Thu, 23 Dec 2010
New toy
About a week ago, I bought me a new toy. This being the result of me earning an extra euro pretending to be a holy man, and wanting to spend some of that money on something fun.
The speakers that come with the device aren't very good (they're way too small), but that's nothing that can't be fixed by (eventually) replacing them. Actually, I already did just that for the front-left and front-right ones -- I still had some old ones from my previous installation.
The silly bit about the whole thing, though, was that initially, I hadn't noticed that you need to configure most equipment to make it emit 5.1 sound, too; just selecting 5.1 sound in the DVD menu usually isn't enough. Thus, I had been enjoying the added range (what with the subwoofer), but it dawned on me eventually that the surround didn't seem to be working properly. Silly me.
Well, nothing that a simple reconfiguration couldn't fix. I've now been going to my (steadily growing) DVD collection to have a bit more fun and appreciation in listening to the same movie with a rather more full sound track. Quite nice.
Having said all that, there's still a few minor things about the installation that I dislike:
- It isn't just an amplifier; it's an amplifier with builtin FM radio. In itself, that's great; but for some reason, there's no button on the remote to immediately switch to the FM radio (there is one for each of the other inputs). Choosing the FM radio requires me to select it using the 'input select' button, which goes through all the inputs one by one. That's a bit cumbersome, compared to the other options.
- The device comes with a dock for an iPhone or an iPod. I don't own such a device (and I wouldn't want one, either), but I do own another device, made by samsung, with similar functionality to an iPod. Yet I can't connect that. Now that's just wrong.
- More importantly than the two above, samsung decided to predefine a set of groups of connections that go together. E.g., there's four HDMI connections, three optical ones, and a few analog connections as well. These have all been pre-assigned to a particular functionality, from which it is not possible to deviate. E.g., you can configure the device to have "BD/DVD" come from HDMI1, optical 2, or an analog input, but not from anything else. Similarly, you can configure the "satellite" input to come from HDMI2, optical 2, or analog, but not from anything else. I'd much rather have a setup where you can assign names to ports, and where you have the ability to disable ports that aren't in use, so that you could have, I dunno, a 'DVD1' and 'DVD2' (if you have two such devices), rather than having to remember that 'sat' is actually 'dvd2'.
Other than that, it's a pretty good thing.
Wed, 06 May 2009
Star Trek
So, as a birthday present to me, I just returned from watching the new movie. Since the official release date is only in two days (but movies are traditionally released on wednesdays in Belgium, so they moved it ahead over here), and since this was in fact the first time it was shown, I guess there's not that many people who've seen it yet. So I won't disclose too many details.
I can say that it's an interesting movie. Funny, exciting, and with an unexpected ending.
Hrm. Well, no, that's not exactly true; the buildup to the ending starts pretty much halfway in the movie. However, you wouldn't expect it before seeing it, that's for sure.
Best joke in the whole movie, in my opinion: Pavel Andrejevitch "wictor, wictor" Checkov trying to authenticate to the computer.
"Access code unknown".
grin.
Wed, 25 Mar 2009
93
films=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM films;
count
-------
93
(1 row)
There were several additions, including one which I actually had when I wrote the previous entry but forgot to add to the database.
One of the more recent additions is Memoirs of a Geisha, an intriguing and compelling piece about some of the more mysterious parts of Japanese culture, and how World War II affected this—wrapped in a love story.
It's unfortunate that the movie depicts Geisha as prostitutes (which they are not), but other than that, it's a pretty solid movie.
Another movie which I recently acquired is Requiem for a Dream, a somewhat harsh movie (definitely no happy ending here) about addiction in all its forms. I think this movie is a must-see for everyone, really; not only because of its message (and boy, does it have one), but also because of the way the movie is filmed; split screen, snorricam, and other inventive camera and montage techniques all add to the movie's excellence. And then there's the soundtrack. Oh boy, that sountrack.
There were more, but those were not as interesting.
Thu, 05 Mar 2009
83
films=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM films;
count
-------
83
(1 row)
I made a little database the other day, with just one table, to keep track of the DVD's I own. This is just the movies; I also have a bucnh of TV-series on DVD, but I didn't include those. Yes, I guess you could say I'm a movie buff.
Two days ago that output was 80. Yesterday, I bought a box with three of Sergio Leone's movies: 'For a few dollars more', 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly', and 'A Fistful of Dynamite'. These go nicely together with 'Once upon a time in the West' that I also have, and which is one of my favourite movies of all time.
Anyway, I watched 'For a few dollars more' and 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' yesterday. 'For a few dollars more' is Leone's second movie, and while it's not a bad movie, it's also not as wonderful as 'Once upon a time in the West' is, in my opinion. I guess this has everything to do with Leone not being as experienced yet at that point in time; 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' (TGTBATU), which was his next project, shows a lot of growth, and is much more enjoyable.
