Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in jon von's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
5:31 am	Lryics to Magazine songs      The  Great Beautician in the Sky   Laughter staggers on In between their gags pounding their faces he's on his last legs I don't care to dance I don't care to dance I don't want to dance I'm not going to dance Angels twitch nervously the brave and the bold weep we all want to know who we should pay tribute to Hey good looker hey good looker you could tell me all about it go on - tell me all about if I know your secrets I know your secrets you could tell ... I may have lost the thread I was supposed to pull may l say everyone is irresistible Everyone is irresistible now I'm not sure which way I should turn I can say 'Now I've seen everything' at last there must be no more to learn That's what you want to hear sadly, also it's true and I know all your ways and I'm still hung up on you Oh great beautician in the sky your innocence just saddens me I shall throw it all against the wall take my pleasure in spite of if all I know your secrets ... Hey good looker ... I could fall all night over you Hey good looker ... roses are red, violets are blue @@@@@@@@@@@ I Wanted Your Heart I wanted your heart for the last time I want to be in your bed I want your words to colour all that's been said "I will love you when the devil is blind" I wanted your heart you didn't want mine This is as close as I get as I ever get falling for things I never thought I'd find myself falling for as close as I get Old ladies on the pavement in the dense and empty hours all as hard as nails and brittle as pressed flowers I was cold at an equally cold place a cigarette between the flame and my face you were laughing like the goon squad in my heart This is as close ... I wanted your heart What do you think about what I think about! truths that are lies when you spell them out don't worry don't betray the slightest emotion yes I know it's a separate emotion As close as I get @@@@@@@@@@@@ Definative Gaze I've got this bird's eye view and it's in my brain clarity has reared its ugly head again so this is real life you're telling me and everything is where it ought to be I like your nerve I like watching you but I don't watch what I'm doing got better things to do so this is real life you're telling me now I'm lost in shock your face fits perfectly @@@@@@@@@ song from under the floorboards I am angry I am ill and I'm as ugly as sin my irritability keeps me alive and kicking I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it This is a song from under the floorboards this is a song from where the wall is cracked my force of habit, I am an insect I have to confess I'm proud as hell of that fact I know the highest and the best I accord them all due respect but the brightest jewel inside of me glows with pleasure at my own stupidity This is a song .... I used to make phantoms I could later chase images of all that could be desired then I got tired of counting all of these blessings and then I just got tired This is a song ... @@@@@@@ I Want to Burn Again The newcomer arrives possession and guilt in his face apologises to the Customs man for the gaping hole in his suitcase says 'I've seen where promises are made I've seen how people are undone it's always done man to man one to one I'm ditching an empty suitcase I've been in Storytown I've been swimming in poisons been slowing up and down I've known the eeriest wounds the soul's long quarantine when no rewards remain no one and nothing comes clean I've been blown about for years on my way to you I've been blown about for years on my way to you and I still turn to love I want to burn again and I still turn to love In a room where arrangements are made for success you try to say that you possess me by your caress I met your lover yesterday wearing some things I left at your place singing a song that means a lot to me I've known a certain grace I've been blown about for years on my way to you .. and I still turn to love I'm still turning I want to burn again - howard devoto (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
7:57 pm	writing humor added more movies to my ever expanding 2 Review lists and review drafts (b/c I'm thinking of starting another blog with all these reviews). and After seeing Avatar in Imax 3-D these were my only notes 9/10 avatar may be the best action movie ever made inspried by liberal guilt. also, it it wrong to be attracted to aliens? (Comment on this)
Monday, January 4th, 2010
1:13 pm	The rain it relents at last as if that was needed. Mary took it as an omen but left it unheeded. the crows were the ones bearing fruit, for a society of ghosts. Because baskets were too difficult for mailing to the hosts. what this has to do with the muddy ground 'I'll leave up to you', because Mary isn't the type who likes to tell you what to do. hurricanes have both mouths and eyes, how many organs does it need? A church can never get enough, so many mouths to feed. (Comment on this)
