"Bonsoir..."

Greetings programs!
I hope y'all are doing good.
I'm doing okay myself.

My Netflix account is on hold until I'm done moving, but I do have some DVDs I haven't posted about, so here's a dose
of late Netflixing and new Movieflixing! Let's do the Movieflixing first.

Movieflixing!
Two weekends ago, I saw The Da Vinci Code because Pascal was keen on seeing it.
He's deep into secret societies, religious or otherwise, and ancient knowledge, so he had to see it.
He found it rather simplified and light (he hasn't read the book).
I found it entertaining, in more ways than one, due to the misguided souls who protested the movie near the theater.
That dear ol' queen Ian McKellen is always fun to watch, and with Jean "World's Coolest Frenchman" Reno and "Amélie"
star Audrey Tatou thrown into the mix, a fun time was guaranteed for this croissant-eating Kzin.

Last Friday night, I saw Over The Hedge while the sibling went to see United 93.
Needless to say, mine was funnier than his. Actually, mine was freakin' hilarious!! I really enjoyed it!
There was lots of classic cartoon mayhem to satisfy the Tex Avery freak in me.
Hamilton The Squirrel is my favorite character! This one is a DVD must-buy for me!
As for the sibling's movie, he reports that it was esentially a reenactement of what happened on the plane.
No music, no big-name actors or actresses, just a reenactement.
What kind of person goes to see a movie like that? (Aside from my 9/11-obsessed brother?)

And last Sunday, we went to see X-Men: The Last Stand, which we largely enjoyed.
But man, they threw some curveballs at us.
We saw it at The Bridge Cinema, which doesn't run commercials (except one for Movietickets.com) (YEA!!) but doesn't
show the same trailers that "normal" theaters get when they show a certain movie (BOOO!!), so we didn't get the trailers
for Ghost Rider or Superman Returns. Good thing I downloaded the Ghost Rider trailer last week.



Netflixing

The French Connection (1972) - Asshole cop tries to bust Frenchie drug-dealer by any means necessary!
And winds up shooting federal agent. Jerk! Yes, it's the seventies, home to the anti-heroes...
Though actually, the director said he wanted to point out how the cops were just as much thugs as the criminals.
Or at least, this cop, "Popeye" Doyle was a thug. "Did you ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?"
Dude, the only thing I know about Poughkeepsie is that Richard and Wendy Pini live there.
So anyway, an interesting artifact of the 70's, the L-Train-versus-car chase is indeed kinda cool.
Now that I've seen it, I can move on to something more fun.

Reboot: Daemon Rising (2001) - Part One of "Reboot" Season 4
Reboot: My Two Bobs (2001) - Part Two of "Reboot" Season 4
I love this show. I always loved this show. I was really pissed when ABC pulled it after they were bought by Disney.
Even before that dastardly move, Mainframe (the company making "Reboot") had many problems with the BS'N'P (Broadcast
Standards And Practices) regarding content. You see, children's broadcast TV in the US comes with a manual of things
you can't do the size of two phonebooks. It runs the gamut from the obvious like no smoking, no drinking, no drugs to
more arcane things like language restrictions. The old "G.I. Joe" cartoon is a perfect illustration of these rules:
nothing but beam weapons (no bullets allowed), nobody dies, last-minute parachuting from destroyed aircrafts.
So, Mainframe tried to tailor the content to meet these debilitating rules (to this day, I don't how Warner Bros was
allowed full-on bullet-spitting machineguns in "Batman: The Animated Series" and get away with it. More money?).
Mainframe started inserting little BS'N'P jokes in the show itself. In one episode, Enzo grabs a very large, very mean
looking gun and points it at a pair of Megabyte's binomes. He pulls the trigger and the binomes suddenly find themselves
trapped under a large inflatable raft. There's a label on the side of the raft, and it says BS'N'P APPROVED.
Mainframe is based in Canada and that country has much more relaxed broadcast standards, more like what I'm used to as
an ex-Frenchman, so this explains why they had so many problems. So anyway, "Reboot" got pulled at the end of Season 2.
Canada got to see Season 3, but we didn't, not until Cartoon Network picked it up and ran it without opening or
closing credits. Which really sucks because Season 3 was broken up into 4 chapters and had 4 different openings to match.
But at least, we Americans got to see it.
And then Season 4 came out. It ran in Canada but not in the US. It wound up on 2 DVDs instead.
I finally got around to renting these two DVDs and watching them. And my love for "Reboot" flared anew!
And it all made sense. All the story bits from all the previous seasons, they all came together.
Little tidbits that seemed like throwaways, actually turned into important plot points.
"Nibbles", Megabyte's pet green Null that he called "Father" in one episode? It's explained here.
So yeah, I enjoyed this a hell of a lot. You will get more out of it if you're familiar with the show's back story.
So I can't really recommend this to anyone who hasn't watched Seasons 1 or 2.

