Stand Alone Complex

[zrath]

So I think I've settled on nicknames for my roommates.
They are Wigger, Stoner, and Ninja.
Ninja is the guy who has the back bedroom, with its own bathroom and private entrance. I hardly ever see him.
Stoner is the guy who has the front bedroom. He works at Trader Joe's, is generally cool, and smokes regularly.
Wigger (formerly "Dumb-Ass Roommate") is the bald Vin Diesel wannabe who rents an awful lot of afro-centric movies,
ties up our DSL by downloading massive amounts of rap/hip-hop and random old stuff, mooches off everybody, and play
his movies and music too loud. I guess he could be slightly deaf, in addition to being near-sighted.
Also, he makes this weird noise that sounds almost like a A-10 Warthog firing its 30mm Avenger gatling gun.
I don't know whether he's clearing his throat, or hawking a loogy, or clearing his sinuses.
It's actually kinda humorous.
That said, this is miles better than living with Adam Sandler and Pélé. That place was just BAD.
More about my domestic life in a future post.

Now, it's time for:


Netflixing Across The Universe!

The Triplets Of Belleville
Saw this at Sony and laughed my head off. It's a smidgen funnier if you're French.
It's an animated movie that's ostensibly about a boy who wants to compete in the most grueling bicycle race in the
universe: The Tour De France. His grandmother and his indestructible dog support him all the way in this.
Unfortunately, he gets kidnapped by the French mafia ("IN VINO VERITAS" says the license plate) and shipped off to
Belleville, a parody of New York City and all big cities everywhere. That's the basic plot.
However, the movie itself is pretty weird and off-kilter and terribly funny. It's not sick nor twisted.
There's almost no dialogue, it's all visual humor, possibly because the creator of this was heavily inspired by
Jacques Tati, a French filmmaker who, in the early '60s, took visual humor to new heights with classics like
"Mr. Hulot's Vacation", "Mon Oncle" ("My Uncle"), and "Jour De Fete". Rent this one as soon as you can.

Open Water
Some low-budget independent "cinéma vérité" thing about a couple who accidentally get left behind during a scuba dive.
They're stranded in "open water", hence the title, and can't get anyone to see them, because the ocean is, like,
really big, and it's hard to see a couple of bobbing head a whole bunch of miles away. Woe.
I didn't really watch this, I wasn't interested. Only for those who are into "human drama".
Being an alien lifeform, my interest in such things is rather limited. (Har!)

Dawn Of The Dead
The remake of the classic flesh-eating zombie thing. A special request from the sibling
I only like zombie movies where people gun them down for fun, so I skipped this one.

Apocalypse Now Redux
Longer! Funnier! With French people! I've seen the original sooooo many times, and yet I managed to miss this one
when it first showed up on the big screen. Maybe because I didn't relish the idea of spending 4 hours in the theater.
Har! Actually, the movie is a little shorter than that.
So the biggest addition is an extended sequence on a French plantation along the river. Captain Willard and the crew
stumble across it in the fog. They stop long enough to bury either Mr. Clean or the boat's captain, I don't remember
which, have dinner (French food! Yea!) and get into a political discussion. I'm gonna have to watch this again and
really pay attention to what they say. This wasn't a Netflix, by the way, Wigger roommate owns it, somehow.
If you're a fan of the film, this longer version is worth a look.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Vol. 1
This is the first 20 chapters of the Genndy Tartakovsky micro-series (3 minute eps!?!?) that ran on Cartoon Network.
I completely missed it, so I was happy to see this come out. It's a lot of fun! The iconic "Samurai Jack" style
works pretty with Star Wars. As indicated by the title, the series focuses on The Clone Wars, which take place
between Episode II and Episode III. All the major characters from Episode II are in take in addition to new ones,
including Jedis from various races. One chapter has an underwater battle featuring the "Squid-Heads" versus the Mon
Calamaris, who apparently share the same water planet. Aqua Jedi Kit Fisto leads the Mon Calamari/Republic forces.
The ships are done in CGI and blend really well. Overall, this is some seriously kick ass Star Wars action fun.
New episodes have begun airing on Cartoon Network, and one new character is a Jedi "Hammerhead" with sonic attack!
Everyone should rent this, unless one really HATES Star Wars, or doesn't like the "Samurai Jack" minimalist style.

Master And Commander
Quoth the sibling: "This is a lounge movie." In other words, this is a movie best seen at home, while lounging around.
It's a bit long, a bit slow in places, and feels a bit like the old sailing ship movies of yore. It's quite good too.
Russell Crowe captains the HMS Surprise! (very popular at parties) and he's been ordered to find a French privateer
called Acheron that's been attacking British ships. That's right, France and England are at war again. This time,
it's Napoleon Bonaparte giving the rosbifs what for! A l'abordage! Ahem...
So the Surprise is fogged-up off the coast of Brazil, and you get to see what it looks like when a fog-enshrouded ship
(which you can't even see) fires its cannons at an enemy ship (it's pretty darn cool and definitely an "oh shit!" moment!).
The Surprise gets surprised and it's not pretty. But Captain Crowe doe snot give up! He'll get those darn frogs, hey what?
If you're into HAWT ship-to-ship naval action, and/or can't get enough of Russell Crowe, then you've already seen this!
Har! If you wished somebody made movies like "Mutiny On The Bounty" again, then you'll probably dig this one.

