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Yep!

We watched “Knocked Up” the other night. For sure, there have been many films that depict accidental pregnancies over the years, and Lord knows I really don’t care. This movie was nice, though, as most everyone has been saying about it. It goes to show that nobody is ever truly ready to have children, but that they have to as well as they can given the situation. Not sure if it has a moral, though, other than maybe “everything doesn’t have to change once baby comes, but some things must.” The two male leads (Seth Rogan’s character and Paul Rudd’s character) are in similar situations in that neither really wants to give up his independence (going to Vegas, Fantasy Baseball), while the two women (Katherine Heigl and whatever the hell the other one was named) give some negative connotations to motherhood/growing old — not wanting to tell work because they’ll think less of her, or trying to pretend like you’re still 21 after ten years and two children. The movie stopped just short on saying that having children be equated to a loss of one’s self: it’s important that you try retain who you are after the children come, but it seems as though life and reality may have other ideas. There has to be some sort of middle ground where you can attend to your growing family’s needs while still satisfying your own wants, but as time goes on, it becomes more and more difficult.

And with that, I’m off to play Zelda on the Wii. Gotta get this stuff in while I still can!

The Simpsons Movie! We saw it the other day! It was hilarious! Non-stop gags, recurring characters, nudity, swearing, it has it all! It’s like a Simpsons episode, only longer, with better music and animation, a single central storyline (and no opening unrelated side-story), and you have to pay to see it. Nevertheless, it was worth it. Just don’t buy stuff at the snack bar, too damned expensive.

TV ratings are down, and DVRs are to blame. That’s what the media is telling us, anyway… Some suggest it’s because TV sucks now (not really the case, there still are good shows on), or Daylight Savings Time, or that people have other things to do, but I firmly believe that it’s DVRing that has changed the TV landscape. I should know, we have two (our Eastlink box, and our MythTV box), and we VERY seldom watch shows “when we’re supposed to”.

When you think about it, though, not much has changed since the days of VCRs. We’ve always been able to tape a show and watch it later, but now that it’s so much easier: you don’t have to fiddle around with the tape, setting shows constantly, rewinding and fast-forwarding so you don’t overwrite your faves; instead of recording 6-8 hours on a tape, the Eastlink box can take at least 50-60 hours, and the Myth box can probably handle 100 hours if it had to; and my personal favorite, you can start watching a show while it’s taping and still ffwd through the commercials. Sweet.

Something’s off, though… Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve noticed that the media has been spoiling shows that people might have recorded to watch later. The most notable of these is from The Sopranos: a major character was killed off, and the next day it was everywhere, effectively ruining it for people who hadn’t watched the show yet. Is it a thinly-veiled effort to get people back to watching episodes as they air? I think so.

Nevertheless, I don’t believe these tactics will have their desired effect… People will get annoyed with spoilage, and will find their fun someplace else. Meanwhile, more and more DVRs will flood the market, and in-show advertising (product placements, etc…) will ultimately take the place of traditional 30-second commercial spots. Either that, or the entire concept of “free TV” will go the way of the dodo, and all media will be on-demand, pay-per-view. And that’s the way it should be, really, now that the infrastructure is virtually in place in most major urban areas.

When I was a kid, I watched a lot of cartoons. I’m not quite a kid anymore, but I probably watch more cartoons now than I did when I was young. Every now and then, I’ll go back and watch something I watched when I was young to see how it stands up today (Looney Tunes NEVER gets old). This past week, that something has been Robotech, in particular the Macross Saga. I remember watching this show every day on ASN back in the late 80’s, and getting very frustrated when the series would restart half-way through the Invid saga (because ASN didn’t have all 85 episodes). I’ve since seen the “lost episodes”, but none really stood out in my memory as much as the Macross Saga did.

As with many people my age, this show was my first introduction to anime: a cartoon with a complex, continuing storyline featuring interesting character development. At its root, the Macross show was really about a love triangle set in a time of intergalactic conflict: you had the small, interpersonal story, and you had the epic battles. Something for everyone!

