Friday, April 29, 2011

Hellboy

hellboyAnother big screen adaptation of a comic book, but one I had never really heard of before.  Overall, the movie succeeds in terms of being interesting and original, but its super hero is neither memorable nor particularly remarkable.

Ron Perlman stars as the titular hero, an alien raised by the scientist who found him as an infant.  Now all grown up, Hellboy is called upon to fight against many evil forces, especially those of a supernatural kind, but his existence is deemed too explosive to be revealed and therefore kept hidden from the public.

Perlman does a good job in a role that seems tailored to his persona but I personally found Doug Jones’s Abe Sapien (the fish like creature) more intriguing.  Both John Hurt and Jeffrey Tambor are very good in their roles and Karel Roden as Rasputin is a sufficiently mean villain.  Selma Blair as Liz Sherman, Hellboy’s romantic interest, is the only main character that doesn’t really leave a mark.

While not as entertaining or engaging as a Spider-Man or a Batman movie can be, Hellboy is watchable and fun.

Grade: 6

The Adjustment Bureau

adjustment_bureauThe Adjustment Bureau is a smart and sleek movie adapted from a short story by Philip K. Dick.  The movie is well developed and the stars well cast.

Matt Damon plays a politician on the verge of making the leap to the big league when he unexpectedly meets a dancer, played by Emily Blunt, and instantly falls for her.  Their attraction is incredibly strong but viewed negatively by the seemingly omnipotent agents of The Adjustment Bureau, who consider it a non-starter.  Whose will will prevail?

Besides Damon and Blunt, both giving balanced performances, we are treated to a good turn by the always fascinating John Slattery but we also get a sometimes unfocused Terence Stamp.

Overall, I really liked this movie.  This is the type of thriller that usually leaves me very satisfied, so I’d recommend it to everyone.

Grade: 8

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Battle: Los Angeles

BattleLosAngelesI watched Battle: Los Angeles as a double feature knowing perfectly well that I couldn’t expect too much in terms of overall quality given the poor reviews it had gotten.

Nevertheless, I was craving a sci-fi movie and this looked like it would fit the bill, which it did, up to a point.

The only real gripe I have with the movie is that at times it gets slow, if you can believe it, given the high octane action involved.  I actually found myself checking my watch on several occasions, which means that whatever I was watching wasn’t fully engaging.

As alien-attacking-Earth movies go, Battle: Los Angeles isn’t bad but it’s not very good either, mostly because it’s quite predictable and because it doesn’t bring anything really original to the plate.

aaron_eckhartThe good, as expected, pretty much stands with the technical department: visual and sound effects, art direction, cinematography, and makeup are all very enjoyable and successful.  The cherry on top though is the always fascinating Aaron Eckhart.

Overall, I’d recommend this movie only to sci-fi lovers on a slow night.

Grade: 6

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Bliss for the eyes

This time-lapse recorded in the Canary Islands (where Ray and I spent one of our first vacations...) is wonderful to watch and soothing for the ears as well:



From Towleroad.

What’s the life expectancy of a young star?

That’s what I wondered when I saw this side by side comparison of a young and lively Britney Spear and her current performances:

How can she look so deflated, bored, stiff, and annoyed?  More than that, how do her fans still cheer her up and pay good money to go see her when her shows are clearly just a grayed and distant memory of what they used to be?

I was never a Britney fan, since I always considered her a fraud: she’s not a good singer, her songs are insipid, dumb, and forgettable, her dancing is artificial and unimpressive, and her whole image is too heavily concocted.

Now, some of those same adjectives could also apply to Madonna, one of my favorite artists: not a great singer, some songs are very forgettable, her dance numbers are choreographed to perfection, and her image ... well, she’s practically a walking billboard.

However, Madonna is over 50 years old now and still going strong onstage, and she was always fully and firmly in charge of her image, while Britney is clearly told what to do and say by a cadre of handlers that never leave her side, and when they do she usually messes up.

Perhaps she’s tired of it all, and it shows in her live performances, but this video all but confirmed what I think of her.

Link.

Recognizing Mother Nature’s rights

That’s what Bolivia is doing:

Bolivia is preparing to pass a new law that could lead to citizens challenging environmental destruction in court.

A Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra (The Law of Mother Earth) would grant nature the same rights as humans, according to The Guardian.

The country will establish 11 new rights for nature, including: the right to exist, the right to continue natural cycles, the right to clean water and air, the right to be free of pollution, and the right not to have cellular structures altered or genetically modified.

The law will also give nature the right "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities."

"It makes world history," Bolivian Vice-President Alvaro GarcĂ­a Linera said. "Earth is the mother of all."

"It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration."

I think it’s wonderful.  Hopefully it’s not just an empty gesture, but an actual, enforceable piece of legislation.

More here.

Ugly, ugly, ugly.

I really cannot find any possible way of justifying such a horrible fad:

Live Animals Being Sold as Keyrings in China

Keyring ornaments are perhaps the most useless item you'll ever carry in your pocket or stuff in your purse -- but now, thanks to an increasingly popular item being sold in China, it can easily be the cruelest, too. For the price you might expect to pay for some kitschy trinket, Chinese street vendors are selling live animals, permanently sealed in a small plastic pouch where they can survive for a short while as someone's conversation piece. Apparently, these unimaginably inhumane keyrings are actually quite popular -- and worst of all, it's totally legal.

turtle-keyring

According to The Global Times, these keyring accessories containing live animals are widely available and sold publicly in subway stations and on sidewalks. Potential buyers (read as animal-abusers) have the choice between a living Brazil turtle or two small kingfish, sealed in an airtight package along with some colored water. One vendor claimed that the trapped creatures "can live for months inside there" because the water contains "nutrients," though veterinarians have already disputed this claim.

