Monkeys Aren't Funny

Recently

2011-04-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hey. It's been a few months. What's new?

First off, we've already had two weekends full of performances of The Odd Couple at Biola's Theater 21. It's been going really well. We've had a few flubs, a few missed lines, a few technical errors, a few mis-heard lines, but overall it's been really fun, and I've felt good about it. Here's the Chimes review (the actual article in the paper featured some great full-color pictures of all of us on-set).

The best accident so far happened the first Friday night with a sold-out crowd (featuring some high-up admin types from Biola!). Randall's character, Murray, is encouraging the newly single Felix to go out and enjoy the benefits of bachelorhood. One of his lines is, "If you want to go out to the Playboy club and hunt bunnies, what's stopping you?" Unfortunately, that night the entire audience heard "hump bunnies"; Forrest and Tracy said they could tell the audience sucked in their breath in horror. The good news is, we didn't lose them completely, and got good laughs for the rest of the show.

Another night, when our poker group was rushing back to their seats after hearing Felix coming out of the bathroom, someone accidentally knocked over a "beer" on the table. Jonathan (as Roy), without missing a beat, immediately started sucking the beer out of the felt tablecloth. It destroyed the audience.

We've got one weekend left of performances: tonight, Friday, and Saturday. As always, it will be both good and sad to be done with it. There were times during the early rehearsal period where I wasn't feeling it and wasn't having a good time, but as we got closer and closer to the actual shows everything started clicking and it got really good, and now every night is a blast. But it will be nice to have my evenings back.

In other news, I've been playing softball for the Pirate Monkeys again. As has happened our last couple of years, we're starved for players again most mornings, and have had to forfeit over half our games. There's also a shortage of teams in the "A" league this year: three total. So we're playing the same two teams over and over again. The Dark Knights (Talbot guys and gals) are their usual selves, and we're usually competitive with them. The other team is stacked with 14 players, many of which are former baseball players and have arms as big as my thighs. One guy in particular hit at least three home-runs into the trees closest to the library on McNally field. He would have hit the library if the trees hadn't been there. It's a bit ridiculous. It used to be a rarity to have balls hit over the fence. Now it's rare when they stay on the field.

I've been playing OK. My pitching is adequate, and my hitting is getting better. Last Saturday I had several good hits, and several more pop-ups and doinkers. I also got nailed on the other side of my right shin again by a grounder while pitching, having received a matching blow a few weeks earlier. Also, during one of our games against the Dark Knights I was scrambling to 2nd base to tag a runner out, but kept fumbling with the ball on the ground. By the time I got it, I was right in the runner's path and she cleaned my clock. I took what I think was her thigh right in the face. It hit my sunglasses into my nose and gave me a good cut which I didn't discover until after the game. I took off my sunglasses and there was a ton of blood all down the side of my nose which had been hidden by my frames.

What else, what else...

Well, despite the lack of reviews, I've been watching a lot of movies through Netflix lately. I need to do a big round up again. I've seen several really good ones, too. Not much in the theaters, though.

Predators (2010)

2011-02-28T17:22:00.000-08:00

Predators started out holding my interest, with our main character coming-to in free-fall over a jungle. His parachute deploys and he lands with a weapon ready. He shortly meets up with several other characters who have fallen from the sky as well. Some of their dialogue is a little stupid, but otherwise I was "in" for the first 20 minutes or so. Unfortunately, from there it starts going downhill.

The main problem with the movie is that it doesn't do what a sequel should. Take Alien and Aliens, for example. In Alien, we'd never seen the creature before, had no idea of what it was capable of, didn't know all it's mysteries and tricks. By the end of the movie we've learned quite a bit. When Aliens begins, it doesn't ignore this knowledge to have a whole new group of people make these discoveries all over again, it builds on past knowledge, ups the ante, and still has new reveals, moments, and aspects to the characters that make the movie engaging and tense. While we knew what a face-hugger did from Alien, we'd never imagined being pursued around a room by one, and so that scene in Aliens is genuinely terrifying and novel. We also had never seen a queen, so that reveal was a huge moment. And we'd never faced multiple aliens, so that raised the stakes (while balancing them with a well-armed military force on the opposite side).

In Predator, you've got one predator and his capabilities and true nature are slowly but steadily revealed throughout the entire movie, and it's all new and scary. Predators stumbles by not creating a new encounter while building off of the audience's already-obtained knowledge of the predators. In this way, Predator 2 was a superior sequel because you had the government agency who knew about their abilities from the first film, even though overall it's not a great movie. In Predators, we're learning again, along with the characters, what these things are, what they can do, and why they do it, but we're bored because we already know all of this. These revelations are huge for the characters but boring for us. It's not fun to be so far ahead of the characters' knowledge when the mystery is supposed to be interesting. In Predator we're talking the journey with Arnold and crew, learning as he learns. From the first frame of Predators we already know that each character has been dropped into a giant "game preserve" by the predators to be hunted. FRAME ONE! And instead of really upping the pressure, the addition of more predators doesn't seem to add an iota of tension or danger. In fact, when they kill off two of them so they can have the final showdown it lessens the danger because we see that they're vulnerable and kill-able. Your monster should always seem invincible or overwhelming (Alien, Aliens, Predator). If the real soldiers of Predator died to the last man fighting ONE, showing a bunch of losers taking down THREE just makes me think these aren't the same species.

I was willing to go along with the movie if it did something interesting and new, but it was mostly just a retread of moments from the first movie. We've got a large, well-armed team, in a jungle, some internal tension and in-fighting, and then one-by-one they're picked off by an unseen enemy. We've got the "Billy on the bridge" moment in the yakuza character, a trip over a waterfall and into a lake, a mud-covered protagonist (which even directly references the first film in dialogue), an "over here" moment, a character staring at the trees where a predator is hiding while cloaked. The survivors are once again the main character and a South American woman. Even the music is lifted directly from the original film.

And yet, for a film that has no shame about duplicating moments, it lacks a single memorable line. The first movie had quite a few memorable bits of dialogue and one-liners. Predators features, at best, passable dialogue, and at worst laughable lines delivered all-too-seriously.

I don't know why someone thought Adrien Brody would make a good macho hero, but he doesn't add much and his character is beyond bland. I like Brody in many other movies, too. He uses a Christian-Bale-as-Batman voice the entire time, and little allusions are made about his dark past which nobody in the audience cares about and don't make him more interesting.

Larry Fishburne's character is almost interesting, but we get so little time with him that we don't care about him either.

The worst character might be Topher Grace's, because his little twisty "man is the real monster IS YOUR MIND BLOWN YET???" bit is just frustrating and stupid rather than shocking and entertaining. I think there's even a horrible line that's exactly that: "You're worse than these monsters!" DUMB. STALE. SEEN IT. NOT EARNED.

Once again, Predator stands alone as the only good movie, even though we've seen two direct sequels and two lousy Aliens vs. Predator movies. I think there is more mileage to be had out of the character, but it's going to take a good script and a director who knows how to find it.

Cowboy Shooting - Round 2

2011-02-28T16:44:00.000-08:00

Remember last summer when I tried Cowboy Action Shooting for the first time? I finally took the time out to go again yesterday. And this time I took decent video.

I invited a bunch of friends to go, but most couldn't, so our group was five including me: Will (from Biola and Chestertonians), Randy (from Biola), Bob (family friend), and my brother Ben.

The class size for the New Shooters Clinic was much smaller than last time, which was nice because we all got to shoot more quickly, and we each got to shoot two timed matches. Helping us out from The Cowboys was Little Sure Shot, her husband Wells Fargo, and Washoe Pete (who helped last time, too). Adam Cartwright couldn't be there and B.T. Blade was competing this time. Once again The Cowboys were gracious, generous, friendly and helpful. They could have cut down on the technical details a bit for the class, because while I was interested I don't think everyone else was.

The gun variety was more limited this time. The only pistols were Ruger Vaqueros and one Ruger Blackhawk, and they were all the same barrel size and caliber (.38). The rifles were several Marlins, a Winchester 1892 replica (the classic Winchester in every Western in the 50s, no matter what the time period), and a Winchester 1873 replica. The '73 was my favorite, but unfortunately it was having problems so we didn't get to shoot it. The shotguns provided were two double-barrels, one with external hammers and one without, and two original Winchester 1897s (pump action -- as featured in No Country For Old Men, The Wild Bunch, and The Professionals).

Here are some videos of us doing our timed runs:

It was very fun and now I'm definitely committed to participating in this sport. I'm saving up for one of these at the moment:

True Grit omission

2011-02-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! (Crickets.)

Yes, several months since posting. Pretty bad. But I've been awfully busy, too. Perhaps I will share some of the exciting things later. And a lot of movie reviews.

But for now, True Grit (2010). Saw it, liked it very much, need to see again. I didn't come out of the theater whooping for joy, but I did enjoy it. (I hope to post a review, comparing it with the book and the 1969 movie later.) Also, I got a Kindle. And on this Kindle they finally released True Grit. (But it is $13 for the Kindle, whereas the paperback is $8, and this seems like a lot of road apples, if you ask me.) I was re-reading a passage this morning and found an interesting bit that was omitted from the movie.

If you'll recall the hanging scene at the beginning of the movie, there are three men sentenced to die. The first two make little speeches, and the third, an Indian, has the hood placed over his head before he can say anything. It's a Coen bit of black comedy that gets a good chuckle out of the audience.

In the book, however, the Indian speaks second in line (narrated by Mattie Ross):

The Indian was next and he said, "I am ready. I have repented my sins and soon I will be in heaven with Christ my savior. Now I must die like a man." If you are like me you probably think of Indians as heathens. But I will ask you to recall the thief on the cross. He was never baptised and never even heard of a catechism and yet Christ himself promised him a place in heaven.

I'll have to see the movie again, because I think it includes other bits from Mattie about Christianity (the book is full of asides like this), but it was curious to me that the Coens snipped that bit of dialogue completely. I thought the joke they put in its place was funny, but I wonder if having a condemned character speak about repentance and Christ (especially an Indian, whom a modern audience will assume had his Christianity forced upon him by hateful whites!) was just too unnerving for them to keep in.

Four Westerns

2010-11-20T14:08:00.000-08:00

There are some weird Westerns that have been (or are soon to be) released lately. And most of them are not "American" Westerns. I'll go chronologically.

First up is The Good The Bad The Weird, a Korean "Kimchi" Western (as opposed to an Italian "Spaghetti" Western) that came out in 2008, but was just released here this year.

This one just came up on Netflix Instant, though I've been trying to rent the Blu-Ray from Netflix for months now. (They weren't kidding about "Very Long Wait." Buy more than 1, would you guys?) I loved it! While it borrows a few elements from its namesake inspiration, such as three characters vying for the same buried treasure, the execution is entirely its own. Kang-ho Song, who plays The Weird, is a very gifted comedic actor, and is really the only one of the three main characters worth watching. The Good and The Bad are fine, but would be boring if they didn't have The Weird on-screen with them. Fortunately, The Weird is the main character, and the entire movie is focused on everyone else hunting him down to retrieve the treasure map.

The action is really well-staged and inventive. I laughed or exclaimed out loud many many times while watching by myself, and it takes something really special to do that. The fights usually involve tons of different characters and range all over the stage. There is very little CG work involved as well, which really heightens the intensity and excitement for each battle. The sound design, too, is unique; the gun-shots sound natural and appropriate. A nice change of pace from the usual Hollywood stock effects.

While the story is nothing special, it's absolutely worth watching for the comedy and action.

***

The next movie is a Canadian production that came out this year called Gunless. The trailer sold me immediately, but unfortunately this thing is still only available in Canada, and importing the DVD or Blu-Ray costs about $40 USD. Guess I'll have to be patient. But enjoy this trailer:

Looks fantastic. Good job, Canadians! Bring your movie stateside!

***

The last one is The Warrior's Way, and it looks like absolute garbage. Whatever The Good The Bad The Weird and Gunless did well, this looks to replicate poorly. Action? CGed out. Comedy? I guess Kate Bosworth's accent is laughably bad. Ninjas versus cowboys SOUNDS like it could be good campy fun, the the trailer does so little for me I doubt I'll even rent it (and considering I'm going to rent Jonah Hex, that's saying something).

***

Finally, a truly American production (starring a Brit): Cowboys & Aliens. Dumb title, but I'll be gosh-danged if the trailer doesn't look good.

Looks like Harrison Ford might have his first watchable role in years!

Recent sports - lacrosse and flag football

2010-10-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this down for posterity because I have a terrible memory when it comes to sports.

A couple weeks ago a bunch of us alumni lacrosse guys got together in Orange County and played in a little lacrosse tournament. It was 7 on 7, and we were supposed to play 4 games, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. I guess not enough teams signed up, because we only ended up scheduled for 2 on Saturday. The games were only 20 minutes long, running clock, on a much shorter field. It was nice and hot out. My brother Ben played (Josh was in a surf contest), friend Sean and his brother Kevin played (Buck was there as "coach"), and Tanner, Beef, Bonilla, Tim, Whitey, Joe Lee, and Acker. The first team we played was high schoolers, so we were nearly twice their age. That doesn't necessarily put us at an advantage; there are a lot of really good high school teams in the OC (don't call it that). But we beat these guys 4 zip, I think. I scored one goal, but it was a pretty crappy little goal. No hard zinger, just a light little close up toss. Felt good to score, but I don't know if I've ever had a good rip.

The second game was against an alumni team, but these were high school alumni, so we were still 10 years older than all these guys. We apparently tied 2-2 (but I still think it was 3-2). No goals for me that game. After that game, some of the guys from that team invited us to play with them a little later, so Tanner, Ben and I stuck around. We played one of the really good high school teams that time, and got beat 4-7. Ben scored a great goal that game. I scored none, and got beat three times on defense, so technically we lost because of me. But it was still fun. Alumni game coming up at Biola in a few weeks!

***

I'm playing intramural flag football at Biola right now, on a team called "Might Men of Valor." It's an old team, made up of old guys (and a few young ones), and they're all great dudes. I knew a few of them from before, but most are new to me, and it's a pleasure to play with them. Solid athletes and competitors, but really generous and helpful with a complete football idiot like me.

We just had our fifth game of the season, and were 2-2 before tonight's game. We're a good team, but we played two really tough teams in our last two, so we were really hoping for a win tonight. I'm playing defensive end, mostly, which means my job is simple: rush in and try and sack the quarterback. That's a position I'm mentally capable of handling, even though there is strategy and technique to it. I've had a couple sacks so far this year, but I'm just a middle of the road player. I always go into games hoping I don't pull a major screw-up (and I've had a few -- fortunately, none that cost us the game, but I've done some bonehead stuff out of ignorance of certain calls and plays). I'm a bit of a pessimist when it comes to my own athletic performance.

So tonight I was in at defensive end again, and in the first half, on the third down, I got inside and sacked the QB! Then the very next play, the other defensive end, Levi, sacked the QB. That felt awesome. My aspirations at that point were for no screw-ups and maybe another sack.

We were up 12-8 in the second half, and the other team had had a good march down the field. They didn't have very far to go for a touchdown. The play started, I was rushing on the left side, my offensive lineman was doing fine at keeping me out. Then a low pass went out to the left of me, and Mac, a linebacker and one of our defensive strategists, blocked the ball! It popped up right in front of me, and I decided to grab it. I'm so glad I didn't just stop there, because for a split second I wasn't sure if the ball was dead or not. I'm just not a fast thinker in the middle of a play. I was just catching the ball because it was there. Fortunately, as it dropped into my hands, I had the tiniest voice in my head (followed by loud voices of my teammates) that said "Go you idiot!" (My teammates did not include the 'idiot' part.) So I started running! At first to the left side, but I was already close to the sidelines and there was an opponent that way, so I dodged and shifted right. There were a few more guys that I got through. Behind me and to the side my guys were throwing blocks and yelling encouragement. I couldn't see what they did, but the only opponent that I ran into was this giant of a man (who apparently was practicing with the 49ers recently! No joke!), and he was the last guy to get through before the end zone. My legs were already feeling like lead, even though I hadn't run very far at all, and the big dude got a hand on my shirt, which jerked me quite a bit. Fortunately, I either pulled free or one of my guys hit him, because I heard a "rip!" and was free and tried to just stay on my feet to the end zone. Teammate Lance was behind me the whole way, shouting "Go go go!" My legs felt like rubber, like they were going to fall out from underneath me, but I made it! Touch down! My teammates then swarmed me and I could barely eek out a smile I was so exhausted. I don't know why that tired me out so much, but I was light-headed for a few minutes after that. I also noticed a big tear in my shirt where the big guy had grabbed me. Boy I'm lucky the shirt gave.

We went on to win the game, but it was close. For the rest of the game I thought, don't choke don't choke don't choke don't be the goat and, fortunately, it didn't happen. So that will probably go down as the greatest play I will ever make in my football career, and it was just luck and the support of my team. And I had to write it down or lose it forever. I'd remember the end result on my own, but not the details, and I like remembering the details.

That Thomas Kinkade movie...

2010-10-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

Jeri and Jon: remember, years ago in the movies folder on bubbs, discussing Peter O'Toole being in a Thomas Kinkade movie? Well it exists. It is real. It is out on Blu-Ray. And the craziest thing is, the review actually kind of sells it. It still says it's full of sentimental syrup, but it also says it's got some genuinely good moments, in both writing and performance.

Read the full review here.

Last of the Mohicans (1992)

2010-10-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

The last time I saw this one must have either been on a tiny TV or on VHS (or both). At the time it didn't do much for me at all. I didn't care about the love story, and the action didn't grab me either. Last night Amy and I revisited the movie on Blu-Ray and a 40" hi-def TV, and it's remarkable what a difference that makes.

Last of the Mohicans was directed by Michael Mann, who knows how to make a good movie and frame an interesting action scene. I like Heat and Collateral all around; Miami Vice sucked so hard the back of its head caved in, and Public Enemies was a big disappointment, though they both have great action scenes. Mann makes great use of location shooting, and I love him for it. In fact, now that I think of it, his locations and photography pull a lot of weight in the effectiveness of each of his films. In stark contrast to the urban jungle of LA, Mohicans opens with some beautiful mountain-top views of the dense forests of North Carolina. It then cuts to the dense and lush forest floor, as three characters charge through on a hunt. As the movie continues we are treated again and again to beautiful unique real locations. The fort is the only rather visually boring location; it's ugly and full of the "blossoming romance" scenes which still don't really grab me (though a generation of women from 1992 would like to fight me here, I'm sure). But once the story gets back to the forest we're subjected to more natural beauty.

Then there's the action. It's hard to make musket fights exciting, because "aim, fire, reload for 60 seconds" doesn't make for thrilling cinema. Fortunately, the Indians all fight with clubs, knifes, and tomahawks in addition to muskets, and Mann's people choreographed some pretty cool fights that I'm going to revisit as I draw my book. Mann also adds a unique sense of horror to these fights. It's not just a choreographed "hack-block-hack," they usually open in a startling way. The earlier battle when Magua betrays the party he's leading by calmly walking to the back of the column and clubbing a guy over the head is still a shocking moment. Later, the entourage from the fort is making their way through a narrow valley and a Huron warrior suddenly bursts from the woods and performs a similar execution, and it's equally terrifying. During the ensuing fight there's a first person shot of Hawkeye braining a Huron who was threatening his girlfriend. The set-up shot shows the Huron reaching the woman, the next shows Hawkeye seeing this from a short ways away, cut to Huron preparing to execute woman but turning towards the camera, cut to HAWKEYE CLUBBING THE CAMERA IN THE LENS. Great stuff.

When I watched it for the first time I was warned that it had some gruesome moments. I'd forgotten all about that warning until we were in the middle of the movie last night, and marveled that the 18 years that have passed haven't really dulled the brutality at all. It was especially noticeable because my general perception was that the movie was a love story that chicks went ga-ga over. There are scalpings and hearts cut out and axes to the back and, most memorably, Magua's final fight with Chingachgook on the cliff, where bones are broken and stomachs torn out.

And of course there is the cast. Daniel Day-Lewis is the big name. Here's the thing: his performance is fine. Great, even. He embodies the character well. But it's hard to compare with his later roles in In the Name of the Father, Gangs of New York or There Will Be Blood. I think it's because those later characters had accents, eccentricities, and other unique performance-based quirks, whereas Hawkeye is simply a stoic and resolute hero with a basic American accent. He's not quirky and he's not a scene-chewer. I tried viewing his Mohican's performance with a more careful eye, tried to consider certain choices and deliveries, but it's tougher when the role is much subtler than the others I've mentioned. There's a making-of documentary that's new to the Blu-Ray and gets into Lewis' prep for the role. I tell you what, it looked like a ton of fun. Days and days of learning survival skills, hunting, tracking and the like. Even stuff like learning how to reload a black-powder musket on the run! (When watching the scene, I too cried "baloney!", but the documentary reveals that Lewis thought the same thing until they found a guy who could do it.)

I appreciate the movie much more now, having seen it on Blu-Ray. The locations are more stunning, the score more vibrant, the framing and colors more painterly. I'm enjoying taking new looks at films on the format, because it is often like seeing them for the first time. You lose a lot watching movies like this 4:3 on a 32" TV. Even DVD doesn't come very close to replicating the true colors and detail of a period piece like this. Mohicans didn't suddenly rise to the top of my list of favorites, but it certainly rose quite a few steps from the obscure "who cares?" section it previously occupied.

One last note: bonus points for featuring a few seconds of original American Indian lacrosse! Only movie ever to depict it, and probably will remain so.

(Screenshot swiped from Blu-Ray.com)

The Last Rites of Ransom Pride (2009)

2010-10-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

Quirky Western with an impressive cast? I'm in!

It's also done with a "hyper-kinetic" directing style reminiscent of Tony Scott's worst impulses? Kill me now!