7:32 am	More Reviews I said I had a bunch. Writing is off to a slow start but going well- Reviews for: moon 7.5/10 If someone mixed 2001 A Space Oddyssy and Solaris together, gave it a twist and let David Bowie's son do it would probably be like... wait. No, this is it. Because that's what Moon is and despite that it's basicly one man talkign to himself for an entire movie, Moon is also one of the best science fiction movies since any of the 3 things Speilburg has done this decade. the simplicity is beautiful, the themes are expolored using filmmaking techniques usually beyond those of a first time feature writer/director, Sam Rockwell gives one of the best performances of his career and it wouldn still work as a nifty little genre peice even if you were'nt soo keen on reading into movies. the plot is tricky to give away and you don't like spoilers you should hold out on reading more and just let yourself into a nice little bit of sci fi psychodrama weirdness. Appearantly, in the future, the moon is minded for Helium-3 which can provide a cheap power source for people. in this story sam rockwell plays sam bell, the astronaut who maintains a very lonely life in a station where even the video messages he sends to his family have to be pre recorded. There is a robot with him name GERTY, voiced by Kevin Spacey and whose monotone sounds so much like HAL from 2001 that it can't be a coincidence, who is programmed to be human-like in some ways but is still, only programmed. Somethign happens onboard the ship which causes Sam to seriosuly reconsider what is real or not, leading to his uncovering of a greater more diabolical secret of th moon base. But, i've said too much, its better off left to your surpise because the movie isn't really all that suspenseful. It is beautifully shot, artfully arranged, full of nifty costumes straight out of 70s sci fi fashion and great music and did I mention that sam rockwell can act? his performance in this is jaw dropping. The twist leads to a somewhat gratuitus, if satisfying, ending which tries to cap the surrealism with a possibly, ill-advised moment of humor. still, Duncan Jones ( birth name Duncan Zowie Haywood Bowie Jones) has made an interesting and soulful debut set up as a clever lttle genre sci fi. perhaps he does have a bit of the old dad in him, then, using sci fi melodrama to explore human themes... sounds... familier. Pandorum 6.5/10 Pandorum is a sci fi thriller which seems to have it all allready in the bank, it seems like four or five different movies have been salvaged and put back together in a sometimes slick- sometimes cheap looking action story combined with a coinciding narrative about a kind of space madness called... you guessed it, pandorum. Now, this is actually an interesting movie. the premise is interesting, two men wake up from cryosleep on a ship with no one around and which seems to be lost in space on a mission the men can't remember. the younger officer explores the ship and meets others all the while battling vicious, hideous mutants who look like the monsters form The Descent decked out like they're in mad max. The other, an older officer, played by Dennis Quaid awaits the others return and is confronted by psychological terrors which manifest themselves in different ways. The two characters are alone and their memories have largely been lost to the cryosleep, and answers always seem to lie at the other end of the ship.This movie is an exciting action movie with good music, good sets, an intersting story and above-average performances. but why am i giving it such a low rating you ask? well maybe its because the movie is basicly Noah's Ark meets, Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" and maybe a little bit of "The Abyss", intercut with two narrattives, one echoing "the Descent" in style and makeup effects; the other a derivative man going crazy in space story. If none of these movies sound familier or cliche then I imagine Pandorum would be great popcorn-munching fun, but the more you pull away the covers exposing the filmmakers lack of originality the more tedious the excercise in cliches becomes. I do have to say I liked the ending because the whole story does come full circle in a sort of way and the Pandorum legend does play out in a parallel way in the film's final events. But, so many questions remain unanswered; from the film's point of view it seems like the ambuiguity would increase the tension, but for the viewer it might also seem like a lazy lack of details in favor of slapping together a bunch of slick action, monsters, tests of sanity, and haunted ship hoodoo. Pandorum isn't a bad movie, it's just an unoriginal one with a better-than-usual knack for picking source material. Time Traveller's Wife 5/10 It's hard to call this movie anything but sweet. The