Tonight's the night. SAKE-BOMB the film I DP'd goes live at the The Downtown Independent theater in LA until the 11/14. And this Sunday the film will screen in San Diego at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. I'm sicky-vicky (as Minami likes to say) but I'll try and be there to stir up some trouble.
Friday, November 08, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Pacific Rim
PACIFIC RIM: Got the 3D Bluray but watched it in 2D since I'm the only one that had 3D glasses. I was hoping to like it in a MATRIX way (being blown away visually and conceptually) but I only liked it in an INDEPENDENCE DAY way (visually impressive but conceptually never got deeper than the premise offered up in the trailers).
And I think it didn't appeal to Japanese audiences because the film chose to focus on the "human" story rather than making the robots and monsters the main event. The robots had some distinction but still took a backseat to their pilots and the drift system. The monsters had some physical variations but were basically generic bad guys with no unique motives. In fact the plot was almost exactly INDEPENDENCE DAY which in itself was nothing special other its scale.
Which is all too bad. I would have liked to seen a film where the giant robots and kaiju combatants were distinctly characterized over the self-absorbed soap operas of their pilots (other than Idris Elba - which was just him being him - I thought the acting was abysmal).
PA4
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4: Nothing new here - if anything it's a regression of the series. At least part 3 led to an interesting revelation at the end - part 4 just reiterates the same premise with a different setting. I'm not sure what's so "unrated" about the unrated version.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Just a Note 2 you
PSA: I'm selling my Samsung Galaxy Note 2. We had great times - a majority of my posts and tweets came from this phone. Au revoir mon cheri!
Sunday, September 29, 2013
iOS7 isn't heaven
I have to say, I don't care much for iOS7 (on my iPad). It's glitchy with my existing apps and just feels like a 2nd rate Android experience rather than something unique or different. I sound a little whiny and somewhat of an Android fanboy but I'm always about moving to tech that either does what I want or inspires me to adopt to how it does what I want.
Good Side Effects
For the slow 1st half of SIDE EFFECTS I had to remind myself it was a Soderberg joint so it'll all pay off. And yeah, the 2nd half was so much more enthralling. Not his best but always amazed by his minimalist filmmaking, focusing on performance and plot. But it's so hard to finance these kinds of films these days - I hope Soderberg doesn't quit.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Not Shocked
Execution was bad. AFTERSHOCK just felt off in tone, from the DSLR cinematography to the awkward drama to over-the-top genre mishmash of cliches. And whenever something heavy falls on someone does it always have to fall on their legs, pinning them to the ground? It happens like 5 times to 5 different people!
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Livescribe 3 vs Note 3
My Livescribe Smartpen is of the old tech world and I passed on the Sky Wifi Smartpen because it wasn't so smart in how it implemented wireless connectivity. I had also bought into the Galaxy Note 2 which completely digitized my note taking (though it was more functional as a Smartphone than a Smartpen). Now the 3rd iteration of the Smartpen is on the horizon and I personally look forward to it because it uses Bluetooth to pair with the single most valuable tech I own, my phone. Writing on paper may sound senseless for an aggressively digital person like myself but paper still represents a wider frame for drawing and I have yet to find an app that integrates audio recording and note taking as neat and efficient as Livescribe has done.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Replay Movie Week!
Started my replay movie week with THERE WILL BE BLOOD went right into ZODIAC and topped it with CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER - all held up on 2nd viewing, all are excellent case studies.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Missing Mama
MAMA is a good film that could've been great. It definitely rang in the creep factor but starts to drag when you realize there's not much more to the intriguing premise. It feels like it plateaus midway through and then wants to be more sentimental than horrific. I really wanted to shit my pants with this one - it's not bad, it just missed the mark for me.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
SADAKO 3 strikes out
Ugh, SADAKO 3D was infuriating. Lit like a hooker's bathroom, shot like a community access soap, written like a pop culture guide to haunted tourist attractions - the poor CG integration was enough to raise Harryhausen from the dead. It was so inconsistent across the board - as if this was the RING mythology passed through a classroom of 6 year olds before reaching me. Time to revisit the Verbinski version and the ending of the original Japanese version to sober up.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
ZERO DARK THIRTY
All politics & facts aside I really enjoyed ZERO DARK THIRTY - a thought provoking dramatic build to a popcorn action movie end. From a filmmaking standpoint I think JACK REACHER (though they're different movies) tried to do the same juggling act but failed.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Man From Reno
And now a message in Japanese from the school I teach at... ISMP 12,13,14期生に手伝ってもらった長編映画『Man From Reno - Renoから来た男-』が只今キックスターターキャンペーンやっています！キックスターターは、プロジェクトに対して賛同してくれる人たちから募金をし、そのプロジェクトを支援するというシステムです。今回、Man From Renoでは、ポストプロダクションに必要な予算をキックスターターで集めています。とても精力的に活動していて、主演女優藤谷文子さんとデイブ監督によるライブQ&Aや、締め切りカウントダウンパーティーも行います。今後の映画の製作資金集めなどにとても勉強になるかと思います。是非チェックしてみて下さい！
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daveboyle/man-from-reno
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
BBs5
I didn't even realize I was on the last episode of Breaking Bad s5 on Netflix & it all just ended. I enjoyed season 5 but it kind of came & went without a bang.
Friday, July 26, 2013
VGHS season 2
I found season 1 of VGHS to be a bit clunky but FreddyW and gang have really got things dialed in for season 2. It's everything I hate about Disney Channel TV fodder: flat lighting, flippant dialog, and happy-go-lucky plotting. But man is it entertaining.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Bomb Bay
I can't believe THE BAY is a Barry Levinson film. And yet it does feel like an "old guard" conception of a horror film. Every aspect of the film felt wanting and slow and anticlimactic.
Jet be gone
Ugh, I thought THE EXPENDABLES 2 couldn't possibly be as bad as I've heard but between bad CG/greensceen shots, rom-com cinematography, and misfired oneliners, the worst offense was Jet Li vanishing after the intro scene. Did they even explain why he went AWOL? WTF!
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