Yes, The Last Rites of Ransom Pride, from writer/director/cinematic-criminal Tiller Russell, was a total let-down. The cast list is the only impressive thing about it: Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls), Dwight Yoakam, Kris Kristofferson, Peter Dinklage, and W. Earl Brown ("Deadwood"). Dwight Yoakam is just a darn good actor. I haven't seen him in many movies (Sling Blade and Panic Room are it, I think) but he's got a delivery style that's very believable. His performances aren't wildly different, but they're solid. Lizzy Caplan, whom I liked in Mean Girls and the one episode of "Party Down" I saw, doesn't bring much to her character. She doesn't sell the southern accent, and her character and performance otherwise aren't interesting. (Tiller shares equal blame with Caplan for these problems.) Kris Kristofferson does his thing, which is fine for what it is but never a surprise. W. Earl Brown, whom I've never seen outside of "Deadwood," is exactly like his "Deadwood" character. He's great at it, but no change. Peter Dinklage isn't in it much, but he carried two sawed-off shotguns and looked crazy, so there's that.

Story-wise, this thing failed to captivate me at all. I watched the first 20 minutes or so, then started skipping around, desperate for an entertaining scene. Ransom Pride, a name I assume was intended to be loaded with meaning and depth, or at least "coolness," is a jerk who gets shot in Mexico. His lover, Juliette Flowers (Caplan), who was not with him, goes to collect his body. Apparently she's a bad seed too. She brings the news to Ransom's father (Yoakam) and brother. Ransom's father is a preacher! DEEP. Used to be a bad dude. NEW. And Kris's character's name is Shepherd Graves, another name I assume is supposed to be meaningful but just comes off as pretentious or hipster cool.

So now there's the style to discuss. First off, the movie seems packed with ugliness and disgusting stuff just for the sake of it. No meaning attached, just "look how edgy I am can you guess what color my shirt is?" Like using onanism to introduce a character. Nice! Classy. I get it. You can show gross stuff because you're dark and edgy. Then there's the editing/directing style. Lots of weird sped-up or slowed-down shots of skulls and crows and dark things. Characters speaking Spanish have their translations written in a sketchy script. Shots of dark cloudy skies rumbling past sped up. Black and white flashes to a character's dark past, accompanied by whooshy sound effects. The color has been tweaked, drained of color, contrast upped, made to look harsh and bleak. Set pictures I've seen online, with their natural color, looked a lot better. Now, I hate Tony Scott's style, but at least he sometimes has decent movies underneath. Everything in Last Rites just smacked of empty and artless self-indulgence. I wondered if, at the first screening, the more discerning members of the cast thought, "Oh geez I didn't know it was gonna be like this."

So, hey, not that you've ever heard of the movie, but avoid it like the plague!

Recent movies - Withnail, How to Get Ahead, Cop Land, State of the Union

2010-10-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

Boy, sorry for the "less than one per month" posting schedule. I don't feel as bad, since my blogging friends are doing the same or worse, but I still have a little guilt. On to movies.

Withnail and I (1987), How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) - (Both by the same writer and director; a spiritual pair, if you will.) These had been in my queue for long enough where I couldn't remember why I'd put them there, but they were both Criterion releases at one point, and they were described as cult comedies, so that seems like enough of a reason. Richard Grant is one crazy dude, and I'm surprised I haven't seen him in anything else. Those eyes were made to play a manic misanthrope, so I'd bet director/writer Bruce Robinson wrote those parts with him in mind.

Withnail is about two actors (read: layabouts, good-for-nothings) who go on a horrible vacation in the country. The plot is barely there; it's all about the characters. Marwood (the titular "I") is played by Paul McGann, whom I recognized from his role in the excellent "Horatio Hornblower" miniseries. Completely different character, so the revelation didn't hit me for a while. More easily recognized is Richard Griffiths as Uncle Monty, now most well-known as Uncle Dursley from the Harry Potter movies.

Withnail didn't grab me like it has so many other people. It's got a lot of funny lines that I could see people latching on to, though.

How to Get Ahead in Advertising had a similar effect on me. This is the one where the ad exec's boil grows a face and starts talking to him. Felt like a Gilliam movie, especially because it was coupled with some sort of anti-advertising message, though it didn't feel as simple as that. Weird movie.

Cop Land (1997) - I don't know how this one flew under my radar for so long. I remember seeing it for rent at the library years ago, but I never got around to picking it up, and it wasn't until my friend Hugh recommended it highly that I finally gave it a go. Written and directed by James Mangold, Cop Land is about a local cop (Sly Stallone) who walks the beat in a Jersey neighborhood populated almost entirely with city cops (i.e. "Cop Land"). The city cops work in New York but live on this island. They're also all corrupt. Sly has wanted to be a city cop for years but has a health issue that prevents it. So, he polices a city with no overt crime, and is not considered a "real" cop.

The cast list is very impressive. Aside from Stallone, you've got Robert DeNiro as an Internal Affairs officer, Harvey Keitel as the leader of the city cops, Ray Liotta, Robert Patrick, and Michael Rappaport. Plus, Janeane Garafalala for a few minutes. Each cast member brings a lot to the movie, though DeNiro's actually not in it all that much, and Janeane's character doesn't have much to her.

The screenplay is very well-crafted, and I loved Stallone's hang-dog under-stated performance. It made for a very sympathetic hero.

State of the Union (1948) - This might be my first Tracy & Hepburn movie. Another Capra flick. Loved it. Great husband and wife story about a businessman (Tracy) hand-picked to run for a presidential bid by a ruthless newspaper owner (played by a young Angela Lansbury!). He and his wife (Hepburn) are distant, and there are all sorts of rumors about he and Lansbury being an item. It's more of the same great Capra sentimentalism, with some fun and surprising scenes thrown in (most memorably an aerial contest involving Tracy). Watching Tracy and Hepburn together it was easy to see why they were considered such a great screen couple. Both are superb actors, and they have a chemistry that comes off as completely genuine.

Side note: supposedly my grandfather Stamper was an extra in this, though we haven't been able to confirm which scene.

Coupla recent movies

2010-09-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

Cemetery Junction (2010) - I rented this because it was written and directed by Gervais and Merchant, and for the time being I'll watch anything they do (despite the disappointment that was The Invention of Lying).

This movie is like a good cover song. The words and melody are very familiar, but it brings enough of its own style and little flourishes to make it enjoyable. And if the original song was good, then a good cover should be able to live off that goodness. Cemetery Junction has a wholly unoriginal story, and you can tell the arc of the main character as soon as the movie is set up. But the performances, dialogue, humor, and heart of the story are good enough to make it a worthwhile ride.

The story is about three friends at a crossroads of life in 70s England. None of them have major ambitions, though they all know they don't want to work menial jobs forever. The movie begins with the main character, played by Christian Cooke, getting a job selling life insurance for a cold Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes has an adorable daughter (played by Felicity Jones) who was childhood friends with Cooke, but is now engaged to a jerk working for Fiennes. (Can you figure out where this is going? If you guessed, "Cooke realizes he loves Jones and doesn't want to sell insurance and be a sleaze like Fiennes and his underling," well . . . I don't want to spoil it.) (But that's where it goes.)

As I mentioned, the actors carry the movie. The three friends have a great brotherhood, and made me wish I could spend an evening with them at the pub; Jones, with her delightful buck teeth, is almost too cute for words; Fiennes is an a-hole par excellence; Gervais shows up as Cooke's dad; Emily Watson has a small role as Fiennes ignored wife (nice to see her again -- she'd disappeared from my radar for years).

The 70s setting provides an excuse to have a great rock soundtrack and a brownish faded filter over the photography, and nothing else.

Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010) - This one gets my respect for no other reason than it completely avoided the "if you do this, you're no better than he is" speech that any other movie would have included in the end.

This is an unusual animated feature because it utilizes none of the fan-favorite voice actors from the 90s animated series. The casting choices all work (though it could be argued that it's only because they sound so much like their 90s casting counterparts). Bruce Greenwood, of recent Star Trek fame, is a great Batman choice. I read one reviewer complaining about John Di Maggio (Bender from "Futurama," in addition to million other roles) doing the Joker, but aside from reminding me of Mark Hamill's Joker, it worked just fine.

The story is nothing special until the very end. It opens with the murder of Jason Todd at the hands of the Joker. Several years later, a new villain has appeared calling himself the Red Hood. Anyone who doesn't guess that Jason Todd is the Red Hood from the moment he appears must have never watched a movie. Sure enough, it's revealed about 1/2 way in, though fortunately doesn't kid itself by selling it like the end of the Sixth Sense ("Is your mind BLOWN???"). The Red Hood is taking over all the drug trade in Gotham and eliminating competition. He has no problem killing criminals, though he never harms the innocent (hint). He also seems to have a problem with Batman (hint) and has a pretty amazing set of acrobat skills (hint hint).

**spoilers**

By the end we see that Red Hood's whole plan was to get at the Joker and confront Batman about why he's never killed the Joker. Now this is interesting! I thought the movie was going to be a pat exercise in revenge, a simple "don't you see, Jason? You're no better than him!" But thank God the writers decided to get into that age-old moral question first posed (to my knowledge) in 1985's The Dark Knight Returns.

Jason Todd: Ignoring what he's done in the past. Blindly, stupid, disregarding the entire graveyards he's filled, the thousands of who have suffered, the friends he's crippled. You know, I thought... I thought I'd be the last person you'd ever let him hurt. If it had been you that he beat to a bloody pulp, if he had taken you from this world, I would've done nothing but search the planet for this pathetic pile of evil death-worshiping garbage and sent him off to hell.
Batman: You don't understand. I don't think you'd ever understood.
Jason Todd: What? What, your moral code just won't allow for that? It's too hard to cross that line?
Batman: No. God Almighty, no. It'd be too damned easy. All I've ever wanted to do is kill him. A day doesn't go by I don't think about subjecting him to every horrendous torture he's dealt out to others and them end him.
Joker: Aw. So you do think about me.
Batman: But if I do that, if I allow myself to go down into that place, I'll never come back.
Jason Todd: Why? I'm not talking about killing Penguin or Scarecrow or Dent. I'm talking about him. Just him. And doing it because... Because he took me away from you.
Batman: I can't. I'm sorry.

Good stuff! Interesting dialogue and questions! Can we get more of this in our movies, please? Especially our super-hero stuff?

**end spoilers**

Also included on the disc is a Jonah Hex animated short, which was the entire reason I rented the thing in the first place. Unfortunately, it's just OK.

I have some of my usual gun complaints. The way the revolvers are illustrated and animated is weird. Pay attention when there's a close-up of a hammer being cocked. Watch the cylinder. There's all kinds of movement on screen, but none of it is logical or connected. And the hammer is a weird shape and lacks a firing pin. Later, a woman shoots a Derringer three times without reloading. A Derringer is a tiny two-barreled gun that obviously only holds two shots.

Aside from those, the story is fine, typical of one you'd find in the current series, but it's nothing particularly interesting. The animation is "good" modern-style anime-ish animation. Not my cup of tea, but not bad. The action is pretty good.

Red Dead Redemption soundtrack making-of

2010-07-29T15:03:00.001-07:00

The Red Dead Redemption website has released a ton of great videos, but this one in particular was worthy of sharing here (because I think it will interest more than just me). This one is about the guys behind the wonderful music. One particularly interesting bit is about how they wrote different stems of music with the same beats-per-minute so that they could layer the soundtrack and customize it depending on what's going on in the game!

Juggalo Western

2010-07-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, "easy targets," "been done," and all that. But given my predilection for anything Western, I had to report on this.

Coming soon to home video is a movie entitled "Big Money Rustlas." It "stars" members of the "Insane Clown Posse."

Mind the salty language in the trailer.

You should also definitely read the 5-star review on Amazon.

Guest Axe Cop comic!

2010-07-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

Hey all*. Sorry it's been a once-a-month update schedule lately. But things are happening in real life!

First off, we just got back from Comic Con late last night (lousy I-5 decided to add an extra hour to our normal commute -- at 10pm on a Sunday). It was a lot of fun and we had a great time seeing friends. Hopefully I'll talk more about it later.

One of the more exciting things for me was that my friend Ethan asked if I'd do a guest comic for Axe Cop while he was down at the convention. So I did one! And it was really fun to make, and people seemed to like it. You can see it up here. I know, I know: "Monkeys aren't funny." It's kinda funny seeing them killed, though, right?

*Mom and Google Bot.

Fun weekend

2010-06-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Starting Friday with a half-day, last weekend was awesome.

After work on Friday, Jeri, Amy and I went to the La Brea Tarpits, which I'd never been to. I've been to LACMA several times for class, so I've seen the pond with the mammoths, but never inside the museum. So that was rad. Woolly mammoths, mastodons, sabre-toothed cats, short-nosed bears, dire wolves, giant ground sloths, American lions. It was funny reading the descriptions of each of these animals, because they all sounded like they were written by a personified Past trying to one-up the present. "You like lions? African lions? Your lions SUCK. American lions were bigger and more muscle-y!" "How about bears. You think your grizzly bears are pretty big? Our short-nosed bears could kick a grizzly's loser BUTT. Taller and beefier." It seems that every animal from ancient LA were bigger, cooler versions of today's animals. Even their storks were a foot taller! The child in me was delighted by the whole thing. I remember the awe and fascination when we visited the natural history museum when I was a kid. Even today, seeing these very real skeletons of wondrous monsters is like catching a glimpse into another reality. These things existed! They walked around where I walk! (Dinosaurs are even more of a trip because at least these mammals pulled from the tar resemble animals that exist today.) It was neat seeing the active excavation sites with bones protruding from the black puddles.

After La Brea we went over to Chris Faris' house for a movie night with Nobody. Good food and company.

Saturday I got to play some co-op Red Dead Redemption with my buddy Will in Idaho. Saturday night was Brendoman's birthday, which we celebrated at a Chuck E. Cheese in disguise in Buena Park.

Sunday I skipped church (shhhh!) to attend my first ever Cowboy Action Shooting event. (Quick primer on CAS -- it's a club where everyone shows up in period-authentic clothing and competes in various shooting events. Check these websites for more information.) I'd heard about it online and from Andy over at Walker '47. I was originally going to go just to observe, but Andy recommended I join the "New Shooters" class. I'm so glad I did. For just $13 I got about 6 hours of practice/advice/training.

I showed up at about 8:45am at Raahauge's Range in Corona to register. Just walking up to registration was a thrill, because there were already many men and women there in full cowboy get-ups, hauling around their cowboy carts loaded with pistols, rifles, and shotguns. At 9am everyone gathered under the awning for announcements from a guy who could be my friend Ric in 20 years. Looked a lot like him, had a very similar sense of humor, and even his vocal inflections were the same! Anyhow, this set the mood for the day: friendly and fun. Right off the bat all the cowboys (and girls) were ribbing each other with all kinds of inside jokes.

After announcements, several experienced members rounded up the newbs and took us all over to one of the ranges. There they brought out about 10 different revolvers for us to look at and handle so we could get an idea of what we liked and what we didn't. They were mostly Rugers and Peacemaker clones, but there was an 1872 Open Top and a Peacemaker with a Birds Head grip. After looking them over, we each got to put five rounds through them. I chose the Open Top with the 7.5" barrel, much longer than all the others. I put all five shots on target (and fairly quickly too, if I may say so), but they were only about 10'-15' away, so that wasn't too hard. They showed us the proper technique for the fastest two-handed shooting, which is firing the pistol with your right hand while thumbing the hammer with your left. Tricky to get at first, but definitely faster than one hand once you've got it.

Next the cowboys brought out the rifles! Mostly Marlins, but there were a few Uberti 1873s, an 1866 "Yellow Boy," and an 1892. We were each given six rounds to let off. They put away the '73s, so I chose the Yellow Boy. Again, all six on target. The rifle targets were roughly double the distance of the pistol targets, but again, not very far. Very easy to hit if you take any time at all. The matches are designed for speed, though, so merely hitting these targets isn't the difficulty.

Last out were the shotguns. Several double barrels, one with external hammers, several 1897 pump actions (seen in No Country for Old Men and The Wild Bunch), and one 1887 Lever Action. Guess which one I picked? Terminator 2 all the way. This was a Chinese-made copy of the original Winchester, and the cowboys said these guns were very finicky, which is disappointing. The certainly have the most satisfying action in my opinion. The shotgun targets seemed to be about midway between the rifle and pistol targets. Again, not difficult to hit if you're not going for speed.

Next came lunch, and then our first timed attempts! The set-up was this: 5 shots from the pistol, 9 from the rifle, and 2 from the shotgun. We got to pick our favorite gun from each category. Our instructions were to place 2 on the left, 1 in the middle, and 2 on the right for the pistol; then 1-2-3 repeated 2x for the rifle; then knock over both shotgun targets. They have a special timer that stops the clock after the last shot. You start with your three guns on the table in front of you, your hands in the air. When you hear the buzzer, you go for your pistol and start shooting. You're penalized for missed shots (5 second penalty), procedural violations (shooting the targets out of order - 10 seconds), and safety violations (leaving the actions closed - 10 seconds). The first few guys who went all forgot to leave their levers open on their rifles, and they shot the pistol targets out of order. A friend I made that day, Steve, was the only one out of the 18 of us who shot a completely clean round, no violations, though his time was about 45 seconds. I shot towards the end of the group. I missed one of the pistol targets and one of the shotgun, but my time was about 25 seconds, so my final time of about 35 brought me in at 3rd place for the class! I was milliseconds away from the second place shooter, too. We were supposed to get to shoot a second round, but with such a large group we didn't have time, unfortunately.

After thanking the very kind and generous instructors, I headed home. It was a really fun day, and at $13 I recommend it to anyone who likes shooting at all. I'd have paid much more easily.

Here's a demonstration and overview of Cowboy Action Shooting:

That night Amy and I finished the weekend by seeing Toy Story 3 with some friends.

The Invention of Lying (2009)

2010-05-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

When I first heard about the movie I was very excited. I'm a big fan of Ricky Gervais' television shows "The Office" and "Extras" (and am really looking forward to his new show with Warwick Davis called "Life's Too Short"!). The premise sounded like it could be high-concept gold in his hands: in a world in which no one lies, and Gervais discovers how.

Then the movie was released to middling reviews, and my friend Frankie in particular said it devolved into an anti-religion diatribe half-way through, so I skipped it until video. And it turns out Frankie was right, though the concept requires further discussion.

The setting: an alternate earth exactly like our own, save for the fact that lies do not exist. This apparently also means that people are compelled to spit out the truth. Rather than simply refraining from saying certain things, in this world if you have a thought or opinion, you say it, no matter how hurtful. People are apparently unaware of the pain this causes, and of their own shame, because they don't hesitate or cringe when uttering these things. Gervais' character, Mark Bellison, seems like the only one who gets hurt by other people's comments, which is sort of odd, because if you're aware of your own pain, you're probably be aware of others' as well. But I suppose you can't get too nit-picky with movies like this; I just can't help it sometimes.

After Mark suffers a series of humiliations and losses, he discovers the idea of lying. And he uses this power for his own gain, at first. It's the same arc you see across any of these high-concept movies like Click or Groundhog Day. They use their power for evil at first, but eventually learn that what's really important can't be acquired using this power, so they try and stop it or use it for good.

Mark's mother is dying, and on her deathbed she tells him how terrified she is of death and the idea that there is nothing beyond death. Mark uses his power to invent Heaven, which comforts her, and also the hospital staff. Word of this new "fact" spreads, and soon everyone in the world wants to hear about this new information. So Mark creates God, and rules for getting into Heaven. And everyone is comforted by this lie, though it creates problems when the people demand clearer rules about how you get into Heaven, and what constitutes a bad deed.

And then all of this is abandoned in favor of the love story at the end.

Gervais is an atheist, and he has used his stand-up routine to make fun of Christianity in particular before. He's taking the same kind of shots here. The thing is, I don't know quite what to make of it. On the one hand, religion is obviously a lie designed to comfort people and get them to act well. But it's a lie! Lies are bad; we should only believe the truth. Yet these lies comforted many people, including his own mother in a genuinely tender scene. So what is he saying? "It's definitely a lie, and it'll cause problems, but it's OK for dumber people to believe them if it makes them happy or better people"? He creates a world without lies, that is also a world without religion. Clearly he believes in nothing supernatural whatsoever. And in terms of the film's story, the lies should be seen as bad, because even though he uses them to comfort his mother, he acknowledges at the end that it wouldn't be right to lie to the girl he loves. What? I don't get it. And the whole "creation of religion" thing is never concluded. He never comes out at the end and tells everyone, "I made it all up. It's false. But the principles are true, so don't do bad things." His message seems to be, "Lies are bad, though sometimes they're good, and also religion is a giant lie created to control people."

I think the movie fails both in structure and in worldview. By failing to address the big implications of creating religion, the story has a giant hole. Beyond that, it's also not as funny as it should have been. Gervais put loads of funny recognizable people into the movie, but none of them amount to anything more than cameos that make you go, "Hey, it's them!" Jennifer Garner does deliver a charming performance, however, and Ricky is still a very good comedic actor.

Another disappointment once the movie was over was the lack of a director's commentary for the disc. I was desperate to hear Gervais address his ideas in the movie, but the extra features were all concerned with abusing Karl Pilkington and "corpsing." Not a single bit to address the ideas in the film.

It is clear that Gervais is a master of uncomfortable comedy, which makes me glad that he's returning to television for his next project. I hope he knows the ways he failed in The Invention of Lying and takes them to heart for any future film projects.

Two plays: "Diversions" and "Portrait of a Madonna"

2010-05-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

The two one-act plays that I'm a part of are showing this week! "Diversions," a comedy by Christopher Durang, will be playing at 8pm this Thursday (May 6th), and "Portrait of a Madonna," a drama by Tennessee Williams, will be playing at 8pm this Friday (May 7th). Tickets are only $5 for either night, and there will be three plays each night. Thursday is all Durang comedies, Friday is all Williams dramas. These are all being directed by senior students at Biola.

I drew this last night for the insert in the program for the comedy.

Movie Round Up

2010-04-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

I need to do another giant-size movie round up. Here we go!