But how does it hold up 20 years later? First off, Minmei’s songs are pretty bad (and I don’t know how a people can rally behind a song that’s basically about the singer), and get VERY annoying after the 20th time through. Secondly, there are plot holes that you can drive a truck through (most notably, the residents of Macross’ ability to rebuild their city in two weeks, several times), and lots of inconsistencies in terms of scale; they obviously put much more effort into the technical side of shows now than they did back then. Lastly, I know it’s a melodrama, but some of the emotional swings that Lisa, Rick, and Minmei go through near the end of the series are pretty off-the-wall: can they really be that clueless/heartless about everything that happens?

Despite these shortcomings, I still stomped through all 36 half-hour episodes in about two weeks, so that has to say something about its nostalgic appeal: the memories of watching the show 20 years ago came flooding back; for two weeks, I was a kid again.

Caught the new movie “300” yesterday at a sneak preview put on by 89.9 HAL FM at the IMAX screen in Bayer’s Lake (thanks to David for getting tix from someone at his work). Short review: VERY stylistic, lots of slo-mo (a lot of the movie was shot at 50-150fps), lots of gore, plenty of sensuality, and very thin on plot (Persians are invading in the north, so the king of Sparta takes a bunch of guys to intercept them, and ass-kickery ensues). This last point is really made moot by the other points, though, because while one can take away certain moral points about honor, bravery and sacrifice, the movie is very visually engaging and is worth the price of admission on that basis alone.

So all it all, an excellent cinematic experience. So go see it, but don’t buy anything at the concession stands, because it’s just WAY too expensive. I mean, $10 for some fries and a pop? Had I not gotten in for free, I wouldn’t have spent that money. The movie theatre industry has one foot in the grave, I hope they realize.

Here’s some interesting news to start a Monday morning… A story making the rounds that a Simpsons movie is in the works, and that a teaser is apparently running with Ice Age 2. I’m really not sure how I feel about this… Most people are in agreement that the show is well past its glory days (even though some of the recent episodes haven’t been that bad), and I don’t know how well it would hold over into the cinematic, especially given that the Family Guy movie was effectively three episodes thrown together with a bunch more profanity (in other words, it was three episodes thrown together).

Update: here’s a link to the trailer.

Saw “V for Vendetta” yesterday.  In case you weren’t aware, it was written by the Wachowski brothers, who made The Matrix and its inferior sequels.  All in all, it was a good movie, but at times I felt it was trying too hard to be too many things.  The premise was intriguing: a modern-day Guy Fawkes tries to bring down the British government using the people as his weapon.  However, even though the movie wanted to be a vehicle for disseminating policital propaganda (or at least a critique of the fear-based political regime active in the US), the fact that this aspect of the movie was ultimately driven by a personal revenge subplot lessened the overall impact of the main character’s motives.  The movie’s (at least) 5 acts also made it seem much longer than it actually was.  The performances were enjoyable, though, and it was a thought-provoking and visually interesting film, aand that’s enough for me to recommend it.

It’s obvious now that movie makers are getting paranoid. They’re beginning to realize that their business model isn’t working anymore. On two occasions during last night’s Academy Award broadcast, someone belittled watching movies on DVD at home or anywhere that was not a movie theatre, saying that the only way to experience movies was in “a theatre surrounded by strangers”.

Here’s the deal: kick-ass home theatre setups are getting cheaper and cheaper. Home screens are getting bigger and nicer. The quality of these systems is improving by leaps and bounds. A DVD costs $30, say, and you can watch it as many times as you want, while going to a movie on the weekend costs a couple at least $25, and that’s provided they don’t buy concessions.

