TheProphessionalOpinion

10 Films, 1 Weekend

theprophessional — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:23:11 +0000

This weekend I went on a movie marathon covering 6 decades, 3 continents, 5 different formats, and just about every genre. I started with a pair of Kurosawa classics; Rashomon (1950) and Ikiru (1952). Rashomon is a crime mystery where four witnesses each have a different perspective on the same crime, each equally plausible. It was simple, with only three settings and six characters, yet still very smart. Ikiru is a powerful tale of a man’s life once he finds out he has cancer, the most personal and compassionate of the Kurosawa films I have seen. Both of these have me wanting repeat viewings.

After these two landmarks in cinema, it was time to turn off my brain for a little while and change the pace. I watched District B13 (2006), a French action flick that focused on the ‘sport’ of parkour. The stunts, action, and style are top-notch, and it doesn’t take itself overly serious. If the second one follows this formula, I can’t wait to see it. The last watch of the day was a repeat viewing of The Hurt Locker (2009). Action-packed, intense, and wonderfully acted, it is easily a front runner for Best Actor, Director, and Picture. Don’t watch with coffee like I did, might have a heart attack.

I kicked off Saturday seeing Up in the Air (2009) in a cool, old-school theater (San Marco Theatre, Jacksonville, built in 1938). The experience was perfect, and the film was very good too. Smart, funny, emotional, and as usual, a good Clooney performance. I picked back up with Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress (1958). Two farmers meet a samurai, and eventually a princess on an journey that reminds me of a mixture of Star Wars and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. It is a very fun, epic, samurai adventure. Bringing me back to the present was 500 Days of Summer (2009). Two likable leads take us through a funny, hip (all they were missing was a twitter page), bittersweet love story. It is a non-conventional romantic comedy, and I found it very entertaining.

I woke up Sunday and watched Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962) back-to-back, and wow did I love them. It is clear that these films influenced Leone’s Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More (two of my faves). Toshirô Mifune is the samurai prototype for Clint Eastwood. Filled with plenty of classic showdowns, sword fights, and witty humor, Kurosawa continues to amaze me. Ending the epic weekend, I had to do a complete 180°. It was Valentine’s Day after all, so I had no say in what movie we saw. Garry Marshall filled this film with as many A-listers, clichés, and eye-rolling moments he could find and called it – Valentine’s Day (2010). I almost laughed when the ‘Casting By:’ credit came on. I’ll admit it wasn’t as terrible as I was expecting. It was more tolerable than others of the genre, probably due to the star power and a couple laughs.

E3 2009 – Winners, Losers, Thoughts..

theprophessional — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:03:04 +0000

Nintendo: You’ve got to admit they had a better conference than 2008.. They’re really pushing the peripherals, which I suppose is where they make their money. Wii Fit Plus, Wii Motion Plus, and Vitality Sensor? Kinda ‘meh’ to me, but I’m sure I’ll use them at some point. Wii Motion Plus better add some more functionality to to Wiimote because Microsoft and Sony are on Nintendo’s heels with motion control.

I was happy to see some decent looking 3rd party games, and some DS games. Zelda Spirit Tracks, Mario and Luigi RPG3, and Golden Sun (Finally!) all look awesome. Up until this point I was pretty disappointed, then they showed New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Metroid: Other M. Definitely wasn’t expecting that, and it saved Nintendo’s conference to me.

Sony: Started slow with stuff we already knew about and lots of PSP info/footage. Then they busted out their Wii-waggle-controller-esque wand. Looks like once again Sony has taken from Nintendo, and improved upon it. Theres still no telling how good this thing will work when it gets some software, but the tech-demo they put on was better than most things I’ve seen the Wiimote do, and I think it was more impressive then XBox360′s motion control demo. The end of the demo showing the bow and arrow was better looking than Nintendo’s full game based on arrow shooting.

Then Sony brought out their heavy hitters, and won E3, in my opinion. Final Fantasy 13, followed up by an exclusive announcement of Final Fantasy 14. Agent, exclusive game from Rockstar. Gran Turismo 5, looking beautiful as always, now with damage, Nascar, and WRC. God of War 3 gameplay footage. Team Ico’s next project, The Last Guardian. That’s a pretty impressive lineup. Not including games we’ve known about (Uncharted2, Ratchet&Clank) and multiconsole (ModernWarfare2, MGS:Rising, Castlevania).

Microsofts conference was pretty good, with no huge ‘wow’ moments, unless you were wowed by Project Natal. Microsoft also jumped into motion control gaming this year with its camera based control that tracks the users movement. I think it has potential, based on the demos, but I also think it could end up being very Wii-ish. Which could be good for bringing in some casuals or non-gamers, but not work out so well for the hardcore. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Other big announcements were Metal Gear Solid: Rising and Halo: Reach, with tons of other good games to come: Alan Wake, Forza 3, Left 4 Dead 2, Splinter Cell, Crackdown 2, and of course the big multiconsole games (MW2, RockBand: Beatles, Tony Hawk Ride, FFXIII)

E3 Winner: Sony. Their lineup of games can’t be touched. The motion controller looked more promising than Natal, and looks like it can already do more than Wii can. PSP Go.

E3 Loser: Nintendo. Well, their conference anyway. It was the most boring. Although the last 10 minutes > much of Microsofts conference, and I’m excited about a lot of Nintendo’s games shown.

Star Trek reviewed by a non-Trekkie

theprophessional — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:34:05 +0000

..and a Star Wars fanboy. Thats my disclaimer. I’ve never seen more than a few re-runs of the series as a kid. It took me 2 weeks and a 95% rating on RT to go see it, but I’m glad I did. It ‘re-boots’ the series with something fresh and easy to watch for us non-Trekkies. For all of the cornball dialogue and implausible “science”, which is expected in a Trek film, there is an introduction to great characters, story, special effects, action, and fun. Did I mention a great score? Giacchino is quickly becoming one of my favorite composers, and the score is one of my favorite aspects of the film. From the very beginning, when the film goes ‘silent’ and lets the music take over during Kirk’s birth, I was hooked. I won’t nitpick plotholes or science (for now). For one, that seems to be a trademark of the franchise, and two, the rest of the movie made up for it. It was broad, simple, and fun to watch, which is what I think it was going for. You can go into it with zero interest in the Star Trek franchise and come out pleased.

Google Chrome > Firefox

theprophessional — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:19:40 +0000

Loving the new Google browser so far. Right from the get-go, everything transfered over perfectly and the interface is great. Loads quickly, and runs much faster on my (older) computer than Firefox. Can’t verify how it compares running on a high-end machine.

Features I like so far:
-All in one address bar/search bar/suggestion bar.
-Home page of most visited mini-pages and history.
-Tabbing options.

test..

theprophessional — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:32:52 +0000

me? blog? test.. twitterfeed test..