How To Train Your Dragon (2010) - Loved it. Kudos for the writers/directors for spending time building up the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless. I feel like I've seen a lot of recent movies where such a relationship is implied but not actually earned. In HTTYD, we see the trust and friendship build believably. The training aspect was also believable. Rather than showing the problem in one scene, the brilliant solution being built in the next, and the solution working after that, we see development, trial, and error, and it adds to the believability of Hiccup as an actual engineer. Having both of these things develop side-by-side is a natural and effective construction, too.

I enjoyed the idea of different dragons and their respective strengths and weaknesses. As a kid, I would have eaten that up even more, going home to invent my own dragon, or arguing with my brothers over which one we'd choose for ourselves.

The ending had a great emotional pay-off, and tied Hiccup and Toothless even closer together in a unique way. (It reminded me of the end of Earthboy Jacobus, too.)

My only complaints are minor ones that I have with a lot of other animated movies: too much "modern talk" (stop using the phrase "not so much" -- in any movie, now that I think about it), pointless celebrity casting, pointless "realistic" hair and water (everything else is stylized and cartoony, why does hair and water and eyeballs have to look as real as possible?), overuse of Scottish accents (though I admit I don't have a good solution for the problem of making Vikings sound "different"). My other complaint is less minor but also possibly less valid: I was bored by the conflict between Hiccup and his father. The dynamic of the "Dad who doesn't get me and his love is dependent on my performance" is universal and time-tested, but I've seen it in way too many movies, and HTTYD didn't do enough different with it to make me interested. It's a very predictable road to travel. On the other hand, it was nice to see it resolve without the father being the villain.

Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Just what I expected: a fun flick with two likeable leads that isn't necessarily a "great film." High on adventure, liked the characterizations a lot, was bored by the "mystery" and villain. Moratorium declared: no more "this world will end" scenarios, please. There's absolutely no danger felt in such a threat. Everyone and their grandmother knows the world isn't going to end in these films. Make the threat more believable! Pick something that you think the filmmakers might actually allow to happen, so that there is tension and danger! While we know the heroes will usually defeat the villains, with a more believable threat the movie has a better chance of creating genuine tension. Anytime your villain threatens the entire world, I yawn and know he will fail to even cause much damage to his immediate location. (Terminator 3 is the only movie I can think of that actually follows through on its threat.)

Tom Horn (1980) - Decent Western with enough originality to make it worthwhile. This was Steve McQueen's final film, and he was around 50 years old when he made it. I've never seen him looking quite so old and worn out. Tom Horn is the true story of one of the West's final legends who was hung for murder in 1903. The movie concerns his final year, when he is already notorious for his past exploits.

The director uses slow motion to great effect during several death scenes. That probably brings to mind Michael Bay cliches, but they're actually much closer to Kurosawa's shots in Seven Samurai. There is no music in these scenes; their purpose is not melodrama, but the true violence of death.

The action is also pretty unique. One particular scene has Tom riding up to a guy in his cabin and confronting him about stolen cattle. The man is watching him from his kitchen table through a large open window. The man suddenly fires on Horn with his Colt Walker, killing Tom's horse, and as Tom is falling he gets off a shot that strikes the man right in the head. It's a great stunt and scene, edited very well. (Interesting side-note: one of the design requirements by Sam Walker for the Colt Walker was that it would be powerful enough to take down a horse. Kudos to the armorer for picking a pistol that could actually do the job.)

Tom's primary weapon is a Winchester 1876 chambered in the large .45-60 round, a weapon and configuration rarely (if ever) seen in Westerns. His prowess with an unusual long-range rifle reminded me of Quigley Down Under. One aspect that hurts the movie for me is that, like Pale Rider, the sound designer used canned A-Team sound effects for the gunfire. For such a unique weapon, you really do need to design a unique and powerful sound effect.

The movie is edited in an odd way. It makes very fast jumps from scene to scene, some of these cuts span days or weeks, and we're dropped into flashbacks with no warning.

The movie seems to stick to the facts of Tom Horn's life fairly closely. It's an interesting story.

Zombieland (2009) - Decent movie, some laughs to be had, but it didn't kill me (no pun intended), and it didn't come close to replacing Shaun of the Dead as the ZomCom to beat. I think Jesse Eisenberg is a talented actor, but I couldn't help picturing Michael Cera throughout the movie. They seem like two sides of the same double-headed coin. They're slightly different, but nearly interchangeable. I know they probably hate hearing that, but I couldn't help thinking it.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) - Boy am I a sucker for these Capra movies. I love them. The good and innocent people in his movies, and the battle to remain so, gets me every time.

Gremlins (1984) - I don't get why this is so popular. Aside from the fun puppet effects, this is a weird movie that doesn't have enough of a hook to keep me around. And it takes FOREVER to get going. It was something like 40 minutes before the gremlins even appeared! Bad script. Bad!

Black Dynamite (2008) - Hilarious. Loved it. Terrific send-up of the genre, and watching the behind-the-scenes stuff helped me appreciate all the little subtle jokes even more. Michael Jai White is perfect as Black Dynamite. Turns out he has a black-belt in, like, a billion fighting styles, so the fight scenes are actually awesome.

Ponyo (2009) - Very similar to My Neighbor Totoro in terms of structure. There is a goal for the characters, but there's never really any danger or conflict. You just get to enjoy watching them get there. Ponyo is about the cutest thing I've ever seen. I loved watching her run around with that big grin on her face, and interact with others.

Lonely Are the Brave (1962) - (some spoilers to follow) I wish I had more to write about this one. It's great all over the place. It's my favorite role of Kirk Douglas'. There have been many Westerns about the Last Cowboy, but Kirk's character and the era he's in may make him the definitive Last Cowboy.

You start with the famous opening shot of a cowboy sleeping on the prairie, horse by his side, campfire smoldering. The year could be 1880. Then a jet flies over.

Kirk is making his way back to a town where his buddy has been thrown in jail. In a funny bit of contrast, it's a tiny town, but it seems like Manhattan compared with the prairie he's just come in from. Kirk is planning on breaking in to jail so he can bust his friend out. He just needs a good reason to get thrown in jail. In another bit of irony, he visits a bar, planning to get drunk, and ends up in a fight with a tough-as-nails one-armed man with a giant chip on his shoulder, despite doing everything he can to avoid the fight. Then, when it turns out that even this won't get him into jail, he slugs the police officer who is letting him go. Then, he gets in to jail, only his friend doesn't want to leave!

This is all the first half of the movie, and it could stand up on it's own as a great film. But from here, he busts out and is making a break for the mountains, with police chief Walter Matthau on his trail. This second half is, again, a whole other story that would be compelling on its own.

Interspersed with all this is Carroll O'Connor driving a big rig full of toilets somewhere. From the moment you first see him, you know how the movie is going to end. But a movie like this couldn't end any way else anyhow, so knowing isn't a detriment to enjoying the film.

TenNapel Art Acquisition

2010-04-20T09:35:00.001-07:00

I can now check off "Doug TenNapel" on my Original Comic Page acquisition sheet.

This weekend I joined my friends Ethan Nicolle (of Chumble Spuzz and Axe Cop fame) and Doug TenNapel (not famous) at the Wizard World convention in Anaheim. It was very different from the San Diego Comic Con in that you could actually walk freely around the halls.

Doug was selling more original art, and this time he actually included Solomon Fix pages (from Flight Volume 2)! I've been after these things for years. It's my favorite art of his. Unlike his later books, which have good art but are more concerned with telling the story, these have a lot more time put into the design of the page. They're also more cartoony and creature-based, which is my favorite work of his.

I bought these two pages (the best pages of the book, I think).

These pages join the ranks with my Rob Schrab Scud page and Steve Purcell Sam & Max page.

There are still many other artists I'd like to collect, but I think I have a pretty bitchen collection so far.

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

2010-04-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

Boring and empty movie. It seemed as though Burton desperately wanted to do his own version of the visuals for the world, so he snatched up the first Alice script he could find without bothering to find a compelling story.

Alice returns to Wonderland, though she has forgotten her earlier adventures there (which is never explained), and for some reason must kill a dragon? The dragon sort of works for the Red Queen, who is I guess evil? And only Alice can do it because there's a scroll that says so? What a mess of a script. Characters are undefined, relationships are simply assumed, emotions instructed. The story is never intriguing, the danger never apparent, the tension non-existent. There is never any doubt that she is "The Alice" and that, for some reason, she will eventually kill a Jabberwocky (thus embracing her true potential).

Why is the Red Queen bad? What does Crispin Glover's character want (and who is he)? Why is the White Queen good? What does The Hatter want? Am I supposed to care about his character? What has actually happened since the first adventure? Hook may not be considered a great movie, but as a story that is very similar to Burton's Alice, at least the plot and characters were clear. I understood it perfectly as a child. As an adult seeing Alice, I either didn't understand or I didn't care.

So what was good? Well, it's Burton, so you've got visuals, right? I guess they were ok. It was fun seeing Matt Lucas (of "Little Britain") as Tweedledee/dum. Helena Bonham was a very funny Red Queen.

But without a story the movie falls completely flat. There's really nothing for me to recommend it. Even with a few good performances you'd be better off spending your time elsewhere. The best thing I can say about it is that it made me want to watch the animated Disney version.

(Got to see this one for free in 3D thanks to Shane!)

Ugly Dogs vs. Handsome Dogs

2010-03-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

I'd like to set the record straight on this dog issue. I see too many people out there with ugly dogs. You can expect teenage girls, the elderly, and women in matching track suits to have ugly dogs. This isn't an excuse, but at least it's a reason. If you are a person with one of the following dogs, shame on you.

By the way, you don't get a special pass for being good looking:

Nor do you get a special pass for being not-good-looking (I apologize for subjecting you to this photo):

Some general rules for ugly dogs: curly hair, super tiny, really long hair.

Handsome dogs (if you own one of these, be proud -- you have a real dog):

There are many more options on both sides, but this should serve as a good primer.

Frak + Ryan Game

2010-03-08T21:42:00.000-08:00

Justin and I played this game in class years ago. I introduced it to Frankie at the Curtis' Superbowl Party and he's already posted the ones from his sketchbook. Here are mine!

(The "rules": draw a picture and leave the word balloons blank. Trade with friend.)

Round 1: drawn by Ryan, written by Frankie

Round 2: drawn by Frankie, written by Ryan

Norma Stamper: 1929 - 2009

2010-03-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to write this for a while. My grandmother, my mom's mom, died on December 10, just five days shy of her 80th birthday. Her husband, my grandfather, died a few years back.

I loved my Nana Norma and I miss her. For whatever difficulties and pain she caused our family in the past, she also brought joy and genuine love. My earliest memories are of her gifts, and her giving spirit. She loved giving gifts! Even though some of them were odd, she was thinking of you specifically when she got it.

She was quite a character. Very opinionated about grammar, never failed to correct me when I said something like "me and Josh went to the park." But it was because she knew we were capable of better. She loved John Wayne and classic movies. I still remember her reciting a famous line from Patton, doing her best to mimic George C. Scott. "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!" (I can't remember if she actually said "bastard," but that's how the memory plays in my mind.)

The night before she died most of the family was able to visit her. She was slipping in and out of consciousness, but when she saw you, she smiled broadly and squeezed your hand. My cousin Christopher was able to give her the news that he and his wife had just discovered that they were pregnant with a boy. Christopher is the only Stamper grandson, so his forthcoming son will be the first to carry on the Stamper name. She was really excited by this, raising her arms and smiling and saying, "Oh gosh! Oh golly! Gee whiz!" It was a truly joyful moment, and I like to think that the next day she was up in Heaven telling Baba Bill the news.

My grandmother loved the Lord later in her life. And she loved us. I thank God for her and the chance to see her again one day.

Paintballing

2010-03-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I got to go paintballing with my friends Doug and Hugh, and a couple of Doug's friends. We went to a place called Warped way up by Magic Mountain.

Short version: it was fun, we saw Tom Hanks, I got shot in the back by a teammate at one point.

Long version: it's been 10 years since I last went paintballing. I used to be really into it in high school and early college. Here's a picture of my gun that I dug out of an old website I used to have.

I still have the body somewhere, but I've sold all the parts.

So, with that in mind, it was odd being one of the "new guys" using the crappy rental equipment on a field full of little kids and middle-aged men with $500-$1000 electric guns and gear. We were all armed with Tippmann Model 98s, which came out right around the time I got out of the game. We had smeary, scratchy masks that were difficult to see through. One thing I remember from when I used to play is that any bit of dirt or grime on a paintball affects it's accuracy greatly, so with our rental guns that had dirt and wet paint in the barrel, wet paint in the hopper, and wet paint and dirt in the refill pods, our shots beyond 30 feet were all over the place.

But it was still pretty fun. Our first game took place in The Town, which felt closer in size to a large living room. Two teams start on opposite sides and rush to fill in the little wooden closets. You run all of 10 feet before you have to stop and set up because you're coming under fire. Well, I went left to try and get at their flank, but got nailed right in the mask when I turned a corner. Out in about a minute.

Second game took place in the Spool Field. Our team started at the bottom of the hill. Once again, as the game begins, I run up the left flank and BAM hit by a lucky shot to the mask by someone way up the hill raining pellets on us. Again, out in a minute. As for the rest of our team, Hugh had showed up by this point, and even though it was his first game ever, he and another guy ended up winning the game for our side!

Third game, I think, here we go, gonna be careful this time! We switched sides on the Spool Field, and, again, I take the left side. (I didn't really realize until now that I did this every game.) So I get really far down the left flank, get a good position behind a large spool, and am waiting for an enemy to advance too far and expose himself. Then THAP. What the? I get hit in the back! I'm very confused for a moment. No one could have advanced far enough to hit me in the back without getting shot by the rest of my team. THAP THAP. More shots come. They're bouncing off of me, not breaking, so I'm not calling "out" yet. I look behind me and realize they must be coming from someone on our team! I wave and yell, "I'm on your side! Knock it off!" Then I settle back down and scan the opposing side for enemies. THAP THAP THAP. I'm hit, and they've broken. I call out and move outside of the field. Shot out by some idiot on my own team! I think it was one of these little kids who was playing, but come on. If you can see me clearly and you haven't moved from the back-most cover, I'm on your team. There isn't really an excuse other than stupidity.

So that sucked. Three games in, I hadn't eliminated a single player, and I'd been one of the first people out each time.

After that game we took a break and refilled. It was at this point that I saw Tom Hanks walk past me with a bunch of kids on their way to a private party game. So that was neat. I didn't say anything or stare, but I confess I wanted to hear him give out orders to his team in his Capt. Miller voice.

Next up we tried one of the Speed Ball fields, which are my least favorite since the guys with 15-ball-per-second electronic triggers tend to dominate and it's really close quarters. Ironically, I did my best on this field, getting two guys out in one game.

Later we tried The Graveyard, where I really noticed that our guns sucked at long-range. I did get to watch Doug take a guy out while I was on the sidelines. It was great, this guy was peaking over the edge of his trench, and Doug nailed him right on the hand or the top of his head, and paint went spewing out behind him like an exit wound.

The field I really wanted to try, the field I would have been most comfortable on, was Afghanistan. And it's the one we didn't do. It's a long woodsy field, the kind I grew up playing on. Oh well. Next time we'll insist on it.

Fun day. We may go again in a few months. And I want to at least get a decent pair of goggles before next time so I can see.

Illustration remakes for Fred, part 2

2010-02-27T10:03:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple more commissions I finished this week.

This is a redo of this piece.

Here's a widescreen take on "Looner," which in turn was inspired by this one.

And finally, a new version of "describe it to me!". This time, the writing should mean "monkey."

Illustration remakes for Fred

2010-02-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

A friend commissioned me to create some originals for him based on past work. (These are all potential t-shirt ideas.)

First up is another re-do of "flee!" (which you'll also recall from this post and this post). Pretty fun to draw, and I like the way the "monster" turned out. His body is a nice size and proportion.

Next up is my first ever re-do of "hug?". I still like the original a lot, but I was very happy with this one as well.

Finally, we've got my third rendition of "lost tooth." (Original here, second version here.)

Giant Size Movie Round-Up: Pt. 2

2010-02-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

On to a second part.

Little Shop of Horrors (1986) - I rented this one after seeing a trailer at Movies On The Fox and discovering that Bill Murray and Steve Martin were in it. As a kid I was always aware of this movie's existence because of the giant talking plant image (don't know where I saw it, though). So the movie is a musical, and was apparently a stage play first, which would have been something to see. Overall, I didn't really care for it. I loved the puppetry (really impressive!), Bill Murray's scene was great, John Candy too, and it was fun seeing Christopher Guest, but the plot didn't do anything for me, and Ellen Greene's voice was excruciating. I've only seen Greene in this and "Pushing Daisies," but she has the same wilting voice and speech impediment in both. Is that just how she speaks? Or is it a deliberate character choice? As a choice, it's terrible. I had to fast-forward through all of her scenes after the first few, because it was like a mite burrowing into my brain.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) - It's ok. Has a couple of very funny moments. The inverted mohawk on Mr. T's character made me chuckle. There were some fun animation moments. The story is nothing special, so the best you can hope for are some good moments, and Cloudy delivers on that front.

Junebug (2005) - I didn't realize why this was rated R and watched it with my family, which, due to the numerous sex scenes, was a mistake. I only remembered that I had read a blog by John-Mark Reynolds a while back where he recommended it. I found that post (after some digging - Scriptorium doesn't have a friendly archive) after we'd finished it, and noted that Reynolds did caution about the sex; I just hadn't remembered that.

Anyhow, to the movie: the basic story is that a young couple is returning to the husband's hometown in North Carolina so that the wife can secure a weird and reclusive painter's work for her Chicago art gallery. The wife is an elite cosmopolitan woman with a British accent, very much out of her element in North Carolina. The husband's family includes a slacker younger brother and his pregnant wife (Amy Adams).

Adams is indeed as radiant and charming as I'd heard. I was also really impressed with Benjamin McKenzie's performance as the younger brother. Beyond the actors, the movie deserves praise for an even-handed portrayal of the people of the Carolinian community (is that the right term?). The young pastor character in the church basement was perhaps the best modern characterization of a religious figure I've ever seen in a movie. He's authentic and genuine. Every other pastor I've seen sounds really artificial; they sound like they were written by someone who'd never spent any time in a Protestant church. Like if I were to write a rabbi, or a Catholic priest.

Also worth noting is the contrast between the Southern folk and the gallery owner. Reynolds keenly observes that only a New York elite would seek out the deranged paintings for display in a high art gallery. My favorite moment came when the sister of the artist, who at first comes off as meddling and greedy, gives the art dealer a sincerely tearful and heartfelt condolence for a family loss. Not the sort of treatment you usually get in a Hollywood movie of a character with a Southern accent.

Fun note: Embeth Davidtz, who plays the gallery owner, was the princess in Army of Darkness! Despite knowing this, I cannot reconcile the fact in my mind when I picture both characters.

Overall, it's a good movie that says good things. But the sex made for a very uncomfortable viewing experience.

Axe Cop!

2010-02-04T17:03:00.000-08:00

So my buddy Ethan posted these comics on TenNapel's forum around Christmas. They were called "Axe Cop," and he'd done them with his five-year-old brother Malachai while home visiting his family. He made them as a lark, but now it's the newest, biggest, and best thing on the internet, so I thought I'd share it with you in case you hadn't stumbled across them yet. The comics feature Ethan's excellent and hilarious drawings, and are written entirely by Malachai's brilliant child's mind. An idea so simple you wish you'd thought of it (and were as funny as the Nicolles).

Giant Size Movie Round-Up: Pt. 1

2010-02-04T08:53:00.000-08:00

It's only been a MILLION YEARS since my last review went up, so I'm going to gather a bunch and give (probably short) thoughts on them.

Avatar (2009) - I enjoyed the spectacle and the 3-D, but the story had nothing new whatsoever, and the ham-fisted moralizing made me roll my eyes quite a bit. Even though Stephen Lang (who was Ike Clanton in Tombstone, by the way!) is great in his role as cartoon military man, every line he had was mind-numbingly bad. This guy sums it up all the problems I had, and is funnier to boot. (See also his seven-part series on The Phantom Menace. It's very insightful.) And now a Best Picture nod?? Come on!

The Big Country (1958) - This one was great. It's really really good all the way up to the final scene, where it falls a bit short. A genuinely unique Western. You've got Gregory Peck as a former ships captain who has come out west to marry the daughter of a big-time rancher. He discovers that a war has been brewing between his future father-in-law and another rancher (played by Burl Ives).

So what's unique about it? For one thing, the sea-captain angle. For another, Peck never uses a gun. Ever. (As I watched, I wanted to be Peck. He's just the coolest guy. Always in control, always knows exactly what he wants and what he's capable of, never lets himself be manipulated by anyone else.) Then you've got the rest of the supporting cast. You immediately fall in love with Jean Simmons. Burl Ives utters all the lines you always wondered about in the "Happy Happy Joy Joy" song from Ren & Stimpy. Chuck Connors plays a great sleazy weasel. And Chuck Heston is in there too! He and Peck get into a fight in the middle of the night on a dusty prairie. It lasts forever, and there's no music during the scene. And it ends in a draw. There's also the love story, which doesn't go where you'd expect. And that really goes for the rest of the movie. It's unexpected. It surprised me, and most of the time I honestly did not know where it was going to end up. Compare that to Avatar, where I called out each and every plot point before stepping into the theater. Also deserving a shout-out is Alfonso Bedoya, Peck's best buddy on the ranch. He's a great character, and it's always good to see an actual Mexican rather than Jack Palance performing such a role in an old movie.

The only weak points are the music and the final confrontation. The music is generally very good, but there are a few scenes where it is ill-suited to the mood. The final confrontation between the two barons is a bit of a let-down, mostly because it plays out exactly as you expect it to. Given everything else that has come before, I was left with a "that's it?" feeling. It's logical and serves the story, but I was hoping for one last surprise.

