As some of you know I have a particular penchant for photos of alleyways, I’m not sure what it is about, possibly that growing up in a lot of country towns we just didn’t have the alleyways that you would see in movies and in the comic books.
They have a very noir feel about them. Â So anyway I’ve added a new gallery to my gallery page and will slowly upload all the photos I have all themed around alleyways.
The first I’ve uploaded is a recent one because I’ve been playing with the C902.
What happens now when Tracey and I go to Rome and someone sees my passport and and wants to know if I’m that Lee!?! Â How am I going to explain that it was probably the crazy Arjan trying to pick up women using Lee Beads? Â Then of course he has the gall to send me a postcard suggesting I should check out Rome.
How can I now?
On the other hand how cool is our man Arjan for:
demanding the Lee beads until I caved and finally sent him a set
actually producing a photo of himself standing next to a woman who was a good enough sport to pose with them
asking more than one person to pose with them, risking a good slap in the face thanks to the language barrier
So bravo Arjan, you are cool! Â And bravo also to Katrin from Quebec-city, Canada for being such a good sport and not spraying mace in Arjan’s face, of course if you had we wouldn’t have blamed you.
The very good people at Sony Ericsson have sent me a C902 Cyber-shot mobile to have a play with as part of their product review program and I’ve got to say it’s a nifty little phone. Â Actually I don’t have to say anything about the phone at all (I’m not under any actual obligation to write about it or say anything positive but you should all know that they sent it to me). Â But the truth of the matter is that from first impressions I think that it is a cool phone.
I’m a sucker for bells and whistles.
I don’t apologise for that. Â You can read all about technical specs and ranges and stuff elsewhere I’m sure, I’ll get to them eventually! Obviously when I got it out of the box I didn’t read any instructions and started playing.
Problem number one, when I first get electrical consumer goods I rarely remove the plastic film over the screens etc so that it remains perfect for just those couple of minutes longer. Â My laptop still has its plastic on the top to protect its outer shell. Â So I didn’t remove the plastic on the screen on the phone.
Didn’t realise that it was covering the end of the phone also and couldn’t for the life of me work out how to slide out the camera (it has a slide out camera… sweet). Â A friend of mine at work also tried and couldn’t work it out, we didn’t want to break it. Â Embarresingly I discovered our own shortcomings and removed the plastic and the slid the camera out.
Then I discovered the games, there are games on my old Motorola Razr, well two and they weren’t very good. Â This has Need for Speed on it and you steer by turning the phone, not that unresponsive keypad, by turning the phone. Â Very cool. Â One of the other games is the classic Solitaire.
So what!? I hear you ask. A phone is a phone!
Let me tell you, nothing makes me happier than having a game like Solitaire whilst waiting for my wife at the fitting rooms at Myer.
I’ll write more about the phone as I play with it, I’m hoping to make use of the 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus!
Someone reported that the Australian government is seriously considering a request from the US government that would allow customs officials to check your iPod for illegal music.
I’m barely even able to put words together for the absolute rubbish that this is.
This makes me so mad, makes me want to go out and get a Guy Falkes mask.
First thing’s first how stupid are these people that they think they would even be able to tell which are legally bought and which were downloaded? Â Secondly how bloody long do they want it to take at the airport!?!
I might write about my thoughts on piracy later in the week, in the meantime what do you all think of this bullshit?
Great weekend movie wise for me, I actually got to watch a couple that I’ve been meaning to for a real long time! Â Rather than write a separate post on each of them which would take me a while and stop me watching more stuff and playing with a new gadget that just showed up in the mail (more about that later).
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
It took me ages to actually get this from the video store, they have like one copy which was never there and I missed it on television the other week. Â I actually found this movie a little light on considering its source material. Â I mean I know it was a movie aimed mainly at kids and I wasn’t expecting Lord of the Rings but I just couldn’t find much in this to really draw me in. Â Cast are all very likeable and the effects were all pretty good, not fantastic but good enough. Â There were parts of it that bug me, battle tactics for one thing were completely ridiculous, that’s no way to wage a war. Â Also the Christianity overtones felt really forced and distracting but that may simply have been me being overly aware of it. Â A little more time building the characters up would have helped. Â I’ll watch the sequel.