Aeon Flux (Special Collector's Edition) (2005) - Almost pointless live-action version of the unsane cartoon.
I was of a mind that this was an utterly pointless endeavour, seeing as how the original cartoon was narratively
disjointed, insane, unsane and impossible to frame into a motion picture experience. But I was proven wrong.
It was good for at least one thing: it showed me that Berlin has some really cool and unexpected architecture.
Indeed, I found myself more engrossed in the buildings and landscapes than in the actual storyline.
Also of mild interest is a character who has hands for feet, a trait I remember from a John "King Of BodMods" Varley
short story (and also from one story in Phil Foglio's hilarious and kinky "Xxenophile" comics).
The movie suffered from Disappearing Wound Syndrome: character gets hurt, next scene, no sign of wound.
I think there might have been some nanotech involved, or something.
Anyway, kinda boring and superficial. An okay rental.

Snatch (2000) - Incomprehensible Brad Pitt + Hardcore Vinnie Jones + Unflappable Jason Statham = WIN!
Guy Ritchie. Aside from being Madonna's husband, he's also the director of two fine funny English gangster movies:
"Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch". Maybe a more fitting term would be "Crime Comedies".
The editing and cinematography is innovative, with unusual camera angles, which keep things interesting.
Though I have to say, this movie made me reconsider eating pork products. (Those of you who have watched "Deadwood",
the hardcore Western show on HBO, probably know why I'm saying this. Unpleasant flashbacks all around.)
Fun movie, highly recommended.

Chicken Little (2005) - Disney's "first CGI movie" (didn't "Dinosaur" count? What the hell!?!?)
Surprisingly funny, witty and dysfunctional. Wasn't expecting to like it. But I did like it.
It's not "Lilo & Stitch" but it's easily as good as "A Goofy Movie". I had to turn the volume down three times
during the movie because of sappy tunes, but at least the characters didn't sing!
So anyway, yeah, good stuff, worth the rental!

The Work of Director Michel Gondry (2003) - French weirdo uses stop-motion and toys in new exciting ways!
On this DVD compilation of Gondry's wacky and wonderful music videos, there's a two-part documentary called
"I was always 12 years-old" and I think the title really sums up Gondry's talent and style. He is like a kid,
making stop-motion epics with his toys and whatever crap is laying around. And some of this stuff is astounding
and oddly compelling. He's got a crapload of Bjork, Chemical Brothers, and Daft Punk videos under his belt, and he's
already made the jump to directing movies ("Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" "Block Party" and the upcoming
"The Science Of Sleep", which seems to utilize a lot of wacky-ass stop-motion craziness).
Recommended if you want to see a special brand of genius at work. Part of Palm Pictures' "Director" series.