Final note: this needs a Blu-Ray release. I didn't at all mention the fabulous titular setting. The DVD is decent, but you could definitely see where a bit of work and a hi-definition transfer would bring the movie back to glorious new heights in a home theater setting.

Ichi (2008) - A fun take on the Zatoichi world, this time with a captivating young girl as the new blind swordsman. Not a great movie, but certainly decent. I liked the guy who couldn't draw his sword, though I found the explanation for his condition wanting. The action scenes are well-done, though they aren't in traditional Zatoichi fashion. Zatoichi's scenes were always in real-time, but Ichi slows it down. You get to enjoy the choreography a bit more, I suppose, but there's something to be said for the long single-take action shots in the originals.

Moon (2009) - A really good little sci-fi movie. Sam Rockwell gives several great performances. The movie really makes you care about him, too, which doesn't sound significant, but I suppose that because of the ethical subject matter of the movie it hit me a bit deeper. Definitely worth watching.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - Great movie. Boy, I've been on a Capra kick lately. As you'll see below, I finally saw It's A Wonderful Life for the first time. (I know.) And I love his sentiment and morals. It's done so well.

It's A Wonderful Life (1946) - I can't believe I've been missing this my whole life. It really is one of the best movies I've seen. Such a great story, great characters, great message. This is up there on my list now.

Blog post count

2010-01-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

Dang, 2009 was a real drop in numbers compared to the last couple of years.

2007 - 72
2008 - 95
2009 - 44

Sorry about that (unless you're grateful). We'll see how 2010 goes. I do have a huge backlog of movies to comment about.

Anyhow, happy New Year!

New Year's Eve Shooting

2010-01-06T10:26:00.000-08:00

I was invited on a shooting trip over Christmas break by a guy from work, but since it turned out to be a three day trip I decided not to go. But I still wanted to go shooting! So I found a place in Ramona (way out, past the Wild Animal Park) called Orosco Ridge that allowed recreational shooting.

After a long drive up a winding dirt road, we came to the spot. There was no official looking designation; it was merely a rounded ridge without vegetation, sloping down into some bushes and a ravine, with another hill leading up the other side. There were several trucks at the beginning of the range, firing off all sorts of pistols, rifles, and shotguns, so we made our way to the far left side that had only one occupant. (We observed that we were the only non-truck on the ridge that day.)

Our neighbor turned out to be shooting two old cap-and-ball revolvers! He had a Starr revolver and a LeMat, both unusual guns. (See below: Starr from Unforgiven, LeMat from The Quick and the Dead.) The LeMat has a nine shot cylinder and shotgun barrel underneath the main barrel! Damon let me fire off a shot from it at the end of the day. Very cool.

We had been told at the ranger station that we were only allowed to shoot paper targets or clay pigeons, but at the ridge we found all sorts of junk. We set up some wood planks and boards that had been left there, and found a bunch of unbroken clay pigeons that we decided to chuck for each other.

The guns: my 1851 Colt Navy (videos coming soon -- they're on my brother's camera), my double-barreled shotgun, and Ian's pump shotgun. Unfortunately, like an idiot, I forgot my bag of lead balls for my Navys, so I only had the seven shots that I had left in the case. We each only got two shots. But, I did get to load up all six cylinders for the first time, which was cool.

After those shots were up, we spent the rest of the time using up all our shotgun ammunition, which was fun enough. And I took video with my Flip! The shooters: friend Ian, brother Ben, and me. You may notice I am sporting my Clint hat and new bandoleer.

Blog banner

2009-12-12T21:15:00.000-08:00

As you can see I finally got around to making a banner image for the blog. I'll post it down below as well for posterity (in case I change it later).

Here's a different version I made using images from a page from the ol' Cowboy Monkey comic (I found the decorative accents through a Google image search):

This next image is the one, as of this post's publishing date, currently being used. This was made using drawings I did for our wedding invitations back in 2007:

Them Crooked Vultures

2009-11-20T16:44:00.000-08:00

I had never even heard of the group until I read on a gaming site that their single was going to be released for download in Rock Band. I guess that's not too surprising, since I don't really read or follow music news. But I do try and follow news of the few bands I regularly seek out, so you'd think a band made up of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) would have appeared on my radar at some point since their first appearance in June 2009.

The line-up alone was enough to sell me, though I did seek out some of their songs on YouTube. I ordered it through Amazon on Tuesday and got it last night.

It's a great album. With vocals and guitar hooks provided by Homme, it's going to remind you a lot of QOTSA (which certainly isn't a bad thing), but it's unique enough to lay claim to a separate identity. I'm not good at the whole "song by song" thing, but for what it's worth, here you go:

The first song, "No One Loves Me and Neither Do I," has a very QOTSA feel to it. But the next one, "Mind Eraser, No Chaser," has a running rhythm that will evoke a Foo Fighters chorus. The single, "New Fang," is just a plain old catchy rock song. "Dead End Friends" begins with an eerie tune that I think best fits the album art. "Elephants" has a great hook and quickly ramps up into a fast-paced rocker, but then slows down into the trudging beat we know from other QOTSA songs. I wish it had maintained the initial energy throughout, though it does kick up at the end again. "Scumbag Blues" reminded me more of an easy going Led Zeppelin song. "Bandoliers" is good, and I can't really think of a good way to describe it. Towards the end an extended guitar and organ duet kicks in. "Reptiles" is Zeppelin right from the get-go. Jones' bass has an instant presence, and Homme's guitars say the same thing. Good one. "Interlude with Ludes" is what you'd expect, and it's not my favorite. Spacey drugged out song. "Warsaw..." is a bluesy, slower, grungy march. "Caligulove" features more organ and has a good skippy beat. "Gunman" has a dance-song feel that reminded me of Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" at first, but the chorus is eerie QOTSA. "Spinning in Daffodils" reminded me of early QOTSA.

I think if you're a fan of at least 2 out of 3 of the original bands, you'll really dig this.

Paranormal Activity (2009)

2009-11-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I went to see Paranormal Activity with a good bunch of dudes (Doug, Ethan, Will, and Hugh). We'd all heard a bunch of buzz about this being a genuinely terrifying movie without gore, so we were all excited. We saw it with a good responsive crowd, so it was a fun time.

The promotion for this movie has been designed around the idea that the less you know about the film, the better the experience, so I'm letting you know now that I'll be discussing specific content in the review below. Fair warning, go ye n'further if ye want to see the movie unspoilt.

The movie is structured like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, in that it's documentary-style "found footage." The story concerns Katie and Micah (pronounced "Mee-kuh" because his parents hated him), a couple who live together in San Diego. Katie has been haunted by a spirit or presence for years, and it has returned again. Micah is a skeptic, and decides to set up a camera to try and capture the phenomena of the haunting. As it turns out, it's a demon that's been following her. And the demon wants her (for what, it's never clear). And it doesn't like being taunted, it doesn't like the camera, and it doesn't like Micah. By the end it has fully possessed Katie and killed Micah.

The movie is pretty good. I try not to give bad art a pass because it was made on a low budget, and fortunately these guys did a great job by using their limitations as strengths. The best parts of the film are the titular paranormal events, most often observed in the bedroom set-up. It begins very subtly, with a door moving and some audible foot-steps. By the end Katie is being dragged out of bed in one of the most terrifying scenes in the film. Other notable scenes include the appearance of three-toed demon footprints in baby powder that Micah has spread around, an Ouija board that moves by an unseen hand and then bursts into flame, and a shadow moving across a door. Each time the demon is present, the audio turns low and bassy, and it's a great effect for giving the sense of an evil oppressive presence.

The stuff I didn't like was all the relationship drama. I understand the need for it for the story structure, but it was mostly boring, and, at its worst, unbelievable. It's understandable that Micah would scoff at and taunt the demon in the beginning when he doubts its existence, but it's beyond stupid that he would say, "No one messes with my girl; I'll take care of it" when he believes it exists. And "I'll take care of it" seems to mean doing nothing other than more bro-posturing.

Which leads me to the biggest hole in the film. No one, at any point, decides to consult an exorcist. Or at least some religious figure. If you're convinced and terrified that there is an evil demon tormenting you, I don't care if you're Richard Dawkins, you're going to consult someone or something on the "good" side to try and protect yourself. As an American in 2009, you're aware of the pop-culture surrounding demon mythology. Everyone's heard of The Exorcist. Everyone knows the idea of God vs. the Devil, angels vs. demons, good vs. evil. So the fact that there's not one mention of God, Jesus, angels, whatever, is unbelievable. Not as a Christian, but as a movie-goer. It's odd, too, since the movie does a good job of addressing our other concerns (like why don't they just leave the house).

Last complaint: CG demon face at the end was stupid. When the rest of your movie is made up of practical, believable effects, don't suddenly end it the way a cookie-cutter horror movie would with a distractingly obvious demon face biting the screen black.

The movie is an impressive demonstration of making something genuinely affective without any money. While it didn't shake me to my core, it provided a few good scares and a good sense of atmosphere. Worth a rent.

More bad Western art - Outlaw Territory

2009-10-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write about this for a while now, but finding these images online (saving me the trouble of scanning them from the book) made it easier.

I bought Outlaw Territory, a Western comics anthology, earlier this year. The cover was pretty cool and I had hopes that there would be at least a few good stories or some sweet art to make the purchase worthwhile (I know anthologies like Flight, Gunned Down, and Marvel Westerns well enough to know that you're guaranteed some stinkers). Unfortunately, there were only 2-3 contributions that I can think of that were any good. Most of them were, at best, boring and uninspired, and at worst, full of terrible art.

The selection below (from First Car in Mexico, by Andy Macdonald and Daniel Heard) is by no means the worst. In fact, it's actually pretty good! Nice lay-out, colors, and drawings. Except for -- say it with me now -- the guns.

****

Those are the weirdest banana guns I've ever seen. And they're so detailed that you'd swear the guy wasn't making them up! He doesn't fudge the design behind weak renderings like Phil Noto. But trust me, he is pulling those out of his butt. There's never been a revolver with a grip like he's got going on there. As you'll recall, I don't mind invented guns if they look somewhat close to reality (i.e. the artist knows what the appropriate guns look like and bases his invention on logical principles). But those handles . . . ! The weird thing is, he apparently knew enough to draw a loading lever underneath the barrel in the top panel, which would be appropriate for a black powder revolver. Maybe he only had half a picture for reference? From mid-cylinder on? Because everything from that point back is wacky. And then in the second-to-last panel he doesn't keep his gun anatomy consistent at all. He's confident in his invention, hoping that they look like real guns to his audience. But I'll bet you he'd laugh out loud and smack his forehead if you showed him a real revolver (from any point in history, really).

Here's a different example (Gut Shot by David Miller and Philip Fuller). The rendering isn't bad in this one. Bland, but fine. But the coloring kills it. It looks like the colorist discovered the bloom effect and decided every single panel should have it. Honestly, look at it! Every panel. Someone hide the lens flare from these kids before things get worse.

****

This next one (Griswold's Song by Ming Doyle) is an odd duck in that the gun was obviously referenced. It has a weird added-on panel where the barrel meets the cylinder (should be one piece), but the rest of the anatomy is fine. But the way everything is rendered is so squirrelly and ugly as to ruin it. Also, check out his hand in the bottom panel. Aside from being ugly, it's position relative to the gun makes it appear as though the grip is, once again, extending straight down underneath the hammer. Bad, dude! How could you do that if you had reference of the real thing for the rest of it?

****

This page isn't the worst of this entry (The Bounty Killers by John Cboins and Shannon Eric Denton) , but it does at least show the illustrator's failed attempt at a Kent Williams-ish style. There are some really wonky faces in some of the other pages. It also tries to convince me that you only need to draw backgrounds in the establishing-shot panel. Sorry, pal, you can get away with that a bit when you're doing dialogue, but when it's an action scene, and you have a lot of negative space in the second panel, it's obvious and amateurish. Filling it with color doesn't fix it.

****

I constructed this post using only the examples from the blog. Eventually I'll scan some of the really bad stuff to show you. The worst one of all will astonish you with its badness. Like, bad for the internet, let alone a published book.

Recent movies - Bad Company, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Gunga Din

2009-10-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

Bad Company (1972) - Odd little "Western" featuring a very young Jeff Bridges as Jake Rumsey. Rented based on Nate Bell's recommendation via Netflix. It's about a straight-laced and up-tight kid named Drew who is dodging the Civil War draft and ends up in the company of Jake and several other dodger kids. The gang wants to make its way west, and intends to fund the expedition by robbing anyone it can.

While peppered with humor, Bad Company is also memorable for its dark and violent moments. When they try to steal chickens from a farmhouse at one point, the youngest kid in their gang is shot and killed. The camera pauses for a solemn moment on his tiny lifeless body before returning to the escape. It is a hard scene to watch. There is an equally violent but less emotionally damaging scene later when Jake and Drew take on a inexperienced but cruel gang of older gunslingers -- and win! I found myself cheering for the kids because it's such an unexpected turn but it's actually believable. It's a great action scene; written, staged, and executed nicely. Below is a shot from the end of the fight. The guy is plugging up his neck wound with his finger! Gross, dude. It's not played for sympathy; he's soon dispatched and we're still riding the high of triumph that the kids have had over these guys.

David Huddleston stands out as a gunslinger named Big Joe who turns up in several scenes mentoring the aforementioned older gang. One of the funnier moments is the first meeting between the two gangs as he supervises the older robbing the younger with helpful coaching. The scene ends on a memorable moment as Jake attempts to draw on him and we see how fast Big Joe is. Later, when Joe is caught by a US Marshal, there's a great scene where Joe is allowed to demonstrate his gun handling prowess to the younger deputies. It's a somber scene, as the Marshal and Joe know that the long relationship between them will finally end in the morning with a hanging. (Ironically, Jake gets in trouble because he wants to be more like Big Joe -- 25 years later we saw Bridges trying the opposite in The Big Lebowski.)

Bad Company is a movie with an odd feel. The relationship between Drew and Jake is the thing that drives the movie. It works pretty well, but I found myself interested more often in the ancillary stuff (as you can see in my "review," where the relationship is hardly mentioned). Jake is a fascinating character to watch, but Drew annoyed me, so it was tough to root for him.

Quick note on the guns: the movie is set during the Civil War era, and the guns are entirely anachronistic. As you can see on the cover below, both boys carry Colt Single Action Armys, which were first patented in 1873. This is common in pre-1960 Westerns, but not for a movie as late as 1972, and I suspect the director just didn't care about that aspect, as his armorers would surely have warned him of the error. Metallic cartridge firing pistols are easier to deal with on a set, and he probably thought most of his audience wouldn't notice the error.

One last thing: I love Bridges' look on the DVD cover. I want to steal the costuming and color for one of my characters. It's very simple, but it's such a cool look. It misleads you about the actual movie, but on its own it's awesome.
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) - Hadn't seen this one since becoming a gun nob, so decided to check it out again. I remember not really caring one way or another about it when I first saw it, but upon revisiting it, it's moved up in my list. A big reason for that is Chief Dan George's portrayal of Lone Watie. He's such a great character. Watching the making-of doc, Eastwood notes how he wanted to feature Native American characters who weren't simply stoic sages or angry savages. Lone Watie is such a funny guy, and the relationship he has with Josey makes the movie for me. There is also plenty of help from a fine supporting cast.

Gun-wise, how could I not love a scarred hero who carries dual Colt Walkers? Everyone's seen the iconic image of Clint wielding those two massive pistols. (In fact, there are several different such images, each of them famous.) This capture demonstrates the scale:

Later in the movie, he carries four pistols on him at a time. Love that. The scene towards the end where he advances on the villian dry-firing all his pistols is brilliant stuff.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie (featuring the beautiful Geraldine Keams):

"Only an Indian can do that."

Another favorite moment that uses the whole movie to build to the punchline: Josey spits tobacco everywhere throughout the movie. Probably spits 15 times or more. Usually to show his contempt for something or someone. He spits on this poor dog three or four times. Towards the end, when he's in the old woman's house, he goes to spit, but catches the old woman's eye, so he swallows it.

Gunga Din (1939) - Fun adventure movie. A young Cary Grant is a bit over the top with his goofy shtick and not-quite-believable accent. When it starts it takes you in several. It goes from Indian assassins killing Brits to a slap-stick bar-room brawl to talk of a treasure to a man's special relationship with an elephant. Finally it decides to be about war buddies who don't want their friend to get married, so they hook him into a rescue attempt where they will fight a horde of Thuggee death cult members (yes, the same Thuggees found in Temple of Doom). Oh, and Gunga Din? He's the water bearer who tags along with dreams of being a British soldier. Yep.

The fights in this movie are something special. Unlike other fake looking fights from this era, these are convincing and impressively choreographed.

The Hurley Pro

2009-09-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

A few years back brother Josh joined me at the San Diego Comic Con for a day. While he enjoyed himself, for him it was a glimpse into an alien world. I could identify most of the "celebrities" there; I geeked out if I saw Jeff Smith or Mike Mignola walking by.

Last Saturday I experienced the inverse when I accompanied Josh to the final day of the Hurley Pro being held at Trestles in San Clemente (right on the border of San Onofre -- check out the power plant in the background of the picture below for reference).

We got there at about 8:30, but had to park a few miles away and take a shuttle over. It's not the easiest beach to get to to begin with, but it was an absolute zoo because of the contest. We got there in time to see the tail end of Taylor Knox's heat against Roy Powers. Knox (pictured below) is an alum of Carlsbad High School, so naturally we were cheering for him. He won the heat, but the waves weren't very consistent in the morning, so it was a lot of waiting around. Josh geeked out frequently by identifying surfers and industry people walking around us. Apparently brother Ben (who missed it because he was -- wait for it -- surfing) is an even bigger surf nerd and would have been able to point out a lot more. They were also handing out free swag from time to time, another similarity to Comic Con.

We stayed for two more heats, first Dane Reynolds (pictured below) vs. Rob Machado (I actually know who they are!), then Kelly Slater vs. Kekoa Bacalso (heard of Slater, of course). Reynolds vs. Machado actually had to get restarted 10 minutes in because neither one caught a wave. It was really boring at the beginning. When waves finally did come through, it was pretty fun to watch. It was my first time seeing pro surfers do their thing live, and the waves weren't breaking that far out from the beach, so we had a pretty good view of the show.

After the Slater heat, we went surfing ourselves at "Uppers," north of the contest spot. I've only surfed Trestles twice before, it's a world-reknowned spot, and there was a pretty big line-up already out there, so I was nervous about going out. But it turns out there were more newbs than veterans out there, so I had nothing to worry about. I rode Ben's single-fin and had a great time.

Later we got out and went back down to the contest to see the quarter finals. I think we got to see Knox vs. Reynolds first. The waves had picked up, so it was an exciting match, very fun to watch. We stayed through Slater's next heat too, also good, and then took off, watching the rest live on the internet.

It was a fun day, and I loved being the lesser nerd for once.

(All the photos are from Hurley's website.)

No Name on the Bullet (1959)

2009-09-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty good little Western that I'd love to see remade (or remake myself, in comic form). The title and premise are fantastic. Very simple, but ripe with promise. A known assassin-for-hire, John Gant (played by real life war hero Audie Murphy), arrives in town and checks into the hotel. Everyone has heard of him, but no one knows who he's there to kill. His method is also known: he provokes his target into a fight and then kills him in "self-defense," so he gets away with it legally. Gant plays it cool for several days, allowing the more tightly-wound members of the town to self-destruct under their own hidden guilt. He befriends the town doctor named Luke (Gant reflects on the Biblical reference to the apostle/physician) before Luke learns who he is.

The build-up is handled pretty well. The seedier residents immediately begin to panic and conspire against each other and Gant. None of them are particularly memorable characters, but they ratchet up the tension and provide a few great scenes when they each face Gant. The most memorable is when a tall, skinny, wife-stealing gambler gets drunk and confronts the seated assassin. Gant calmly prods him, even placing his palms flat on the table. "All right. If you think you can do it, go ahead and try. My hands are on the table. I couldn't possibly outdraw you. So go ahead and shoot."

Another stand-out scene features Gant facing down a large posse determined to kill him or drive him out of town. "There are many of you. Yes, you could kill me. If you're willing enough. But it's only fair to tell you that I'll kill you, Stricker. And you, Dutch Henry. The physician. His father. And there might even be time for you, storekeeper." The scene has been played out many times since then, most memorably for me in Tombstone, and while I don't know if No Name on the Bullet was the first to use this scene, it's certainly one of the most potent uses. (Warlock had a similar scene, and is also from 1959, by chance.)

Save for Murphy (and maybe Edgar Stehli as Judge Benson), the performances are mostly adequate. They do the job, they're certainly not bad, but they're nothing special, either. I'd like to see some stronger character actors filling the supporting roles in a remake, and a more interesting actor playing Luke. (The most interesting parts with Luke are always Gant's reaction to him rather than Luke himself.) Murphy as Gant captivated me, however. I don't think all of that was because of his talent, however. While he certainly plays his role well, with a Death-like calm and serenity, I had recently devoured his Wikipedia entry and was in awe knowing that this baby-faced actor was one of the most decorated soldiers in history*. It was hard to divorce the man from the part while watching him.

The dichotomy between the killer and the healer is perhaps a little too obvious, but it works here. Some of the dialogue from Luke is a little on-the-nose, and I longed for a more interestingly written character, but Gant's dialogue is pretty good. He has some really good lines and only a few clunkers. (Anytime he makes medical jokes to Luke, like "that's your prescription doc... fill it," I groaned.)

With a length of just 77 minutes, this is a decent Western with a few exceptional elements that are worth your time.

*Seriously, read it. It's fascinating. That guy kicked a lot of Nazi asses. They even made a movie about it; Audie played himself. That one is coming soon in the queue.

