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New Year’s Eve

Woke up late after talking long into the night with Scott Marsh about Mag Lev trains. Next, I wandered off to work for several hours as there is a test currently going on that I am monitoring. After finishing up, I made contact with Scott Torborg and Courtney. I dropped off Courtney’s Christmas gift (finally) and ate a little bit at Thai Ginger in Factoria with her group, which included her boyfriend, Ann, and another friend (an attractive vegetarian Indian girl). I guess I have to hang out with Courtney more often, as the food was good and the company too. After this, I returned home, got stuff ready, and then met Torborg at the Marshes, where we ate good food and had good times.

Eventually, Jonathan arrived and we headed to Seattle where we met with Beth and a friend of hers, Shai, Greg, and Katie and Mike. Beth, Shai, Greg and I took off just before midnight to watch the fireworks off of the Space Needle, which was fun. We then stayed up late having a pretty good time. I then returned home to see a new (loaner) TV, so I ha to watch a movie, which ended up being the always enjoying Pirates of the Caribbean. Then it was now. I think instead of sleep I’ll power thorugh today, which includes church (gotta meet Breein’s lucky guy), perhaps Seahawks with Dan, a short stint at work to replace batteries, and the last TRC leadership meeting before the 2006 FIRST Robotics Kickoff Event.

UPDATE: Well, that plan didn’t work.

Zorro, Stealth, Better Off Dead, Aeon Flux… and The Island Too

On the way back from watching Aeon Flux with Dan tonight, I though back on the movies I had recently seen and realized that I hadn’t blogged about any of them… so here’s my attempt to make up for that…

Just before another Dan and I infiltrated (here too) Lincoln Square, we went to see The Legend of Zorro, which I expected to be a formulaic but enjoyable sequel to The Mask of Zorro, a movie that I recall enjoying. Instead, I discovered, to my disappointment, that I had paid to watch formulaic crap (as opposed to a formulaic gem, you see). Understand that I don’t mind formulaity in and of itself. However — perhaps just because I wasn’t in the mood, or perhaps because the movie really did suck — I just found very few redeeming qualities about this one. Its plot didn’t do anything remotely intriguing, and it was pretty long to boot. I can only be entranced by Catherine Zeta-Jones’ breasts for so long; eventually I need plot twist if I am to continue being enthralled. It never came, and I got lost somewhere between the 973rd and 1092nd predictable plot element. Grade: D+ (1.5/5)
The next movie I saw, if I recall correctly (no guarantees at 1:18 am), was Stealth, which I watched with Jon on DVD shortly after Thanksgiving. I expected mindless action that I would soon forget. Instead, I saw familiar plot elements twisted in new and interesting ways. Yes, we started out with the standard human-versus-self-created-machine-that-becomes-superior idea that has been around forever, and yes, I guessed many of the twists before they happened — with one huge and delightful exception. Nevertheless, the fact that the twists were there, even if they were well forshadowed, made this movie a lot better than I expected or could have reasonably hoped. Oh, and Jessicia Biel is hot in a flightsuit (and a swimsuit in the movie as well). Grade: B+ (3.5/5)
Last night (Friday), after the regular Friday lunch with Courtney, I helped set up for the state FLL tournament, and then hung out with Courtney and her new-boy-obsessive (but redeemingly hot) friend Ann. We somehow ended up bringing home John Cusack in Better Off Dead. Apparently one of Courtney’s all-time favorites, I found it strange to be laughing at most of the gag jokes that are now so hackneyed as to be almost useless. While I am no scholar of the ’80s, I think I figured it out: this movie was still funny with these “old” jokes because they weren’t old at the time. They really were funny, and since they were new, it was ok to take that kind of humor seriously. And that made it actually funny as opposed to the reprocessed junk that is so common these days. Nothing to write home about, but probably worth the rent. Grade: B- (2.5/5)
Finally, to tonight. It was time for another mindless action Flic with another hot babe — this time, Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux. And again, I was wrong in one of those respects. It was less mindless that I expected (like the other one could even be questioned). In fact, I found some real depth and importance within the Island-esque underlying world created for the film. Of course, Charlize was hard not to like as well. Grade: B (3.0/5)
Alas, that last paragraph reminds me that I didn’t ever write about the Island, which I saw with Scott and Dan back whenever it was that it came out in theaters. Aside from several glaring plot holes, and a plot that could be understood, more or less, by watching the trailer a few times, it wasn’t too bad. Scarlett Johansson was a nice touch as well. Grade: B (3.0/5)

Updated with numerical grades

Serenity

I finally got around to seeing Serenity last night. I liked it a lot — definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while. I’m glad I saw the series before seeing the film, but I think its a good show even if you haven’t.

