Posts Tagged ‘matrix’

Arnie tells it exactly how it is

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Arnie listening to his own voice.

DVD commentaries are the gateway to diving deeper into a director’s mind, giving him or her a feature-length opportunity to explain parts of a film that may have been misinterpreted along the way.

Along with the leading actors, discussions can get quite deep. For some commentaries, the discussions about subtext and what the director’s intentions were give a new reason to go back and watch the film again.

Some are just a fantastic way of getting another hour and a half of comedy (even if the genre of the film is not the same).

But then you have your hit-and-misses. These are the ones that scream out: “I don’t care, but the studio paid me to come in for two hours”.

But THEN you have a whole new echelon of commentary that I can’t quite explain. Please, watch this and tell me what you think:

It’s almost like watching a movie about a guy watching a movie that…INCEPTION!

But no, this in fact does not win any awards for its in-depth analysis into the film, but it does make everyone chuckle at Arnold once again. But hey, he’s been Governator of California before, why can’t he be a tour guide for films too?

Recommended commentary you SHOULD hear:

This is Spinal Tap!

You might recognise something’s afoot the moment you put the DVD in. It sounds like Nigel Tufnel and the gang from Spinal Tap are in a recording studio doing the commentary. And they are. And it’s great. Christopher Guest’s ‘mockumentary’ series (loosely-based term) are fantastic, but the talents of the actors surrounding him as well are improvisational geniuses.

Recommended commentary you SHOULD NOT hear:

The Matrix

I know, it’s one of the greatest films of its time, and still a classic (let’s just forget numbers 2 and 3, shall we?). But the commentary is so…what’s the way to put it…full of itself. Self-appreciating movie people digging into how much they invested in their roles. Blah blah bleh, nothing new about the film. And we still don’t know kung-fu.

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Hermione’s Hands are Hallowy

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Something happens! Ooo!

I don’t care how old I am, and neither should you.

The first bunch of screen captures from the newest Harry Potter film have been released, and while Potter fans will have already read what will happen, it’s just so much cooler thinking how special effects will whoop your (and my) pitiful excuse for an imagination.

Trilogies such as Lord of the Rings and The Matrix had fans eagerly awaiting each film with such anticipation that people kept indulging on any news, tidbits and spoilers that would leak out.

Even weekly podcasts like Mugglecast would consistently talk about the wizarding world after the final book was released. And now there’s more for us muggles to talk about.

Is it alright for those who have sworn to follow the Harry Potter series via film release to be upset that the rest of us nerdy book readers to discuss how they’ll portray the remaining scenes?

It's official.

The first half of The Deathly Hallows is quite slow compared to the second half, so as much as I can’t wait for anything Potter-wise, I’m even more interested on how they’ll keep our interest.

The last book has been split into two films. November will be part 1, and July 2011 will finish it all up. Like most series, trilogies, and anything else that can’t be summed up in just a couple hours, the end can seem saddening.

I just finished reading the last of the Scott Pilgrim books, and although the movie (which is totally awesome and you need to see it) differs from the books, I was saddened more that I couldn’t dive back into the slacker’s world.

Just as it was reading the end of Harry’s world.

What stories have you been so involved in that you couldn’t face the inevitable end?

Also, we’ve got an awesome deal on the final Harry Potter Book and the 2-disc edition of the sixth film here. Click!

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I dreamed a dream, having a dream

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Next step: Blending movies.

If it weren’t for those rare gems out there, we’d all be staring at duds.

Christopher Nolan is powerhouse of design and direction when it comes to feature films. His name resonated most with the latest revival of the Batman series, but since Inception came to our theatres, has been given another badge of honour to parade around with.

Starting off with the Brit’s first feature ‘Following’, which only cost $6,000 to make, his films have continuously impressed the critics.

I will not spoil a drop of Inception that wasn’t already in the trailers, but I will encourage you to not watch it if you’re the slightest bit tired or intoxicated, as the concept will zoom right past you, faster than a hare riding a cheetah whose racing on a Ninja bike (technically it’s as fast as the bike, but if one breaks down…).

Try remembering back to the first time you saw The Matrix. The concept of not knowing what’s real has fascinated people for centuries. Many have floated off in their own imaginations pondering this very question, sometimes losing themselves in madness because of it.