They also took a few obligatory shots at piracy last night, which is a legitimate concern, but I’m sure that there are many people like me who would go to the movies and watch them on the big screen if they felt that they were actually WORTH spending $30 or so to just be able to watch it once, among a bunch of screaming punk-ass kids or other assholey-types who insist on talking during the movie, or not turning off their cell phones, rather than buying it, renting it, or, heaven forbid, downloading it. I guess I can’t appreciate the crap that’s in theatres nowadays. There are still cool movies in theatres nowadays, though… We saw one yesterday and we had a great time. Some things you just can’t recreate at home.

As for the Awards themselves, no real surprises other than Best Picture, although some critics will tell you that Crash winning was no surprise. A lot of people didn’t like Crash because they felt it didn’t really offer anything new in terms of understanding race relations, but then again, Brokeback Mountain is really just a love story (albeit a good one) that generates its own heat from the fact that it’s about two men, sort of our generation’s Jungle Fever. While I enjoyed Crash more than Brokeback Mountain, my favourite movies from last year were Sin City and Batman Begins, neither of which were anywhere to be seen last night.

Oh well. At least Wallace and Gromit got some recognition last night, picking up the award for “Best Animated Feature” by beating out Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. Nick Park can do no wrong, and the bow tie gag was hilarious.

It’s on tonight, 9PM (AST) on Fox, 2 hours of Arrested Development goodness.  Don’t watch the boring Olympic opening ceremonies (unless you know someone on the Canadian team, in which case flick over every now and then to see if you can spot them, then turn back to AD).  Fittingly, the season (series?) finale is called “Development Arrested”. Hopefully the AD writers/producers will have known well that they’re on the way out and put together something special as a thank you for the fans and an up yours for Fox.

Let’s hope it gets picked up by Showtime or some other network; if I don’t get that channel, you can be sure I’ll find a way to get my AD fix.

Man, Arrested Development wasn’t on last night… Instead, Fox decided to show back-to-back episodes of “House”. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with House (haven’t seen an entire episode), but Arrested Development definitely seems to be on the way out now, and it’s a shame, really… At least there’ll always be DVD. In honour of AD not being on last night, I watched 4 episodes from the 1st season DVD set back-to-back. Take that, Fox!

(of course, by releasing the show on DVD, they still get my money, so they win either way. I should just download the sets instead of buying them to show ‘em what for. Besides, it’s not like they’re gonna bring it back anytime soon)

Tonight’s episode of Arrested Development (the funniest show YOU’RE NOT WATCHING) was definitely the most ridiculously self-referential show I’ve EVER seen, and quite possibly the best episode of a fantastic series.

Yes, we all know they’re on the brink of being cancelled. So they make a show about that! Many people say it’s because the characters aren’t “likeable” enough, so let’s give the characters likeable traits! (Gob gets a job, Lindsay cooking, George Michael grows a set, etc…). With the narrator constantly saying stuff about getting your friends to tune in, you know they’re pulling out all the stops. So let’s bust out the ratings stunt checklist, shall we?

• 3D sequences? Check!
• Guest stars? Check! (Zach Braff, John Larroquette, Ben Stiller as Tony Wonder, Super Dave Osborne, Andy Richter as quintuplets, and there were more but I lost count)
• A character getting killed off? Check! (a telegram boy indeed)
• A live segment? Check! (for all of three seconds)

They aren’t going to get new fans this way, but MAN, what a way to make the current fans happy! I can only imagine what the last show’s going to be like.

Note: Melissa mentioned that the blurring out of one of the Richter brothers’ faces was possibly due to something mentioned on the DVD where they say they want to get a celebrity on the show and then blur out his face just because they could.

Another note: Save The Bluths!

Ok. They treated a monkey tonight. What’s next? Operating on trees?

Heh. Tree-R.

Serenity is in theatres today! Go and see it! It’s gonna rule! It’s being well reviewed (if you’re concerned about that sort of thing)! What are you waiting for?? GOGOGO!!!