performances are sweet and everyone just loves each other so much. Eric Bana is a man who has the uncontrollable ability to time travel and it makes his life really awkward appearantly as he comes and goes without warning. So, most of the movie is about the peculiar experiance of a women who loves him in a linear experiance for her, with him changing ages randomly, coming and going, knowing things he shouldnt know about the future and tryign to change them. there are trials and they get in fights, theres even a moment where after they have a fight she meets up with a younger him and has an affair (if you could call it that). There's more to it, a couple friends, a relationship with his father, dead relatives, children; the time traveller gets around and experiances his life in a disorderly, but thanks to the performances, genuinly touching way. And that's it. It's a romantic movie but not a deep or particularly complicated one. There is no real danger or dramatic subplot. Bana is terrific as the traveller and makes it all seem so natural. the movie is likable but aside from pro-family sentiment, life and love affirming platitudes nothing ever really happens. The cinematic equivalent of romantic empty calories, with a narrative twistiness that is hard to pin down but would be rendered pointless by doing so (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
1:36 am	comedies and a sort of clever thriller what happens in vegas 5.5/10 i liked this movie, actually. it's uneven in quality but in some ways that's because a movie which was a flawed script is turned into something kind of neat by the performances. but, before i get to them let me say that the music in  the movie is in your face and occasionally annoying including a ridiculous electro pop huey lewis cover while kutcher slips ecstacy into diaz's morning coffee before her board meeting. anyway, there's a weird chemistry between diaz and kutcher playing a couple of new york jerky young adults who accidently marry one another AND win 3 millions dollars at a casino but they hate each other. The judge, played by dennis miller, makes them try to make the marriage work for six months or no money. thing is diaz and kutcher throw so much delight into battling one another that in it's best moments it has the acid tongued sexual tension of a 30's screwball comedy. but then, the movie has many comedic scenes which are sometimes funny, sometimes just plain stupid and cruel in which the two torture each other. aside from that  the supporting cast includes Dennis Farina rob courdrey and zack galifinakis who also do a lot to make bad jokes work.  so many romantic comedies have couples who dislike each other at first, but these two act like they hate each other with vein throbbing zaniness that is 3/5's bad hollywood rom com and two parts clever and well done screwball comedy. house bunny 7/10 describing this movie would sound stupid. it's about a playboy bunny, who is basicly an emotionally retarded simpleton who was taken from a small town because she was beautiful and dumb but has a heart of gold'; she's cast out of the playbody mansion for being too old and takes up with a sorority of losers to make them popular in a sort of girlie revenge of the nerds. it's from adam sandler's production company who did, among others, grandma's boy and paul blart and is in most ways a successful comedy, which defies it's unlikely concept to be consistently funny, absurd and heartwarming. a vehicle for the talents of its star anna faris, whose performance almost defies description and raises a goofy comedy to an an effective journey for her character and creates commentary  about the type of women faris' character is supposed to be. this is the sort of movie that would initially appall feminists but somehow win them over because faris' character is actually a pointed jab at a society that rewards turning people into bimbo clones. there's just something unusually funny about Faris in this, whose talent for physical humor resembles something from a farrelly brothers movie, and her characters massive obliviousness, sexual innuendo and tiny outfit frequently outshines the surrounding that are often merely a mediocre girly college comedy with the usual cliches. extract 6/10 intersting little comedy by mike judge, it'a much smaller in scope than hi previous film, the grandiose and hilarious idiocracy. in extract jason bateman stars as a guy who runs an extract factory whose faith in life is tested by a really awful couple of weeks. Allready sexual frustrated, bateman's nice guy character is convinced by a bartender friend, a refreshingly laid back afleck, to hire a gigolo to seduce his wife so he can have a shot at hot mila kunis whose been flirting with him at the office. what he doesn't know is mila kunis is acompulsive theif and con artist who uses her wiles to get anything she can in life, tricking every man she meets into