One scene that did have us rolling around in laughter was at the end where the fox had drawn glasses and a moustache on some lion… hilarious, probably not for the right reasons.
X-Files: I want to Believe
OK I’ve savaged this film enough already, and I’m beginning to wonder if it was completely fair as I’ve started reading some positive reviews about it and some of the negative ones I don’t necessarily agree with their reasons. Â Maybe the cinema didn’t help the whole movie along either, I know Tracey will still have some fairly strong feelings over the film. Â But I’m now resolved to checking this out again on DVD when it comes out. Â I may have nicer things to say then. Â I doubt it, but I’m open to it.
Crank
Much to my friend’s horror I hadn’t actually seen Crank and was assured that I would indeed love such a film. They were right. Â It was a fantastically violent, frantic, fun film that makes me really happy that they have a sequel. Â The film itself accentuates the action and the urgency of its plot. Â It’s high voltage fun and it made me feel like a Red Bull.
I got The Transporter one and two out as I haven’t seen them either but that will probably be later in the week.
Harold and Kumar 2 Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Neil Patrick Harris is a living god! Â He had me in stitches with his shroom eating bad boy of the entertainment world. Â I love the fact that he is now openly gay but he completely makes you believe that he is this parody.
This film is in no way politically correct. Â But it does have a not too subtle commentary on the current state of things in America. Â Fortunately the political commentary is covered by a lot of rude jokes. Harold and Kumar are just funny guys and I hope they do another like it is being rumoured.
The one eyed Sloth like child is creepy but hilarious.
Stargate: Continuum
Wow it took me ages to sit and watch this, I saw the start about eleven times so it was quite a relief to get past the first fifteen minutes and discover probably one of the more solid stories to come out of the Stargate universe. Â I’m not going to deeply into this (like I have with all these others lol) but the time travel story is really well handled and some of the effects are particularly clever. Especially the boat sequence.
I can’t leave leave this without sharing what I think is a hilarious poster and a very funny website - click on the poster to find out what NPH would do!
It’s been a long time since I did a crayon drawing and my pastel pencils were all busted up (grrrrrrrrrr) so I thought I’d dust off the crayon box and have play around with an Iron Man crayon pic.
He looks a little more evil than I would have hoped, you can chalk that up to bad lighting and testing the colour against the yellow paper.
Update - upon second and third looks it is really really evil looking so I’m changing the title LOL.
I don’t care that season two of Heroes lost its way, they admit it, there were also external factors at play (the writer’s strike - although this has been used as an excuse to cover all manner of sins) and they seem to know what went wrong and hopefully how to fix it.
So with that in mind I welcome season three Heroes with open arms and no reservations:
That is though not to say that I won’t hold them to the quality of the first season. Â I’m hoping with a clearly established group of villains then the superhero thing can really start, I want to see Peter and Sylar thrashing it out although I expect that Sylar will probably be a bit of a puppetmaster kind of character now that his powers are reduced (or gone, I barely remember season two now), drawing several characters over to the dark side if you will.
Of course this is barely even a musing on my behalf, I just know that we’re hopefully going to have some clearer cut villains for the heroes to unleash their powers on.
Unfortunately the truth most certainly is out there and it says that this movie stinks.
Look I wanted an awesome X-Files film, I so badly did and I couldn’t imagine that one could be a bad, even at its worst I imagined maybe a long episode just to check in on Scully and Mulder and see how they’re doing.
Tracey and I like getting our movie watching out of the way first thing up in the morning, generally you avoid the crowds and the kids by doing so. Â It was a bad sign when we slept in and missed the first showing. Â But we persevered and thought to ourselves ‘how bad could it be?‘ I mean the Dark Knight is still showing and surely that will get most of the crowds (which it did I might add, sold out again!).