Of course I already knew about TGTBATU, and had, if not the whole movie, at least seen fragments of it. The mexican standoff at the end is a classic, the buildup of tension throughout the movie is wonderful, and the acting is great. Not much more to say about that, really.
I don't know what I dislike about 'for a few dollars more'; it's not so bad that I don't want to see it again, but otoh I felt slightly disappointed when it was over. There were some parts where I thought the music could've been better, but whether a movie is good doesn't depend solely on the score...
Sun, 13 Apr 2008
Film: the story of the weeping camel
Just now, a movie was on TV. This was a non-fiction film, but it was still a story, rather than just a simple documentary or something; it only wasn't scripted or anything similar. The film is about a group of shepherds in Mongolia, who not only own sheep, but also camels, for transport. One of these camels gave birth to a rare white camel; however, the mother does not accept the young for some reason, despite the shepherds' best efforts.
Eventually, however, they did succeed in calming the mother, and persuading her to accept the young. What really blew me away, however, is how they did that:
By using music. Incredible.
So, next time you need to calm down a camel, here is the procedure:
- Go by camel to the nearest town, and fetch a violinist.
- By way of a blue piece of cloth, attach the violin to the camel's side, and allow the wind to blow against the snares, so that it makes sound. The camel will start to make sound too, the tone of which will sound suspiciously close to the tone produced by the violin.
- Get a soprano to sing, while having her gently touch the camel's side. Preferably one who can sing incredibly beautiful. No, really.
- After half a minute or so, have the violinist join in.
- After yet a few more minutes, slowly and gently bring the young to the mother. Have the young drink some of the milk.
- The mother will now accept the young, while she was aggressive if you even brought the young anywhere near her.
Words cannot express how incredible this is. I mean, sure, music can have an effect on one's emotions; and if this is true for human beings, I'm sure the same can be said for animals. But this? Whoa.
Mon, 04 Feb 2008
Movie: The prince and me, plus sequel
First of all: no, I'm not a huge fan of the genre. In fact, when I don't feel too good, I tend to avoid them, since they can depress me at times. But once in a while, a romantic comedy doesn't hurt, and I do kindof like them at times. Early last week, I picked up a DVD of the first movie at a low-price DVD shop nearby, and watched it.
The prince and me isn't my favourite movie in the genre; the plot surely is interesting, but I can't shake the feeling that things work out too easily in the end. Compare with Notting Hill, for example, where the two protagonists need to go through (I believe) three cycles of relationship/no relationship before the end of the movie; this, in my opinion, makes for far more interesting cinema.
But, all in all, it certainly was an interesting watch. I might think the plot could've used some improvement; but that doesn't mean it's bad. The entire visual aura of the movie is great; they went through quite some effort to make it look well. For instance, in a number of scenes it's obvious that they made the clothing of the characters blend in with the background; and yet they still managed to create diversity in those colors during scenes, by making the clothing differ just that tiny bit, and different parts of the background as well; the entire scene would be built up of one painting-like shot after another, yet all of them slightly different. Impressive.
And then I haven't even mentioned the casting, which was magnificent. Anyway.
Since I kindof liked the movie, and since the sequel DVD wasn't expensive, either, I got that DVD as well.
Boy. I've never quite seen a movie's sequel be so completely and utterly out of touch with its original. What horror.
Except for the male protagonist, not a single actor of the original cast returned for the sequel. They had good reason, so it seems.
The plot is utterly stupid. It revolves around an ancient law that made it somehow illegal for the couple to get married. Hello? Do you really think a king wouldn't have the influence to convince parliament to get rid of that law? Of course not, but then you wouldn't have a plot anymore. Now if the rest of the movie would make up for this silliness, then it wouldn't be so bad. Except it doesn't. This movie is bad in... let me count the ways.
- The plot error, as explained above. Also, the plot was quite incoherent, for the most part.
- The casting is terrible. The original King Haraald, father of the male protagonist, managed to create a believable king, with that somewhat eccentric and strange flair that most European royals seem to have these days. The queen had a bit of an iciness over her, warming up to an interesting character once she started to like Paige. Even the minor roles were so well played. In the sequel, none of this returned. The queen was just tight; an empty shell. The new Paige had a problem with overacting in some of the scenes. In fact, that was a common issue; I don't think I've ever quite seen this much overacting in one movie. Also, King Haraald didn't even remotely look like the original; not physically, and not in his acting.
- Speaking of the King, and given the plot of the original movie, he shouldn't even have returned for the sequel; he abdicated because he was terribly ill; he should've been dead, for crying out loud!
- The CGI was horrible. In the original movie, there were a few scenes where I'll bet CGI was used; not because it showed, but because I don't think it were possible to create that scene otherwise. In the sequel, you could tell when CGI was used due to the utter lack of natural feeling. Ever heard of a randomizer? It's what you use to avoid having a full room of butterflies all shake their wings at the exact same speed. Shudder.