giving her the shirt off his back. on top of that a handful of other problems occur. This is a comedy of errors, in which bateman's struggle in a seemingly hopeless situation. Kunis' performance is uncomfortably natural at times. Both Kunis' role and that of the gigolo, a handsome young man so dumb he has trouble following simple converstaions, illustrates society rewarding young good looking people and those who shamelessly demand of others; this is also the story of the nice people, often lacking in common sense, who get the wrong end of that stick because of it. the film has an easy pace and is pleasant, a quality which is offset by it's forboding tone and uccasionaly uncomfortable dark humor. This isn't a creative high for Judge, but it's a solid picture that pokes a flashlight around some unusual places in people and the anger that arises out of being surrounded by people dumber than you but who yet are given control of your life just because they demand it. Beth Grant is great as Mary stubborn, deluded, racist mid western, kitten-shirt-wearing house frau who works on the assembly line spreading gossip all day. and there are good performances from everyone, including a nice cameo from Judge in a mustache and doing the hank hill voice. a perfect getaway 7 "screenplay writer" david twohy (you won't get why that joke is funny unless you've see the movie), who wrote the fugitive and pitch black, writes and directs A Perfect Getaway. the story is to 'tourists in peril thrillers' that scream was to slasher movies; which, is a good thing. about two-thirds of the way into the movie there is a breakdown in which the mystery is clarified and tells who did what and fills in missing scenes and from there, instead of a pat ending it becomes and action thriller with the established twist in effect. Why this is neat is that until then Twohy seems to be making an entirely different movie. he sets up an ambigious, but tense situation in lush and beautiful tropical eniviorments and then has omens of violence start to pour in; he gives you enough to guess what's really going on but you have to look for it. it succeeds in drawing the viewer in with a sense that one of the sets of characters are not who they claim to be. paying close attention to what's being said because the actors are playing the scene with great attention to detail and you will be rewarded if you guessed right and then a cool action ending designed to cut the experiment kevin williams-esque genre play and deliver kicks. The actors are all excellent in this movie, playing their characters with sensitivity in the quiet parts and performs ably in action as well. Perfect Getaway is a B movie that contains a lot of indulgantly clever dialogue about screenwriting and screenplay conventions but is overall just a who dunnit that wants to show how the magic trick works. Fast direction, beautiful enviroments and cheap thrills punctuate a clever-in-execution thriller with a problem of patting itself on the back. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
11:48 am	addendum http://www.cracked.com/article/18346_the-6-most-horrific-ways-pop-culture-has-misused-santa-claus/ (Comment on this)
11:23 am	X mas howdy folks, got some weird christmas specials for y'al first- the entire Star Wars "Holiday" Special. Classic 70s weirdness, oh, now it's called life day. Second- A Real Ghostbusters Christmas. a surprisingly funny christmas carol take. how come i never noticed the guy who played bill murray on the show was also garfield's voice. that's a strange garfieldian circle third- A Space Ghost Christmas. w/ hilariously wrong carol lyrics. fourth- Ziggy's gift. a surprisingly heartwarming Ziggy christmas special. with a song by narry nilsson And last- What is perhaps one of the greatest holiday films of our generation, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys. Starring Corey Feldman as Toulon, and featuring the dolls and the toys teaming up for a battle with a satanic santa ( or is it santanic satan?) Current Music: what do you give a wookie? (Comment on this)
Monday, December 14th, 2009
6:57 pm	Where the Wild Things Are 7.5/10 leave it to Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers to make Maurice Sendak's famous kids book into an indie-twee cry fest. Despite the unconventional direction the filmmakers took for the story it works. the story is remade as a parable about the effects and reasons behind anger and temper tantrums wherein little max goes to an island of monsters who are all bitter, angry and unable to control their confusing feelings and they look to Max to give their lives hope and stability. There is some fun to be had in the film, and the indie-rock score, partially made by members of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's is downright effective in evoking a mood of lost childhood. The story is mainly about Max's journey towards understanding empathy and