Saw two of these recently:

The Aviator: This film got a lot of praise last year for a lot of reasons, mostly due to its acting, and I can agree there: the performances are all fine (although I don’t know if Cate Blanchett really deserved her Oscar… I guess you’d have to know Katherine Hepburn). However, I didn’t enjoy the movie as much as others, mainly due to what I felt was a largely “bunch-of-stuff-that-happens” storyline of unrelated events that only serve to demonstrate character traits rather than to develop the characters.

Crash: A very interesting film about racism and how it affects the lives of disillusioned Los Angelinos. Some people might have a hard time coping with the bluntness with which racism is handled in this film, which is to be expected because the movie was written with that sentiment in mind. Many of the characters in this film are very angry, and most of this anger is not really justified. Also, many of the characters in the film experience epiphanies which cause them to change the way they think about themselves and the world around them. This was a much better character movie than The Aviator was, as long as you can believe in their serendipitous experiences. I recommend this film to anyone who liked P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia. They have a similar tone, and most of the storylines are interwoven, except Crash involves a few car crashes, and doesn’t involve any raining frogs.

The good people at Square-Enix made a new movie called Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It’s set just shortly after the events of the game (in fact, the opening shot of the movie is actually the closing shot of the game, with Red XIII running up the hill to see Midgar all grown over). The plot of the movie is pretty straight forward: Sephiroth’s brothers (?) are looking for their Mother, and they think some of the Shinra guys (Rude, Reno, and Rufus) might be hiding her. As such, they’re causing a bit of a fuss, and as a result, Cloud Strife is reluctantly called out of retirement to help fight them off. There’s also some nonsense about everyone on the planet coming down with this weird disease, but that’s pretty much tangential.

The film is absolutely gorgeous. Of course, as with any photo-realistic CG film, FF7SA still suffers from the “Uncanny Valley” effect of the characters, where they look real but still kind of surreal (i.e., don’t look at their lips). The fight sequences are off the charts, though, especially the extended sequence involving Bahamut. Also, much of the music is lifted directly from the game, with a few new bits thrown in, which really helps to establish the mood of the film, especially for those who are very familiar with the soundtrack (like me).

However, the movie’s biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: if you haven’t played the game through, a lot of the movie isn’t going to make sense. What’s up with the girl in the pink dress? Is she dead or what? And what’s the deal with those glowing orbs that give them super powers? And who the hell are all these new characters they just “throw in” near the end of the film? If you’ve already invested a multitude of hours in the stories of Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Sephiroth and the gang, it’s very easy to get into the movie and understand what’s going on. If not, well, it’s a very pretty movie, isn’t it?

In short: this movie is primarily for fans. If you’re a fan, find this movie and watch it.

Yesterday night we went movie crazy and rented a bunch. Well, ok, three.

Melissa wanted to see Monster-in-Law. I stayed in another room and bashed my head against a wall, I figured that’d be a more pleasurable pastime.

We also rented Katsuhiro Otomo’s newest film, Steamboy. We haven’t watched that yet, but I might write about it tomorrow.

Lastly, we rented Black Hawk Down. Melissa watched a doc on it yesterday and she wanted to see the film, so we got it. It’s a harrowing view of urban warfare that highlighted a military strike force going into Mogadishu in Somalia, a city that clearly didn’t want them. 19 soldiers killed, along with over 1000 Somalis. Crazy stuff. And all true (for the most part, at least).

Today we have this nonsense going on in New Orleans. People down there are definitely losing it, and it’s getting to the point where the people who mean to help out those who are in need aren’t able to get in there because of a few crazies that have totally lost it.

It’s understandable that they’re frustrated, but their actions aren’t doing anybody any favours. it’s times like these that the American ultra-capitalist attitude of aggressively looking out for #1 is definitely going to complicate matters.

I’d like to think that we don’t watch a lot of TV here, but given that our Eastlink bill is staring me in the face, I figure that we do. To be fair, most of the TV we watch (especially in the summer, since the networks are on hiatus until September) all seems to be on Discovery. For us, the Discovery Channel is the television equivalent of crack cocaine.