- The "painting" feeling and attention to detail of the original movie was nowhere to be found. In fact, at some point they show a castle which supposedly is in Denmark somewhere, but it shows the Czech flag, instead. Ugh.
- Some of the gags were funny, but not as intended; because they were so silly. I've seen 3-year-olds make better jokes.
... I guess I could go on forever, but then there isn't much point in boring my audience. The short version: the original "The prince and me" is an interesting watch, but please forget about the horrible sequel...
... I guess there's a reason why they put it directly on DVD and skipped the theatres.
Wed, 02 Jan 2008
Film: I am legend
On New year's eve, I went to some local movie theatre, and watched the above movie.
Must say I'm impressed. Been a while since any movie managed to get me hooked like this. I just love the way in which the backstory is communicated to the audience through little clues and flashbacks that are given throughout the movie. This certainly makes for an interesting way of discovering what the hell is exactly going on here. Add to that a premise that is sure to raise some interest (New York abandoned? Quite some special effect), and you get a very entertaining night out.
But credit where credit is due: Will Smith's performance was outstanding. He's done a marvellous job in portraying a real human being: not a superhuman, but a person who's had the luck not to be affected by this horrible disease, and who's now slowly turning insane because of his lack of contact with other human beings.
Really nice movie.
Thu, 22 Nov 2007
Four DVDs
A week or two ago, I went to the local standaard boekhandel to use the gift certificate that my mother had bought me for my birthday (which was in may).
For the €50 of that certificate, I bought me the Dutch version of 1984, plus 4 DVD boxes: one with Hitchcock's Psycho, one containing Superman Returns, another one of Dances with wolves, and a final box containing David Lynch's masterpiece Mulholland Drive.
Not a bad deal, I must say; especially as the latter two boxes were on a "buy one, get one free" promotion, where those boxes each had a second DVD with a different movie. For Dances with wolves, I forgot which one it is; but for Mulholland Drive, that was The Singing Detective. Now if anyone ever tells me that €20 for a DVD with a single movie is a reasonable price, then, well, hah.
Anyway. I hadn't seen Psycho before; but in a past life where I did drama school, we had some classes about this movie. As a result, some of its secrets were spoiled, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I probably would have had I not had this knowledge beforehand. Still, it was an enjoyable experience. If you've never seen this movie, shame on you! Go to the local video store, and rent it. Preferably in its original black & white form, not the 1998 remake.
Dances with wolves is a pretty interesting movie, too. Of course, as I'd seen part of it before, I already knew that.
Superman Returns is not bad, as a no-brainer entertainment movie. It's nothing beyond that, however.
Finally, Mulholland Drive is strange. Back in 2001, when the movie first came out, I went to see it at the local movie theatre; it is one of those complex movies which, once you've finished seeing it, will still leave you puzzled until you see it a few more times. Few other movies ever manage to do that to me (I think the only other one is Pulp Fiction). At the time, I planned to watch the movie again as soon as possible, but for various reasons that didn't happen; and now, after six years, I had almost completely forgotten the plot. Which is good, really—I enjoyed it much more. And I think I got it, this time; rather than trying to find the logic in the plot, I just went with the flow, which helps a lot.
The other two I still have to see. But hey, there's still time, right?
Oh, and 1984? It's nice how you want to scream and yell when the system completely takes over Winston's mind. An interesting book.
Mon, 03 Sep 2007
Recent movies
I like seeing movies. I don't always blog about them, but sometimes they're just too good to ignore them in the long run. Here's a recap of some of the movies I saw recently:
That's it for now.
Thu, 28 Dec 2006
Han shoots first
I had received some gift certificates for the Fnac for christmas, and also some plain money. So today I went there, and spent it on a few DVDs containing the Star Wars original trilogy.
Since this is the 2006 DVD release, it contains two versions of every movie: the original theatrical version, as it appeared in cinema at the time of their release, and the more "modern" version, which had some computer alterations to make the special effects be more stunning. And which led to the now infamous "Han shot first T-shirts.
The DVD also contains a commentary audio track for the modern version of the movie, as can be expected from most modern DVD sets these days. Intrigued about the fact that they actually went ahead and did another alteration on the movie just because fans were not happy with the new version, I switched on the commentary track and went ahead to the problematic scene 22. The commentary starts off with "There was a bit of controversy when I told everyone I was going to...", so one would think he's going to mention the whole 'Han Shot First' controversy. But he's not; he goes on with "... shoot this scene with subtitles"; the commentary during that scene simply explains how huttese (the language spoken by poor Greedo) came to be.
Why they had to do that there (instead of waiting until Jabba actually joins in), I don't know. They probably wanted to talk about something else there...
Some mail is welcome in /dev/null. Real mail, however, is welcome at my email address
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