3 Days Later

And I'm still in love with UP. Seriously, I can't wait till this movie is out on DVD, it's really stuck with me. 

Old Trailers

I watched The Maltese Falcon last night, and one of the most interesting features on it was "Warner Night at the Movies" which showed the trailer, newsreel, and cartoons shown before the film. Despite all the love for Looney Tunes, there are certainly some bad ones, and this obscure WWII spoof certainly was one of them. The humor and advertising used back then was so strange and different. The original trailer for the film is included and is funnier than the cartoon, with weird transitions from scene to scene and dramatic and repetitive narration. Its funny how things were advertised back then. The question is, is advertising now any less ridiculous? Sure, seeing special effects or jokes from the most exciting and funny scenes of the film whiz by in 30 seconds may seem more exciting than the slow ads of years long passed, but whether its an abundance of information or almost none at all, ads still don't usually give an accurate sense of what the film is like.

UP

The blog is here to stay for the Summer. I haven't been blogging very much and didn't get all the reviews out that I hoped to, but I'm gonna be doing daily posts for a while to get the blog back in shape. Let's start with my review of UP, which I saw yesterday.

The people who came in late missed the best part. Up begins with a montage so poignant and beautifully excellent that it carries the rest of the film. As a result, director Pete Doctor is able to hit just the right emotional notes due to the deep emotional background that powers the film. When I first heard about Up, I immediately fell in love with the concept. A man tying balloons to his house and floating away? What's not to like? But I wasn't prepared for the incredible humanity and depth that makes this film not only an easy candidate for Best Animated Picture, but Best Picture overall. Up is sad, memorable, deep, sweet and hysterically funny, and gets just the right balance of humor and depth to keep audiences of all ages enthralled. The film made me laugh many times, but parts of it also had me tearing up. It's all masterfully wrapped up in just 96 minutes, and they're bound to be some of the bests minutes you spend on a couch or in a theater. PIXAR's masterpiece Up is a timeless, hilarious, bittersweet film that everyone can enjoy.

The short version-

|Score: |||||||||| 10/10|

A whole bunch of new reviews coming up.

I finally saw Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. I'm going to see Star Trek today, so look for reviews for all of those. Also, I made some logos and I want to take a poll on which I should use. 

Film Seminar

My school hosted a film seminar today, and although the scene was mostly adults trying to get into or succeed in the industry, it was a valuable experience and it got me some good contacts. Things started off with an address from David Cunningham. When I read his bio I thought "he directed The Seeker" man, that movie sucked. Then I saw his presentation, it was funny and informative, he was smart and his other movies looked good. Then I found out that after he had finished shooting The Seeker the studio decided to market it to 8 year-olds rather than the teen audience he expected. One thing was made clear: if I want to get into this business, I'd better prepare to be screwed over. Television producer Karl Fink described situations such as a gritty show about war and rebellion turning into a show about crime fighting dolphins, and a ripoff of his show airing right before he finished making his, forcing him to change his tactics. I will go more into each of the mini "breakout sessions" I attended and the rest of the program in future posts. 

The Blog Lives!

I haven't posted in a while, and I'm sorry. There will be some new posts coming up soon, but let me just give you an update on what's been going on. 

I just watched Brazil. I would give you some thoughts, but I still haven't figured it out.

The Shak Budisen movie is at a standstill, but I'm determined to finish it and not make it yet another unfinished project. 

I have learned a bunch of photoshop skills. 

I am attending a film/television workshop thingy this Saturday, and will post about it.

Thats all. 

It Sorta Occurred To Me

I'm on break right now, and when I'm on break, I don't have to get up. But even when I get out of bed my mind doesn't really wake up. I don't really think I've been awake all day today.

Burn After Reading

Well, I finally saw Burn After Reading, and while it featured good filmmaking, humor, pacing and style, the lack of a definite protagonist and the fact that almost none of the main characters are even remotely likable makes it very difficult to enjoy the film. While the Coens' characters have long been less than perfect, they're at least human enough for us to identify with, but Burn takes the "imperfection" of the characters far enough that its impossible to like them, and they fail to function as accurate criticisms of human beings because they're so completely hateful that they fail to register as human. While the film does pack some good comedic lines, it is not essentially a comedy, and the grimness quickly douses the fun of the comedy, worsening the film by making it difficult to be able to tell when the Coens are being serious and when they're making a joke out of there pathetic, hateable characters, until the whole film becomes one big joke on watching the torment of their characters. The filmmaking is better than the characters are, with strong pacing and performances, and crisp photography, but it is not enough to redeem this otherwise shallow, unfulfilling  film.

