|
Don't
rent that, it's Drek!... rent this instead!
Every
year there's one film that the cinematic "in crowd" just
starts gushing about, and more often than not, i'm left scratching
my head in wonder at their unadultered praise for some dark horse
art film, usually crafted by some pretentios avant garde with a
chip on their shoulder. This year has been no exception.
Lost
in Translation is the brainchild of Hollywood prodigy Sofia Coppola,
daughter of Francis Ford Coppola (yes... THAT Francis Ford). Bill
Murray plays a fading Hollywood star in Japan for a week to film
a whiskey commercial for big bucks... Scarlett Johnannsen plays
a 20-something woman tied to a work-a-holic photographer husband
who's in Japan on buisness as well. Both of these lost souls spend
their time wandering through the luxury hotel, lost in the bizarre
culture of Japan until they discover one another... and in anti-Hollywood
fashion, they develop a platonic friendship which changes both of
their lives.
There's
not a lot to the film, dialogue and performances are top of the
class... what hamstrings the film is Sofia's pretentious tone poems
to Tokyo... For every ten minutes of talkie talkie, there's 5 minutes
of serene cityscapes, characters staring out of car windows at Tokyo,
and general filler... it slows down an already slow story, and makes
a 90 minute film feel like 2.5 hours (and i mean that in the worst
way possible). The elitists and artsy-fartsies will gobble this
shit up, since i'm boarderline in both categories i guess that explains
my thoughts... If this thing robs Peter Jackson of his pest picture
and best director Oscars i'll be highly pissed.
Dark
Alliance II - It's done baybee!
21
Freaking hours later! Dark Alliance 2 is done and done! Oddly enough
the play time listed on our save file is WAY off... (players take
note). The whole experience has been one of joy, i must say i really
have nothing to complain about save the rather abrubt ending (which
leaves the game open for yet another sequal! Complete with Egyptian
looking mofos). If the quality remains, then i can't freakin wait
for a proverbial Dark Alliance 3!
Meanwhile
i picked up Fallout:Brotherhood of Steel, which uses the Dark Alliance
engine and tosses the player into the post-apocalyptic wasteland
of the near-legendary Fallout series, and while there has been much
bitching and whining about pc fallout fans, i can find nothing to
complain about. Great action-RPG gameplay in a setting which has
been brought over intact(anyone who says otherwise is full of shit!)
from the great PC series.
Also
grabbed Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest, created
by the same team responsible for the original Baldur's Gate: Dark
Alliance, and hell yeah, it royally kicks ass! This sucker to the
original Dark Alliance, is as Diablo II was to the original Diablo
i shit you not! Well worth grabbing if you're a hack n slash RPG
fan - which i am in spades.
It
looks like i'll be slowing down on my game buying for the time being...
DRIV3R has been pushed back to June, which leaves me with the new
Bond game from EA (the demo was hella cool if a little impossible)
and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes... which for an MGS nut like myself
is a must have.
Serenity
now!
Firefly
kicks a WHOLE LOT OF ASS! How much ass you ask? Lets just say it's
about the single most goddamed cool sci-fi show to hit television
oh... ever! And that's coming from a big Battlestar Galactica fan.
There's nothing in this show i can credit to anything else, nothing
derivative of anything else i've seen in my sci-fi watching years.
Wholely goddamn original!
The
story is that of the crew of the Serenity, a firefly class transport
ship, and their adventures on the outer fringes of the known human
occupied galaxy... Everything as a very destinct "wild west"
feel, but it's handled incredibly well. And the characters are extremely
well written, and even better portrayed by a collection of actors
i don't think i've ever seen anywhere else... The effects are theatrical
quality fare, the production design is top tier, and from what i've
seen, the direction is incredibly strong for a series, more akin
to a motion picture than anything... I can't wait to see the rest
of these episodes... all the more rotton is the fact that Fox, stupid
fuckers that they are, killed this thing by dicking around with
it's timeslot and running order... fucking morons... From what i
hear, there may be hope for a theatrical series... i'm all for it!
Intolerable
Cruelty - Being a huge Coen Bros. fan, i had been wanting to
check this one out when it hit theatres back in the fall, but there
was something about the trailers that screamed "Mainstream
film!" to me, and the Coens are anything but mainstream. Well
having been able to get the DVD this past weekend i thought i'd
giver a look see, and boy oh boy i'm glad i did... Screwball! Completely
Screwball! That's the best way to describe this one... complete
with the Coen's trademarked sense of humor, and hilarous performances
from George Clooney, Billy Bob Thornton and Cedric the Entertainer,
along with Catherine Zeta Jones electrifying the screen, this one
is a can't miss! Everyone who appreciates a good comedy has to see
this film!
Caught
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star as well, bleh... skip it i'd
say. There were some moments, particularly the "we are the
world" style end credits sung by a shitload of former child
stars, but in the end it was entirely formulaic SNL style comedy...
Last updated February11th, 2004
Why not SIGN
THE GUESTBOOK?
Or just view
it if you like...
Got an issue? Got a comment? Wanna shoot the breeze? then..
TALK TO ME
|