the ways that anger and frustration can divide families and leave a gap of miscommunication, all played out with amusing behavior among the monsters who do little except fight amongst themselves and yet yearn for days when everyone could just be happy together. The tale even ends unconventionally, and yet somehow realistically, offering few real changes in the lives of the monsters but an important one in max who learns real truths about compassion and the behaviors which sometimes winds up hurting those one loves, even when not intending to; that, everyone does it and everyone can be warm and cuddly or scary depending on when you see them and 'how' you see them. overall, a strong work and a good kid's movie if also disappointingly lacking in plot. the narrative chooses instead to just play out the scene to a logical conclusion and let the audience infer the meaning, a quality which will make it en excellent movie for rowdy kids in years to come but might leave some adults wondering what all the fuss was about. i have a whole bunch of other reviews. might post some later. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
4:04 am	christmas present I just uploaded one of the most screwed up Christmas Specials I've ever seen. It's a TV Funhouse christmas in which animals go on a spinal fluid fueled christmas bender unlike any other. http://www.mediafire.com/?ttjmmmjloyk hard to beleive this one got shown on tv (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
5:56 pm	since I'm so anti-god of war, here's what I think are the best games of 2000 era I didn't really think about the order, so... top 20. These are games that show game design and in-game writing really can be an art form. 20. Conker's Bad Fur Day (xbox with beefed-up multiplayer adds replay to hilarity) 19. Jak 2 (ps2) 18. Ratchett and Clank: Up Your Arsenal (ps3) 17. Spider Man 2 (ps2) 16. Okami (ps2) 15. Silent Hill 2 ( I think 3 is a tiny bit better, but the crap your pants, play-it-all-night in the dark award still goes to 2) 14. GTA: San Andreas 13. Street Fighter IV ( best fighter to date? anyone have ideas on this? Otherwise I would have thought Virtua Fighter 4 or Soul Caliber 2) 12. Half Life : Orange Box ( half-life 2 is way overrated but there is much variety here and the physics remain a technical achievement) 11. SSX 3 - (ps2) ( never was snowboarding more fun) 10. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (n64) 9. fallout 3 8. Metroid Prime (GC) 7. Ninja Gaiden (xbox) 6. Katamari Damacy (though, fans should give ribbit king a chance) 5. Timesplitters 2 (xbox and ps2 versions have slight differences because of console strenghs/weaknesses but are both excellent) 4. Halo 2 3. psychonauts 2. resident evil 4 1. metal gear solid 2 (xbox version includes vr missions. also, this is probably one of the best written games I have ever seen, ever) also, some props to: Shadow of the Colossus ( really wanted to put it on the list, but despite style brilliance, there really isn't that much to the gameplay) devil may cry series, midnight club series, mario party series, super mario sunshine, mario 64 may be one of the best games of all time but it's 90s, sorry no RPG's other than fallout, fallout 3 may not be the best rpg of the era, but it's the best one i've played, viewtiful joes, rock bands games ( havent played any personally), batman arkham asylum ( i know it's new but damn), there should also be another racer and maybe a sports game. ok that's enough for now (1 Comment |Comment on this)
1:34 pm	enough talking about god of war games! the story is only moderately inspired in the first game and the second is just a stupid cut-and-paste of greek myth buzz words, the action is just not as "insane" or as deep as Ninja Gaiden, and the impossibly boring and lenghy non-skippable cutscenes every half hour totally kill the replay value and trust me i've tried. here's my impression of me playing it- "this is fun, dum dee dum, oh wait ten minute cut scene, time to get a sandwich ( repeat for six hours and voila)" seriously, there are better action games out there. it's a good game, worth playing but a great game can be replayed ad infinum without stabbing you in the brain with pretensions of movie grandeur. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
2:47 am	wtaching terminator salvation, it's... whatever. i do want to note however, danny elfman does the music and maybe its also robot noises in the mix but he's trying some new sounds. sure they can make digital effects looks good but this is seriously dumb, like, comic book dumb.biiiig surprise, my expectation bar goes up and down so much it's like a manic depressive at a limbo convention. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
