February 2006 Archives (18 posts)
Knife in the Water (1962)
Knife in the Water (1962) Roman Polanski’s first feature film—a psychological thriller. It’s considered one of his best films and I’d have to agree.
A Polish couple picks up a student hitchhiker and invites him to go sailing with them for the weekend on their yacht. Most of the film takes place on this yacht and the follows the three characters over a 24 hour period.
The camera work is beautifully done in black and white (1:33:1 aspect ratio). The jazz score gives it a real 60s feel that I really liked.
The actress in the film had the perfect look of the character but she wasn’t a trained actor. To get her to jump and look surprised in one scene, Polanksi had an assistant fire a flare gun behind her and just off camera.
The extras on this Criterion Collection disc are worth watching if you enjoyed this film. Polanski explains how he likes a steady camera shot which was a real challenge during the filming of Knife if the Water (shot mostly on the water). Apparently Polanski can’t stand the Dogma film movement and had this to say about it:
I’m allergic to Dogma, all that shaky camera nonsense. It looks like the cameraman has Parkinson’s Disease, or maybe while filming he’s masturbating.
Roman knows what he likes!
Posted in DVD Reviews at 5:13 PM | Comments (0)
Time of the Wolf (2003)
Another Michael Haneke film—Time of the Wolf (2003). This film the one Haneke made before Caché and it didn’t interest me in the least.
It starts of in the same way that Funny Games does. A French family goes to vacation at their cottage when they discover that they have some unwanted guests. Someone is murdered and chaos takes over for the rest of the film.
We follow this family for the rest of the film as they try to get to the south of France. Why? There has been terrorist act, or maybe or war has started or maybe the world is ending. We never find out. There is a gruesome scene involving the killing of a horse (the death of an animal seems to be a prerequisite for a Haneke film).
I found this one a struggle to watch because I didn’t care about the characters or the story.
Posted in DVD Reviews at 4:46 PM | Comments (0)
Funny Games (1997)
Austrian director, Michael Haneke scares me.
After watching Caché (2005) I wanted to see some of his other films. Funny Games (1997) seemed like a good place to start.
How is this for a Haneke plot? A family goes to their cottage for a summer vacation. Two young guys dressed in white, wearing white gloves show up and want to borrow some eggs. Instead of leaving, they take the family hostage and play an number of not so funny games with the family.
It is similar to Caché in that you begin to understand what is happening as the characters in the film do. Even then, a lot of the story is unexplained. Other similarities? An animal is killed, a family is terrorized for no apparent reason, one of the lead characters dies a horrific death.
By the end of this film you’ll be totally creeped out. Guaranteed.
Posted in DVD Reviews at 4:32 PM | Comments (0)
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
I’m not a huge fan of martial arts movies but and didn’t know what to expect from Kung Fu Hustle (2004). My friend Dave, insisted that this was a Jay movie and that I would love it. He was right on the money.
Kung Fu Hustle is unlike anything I’ve seen before. It’s an action-comedy kung fu movie, written and directed by Stephen Chow. It takes place in the 1940s and everything that happens is completely unpredictable.
There is plenty of Matrix-like action. You’ll marvel at all the special effects and wonder what all the fuss was about in the Matrix Reloaded. At times you’ll think you’re watching The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). You’ll probably laugh out loud when the bad guys start dancing like they’re in a dance video.
This is bizarre stuff but it is brilliantly done and very entertaining. Kung Fu Hustle 2 (2006) is due out this year. Just what we need, another sequel.
Posted in DVD Reviews at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)
Daniel’s Doodles
My son Daniel likes to draw doodles so I created a doodle blog where he can publish his work. Take a look at Daniel’s Doodles. I helped him with the coding and he did the interface.
Instead of filing his work into a drawer somewhere I thought I would archive it on a website. One day he can look back and amuse himself. I just hope he doesn’t turn into another Robert Crumb.
Posted in Web at 4:44 PM | Comments (2)
Caché (2005)
I’ve been on a French film binge lately and last night I went to see Caché (2005), directed and written by Michael Haneke. Wow! You can call it a thriller but it’s really an esoteric art film. Some might call it a confusing waste of time.
I enjoyed the film because it doesn’t have a strong resolution. It stays with you long after the end credits roll and forces you to really think about what you saw and draw your own conclusions.
The film starts off with a family in Paris townhouse. They receive a series of videotapes that shows them under surveillance. Child-like drawings accompany some of the tapes which convey some sort of hidden meaning. Why is the family being terrorized with these tapes? Who is sending them? What is the point of it all?
