It sure did. If there ever was a movie that (largely) encapsulates what a teenage American male (especially wimpy nerds) want to be at least temporarily – a superhero – this is surely it. This kid makes it happen, usually the hard way with bruises and broken bones, but ultimately gets a boost from YouTube along the way. And Nicholas Cage in (finally!) a quirky, weirdo role like those he used to do early on (Birdy, Raising AZ, etc.) – although here he’s a man with a mission. And his daughter pretty much steals the show every time she’s onscreen.

This wasn’t at all the movie I thought it would be – but it was still great – get it!

candybowl

Saw Inception last night (yes, we were a bit slowww in getting to the theater on that one) at the cheap seats. What a GREAT movie! Sure, it was obviously influenced heavily by The Matrix (as to both the ‘bullet-time’ slow-mo filmmaking and to some degree, the dream-premise behind the movie itself) but it’s yet another great movie by Christopher Nolan (who has already made two better Batman movies than ALL the previous ones combined!).

And another nicety – this was one of the only recent movies where they don’t explain the entire movie plot in an over-long trailer shown for weeks beforehand (which is why I’ve been avoiding TRON trailers like the plague until it debuts in a few weeks). Even though you see some pivotal sequences in the Inception trailer – there’s little to no way you’d figure out the plot from them given how the basic premise is very different than you’d expect, and that seeing them in isolation without knowing what is going on – doesn’t help. Kudos again to Mr. Nolan!

I also liked that Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t given the ‘center of everything’ to the exclusion of the rest of the cast – as is often seen in movies where there is a ‘big star’ surrounded by either up-and-comers (here, Ellen Page and even more so, Cillian Murphy) veterans (Michael Caine – is he now going to be in all Nolan’s movies? :), Tom Berenger) and comparative newcomers (the rest of the key cast). This is definitely a movie where all the key players largely play against one another time and again throughout the movie, and it really *works*.

If you can (and haven’t yet seen this movie), see it in a theater or at a friend’s house with a big home theater system – you will be thankful. This is one of those movies that definitely makes far more impact on a big screen.

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This past summer, a (nerdy) classic from the past was finally released on DVD – the complete ’87-’88 TV series of Max Headroom.

In complete disclosure – I only caught a few episodes of this the first time around but remembered how it was fairly cutting edge, so was curious to watch it again. In most ways, it still holds up, really. The challenge of course for highly technical, future-predicting shows like this (and say, movies like 2001 and Blade Runner) is that they will just get it wrong, or that they are too much a product of their time and that ends up biasing their predictions considerably, or that many things we take for granted in looking back simply didn’t exist at all – hence fairly impossible to predict them. Of course that last statement ignores 100+ years of science-fiction starting with Jules Vernes and HG Wells – but this is my blog, so blah! And neither of them was working for Max at the time, anyway :).

On the cool side – this show either takes for granted or predicts many things that are far more prevalent in today’s society, to wit:

– the even greater income/lifestyle division between haves and have-nots (the ‘fringe’ depicted in nearly every episode where the ‘rabble’ of society don’t do much beyond sit in their shantytowns and watch crappy TV, is reminiscent of Gibson’s cyberpunk Sprawl Trilogy of the same era);

– the ability to track nearly anything/everything via satellites and computer monitoring – Theora monitors and assists Edison from Network 23’s HQ while hacking any computer system they need to – the animated views and her constant directions/descriptions to Edison also predate The Matrix by about 20+ years too for that matter;

– government information control, censorship and the notion of ‘pay to play’ – certainly the first two have been with us since Orwell and earlier, but Max Headroom put a new spin on it in a more Huxley vein – the information consumed daily by most viewers is mostly ‘infotainment’ done to beat the other networks for ratings above all else;

– along the lines of the point just made, the dumbing down of broadcast content with malevolent purposes behind it (anyone ever watch Fox “News”?);

– identity theft and the ramifications of becoming a ‘nobody’ despite needing a real identity to survive in modern society. Here the entity responsible is a computer/AI, however, not simply computer ‘burglars’ as typically seen today, but the problem is remarkably the same;

– a TV courtroom where justice seems largely arbitrary and (again) done for ratings – not to discover truth;