1:08 am	Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call: New Orleans 8.5/10 Bad Lieutenant does not really seem very much of a re-make of the 1992 by Abel Ferrara film, which starred Harvey Keitel in a role so unconventional and raw few thought a remake or sequel would have much of a point.The movie, somehow remaining a spiritual brother, written by William Finklestein and directed by renowned epic art filmmaker behind Aguirre, Wrath of God, Fitzcaraldo, and most recently Grizzly Man. Aside from Grizzly Man I hadn't seen anything the director had made in the past twenty years, to think he would try and capture an the American cop genre in a world gone crazy I thought it would have been something like this, but I couldn't have imagined this result. The film is a vivid, heart pounding, iguana hallucinating mess; so mixed up in it's amoral genre smashing juggling act that the very structure itself bends to the main character's world, and it's strangely beautiful. New Orleans is very much a character as well as a setting in the movie. the city is crumbling in the wake of hurricane Katrina, moral ambiguity and decay are running rampant. the city is filled with hookers and pushers, the once lustrous allure of the big easy is now something more akin to the swamp that surrounds it. Meet Nicholas Cage as Officer Terrence Mcdonugh, he hurt his back saving a prisoner from drowning during the flood when he didn't need to; it left him bitter, addicted to vicodin and cocaine and limping like richard the 3rd. His girlfriend is a high-priced hooker, they do cocaine together, simply as if sharing their empty world's alongside each other. sometimes he fleeces her clients for more coke. He gambles, murders, steals, rapes and pretty much abuses his his power in any way he sees fit, occasionally being rewarded for it by the department and rarely even suspected even when everyone in the office can hear his bookie (played by Brad Dourif) trying to shake him down for money he owes him and speeding tickets he said he'd take care of. But, when, investigating the murder of a Senegalese family of five, his true sense of ethics starts to rise to the surface. this sends him on a bizarre justice/drug bender, filled with pitch black comedy, oddly hilarious moments, and strangely moving moments of lucidity. Cage delivers what may be one of the best performances since Leaving Las Vegas, his self-effacing but cruel performance has him teetering so close to the edge that his bug eyed wild stare actually seems like a theme. when the other characters regard him in moments of semi-comic, sociopathic wonder, the occasional hint of fear crosses their faces. this is a man whose been on vicodin, cocaine, grass and sometimes crack for too long, and he's the one with all the power. somehow we find ourselves wacthign his struggle to remember the difference between right and wrong in sympathetic terms, other times with the thrill of watching a particularly vicious villain. the film also mixes some artistic tones. a lot of people seem to thing the visual themes of alligators and iguanas placed int he foreground of a shot. Herzog himself said in Grizzly Man, " when look into the eyes of a bear i see only the total indifference of nature". The comparison to Cage's lieutenant seems natural. the scene in which cage walks into a room where some other cops are havign a stakeout and sees two iguanas on the coffee table is especially classic. he regards them with extreme paranoia and suspicion and finally asks what "what the hell are these iguanas doing on the coffee table," at which point his partner ( val kilmer) says, "no iguanas on the table" Cage looks back at them and for a moment he have a disturbed drug induced, extreme close up iguana singing interlude, after which cage snaps back up and says, "let's get the hell out of here" and they all follow him, leaving the iguanas sitting there. The film is really more of a dark parody of police movies when the biggest criminal in the story is the cop himself. But thanks to some serious film making chops from Herzog and a genuinely unhinged performance by Cage, this is both a brilliant black comedy and a parable about power, drugs, violence and lost innocence. (Comment on this)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
6:37 am	must... destroy... life. - build new. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 20th, 2009
2:35 am	fascinating story of the world's most important six-second drum loop (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
