Opine Away

Avatar is a technological leap. Cameron got what her wanted. The animation is so real, you don’t think of it as animation. The 3D is so good, you forget about the glasses you wear.  In fact, it is so good, it’s very easy to get used to and forget it’s great. if movies will start using that technique, it would be as sound or color, surround sound or digital projectors were introduced - it takes zero effort to accept, and it becomes the standard instantly.  Sold!

As a side comment - it doesn’t use any 3D movie cheap “tricks” of a spear popping out to touch your nose, a truck wheel flying at you - it is using the 3D to show you a realistic movie, to the best level possible today, which, short of a holodeck, is pretty much perfect…

Now that I got that out of my system, let’s talk about the movie as a movie. The story is solid and good, though not amazing. Some parts are predictable, but nothing can be consider obvious or dumb. Some elements are sci-fi givens, as growing the avatars in a liquid, or  the fighting amplified-movement machines Sigourney brought with her from Cameron’s  Aliens, but lots are great and original (as much as I can tell…).

I felt that some details were left out, as how Miles got his scars, or how Jake lost his legs - but there were quite a lot of details crammed into over two and a half hours, you can’t explain everything.

I found it great how Cameron managed to make the Na’bi aliens humanly appealing yet very alien. Zoe Saldana’s character Neytiri, mostly naked and looking as hot as an alien can look, though not a match to Zoe Saldana herself, as we saw her mostly naked in the last Star Trek.

I thought that Sigourney’s avatar was the worse, something about the teeth and mouth shape made it look strange, in my opinion this was the only reminder in the movie that this was animated.

Sam Worthington is doing a great job portraying his role, and so does Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Land. Giovanni Ribisi is OK, not more than that, and is one of the weak points in the story as a very stereotypic corporate bad man.

The environment, animals and jungle are all amazingly realistic and nice and reflects the creativity and the amount of details and hard work that was put into designing this ecosystem.

Recommendation? Run now and see it, in 3D of course.

L.

Where the Wild Things Are movie picture

This movie reminds me of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy movie. No, they have almost nothing to do with each other. But to me, it seems that both movies appeal mostly to people who read and loved the book, and seeing it without being someone from the well defined group makes you wonder what’s the big deal about this movie.

The difference for me was that I read and loved THHGTTG. I knew of but read only a few pages of WTWTA. I have my comments (of course) also about THHGTTG, but this is about WTWTA…

The movie is visually excellent, and the casting is great - Max Records is doing an amazing job as Max, Catherine Keener is great and the voices are excellent (though for a “Sopranos” watcher like me, I kept thinking about it when I was listening to him…).

The plot has many layers that can be understand differently by different viewers, demanding on their age - Max’s anger, the Wild Things behavior which is childish but with adults voices and the power of beasts, the depth of sadness, the family situation - can be portray differently as a parent then as a child, which is great.

The movie has both funny humor and sad emotional scenes, and I’d say is best fit for kids 10 and over - and really best for viewers that read the book.

L.

Zombieland movie custom poster

Zombieland - Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin…

Ah, Woody, Woody…you’re cool…been a natural born killer before, but not of unnatural zombies…for me it was White Men Can’t Jump that really made him (sure, Cheers was there first, but….). Jesse Eisenberg is doing his nerdish act in an excellent way, Emma Stone is doing her part as being beautiful and mesmerizing with her eyes, and Abigail Breslin is doing a great part, though I kept thinking of Little Miss Sunshine.

The gory part are pretty graphic, but I didn’t feel they are over done, and don’t feel like they are done for just being gory. The movie is very funny, and even the predictable part comes out good/funny.

This is a fun movie, and you’ll enjoy it, and laugh, but don’t look for a deep message…and if you come in the right mood, you’ll be laughing even more - and I really like the fact it’s not a long movie, had enough of those 3 hours flicks…

Go, laugh, enjoy…L.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movie

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. CwaCoMB. Based on a book with the same name, the movie is simply fun to watch.

Yes, the animation is nice, detailss are great, From Flint’s father’s face to Sam Spark’s pants, it is all done great, but the real charm of this movie is the humor. It is just packed with funny lines, scenes and word play, and casting is just excellent. Bruce Campbell, Bill Hader, Mr. T, Andy Samberg, Anna Faris, Benjamin Bratt - all did a great job. I really likes Manny - voiced by Benjamin Bratt - an excellent character.

A real fun movie for both kids and adults. Go go go!