[…]

Despite the fact that the selling of animals as keyring ornaments is a clear-cut case of animal cruelty, it is actually entirely within the law. Chinese law prohibits the sale of wild animals -- a designation which evidently does not apply to the Brazil turtles and kingfish being sold.

This is just sickening.  Besides my adoration for turtles, I can’t imagine any type of animal ending up “living” like this.  How can people be so cruel and heartless?

One customer said “I’ll hang it in my office, it looks nice and brings good luck.”  I seriously wish him the worst luck he ever had and serious health issues.  Someone who thinks so little of other beings’ lives doesn’t deserve any respect for his own.

More here.

A new epidemic?

Possible bad news coming from China:

Several Chinese media have recently reported that the Department of Health of Guangdong Province has confirmed that people in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong have fallen ill after being infected with an unknown virus. The patients think they have AIDS, but they test negative for HIV.

[…]

In most of the 30 cases investigated by New Express Daily for its March 24 report, people said their relatives and friends are also infected. Most of the 30 patients were infected through sexual contact. Some experts diagnosed them as having AIDS phobia.

However, the disease seems to be highly contagious and can spread by contact via any bodily fluid—through kissing, shared utensils, sweat, and even protected sex. Once infected, the immune system appears to be attacked, which results in a decrease of white blood cells and the body’s ability to defend against infectious disease and foreign materials.

More here.

Monday, April 11, 2011

In Memoriam

Sidney Lumet (1924-2011)

Sidney-Lumet

One of the greatest directors the world ever had, Sidney Lumet directed several of the best movies of all time.  He was also nominated for Best Director a total of five times, albeit never winning the prized little statue.  He did receive an Honorary Oscar in 2005, arguably making up for being passed over so many times before.

Among my favorite of his movies I’d list 12 Angry Men (his motion picture directorial debut!!), Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express and Deathtrap.

His talent will be sorely missed.

Animal sweetness

This video is simply adorable:

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Mars Needs Moms

MarsNeedsMomsWe took the kids to see this much maligned movie after reading largely positive reviews and I was ultimately satisfied.

After having watched a couple motion-capture animated movies I have to say that I’m not a big fan of the medium.  Motion-capture attempts to capture the facial expressions of real actors playing animated characters, but honestly the results are hardly worth the trouble.  Given the impressive results that digital animation is able to achieve (like in the recent Toy Story 3 or How to Train Your Dragon), I wonder why bother with this technique?

The fluidity of the characters’ movements isn’t any better than what you get with regular animation, or is arguably worse.  Are the characters’ facial resemblance to their actors actually supposed to make a difference?  If so, I don’t get it.  If I want to see that particular actor, I’ll go see a live action movie with him in it, period.

Anyway, Mars Needs Moms tells the story of a little kid who witnesses his mother’s abduction and embarks on a big adventure on the red planet to free her.  The screenplay is good and the technical aspect, apart from my own personal indifference towards the medium, quite good as well.

There’s actually a moment towards the end when I couldn’t believe they would actually go where I thought they were going, so I’d say the movie is pretty good.

Grade: 7

Episodes

EpisodesIf you’re looking for a smart comedy series, give Showtime’s Episodes a try.

I never watched NBC’s Friends, but from what I gathered Matt LeBlanc’s character, Joey, was the resident fool, a type I hardly like (Seinfeld’s Kramer was my least favorite of the quartet).  Because of that, I approached this new series expecting to get turned off pretty quickly, but I loved it right away.

Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig, who play Sean and Beverly, the British couple at the center of the show, are adorable and hysterical, but LeBlanc was a pleasant discovery as well (he plays himself on the show).

Each episode in the series follows Sean and Beverly’s struggle to adapt their wildly successful British comedy for a radically different American audience.

This show actually reminded me of HBO’s The Comeback, which featured another one of Friends’ alumni, the awesome Lisa Kudrow, and that unfortunately only ran for one season.

I totally recommend this show.

Grade – Season 1: 8

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

The power of evolution

Articles like these always reinforce my belief in science and the theory of evolution, and they invariably make me wonder how in the world some people can just ignore these scientifically proven facts in favor of two-thousand year old man-made books:

Scientists have identified a clutch of subtle genetic changes that have shaped our minds and bodies into the unique form that sets humans apart from chimpanzees and the rest of the animal kingdom.

The work by researchers in the US represents a landmark in a search that has occupied philosophers and scientists for millennia and one that goes to the heart of understanding what it means to be human.

The findings offer up the humbling conclusion that the secret of human success may owe more to what we lost along the path of evolution, rather than anything we gained.

When the human genome was first deciphered more than a decade ago, some scientists expected to find extra genes that explained why humans had an intellectual edge over their closest living relatives and other species. But since diverging from chimpanzees around seven million years ago, it turns out that our human ancestors lost several hundred snippets of DNA, which together led to traits that are uniquely human, the researchers claim.

In ditching these chunks of DNA, our ancient ancestors lost facial whiskers and short, tactile spines on their penises. The latter development is thought to have paved the way for more intimate sex and monogamous relationships. The loss of other DNA may have been crucial in allowing humans to grow larger brains.

[...]

One missing section of DNA was found to block a gene that, in other animals, stifles the growth of brain cells. Losing that DNA may have been a pivotal moment in human development, as it allowed parts of the human brain to expand into the most complex organ known.

There’s a lot more interesting information in the full article.

Baby Shower!!

A new baby giraffe was born over the weekend at the Cleveland Zoo.  So touching:

Bill Maher Rules!!

I absolutely, wholeheartedly love this man and his reasoning:

Stop the bullies! Stand up for the bullied.

A beautiful video message from Ireland: