|
Editorial - 31 May 2002
World anti-smoking day today and guess what ? More and more youth start smoking these days.
<sarcasm>All those stop smoking campaigns must be working</sarcasm>
Editorial - 30 May 2002
Seen an almost hilarious movie yesterday : "Ghost World". Based upon a comic book, but not one like
Spiderman and stuff. Nope, the guy who - according to the legend - okayed this movie to be made only based upon the fact
that it was going to be based upon a comic book has probably not been just fired. My guess is he was brutally stripped
of his Armani or Boss suit, ritually sliced and diced in four sorta equal pieces while forced to listen to the new Dion
album after been anally probed with one of those rolls used in the huge printers movie-companies use to print their own
money.
Let's get back to the point. "Ghost World" is hugely funny albeit because of the very freakish charicatures portrayed by
great actors like Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi, among others. They are such real world losers, not like the usual losers
in stupid teenager high-school movies genre sport-jocks versus math-freaks. Geez ... how much of those things can you
watch anyway ? So how can you laugh with these painful situations and still feel drawn towards them ? I kept on hoping
for better times for all of them. Hell, I even bit my hand twice to refrain from laughing because it felt so not done
to laugh at that given moment, but I just had too ! Damn funny and intelligent.
Editorial - 28 May 2002
Last week of May ... bring on the sun, dammit !
Song of the week : "A little less conversation" Elvis VS JXL : Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has entered the Big
Beat area !
Oldie of the week : "Blue Hotel" Chris Isaak
Last seen movie : We had ourselves a BBQ this weekend, so I didn't go to no movie-theater. Tsjerno put up two
big tents in his garden, rolled out the old oil-barrel and installed it a s the BBQ. Makes for a great big campfire
afterwards by the way ...
Doing this week : Sifting through a pile of old harddisks to see what can be salvaged.
Editorial - 21 May 2002
Oops, I did it again. Wrote a small editorial and then forgot to post it online. To top things off,
I forgot the file at work, so y'all had to wait until this long weekend went by. Anywayz, it's here now, just below this
short, small and humble editorial.
Song of the week : The zooming crackle of clashing lightsabres sounds nice
Oldie of the week : "Me & My Friends" Red Hot Chili Peppers
Last seen movie : In a way it was classic movies weekend. Two real old ones and one based upon the old style
Disney flicks like "20.000 leagues under the sea".
Saturday afternoon the BBC was so kind to offer a real Hitchcock gem "Notorious". The story of an American woman with
German roots who gets tricked into working for the USA after her father is imprisoned for espionage. Strongly against
everything German she agrees (hey, WWII had just ended, so ...). Instead of going for the usual
"bad germans are plotting against the usa" routine, Hitch throws in atomic powers and thereby shows audiences for the
first time the dangers of using these powers against your enemies. Very good movie, albeit classically acted with weepy
women who need strong, dark and handsome men to save them. Long gone times ? Maybe ...
And thank you auntie Beeb for following that movie with another classic : "Logan's Run". A bad seventies sci-fi slice
fit for environmentalists seeking more proof that kapitalism is going to wrong way. Made around the same time as a true
classic like "Soylent Green" and a decent effort like "Silent Running". In camparison to these movies, "Logan's Run"
is practically worthless. It starts intriguing enough to hang around and leave the remote alone, but the crummy storyline
and slow pace destroy all the interest you might have near the end. I couldn't care less whether they found "Asylum"
or not, whether they got back or not, even if they lived or died right there on the spot. Since I was going out later
I started shaving and kept one eye on the tube from time to time, just to see if things improved. They didn't.
"Atlantis" : Disney quits the musicals and goes action. Well, almost ... this movie shows that Disney doesn't need the
songs to tell a story. This time they opted for a big budget action flick with strong science fiction influences. Alas,
it doesn't always work. Some nice sceneries (the sub, the beginning, the lava-sequences), but the
whole story seems slapped together from some old Jules Verne novels. Not as gripping as usual with Disney. I didn't
really care for any of the characters. And as my girlfriend says, it didn't help either that Michael J. Fox' voice is so
familiar that it bothered her. She didn't see the main character, but Michael J. Fox. And I have to say that I had the
same feeling, yet was less bothered by it.
Doing this week : OzzFest ! System Of A Down - Tool - Ozzy Osbourne : a load of culturally allowed noise and mayhem.
Editorial - 17 May 2002
"Star Wars Episode II : Attack Of The Clones" : Been there, done that, seen it. And back at work after
barely 4 hours of sleep. I'll be doing a full review later on. For now, just let me
say that it was an awesome feast for the eyes and a whole lot better than "The Phantom Menace". Some flaws off course, but
that'll be in the review.
Editorial - 16 May 2002
Counting down, counting down, counting down ... only a few more hours to go until the premiere. Franky's
just arrived here, carrying his lightsabre ... filled with fresh new batteries. In uniform - well, actually Weird Al Yankovic'
parody on the Episode I poster ... can't be too freaky now, can we ?
Editorial - 15 May 2002
Continuing the strong streak of movie-reviews I went to see "Panic Room" monday-evening and watched "The
Thirteenth Floor" yesterday. "Panic Room" is a David Fincher film, starring Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker. That alone
should do the trick. It begins very impressive with incredible camera-shots through the house and various objects, then
unwinds into a fairly decent thriller without cheap gory tricks, but in the end it has got to end like you know it's going
to end. The story doesn't lend himself for another twist like "Se7en", "Fight Club" or even the weaker "The Game". And I don't
understand the final scene at all. It's some kind of happy ending encore piece running for like a minute. The ending would've
been much better when that essentially useless scene was cut. It would've left the viewer with some questions who tend to be
put aside by that extra scene. It kinda bothers me. This is one scene I would like the see with the director's commentary
on DVD. There'd better be a good explanation for it ...