Unflattering snap-shot

2009-09-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

While perusing DVDBeaver's review of Monsters vs. Aliens today, I came across the screen capture below. I still haven't seen the movie (it's in the queue and I'm looking forward to it!), but even during the trailers, the design of the humans bothered me. I liked the creature designs quite a bit, but the people looked weird. The guys' faces were oddly lumpy, and the women looked too similar to each other and to other CG designs I've seen. This particular screenshot, though, is particularly unflattering. It looks as though a 3D model was made based on a 2D drawing that didn't quite translate into an appealing puppet when viewed at all angles.

I think the eyes are the worst part, but the mouths and jawlines are funky too. Look at the mouth of the woman on the far left. With the way that the teeth are visible it just looks incorrect. Like I drew it, not understanding bone structure and anatomy well enough to bluff it. I know they're stylized, but it seems like you'd want to make sure the stylization didn't hurt the aesthetic functionality of the model before you approved the design.

I've noticed this with other CG films, but this screenshot really brought the issue into focus. Anyhow, still looking forward to the movie. I've heard it's a hoot and a half.

Family Brag: Surfing

2009-09-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned here before that my brothers are great surfers, but I just discovered that, as of this weekend, there is finally a qualitative measurement that will prove it.

Josh participated in a fund-raising surf contest last Saturday and took 2nd! He got a giant trophy and everything. I think he said there were about 30 contestants. The guy that took 1st also got 1st last year, and his name was "Lance," which fits in perfectly with Josh's dream of being in North Shore (the bad guy in the movie, played by surfing legend Laird Hamilton, was also named Lance). The funds were raised for a Mormon scout troop, I believe, which doesn't fit in quite as well with the North Shore narrative.

Anyhow, thought that was cool.

Happy birthday, Baby-Cakes

2009-09-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

My wonderful wife turns 29 today. Here she is in 2005 acting her age.

Love you, Sugar Gams!

This year's stupid trend

2009-09-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

Every Fall I get to watch all the new students come back to Biola with all their new clothing trends and what-not. I'm now six years out of college, which is apparently long enough for me to notice and hate what all the kids are wearing.

Some of the trends from the last few years include: head-bands (guys and girls), leggings under skirts and shorts (girls), Castro hats (girls and guys -- only lasted for a brief season, though), vests (girls, some guys). Most of these are gay-tarded and I hate them. (Amy is now writing me an angry comment about "gay-tarded.")

The newest one, which isn't all that new, but has surged in popularity, is cut-off jeans. For dudes. And not baggy jeans, the tight hipster jeans. I tried finding a picture of a dude wearing this online, but Google Image Search still insists that mostly girls are wearing this, so that will have to do. Rest assured, though: the picture below is exactly what these shorts look like on these guys.

What's worse, some of these dudes cut them off just below the knees, making them effectively "man-pris" (credit goes to my friend Joel for coining that term). It used to be just one guy we saw a few years ago wearing shorts like this. Now every hipster dude at Biola is wearing them.

Youths! Youths and their clothes! *waives cane menacingly*

Recent movies - District 9, The Hurt Locker

2009-09-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

District 9 (2009) - Really enjoyed this one. My favorite thing about it is the casting and characterization of the lead, Wikus. He's such an unlikely hero, and not in the traditional predictable Hollywood way. This actor is a complete unknown, he looks and acts like a simple-minded but well-intentioned nerd. His superficial appearance, for one thing, is something you'd never see in another Hollywood action movie. He's small of stature, has a goofy mustache, and combs his hair the way I did for most of my life. Personality-wise, the movie establishes very early on that he probably only has his job because of his father-in-law, and he's not very forceful or confrontational, which makes you all the more nervous for him when he sets out to evict the violent and unpredictable residents of District 9. (A friend of mine said that as he was watching the movie he kept waiting for Wikus to get killed and the real protagonist to show up.) As you watch him progress through the movie, you begin to love him and really root for him, and it demonstrates great strength on the part of the actor and the director for bringing this about.

Beyond Wikus, the documentary style that moves to traditional story-telling works, the action is great (though gory - them's a lot of folks explodin'), and the characters of Christopher and his son work surprisingly well, given the limitations of the aliens' design. Oh, and the robotic suit? RAD. It also seems set up for a sequel (even the obvious sequel name of District 10 makes perfect sense given the events of the movie).

The Hurt Locker (2009) - Another one I was able to catch thanks to Shane. This is a hard one to nail, for me. As I was watching I could see all these potential paths the story could have gone down, but never did. There were lots of little details that turned out to be unused for the overall narrative. At one point we see the main character Sgt. James has been collecting signature pieces of the bombs he's defused. Later he discovers a child's body that has been used to create a "body bomb." Still further on in the movie he and his team decide that a particularly nasty carbomb wasn't a suicide bomb, and that the perpetrators must be nearby. We've also seen suspicious people at nearly every bomb site, people who are never addressed again. Each of these elements could have added up to a showdown between a villainous expert bomb-maker and Sgt. James, the reckless but talented and intuition-based bomb defuser, a la Blown Away or Speed. But they don't. These are just pieces of James' life. A picture of the last days of their groups deployment in Iraq. The film is structured more like a documentary than a standard narrative. The pieces don't add up to a plot, they add up to a character.

Even then, James is not an open book. I didn't quite get him, not even at the end when Shane reminded me of the movie's opening quotation: "War is a drug." We get a sense of him, and of the other characters, but they're not sharply defined by a descriptive piece of dialogue. The sense is that James enjoys being good at his work. He likes his teammates. And he relates and works best in that environment. When he gets home, he comes off as purposeless. We believe that he loves his wife and son, but in a distant way, and he doesn't quite know how to relate to them. Earlier, when we see him rather recklessly head off-base into an Iraqi city to find whoever is responsible for the body-bomb, we come to realize that the movie isn't painting him as some thousand-yard-stare, gung-ho warrior who loves combat for combat's sake. He's a man who cares about human life, even if he handles his own and the lives of his teammates a too loosely. He's an interesting and complex character, and the movie doesn't cheat to paint him that way.

The pacing of the movie is also unique. Again, in a conventional action movie, you could predict the beats as they come. There are several points in Hurt Locker where you think you know what's going to happen. But the scenes are cut in an unconventional manner. They are often edited so that the falling action and relief after each big tense moment are cut off. You are suddenly back on base. The feeling is like falling through the sky without a parachute, and when a parachute suddenly appears in front of you, you are teleported to the ground. You don't get to enjoy the relief, it's passed over.

By the way, the tension and action scenes are very entertaining, even if you are digging your nails into the armrest. Besides the many IED disarming segments, there's a great sniping scene when the team runs across some friendly bounty hunters in the middle of the desert. (An interesting aspect to the war that I haven't seen touched on anywhere else.)

I've been trying to figure out the message of the movie. I'm not sure if it has one. It seemed content to dwell on a few characters. The Iraq setting is almost incidental. It provides a really unique setting and vocation for the character, and it's about war (albeit a very different aspect of war from your typical war movie), but you wouldn't really call it a war movie. Or maybe you would, and we just haven't adjusted as movie-goers to the new reality that is modern warfare.

Ironic note: Kathryn Bigelow directed Point Break, the source of many of the action cliches discussed in Hot Fuzz. She has now directed The Hurt Locker, an action movie that avoids all the ones I can think of. Rather than being full of meaningless fake (fireball) explosions, all the explosions are very consequential.

Public Enemies (2009)

2009-08-25T17:05:00.001-07:00

I recently got to see this in the Dreamworks theater with my friends Shane and Frankie (thanks, Shane!). It was a movie Shane and I had been really looking forward to since they first announced it.

Unfortunately, it was a let-down. The easiest way to critique it is to call it a weak version of Heat (one of my favorites, by the way). Heat gave you a fascinating look at the lives of the two leads, making them real and sympathetic characters. Public Enemies was really lacking in that department. I didn't connect with Dillinger or Purvis, or anyone else. I don't think it's the fault of the actors. The script was either lacking from the beginning or hacked during production.

Despite the lack of emotional connection, there are a few good things to be said about the movie. For one, Mann once again did not disappoint in the action and sound-design department (see also Collateral and Heat; Miami Vice also qualifies, but it's a terrible movie). The shootouts are loud; they look, sound, and feel very realistic. Furthermore, despite some shaky-cam hand-held work (die, trend, die!) and the occasional obviously digital picture quality that made you miss film grain, there were some beautiful compositions. The opening in particular has a great location that makes for some cool looking minimalist framing. Costuming and locations, of course, were all good. It was funny seeing the British actor who played Tommy in Snatch as Baby Face Nelson. And Faramir as a nameless henchman who must have been offed at some point.

To sum up: disappointing. Worth it if you have a good sound system for the action scenes.

Kill! (1968)

2009-08-04T08:36:00.000-07:00

This is another selection from Criterion's Rebel Samurai collection. Samurai Spy is the last one I still need to see.

What a fun film! I didn't realize until it was over that it was based on the same story that Kurosawa adapted for Sanjuro. As I was watching, some similarities did occur to me (scruffy-but-skilled protagonist with disdain for traditional samurai life; small group of samurai hiding out from corrupt official), but it is otherwise (and even in those similarities) a completely different story.

The basic plot concerns a group of samurai who assassinate a corrupt official and then go into hiding, awaiting the arrival of the good official from the north who will come set everything right. As they are waiting, another corrupt official is trying to hunt them down. The two main characters come into town looking for work and food, and become involved on opposite sides.

Tatsuya Nakadai plays the experienced and world weary Genta, and it's my favorite role of his yet. He's such an affable decent fellow, and his interactions with Hanjiro (Etsushi Takahashi) make up a large part of the charm of the movie. It's also very different from his role in Sanjuro, which is also very different from that in Yojimbo (that guy is in just about every samurai movie). Hanjiro is an aspiring samurai, a former farmer whose years of toil have made him very strong. He's not the brightest bulb, but he's enthusiastic and determined, despite Genta's constant warnings that samurai aren't all that great. The opening scene where the two of them meet in a desolate town, looking for food, is a perfect introduction that sets up the relationship and tone for the rest of the movie.

It's a very funny movie, but it's black comedy to be sure. One of the earliest gags involves the image of a townsperson who has hanged herself. It's played for a laugh, and it works, but that's pretty dark. Like Sanjuro, Kill! doesn't care for the samurai values and has a good time deconstructing them.

Kill! also has a great soundtrack. Most memorable is the spaghetti western styled guitar from the beginning of the film.

Like the better spaghetti westerns, the movie features some great compositions, cuts, and editing. And a great score featuring a Morricone-esque guitar number at the beginning. And some great action (Genta knows his sword-play).

If you're interested in a black and white samurai movie that isn't all stern-faces and yelling, check this one out. This is one I'd show friends who were not up for a "serious" samurai film.

Making Movies Better: Breaking Scenery

2009-08-04T08:11:00.000-07:00

I was watching The Matrix: Reloaded last night, and was reminded of another annoying action-movie trope that should be corrected.

Throughout the movie (and the rest of the trilogy) there are a lot of kung-fu fights, and lots of statues are broken, walls caved in, and benches splintered. The effect is supposed to sell how powerful these guys are and how dangerous the fight is. But because everything is shattering so easily with little to no effect on the body that's shattering it, the effect is, instead, of a guy flying through a weak prop. When Neo gets slammed into a wall for the billionth time, I'm not thinking, "Wow, what a strong hit!" Rather, the thought is, "Boy, what weak walls!"

The only time a fall ever looked like it really hurt was in the first one when Neo falls on the floor of the subway station (near the tracks). The floor doesn't give at all, so you know he fell on real concrete. So much more effective than if the floor had cracked or buckled! In the same scene he's slammed into one of the walls, and he slams Smith into the ceiling. Neither of those looked like they hurt, because the walls gave way like it was 1/4" dry-wall over soft isulation.

The solution is to sell these hits better. If someone hits a prop, it should give far less than it usually does in these movie. If he punches a wall, maybe MAYBE show a little crack; don't let his hand pass right through 6" of concrete. Showing the prop stop the hand will be a lot more effective in selling the reality of the prop. If a guy gets thrown into a statue, don't have the statue completely give way and break into a million pieces. Everyone will think it's made out of styrofoam. Have him bounce off, or knock it over. Same for a tree: he should bounce off, not snap the tree in half. And, if you have to have the prop shatter (bench break, wall crumble, log snap), show the effect of it on the actor! Don't have the actor just fly through the bench like it's dust! Maybe only a leg of the table breaks, and you show the actor bounce off the rest, hurting his back. Something like that will tell me, "Dang! That was a real hit! It must have hurt!" It broke the table leg, but you could see that it was "real" by the way the actor's body interacted physically with it.

This is a companion to this post, Making Movies Better: The Reeling Fall.

Comic Con 2009

2009-08-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

Amy and I had a great time at Comic Con this year. Here's the run-down:

Friday - (nerd-shirt worn: Catscratch by Doug TenNapel)
- drove down, intended to make copyright panel, but hit traffic, so we stopped at my parents' house and hung out for a bit.
- met up with Biola friends Tawney and Elizabeth for dinner in North Park (San Diego). Good Mexican food place. There were rainbow banners everywhere because it had just been Pride Week, I think. Honestly, every single storefront on that street had one. Pity the poor business that didn't order theirs in time.
- Elizabeth then drove us to Eisners (comic book award - like the Academy Award for comics). Eisners were next door to the Convention Center at the Hilton. Got there in plenty of time. Sat with forum friends Ethan (nominated for Best Humor Publication for his book Chumble Spuzz 2, the one I have a pin-up in!), Ethan's brother and co-writer Isaiah, Ruiz and his girlfriend Brenda, and some others. Doug and Sean McGowan found us.

Eisners were boring, slowly paced, but Patton Oswalt and Reno 911 guys (presenters) were funny. One award was accepted on the winner's behalf by a guy dressed in a silver cape and t-shirt that said, "Yes, I am a Gay Robot." He gave a really long and incredibly unfunny acceptance speech. Doug had us rolling with his comments about winners and presenters throughout the ceremony. Ruiz was laughing hysterically at bad presenters and long-winded acceptance speeches. This old Mad Magazine writer was given a lifetime achievement award and went on for 20 minutes. Ethan didn't win (bummer!). We all left after that.
- Eric Peterson, Isaiah Nicolle and I were going to go surfing Saturday morning (like last year), but I forgot my cell phone and wasn't able to arrange boards or coordinate a meeting time, so we decided to do it on Sunday instead.

Saturday - (nerd-shirt worn: Ninjas Everywhere by Scott C)
- wanted to go to Chuck panel, but got there at 9:45 and line was already closed off. Didn't know floor opened at 9, either. So, Amy and I started walking the floor, aisle by aisle. Saw John Kricfalusi and Kali in booth. Said hi to Kali and told her I admired her skill. She was flattered I recognized her. She was very nice.
- bought a shirt from Giant Robot booth (another Deth P. Sun shirt - the blue one)

- met Scott C, who saw my shirt, exclaimed. Asked him for a cowboy monkey sketch. He did a great one.

Amy bought one of his prints.

Very nice guy. We talked about Bodie.
- met up with Hethe for lunch. It was good catching up.
- went by Doug's booth. Doug wasn't there, said hi to Eric Branscum, a friend from the forum and Sockbaby 4. Browsed Doug's original art pages.

- found this awesome prop of a fictional gun from a comic called 13 Chambers.

- came across some cowboy dudes.

- went to Behemoth booth, got picture with Orange Princess (what a nice gal!), got Barbarian sketch from Dan Paladin.

- went to annual Hodown with TenNapel and forum buddies. Doug bought us all chimichangas. Met Dave Nielson, who happens to live in Carlsbad and happens to know Hethe! Nice guy, we gave him a ride home. Josh Kenfield attended his first ever, and we hung out with Frankie for a bit, too. Also chatted with Eric Brown. And several other good friends from the forum.

Sunday - (nerd-shirt worn: Gear by Doug)
- got up at 5:30am to meet up with Eric, Isaiah, and Eric's wife Shayla for surfing. Only got a hold of one extra longboard, so gave those to Eric and Shayla, while Isaiah and I took shortboards. The waves were huge that weekend, but we went to Teramar, which doesn't face the south, so the waves were medium to small. Didn't stay out for that long, but had a good time. Water was really warm. Isaiah and I took the longboards when Eric and Shayla were done and caught a few fun rides.
- got down to the Con early to help Doug work booth. Amy dropped me off and went to find parking. Got on the floor by 8:30am with Exhibitor badge and walked floor with Doug for a bit, admiring artwork. Went back to the booth at 9 when floor opened to everyone else.
- watched Doug interact with some atheist/agnostic fans. Very graciously done. Planted a good seed.
- Doug's wife Angie came by and we talked about her days of airplane piloting (!).

- met a guy who made an escrima movie because he was inspired by Sockbaby. Nice dude.
- met a girl who is a producer for Xbox in WA. Another friendly person. Amy was there and we all had a good time chatting. She and Amy shared a "Mid-West Girls" bond.
- sold a lot of Doug's limited Earthworm Jim prints. Sold out of Jim, still had a couple Evil the Cat at the end.

- at the end of the day, we helped Doug pack up and took off for home! Had a great carnitas meal with the folks and bros.

There are many more pictures from our Con experience on Amy's Facebook, too.

Jerk means "idiot" or "mean person"?

2009-07-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

The terms "jerk" and "a--hole" have meant "mean person" to me as far back as I can remember. Those were the earliest playground definitions. But watching older movies (sometime in the 80s and earlier), I've noticed that they both used to mean "idiot." Steve Martin's The Jerk is an obvious example. I always thought that movie was about a guy who was, well, a jerk. A person who was unkind for selfish and douche-y reasons. It wasn't until I finally saw it that I realized it meant The Idiot.

Watching Spaceballs as a younger kid was similarly confusing. (I shouldn't have been watching it at that age in the first place, of course, but that's what friends' houses are for.) There's a whole bit when Dark Helmet discovers that a large portion of his crew is made up of cross-eyed morons, all of whom possess the surname "A--hole." I didn't get why these dumb guys were called that. They weren't mean, they were stupid!

I don't know when the transition from "idiot" to "mean person" took place, but I don't know anyone that still uses those terms in the earlier sense anymore, so it seems to have been a universal shift. Anyone else notice this? When did the change occur?

Minor brush with celebrity

2009-07-02T13:13:00.001-07:00

I recently discovered that Zoë from the band Looner is the daughter of famous film score composer Basil Poledouris! I met her a few years ago.

Zoë and her husband Angel emailed me, said they really liked my art and asked if I'd be interested in doing some for an album cover. They had seen this image on Google Image Search:

It's titled "Bah-loon" on my website and I guess it came up when they searched for "looner" or "loon." I then went to one of their shows and met them and we seemed to hit it off. They were both very nice and enthusiastic about working together. We corresponded a bit via email as I worked on thumbnails for them. Then we picked one that we decided on as a final, which I finished and sent over.

I didn't hear anything back for a while, so I emailed them again, and got a really weird and short message back. Something about a friend or associate dying and them moving to another state. No, "hey, thanks for the work," no "sorry, we've decided to go in a different direction," nothing. Just a statement of fact and no further contact. They'd been using one of my images in their promo material for a while, and continued to do so after breaking off contact, but I waited a bit and they eventually removed it all.

It was a bummer because I liked the concept we worked out and we got along well. It was one of the more fun projects to work on, simple though it is. I still have a t-shirt and CD they gave me that night.

Poor cover art for "Western" from Accent UK

2009-07-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

By gum, it's been a while since my last complaint.

And man have there been a lot of Western comics lately. Two new anthologies just popped on my radar (this one and Outlaw Territory), and I just saw that they're making a The Good, Bad, and the Ugly comic (the preview doesn't grab me, and I may write a post about the ridiculous break-top 1851 Navy seen in one of the panels).

The subject of today's post is the cover to Western, drawn by Kirk Manley.

My problems are only with the guns. First off, you have the shell ejectors (the tubes along the undersides of the barrels), which, on an actual SAA (the gun I'm assuming Manley is trying to depict), are actually located along the south-western side of the barrel (from this view). The picture below reveals this beautifully.

On later double-action revolvers, where the cylinders swung out, the ejector rod was moved to the position Manley depicted. But on SAAs, you can't push a shell out through the center of the cylinder, so the ejection takes place right there through the open loading gate (as show above). A lot of artists are guilty of substituting double-action revolver characteristics on their cowboy guns (as I've pointed out in the past). While the ejector housing location isn't a huge sin, it still demonstrates a lack of research and reference.

Other minor sins include the fact that the ejector rod looks hollow, like another barrel. The back of the trigger-guard also appears to connect with the grip, which is incorrect for any revolver. It looks like a revolver top welded to a 1911 grip (the pistol on the right is a clearer example). The pattern on the grip, too, was not common on revolvers back then.

But the biggest sin of Manley's should be obvious to the layman. Did you find it yet? Take a look at the grips. Look at where they enter the top of the fist and where they exit out the bottom. See it? It looks like this cowboy is squeezing those grips so hard they're coming out the bottom of his fists like a gooey piece of taffy. It's really obvious on the right side. Doesn't that look horrible? The grips are way too long. Even if they were structured correctly, you wouldn't see that much grip coming out of the bottom of his hand. The length combined with the way they bend forward towards the viewer makes for a really poorly referenced drawing that is glaringly bad once you're aware of it. Not only is the gun anatomically incorrect, but Manley didn't use reference of a hand holding a gun.

I also wonder if Matt will have something to say about the font used for the title. Isn't it that same over-used font that we saw in the Man with No Name comic?

The Hit (1984)

2009-06-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

After the long (and ongoing!) discussion on Nobody's blog about No Country For Old Men, I couldn't stop comparing that movie to Stephen Frear's 1984 film The Hit. Both movies feature cold hit men and both use their characters to explore how people approach death.

The basic plot is that a "supergrass" (epic stool pigeon, played by Terence Stamp) who squealed on his former boss in exchange for immunity has been captured 10 years later in Spain. The two hit men, wonderfully played by Tim Roth and John Hurt, are taking him to Paris for execution. It's a bit of a road trip movie, and a lot happens along the way. The most important event is when they pick up a young woman named Maggie (Laura del Sol) as a bit of insurance against a colleague ratting them out.