L.

District 9 movie

Not bad…

Half of D-9 is like a documentary. At first, in my opinion (of course…) it is stretching the documentary like part too much, to a point I was thinking “well, where’ s the action part?”.

The casting of Sharlto Copley is excellent. He plays his character and develop it in an excellent way, in looks and in behavior.

I find the aliens looks including “the hand” unoriginal and a bit of a cliché - maybe intentionally, trying to create a familiar feeling to it, but I think it was almost like a parody about aliens…but just marginally.

Other than the alien look (something between a character from “Pirates of the Caribbean and Predator”) and their hands (any 50s sci-fi movie…),  the fighting machine is a “Alien” à la Sigourney Weaver style, “The Fly” like transformation (though less disgusting than Jeff Goldblum’s) and Independence Day spaceships.

I enjoyed the South Africa location, accent, Afrikaans, Nigerian and  alien language mix and the bureaucratic absurdness 1984/Twelve monkeys/Brazil style in the main character nomination  and his behavior.

It’s an enjoyable movie, with some “blow ‘em up” action, with a refreshing  (if not original) approach. Go and enjoy.

L.

The movie 9 photo montage

9,  Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov animated movie, with voices by Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly and others, to a story and directed by Shane Acker.

Technically this movie is beautiful. The animation, from facial expressions to body movements in action scenes, expulsions, gasses and lighting effects, the artistic and atmosphere creating scenery is just amazing. To anyone that ever did anything with material, texture and light in graphics or animation, the quality and realism is just so excellent.

But the visuals are not the only thing we expect from a movie. The story, though it starts excellent, and has many great elements in it, just doesn’t hold through the movie, has too much of unclear elements, (risk of a sort of a spoiler alert here….) and ends in a somewhat lack-of-ending holistic way that leaves you with a “hu?” at the end. To me, it seemed as the story teller couldn’t come up with a good ending, so he left it open-ended with enough unexplained things to make the viewer not admitting to his friends he didn’t understand the ending….

I was trying to figure out who this movie is aimed at. Small kids are definitely not a good target audience. Teenagers will roll their eyes if they’ll even go (I doubt it). Adults will find parts that will “talk” to them (the “German” nation, the characters etc.), but will be disappointed with the plot - so if you look form a commercial aspect, who is it aimed at?

So, the only answer I have is the artistic audience, which will definitely enjoy the work. So my take of this - if you want to go and appreciate the art and technique, you’ll really enjoy this movie, otherwise, yes, some good action, some elements of a good plot and a few jokes, but nothing the holds throughout the film, and definitely not to the end, if it can be called an end….but it looks great….

L.

I don’t like politics. My writing here is for the sole reason of thinking about democracy as it is practiced today.

So, Obaden or Mcalin? Election shmelection… Who determines it? Let me make some assumptions here…

My first and most important assumption would be that over 90% of voters do not know much about the guy they vote for. When I say don’t know much, I am very gentle.

My guesstimate about eligible US voters’ knowledge:

10%-15% can’t name the 4 main presidential and VP candidates.

20%-30% can’t associate the candidates to their party

40%-50% never read or heard the views or issues statements of the candidates.

80%-90% did not read at least 10 issues and plans for their presidency of neither candidate.

Let’s face it – most people get their knowledge (or lack of) from hearsay, mostly what they hear form colleagues, friends, family etc, which is many times already a second or third hand information….

They also get bits and pieces they heard on TV/radio/newspaper, that are in most cases incomplete, biased, maybe interviews with celebrities that were brought to shows as Real Time with Bill Maher (nothing against the show, on the contrary) for entertainment purposes, but their sometimes humoristic views, on a stage like that, seed many minds with very unrealistic ideas.  “It was on TV” so it must be true.

Or take online videos, as the Obama births certificate questioning http://willnevergiveup.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/lawsuit5/ 

the 2008 wassup youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE (almost 4 million views)

McCain’s YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtZlR3zp4c (over 8 million views)

And almost 13 million viewers of Dear Mr. Obama http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8

Over 11 million views of Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

For sure, more people saw these and similar online videos than read the McCain and Obama views and plans. Of course, all of these are great, freedom of expressing views and opinions, the foundations of democracy. 