The Short Version

|score- |||||- 5.5/10|

The Powerpuff Girls Rule!

And so does Mojo Jojo!

I've had my Powerpuff Girls complete series DVD for a while now, and having watched all 6 seasons, I sat down and watched the new special- The Powerpuff Girls Rule. Animated by the flash animation team that did Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, the animation is fast lively, and frenetic, which matches perfectly with the pace of the story, which is ridiculously fast paced, trying to cram as much action, humor, and villains into 22 minutes as possible. However, where this might become confusing for any other series, fast-paced frenetic action is what PPGs does best, and the extreme pacing of the episode brings out the best in the show. Its fast, funny, and at some points even touching. Its a fitting end to the series, and a fitting beginning as well. But one things for sure- for now, the day is saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!

The Short Version

|score- |||||||- 7.5/10|

|guilty pleasures score- ||||| 5/5|

Star Wars-The Clone Wars

I'm Over It

Star Wars Episode I- The Phantom Menace was horrible beyond belief, and I easily thought it was the worst Star Wars movie yet, full of boring "political" plot lines, and dull acting, not to mention *shudder* Jar Jar Binks. That was before The Clone Wars, a movie so unbelievably awful that the fact that it shares a name with Genndy Tartakovsky's amazing animated miniseries disgusts me. The characters barely resemble their film counterparts, both physically (for the animation is stiff and ugly beyond words) and personality-wise. They constantly spew corny catch phrases and awful nicknames, making every line of dialogue cringe-worthy. Oh, and there's a new character, Anikin's apprentice, who's completely irrelevant anyway, and who's main purpose seems to be coming up with sickening nickname after sickening nickname, and screwing up the star wars timeline even worse than all the fan fiction spinoffs that are already out there. Not even the action is entertaining, as the animation is so stiff and uninteresting that  it seems more like watching a bad video game from the 90s. I would like to give a small nod to the music, which, although unbelievably out of synch with the tone of the movie, displays a slight hint of originality, using vocals to create atmosphere in a fashion similar to Richard Gibbs and Bear McCreary's music on Battlestar Galactica. However, the visuals are so inadequate that there is no mood for the music to set. Unfortunately for Star Wars fans, the torture is not yet over as the movie is but a 90 minute pilot for a TV series of the same name. The fact that it is a pilot shows greatly in its pacing and narrative structure, which seems to consist of three half hour segments mashed together with vaguely similar (albeit completely unimportant) story lines. This adds to the film's problems even more by making it disjointed and even less exciting. Overall, The Clone Wars is bland, irritating, and a worthless addition to the already bloated Star Wars Universe that only serves to further mangle the timeline.

The short version-

|Score- || 2/10|

|Guilty Pleasures Score- - 0.5/5|

Tennis & 1000 Hits

I've started doing tennis, and it takes up a lot of my time. So I'm gonna be posting even less than usual now that tennis is going on.

In other stuff, I just looked down at the hit counter, and the blog has finally passed 1000 hits. Thanks to everyone who came and visited :D

New Theme

Well, I changed the blog title to make it less cumbersome and I changed the theme. I may mess with the colors later. Thats all. (lame post)

Kung-Fu Panda

Here I go with yet another review thats waaaay late

Kung-Fu Panda is a breath of fresh air considering the general low quality of Dreamworks movies as of late. Its certainly nothing special, but its light, humorous, and, most important of all, its not another Shrek movie.The film is a decent movie and a great Dreamworks movie which shines through the thick layer of scum that has coated Dreamworks movies since the days after Shrek 2. It opens with a Samurai Jack influenced 2D sequence, which made me want more 2D feature films. The CG style almost seemed like a disappointment compared to the fun traditional animation, but the 3D animation is also high quality. Although the fat joke centered trailer made me cringe, Panda is a stellar example of how things that are generally frowned upon can still prove funny if done well. That being said, like the humor, the film is well executed but lacks depth. Its story is the typical underdog story, and a lot of the moments are incredibly cliche. The main thing that makes the film unique is the humor, which basically makes it an irreverent take on a cliche hero story rather than just a cliche hero story, which turns out to make all the difference. 