8:18 pm	i hadnt seen it before but i watched the prestige one and a half times today. i was surprised by the conclusion of it, a couple hours later i went back and watched certain parts again. the tesla bit i assumed was a put on the first time but it wasn't and partly because of that i missed the whole other parallel bit with bale. it wasn't just a narrative but in itself a slight of hand impressive alone for a film but also watching it again it revealed a whole level of visual metaphors, especially the birds in cages when you understand it, the repitition becomes more heartbreaking. one of the few modern films i've really liked. i believe it also discusses the change of performance to film and the age of electricty, and the very natures of identity and dualities in a very literate way but without forcing it down your throat. the first time you see a trick you clap and say well done the second time your watching their hands and the other bits so carefully, wanting so hard to catch them at it and usually just missing it, because your eyes always look where someone else wants you to. i also found it fitting an actor like jackman who is so comfortable with the stage to be casting the move from theatre into cinema as a sin. the art of electric reproduciton is cruel and cold, the art of instilling wonder in people is the real virtue. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
5:58 am	Pontypool 7.5/10 At a radio station in the small town of Pontypool, its winter in the still dark hours of the morning. Grant Mazzie, a radio host let go from bigger things, does morning radio and despite his attempts at shock jock humor he's got a professional attitude and a good voice. But, this morning increasingly confused calls come in and soon the station's only reporter seems to witness something like a zombie outbreak. This epidemic though is something different, instead of a bite, this infection is transmitted by words, the English language in particular. At the heart of Pontypool is that nagging feeling a person might get if they became obsessed with repeating a word. Say Pontypool a few times, does the word gain or lose meaning to you? Does the thrill of obsessing over a word ever appeal to you, it's this spastic repetition which, in the movie Pontypool, causes some words in the English language to become infected; the more one repeats and understands them the more one will turn into a zombie so dependent on words they need voices to eat or they will literally expel their own insides. The compelling William s. Burroughs’s word-virus meets 28 days later twist makes for an uneven thriller here, but since Pontypool takes place entirely in a radio station and stars mostly the few people who work there, the disturbing sounds are rich and plentiful viewers get to hear vivid accounts of violence and use their imagination creating fears later confirmed by restrained but effective use of gore FX. Character actor Stephan McHattie, last seen as Hollis Mason in Watchmen, excels at playing both sides of the story both on and off radio and the other actors are fair to good, struggling at times with the admittedly strange material. The film lacks a satisfying climax, instead offering an artsy ending which demands the viewer stay through some credits to even begin to understand. despite the limp ending there is more than enough of genuine weirdness, strange theory and basic zombie violence to recommend the film. The Invention of Lying 7 What is so hysterical about the controversy over this movie is that I think it was written to showcase Gervais' sense of logic in humor. That Gervais is an atheist and a Darwinist must have seeped in somehow because it's a little stunning when the movie starts matter-of-factly saying the man who invented lying would also have invented novels, screenplays, and religion. He is filled with emotion when he tries to make his dying mother feel less afraid by telling her that a man in the sky is going to take her someplace where she’s forever young and everyone she ever loved is there and so on. People at the hospital overhear and it becomes big news, and the question- is it right if I lie to people to make them feel better? Soon, he's Moses with pizza box tablets arguing with idiots about why the man in the sky does good AND bad stuff to you. The religious satire however is closer to being affectionate towards religion than it appears in the initial obviousness. It isn’t followed through, the story was just a lark where Gervais could do his bit about what’s logical and what isn’t. The idea is genius, but the movie is merely an above average comedy built on the foundation of a brilliant idea. Unlike, mike judge's Idiocracy, or similar modern fables, Lying fails to wring jokes out of the material, instead settling for telling a story which sometimes has humor reminiscent of the comics’ stand-up. I think Gervais underestimated how shocked most people would be by the idea, one which is nicely drawn in the beginning but quickly descends into murkiness with many characters using figures of speech which sound curiously like lies, and a corrupt cop who basically admits to being a liar in a scene which is quite funny at the time but illogical. This is Gervais’ OPINION of what a society of brutally frank people would be like, something he says a lot. That he didn't expect people to say people would be like this in a world where you can't lie, he's saying IN HIS OPINION a world like such could have characters in it, it's not meant to be taken seriously as such and we should welcome a little political/religious satire. Still, it’s a humorous and smart movie and you could do a lot worse. Current Music: spaced - season 2 (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