So we show up and take our seats, there’s a fair few people in the cinema, I count three babies (I hate babies at M rated films, it is guaranteed that they will cry), about 90% teenagers and a couple of other couples. Â Weird mix considering half of the audience probably wasn’t old enough to watch even the first X-Files film.
I have never been able to tolerate particularly restless audiences, they annoy me and disrupt the film. Â But I completely forgive them this one time because the film made me restless and never before have I been that close to leaving halfway through. Â Four phones rang and were answered and no one complained or sighed or shooshed, frankly if my phone rang I would have answered it*!
Bad dialogue, stupid plot holes and bad characterisation.
This isn’t the X-Files. Â When people say that the movie is just like a long episode they are so wrong, no episode was this weak (and they had some poor episodes). Â The characters are all wrong (except maybe Mulder but I thank Ducovney for that), things aren’t explained and loose ends from the series are not answered. Â The ending is weak.
It’s just not a good film and it’s a real shame because I doubt we’ll ever get to see them again if this performs the way I expect it will.
Go watch the first season instead!
If you were unlucky enough to see this what did you think?
* no my phone wasn’t on, I’m not one of those people.
Well it’s very cool I’m writing this post on the move, at breakfast actually. I’m using the new Wordpress app for the iphone which I am more than happy with.
I figured that for mobile blogging, then twitter was going to be it. But this app is pretty cool especially since I’m getting used to the little keyboard (though I’m still only a one finger typist - two thumbs are the equivalent to a touch typist).
The other neat feature is that I can take a photo and then semi-instantly post it on the blog, I don’t know if it shares the gps information with, I guess that’s something I’ll see when I get home.
Off to see the x files now after finishing breakfast!
Starship Troopers 3: Marauders is very much like a trooper with a faulty M1 tactical helmet, it just can’t seem to hit its mark.
Hey I’ve been working on that for almost twelve hours, cut me some slack.
I didn’t expect very much from this film, it’s a direct to DVD sequel to a direct to DVD sequel (yes the second Troopers film was a direct to DVD sequel, I know what page I’m on) and the film certainly didn’t even meet those fairly relaxed expectations.
Let me say though that I’m not basing this on the poor special effects, you work with what you’ve got and they didn’t seem to have a whole lot. Â But I don’t judge on that, as I said I knew what I was getting into, direct to DVD movies do not get highly textured ILM graphics so I knew they were never going to be good.
No it’s the story and a lot of the acting that really drag this film down. Â I love the first Troopers, the second one was extremely watchable given the established criteria so it’s not that I’m not enthusiastic. Â Far from it, you wouldn’t know a guy happier to know that they were making another Troopers film… Â Well maybe Casper Van Dien or Garth, probably Van Dien who I actually exchanged messages with several times before they began filming through myspace (yes I was on myspace, yes so was Van Dien, yes it was him). Â He was very excited about the prospect and genuinely enthusiastic.
So I was more than a little let down by this, even more so since I thought Garth said that it was good (I misheard him, maybe I was censoring the truth, citizen style).
The acting is, with the exception of Van Dien really poor, I mean super, early 90s video game poor. Â Dialogue that was already bad then delivered bad equals super bad. Â Van Dien works with what he’s got, what does he do when the universe gives Johnny Rico lemons, he does nothing, he hates f*%#ing lemonade but does get to deliver the ‘come on you apes…’ line again.
Jolene Blalock (TPol without the pointy ears) is in the mix playing a pilot, kind of like a poor man’s Denise Richards, and no one wants to grow up to be a poor man’s Denise Richards. Â She sounds like a Vulcan but she is no longer playing a Vulcan, I imagine she tried to do the best with what she had too, she just didn’t come off as well as Van Dien.
There are a whole bunch of other characters that quite frankly I could have done without, weak Generals, weird Sky Marshals, mentally challenged chefs, oddly angry engineers and naive religious girls.
