Digital Fugue - Random Thots

The Passion of the Christ

After much hype and anticipation, The Passion of the Christ topped as one of the must see movie this year. Since the movie was not screened here and the official DVD release is months ahead, we just have to bear bootlegged copies. Even churches gave viewing of the movie. With broadband available, I managed to download a copy. Not a clear copy but viewable.

I think the movie is brilliant. Viewing whole movie in Aramaic and Latin adds to the uniqueness of the movie although some fret about having to read subtitles. (Well at least the subtitles aren't crappy as we usually get here). Anyway, I think Aramaic is a beautiful language. Too bad it is not spoken as widely as it used to.

The set was magnificent, totally bringing the viewers back to Biblical Yerushalayim. There are also brilliant direction and editing in the movie coupled with excellent visual and sound effects. Some are not really noticable but thy made quite an impact on the movie for example the deafening ringging sound when Peter (Kaifa in Aramaic?) cuts off Malchus' ear. Another scene was while carrying the cross to Golgotha, a lady offered Jesus a piece of cloth to wipe his face and his face was imprinted onto the cloth with his blood creating some sort of effect similar to the Shroud of Turin. Not too obvious but brilliant. The soundtrack was also excellent and managed to bring biblical period to life.

Then came the characters. I have always thought Pontius Pilate was a ruthless Roman prefect. The film showed his more humane side. King Herod on the other hand was potrayed as a jovial almost gay like character. I would expect Herod to be more no-nonsense pharoah like dude. Somehow rather, satan was a disappointment having no marketing nor persuasive skills. Gibson should put a marketing guy as satan and let the viewer scream "no, don't listen to him" the same way they screamed "stop it" when the roman soldiers were scourging Yeshua. Perhaps a shape shifting satan... taking multiple personalities to persuade him to go to the dark side.

But I have to agree with The Resident, anyone who had been beaten to pulp like that would have died three times, let alone carry a cross to Golgotha.

All and all, its the sort of film that gets a variety of rating, from rotten tomatoes to staggering richter scales, from The real Passion of Jesus Christ to the Gospel according to St. Gibson.. It is all about each individual perception. In order to really rate the film you have to take out the religious and emotional context out of the film and treat it like a normal hollywood flick. Having said that, I would give it a good 4 out of 5 stars.

On a lighter note, checkout The Passion's blooper reel.

Bowling for Columbine

Over the weekend, I manage to watch Michael Moore's multiple award winning documentary Bowling for Columbine.

The documentary uncovered America's obsession with guns and the high gun related crimes in the US. In the end it all boils down to racial conflicts within the whites and the blacks; from the days of slavery and KKK to the media portrayal of the average african american as the average bad guy.

Indeed it was a brilliant documentary. Im not going to reinvent the wheel and do another long winded review. Just checkout what others said about BfC here!

Perhaps Michael more should come down to Malaysia and do a similar research on the infamous Malaysian drivers or our never ending rape/incest cases. Hmmm... perhaps I should do that...
Bowling for KL anyone?

10 hour movie

I recieved an email from Fahroe regarding this. At first I thought it was a normal Charity premiere screening yada yada where you can see celebrities trying to outshine each other kinda of thing. Well, yeah they do have the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King premiere show and stuff.

But what's interesting, they also have a Lord of the Rings Marathon show. What the hell is that...?
It is the whole freaking trilogy shown back to back from 11pm to 10am the next day! Almost half a day of pure LOTR! wooo hooo...

Actually I was planning to do that but on a simpler manner, that is watch the first two DVDs at home and then catch Return of the King at the cinema.

But this deal just blew me to bits... :)

Here are the details:

"The Lord of the Rings Marathon Screenings"

Date: 19th December 2003, Friday to 20th December 2003, Saturday

Time: 11:00pm to 10:00am

Venue: TGV Suria KLCC and TGV Sunway Pyramid

Where & When to get tickets: All Starbucks outlets in Klang Valley from 3rd November 2003 onwards.

*Each RM43 package consists of 1 ticket to the back to back and first of its kind overnight marathon screening of "The Fellowship of the Rings" (special extended version), "The Two Towers" (special extended version) and "The Return of the King" and 2 complimentary Starbucks beverage vouchers.

*First 50 who come in pyjamas will receive a special goodie bag worth more than RM200.00

*Each customer will receive an exclusive Lord of the Rings-HBO T-Shirt and a special "Survival Certificate" at the end of the screening.

Well, at least they should provide free flow of coffee... heheheh...
Hmmm.. should i wear that silk pyjama or should i just wear t-shirt and sarong?

City of God (Cidade de Deus)

City of God is my first Brazillian movie in my collection. It was directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. I picked it up at random together with Irreversible.
Again, I have never heard of the movie before. I don't keep tab on what's going on in the International movie scene. I wish i could. It'll be good if i could keep tab on all the film festivals that go around the world. I wish someone would be generous enough to pay me to do that.