It’s easier to dismiss the film as a jumbled mess of unanswered questions. As an audience we’re used to having everything neatly packaged and explained to us by the time the credits roll. I think everything is neatly packaged and crafted by Haneke. It just isn’t watered down and explicit in it’s narrative.
The more I thought about this film, the more I understood. At first, several scenes in the film seem to be insignificant. Question why these scenes are there in the first place and you get a sense of their purpose and what they reveal about certain characters.
There is one scene that made the entire audience gasp and physically recoil in horror. I’m not exaggerating at all when I say this. I can’t think of another film that comes close to shocking an audience like this.
If you’ve seen the film and are curious as to what may have happened then I suggest you head over to notcoming.com and read an excellent essay written by Chiranjit Goswami.
Posted in Movie Reviews at 11:51 AM | Comments (3)
Don’t be surprised if Apple saves the day for Blockbuster Video
Robert Cringely wrote an interesting article last week about Apple and Blockbuster. Will Apple’s video iPods put Blockbuster back into the black? Read on.
Posted in Apple at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
June 6, 2006
Wow! The studio heads at Twentieth Century Fox really out-did themselves this time. They’ve come up with 6.6.06 as the perfect date to release a movie about Satan. Brilliant! Clever! So original that it warrants a remake of The Omen (1976).
Sadly, the release of this film is more evidence that Hollywood is running out of ideas for original content. If you still don’t believe me then look at a few remakes scheduled for release this year.
Revenge of the Nerds
Adventures in Babysitting
The 39 Steps
Black Christmas
Tron
Porky’s
The Lavender Hill Mob
All Of Me
The Hills Have Eyes
All the King’s Men
Sisters
The Secret Life of Walter Mitt
Vanishing Point
The Fly
Poseidon
The Evil Dead
The Hitcher
War of the Roses
The Omen
Robert Towne should be embarrassed for going ahead with his remake of The 39 Steps. Why remake a film that will fail to live up to the original? When has a remake of any decent film been better than the original?
Upcoming sequels:
Basic Instinct 2
Mission: Impossible III
Final Destination 3
Clerks II
Superman Returns
Behind the Mask: Young Hannibal
Posted in Movies at 11:17 AM | Comments (1)
CNN Redesign
I love the redesign of the infographics for CNN International news. A firm called KEMISTRY in the UK did the work. The clean, simple, uncluttered graphics are a nice change from the distracting graphics that have become common on news channels.
You can see samples of the new design on the KEMISTRY homepage or just watch CNN International.
Posted in Design at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
Four things
I’ve been tagged by James.
Four jobs I’ve had:
- Digging graves (Town of Vaughan—Parks and Rec)
- Data entry (J.J. Barnicke Limited)
- New media designer (ICE)
- Food prep (Trattoria Orsini)
Four movies I can watch over and over:
Four places I’ve lived:
- North York, Ontario (Jane & Finch area)
- Maple, Ontario
- Thornhill, Ontario
- Toronto, Ontario (present)
Four TV shows I love:
- The Sopranos
- 60 Minutes
- The West Wing
- Nigella Bites
Four places I’ve vacationed:
- Paris
- Scotland
- Jamaica
- New Orleans
Four of my favourite dishes:
- Apple Crisp
- Shrimp Linguine
- Beef Bourguignon
- Fruit Loops
Four sites I visit daily:
Four places I would rather be right now:
- Vancouver
- Paris
- A movie theatre
- Taking photos in Rome
Four bloggers I’m tagging:
Posted in Personal at 3:04 PM | Comments (0)
New DVD Releases
There are some recent and upcoming DVDs that I’m looking forward to viewing in the next little while.
I have never seen Delicatessen (1991), a French film from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, A Very Long Engagement). Several people have told me over the years that this is one of those films you have to see. It gets released on May 2.
The Boondock Saints (1999) is a film I watched recently. Unfortunately it was a 4:3, Letter Box version—almost unheard of these days. The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2000) is another disc that is guilty of the same sin. The Boondock Saints: Unrated Special Edition will be released on May 23. I’m looking forward to a proper anamorphic widescreen transfer and some 5.1 Dolby Digita. An audio commentary with writer/director Troy Duffy and actor Billy Connolly should be pretty interesting as well.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) just came out in a two-disc special edition. This is the third time that this film has been released on DVD. The first DVD was a Criterion Collection edition that has been out of print for some time now. I saw the second release, a bare bones MGM disc. Walter Murch is the editor on this film and is featured on a new commentary with writer/director Philip Kaufman.