1 Year of Blog

Yep. Its been a whole year since I started this blog, with my first post being "I had mac and cheese for lunch" ah, what auspicious beginnings. It started out as a daily blog with a lot of style and opinion and a little substance, and has evolved into a review and production blog that updates a lot less often, but with better quality posts. I think things have slowed down a bit more than I wanted them too, and I'm going to try to pick up the pace a bit in the blogs second year. I think there were a lot of bad posts last year, and a lot of good posts. Some stuff was misguided, some was correct. I'm hoping to perfect my posting style, spelling and grammar, and film critique for next year. Heres what you can look forward to in year two

• A review of the complete Powerpuff Girls DVD set

• Another really late review, this time of  Kung Fu Panda which could be the last redemption for Dreamworks (and possibly the last time I use the Dreamworks label in this blog, I don't even know why they get their own label)

•The Shak Budisen Movie and more production news- the movie is currently still set for release this Summer, I just have to finish it, which I will do eventually. I've done some new animation which I need to score.

• Lots more reviews of movies I will be seeing.

• More random crap to keep the blog active.

• Me being pompous when I get 1000 hits.

• Yet another new name for the blog. I'm thinking of simplifying it to: "Stuff I'm Making and Watching"

• The premier of my new show

• Possibly a music video 

• Possible move to a private server where this will become part of an expanded site

• Stuff

Ok, thats all I got, but hopefully that will keep things interesting and keep this blog going.

~Kieran

Indy 4

So heres my very very very late thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A lot of fans were disappointed by this movie, but I am not a fan, so I set my standards even lower. I had heard it was awful, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was mildly entertaining. Yes, it follows the classic Indy formula the least, but since I didn't like the classicy Indy formula, I didn't mind. It was some fun mindless car chases, nothing special, but certainly not bad. That being said I do have a few gripes. Marion Ravenwood's appearance is pathetic and completely unnecessary. It seems like a failed bid at fan approval/nostalgia. Obviously, Indy is too old to fight Nazis, but fortunately for him, there's plenty of communists to fight. Go figure. Finally, the ending is a total anti-climax, and while the rest of the film was fairly exciting, the ending didn't live up to its promise, and the final love scene was bad as well. Overall, a pretty mediocre movie with nothing to offer besides some cheap entertainment. But thats all the series was worth to me anyways, so I don't really mind.

The Most Bested Show in the Whole Wide World.....NOT!

OK, so this is great. I was eating dinner at the local pizza restaurant and their TV was playing this show called Wrecked. Unfortunately, this show was not about things being destroyed or demolished or some other adjective that means the same thing. This show was about tow trucks. Yes, there is now a show entirely devoted to those interested in towing. Better yet, it features a guy named Trike. Yes, he was actually named Trike. So Trike and his team set out to tow a school bus, which is dragged out for about 5-10 minutes longer than it should. But of course, they have to build the excitement, which involves attaching the cables, rotating the bus, etc. But the lamest thing about this was one of the main conflicts: they lost the keys to their truck. Yes, the main excitement of this show involved them looking for the keys to one of their trucks so they could tow a school bus. Needless to say, I was on the edge of my seat. The title of the show embodies its spirit: to take something totally mundane and make it exciting, unfortunately, the show fails at this too. I get the feeling that the title "Trike and His Tow Truck" wouldn't exactly have drawn audiences in, and the title "Extreme Towing" could possibly have been even lamer. Yet here I was watching it. Its really kind of sad that today's entertainment includes a show about people towing things. But what's even sadder is that there are people who would want to watch it.

FYI, I saw Indy 4, and theres a post on that coming up

Two Follow Up Reviews

What? No Christmas post? Well, this is kind of a Christmas post since the two films I'm doing a follow-up on were brought to me courtesy of gift-giving relatives. Thanks folks :D. 

Anyways, the follow-ups I'm doing are on two of the top rated Summer movies: The Dark Knight and Wall-E. Second viewings made different impressions than before, with Wall-E's being considerably better. Anyways, lets get to the reviews.

The Dark Knight: Revised Score: 7.8

I'm pretty sure thats the same score I gave it last time, because, while my views of The Dark Knight's flaws has changed, the amount of flaws stays the same. TDK is definitely a very entertaining movie, but I find that a shorter cut could have improved the pacing and general flow of the movie. I think TDK's greatest weakness is that it feels like two separate 90 minute movies, with three climaxes, since the second half's climax is a double climax. TDK is full of great scenes, but they feel somewhat out of order; it seems as if the development of the multiple plot lines impedes the flow of the movie, since the film is so overloaded that the plot lines consistently interrupt each other. While I have no problems with an over the top, overloaded film, I do have a problem with the fact that the overload actually results in a decrease in intensity. This is TDK's  greatest problem, and it greatly impeded my enjoyment of the film.