– corporate sponsorship and ultimate control over broadcast content. This has been a problem since there was advertising, radio, TV, magazines, etc. so Max hardly predicted it – BUT – the extreme examples of it seen here in at least three different episodes demonstrate the extent to which corporations may seek to effectively take the law into their own hands when given the opportunity (or in the absence of rules/laws otherwise);

– TV-based elections where the outcomes are unpredictable and in some cases, suspect or simply a means to an end for the behind the scenes players (here TV networks of course, but remember that election of 2000? {sarcasm} Certainly there was no ‘purpose’ behind the Supreme Court’s ruling there, no sir! {end sarcasm})

It’s true that despite Edison’s constant use of on-the-spot reporting and communication over videocam – today’s cam would be a heck of a lot smaller, possibly very miniature and unnoticed by the casual observer. Theora’s computer also owes a bit to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil when you see her typing on it (think ancient manual typewriter connected to a modern computer terminal, just like they had all over the place in Brazil as a style cue). The animation used is more than a bit dated – but then again, Fry’s (also known as Mecca for nerds) still uses a DOS-based inventory and point-of-sales system, so if it works, why mess with success?

Now it’s also true that in some cases, the **idea** behind the episode is the revolutionary part – the execution is sometimes left wanting. While the main characters (Edison, Murray and Theora) are generally believable – most of the ‘executives’ at Network 23 are little more than talking heads with pretty inane dialogue. This was a recurring gripe of mine with Babylon 5 – while the concepts and ideas were pretty cool – seeing Bruce Boxleitner yell ‘get the hell out of our galaxy’ to the Shadow aliens was pretty cornball when you watched it. Oh Tron, what a wicked web we weave. 🙂

Charles Rocket (RIP) does a great star turn in the first episode as the head of Network 23 – then reappears as a rival network villain in three later episodes. And Morgan Sheppard is great as Blank Reg of Big Time TV – despite looking like the oldest punk in existence the way they have him made up (all but Johnny Rotten’s dad in appearance).

On some of the predictions they got wrong – Well, TV networks do not control the earth (despite Fox’s best efforts at same – which may abate somewhat when Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes kick the bucket); Most of Earth’s population does not live in a burned-out slum – yet; We don’t spend all our time watching TV (that’s what the Internet is for, after all :)); and we don’t have ‘body banks’ with people roaming the streets, kidnapping you for organs (or do we?).

But what about Max Headroom himself? He was effectively a computer copy of Edison Carter, the crusading reporter and central character of the series. There are episodes (certainly the first of course) where Max is directly involved in the plot – there are also several episodes where he is largely window dressing and only makes a few sporadic quips or jokes here and there between the main action of that particular story. I’m not sure if they intended that, or if it simply worked out that way in trying to come up with enough cutting edge stories without having Max kind of lampooning things midstream. It would have been neat to see them explore more of Max’s personality in depth – they hint at it from time to time but usually veer away back to the main story involving Edison and the other main characters in most episodes, unfortunately.

The entire series is only 14 episodes – on the DVD there is one that never aired in the US but did later in AU. So it’s not like sitting down to watch the entire run of even the original Star Trek (79 episodes) – they were really just getting started when the show ended. There is also a bonus DVD included in the set with writer/producer and cast interviews. Unfortunately the star of the show, Matt Frewer, is not among them – but you can see at least one interview with him on YouTube if you look.

All in all, this series is definitely worth checking out – more so if you are a nerdy or sci-fi enthusiast. Max, we hardly knew ye.

candybowl

Haven’t caught any anime recently, but with the vacation – woo ho! – saw 2008’s The Sky Crawlers this afternoon. This was directed by Mamoru Oshii, the same director as Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

The main characters are ‘Kildren’ – they are permanently young children, used to pilot/fight air battles in planes that look a lot like WWII-era fighters, but at closer range they are an amalgam of various fighters put together – One looks like a P-51 Mustang with Stuka wings, others like a love child from a LIghtning + a British Mosquito, the others are similar amalgams. The battles are apparently a ‘violence outlet’ for an otherwise peaceful society (this theme has been done before, think Rollerball), companies are the employers and stage the battles (which do in fact kill the pilots/etc.). The plot concerns the struggles of the Kildren in and around their lives and ultimate, inevitable fate (likely death in a dogfight).