Posted in Movies at 11:09 AM | Comments (1)
Vancouver in February
I’m off to Vancouver for the rest of the week to visit some friends and relax. I plan to watch a lot of movies, drink a lot of coffee, and take a lot of pictures. On Sunday night I’ll squeeze in a hockey game at GM Place before I take the red-eye flight back to Toronto.
At some point over the next four days I really hope to understand why my friend Andy has taken to wearing Yoga pants. He says they’re incredibly comfortable. I think there is something wrong with him.
Posted in Travel at 9:30 PM | Comments (1)
Time for watermarks
Occasionally I check my site statistics to see how much traffic I’m getting, how people are linking to my sites, etc. I noticed that BOMBIPPY PHOTOS was getting a lot of traffic from nexopia.com and xanga.com.
Several users at nexopia (teenagers) were hijacking my photos. Users like science*time, afrodeeziak, dodad15, and hollisinheaven liked my images so much they put them on their sites without asking me. I suppose I should be flattered but I’m not.
I changed the .htaccess file on all of my sites to prevent outside linking of images and bandwidth theft. I’m also going to make it a habit of watermarking all of my images with BOMBIPPY PHOTOS. I’ve been avoiding this because I felt the images look better without it. Now, it looks like this will be a necessary part of my workflow when posting new photos.
Posted in Photography at 12:37 PM | Comments (2)
Super Bowl XL Commercials
Google Video has the Super Bowl XL Commercials from last night. No need to pay adcritic.com to view these television commercials. Google has them for free!
Posted in Humour at 3:50 PM | Comments (0)
JAK MEDIA projects
I finally updated the JAK MEDIA website to include some of the recent projects that have been completed.
We did a complete rebranding for Venchiarutti Gagliardi Architect Inc. (VGA)—new logo, new cards, new letterhead, new website. Back in the fall we redesigned a website for MotivatedMinds. A few weeks ago we completed an online course registration for another client, Bay3000.
For more details and to see some of this work, visit JAK MEDIA.
Posted in JAK MEDIA at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
2005 Film Critic Top Ten Lists
Take a look at the 2005 Critics’ Picks compiled by Metacritic. The Squid and the Whale and A History Of Violence are big favourites that were overlooked by Oscar.
Posted in Movies at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)
Brokeback to the Future
More movie trailer remix fun. Have a look at Brokeback to the Future.
Posted in Movies at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)
Grumblings about Zip.ca
A week ago Zip.ca announced a major change to its membership plans. The announcement was, “the honeymoon is over.” No more “unlimited” DVD rentals or you’ll be penalized.
A lot of people I talked to said they were going to cancel their memberships. I wasn’t happy about the announcement either. I felt like Rogers had something to do with this catastrophe (Zip.ca now powers Rogers’ online DVD rentals).
Should I be mad? Should I cancel my membership? Hold on a second! Let’s take a look at this and see how it will affect most of us.
If you’re on a 4-DVD Plan like me, this meant that you could have 4 DVDs out at a time. If you watched them all in one day, you could return them in the mail and get another 4 DVDs in a few days. Sounds great! I could watch 20 DVDs in a month and only pay $1.43 per DVD rental!
Here is how my plan works now (as indicated in the email I received from Zip.ca):
4-DVD Plan: Free shipping on your first 11 DVDs per month*, with a shipping+handling surcharge of $2.49 applied to the 12th and subsequent rentals.
At first glance this looks bad. $2.49 for a rental! What the hell is Zip trying to pull here?! But wait, let’s take a second look at this.
- Blockbuster charges $5.19 per rental
- In December I rented 10 DVDs from Zip
- The most DVDs I’ve ever rented in one month from Zip is 13
If you’re actually watching the DVDs you rent from Zip then it is still a fabulous deal (even with the new surcharges). If you’re stealing hoarding copying all the DVDs you rent from Zip and not watching them then you might feel like you’re getting ripped off.
If you’re watching more than 11 DVDs per month then you must be unemployed, or you aren’t married, or you have a terrible social life. You really need to get out more.
I love watching movies but I find it hard to watch more than 11 in one month. I barely watch TV which means I should have even more time for movies but I don’t.
If you’re still not convinced that Zip is still a good deal then you can always go to Blockbuster or Rogers. There is probably one around the corner from you. Their selection isn’t as good and it costs more money to rent their DVDs.
Posted in Movies at 5:55 PM | Comments (2)