1:09 am	re: me trying not to be a smart ass at the video store some teens asked me to reccommend a horror movie and said they wanted something really scary, so i was trying to help even though they just got retarded straight to dvd ones anyway but one girl wearing a cheerleader sweater said "yeah, last time the guy said this movie was really scary but when we tried to watch it, it was in norweigan!" and i said, " oh, im sorry, you almost had to broaden your horizens there for a minute". their faces fell and i said "just kidding", then mumbling almost audibly "not really." also, ill get this out of the way, the orphan (spoiler alert), when i find people have allready seen it i try hard not to say (as i've said several tiems allready) " man just imagine, if the dad just made out with a midget for half an hour LIVES COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED. think about it" i said it once and i think i offended someone. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 26th, 2009
1:47 pm	Oh, my God, Sunlight ! The entire lemon, nothing i could despise and love so much, being in you for any period of time almost gives me an allergic reaction, and makes me thirtsty. Not only is the sun god, and the entire reason we ever evolved up from little things, that it is as miraculous and mysterious building as us, as god would have been. For me, however, an inclination, a choice which is beautiful only that in i have evolved to ability to choose something which isn't good for me, as brilliant and random and beautiful as life growing on a rock, as a novel, as being able to throw your life on a whim. How much sense does that make right? (Comment on this)
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
6:52 am	Paranormal Activity Review 500 words exactly Paranormal Activity 6.5/10 Handie Cam Horror Goes Ghost Hunting, Finds a Little Gem. This little cheapie, made in 2007, has been making some news for itself as a terrifying successor to The Blair Witch Project mixed with a bit of reality tv ghost-sleuthing, except in here lies is an undeniably a real presence. A young couple name Katie and Micah (which are also the names of the actors playing them) move into a house. The pretty young wife-and-student complains that all her life she has been followed by an unknown presence, one that that breathes on her and whispers her name at night. Micah buys a high resolution camera and decides to record and film their bedroom for a few nights to see if whatever haunting her is real. Turns out, it is and they’re pissing it off. With a shocking ending, this handie-cam-horror shot for only $ 15,000 both benefits and suffers from dialogue written for realism (often redundant and inane, but realistic). It features Katie on camera for roughly 80 percent of the movie and given its limitations requires a pretty high suspension of disbelief to work. Unless the viewer has turned the lights off, turned the sound up and is scanning the background tensely for ghostly evidence; Paranormal Activity is little more than a prolonged episode of reality TV paranoia, confusingly both obviously scripted and padded with more than enough “real” footage of the couple cooing and arguing like the not-very-bright people they play. But, what then is so scary? Was I scared? The answer is yes. But, I had to put some effort into it. In retrospect I really wish the movie had about ten minutes less of suburban nonsense, the camera was left on the counter less or god forbid the characters take it outside, and that there were a few more payoffs. Never have I seen a movie which invites so much tension by not letting you know where you should look and then squanders it with so few actual occurrences. The sound, however, deserves praise. The excellent mixing creates the effect of footsteps and noise at a distance from the camera (i.e. the audience), leading you to feel as if you can hear, but cannot see, someone there. Paranormal Activity is not a Hollywood film masquerading as low budget, it really is a little bit of cheaply produced wish fulfillment - the seemingly real, found evidence of a poltergeist being goaded on by a couple of idiots who insists on filming themselves (a concept the being does or does not seem to get depending on which of the two major endings you see: the subdued and creepy original or the flashier, exorcist-inspired theatrical). It could be scary to the viewer willing to suspend disbelief, or it could just be another couple arguing amongst themselves for 90 minutes with some spooky things thrown in. But, with a little patience, the lights and the phone off, it can be a worthwhile bit of spooky goodness. (Comment on this)