But is it right to vote by only seeing these incomplete biased and inaccurate opinions? If you say nah, people don’t take it seriously, you are very wrong. As an example, these fake videos of cell phones causing corn to pop into popcorn got countless people all over the world to try it (was originally done as advertisement for and Israeli  headset manufacturer…).  Of course it is not real… 

Or should I mention lonelygirl15 on youtube? (New Zealand actress that for a long time was believed by many to be a real story). The list is long. People take written and over the TV information as granted. Even hearsay from friends is used over and over again, usually in a very “creative” way after a few times (ever played “phone”?…).

So, after I establish this issue of lack of knowledge, or knowledge based on inaccurate or incomplete information, let me ask the radical question…

Yes, it is a democracy, but should everyone have the right to vote?

Ha, dangerous ground. That’s the essence of democracy, everyone can influence…

But maybe you should be pre-qualified? Maybe, in order to vote, you should pass a test showing you know at least the basic information about who you’re voting for? Name, party, five to ten major points of view?

Radical? Let’s take a non democratic organization as the army. Why isn’t it a democracy? Because you can not take the time and risk of having a vote during combat, sure. But also because not every soldier has the ability to make the right decisions because of lack of knowledge, experience and ability to be a commander (call it talent?).

So there are qualified people who make the decision. They are being scrutinized, they pay for their mistakes, but they have the power to make the decisions for their troops because they have the know-how to do it.

Take business. It is not a democracy. There is usually one or a group of people who decide. If they are qualified, the company has a good chance of succeeding, if they are not, well, than not…

My point? Just to make us think. Will you let a 3 years old chose who will be the next president? So why let someone with hardly any knowledge about it vote?

L.

Fun action movie with some “borrowed” elements.

Without putting a spoiler here, I’d just say that the story is about a person (and he’s getting company later) that one day starts to get commands and be controlled by someone to actions he is forced to do with no choice.  Of course there’s much more, but I don’t want to spoil…

Acting is good, and action scenes are well done.  Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan are doing a good job, Rosario Dawson & Michael Chiklis are OK, Billy Bob Thornton is annoying as usual, but his acting is good…

Some elements in the movie are really taken from other movies/stories, with some modifications of course, but obvious similarities. Some twists and turns are good, and the movie is definitely fun to watch.

Enjoy!

L.

Was asked one day “I have this meat, how should I cook it?”, so I had to come with a quick answer… Here it is:

Ingredients:

A nice piece of meat for roasting, rib eye (or prime rib) will be good,  1/2 Lb per person

A stick of butter,  room temperature soft

Olive oil

Coarsely ground black pepper

smoked habanero (you can find it at www.davesgourmet.com ) or other hot red pepper.

Salt

Dry herbs blend (spices rack in the supermarket.)

Cloves of garlic (about 2-4 per pound of meat).

Wood chips for smoking (hickory, cherry, pecan, apple, whatever…).

You’ll also need a grill with a rotisserie attachment.

Preparation:

Make small cuts 1” deep in random locations in the meat, and push a garlic clove in each as you cut.

Next steps will be advices to do with disposable gloves.

Take the butter, and smear it all over the meat, massaging it in. Work it to get it in all over. Take some olive oil, and do the same. Take your time with it, do it with love…

In a bowl, take a very generous amount of the black pepper, some smoked habanero (very spicy, so up to you…), some salt and some dry herbs, mix them all together.

Take the spices mix, and spread it all over the meat, generously. You can never have too much of the black pepper, so add more as seems right.

Put the meat on the rotisserie skewer.  Don’t put it in the grill just yet…

Put the wood chips in the grill. I don’t wet them as they instruct you. I put them in, and add more every hours or so, to keep lots of smoke going all the time. If you don’t have a place to put them in your grill, you want them over the flame in aluminum foil.

Light the fire under the wood chips. This fire should not be directly under the meat when you put it in. If you have a rotisserie flame at the back of your grill, that’s the one you should use. Otherwise, you want a flame in one side of the grill, and the meat in the other side.

Let the grill heat up until the chips start to produce some. Put the meat in the grill, and turn on the rotisserie. Close the lead, and let the meat turn in the smoke. You want to make sure that when you put the meat in there’s a lot of smoke, because this is when the meat is open and will get in lots of the smoke.

Now let it cook…  a piece that’s 6-8Lb I cook for about 3 hours.  When the smoke stops, I add more wood chips, the more smoke the better.

After about 3 hours, you can take the meat out, but don’t cut it for 10-15 minutes, otherwise it will lose lots of the juices. After waiting a little, cut and enjoy.