While this is a beautifully animated movie – i’d put it up there close to Appleseed and others that seamlessly combine CGI (the planes, most of the backdrops and scenery) with animation (the people, some of the dogfighting when people are shown) – the plot is kinda lacking. There are a lot of slow background sequences which again – while very pretty – don’t really add much. Some of it you figure out later is implied and key to the mental state of the main characters – but a lot of it is kinda ‘surplus’ screentime.

It also reminded me of early episodes of Witch Hunter Robin – where the camera plays over the scene, people sit there, atmospheric or trippy music in the background, but some minutes drag by before anything happens. Hm.

If you already watch some/a lot of anime, you may like this movie – if you are looking for a ‘first anime’ to watch – this definitely isn’t it. Either of the Ghost in the Shell movies (or the two TV series) are better, Appleseed, etc. are all better intro’s to anime.

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forecast for Seattle tomorrow. One can only pray 🙂 But in any event, the best season of the year is about to begin…..muhahhaha!

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Saw 1997’s Mrs. Brown Friday night. While a pretty ‘sedate’ movie compared to most of my usual fare, it was interesting and a tragic, human story nonetheless.

I originally wanted to see this because it has Billy Connolly and Judi Dench in it. They play Mr. Brown and Queen Victoria, respectively. I’ll pretty much watch *anything* with Billy Connolly in it, and having seen Judi Dench in a number of movies and shows over the years, she is one of those actors always worth watching, regardless of the subject matter. Geoffrey Palmer and even a young Gerard Butler play key surrounding roles also, amid the other supporting cast.

Here, Mr. Brown is a former friend called in from Scotland by the Queen to be a personal assistant while she continues her mourning in seclusion over her dead husband, Prince Albert. He rapidly shakes things up, being a brusque, non-nonsense Scotsman amid an otherwise huge group of bootlicks and suck-ups surrounding the Queen in her daily routine – this includes her large family of children (9) who seem to live there too.

This movie is as much about personal relationships, loyalty and ‘office politics’ as it is about the main characters. And as we see all too often in real life, the outsider is rapidly the subject of multiple attempts (both subtle and direct) to ruin him and roust him out of a position of influence.

But the tragedy here isn’t completely about Mr. Brown – the Queen bears responsibility for a lot of ‘drama’ here – both imagined and real. On the one hand, she’s already been in mourning/seclusion for several years before he arrives, and even despite his resulting positive influence on her, remains there for several years hence. But his devotion is unswerving and without exception, the only successful interruption to which is ultimately brought by Prime Minister Disraeli who makes an appeal to Brown directly.

It would be very interesting to have seen the real relationship play out in person (this movie is based on a true story) as the Queen here is all-too-often very harsh in her dealings with everyone around her – I wonder if that portrayal was accurate, exaggerated in the movie or worst case, understated? It is often painful to watch her switch back and forth to coming out of her shell vs. addressing everyone so formally while describing herself in the third person. I realize monarchies (well, from what i’ve read – monarchies in the USA are only created truly within the minds of the self-deluded, not that there’s any shortage) breed their family members to expect and demand complete ‘service’ wherever possible – it’s just still painful to see it in practice. Especially these days where the British Crown is even more a leech on the public finances than it ever was?

The performances here are great, imho. Billy C. doesn’t have to imitate any accent but his natural brogue (probably a good thing :)) and portrays the kind heart, blind loyalty and ultimately tragic figure of Mr. Brown very well. Judi Dench’s Queen V. comes across as frequently melodramatic and fairly black & white in her life outlook. She is sometimes on the verge of opening up back to humanity, but then quickly retreats into stiff formality and her role as Queen as a protective mechanism. It was also interesting at the start of the movie when Gerard Butler’s accent sounded forced and kinda fake compared to BC’s – he also plays a Scottish character in this movie – but in reading his IMDB bio, he’s actually also Scottish (but lived in Canada in his later childhood). Hmm.

Ultimately, this is a good movie and anyone who likes period pieces, these actors, or an insight into a completely different society (and historical period) than our own should like this movie. Be warned that it might be harder to find on DVD – we had to watch it on VHS.

candybowl

Saw the french movie Delicatessen again tonight. Great movie, and definitely very weird. I saw it way back around the time it came out (1991) and remembered bits of it but was good to see it again.