Aside from Daily Planet, there are two shows on Discovery that when they come on, all productivity in the Deveaux household comes to a screeching halt:

How It’s Made: They show the factory process behind seemingly mundane things. It involves lots of big machines that work very fast coupled with lots of assembly-line goodness. They made the process of button-making seem interesting, for God’s sake!

Mythbusters: This show is just beginning to pick up steam. It’s been on since last year, but we only really discovered it a couple of weeks ago. You have two guys who used to be effects guys in movies. They pick “myths” and try to either prove them or disprove them. For example, last night they showed an episode where they proved that it actually was possible for someone to electrocute themselves in a bathtub with an electric appliance. It’s a hilarious show that features lots of stuff blowing up (consider the episode with the cement truck. Whoo!)

Watch these shows!! You’ll never need episodic television again!

It’s really hard to make a movie where the audience can sympathize with cold-hearted murders, but that’s what Rob Zombie accomplished with his new film The Devil’s Rejects. At heart, it is a family movie. By this, I don’t mean families should see it together: it’s about the strength of family ties, and how the love of one’s kin can drive us to do things we wouldn’t otherwise consider. When justly motivated, the family succeeds; when the motives are unpure (for example, in the case of revenge), then the family bond fails us. Succeed or fail, whatever happens to the Firefly gang happens to them together, and this bond is definitely a redeeming quality of the film.

Read the rest…

They made a Family Guy movie! Actually, it’s really just three episodes stitched together with a common story arc involving Stewie, with some other funny stuff thrown in for good measure. Freed from the bonds of decency (and censors), the makers of Family Guy pull no punches when it comes to low-brow humour, shock value, or profanity. Sure, some of the jokes didn’t really work (the Condoleezza Rice gag comes to mind), there were a few rehashed gags (Stewie’s sexy parties, Randy Newman singing nonsense), and I found that the “movie” part of the movie ended very quickly, but it’s right up there with some of their best shows.

Really makes me wonder, though, if the Simpsons would ever translate into a movie. To be fair, this wasn’t a traditional movie in terms of plot (obviously made the way it was made so it can be aired as three separate episodes, minus a few bits here and there), but I can’t imagine the Simpsons being able to pull off the movie. Besides, there is only one great cartoon show-to-movie transition, and that’s South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (with an honourable mention going to Transformers, except for the fact that it was an even bigger toy commercial than the shows).

(Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story comes to DVD in late September, 2005. I’m buying it when it hits. Here’s a better review posted by someone on Ain’t It Cool News, no spoilers)

Tonight on ET or one of those shows, they showed a clip from Jessica Simpson’s video for “These Boots Were Made For Walkin’” from the Dukes of Hazzard movie (here’s a link to the video, I’m getting a lot of hits for it these days). Sure, Jessica Simpson’s hot, fine, but I noticed one interesting detail:

When she got out of the General Lee, she opened the door.

Huh? A large part of the appeal of that car, in addition to the fact that it jumps over EVERYTHING and survives, is that its doors are welded shut, and the Duke boys have to enter/exit through the windows. So what’s going on here? They shouldn’t be doing that… Besides, it’d be way cooler to see her climbing out the window.

(I often wondered about those doors when I was a kid. Did it ever rain in Hazzard County? If it did, the car’s interior must get hella soaked)

And another thing I heard about the movie is that they have to justify the Confederate flag on the roof of the car. Symbol of oppression/racism or no, they shouldn’t have to bend to PCness to justify the presense of the ol’ Stars & Bars. Here’s a clue: they’re from the South. They’re proud of their heritage (well, the non-slavery-related part of it, I suppose). It was never a factor for the TV show… Just because it’s there doesn’t mean that they stand for everything the old South stood for. It’s part of the car: accept it, and let’s move on.

And did you know there are actually other people in that movie besides Jessica Simpson? You wouldn’t know by looking at the press the movie’s receiving.