Hurt's character (Braddock) is a seemingly emotionless professional hit man who is getting on in years. He wears dark sunglasses indoors and out, and despite his cool demeanor and professionalism, makes several mistakes. Roth (Myron) is a new kid, taken along on his first hit as Braddock's protege, eager to prove he has what it takes, yet obviously wet behind the ears and easily manipulated. Stamp (Willie) walks through the entire movie with a calm acceptance and a bit of playful maliciousness towards his fate and captors. His demeanor mystifies both Braddock and Myron. He cites his 10 years of book reading as the foundation for his new outlook on life and death.

**spoilers begin with the comparison of Braddock to Chigurh below**

Myron thinks he's ready to see death, to deal it, but each time he is given the opportunity he avoids it. By the end he's not so sure he wants to be a hit man at all. And, of course, he has no idea when it's coming for him, and his last words as Braddock's bullet goes through his eye are, "What's this?"

Willie has read books about life and death for 10 years, and seems very confident in his understanding of them. He goes along willingly (after his initial struggle when he is captured) for the entire ride, and even refuses to escape when given the opportunity. He seems to enjoy being "above" everyone else and mischievously causing trouble with Braddock and Myron. His mischief isn't innocent, either, as he gets a man killed by suggesting to Braddock that a particular man will squeal. He knew exactly what Braddock would do, and that it wouldn't affect his own fate at all, but he still does it. Yet, at the very end, when Braddock decides to execute everyone before they've crossed the border, Willie breaks down. He insists that he was supposed to die in Paris, according to the plan, and runs off, getting shot in the back. Braddock's response to Willie's change of heart is an incredulous, "You mouth!" Willie thought he had learned to accept death, but when he finally came face to face with it, it undid him. We'll never know how he would have responded had he actually met it in Paris as expected.

Braddock is the only figure of the group that actually deals death. I don't think he represents death as cleanly as Chigurh does, but he is clearly its agent. He knows he can't escape it forever, so he seems to have resigned himself to being its tool. He probably thinks that as its agent he has more control over his own time and place. His puzzlement at Willie's acceptance makes him question his own beliefs about death. He thought he understood it, but here is a man who doesn't seem to fear it at all. This causes him to question himself throughout the movie, and make "mistakes" that he normally wouldn't have, like sparing Maggie several times. Even after Willie shows his true colors and shatters the illusion that had been building, Braddock still ultimately spares Maggie, perhaps because she saw it coming and refused to accept it; she even physically fights Braddock on several occasions. Braddock is perhaps hopeful to retain the tiniest sliver of his humanity by sparing Maggie. Or, maybe he just respected her will to live. Minutes later, as he lay dying because of letting Maggie go, he winks at her, and has no choice but to accept his fate.

**end spoilers**

There's more to it than I've laid out here (I haven't mentioned the stylish production -- location, music, etc.), but that was the most interesting aspect to me, and I'd be curious to hear anyone else's opinion (especially you, Nobody).

Pook stuff

2009-06-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

Frankie complained last weekend that I don't post my own stuff very often, and he's right. I usually only post finished stuff, which I don't do all that often, though I sketch all the time. So here are some sketches concerning my Pook comic.

First up is Miner Tom. I don't know if he'll be in the final book or not, but I liked the little doodle (mostly because it had a background that looked ok and I don't do those very often). As you can see, I did it almost a year ago.
Next is one of the pooks. I like the proportions on this guy, and for some reason I don't always get them looking right when I'm actually putting them down in the comic. They're very simple, but there are certain aspects that have to be right for them to have the right appeal I'm going for. The size and shape of the body, the eye level, and the legs are the major ones (what else is there, actually?). This one also has a nice invented background. Very simple, but at least it looks like he's in an environment.

Last weekend in San Diego I tried to come up with some possible covers. I wanted something with a conceptual hook and decent composition.

This first one is ok, though with the title at the top I think it might function a bit better. Also, you can't see that the fuse is lit.
This next one is the same concept, but a different composition. It highlights the concept a lot better. Then I went for the "crowd scene." This image points directly to the nature of the pooks in the book, and I like the composition. For a final, I'd more clearly delineate the movement from dark to light coming from the end of the tunnel.
This last one isn't a very good cover or composition, but I included it just because there's are decent bar/hotel bits in the background.

I'll try and post more sketches soon.

Blast of Silence, 3 Days of the Condor

2009-06-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Blast of Silence (1961) - Great noir film. The story is simple: a hitman goes to New York to carry out a mob hit. Frankie Bono (played by Allen Baron, who also wrote and directed) is almost entirely detached from the rest of humanity, but when he accidentally meets someone who gives him a reason to exist, he begins doubting his vocation.

The narration in particular has to be unique, either inviting the viewer into the role of hit-man Frankie Bono, or else declaring Bono's thoughts to him (I gather this is 2nd person narration). I've never heard anything like it.

There are many beautiful shots in the movie. From the the train tunnel/womb opening shot, to the carefully framed picture of Frankie walking through New York alone, untouched by his environment save for the sidewalk beneath his feet. This second shot occurs directly after he is cut off from his last hope for human connection, and it's composed so that the frame is filled with "New York," buildings on either side, the street before him, but his tiny silhoutte is outlined only by a slim strip of sky. The shot's meaning is obvious, but it's such a great image.

**edit** Found the image online. Here you go:

The finale also stands out in it's choice of setting and the very real storm that was blowing through the location. Frankie goes to an abandoned fishing town along a marsh (still in NY) with a hurricane-force gale blowing rain and snow and hats and water everywhere. The storm was the sort of thing you find in a Kurosawa picture, but from what I could tell from the documentary, it was a real storm.

As a gun nerd I loved the scene where Frankie cleans and tests his silenced revolver. While I'm told that a silencer on a revolver would be ineffective because the chamber (cylinder) is not enclosed, it's still a cool image and concept and I won't let reality ruin that scene (or The Sting) for me.

Another memorable aspect was Larry Tucker's performance as weapons supplier Big Ralph. His physical presence combined with his unique delivery made for a great break from all the straight-faced sobriety.

There's also the jazzy soundtrack, which adds another distinct flavor the the film.

I could see Scorcese remaking this with a 30-year-old deNiro as Frankie. Or, heck, even a present-day deNiro (to give the story a different poignancy). Young Allen looks a bit like young Bobby.

3 Days of the Condor (1975) - Condor's just like Bourne, except instead of having incredible training that he's forgotten, he learned it all from books. He brings in an innocent girl to help him figure out why a covert governmental agency (that he used to work for) is trying to kill him.

Redford's character is great. The idea of a nerdy bookworm who can actually function as a formidable spy based solely on his knowledge is a neat concept, and it's cool to see all the little ways he uses his knowledge. It never felt gimmicky, either; when it occurs it doesn't draw attention to itself.

I rank 3 Days alongside Taking of Pelham in quality. The pacing, the acting, the suspense all have a similar feel. It's very well done.

The way that Dunaway falls for Redford isn't quite believable, but the actors do their best to sell it and it comes very close. It's a small leap, and doesn't spoil the movie.

Max von Sydow as the assassin Joubert was a cool character. His look reminded me of the disguises in Taking of Pelham, too -- mustache, hat, tan jacket, sub-machine gun. It's a little strange at the end when Redford and he get talking, though. Shouldn't Redford be upset about all his friends being murdered?

The "oil" revelation is kind of lame; when you have this great mystery built up, and it turns out "greed" was the reason, it's a little boring. I was hoping for something more complex and interesting.

I'm nit-picking. It's easier for me to complain than to praise, and the movie is quite good. I should note also that I saw it on Blu-Ray, and the picture quality is very nice.

Three ends: softball, the play, and lacrosse

2009-05-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

Three semester-long events ended in three days a few weeks ago: softball on Saturday, the play that night, and lacrosse the following Monday. We suddenly have evenings and weekends back (sort of -- they're full already with other things).

Softball: we lost, but it was a good close game. I tagged a guy out at home on a throw from the outfield from Robert (of the Tiffins). Great play, but the runner nailed my glove and my thumb has been jacked up since. Not sure if it's just a bad sprain or something worse.

I participated in the final lacrosse class, which was "Indian-style," meaning (almost) no rules. No out-of-bounds, tackling is allowed, no crease, you can grab each others' sticks, etc. It was a lot of fun. I somehow played without hurting my thumb further. Got tackled a few times, helped a few tackles, scored a few goals. Lots of funny moments (girls tackling huge guys, guys scaring girls, little guys tackling big guys, falls, ridiculous "cheating").

The play ended well. We had a great sell-out crowd for our final performance, and we all felt we did well. Sad that it's over, but happy to not have three hour rehearsals every night.

Our activities we're starting up again are bocce ball on Wednesdays at work, and movie night with the Prices every other week.

Red Steel 2

2009-05-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

Way back when the Wii was first announced and demoed, I was super excited. My excitement tipped over into mania when Red Steel was announced: a first-person shooter that had samurai sword fights. Sword fighting with the Wii's motion sensitive controllers? AWESOME! 1-to-1 motion sensing!

Then the game came out and apparently sucked, so I never even rented it. The Wii's motion-sensing capabilities were not up to the task of translating your motion into sword movement accurately. What a let-down.

But now that the Wii Motion Plus is coming out, they've announced Red Steel 2, in which you will play as, wait for it, cowboy-ish dude with an Old West revolver and samurai sword! The Wii Motion Plus is supposed to make the controller much better, giving it the full range we all thought the original was supposed to have. So now, 1-to-1 sword fights are possible? I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I will be awaiting the reviews with a bit of that original enthusiasm I felt a few years ago.

Dear diary: recent sports

2009-05-07T14:51:00.001-07:00

First up: softball. Pirate Monkeys! Our season is almost over. We made it into the playoffs merely by existing (our record is 1-6 or something). But we're actually a good team. We've often lost by only one run, so the playoffs aren't a completely laughable prospect. Amy joined the team again this year (my Amy, I mean), which has been fun. Josh and Ben have also come up for a few games (mostly Josh). I've been pitcher again this year, which I like. Got my first pitching wound a few weeks ago when I caught a line-drive off the shins, though. Ironically, it was during our game against a team whose pitcher we nailed the same way last year.

Second: lacrosse. I've been joining Josh's Monday night classes for a few weeks now. I really enjoy it, but I realize I'm intruding on a class I'm not taking, so I try to switch out and play goalie at least once per game (goalie being an unpopular position).

Last night I joined a handful of guys from the Biola team in a scrimmage against La Mirada High School. While I was in horrible shape, it was still a lot of fun. Scored one easy goal at the very end on a pass from Billy. The McMahan brothers have been helping out with the LM team for a little while now. The LM guys seem like a good group. Very enthusiastic about the sport, and they show promise.

(This post is mostly for my own benefit. I often forget about details, so I like reading back through old posts.)

Big Movie Rundown

2009-05-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted a review since The Taking of Pelham, but I've seen loads. So I'll rundown all the ones I can remember.

The Watchmen (2009) - I wrote a much longer review back when I first saw it, but never got around to finishing it. To sum up: the movie adds too much ugliness to an already bleak rumination on human nature and morality. There is some good stuff, but I was too distracted by the ridiculous sex and violence. And I liked 300! Gets most of the characters right, although I swear I heard Malin Akerman say, "it's 'ike," (instead of "it's like") exposing some sort of carry-over from her high school years. Impressive for gathering so much of the dense graphic novel into a cohesive movie, but it's not something I'll watch again any time soon.
The Burrowers (2008) - Great premise. Coulda been a great movie, but none of the characters were interesting and the story doesn't do much. Of note is the natural landscape the director chose for shooting, and the creature design. The titular burrowers looked like humanoid potato-bugs, which grossed me the heck out. Of interest: three of the featured actors also appeared in LOST (Clancy Brown [Kelvin Inman], William Mapother [Ethan!], and Doug Hutchison [Goodspeed]).
The Lady from Shanghai (1948) - Jeri picked this for our last Movie Night event, and it was a great one. I actually didn't know it was directed by Welles until we saw the credits, but it made a lot of sense. The movie is full of clever and stylish direction. This was my first Rita Hayworth movie, and now I understand why Andy Dufrane chose her for his poster. Move over, Grace Kelly.
Inherit the Wind (1960) - Superb film-making that unfortunately sets up several straw men for (the excellent) Tracy to knock down. Relies on these straw men and hammy villains to make its point, which hurts its message.
The Wages of Fear (1953) - The opening shot with the bugs reminded me of The Wild Bunch; I wonder if Peckinpah was referencing Wages? The story structure of Wages also reminded me of The Lady Vanishes, which I recently watched again. Each movie begins with an extended introduction to the characters (that drags a little -- get to the lady vanishing/truck driving, it's been 30 minutes!), then the start of the second act reveals the real hook of the movie. The second act also leaves behind completely the introductory setting and several of the characters. Wages succeeds as a tension-filled thriller; I'm not particularly interested in whatever political message it had.

I was fascinated by the number of languages spoken in the first act, as well as the number of characters who spoke them. An interesting collection for this small South American town.

I read one critic who compared Wages to Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which I think is very appropriate. Fred Dobbs would have fit right in with Mario.

The movie begins and ends with nihilism. Life sucks and then you die. So, while the whole driving sequence is captivating, the movie's worldview sucks.

Samurai Rebellion (1967) - Some very captivating imagery and editing. A compelling samurai story as well. Mifune is fun to watch, as ever, as is Nakadai (though less-seen than Mifune). I loved the opening shots that alternated focus between the sword and Mifune's face. Also interesting were the freeze frame edits of Lady Ichi's attacking the mistress.
To Be or Not To Be (1983) - Fun movie. I liked watching Charles Durning and Christopher Lloyd. I'm curious about the earlier version.
The Wrestler (2008) - Very compelling and well-made film. When you think you have the story pegged, it surprises you. Realistic but not nihilistic, in film terms. Rourke and Tomei create sympathetic characters that break your heart. If it wasn't for the strip-club setting in which a lot of the movie takes place, I'd be able to recommend it to more people.
Lifeboat (1944) - Great Hitchcock. What a challenging concept to film! All the actors really step up to the plate to bring this story to life.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - Michael Rennie's performance was my favorite part of the movie. This is good science fiction.
Changeling (2008) - Great story that Eastwood tells well. I couldn't watch during the murder scene, though. Egads, I think we could have done without that.
The Outsiders: The Complete Novel (1983) - I hadn't seen this one since 8th grade when we got to watch it after reading the book. The Outsiders is a bunch of young actors struggling to act. While some of their natural awkwardness might have fit their performances, I found myself distracted by it most of the time. However, it's still a good story, and mostly entertaining. And what a collection of future stars!
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) - Interesting little film. Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan both deserve to be recognized for their performances. Poppy is a great character. While she was almost absurdly positive, she wasn't ditzy; she was smart, and took serious things (like the kid in her class) seriously.
Role Models (2008) - Funny movie.
Red River (1948) - Very good movie made even better by Montgomery Clift's performance. His style of acting in this movie actually seemed out of place compared with his costars. It was very natural, less stagy than your average 1948 line delivery.
The Tin Star (1957) - A compelling set-up and great performances from Fonda, Perkins, and Brand make this 1957 Western stand out from others of the era. Intriguing shot choices by Mann, too.
Layer Cake (2004) - I rewatched this one on Blu-Ray, and aside from a few seconds of "I wish it wasn't there" sex at the beginning, this is a finely crafted British gangster movie. Suffers from none of the excesses of Snatch or Lock Stock (both of which I like), and remains very entertaining.
Taken (2009) - The plot is paper-thin, but the quick and brutal action will have you exclaiming "HOLY CARP!" aloud and often. Makes Bourne's quick-thinking take-downs look kindly and delicate (and I like Bourne).
Conan the Barbarian (1981) - Boobs, blood, and bad acting. Cleverly cast to make Arnold the most dynamic actor on-screen. I mean, who casts surfer Gerry Lopez as Arnold's sidekick in a fantasy epic? To be fair to Lopez, he came off better than Sandahl Bergman as Valeria.

Only three performances left

2009-05-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend we wrapped up another four performances of Charley's Aunt. The play is going very well. We've been getting great audiences and it's been really fun. A good chunk of family came up this weekend to see it.

If you want to catch it, we've got this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm left.

TenNapel's Ghostopolis to star Hugh Jackman!

2009-05-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Doug Tweeted this over the weekend:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i06056b3e43453484607160b8e9c6c0f8

Pretty big news for him.

Pictures from dress rehearsal

2009-04-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

Sean (Shawn?), the multi-talented guy who set up all the light cues for our play, took some pictures at our first dress rehearsal. Above is a picture of Randall and I having a chat about proposing to a rich old lady.

This picture really captures a certain mood of the play. From left to right are Brenton, Jonathan, and Randall, playing Charley, Babbs, and Jack, respectively.

The Chimes is supposed to be in attendance tonight to get pictures, so if I find some good ones of the girls and the rest of the cast I'll post them.

Oh yeah! Opening night went really well. We had a good audience and everyone did very well. It was fun. Another coming up tonight with some good friends in the audience.

Charley's Aunt opens tonight!

2009-04-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

Last night was preview night, and it went well for a half-packed room. Heard some good laughter (especially from my wife, who, if you've heard her, has a distinct and not quiet laugh when something really tickles her).

Tonight is opening night! Show-times and tickets can be found here. I've got some friends coming to Friday's show, and a good chunk of my family is coming next Saturday.

I think the show has turned out really well; I think you'll have a great time if you come.

Oh, I don't think I mentioned it on this blog: I'm no longer playing Brassett the butler (my friend Robert Tiffin has taken that role). I'm now playing Sir Francis Chesney, Jack's father. There were some complications with casting about a month into rehearsals, but it's turned out just fine.

The Green Religion

2009-04-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

My dad pointed me to an article in the newest Carlsbad Magazine by Tim Wrisley, entitled "Green Revolution." Check out this paragraph:

"I have heard some people actually say that global warming is a myth. These must be the same people that told Columbus that the earth is flat, the Internet was just a fad, or leave your 401(k) alone, it will be fine. The point is, you simply have to look around and see that we are starting to overstay our welcome on the big, blue marble. Our landlord is going to ask us to leave soon if we don't change some our nasty habits."

Listen to his tone. Such devotion to the cause! Such derision for the unbelievers. "Some people actually say . . . probably the same people who thought the earth was flat . . . " So all these guys are flat-earthers too, right? This isn't a rational position, it's a religious one. He has strong faith, and anyone who questions his religion must be a heretic.

While we're on the subject, I can't be the only one sick of seeing the "Green" label pasted around absolutely everywhere. It has replaced "Low Carb" as the most obvious and annoying marketing trend. Greenists need their own Charlie Brown character to bemoan the commercialization of Earth Day. Is nothing sacred? They've robbed a spiritual holiday of its true significance. Instead of bringing glory and honor to Mother Earth they're just trying to sell you their product by telling you on the package that they recycle all of their employees' solid waste.

I do believe we (as Christians) should be good stewards of our resources. I like recycling (when I'm able), I don't like pollution, I like decreasing waste, I like all the new more efficient cars and appliances and other technology we're developing.

However, I don't attach a spiritual significance to these things. Taking in my cans isn't a sacrament. For a materialist, it makes sense that being Green is the equivalent of being holy. If there's nothing to life but particles, then protecting particles is the highest good one can aspire to. (Side-note: in what strikes me as eerily similar to naive church people over-reacting to the perceived dangers of Harry Potter, I see greenies over-reacting to the slightest perceived threat to "Mother Earth.")

But for a Christian, the material world isn't all there is. Recycling isn't the highest Good. We know that souls are more valuable than renewable energy and organic lice-infested tomatoes. So I get a little worried when I see Christians following the latest cultural trend with almost religious fervor. Remember, guys, we shouldn't look to culture to inform our values. We look to God. We look to His Word. It's a good thing to have light bulbs that use less energy, it's great to recycle, and I love the idea of more efficient cars (hybrid, electric, running on Dimetap, whatever). Efficiency and decreased waste are awesome and practical! But they aren't the highest good, and falling in lock-step with a cultural trend is dangerous, especially when the culture pushing the trend has a materialist worldview with different values at its core.

(I found the Green equivalent of a Christian comic: Betty & Veronica go Green! Read the description. Sounds more painful than any ham-fisted evange-comic I've ever read.)

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

2009-03-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Great little movie.

New York subway car Pelham 123 is hijacked by four identically dressed and armed men lead by Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw). They hold seventeen hostages on the car and demand one million dollars within an hour or they will begin executing hostages. Lt. Garber (Walter Matthau) is the transit cop on duty who must handle the situation.

Though the idea of hijacking a subway is unique, it's still a rather basic hook. The excellence lies in the execution. The story takes all kinds of interesting little turns. The movie drops you in right as the hijacking begins. No background about the planning or characters yet. As the movie progresses we are still only given hints and short glimpses into the characters' backgrounds. Why would anyone hijack a subway? It's underground, with limited exits. If these hijackers are so smart, how do they plan on getting away? This is the great mystery that we ponder with Garber.

The characters are full of subtly textured details. Mr. Blue has a British accent and mentions a military background. Mr. Green (Martin Balsam) is conflicted and uncomfortable about the whole affair, and I wondered what his recruitment looked like. Mr. Grey appears to be a misanthropic loose cannon, and when Mr. Blue confesses (early on in the caper, I might add) to Mr. Green that he distrusts Grey, I was led again to wonder at the recruitment process, especially given Mr. Blue's penchant for strict planning and control. Mr. Brown (Earl Hindman) is mostly a mystery, but he has a stutter and possibly a professional history with Mr. Green.