This is a post-apocalyptic black comedy about an apartment building with a butcher shop on the street level (the butcher is also the landlord), vegetable-eating ‘sewer rebels’, and a cast of mostly crazy residents living in the building. To tell you more would begin to spoil things – just see it. It was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who also directed more well-known Amélie ten years later. Since I fell asleep in watching Amélie the first time around, I will now have to rewatch that one.

Again, get Delicatessen – it’s out there, but definitely worth watching. The butcher is a great bad guy!

candybowl

Just finished reading the newest Steven L. Kent Wayson Harris novel – The Clone Empire. Read it twice cover to cover, actually. Here’s what I think.

1) Good continuation of the main storyline from the earlier 5 books. There were definitely a few surprises (plot and character-wise) I didn’t see coming, which are always nice to see, especially in a fairly long series (sci-fi or otherwise).

2) I’m not sure what to think about Wayson’s state of mind at this point. On the one hand, he definitely seems like a man trying to escape his own past (and genetic heritage of being a programmed killing machine) but on the other hand, he can’t escape the violence when it starts, and because of that same internal programming, really can’t avoid liking it and feeding off of it, either. But unlike the many clones around him who have similar programming – he is given much more capability to ‘decide’ about what he believes in (or doesn’t believe in), which makes his decisionmaking (and ultimate mental anguish) that much tougher to bear in many situations.

3) There were two major plot ‘loose ends’ I believed I had caught as having been overlooked by the author over the past several books. One was answered at the end of this book – kudos. The other I’m still waiting to see if it gets addressed. Rather than spoil either one for people who haven’t read the books (or read them all twice like me) I would welcome a direct chat with the author on the latter – Mr. Kent, are you out there? 🙂 I simply couldn’t find an email address/form on Sad Sams Palace or i’d have pinged you directly…..

4) Stepping back to Wayson – I’m also a bit unsure about his ‘deference to authority’ seen more frequently in this book (especially as concerns Warshaw and Doctorow – Andropov seemed to light the fire just like in previous books, no love lost there) versus before. While there is an actual sentence directly mentioning this attitude mid-book, I just wondered whether Wayson was getting tired of ‘leading the charge’ every time no one else seemed capable or willing to solve major crises – yet gets perpetually dumped on and ostracized by most others the rest of the time. It may be that most other major authority figures see him as a complete threat, one that cannot be contained or stopped by anything or anyone (short of killing him), but that he’s too useful to simply execute (although that’s been tried unsuccessfully too). Hmmm…I wasn’t completely convinced of Warshaw’s motives in trying to ‘replace’ Wayson with Hollingsworth – but I’m not sure I was meant to get inside Warshaw’s head really either. Hmm….

5) One thing that occurred to me – Several books back, we got a brief glimpse (mostly through ancillary conversations) at the Mogat ‘bible’, written by Morgan Atkins about his encounters with and negotiations to hold off the Avatari. Can we see more from that? It may be too late at this stage given the next book may be well near done by now – but it would be very cool, and help understand the aliens a bit more? And why several thousand (million?) people chose to follow Atkins in the first place at that stage in the story? That was always a bit unclear to me too – They seemed to give up a LOT (as described during Harris’ invasion of their homeworld in an earlier book) but it didn’t seem that they were ‘racial isolationists’ (like Shin Nippon) or Freeman’s Baptist family (religious ‘back to basics’ farmer colony). Did I just miss the discussion of their motivations, or?

Looking forward to the next book – as I understand it – possibly the last one? doh! 🙁

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Good deed of the day – DONE. We were headed home on Aurora Ave. today, just barely crossing the bridge northbound, in the right lane, when we noticed the traffic slowing a bit in our lane and swerving left a bit at the same time. When we got to that spot, we saw to our dismay, there was a medium-sized bird, apparently trapped down next to the (now very high with barrier) curb. It looked like it had a broken wing, probably why it couldn’t fly up over the barrier to the sidewalk and get out of traffic. We both immediately decided we had to help the bird somehow, so we got off at the north end of the bridge, and I jumped out and ran back onto the bridge, while Kerewin circled around to drive back south on the bridge.

I started out running back up there, but soon slowed down (out of shape) but also didn’t want to startle the bird back into getting hit if I came running up. The poor thing was trying to walk/scuttle south – I slowly walked behind it (I’m up on the sidewalk, safe from traffic unlike the poor bird) and it slowly kept scooting south – but then it stopped and just huddled against the curb and stopped moving, probably too scared to do anything else (plus maybe about to give up? not sure).

