It means 'nothing'
Film
Facebook Says Games are Fun, and Stuff
Nov 20th
I’m really loving my PS3 lately and more love is forthcoming after my recent order of God of War Collection.
There was a recent firmware update to the PS3 which added Facebook connectivity and something else that I didn’t care about. I don’t actually care about Facebook, I’m only on it because so many people I know are on it and I fully expect it to be dumped for the next social networking fad shortly (Twitter failed to sway ‘the masses’). Anyway, I’ve enabled every Facebook option on my PS3 and was disappointed to see that it aggregates my posts rather than doing them individually. I had been hoping to irritate the hell out of everyone to give them the gentle push away from Facebook.
Also, I saw 2012 and it lived up to the over-the-top-ness that I had hoped for. It’s basically every single disaster film you’ve ever seen rolled into one.
| Earthquake | Yes |
| Floods | Yes |
| Tsunami | Yes |
| Volcano Eruption | Yes |
| Government Cover-up | Yes |
Ok, so technically the last one isn’t a disaster.
The film features every cliche you can imagine and doesn’t disappoint in terms of the sheer scale of destruction. The level of proficiency with which the effects are handled are jaw-droppingly realistic and if you’re anything like me, will make you feel extremely uncomfortable concerning the wholesale death of billions of people.
District 9
Sep 14th
District 9 is finally coming out in Thailand this week. Usually films come out here when they’re released in the US, but there are odd cases such as this one where they release later. We happened to be at Central World on Saturday with a friend visiting from Sydney and saw they had a couple advance screenings of it on that very night so quickly grabbed some tickets for the last session.
The entire film is shot incredibly well. The special effects were seamlessly integrated and had I not known they weren’t using CG for the aliens I probably would have been thoroughly impressed with the animatronics/puppetry. The film serves as a huge fuck you to the film studios that canned the Halo film.
The entire beginning section of the film does a fantastic job of drawing parallels to existing society and the rest devolves into a spectacular series of bodies spontaneously exploding (not that I’m complaining at all). All of the questions you asked in the first 5 minutes of the film will still be with you at the end, along with a few new ones. The hook is made for the possibility of a sequel, but whether or not they’ll ever do a sequel is unknown.
The use of unknown actors has been a fantastic bonus for this and Inglorious Basterds. I’ve come to realise that I prefer watching films with actors I don’t know because I don’t have their previous roles muddying their current characters.
Inglorious Basterds
Sep 10th
This film has Quentin Tarantino written all over it and it was a lot of fun. The guy who played the ‘Jew Hunter’ was exceptional and I don’t even know who he was (yes, I could look it up on IMDB but I’m too lazy). You could tell he was having a lot of fun playing the role.
Brad Pitt was Brad Pitt and it honestly would have been so much better without him. He brought nothing in particular to the role, though I did like that he somehow thought his Italian was better than the rest of the team’s.
The thing I loved about the entire package was that for each scene you never quite knew what was going to happen and he did a good job of ratcheting up the tension, especially in the bar scene. In each scene you could never tell who the red-shirts would be, which is always a nice change. Of course, the gore was present throughout.
Edit: I’ve just now being wondering why it is I didn’t like Brad Pitt in this film and I think I may be onto something. In all of his roles (including this one) he is a constant and his character has no development at all, other than saying different lines. Nothing he does is nuanced. His characters act the same at the start, middle and end of every single film he’s been in. For most of his films that’s suited the role well, but I’m a bit tired of it myself.
Angels and Demons
May 14th
Went and saw this tonight and it was good, though *spoiler* the fact that they’d cast Ewan McGregor meant he was obviously the bad guy. I mean, Tom hanks was in it (the only role he ever plays is the good guy) and the usual story structure meant Ewan McGregor could only be playing the opposing role. Knowing this also meant I spent the entire film waiting for the plot point of when you officially find he’s el-bad-man-o.
I’m getting really good at ignoring the fact that Tom Hanks is in a film these days. I’ve been sick of seeing him for more than 10 years because he’s always playing the same role. I had to convince Oui to see Angels and Demons with me because my usual film buddy also despises Tom Hanks, just much more so. It’s good to have a friend who also thinks The Green Mile was absolute rubbish too (also a Tom hanks film – coincidence?).
Star Trek
May 8th
I have a bit of a backlog of posts because of reasons that would probably take a post or two to explain, but suffice to say I saw the new Star Trek film and it was good, but a little too jokey. My biggest gripe, among a few of them, is that the story basically negates everything that has come before it.
I’ve seen story reboots before, but the basics have always remained the same. Batman always met with the joker, Superman always battled Lex Luther, etc. Not in this case though, everything that was is no longer necessarily the case (you’ll have to watch it to understand). A prime example is that any conflict involving Vulcans or Romulans ain’t happening anymore.
The acting was pretty good, though I honestly could have gone without one of the original cast showing their face. Isn’t it time they were put out to pasture? He sure looks like it’s time.
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