Here’s a bunch of seamless pictures reminiscent of Escher (particularly his tesselations): part one, part two. This blogger most likely just stole them from some art site, but they are fun to scroll through. The second page in particular reminded me of the movie I watched last night, Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle. (via MetaFilter)
Since people are bugging me to put something here…
Roger Ebert awards Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo zero stars. Read the review—it’s entertaining.
And also, a new idea in security: The Do-It-Yourself Security Inspection. Now you can feel more secure whenever you need it without imposing costs and inconvenience on the rest of society.
The new Netflix Friends feature is nifty. Anyone who wants to see what I’ve been watching through that interface can email me or leave a comment for an invitation.
The Good Thief is the standard to which I will hold other heist remakes.
Hacking Netflix is discussing the ratings system. I’ve rated 275 movies, just a handful behind the author’s 279. The comments on the post vary in opinion from “The Netflix ratings system IS their competitive advantage,” to “I find the recommendations ok but not particularly valuable.” I lean towards the latter.
If I were having trouble finding stuff to watch, I would certainly try some stuff from the recommendations. As it is, my queue runneth over, and friends recommend movies to me faster than I can watch them (though that may be due to the fact that I’ve watched six seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in as many months).
Johnny English, which I watched last night, has some funny bits. The trouble is that most of the laughing I did was well before the joke was actually delivered. Maybe I’ve just seen too much Rowan Atkinson, so that now I know what an Atkinson joke looks like before it arrives.
In short, a movie that was funny enough to finish (particularly the tow truck chase scene), but not well done enough to really recommend.
And John Malkovich’s “French accent” was downright painful.
Tonight, as I watched Cidade de Deus, I was thinking, “I’m going to have to watch Scarface again so I can remember why that’s considered a better movie than this.” As I was checking imdb.com to post this, I discovered that City of God rates 8.7 at IMDB while Scarface rates only 7.8!
What does Cidada de Deus have over Scarface, which is considered a modern classic? Quite a lot, actually - richer characters, better camera work, and, most importantly, a message of hope in the fate of Rocket.
Les Triplettes de Belleville is the strangest movie I’ve seen in quite a while. What can I say about a such a short movie, animated in caricature, with hardly any dialog? I liked it. Fun story, good music, and animation that isn’t always as simple as it looks.
This evening on the Netflix Channel - Four Rooms:
I suppose Four Rooms have been the inspiration for The Hire, a series of five short films commisioned by BMW in 2001, and then three more in 2002, all starring Clive Owen as “The Driver” (like Tim Roth’s “Ted the Bellhop” in Four Rooms, only a serious cool guy rather than a goofy clown) with various big name directors. I don’t think I would recommend Four Rooms, but the eight episodes of The Hire are all worth a download.
Reservoir Dogs, which I watched this afternoon at home, is a very fine film. Quentin Tarantino is the master of telling stories out of order. He makes it easy to trust that the needed details will be provided, and he keeps you interested in what happens to the characters, even as he reveals things about them that completely change your understanding of them. I am not, by nature, a big fan of blood and guts movies, but his sense of humor is too compelling to pass up.
One thing I’m curious about is why he sometimes casts himself as minor characters in his films (Mr. Brown in this one). Its his prerogative, of course, but why? He doesn’t appear to have any special acting chops.
Yesterday I saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at the AMC Studio 30. I’ve read the five books, and I enjoyed the first two films. This one was much better. Less emphasis on the school year, holiday scenes, classes, Quidditch, and tests; a faster pace with less exposition; some nice cinematic touches, like the season transition shots. The clock motif was laid on a bit thick, but I like clocks, so it’s OK. The John Williams theme was made less oppressive in part by using it less and in part by varying the instrumentation. I think musical continuity is important for sequels, but this was a welcome change.
Overall, I think Alfonso Cuarón did a better job with the material than Chris Columbus did, so I’m sorry to see that he isn’t involved in next years entry, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (my favorite of the books), which Mike Newell will be directing. The only film of his that I’ve seen is Mona Lisa Smile, which, while not bad, failed to impress.
I can’t decide whether I like the idea of switching directors around to film pieces of a story. That method meant we got Cuarón’s Potter rather than seven of Columbus’s good-but-not-great Potter. It worked pretty well for Star Wars Ep. IV-VI, too. (Does anyone doubt it should have continued for Ep. I-III?) But it certainly would have hurt Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, and probably Indiana Jones as well.