"The Thirteenth Floor" is trying to be mind-provoking like The Matrix, yet fails in the end. The first 45 minutes are genuinly
intriguing, but your senses can already feel what's coming. They try to throw the whole movie upside down, but by then you
should've already figured it out for yourself. No surprises. Does have some nice late thirties style LA scenes ...
Editorial - 13 May 2002
As you'll see in the movies-section I have outdone myself this weekend. Nothing too amazing since it was
an extra long weekend and there were many hours to fill next to the cleaning of the goddamn windows on the first floor which
are way too high to reach with a ladder and impossible to reach from indoors.
Song of the week : "Without Me" Eminem - Just because the video is so hilarious
Oldie of the week : "Deeper Shade Of Soul" Urban Dance Squad
Last seen movie : "Black & White" : sort of documentary style indie film about white upper class NY kids trying to be
like the black NY youth and rapculture. Starts off very raw but mellows down a lot into an entertaining piece of filmmaking.
With big stars like Robert Downey Jr., Brooke Shields (with dreads !), Ben Stiller and members of the Wu-Tang clan. There's
even a cameo from director Brett Rattner (Rush Hour) and quite some scenes with boxer Mike Tyson.
"Kelly's Heroes" : funny yet slightly dated WWII comedy with Clint Eastwood about some soldiers who decide to steal some of
Hitler's gold. Sounds familiar ? Yup, recently roughly remade as Three Kings. This one is funnier. Especially thanks to the
first WWII hippie ever (Donald Sutherland) as a tank-commander.
"The French Connection" : dated police-story with a briliantly acting Gene Hackman. Alas its slow pace and very subtle
plotline make it to dated for this day and age. Modern day police stories aren't full of this raw stuff anymore. Today you get
explosions, back then you got a real life chase-scene through NY which wasn't staged. The filmcrew never got permission to film
it so they decided to do it anyway and raced through the unsuspecting NY commuters ... pure insanity or just another hoax ?
"Runaway Bride" : sort of follow up to Pretty Woman. Same people, new story. Nice fluff to fill a quiet evening. Nothing truly
remarkable. Neither fish nor flesh as they say.
"Star Wars Episode VI : Return Of The Jedi" : this final chapter is the weakest of the first trilogy. Half the movie looks like
a remake of Episode IV (including exploding Death Star), the other half looks like an addition to Episode V : Luke fighting Darth
Vader again. Essential viewing if you have seen IV and V, too weak to stand on it's own feet.
Doing this week : "Star Wars Episode II : Attack Of The Clones" premiere next thursday at midnight !
Editorial - 8 May 2002
Terribly looking forward to spending a long weekend at home. At the moment I'm having my lunchbreak at work
and in a few hours the weekend will start really early ... Hell, I'm so in happy mode right now I even proposed eating chinese
tonight - something I usually don't like doing due to the stupid amount of soya-sauce they tend to put in over here.
Song of the week : "Parabola" Tool
Oldie of the week : "Symptom Of The Universe" Black Sabbath
Last seen movie : Gotta get into more details about "Star Wars Episode V : The Empire Strikes Back", "Baby Geniuses"
and "Iron Monkey". Just because I have seen 'em all since the last entry.
"Star Wars V" is one of the classics. Some even call it the best
Star Wars movie so far and usually I agree. The overall tone is dark and gloomy, the bad guys are firmly in control, the pacing's
fast (it clocks in under two hours - an achievement for a Star Wars movie) and the beginning is awesome :
the ice-planet as a setting, the incredible ships - the Snow Speeders and the AT-AT's - throw you nicely into the action : the
first battlescenes. And just when things are starting to slow down and become boring there's the big finale with the shocking truth
that is revealed ... Yup, one great movie.
Alas, then there was "Baby Geniuses". Oh my God ... I do hope all
these people were paid enough money to forget they played in something as awful as this. This movie sucks mega-big-time times four.
Sure, you tend to chuckle once, but brother ... damn.
After shaking my head in disbelief for that failed effort - and since my girlfriend was fast asleep after trying to watch the
previous movie - I popped in my new DVD "Iron Monkey" : the first of
my Hong Kong Legends discs shipped to me on a monthly base. Hong Kong Legends is a uk/dutch firm devoted to restoring the
Asian martial arts movies. They spare no expense at
creating the best possible transfer for the discs (
read more on their website) and so far they have created a very impressive collection including films with Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung,
Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Indeed, the best and finest. This said I have to say that "Iron Monkey" was a bit weird. It's from 1993 and
tells the story of a chinese version of Robin Hood. A passing doctor and his son must solve the mystery of this masked man. The son in
question will grow up to be the legend told about in the trilogy "Once Upon A Time In China 1, 2 and 3". So it's all based on chinese
folk-stories. Combine this with some great fighters (Rongguang Yu
and Donnie Yen) and the direction of
Woo-ping Yuen (of later Matrix-fame) and you get some very
impressive scenes. Which brings me to the disappointing issue that a lot of the supporting actors are really crappy. It takes a few
minutes to get used to before you can start enjoying the movie. And that's too bad ...
Doing this week : Tying my shoelaces when I put my shoes on in the morning.
Editorial - 1 May 2002
There are at least two sites I try to visit daily :
UserFriendly and Sluggy Freelance. Two of the web's most funny comics.
I just took a short quiz to find out which character in the Sluggy comics I'd be and I have to say I'm more than happy with the
outcome ...
darkman says sleep tight
Next month
Editorials
|