On the other side of the law we have Lt. Garber, who is introduced to us giving four Japanese visitors a boring tour of central transit control. Matthau plays Garber in his good old subdued Matthau way. I believed he genuinely cared about the situation and the passengers' lives, but he keeps his emotions pretty low-key (save for one scene where he finally explodes at an irate transit controller played by Dick O'Neill). I thought it was a good performance which played to Matthau's strengths and fit both his character and the tone of the movie. Two humorous scenes really highlighted the core of his character for me, but describing them would spoil a lot. They occur towards the end and involve Matthau's interactions with two of the hijackers separately.

The large and colorful supporting cast is also quite fun. I won't name them all, but some highlights include a younger Jerry Stiller as Lt. Rico Patrone and Doris Roberts as the mayor's wife.

The direction (by Joseph Sargent) and pacing are very well done, and it was refreshing to see such a story told without the sort of pounding musical cues, forced emotional conflicts and obvious story/character details that I'm expecting from the Tony Scott remake. (I suspect even Nobody will have a difficult time apologizing for that one.) The direction lets the viewer decide their reaction to the characters and story rather than being obviously manipulative. Movies are all about manipulation, of course, but Sargent keeps his choices subtle. The script allows some natural humor, but doesn't shy away from a few bits of dark violence that enforce the movie's intention to be a serious crime flick rather than light-hearted caper. Mr. Blue's last scene is particularly memorable and shocking.

While I'm sure I'm the millionth person to discover this, I noticed that Tarantino took some inspiration from Pelham for Reservoir Dogs. In both films, the villains are codenamed for colors and all dress identically for the crime. I loved the costumes worn by the hijackers in Pelham. Each wears a drab coat, a mustache, glasses, and a hat. Combined with the nasty looking machine guns, the ensemble makes for quite a memorable image. (Speaking of the guns, they were S&W M76s, the same kind that Ledger carried as The Joker in The Dark Knight. While Googling I found a site called the Internet Movie Firearms Database, which is a great site for movie nerds who are also gun nerds, like me.)

I heartily recommend a rental. The DVD from 2000 is, unfortunately, non-anamorphic, so if you have a widescreen TV, be prepared for either a tiny picture or some fiddling and a slightly stretched picture. I hope that, with the release of the remake, we'll see a Blu-Ray release of the original like we did with The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Public Enemies trailer

2009-03-04T15:10:00.000-08:00

So far, this movie tops my Most Anticipated of 2009 list (holla, Shane!). The ingredients are excellent: Christian Bale, Johnny Depp, Michael Mann, 30s America setting, gangster story.

Here's the first trailer, just released today.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

2009-02-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was a disappointment. It wasn't as funny as its partners (40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad) and had a lot more raunchy stuff than I was willing to put up with, which is saying something when you consider that I liked the others. Maybe that sounds a bit stupid, but that was how I came out of it.

The story is fine. It's a break-up story, and Segal has written some unique and honest perspectives into it. While the overtones are conventional, it has good story structure and follows an arc.

Some of the characters feel a bit abandoned, though. We get a good conclusion for the Peter and Rachel, and the jerky-yet-somehow-sympathetic Snow, but Sarah Marshall gets dumped by the characters and the story, and even some of the supporting characters the movie invested time in are simply left out. Jonah Hill's Matthew the Waiter is present in most of the movie as a star-struck struggling musician who gives Snow his demo, and the last time we see him is when Snow blows him off. And that's it. He's mostly there for laughs, but it felt like we got to see too much of a character for him to be left there. Jack McBrayer's Darald the newlywed is also around for the whole movie, relating to the main characters his sexual struggles with his new wife. When a movie actually cuts away to detail a character's problems, you expect them to have some meaning and find a conclusion. But apparently they were only there to pad out the laughs until we didn't need them anymore and could conclude the main story. The other Apatow movies usually have characters like this as well. Weird and funny side characters who only appear for a short time, and occasionally reappear at opportune times, but Matthew and Darald had too much invested in them to be left off (mostly Darald -- we only saw exactly what Matthew did in front of the main characters, so I'd accept him as casual casualty).

A pleasant surprise was Mila Kunis, because before Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I only knew her from That 70s Show and Family Guy, and she seemed capable of only one style of delivery. But here she shows she is indeed a genuine actress, capable of creating a sympathetic and believable character with natural delivery. Her performance in That 70s Show always came off very shallow and limited, and I assumed that was due to her abilities and not the character. Apologies, Mila!

Agadoni on DeviantArt

2009-02-19T10:56:00.000-08:00

Deviant Art is a community site for illustrators. It's been around for quite a while now, but I've never joined it. In my "Agadoni" Googling, I found this, the Deviant site of some girl from Norway.

Maybe Agadoni means something in Norse? But then why don't I get any other hits from Norse websites when searching?

So, if people search for "Agadoni art" online, they're either going to find my stuff or MS Paint drawings of Sonic the Hedgehog's best friends.

Albert Agadoni obituary and follow-up

2009-02-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

**Edit** Found a follow-up on the same site. See the 2nd half of this post.

Every once in a while I Google "Agadoni" because all the hits relate directly to my family. New stuff pops up from time to time, and this morning it was an obituary for Albert Agadoni, my great grandfather who died in 1932. My grandfather had told me that he drowned when he was little, but I'd never heard all the details until reading this.

"Albert Agadoni is Drowned in Fall From Sea Cliff - Albert Agadoni, until a few weeks ago a Patterson resident, was drowned Tuesday afternoon when he fell from a cliff into the ocean about a mile and a half from Davenport, north of Santa Cruz. Agadoni had left Sunnyvale, where he has a service station, that morning for a day's sea-fishing, accompanied by his brother in-law, James Fasola, and William Brill of Sunnyvale. They had established themselves on the cliff and were busy fishing when Jim went some way off for a better position. Looking across the rocks, he suddenly noticed that Albert had vanished, the only trace left being his hat floating on the waves. Waves were dashing high at that point and Fasola's theory was that Agadoni had seen a wave sweep up from behind on the point where he sat and had involuntarily dodged and lost his footing. Searching parties were organized as soon as possible to hunt for the body, a party of Sunnyvale American Legion members going over to aid Frank Totman of Santa Cruz, brother-in-law of the deceased, sighted the remains once and attempted to catch them in a net he had in the boat but was unsuccessful and the body disappeared again. Agadoni's handkerchief, pipe and pocket book were recovered from the water, however. The dangerous cliffs, rough water and beds of seaweed along the coast at that point made the search difficult and dangerous. Charles Gustafson, father of Mrs. Agadoni, has made a couple of trips over to render aid, and brought the three children back, but Mrs. Agadoni is staying at the coast till the hunt is successful. The deceased was 39 years of age, a native of Switzerland, and had been in this country about twenty years, much of the time in this vicinity. He was a leading worker in the activities of the Stanislaus County Swiss club, being secretary for a number of years, and was also active in the work on the Patterson Legion Post. Beside the wife and children, he is survived by his parents, living in Switzerland, and eleven brothers and sisters, most of whom reside in the East. Mrs. Fasola and Mrs. Totman, James Agadoni of Sunnyvale and Charles Agadoni of San Francisco are the brothers and sisters residing in this state."

"Patterson Irrigator, 08/05/1932, p. 2 - A hand protruding from the waves at almost the same spot where he lost his life, led to the recovery of the body of Albert Agadoni, former Patterson rancher, Sunday morning, along the ocean shore near Davenport. The discovery was made by Chas. Gustafson of Patterson, father-In-law of the deceased, a member of the large party of searchers that has maintained a five-day vigil in that area following the mishap In which Agadoni lost his life on the preceding Tuesday. The exact manner of his death will remain a mystery, but he fell from the high cliff on which he was fishing in some manner. Following the inquest, the remains were brought to Patterson, funeral services being held at Sacred heart Church Tuesday morning with Rev. A. Martins presiding. Agadoni had been an active worker with both the Stanislaus County - Swiss Club, of which he was secretary for a number of years, and the American Legion, and a large turnout of members of both organizations lined in the services. Members of the Legion comprised the pall-bearers and the Legion firing squad took part in the final rites at the grave in the family plot in Del Puerto Cemetery."

"Have you tried our Leone?"

2009-02-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

A friend from Biola commissioned this from me. I don't know what he's going to use it for. Please excuse the spelling of "Leone"; I originally thought it was supposed to refer to a made-up pasta that sounded like Leone. I used a brush pen on bristol board.

Creepy horse

2009-02-14T10:43:00.001-08:00

I drew this in yesterday's staff meeting. I haven't posted any drawings in a while, so figured this weird thing was as good as any.

Annoying childhood posters

2009-02-12T08:58:00.001-08:00

When I was in elementary school, I remember seeing posters, ads, etc. on the walls of my classrooms using a sort of descriptive language that didn't make much sense to me at the time. I accepted it, as I did most things of that sort, because "grown-ups made it, and they're smarter than me, so there must be a reason." I was reminded of these phrases recently and realized they were, indeed, stupid.

Por ejemplo:
"Make no bones about it!" - picture of a skeleton doing something
"Bone up on your reading!" - picture of skeleton reading
"Have a whale of a good time!" - picture of whale

As a kid, I had no idea that to "make bones," "bone up," or "have a whale" were real phrases that meant something beyond a reference to the picture on the poster. Nobody I knew used them, kid or adult. I thought the people designing these things just had a theme like Halloween or whales and made them up. If they wanted a monkey on it, they would just say, "Have a monkey of a good time!" Years later, I discovered that they were actual figures of speech, but I still don't know anyone who uses them. Thus, I conclude that the people who made these things for kids were stupid, because no kid uses or even knows about those phrases, so the puns aren't merely terrible, they're incomprehensible to their target audience.

Can anyone think of some others I'm forgetting?

Inscrutable Omen

2009-02-11T15:59:00.000-08:00

While driving back to work from lunch today, I saw a most bizarre combination of symbols driving in the opposite direction.

- A Prius
- With flame decals on the sides
- Driven by an old man

Any two of those combined makes for a slightly odd mixture, but all three has to mean something. But what??

Red Dead Redemption

2009-02-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

Most Exciting News of the Year Award goes to: the announcement of Red Dead Redemption, sequel to Red Dead Revolver, concept art by my very talented and deep voiced friend, Hethe.

From what I understand it is going to be like Grand Theft Auto in the Old West, which is pretty much exactly what my dreams sound like.

I really hope they release an art book, because a book full of Hethe art that is about cowboys is the gold bar that goes with the fist-sized diamond, if I may be allowed an incomprehensible metaphor.

Charley's Aunt

2009-02-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

I auditioned for the Biola Spring Play last week, and I am to play the part of Brassett the Butler in Charley's Aunt. I get to speak with an accent and grow mutton chops. Should be fun. Forrest Robinson is directing, and one of my friends from Fools is the stage manager. The play will be performed "in the round," which will be interesting. I don't think they've ever done that before at Theater 21.

Charley's Aunt is a British farce, first performed in 1892, about delightful romantic misunderstandings and a dude dressed like an old lady. It sounds like it'll be really funny. Interesting historical note from Wikipedia: "It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances."

Star Wars Force Trainer

2009-01-07T08:59:00.000-08:00

This is such a cool idea. I'm sure the novelty will wear off quickly, but I still want to buy this thing.

Recent movies - Wall-E, The Quiet Man, Quantum of Solace

2009-01-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

(I started this post back at the end of November, and finally got around to finishing it this morning.)

Wall-E (2008) - Finally caught this one while at home for Thanksgiving. It's a fun and cute movie. It's not up there with some of my other Pixar favorites for pure entertainment value (The Incredibles, Monster's Inc.), but it entertained me more than Cars and Ratatouille.

The environmental message wasn't as heavy-handed as I'd feared, so that was nice. It's certainly present (evidenced further by the environmentally safe DVD packaging it came in), but it was subtle and didn't preach in annoying ways.

I appreciated the unique folly of the human characters in the film. The sins of trashing the planet and destroying plants and animals (yawn) were present, but attributed to their forefathers (us -- we suck so bad you guys!). The sins of their descendants were sloth, complacency, a lack of human interaction, and a lack of awe for the universe. The way the man and woman reconnect was touching, and the captain fighting HAL (the first thing he's ever fought) was genuinely moving. It made me cheer out loud for him!

Everyone else has written about the romance between Wall-E and Eve, so I'll just say it was very well-done. They're both great characters.

The most interesting thing to me was reading the director's thoughts afterwards, and then this interpretation of the movie as being about Adam and Eve and sexual roles. Very interesting stuff.

The Quiet Man (1952) - Great story, characters, and setting.

Awful DVD transfer. Really terrible. It would be noticeable on a 12" black-and-white TV. Someone needs to find some good original elements and transfer this sucker right. I can only conjecture that, because this is a beloved Ford/Wayne collaboration, and because it hasn't been done yet, the restoration process would be quite expensive.

But the movie is charming enough to get past your eyeballs and into your heart. (Awww.) The story concerns Wayne's character returning to his childhood homestead in Ireland. As it turns out, he used to be a boxer of some renown in America, though we don't discover his reasons for leaving until much later. He discovers a local beauty, played by Maureen O'Hara, and falls instantly in love. The rest of the movie deals with their romance, which is encouraged by all the charming locals save for Maureen's thuggish brother, who despises Wayne because he was after the same spot of land.

Some of the great characters were the Father, the Reverend, and the well-meaning and mostly helpful drunk played with great scene-stealing skill by Barry Fitzgerald.

Quantum of Solace (2008) - I'd echo Nobody's and Jeri's reviews. I enjoyed it, it wasn't as great as Casino Royale, it played well as a direct sequel best viewed shortly after watching CR, some of the editing was annoying at the beginning, had some good action, I would still rather watch it any day over any of the Brosnan movies. (No disrespect to Brosnan, by the way; I like him, but his Bond movies were awful. I caught part of The World Is Not Enough on TV this week, and EESH. Why did anyone think Denise Richards should play that role?) Can anyone tell me if QoS is unique in the Bond catalog in that Bond never "has" the main Bond girl?

Surfboard art - "flee!"

2008-12-31T14:58:00.000-08:00

My brother Josh had me draw this on one of the surfboards he recently shaped. I used Sharpie paint pens. It's based on this drawing.

Recent drawing - Animator monkey

2008-12-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

Another friend commissioned me and several others to do some sort of portrait of his dad for Christmas. Here was my take. (Surprise surprise, a monkey.) His dad is an animator for Disney. I inked this one with a Winsor & Newton Series 7 #1.

Recent drawing - Maltese pup

2008-12-21T20:43:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine commissioned me to draw a Maltese pup for him, for a possible gift for his mom. I had a heck of time getting the face right in the first several drawings, because they're so darn fluffy and shapeless head-on, but I finally came up with one I was satisfied with. He wanted it simplified, so I toned down the shading quite a bit. I inked it with a brush pen.

Dead Irons - new Western comic

2008-12-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

I didn't read much of the article, but the covers captured my attention.

This first one is by Jason Shawn Alexander, and it's pretty great (wish that Dynamite logo would disappear, though). Nice composition and colors; overall good design.

This next one by Jae Lee is even better:

Great idea, great colors, great drawing. This cover would suck me in if I saw it on the rack. I'll probably check out the series, though Alexander's interior work didn't do a whole lot for me. I'd buy these two images as posters, though.

Auto-Tune! That's what it's called.

2008-12-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

Remember when I complained about "voice modulating" in music? I found out what its technical term is: Auto-Tune. Watch this SNL clip for an example.

Now the object of my hatred has a name.

Spider as payment

2008-12-02T08:57:00.000-08:00

This bit of correspondence is hi-larious.

I drew an awesome spider one time!

Recent movies - Sunshine, Speed Racer, Man with the Gun, The Alamo, Broken Arrow

2008-12-01T14:54:00.000-08:00

Sunshine (2007) - I think I added this one to the queue a while back based on Nobody and Jeri's reviews, but I didn't remember what they'd said until I went back and read them again after finishing the movie.

Sunshine makes a very strong case for Blu-ray. The visuals and sound design are very impressive. It's funny that Nobody mentioned that passage from Out of the Silent Planet in his review, because by odd coincidence I had re-read that book just a few weeks before watching Sunshine, and was thinking of similar things as I watched the movie.

Using the sun as a character in a sci-fi film was a great move. The sun provides a strong visual, a host of problems, the ultimate solution, the dichotomy of giving life and destroying it. More powerful than any other physical thing we know, yet, in the story, tiny humans are needed to save it. The sheer scale of each of its attributes dwarfs everything else we can think of save for God Himself. To one of the characters, the sun becomes God. For another, it becomes at least an obsession, though I appreciated the distinction between "weirdly obsessed" and "absolutely crazy."

Some have written about the tonal turn the movie takes towards the end, but it didn't feel that jarring to me. Sure, there are several logical problems with the other captain's return, but I wasn't taken out of the experience by it. While we're on the subject, I expected a different ending. Boyle takes the conventional route, story-wise, and I expected something a bit more surprising, something a bit more philosophical about the Sun.

Overall, though, it was a unique experience, worth having for the visuals and sound design alone. And it had Hiroyuki Sanada from The Twilight Samurai!

Speed Racer (2008) - A lot of fun. I can't think of any complaints. The style of the film felt just right, the action was exciting, the acting was good (how's this for a paradox: the annoying kid didn't annoy me. I don't know how that works either), and the message was actually good and not watered down with the usual Disney "listen to your heart" crap. That last element in particular made me grateful. Usually in family fare such as this, I'll put up with "what does your heart tell you?" because it's part of the genre. But the sentiments expressed by the Racer family to one another were all worded well, and true to boot. There may have been a slight hint of "I'll support you no matter what you choose," but it was drowned out by better stuff. (Odd note: Hiroyuki Sanada was in this one, too!)

Man with the Gun (1955) - A pretty interesting western with a plot similar to Warlock and Appaloosa. I prefer those movies, but Man with the Gun has a lot going for it.

First of all, Robert Mitchum has become a favorite actor of mine. His voice, face, and demeanor are so iconic. He's perfect here as a "town tamer" named Clint Tollinger (cool name), hired to rid the city of a negative element who work for an unseen landowner named Dade Holman.

He's tougher than anything Holman can throw at him, and smarter too. Like Virgil in Appaloosa, Tollinger has a violent temper, and often provokes his enemies into fights so he can kill them. This plays into the morality aspect that Warlock and Appaloosa also address regarding giving civilians complete legal impunity to clean up the town as they see fit. Similar to Warlock, there is a civilian character (named Jeff Castle) who doesn't agree with the use of a man like Tollinger, and thinks the law should handle their problems. (Complicating matters further is his fiance who develops something of a crush on Tollinger because of his bravery.)

There is a romantic interest for Tollinger: a woman from his past who left him because of his violenct tendencies. Nelly Blain (played by Jan Sterling) is actually the reason Tollinger came to the town in the first place; his hiring as town tamer is incidental. They speak of a daughter they had. He wants to know where she is and how she is. Blain says she is safe in another part of the country, but there is more to that story that will come out by the end (a rather dark note for a 1955 Western).

A pretty good Western, different from your standard fare, and interesting as part of the sub-genre of Town Tamer Westerns that Warlock and Appaloosa belong to.

The Alamo (2004) - About as bad as everyone told me it would be. Not horrible, but nothing special either. Billy Bob Thornton as David Crockett was the only fun thing to watch. Everything else, including the battles, bored me. I skipped around quite a bit. Jim Bowie bored me, William Travis bored me, Sam Houston bored me. Ugh.

Broken Arrow (1950) - The true story is more interesting than the film, but Broken Arrow gets points for its sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans, even if they still cast Caucasians in the lead Indian roles. Of note is Jeff Chandler's Oscar-winning performance as Cochise, the Apache chief who becomes blood brothers with Jimmy Stewart's Tom Jeffords. As I understand it, this was one of the first movies to depict the Native American plight accurately. While the Apache in Broken Arrow are shown fighting and killing settlers, they are shown to have good reason for their anger and mistrust, and are played as human beings rather than savages. Chandler in particular brings a strong sense of wisdom, bravery, leadership, and rationality to Cochise that doesn't come off as cheap or artificial. On the other hand, the love story between Jeffords and an Indian maiden is lame and obviously added to the story "because that's what you do" in a Hollywood movie from the 40s/50s.

Ronin finally coming on Blu-ray, but...

2008-11-20T15:04:00.000-08:00

...it's barebones. Single-layered disc, too, which means a potentially lower bit-rate for a 2 hour movie.

Ronin is one of my old favorites. I saw it in the theater with a friend in high school, and have loved it ever since. The pacing, the action, the characters -- everything is great. I'd love to have it in hi-def, but I'm not shelling out $35 for a disc that has fewer special features than the VHS (which at least had an alternate ending after the credits, if I remember right).

MGM, why you gotta make me hit you?

Superman Returns (2006)

2008-11-19T15:46:00.000-08:00

(I wrote this review back in 2006. Since then, I've seen Superman II: The Donner Cut, which actually changed my opinion of a few things. See the end of this post for those reflections.)

Ok, so I liked it. I keep making the same mistake of reading reviews before I go see it so all I can think about is "Is this too long? Is Kate Bosworth that bad?" and I don't focus on having a good time at a movie. Oh yeah, and there were about 5 nerds behind us in the theater impressing each other every 10 seconds with Superman trivia and MST3K comments. I shushed them, I told them "Save it for the internet!", my roommate shushed them, but they wouldn't shut up. Go to your friend's house and download it if you want to talk during the whole flippin' movie. Then you can eat your Cheetos and Mtn. Dew and cast Magic Missile all you want. I love nerds as much as the next guy, and God knows I was remembering all the Superman trivia as I watched it ("OOooh! I know why he's doing that! He gets his powers from the SUN!") but I didn't whisper it to my friend next to me hoping he'd be impressed and make out with me. FEH.

Back to the movie. Brandon Routh did a great job as Superman. Had the right amount of confidence and charisma. I thought he was fine as Clark as well, though I'd like to hear why Curtis wasn't as satisfied with him in that regard. Perhaps it's because I haven't seen any of the original Superman movies in a long-butt time, and don't have Christopher Reeves' performance to compare to, I dunno.

