musings

Still, Elektra was horrible. I mean, how damning is it when I can say that Daredevil was a better vehicle for Elektra than Elektra was? The fights were, as is all too common these days, filmed in magnificent shaky-cam, mere inches from the action, the plot stupid and filled with holes, and the enemies useless. Worse yet, not one baddy took more than one hit to kill – the fights were all composed of a whole lot of not-hitting, followed by the lethal blow. One of them even managed to kill himself. The best of them had the ultra-scary super power of “out of body experience”. The stupidity even pervaded the credits – I know Elektra is a Greek myth, but did the credits have to be edgy with a capital sigma? Gah. What a waste of time and money. So, while it wasn’t House of the Dead bad, I’m betting it’s neck-and-neck with the forthcoming Alone in the Dark.

This morning I was standing on the train platform waiting for my train to arrive to speed me along to the office when I look across the track to see three men in orange safety vests walking along the opposite platform. One of them is pulling a cart on which is placed a box of tools and the top end of a very large ladder. A second man is holding the bottom of the ladder up off the ground. The third guy is just walking. They walk up to a lamp post and the three of them proceed to change a light bulb. All three. The walky guy’s just standing around. The hold-the-ladder-up guy is still holding the ladder up, and the pull the cart dude is actually up the ladder changing the bulb. IT TOOK THREE GUYS TO CHANGE A LIGHTBULB. Friggin’ unions management (see comment).

I saw The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and I walked away happy. I’ve not seen any of Wes Anderson’s other films, so I can’t compare Life Aquatic with Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, or The Royal Tannenbaums, but that’s kind of irrelevant. The pacing was uneven, but never boring. The humour was pretty understated, or at least sly – often the funniest things in the movie happened just off to the side of the camera. Or in the soundtrack. A collection of David Bowie songs sung folk-style in Portuguese had us giggling with every song. I’m totally rambling, so I’m going to stop now.

As an anti-terrorist security measure, the New York City Transit Authority is apparently going to ban photography on its entire system. If passed, the transit authority police would have the authority to arrest anyone taking photos on a bus or subway. Presumably this will include video as well, but the article doesn’t mention it specifically. Now, how stupid is this? In an age when you can buy spy cameras off the web for under a hundred bucks, what kind of security does this measure provide? They’re willing to trample the rights of absolutely everyone who takes NYC transit, in exchange for nothing. Idiots and fools.

I’ve just finished watching Macross Zero and I’m floored.

Flabbergasted.

Speechless.

Four years in the making (unheard of for an OVA), it’s one of the most visually stunning animes ever. Add to that a compelling story and you’ve got a winner.

The year is starting off on a sad note. Will Eisner has passed away.

I just finished reading China Miéville’s The Scar, the second of his Bas-Lag books. Like Perdido Street Station before it, it’s brilliant. Being familiar with the world of Bas-Lag it wasn’t the revelation that Perdido Street Station was, but it is a damn good read. It was a bit slow to start, but once it got going it gripped me with tremendous ferocity. I was reading it over the holiday break, which was intensely busy, so I had little enough time to read it, but every free moment found me wanting to go back to it. I found myself forgoing video games and DVDs just to get back to the book. If you liked Perdido Street Station, you’ll definitely like The Scar. I’m now eagerly awaiting the pocketbook release of Iron Council. Sadly, I can’t justify the cost of hardcovers or trade paperbacks any more.

I watched a French film called Les Rivières Pourpres (The Crimson Rivers) tonight, starring one of my favourite actors, Jean Reno. It was a murder mystery, in the same vein as Seven – every bit as creepy and atmospheric, but with only a fraction of the lucidity. That’s unfair – it wasn’t hard to follow, but it was dumb. The big twist was (spoiler alert) this ridiculous plot by a eugenics breeding ground posing as a university to bring new blood into the rapidly thinning gene pool. The direction and acting were both excellent, but the plot was pretty awful. Oh, and the one big fight sequence was laughably bad.

MovieKarma++;

Check it out! Look left. Now down a bit. Below the archives links. See that? Cool, eh? I got Recent Tunes to work with WordPress, thanks to this blog posting I found. It’s updated in real time by iTunes and Recent Tunes, so it should always show what I’m currently listening to. Actually, I’m not sure it updates if I’m not actually listening to anything, so it might just show what I last listened to. I guess we’ll see.