Ultimate Avengers: The Movie (2006) - Marvel taps into the direct to DVD animation market...
Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, those are all characters I grew up with, thanks to my brother's collection
of "Strange" magazines, '60s and '70s Marvel comics translated into French. But these are the "Ultimate" versions of
the characters, so they're a little different from what I remember. So I'm watching this DVD and there's this big bald
black guy in uniform, with a patch over his eye, and everyone calls him "General". He seems to be head of an outfit that
resembles S.H.I.E.L.D. and I'm thinking to myself "Is that Nick?". And sure enough, someone calls him "General Fury".
That's okay, I'm alright with this. I mean, I liked Michael Clarke Duncan as The Kingpin in "Daredevil".
(And why am I one of three people who actually LIKED the "Daredevil" movie? I mean, come on, it was decent! Admit it!)
I recognized two names from the "Batman: TAS" days in the credits: Boyd Kirkland and Curt Geda. This may explain why
this short (72 minutes!) movie is action-packed and a lot of fun. I was a bit disappointed that it ended so soon, with
still so much that could have been done about the main threat, but Marvel is already at work on the sequel so looks like
we're into this for the long haul. Oh yeah, rated PG-13, so there's blood and stuff. Possibly harsh language too.
For the action cartoon fan in all of us. Worth renting.

Tristan & Isolde (2006) - Rented for the sibling who digs all this pre-medieval stuff
I didn't watch it. The brother said the movie was REALLY romantic, so there you go.

Jean-Michel Jarre: Oxygene Moscow (1997) - First Western artist to play China celebrates Moscow's 850th!
I've been a fan of Jean-Michel Jarre since he released his first album, "Oxygene", back in 1976.
Though I admit that the cover used to disturb me a bit, as it showed the Earth with some of its crust peeled off,
revealing a giant human skull. Pretty strong imagery for a little kid!!
Jean-Michel is Maurice Jarre's kid. This is the same Maurice Jarre who composed the music for eternal Hollywood
classics like "Lawrence Of Arabia", "The Longest Day", "Doctor Zhivago", "Grand Prix" (which heavily influenced the
music used in Namco's classic "Pole Position" games), "The Man Who Would Be King", the "Shogun" mini-series, "Firefox",
"Top Secret!", "Enemy Mine" and others. IMDB lists 174 movie and TV show music credits, from 1952 to 2001.
So yeah, big shoes to fill, if you want to follow in your old man's footsteps (mixed metaphors ahoy!).
But Jean-Michel wanted to do his own thing, and he liked synthesizers. Some people might dismiss his output as "New Age"
but that would be missing the point. Most record stores put his stuff under "Rock", and he does rock. When he plays live,
he rocks entire cities. He uses buildings as canvases, projecting giant images on them. There's lights, lasers,
fireworks, and SOUND! Ask the citizens of Lyon, Houston, Moscow, Shangai, and the lucky people who were at the Pyramids
of Gizeh on December 31st 1999 to witness the "12 Dreams Of The Sun" concert spectacular!
And Jean-Michel was indeed the first Western music artist allowed to play concerts in China when the government relaxed
a bit and finally acknowledged the outside world.
This DVD features an hour's worth of footage from the Moscow concert from 1997. The city was celebrating its 850th
birthday and you know that means one big-ass cake!! MIR Cosmonauts phoned in from the station to wish happy birthday.
Jean-Michel had just released "Oxygene 7-13", a back-to-the-source album that used all the sounds from his original
"Oxygene" album for brand new compositions, so he played several tracks from that. And that also means he dragged out
the theremin to play on some of them. He also used the Laser Harp for two of his pieces.
The sound quality on the DVD is really good, so you can crank that sucker up and rock out!
There's also a one-hour documentary on Jean-Michel, revealing that Papa Jarre spent an awful lot of time in Hollywood,
leaving Maman Jarre and kids to their own devices. There's a look at all of Jarre's concerts from his very first one
at Place De La Concorde in Paris to his new one in Moscow, as well as Houston, Lyon, Docklands, La Défense, etc...
Jean-Michel Jarre DVDs are hard to come by for Region 1, so I was glad Netflix had this. But man, there's so much
material that could be pressed in these little shiny discs! The entirety of the Moscow concert would have been nice!
Blargh...