The Alamo
Made by Texans! Billy Bob Thorton! Dennis Quaid! Texans! The director! The writer! All the extras and reenactors!
Texans! They even filmed it in Texas! The only way to make it more Texan is to involve Robert Rodriguez! HAR!!
And it's pretty good. Very historical and stuff. It doesn't stop at The Alamo but keeps going and includes the
Battle of San Jacinto. Billy Bob plays David Crockett. I don't know why this didn't do better at the box office.
Maybe not enough beefcake for the ladies (versus something like "Troy") or enough hot actors (ditto).

Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence
Saw this one in the theater, could have sworn I saw a dubbed version. The DVD is from Go Fish, a division of Dreamworks
that handled the US theater distribution. The DVD sucks, because all the language tracks are in Japanese, and the English
subtitle track doubles as the closed-caption track, which I find terribly intrusive and annoying! I will not be buying
this DVD! I will wait until someone releases a better, more professional version.
As for the movie, I found watching it again very informative. For one thing, it's much too talky. And when you have
to read subtitles, you tend to notice this more. This is the director's fault, he really digs the whole talking thing.
You should see his other movies, like "Patlabor 1" and "2", and of course the first "Ghost In The Shell".
Also, it borrows a lot of elements from "Blade Runner".
And I mean A LOT! The forensics lab is freezing cold and only Togusa is cold, because he's 95% human. also, there are
what look like eyeballs tumbling in a liquid of some kind. There's a mansion filled with clockwork contraptions.
Batoo carries an enormous and loud handgun (much like Deckard's handgun, though Batou's fires 12 gauge shells!).
A lot of the vehicles are reproduction of old and really old cars (was that a Stutz Boattail?). The pets are clones.
There are other, small details that I can't recall at this point. I'm frankly surprised it doesn't rain more!! (grin)
That said, the movie is beautiful. It's monstruously detailed and the action (when there is some) is intense.
By the way, I CANNOT believe this is rated PG-13 while "Appleseed" got slapped with an R!! SERIOUSLY!!
There's more gore and nastiness in "Innocence" than "Appleseed", and "Innocence" is more realistic-looking!
What. The. Hell!??!!?
So anyway, very pretty and very-very-very talkative. A spectacle worth seeing once.

Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Disc 1)
This is a 26-episode TV series that ran on Japanese pay-per-view and is now showing on Cartoon Network.
I heard good things about this and Netflix had the whole thing available, so I started renting them.
I'm getting all the DVDs in the box-set, and I've spaced them out in my queue so that every fourth movie is a GITS disc.
This is DVD 1 of 5. It contains the first 4 episodes, one of which I actually managed to see on Cartoon Network.
Okay, first of all, I can't get the opening theme out of my mind! It's by Yoko Kanno! And sung by a Russian singer!
Yoko Kanno did all the excellent music for "Cowboy Bebop", which I happen to love, so squeeeee!!
This is pretty much a cop show. Major Motoko Kusanagi, Batou, Togusa and the whole gang go about their Section 9 business,
investigating, politicking, intervening, arresting, all with the help of the Tachikomas, the newest version of the Fuchikoma
AI-equipped crab mini-tanks. And yes, the Tachikomas have annoying Japanese schoolgirl voices. Dang cultural quirks...
There's a lot less talking than in the movies (thank the Fanged God!) and a lot more action. Some episodes are stand-alone,
some are part of the "Laughing Man" story arc (introduced in Episode 4). The animation is very nice, and I think there's
some CGI here and there. I noticed some image disruption during rapid movement, not an issue with prog-scan DVD players.
It's dubbed in English, and I think there's also a Japanese language track (I didn't check).
I like what I've seen so far. I await the next DVD with great anticipation!

Kill Bill 1
The sibling wanted this one. I saw it once, in the theater, and that was enough. It was such an intense experience that
I'm not likely to forget it for quite a while. An additional viewing would be utterly pointless. So I went out and
took care of some errands today while Pascal watched it. And when I returned, we plunged straight into...

Kill Bill 2
...Which is a lot funnier than the first one, and also a lot slower. And hokey-er. Dear god it's cheesey!!
Remember what Joel and the 'Bots sang? "Only Love Pads The Film"? I think it's true here. Looooove padding.
Tarantino should make a director's cut of "Kill Bill", but instead of adding footage, he should take some away and
reconstruct it as a single movie. I think that would be cool. Now, I have to find that piece of music I heard in the movie.
According to the credits, it's a Malcolm McLaren track using bits from "Saint Louis Blues" and "She's Not There" by
The Zombies. Y'all remember Malcolm McLaren? Manager of the Sex Pistols? "Buffalo Gals"? Hip-Hopera? Yeah, HIM.
This track is not on the soundtrack CD. It's gotta be out there somewhere. And I shall have it!


Coming soon: Phonebooth - I, Robot - GITS: SAC Disc 2 - The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys.

Comments

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, you lost me at Vin Diesel.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

My quickie opinion of I, ROBOT the movie: New plotline superimposed over Asimov's robot universe, starring Agent J. Some same character names, a few subplots from Dr. A shorts as a sop to the book fans. Fun if you accept it for what it is, not so fun for Asimov Purists.

[zrath.livejournal.com]

It is my personal opinion (which is mine, which belongs to me) that any movie that will
satisfy Asimov Purists will put everyone else to sleep. I like the man and I respect his work,
but some of it can be a little, how do you say... . . . . ...Soporifique?
Not nearly as bad as James P. Hogan though, woooh doggy! Fluff the pillow Hazel, I'm nappin'!