* temporarely deleted due to writer's (block) issues *
Song of the week : "Tired Of You" Foo Fighters
Oldie of the week : "13" Magnapop
Last seen movie : In the last few weeks one of our national televisionstations screened the Indiana Jones trilogy. Having seen bits and pieces of it as a kid, I wasn't quite sure what I had seen of the first two. The third one I remembered a bit stronger, probably because it's from a more recent date. Since it's a Lucas-Spielberg combination there are undoubtably a lot of extreme fans of this trilogy - just as there are from the Star Wars and the Back To The Future trilogies. And let's not forget to mention all the "Die Hard" (pun intended) fans of the upcoming Lord Of The Rings trilogy. These people won't like this : I didn't like these movies. I really thought they were mediocre, dated and uncoherent action-flicks. Sure, there were some nices scenes, semi-spectacular stunts and some laughs, but these are no classics in my book. Your mileage may vary off course.
Most disturbing was the extreme usage of blue screens. Most of the scenes could be spotted from more than a mile away - you just had to watch the blue halo around the actors. Cutting wasn't as nicely done as nowdays. Weird thing is it's less obvious in the Star Wars trilogy. If you could get over the extreme blue screen annoyance things got a lot more amusing, until it either ended on a weird religious theme (Raiders Of The Lost Ark), extremely over the top and gory (Temple Of Doom) or just too long (The Last Crusade).
Let's just say this : if it's raining on a sunday-afternoon, there are worse choices than these ones to watch. On a friday-night with some buddies and a lot of alcohol, it's probably a very good choice. But if you're looking for some really good movies ? Try something else.
Doing this week : Updating and getting the backlog of reviews out of the way.

Editorial - 22 November 2002

Short news : during my lunchbreak I caught up on some long overdue movie-reviews. Now only the Cure-concert remains ...

Editorial - 20 November 2002

What's this ? Qui-Gonn Jinn versus Darth Vader ? That's impossible ! But who cares when it's in those trusty old Lego bricks ? Click here to see the complete picture.

Editorial - 19 November 2002

Hey, it's my man Worf's birthday ! Congrats dude. I'll try to update as much as possible in the next few days, how's that sound ? For instance, Ben send me some pictures from a computer he saw on a LAN-party last weekend. I'll try to get them online by tomorrow.
Song of the week : "Feuer Frei" Rammstein
Oldie of the week : "A Girl Named Sandoz" Smashing Pumpkins
Last seen movie : "Frenzy" : in his last but one movie Hitchcock triomphantely returns to London and captures the essence of the famous vegetable market. Clearly demonstrating his return the movie starts with a great shot over the Thames ending on the riverbank during a speech. What follows is an update of the Jack The Ripper theme with humour and the usual chills.
"xXx" : extremely bombastic update of the spy-genre. Ruthlessly picking at the Bond-persona this story is a feast for the senses. Starting at a Rammstein-concert, going into a carchase, bridgejump, kidnap, war-scenario, gangs, russian mobsters and so on and so on. If you find a minute to sit down and relax, can you tell me which minute ? I didn't find one. Megathrillride. And yes, GTO's rule more than any new Jag or Lotus.
Doing this week : Well, since I've bought the Star Wars Episode II DVD immediately (with a nice discount mind you) I'm going to glance at the cover for the next few evenings and then by the end of the week watch it ? How's that sound ? Yeah, freaky, I know ...

Editorial - 13 November 2002

During the last weekend of my vacation it was time to upgrade the network - where this website and the mailboxes for this domain are a small part of - to the next level. Stepping in the office on tuesday (monday was a national holiday) not everything was hunky dory yet. What'd ya expect ? I'll be busy getting everything to work with this new technology again. Luckily the website itself is static, pure HTML. Nothing to recode there ...
Song of the week : nothing new worth mentioning
Oldie of the week : "Friend Is A Four Letter Word" Cake
Last seen movie : "Signs" : M. Night Shyamalan's newest eerie thriller. For once without Bruce Willis, but with Mel Gibson, a man in doubt about his beliefs after the death of his wife. Helped by his younger brother (Jaoquin Phoenix) the two men look after Gibsons two children when suddenly crop circles appear in their cornfields. Not easily spooked the men suspect a prank and think nothing of it until more of these stories pop up in the news. Is there an alien invasion at hand ?
After movies about speaking with dead people and superheroes, Shyamalan does it again albeit to a lesser extent. These three movies deal with completely unbelievable stories and yet that's never the issue. The unbelievable part is quickly accepted by the viewer and we get drawn into the storie itself. Now this worked quite easily in "The Sixth Sense", at little less in "Unbreakable" - due to a not so subtle plot-development - but the concept is starting to show some cracks. We know too much from the beginning, we expect too much ...
On the other hand this movie has some fine examples of Shyamalan's directorstalent. Delevering a performance worthy of Hitchcock, he uses a basement, four scared actors and two flashlights to develop more scary moments than in the whole Blair Witch debacle. and this alone makes it worth more than the usual garbage out there. Not fantastic anymore, just very good.
Furthermore I've watched "Malena", a new film by the maker of the fantastic "Cinema Paradiso". Beautiful images, a warm story - the "nice" side of war, if that's possible - and an italian ending. Sweet, yet just harsh enough. Not as remarkable as "Cinema Paradiso" though.
Doing this week : Reading the heap of junk in my mailboxes and getting some work done.

Editorial - 9 November 2002

Two nights ago I went to see the dark trilogy concert from The Cure. They'd play their three darkest albums ever in a row. All songs played in order of appearance on these albums. Including the 15 minute pauses between the albums we were in for a 4 hour treat. First up was "Pornography" (1982), followed by "Desintegration" (1989) and "Bloodflowers" (2000). Not a greatest hits concert although some hits like "Lullaby" and "Fascination Street" are among the songs. A full review can be read here.

Editorial - 4 November 2002

Oh well, whatever, nevermind ? Yes indeedy and damn. Had to wait until today to get that interaccess because the cablecompany had fogotten to fiddle with some switch and the internetaccess-company doesn't have access to my specific box. So all they could do was connect everything in the house and call the cablecompany. First thing mondaymorning they came round, fiddled with the switch and checked the line. I was finally surfing in no time ... well, not exactly no time ...
Song of the week : as yet undecided
Oldie of the week : as yet undecided
Last seen movie : "Blair Witch Project" : utterly boring. I had seen this one in the cinema a few years back and after about half an hour swaying the camera around I had seen it all. All style, no content. It just did not scare the hell out of me. Not even by a longshot. Didn't came close to a shiver even.
The premise is good, very good, but I couldn't care less about the characters. The girl is obnoxious, one guy is an utter spineless whimp and the other one ... hell, I don't even remember him. And what do I care about stupid characters making all the usual mistakes one can make in a horrormovie ? Indeed, nothing. When the hype was done the sequel flopped so bad that I haven't heard about the planned second sequel anymore.
Continuing the Halloween theme (thank you Jan) "Friday the 13th" followed. I had seen the second one once as a kid so I was hoping for the best. Jason is after all one scary mofo in his hockey-mask. But alas, another dissapointment. Dated scenery, stupid characters, bad acting, unbelievable psychological development ... and no Jason. Only for horrormovie-buffs who want to see where all the slasher-stuff originated from. This one, "Night of the Living Dead" and "Halloween" were groundbreaking at the time ... now just history. Yet beautiful history if you like the genre.
Doing this week : V A C A T I O N !

darkman says sleep tight

Next month
Editorials