This brings me to the next big problem, the ridiculous introduction of religion into the story, there is hymn singing, on your knees - hands together praying, a very stupid halo scene (not the cool halo, the angel halo), a representation of Mary and idiotic conversions to religion for idiotic reasons. Â The commentary on religion in American society is clumsily inserted into the story using a sledgehammer and blowtorch.
And we now come to the next problem of which I lay most of the blame, the Director. Â It’s the direction of the film that hurts it most and doesn’t even allow you to enjoy this on a cheesy b-grade scifi level.
I also can’t let you go before mentioning one last flaw, the subtle undermining of the gender equality presented by Verhoeven in the first film. Â In the first Troopers, realistically or not, nudity between the sexes was completely neutral, they are all citizens and women are not objects they are equals, as I said they are simply citizens.
Not so in Troopers 3, we have suggestive lingering on women’s backsides and everyone takes a second look at Blalock because she is hot. Â Like so much else in the film it just wasn’t necessary.
Look if you really love Starship Troopers then see it if only for Rico and maybe one or two interesting ideas, especially the Marauders. Â If you only liked Starship Troopers and didn’t like its sequel you may want to avoid this and if you’ve never seen Starship Troopers, get the original out and avoid the third one at all costs.
PS At least I didn’t make a ‘Would you like to know more?‘ joke!
Problem number one, when I first get electrical consumer goods I rarely remove the plastic film over the screens etc so that it remains perfect for just those couple of minutes longer. Â My laptop still has its plastic on the top to protect its outer shell. Â So I didn’t remove the plastic on the screen on the phone.
It took me ages to actually get this from the video store, they have like one copy which was never there and I missed it on television the other week. Â I actually found this movie a little light on considering its source material. Â I mean I know it was a movie aimed mainly at kids and I wasn’t expecting Lord of the Rings but I just couldn’t find much in this to really draw me in. Â Cast are all very likeable and the effects were all pretty good, not fantastic but good enough. Â There were parts of it that bug me, battle tactics for one thing were completely ridiculous, that’s no way to wage a war. Â Also the Christianity overtones felt really forced and distracting but that may simply have been me being overly aware of it. Â A little more time building the characters up would have helped. Â I’ll watch the sequel.
OK I’ve savaged this film enough already, and I’m beginning to wonder if it was completely fair as I’ve started reading some positive reviews about it and some of the negative ones I don’t necessarily agree with their reasons. Â Maybe the cinema didn’t help the whole movie along either, I know Tracey will still have some fairly strong feelings over the film. Â But I’m now resolved to checking this out again on DVD when it comes out. Â I may have nicer things to say then. Â I doubt it, but I’m open to it.
Much to my friend’s horror I hadn’t actually seen Crank and was assured that I would indeed love such a film. They were right. Â It was a fantastically violent, frantic, fun film that makes me really happy that they have a sequel. Â The film itself accentuates the action and the urgency of its plot. Â It’s high voltage fun and it made me feel like a Red Bull.
Neil Patrick Harris is a living god! Â He had me in stitches with his shroom eating bad boy of the entertainment world. Â I love the fact that he is now openly gay but he completely makes you believe that he is this parody.
Wow it took me ages to sit and watch this, I saw the start about eleven times so it was quite a relief to get past the first fifteen minutes and discover probably one of the more solid stories to come out of the Stargate universe. Â I’m not going to deeply into this (like I have with all these others lol) but the time travel story is really well handled and some of the effects are particularly clever. Especially the boat sequence.
Let me say though that I’m not basing this on the poor special effects, you work with what you’ve got and they didn’t seem to have a whole lot. Â But I don’t judge on that, as I said I knew what I was getting into, direct to DVD movies do not get highly textured ILM graphics so I knew they were never going to be good.
Jolene Blalock (TPol without the pointy ears) is in the mix playing a pilot, kind of like a poor man’s Denise Richards, and no one wants to grow up to be a poor man’s Denise Richards. Â She sounds like a Vulcan but she is no longer playing a Vulcan, I imagine she tried to do the best with what she had too, she just didn’t come off as well as Van Dien.