Serenity certainly deserves more than it has gotten in the box office, though I’m sure DVD sales will be strong. Certainly I will buy one, and I may even see it again in theaters. Highly Recommended by Checksum Arcanius. Update: 4.0/5

Analysis (Warning: Spoilers Follow)
Read the rest of this entry »

Firefly

Recently, both Dan and Bob insisted that it would behoove me to watch some episodes of Firefly – a one-season Sci-Fi wundershow that got canceled by Fox because no one watched it because no one knew about it. Having seen four episodes with the brothers Moretti on DVD, I think I have to agree with them. The show is (was?) good, on par with the best that Star Trek: The Next Generation had to offer. The stories are well-developed, the shows are fun, the characters are affable, the effects are wonderful, and the universe is believable even though the the idea of a Sci-Fi western “Space Opera” – in the fullest sense of each of those words – seems strange. Truly, Firefly was a masterpiece of television that never saw its potential fulfilled. And if the active fan club (brimming in anticipation of th release imminent release of the motion picture “Serenity,” based on the series) is any indication, Firefly might – just might – have grown to the vast proportions of popularity that Star Trek enjoyed.

SIFF 2005

It has been quite a while since I saw most of the movies, but I thought I should write down what I remember before any more time goes by. This year’s SIFF was somewhat disappointing after several phenominal films I saw at last year’s. I will use a similar format and the same 1-5 scale for this years films, as best as I can remember:

Shake Hands with the Devil – Hallowing Documentary – Canada – 3
Fly Filmmaking – Bad Narratives – US – 1.5
Being Caribou – Political Documentary – Canada – 3
Night of the Living Dorks – Over-the-top Comedy – Germany – 3.5
The Warrior – Hallowing Drama – UK – 4
The Circus – Chaplin Comedy – US – 3

Most notably, there were no fives and only one four. I also learned that six movies is my upper limit – I had eight tickets but didn’t make it to some of the movies, so I won’t plan on making that mistake again.

Primer Part IV

Talking to Angela about the movie Primer recently got me to want to watch it again. I read up a bit on the Primer website, and discovered a few things to watch out for when I watched it again. I also learned that as Dan thought, the movie title was originally supposed to be pronounced like I would expect “primmer” to be pronouced, where it has the meaning of an introuctory textbook. However, after the movie was released, many people (such as myself) called it Primer, like the first coat of paint, and both pronounciations now seem to be used.

So I watched it tonight with my brother, who is visiting from Utah to prepare his leftover things here before he gets married (congratlations!). Since I also read a lot about the different theories of what parts of the movie mean, I think that I understand even more of the movie now – although, I want to watch it again, again…

Fly Filmmaking

Today, I went to see the Fly Filmmaking Festival, an annual staple of the Seattle International Film Festival where directors are given ten days along with a set of other restrictions (such as just 5 hours of tape) to make a ten minute film. In years past, this apparently has been devoted to documentaries on subjects drawn out of a hat. This year, it fetured narative films with open subjects, but with requirements including a location, an actress, a prop, and an action that had to appear in the film. The first film, about a girl who can’t drive, called Driver’s Ed, I enjoyed. It was mindless, but fun, and used the ten minutes well enough. Nothing to rave about, though. The second film was called …Loving Martha, about a man disenchanted with his life as an office worker who falls in love with a copy machine. It was an interesting idea, but not as well executed as the first film. The third film was a disgrace. Called “Circus of Infinity,” its attempt at creating art fell flat and fell hard. It was a real shame they chose to end with such a terrible film. But yes, it got worse. Afterwards, the directors came up, as did several “on the fly” critics. Well, there was no critiquing going on, just adolation. Since about half the audience were somehow involved in the making of the movies, I suppose it was the only PC thing to do at the time. Still, this is definitely a SIFF production I’ll be happy to miss in the future.