about the hardships the city of Philadelphia was going through. I'll say 2 out of 5.

Okay. Final chapter of the Puppy Movies should post Monday. But I'll post before then, I think I have a funny story, for later.

Audio Fix

I went back a watched the second episode of the puppy movie and I realized that it is missing dialogue for the villain. This was due to an odd stereo to mono audio compression problem that ended up taking me WAY too long to figure out how to fix. But I have fixed it and am reposting the movie with the audio it was intended to have.

Sorry, but the next episode will be a week behind, since I've obviously missed the Monday deadline.

In the meantime, my son's birthday party went really well. I was very nervous about the size of the party (12 children under 6, 20 adults). But the whole event went very smoothly, I think in part because we let my son open his presents as people arrived. It prevented the forced group activities that make everyone crowd into one room and gave the children exciting new toys to play with. My family stuck around for the weekend, which as nice. Full family get togethers are always fun, though somewhat sparse at this point. Though I had to cut out a little early on Sunday due to daylight savings time and a regional SCA practice. Overall, good weekend.

This week, I've seen three movies. First I watched Magnolia, which I apparently didn't get. I was really disappointed by this movie. It felt like it stumbled forward under the weight story with no plot and a lack of connection between the characters. I could even find a theme that tied the stories together beyond a mundane 6 degrees of separation. In the end I felt that it accomplished what the TV show Seinfeld wanted to be, a story about nothing. I know that I'm probability in the minority on my view of this movie, but I'd give it a 2 out of 5.

The second movie I watched was 3:10 to Yuma. Now I'll start by stating that this is a remake and I have not seen the original. That being said, I really enjoyed this movie. It accomplishes a truly epic feel without large gaps in the movement of the story. The characters are rich and the photography beautiful. The actions and consequences of the characters make sense and the action moves well with a very realistic feel to the events that transpire along the journey. Even the end, which I felt a little odd about at first, brings both of the characters to an understanding of how their journey has brought them to a moment of redemption without forcing the audience to endue a heavy handed moment explaining the moral of the story. I'd definitely recommend this movie, 4 out of 5.

Finally, I just watched Beowulf. The story was good, but really they only get partial credit for that. Though I'm not surprised with the involvement of Neil Gaiman. He is one of my favorite authors and had always impressed me with his understanding of mythology and ancient cultures that I'm interested in. Now on to what I think is the main creative challenge of the movie, it's attempt at photo realistic computer animation. The advantage of animation is that it allows for complete control of the visual environment. And Beowulf uses this to it's full effect; in the gore of fight scenes, illustration and powers of the monsters and the vividness of the medieval norse world. The down side is that I felt like I was watching one long cut scene from a video game. Computer animation has come a long way, but the photo realistic aspect still falls a little short. Bare skin in full light looks fake, there isn't full articulation in the facial expressions of the characters, and in the end it doesn't live up to what I consider the test of great photography in a movie. Could you take any frame of film and turn it into a still that would be presentable as a picture. I think the master of this aspect of film making was Conrad Hall. But, rather than getting side tracked with praise of the late Mr. Hall, I close with: If you control EVERY aspect of what we see because you've literally created the whole world, then every moment of that movie should be as close to perfection as your medium permits. And if this movie is as close as photo realistic computer animation can get right now, then I find it to be a little short of where it needs to be to be on an par with live action or even hand drawn animation. Still, good movie, 3 out of 5.