Anyway, back to the movie. It is not your normal primetime hollywood no brainer. The film is about a kid, called Rocket, an aspiring photographer who eventually not only tell the story of his life but the whole community as well.
Film direction is brilliant. No state-of-the-art computer graphic shit but simple cinematography using loose angles and still shots. Brilliantly done, it keeps up with the pace of the film.

The story goes deep into the slumps of Rio de Janeiro, how a group of kids grew up looting trucks and all. then there was and outcast who wanted to make it big. And he did it all by himself while watching his enemies fall one by one until he became the most notorious drug dealer in Rio.

I think the most interesting part is how the community is linked. Everybody somehow seemed to have met each other in at least one part of their life time. A sort of like "Hey, i know you" or "Hey, have we met some where?" kind of interaction.

The actors really played their role well. Everybody jived perfectly well, i didn't see any flaws in their acting at all. And what they said about child actors being able to act brilliantly is indeed true. (remember Iranian Children of Heaven and French Ponnette?).

However, the film is not without violence, Portuguese profanities, drugs and gore. Yes, enough blood to paint Rio red, not quite like the La Tomatina Tomato Festival in Spain but close.

Overall, I'd rate this film a good 4/5! Definitely a good watch.

See what other reviewers said about the film.

Irréversible

Warning: Links may contain adult content that might not be suitable for general viewing.

I picked up this movie from the friendly local DVD shop. Frankly speaking, I've never heard of this movie before. It's hard to find a good stash of foreign movie in Malaysia, almost 80% is Hollywood based, the other 15% is Hongkong based. Actually I was looking for some horror flicks... perhaps one of those eerie asian horror flicks, but i couldnt find any in that shop.

Instead i stumbled into two foreign films, French Irreversible and Brazilian City of God. Without knowing it both are in my collection now.

Irreversible was directed by Gaspar Noe. He chopped the film scenes in chunks (chapters in DVD lingo), not quite Pulp Fiction but more like Memento. Shot in a reverse chronological manner, the film takes you on a journey, like reading an hourly posted blog top down. However Noe played too much with the camera. The transition sequence between the scene was like spiralling and roller-costering the camera. Freaking 20 minutes of the film is wasted on spinning!

The main characters in the movie were played by Vicent Cassel (Crimson Rivers) and Italian bomb shell Monica Bellucci (Tears of the Sun, Malena, Matrix Reloaded). Prior to Irreversible, both of them have acted in a few movies together namely, Brotherhood of the wolves, Méditerranées, Compromis, L'appartement among others. Both of them will be featured again side by side in an up coming movie Agents Secrets.

The story tells about a man (Cassel) with his buddy (who is also his girlfriend's ex) going around Paris night scene, in search of a pimp called "the tapeworm". Why were they looking for "the tapeworm"? - the bad ass pimp raped his girlfriend, that's why.

The verdict:
The multiple award nominated film had a good storyline, the reverse chronological scene is somewhat different and the acting is brilliant. Nice rendition of Beethoven 7th at the end too.

However, there are some reservations (not that i mind):
A few shocking violent and sexual scenes: the fight in the gay club which end up in a broken arm and a nice face job, the 10 minute rape & assult scene.
A lot of french profanities, and like all french movies we can see the french giving it to the immigrants.
It is almost soft porn: you get to see cassel and bellucci in their birthday suit.
Of course, it's french. what else could you expect?

The only thing i hate about the movie is the spinning scene transition. There were reports of people walking out and puking from the film screening at Cannes. I believe it is because of the bloody spinning transition rather than the violence and sex.

Bottomline: Minus the spinning thinggy i'd give the film a good 3.5 star. Not your Primetime Family movie though.

Somewhat unrelated: This happens only in France

Pirates Ahoy!

I have a confession. I have a fetish for period movies. I enjoy watching the pompuous aristocracy in movies like Elizabeth and the Man in Iron Mask, the pretencious costumes in Rob Roy, Robin Hood and Vatel, the music and the drama in Amadeus and Immortal Beloved.

Movies of this 'genre' are targeted much towards the mature audiences, hence the storyline are based on drama rather than action or comedy. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl tend to change the trend by adding elements of humour in the movie. Afterall the movie was based on a theme ride in Disneyland, so the fun element have to be incorporated.

The story line is simple, bad guys kidnap girl, good guys hunt the bad guys. Ok not as straight forward as that but you get the drift. The cast handled their character well. Johnny Depp is the perfect actor for the witty and trippy Cap'n Jack Sparrow. I can't think of any other actor who could potray the wacky Jack Sparrow.
Orlando Bloom also played his character, Will Turner brilliantly. I tend to agree with Nizam Zakaria, there was not a hint of Legolas in Will Turner. Watch this dude out... he have proved himself worthy as an apprentice. He could be the next Jedi.
Finally, Kiera Knightley as the lovely Miss Swan... although she acted well, i kept on seeing her as the slimmer version of Kate Winslett... in 10 years time perhaps? then again, maybe it was the period costume.. ;)

The verdict, although there are some visible inconsistencies in the movie, i would give it a 5 star rating and two thumbs up. Brilliant acting and eye poping visual effects. A must see and a must in your DVD collection.