Christopher Nolan successfully made a film that challenged us again to this concept. He hasn’t been one to shy away from the traditional unfolding of time in films. Memento was initially supposed to play out from start to finish, and it wasn’t until later on that Christopher flipped it around, turning what would’ve been an average movie about memory loss into a brilliant unfolding of plot through suspense.

While I felt that the second Batman needed less breathy Christian Bale, all of his films have not really disappointed, which is awesome to be able to say. I’ve never needed to walk into the cinema with the “Just remember it’s a Michael Bay film” line or anything.

With that said, I feel compelled to get y’all up to scratch on Nolan’s work, whether you’ve seen his previous and present work or not. Be warned though: We cannot give any director (or actor) such a Godlike status, as I’ll discuss next week with the Shamalamalamalanster.

Top 5 Nolan Flicks:

Insomnia
Memento
Batman Begins
The Prestige
Batman: The Dark Knight

And here’s a Dora the Explorer version of Inception. Have a great weekend!

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Plugs? Where we’re going, we don’t need plugs…

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

One piece at a time...

Technology. What is it good for? Absolutely everything. So with the issues of global warming and needing alternative sources of energy, we’re desperate.

Who would have thought The Matrix was closer than we had expected?

Princeton University scientists have created a flexible, rubber material housing piezoelectric cystals to apply to be strapped on to your skin. These crystals can convert simple human organ functions into energy. Lungs breathing in and out and moving your ribs generates approximately one watt of power. Walking briskly creates about 70 per heel strike.

"GOO!"

So to harvest this potential source of energy, we could be able to keep our phone or music player charged by the power of movement.

Those dancing shows on TV could actually benefit society with this technology strapped on to them. At least they’ll be of more use than the judges.

Harvesting energy from humans sounds very Matrix-like, but until we start suggesting we live in pods filled with pink goo and create massive holes in our cranium to plug into computer systems (whatever happened to wireless technology?) then we’ll be fine.

Speaking of fine, I’d like to talk about a very fine and respected American film critic Roger Ebert. After his jaw removal surgery in 2006 the TV personality has been unable to speak, and has been left to use a computer in its place.

But now with the power of computers and archives, a Scottish speech synthesis company has taken his work on TV and commentary on DVDs to form a system where his voice can be ‘heard’.

As extremely cool as this is, there’s also a little danger. Voice recognition programs will be useless, and prank calls will be so much harder to decode. Say you’re after revenge after a good friend pranked you big time. Why not pick up the phone, use a program with your buddy’s voice, and use it to fool their partner into thinking they’ve been unfaithful.

Although it would be cool for Morgan Freeman to read ‘The Cat in the Hat’ to me for bedtime every night.

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Making sure you don’t miss a frame

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Far too often do we notice the finer things in life that we just don’t notice. I’m not talking humbly about walks on the beach or playing frisbee in park, I’m talking about slow-motion video.

What better way of seeing something than at 40x less the speed?

Have you got 360 cameras at home?

I can remember first learning the joy that came from the editing table at high school when reversing a jump we filmed from a rooftop, and then altering speeds so our dramatic scenes had chipmunk voices and falls would crunch to the ground frame by agonising frame.

It looked horrible, but nowadays you can record enough frames per second to see your muscles and bones reacting to the sudden force of concrete and shoes.

The first mainstream ‘bullet-time’ premiere in films was in Blade, but it wasn’t until The Matrix that the term was coined (John Gaeta the director credited the anime Akira as inspiration). Once Keanu Reeves showed off his 360-degree limbo dance around bullets, everything had something slow and awesome.

Stand or jump - Tough decision

Max Payne was a video game (that had its own film adaptation) that made you jump from one place to another instead of walking, purely because shooting bad guys horizontally was more fun. The TV show CSI had its own version of freeze-frame environment exploration in the premiere episode of season 10.

If you’re looking for the original and the best of slow motion gunplay, see a John Woo pre-Hollywood film like The Killer or Hard Boiled.

But this technology wasn’t just for showing cool explosions, but for science. Mythbusters loved to film something before an impact, explosion or anything else that could be slowed down.

With high-speed cameras, you can find the coolest footage of the simplest of things.

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