Our crazy scheme was for kerewin to circle around at the south end of the bridge (there is a way you can get off, go under, and come back around to go northbound) across the bridge VERY SLOWLY to block out traffic in that lane, while I leaped over the railing (onto the road, NOT off the bridge!) and grabbed the bird, then jump into the car with the bird when she got to me. Probably a minute or so before she appeared on the south end of the bridge, a cop showed up (I realized someone driving by had likely called the situation in on their cell via 911) and she quickly pulled up and blocked 2/3 of the lanes, so the traffic died down to a crawl as the cars made their way around us. I talked to the cop, very nice woman, and she pulled some bags out of the trunk and we were able to get the bird in a bag and off the road – although he perked up and tried to bite a couple times – so we used the other bag gently to head that off (no pun intended).

They had apparently called Animal Control too – I wanted initially to take the bird up to PAWS in Lynnwood, because they have a wild animal rehab center there and they could likely treat the broken wing (or whatever was wrong with the bird). But the AC woman (who had just arrived right about when we corraled the bird) said they have a PAWS volunteer that comes to pick up wild animals in cases like this at their center. So, that was a relief, they weren’t just going to euthanize the bird and we didn’t need to haul it north too.

So, hoping to put in a call to them tomorrow to see what happened, but I think things will work out for the poor birdie! After we got home we looked up some bird pics and determined this was likely a Cormorant, like the one in this pic (not actual bird). Pretty good sized bird, about the size of a duck at least, but a bit more lanky than a duck (definitely longer neck and beak!).

Hooray for the bird! It was crazy out on that bridge, the cars and BIG trucks/buses were whipping by and I was just praying the bird stayed put until we could get him off the road. It was also really windy – thankfully not raining at that point – and yes, if you aren’t familiar with this particular bridge – it’s the one most often used for suicides in this town – VERY high up. I was very nervous (not a fan of heights **at all** in walking back to the north end of the bridge after the bird was out of harm’s way – forgot how high up that thing is – doh!

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Finished the Ilium/Olympos pair of books from Dan Simmons today. I had read Ilium originally several years ago on a plane flight back from Paris (we went to attend a friend’s wedding there) and then Olympos a year or two later when it came out. As often happens, I felt like re-reading them – and it was definitely worth it.

As with Simmons’ Hyperion series, besides the space opera elements, there are many literature-based themes and plot elements going on at the same time – including the Greek Gods from Homer’s Iliad and other Greek mythology, Shakespeare, and Proust, and poem-obsessed space-faring sentient robots to boot. It’s not anywhere the mish-mash it may sound like at first glance, the books are well tied together and offer excellent and entertaining reading.

I especially liked the moravecs (space-faring robots from out near Ganymede/Jupiter who end up coming to Mars/Earth because of the crazy Greek Gods’ quantum activity – read the books, it’s too hard to explain in a few sentences). The two main moravecs, Orphu (hard-vacuum mining robot from Io) and Mahnmut (submarine-driving robot from the seas of Europa) were the best developed and definitely the most interesting to watch, although it would have been cool to understand the ‘Belt moravecs a bit more (they appear late in the first book and have many appearances in the second). I also liked their very real attachment to humanity and willingness to save it when even the humans, Greek God/post-humans and other nefarious players seemed poised to make us otherwise extinct. Nice touch.

I could have done a bit less, however with some of the more risque plot activities – they really didn’t add anything for me save in a couple circumstances where that stuff is directly tied to the plot – otherwise I thought it was largely fluff or in at least one case, pretty lame. I would have much more enjoyed instead more explanation about the most enigmatic players in the second book (Setebos, Prospero, Ariel and ultimately, Moira, and the voynix) in addition to some major endpoints I felt were simply ignored or left to the imagination.

But whatever – it’s still a great pair of books and despite the pervasiveness of science throughout, still manages to often stay in a fantasy-type storyline – normally I’d not bother with such books but Simmons (again like th earlier Hyperion) can definitely integrate the two without alienating fans of either type, IMHO.

I’ve got some nonfiction to read next, as well as finish up the latest Clone story from Steven L. Kent – stay tuned. May have to read the latest Gibson trilogy also, I’ve been meaning to get back to that.