TDK's greatest strength, and a lot of its appeal comes from the amount of risks it takes. It deals even casualties to both sides, and actually kills off one of the key protagonists. Must like its titular hero, TDK does things that other movies wouldn't do, and that gives it strength.

Although the pacing and the sense of flow aren't very good, all of the independent scenes are excellent, they are well produced, and quite entertaining. Unfortunately, this whole doesn't make a sum as big as its parts make it to be, but it is still entertaining and technically well made.

Wall-E: Revised Score: 9.3

I was right about this one. I enjoyed it far more this time around. Like with my first time watching TDK, Wall-E's pacing caught me off guard since I didn't know the run time. Since most current P.I.X.A.R films clock in at about two hours, I expected Wall-E to be much longer and heavier and was disappointed in that regard. However, evaluating it as what it is, Wall-E packs lots of depth, laughter, fun and emotion into 90 minutes, and I predict it will grow on me even more as I continue to watch it. It's very easy to watch but also very rewarding, so I think I'll be popping this one in for years to come.

Journey In 3D

Well, after watching Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D, I can say that it was definitely not worth it. Much like dumb action movies with too much dumb and not enough action, Journey is a 3D movie with too much headache and not enough 3D effects. The ones that are there are cool, but there are nowhere near enough to justify the movie being 3D. At this point I think the most effective way to use 3D technology is to have a 3D movie of Kurt Russell throwing chain-saws at the screen for an hour and a half. With a movie like Journey, 3D changes it from a Sci-Fi Adventure movie to an effects movie, where the plot only gets in the way, since every moment of dialogue is a moment of not actual 3D, and any moment of not actual 3D is a moment of thinking "can I take these glasses off now?"

Inflation Hits McDonalds...Sort of

So I went to McDonalds on thursday and was dismayed to find that the double cheeseburger had migrated from the Dollar Menu to the Sandwitch section. However, to my relief,  in its place on the dollar menu was a new sandwich called the McDouble. I asked the cashier what the difference was between the McDouble and the double cheeseburger, and she said that the McDouble had one slice of cheese while the double cheeseburger had two. The price difference was nineteen cents. Wow. Poor Ronald McDonald really had to tighten his belt during these tough economic times. He deprived dollar menu goers of 1 whole slice of american pasteurized, processed cheese food in order to save 19 cents. Of course, I wasn't about to pay extra, so I got the McDouble and of course, it was almost exactly the same. Now I'm not going to diss McDonalds for being cheap, but I'm wondering if there is anyone out there who is still buying the double cheeseburger in order to get that extra slice of cheese. I can accept that McDonalds wants to save some McMoney, but its strange to me that anyone would buy the double cheeseburger.

What the point of this post is, I don't know, it sounded much better in my head. I'm kind of out of the blog zone, as you can see by my pitiful amount of November posts, so I need to get my skillz back. But heres a post for December, and now that I'm on break 'yalls can expect summor.

Journey to the Center of the Earth Review

First of all, I'm not gonna bother putting "late review" in the title since all my reviews are late.

Second of all, the review:

At first I was worried from the look of things that this movie was going to be a violently unfaithful adaptation of the Jules Verne classic, but I am relieved to say that this film doesn't even attempt to be an adaptation. Rather it is an independent storyline that is inspired by the book but features different characters and plot. However, unlike the book it owes so much to, this film is exceedingly unimaginative. Its basically a vaguely entertaining string of cliches with a sci-fi plot to keep things moving. Its amazing it took three people to write the screenplay for this movie considering how exceedingly unoriginal is, especially regarding the dialogue, which is extremely typical and stiff. The acting is also weak, with flat performances, and Brendan Fraser spends most of the film yelling in an unintentionally ridiculous sounding voice. However, as unoriginal and stiff as this film is, its surprisingly tolerable. Despite the fact that the characters border on annoying and the plot pushes the boundaries between acceptable sci-fi and ridiculous fantasy, the film still comes off as entertaining. The action sequences are cliche but solidly built, and as this was originally made as a 3-D movie, a few cheap thrills is the most you can expect from it. Journey is nothing special, in fact its decidedly mediocre, but it definitely doesn't fall below the expected standards of a mediocre family adventure.

5/10

3rd of all, I wanted to watch the movie in its original 3-D form, but my family was insistent on watching the 2-D version in order to prevent headaches. That being said, I intend to see it in 3-D as well, so expect a Thoughts On follow up post on the 3-D version