Lex was great. Crazy ol' Lex. Not as vicious as I would have imagined him. I kept thinking, "Oh man, Kitty's gonna get slizzapped!" but she never did. Why does a maniacal super-villian willing to kill billions not smack around an annoying lackey? I guess I'm used to Bond villians who always demonstrate their ruthlessness by killing an incompetent underling. Lex, by contrast, surrounded himself with imcompetent henchmen and even paused for two seconds when they got squished. Geh wheh? Is that in keeping with the Lex from previous movies? Anyhow, Kevin Spacey is good. I loved when he met Lois on the boat in his bathrobe with toothbrush in his mouth.

Speaking of Lois, who watched Blue Crush and thought, "Eff yeah, Kate Bosworth! She's totally Lois!" She actually wasn't as bad as I thought she was going to be (she's a decent actress), but as Curtis pointed out, she didn't have much of a personality beyond "I'm a bitter independent woman who is still in love with Superman." She was almost feisty, but not in any really entertaining ways.

Why did Kal Penn get cast as a henchman? That was weird. "Hey, remember that funny guy from those funny movies? Yeah, we got him to play a henchman! ... I dunno, he stands around mostly. Why?"

Oh yeah, and Superman has a kid? He and Lois got it on? Disregarding any Mallrats-like discussions of the mechanics of such a feat, isn't that against the all-American mid-west ideals he was raised with? Now we really know why he left for Krypton for five years: he could hear Lois conceiving! Also, where in his morals is it cool for him to try and steal Lois back from uber-nice-guy Cyclops? That is contrary to his morality as well.

Superman never super-punched anything! I guess he didn't have any nigh-invulnerable super-villians to knock around, but I think that's the only "move" of his they didn't feature in the movie.

That wasn't anything like a review. Those were my nerdy observations that had nothing to do with story. I thought the story was pretty good, actually. A good plot for Luthor, as Curtis noted.

**end original 2006 review**

Having seen a Christopher Reeve Superman movie (the second one) more recently now, I can understand Curtis' objections to Routh. I had forgotten how great Reeve was. He was charming and affable, really felt like a kid out of Kansas, and brought great character to his performance, especially as Clark, where Routh was lacking. I dismissed all the Reeve love that went on for a while after his accident and death as mere pity, but now I know what they were on about: he truly was great in that role. Comparing the two performance, Routh's Clark didn't feel like a real guy with real history. He felt like a guy who showed up and played a part for two hours.

Margot Kidder also brought a lot more to the table than Kate Bosworth did. The rapport between her and Reeve felt more believable.

Of course, I also had forgotten that Superman and Lois knocked boots in number two, and that they had explained how that was possible.

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

2008-11-19T15:36:00.000-08:00

(This review was originally written for BUBBS back in 2006.)

After reading an enthusiastic review of Pan's Labyrinth that ranked it "up there with his two other masterpieces, The Devil's Backbone and Cronos," I found a copy of the former at Blockbuster. And what do you know, it is indeed very good. Del Toro just nails everything that should be nailed. Great cast (the kids are really good), good direction (maintains several themes without disrupting the overall mood), good use of special effects (the kind you mostly don't notice), great cinematography. And, of course, some very striking and imaginative imagery (the bomb in the courtyard, the fetuses in the jars, Santi's ghostly wound and haunting ground).

Next up is Cronos, and then (hopefully) Pan's Labyrinth. I can't believe I'd only seen Blade II and Hellboy and liked del Toro; Devil's Backbone is a much finer film that demonstrates deeper talent.

Further notes on Rio Bravo

2008-11-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

I picked Rio Bravo (on Blu-Ray, of course) for last week's movie night with the Prices. It was the second time I'd seen it all the way through. I posted some thoughts a long while back, but it was only a few sentences, so here are my further reflections.

- I don't know if it's because we watched it with friends and it was getting late, but it struck me as a little long this time. I think it could have been trimmed a bit.
- I'm still impressed with Dean Martin. I haven't seen anything else of his, but he did a wonderful job bringing a unique character to life and making him sympathetic and believable. Great performance.
- The opening scene is still fantastic. No dialogue for quite a while. The story is introduced via pure physical acting.
- Ricky Nelson's performance isn't very good. It makes it seem like he only got the part for the musical duet scene with Martin, and maybe for his teenage-girl drawing power. His line delivery is stiff and unnatural sounding.
- Angie Dickinson is still has a unique beauty and edge to her, though the games she plays in the movie would drive me nuts, and it's weird seeing her end up with Wayne, who must have been 30 years her senior.
- Viewing the movie as a companion piece to High Noon is fascinating. Hawks made Rio Bravo in response to High Noon; he disagreed vehemently with the idea of law enforcement seeking civilian help. Each little comment Chance the sheriff makes about getting help sounds like Hawks himself yelling at Zimmerman. It's also worth observing the fates of each of those who do get involved, and how they go about doing so. Chance waits a really long time to finally accept Colorado's help, and even then, it's only after he's fully warned him and Colorado has proved that he knows what's at stake. Hawks makes it clear that civilians who get involved with the Law's business are at great risk and shouldn't be doing so.

Screen-caps from two great Martin scenes:

Another concussion

2008-11-10T11:21:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I got another minor concussion. This time it was skating with a couple of friends at an East LA skatepark (in Belvedere). They hadn't adjusted the timers of the lights for Daylight Savings yet, so they went off early at 8pm. We could still see a bit by the lights of the surrounding soccer fields, so I kept rolling around a bit. I fell doing something really simple, and for some reason did not fall well. Whacked the back of my head.

While it wasn't as bad as the last time, I did have some weird memory issues the rest of the night. I watched The Office with Amy and I kept thinking that one of the characters on the show had had a concussion.

Helmet from now on at the skateparks. Kind of a "duh" thing, I know, but when almost no one else wears a helmet there, and you haven't had any bad falls yourself, you feel like you'll be all right.

Recent movies - Army of Shadows, Get Smart, Another Thin Man, How the West Was Won

2008-11-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

Army of Shadows (1969)

An impressive film. Oddly paced at times (I was interested, but puzzled, by the inclusion of the lengthy night drop sequence). I took special notice of the sophisticated camera movements, which seemed innovative to me for a 1969 film (perhaps someone with a decent knowledge of cinematography can tell me whether or not Melville and his team were doing something ahead of their time). Despite the fancy camera work, the acting and mood of the film was subdued and objective, though there is a scene early on that forces the viewer to watch via several close-ups. I was reminded emotionally of a similar scene in The Wind That Shakes the Barley. The color palette was interesting as well. As you can see in the above screen-capture, everything has a tinge of blue and brownish purple.

Get Smart (2008)

Fun. Had enough funny parts to make it worthwhile. A couple groaners (David Koechner and Alan Arkin had all the worst lines, for some reason). I still anticipate a day when Steve Carrell's style will stop being funny to me, but for now, I still enjoy him. Anyone else notice that Anne Hathaway's voice gets a little nasal and nerdy-sounding sometimes?

Another Thin Man (1939)

Same enjoyable formula. New to the mix was The Baby. Notable scenes include an elaborate gun trick that is begging for a segment on Mythbusters, a couple brief appearances by Shemp Howard, and an impressive dance.

How the West Was Won (1962)

Really impressive visuals, really forgettable story-lines. Enough beautiful vistas to make John Ford jealous. The effort Warner Bros. put into restoring and cutting together the three separate images for the Blu-Ray should be loudly applauded. The image is spectacular. For those unfamiliar with the film, it was shot for Cinerama theaters, meaning three separate cameras were used to film each scene simultaneously, and the image was then projected by three different projectors onto a curved screen that simulated our field of vision that was a bit wider than the regular movie screen. I wish I could have experienced it. On Blu-Ray, the image is flattened into a very wide and a bit distorted picture. For the most part, it's not distracting, but occasionally characters on the sides of the frame will not appear to be looking at the characters in the center.

The plot concerns a bunch of different characters and their individual stories concerning westward American expansion. They all interweave eventually, but none of them were all that interesting, despite the impressive cast. My favorite was George Peppard's story towards the end, mostly because of a spectacularly staged shoot-out on a moving train with Eli Wallach's gang. There were some really impressive stunts! My favorite was a guy falling off the train and knocking over a giant cactus.

Movie Reviews, Alphabetically

2008-11-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

Since I like this feature on so many other sites I read, I decided to make a permanent post that I will update as new reviews come in. (This is the sort of thing I wish I had for Jeri's, Nobody's, and Nate Bell's blogs! When I finally get around to seeing a movie they have discussed I have a heck of a time remembering who wrote it and then finding it.)

I'm not going to link to every post that mentions a movie; these will all be actual reviews or at least discussions about a particular aspect of the movie.

3 Days of the Condor (1975)
3:10 To Yuma (1957)
3:10 To Yuma (2007)
The 400 Blows (1959)
Adios Sabata (1971)
The Alamo (2004)
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Amazing Grace (2006)
Another Thin Man (1939)
Appaloosa (2008)
Appleseed (2004)
Army of Shadows (1969)
Avatar (2009)
Bad Company (1972)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Batman Begins (2005)
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000)
Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
The Big Country (1958)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Black Dynamite (2008)
Blast of Silence (1961)
Broken Arrow (1950)
The Burrowers (2008)
The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
Castle in the Sky (1986)
Cemetery Junction (2010)
Changeling (2008)
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
Conan the Barbarian (1981)
Cop Land (1997)
The Court Jester (1955)
The Cowboys (1972)
Dan in Real Life (2007)
Darjeeling Limited (2007)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Deja Vu (2006)
The Devil's Backbone (2001)
District 9 (2009)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Duel (1971)
Eastern Promises (2007)
Fire in the Sky (1993)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
From Russia With Love (1963)
Galipoli (1981)
Get Smart (2008)
The Good The Bad The Weird (2008)
Gremlins (1984)
Gunga Din (1939)
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
Hellboy II (2008)

The Hit (1984)
The Hour of the Gun (1967)
How the West Was Won (1962)
How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
The Hurt Locker (2009)
I Am Legend (2007)
I Love You Again (1940)
Ichi (2008)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
The Invention of Lying (2009)
It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
Junebug (2005)
Juno (2007)
Kill! (1968)
King of Kong (2007)
The Kite Runner (2007)
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
La Strada (1954)
The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
Lake Placid (1999)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
The Last Rites of Ransom Pride (2009)
Layer Cake (2004)
Legend (1985)
Lifeboat (1944)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Logan's Run (1976)
Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
Man with the Gun (1955)
The Matador (2005)
The Meaning of Life (2005)
Mon Oncle Antoine (1971)
Moon (2009)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
No Name on the Bullet (1959)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
The Outsiders: The Complete Novel (1983)
Pale Rider 1, 2 (1985)
Paranormal Activity (2009)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Payback: Straight Up (2006)
Ponyo (2009)
Predators (2010)
Public Enemies (2009)
The Public Enemy (1931)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Ratatouille (2007)
Red River (1948)
Red Sun (1971)
Redbelt (2008)
Rescue Dawn (2006)
Rio Bravo, 2 (1959)
Role Models (2008)
Rooster Cogburn (...and the Lady) (1975)
Samurai Rebellion (1967)
Serpico (1973)
Shane (1953)
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Speed Racer (2008)
Stardust (2007)
State of the Union (1948)
Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator (2002)
Sunshine (2008)
Superman Returns (2006)
Surf's Up (2007)
Sword of Doom (1966)
Taken (2009)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
The Thin Man (1934)
The Thing (1982)
The Tin Star (1957)
To Be or Not To Be (1983)
To Catch A Thief (1955)
To Live and Die in LA (1985)
Tom Horn (1980)
Treasure Island (1950)
Troy (2004)
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Wall-E (2008)
Warlock (1959)
Watchmen (2009)
Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
Withnail and I (1987)
The Wrestler (2008)
Young Guns (1988)
Zodiac (2007)
Zombieland (2009)

King of the Hill cancelled

2008-10-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

Booooooooooooooooooooooo!

King of the Hill was one of the best written and funniest shows in the last decade plus. I love all the characters and will miss the show.

How about releasing the rest of the series on DVD, Fox? You won't keep my favorite shows on the air, but I know you'll take my money for the DVD sets.

Voice Acting: Low to High

2008-10-30T12:15:00.001-07:00

I wonder if there's a reason character voices typically change from low to high. I was thinking about characters whose voices changed from season 1 to season 2, like Homer from The Simpsons, Chris from Family Guy, and Dale from King of the Hill. They all went from a bad-sounding low voice to a higher and funnier sound.

From Russia With Love (1963)

2008-10-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

Boy, I did not enjoy this like I thought I would. It was actually one of the few Bonds I hadn't seen yet, which I know is odd since it's one of the more memorable entries in terms of setting certain conventions. But the movie just didn't do much for me. It was cool seeing Robert Shaw as a blonde-haired sociopath, and the first 20 minutes or so were a great set-up, but the execution left me bored. Daniela Bianchi's character had less to her than the usual Bond girl. (What a beauty, though!) I had no sense of her inner motivations at all once she took up with Bond. I never could tell if she truly loved him or was merely playing the part, but since the issue never became a plot point, you were just to assume that she, at some point, loved him. I guess there was that one scene where she wavered between shooting Bond or Frau Farbissina, but the direction and/or screenplay took no other steps to detail her character up to that point.

Cool parts: the brutal fist-fight between Connery and Shaw in the dark was pretty unique for movies from that era. Frau sucker-punching Shaw in the gut with brass knuckles was funny. The whole opening sequence was well-staged and a good/cheesy "gotcha!"

By the way, I rented the Blu-Ray version, and it looked wonderful.

Mon oncle Antoine (1971)

2008-10-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

Turns out, Mon oncle Antoine is not Mon oncle. FYI in case you thought you were in for a light-hearted, slap-stick French comedy.

My dad rented this through Netflix and I have no idea why. It was billed as a "bittersweet comedy." While there are a couple funny moments, most of it is a sad, uncomfortable, and unrelatable coming-of-age story set in rural Canada. It was really fun watching it with my family on a Saturday night.

I'm not going to give this a proper review. Not that it doesn't deserve it, but I can't think of anything worthwhile to say about it. The gag with the nail barrel was my favorite part, particularly when one guy ghost-steps over the place where it used to be while staring at a beautiful woman.

Appaloosa (2008)

2008-10-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

Finally got to see it last Friday! Amy and I met Ian, Jeri and Ric at the La Habra Regal.

There are some spoilers, mostly minor, throughout the review.

~~~

The story of Appaloosa is very similar to that of the excellent Warlock. Two mercenary "lawmen" are summoned to a town being terrorized by a local band of cowboys (led by a powerful and particularly ruthless rancher -- in Appaloosa's case, Randall Bragg played by Jeremy Irons). These lawmen are close friends and have worked together for many years, moving from town to town killing bad guys for money. They are called upon when the town's previous sheriff is murdered. They agree to clean up the town, but only if the town agrees to grant them any power they wish to do so.

Here the stories of Warlock and Appaloosa diverge. Warlock makes great use of the idea that fighting outlaws with mercenaries is a morally questionable solution, while Appaloosa features only one scene that ponders the question, even though the setup seems tailor-made for further conflict. Harris' character, Virgil, has been made uncomfortable and embarrassed by a conversation with his romantic interest (played by Renee Zellwegger), so he takes it out on some workers having a drink at the bar. Though drunk, they are doing no harm, and Harris' explosive temper and sense of impunity are first exhibited as he viciously pummels one of them before being restrained by Viggo's character (Everett). One of the town's officials questions this behavior, but beyond that it is never addressed again.

Other story similarities include a confrontation at the jailhouse (though the specifics of the scene were more reminscent of one in Rio Bravo), a love interest that may lead to the retirement of one of the characters and the dissolution of their partnership, a final shoot-out that ends the partnership and that the title of each movie is simply the name of the town in which the action takes place.

Beyond those the story plays out in a very different fashion. There is no character equivalent in Appaloosa to Richard Widmark's outlaw-turned-lawman, Everett doesn't have any of the shadiness that Anthony Quinn's "Doc Holiday" had, and there is no betrayal among the old friends. The romantic interest also plays out very differently in Appaloosa.

Overall, the story is good, but there did seem to be a few too many Acts. I didn't mind that much, because I enjoyed all the possibly extraneous scenes, but it did feel a little long, a little less tight, even though the movie ran just under two hours. And there was one bone-headed decision that you see coming from a mile away. If you're a smart guy who has been cleaning out towns of bad guys for years now, what's the dumbest thing you can do? Very publicly fall in love with a girl who now lives in the town. I said out loud "liability and leverage" as soon as I saw Virgil go after her.

Other good points: Harris demonstrates a talent for writing (and delivering) comfortable, funny, and natural sounding dialogue. (Jeri said the dialogue at the beginning was bad, but I don't remember.) The relationship between Everett and Virgil is great. They effectively demonstrate respect, loyalty and love in subtle believeable ways. Renee Zellwegger's character surprises you several times and turns out to be as interesting as the two leads. Irons' character doesn't have much substance to him other than "I'm a jerk," but he does have some good moments of interaction with the Virgil and Everett.

Harris, along with his DP, has a good eye for the scenery. Everything is shot on location, and it looks great. He also shoots within these locales well; I always knew where the characters were in relation to one another (which sounds simplistic, but I'm thinking of the scene on the river with the Indians where Everett rides up to meet them). I appreciated the unique camera work in the scene on the train where Allison is brought out from underneath the bridge.

Of course, I have to comment on the action and perpetrators there-of. This isn't 3:10 To Yuma (2007) or Tombstone, so the gunplay is pretty sparse. But when it happens, it's well-staged, and often unique in consequence. Virgil and Everett rescuing the kidnappers from the Indians, for example, plays out differently than you might expect. Allison has been kidnapped in order to secure Bragg's release, and Virgil and Everett have tracked them to a canyon. Before they can act, they notice a party of Indians about to raid them. They allow this until the Indians start to take Allison. Rather than shooting the Indians, Virgil and Everett shoot the pack-horse that Allison is on, and fire up into the air to scatter the raiding party. Later, Everett offers the group Bragg's horse to make up for the one they shot. Another unique scene is the shoot-out in the Mexican town. It's close-quarters and over in seconds. It also leads to one of the funniest lines in the movie.

Virgil and Everett lie on the ground, wounded but alive.

Everett: That was quick.
Virgil: Yeah, everybody could shoot.

The sound design is excellent, right up there with Open Range in terms of power and realism.

And the guns! Well, The Gun, anyway.

As you may have read, Everett carries a very unique item: an 8-gauge double-barreled shotgun. Until Appaloosa, I didn't even know 8 was a possible gauge. I'd heard of 10-gauges, and only seen one or two at all the gun auctions I've been to. For those unfamiliar with the gauge system, the smaller the number, the larger the bore. 12-gauge is the most popular. My double-barrel is 12. So the 8-gauge that Everett wields is HUGE, and is mentioned specifically about five times in the beginning of the movie. There are only one or two scenes where Everett is without it, too. He lugs that honkin' thing around everywhere he goes. And you only get to see him use it twice! The other guns are all pretty standard, though I noticed Everett's sidearm is a Colt Open Top, which is also unique.

I recommend Appaloosa to Western fans and fans of Viggo & Ed.

Wipeout comic

2008-10-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

I drew this last night and colored it tonight for use in my application to Wipeout (the show where you get mangled on an obstacle course for the amusement of others). Hopefully it'll sweeten the deal. I stole the colors from a Scott C. drawing. I like his color palette. Actually I love everything about his work. Have you seen it? It's great.

Dear Movie Studios

2008-10-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

Please stop releasing great new DVD sets with no Blu-Ray counterpart. I'm so glad to see you're spending so much time and money producing these lavish new sets of great films, but I'm not buying DVDs anymore. I'm referring to the new Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, Touch of Evil, and Big Lebowski sets. All great films that I would buy, but not on low resolution standard DVD.

So please. It's like, come on. This is the end of 2008, and I have a hi-def TV and a PS3. I ain't be interested in no dang 480p.

More Man with No Name art

2008-10-01T14:07:00.001-07:00

No sooner had I finished the last post than I discovered preview art from issue 2 of the MwNN. And guess what? I have complaints! Hooray!

That's a weird pose to take, isn't it? He looks like he's sort of prancing. And his sarape looks way too long and flow-y. Its size and the way it's been rendered obfuscates any strong pose the underlying body might have.

Here I find two problems. The first is panel 3. Clint's hat looks perched on his head. Look how far away it is from his ears. Just look at his whole head in relationship to the hat. It looks silly.

The second problem is the guns. Most of their anatomy is handled well, but they frequently break down in the grip. It's most obvious in panel 4. Here's a picture of a Colt SAA:

Note how far the grip extends away from the body of the gun compared with the depiction in panel 4 above. Check out panel 3 as well: the grip appears to line up perfectly with the tip of the hammer.

Kudos to the artist (Wellington Dias?) for getting the rest of the gun right, but take a look at your reference for that grip.

Western Comic Art - Man with No Name vs. Jonah Hex

2008-10-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

Remember a while back when I posted about the Man with No Name comic, and said that on paper it should have been an easy sell, but when I actually saw the comic (ironically also on paper), it didn't grab me?

See if you can spot the difference between these two bits of art.

From The Man with No Name: The Good, The Bad and the Uglier #4

From an upcoming issue of Jonah Hex:

Which piece grabs you more? The art from the first isn't bad, it's just kinda boring. Really boring compared to the Jonah Hex piece. Some of the art from the Jonah Hex series has been boring as well (or just plain bad), but man, they get some good artists from time to time.

It's too bad, because the MwNN comics get some good covers:

Anthony Carney skating in Brea

2008-09-25T09:02:00.001-07:00

This is one of several short videos I took with my little camera a while back of my friend Anthony skating in Brea. He's the guy I designed the bearing package for.

Update to "Stop sagging"

2008-09-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

While browsing Superpoop this morning, I found another perfect image for my "Stop sagging" post.