I remember when i was a kid way back 17 years ago in Lost Angeles. I was in Disneyland and managed to take the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I could vividly remember as we ride into darkness, all you can hear was a steady flow of water. Suddenly a skull appeared on the arch above us, welcoming us and embracing us to the curse to the curse. The water flow seemed to be louder and louder. Then out of the sudden, we plunged down the dark abyss a midst the scream of horrified people, as the ride took twists and turns. Pirates and tresures flashed before our eyes. It was indeed one of the best rides in Disneyland. While watching Pirates of the Caribbean, I was transported back to 1986.

Animatrix

Animatrix

Finally, I managed to watch the Animatrix on DVD. Ultra cool. Last Flight of the Osiris made Final Fantasy looked like a puppet show. Okay, I'm exagerrating. But truly.. a gem!
I like Detective Story. It's sort of like Japanese animation meet 1950s Detective Story.
And the Japanese animation is awesome. Switch the language to Japanese to get the feel.

If you watch this while you were trippin' on Acid or LSD, it'll blow you away...

Reading: A Military Leadership Analysis of Adolf Hitler (PDF)

Movie Boovie

Movie Boovie

Looking at how humans treat mistreat their machines , no wonder the machines rose against the humans in The Matrix and Terminator.
(thx Fahroe for the link)

BTW, I managed to watch HULK. Here's the summarized review:

The Good:
Hulk CGI is cool
Jennifer Connely is hot
Cinematography and Direction is brilliant (liked the simultaneous multiple camera shots)
Action scene is good
Special effects are awesome
Mrs. Banner is hot

The Bad:
The storyline
The plot
Dr. David Banner (the shapeshifting mad scientist)??
Mutant poodle??
Purple ultra strechable spandex shorts
There is a thing called gravity.
There is a thing called "The law of physics".
Whatever happened to the famed metamorphic contact lenses?

Verdict:
They should have made the whole thing using CGI ala Final Fantasy.
3/10

Lets hope T3 is better.

Tune: Blieb Geschmeidig, 2Raumwohnung
Plug: Malaysia Plain

DVD

I'm wondering what cool DVDs to buy. I manage to get LOTR: Fellowship Platinum Extended Edition. 4 DVDs, Over 200 minutes of movie and 6 hours of special features. that's cool. The only bummer is they have to spit the movie to 2 DVDs. Most likely because of the four commentaries by the cast, producers bla bla bla.
I also mange to get this Korean movie called Shiri and a french movie by Luc Besson called Yamakasi (or something like that). The french have this thing about making french movies with japanese theme. Yamakasi and Wasabi for instance... and remember Taxi 2 with the japanese yakuza hitting on Paris... that was hillarious! I love it.

Im a sucker for foreign films. You know, those nominated for Cannes film Festival etc.
Something different from the normal vanilla flavoured Hollywood no brainer. And with the invention of DVD, you could watch these movies in whatever language you prefer. Of course I would watch the movie in their native language and have the English subtitles displayed.

Here's a list of some of my collection (VCD and DVD):
Malena (Italian)
Cinema Paradiso (Italian)
Amores Perros (Mexican)
Taxi (French)
Taxi 2 (French)
Brotherhood of the Wolf (French)
Crimson Rivers (French)
Yamakasi (French)
Ran (Japanese)
Children of Heaven (Persian)
Butterfly Tougue (Spanish)
Shiri (Korean)
Vatel (French)

Care to expand the collection?

Listening to: The Zephyr Song, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Ada apa dengan cinta?

I got the opportunity to watch this Indonesian movie, entitled Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?. Well, actually my sister bought the VCD a couple of weeks ago and its been lying around infront of the TV all this while. The movie itself was released for quite a while in Indonesia.
After hearing a lot of publicity and complements about the movie, i was curious and compelled to watch it. So yesterday, since i got nothing to do, i just picked it up and watched it.

The story line is a typical teen lovey dovey story but well written. The acting by the lead actress, Dian Sastrowaroyo was marvelous. She's beautiful too. If there is such thing as drop dead gorgeous, i'd be 6 feet under. :)

Although most of the shots ware very well composed, the film was marred by some inconsistent shots too visible even on first preview.
The poor post production sound mixing also brings you back from movie land to reality. However, the soundtrack to the movie was good.

Publicity was good. Checkout the website for the movie. Flash packed and ready to blow. However you gotta have a lot of bandwitdh or a lot of patience or both, the site crawls to the max on 56k.

Overall, i'd give it a 2.5/5.

Listening to: All the things she said, Tatu