What makes you happy ?

Do you know where I live?
No.
Well, fuck off then.

I did not do this justice as I put it on to distract me while working, though work lost – I concentrated much more on the film. Excellent film. Couple of vague moments that seemed somewhat odd (when the girl was involved) but otherwise a sound film that – unlike Hard Candy – actually had a plot, direction and for me interest. (YMMV of course). Definitely on the ‘watch and appreciate’ list.

(and the lines at the top – brilliant)

At the start of the film maybe I missed a great big chunk which would explain wtf happened at the end. Or maybe the plot is as full of holes as some of the staged scenes (little girl lifts man off floor, onto stool and slings noose around neck while man is drugged/unconscious/being unhelpful. I think not).
That’s the problem with some of these psyche films. I’m sure the “plot” of the film had some background and that I as the watcher was meant to discern aspects of the girl’s character because she did x not y when z presented at the start or some such thing. Maybe the pebbles should have alerted me instantly to the manly malevolence. Someone somewhere thought they were being clever. And for me, they missed big style. Hard Candy? It’s less of a WTF and more What?. I genuinely do not get it. It’s missed me by so far that I will not watch it again. In fact, despite a couple of really good scenes and at least once the action of the moment having me riveted it was a complete waste of time. I like my films to make sense in at least a vague way.

It was cheap. It should have been at release. Junk, absolute trash.

Lord of War
+ DVD Shrink
+ another piece of software
+ Windows Explorer
+ Zen Vision M
= me very happy indeed.

The Zen I had was full of podcasts I used at the gym so seeing the Vision M at a lower price I convinced J that me owning a new shiny gadget was very much in order. Amazingly she agreed. So yet again the PC triumphs.

I have the Director’s Cut of Leon and it’s Region 1. Most of the other DVD’s are Region 2. I’ll admit I’ve not looked (it’s late, work to do etc) but if anyone does know of a tried and trusted way to make the DVD drive forget all about that region encoding nonsense then such knowledge would be most useful. If I do find later I’ll post back.

–

So, I looked. As the macs I have are new, I have no chance it seems. Steve Jobs and Co. are eager to make sure that mac users get no leeway at all. Why do people believe this stops piracy? It doesn’t.

PC : 1
Mac : zero

“For example, in the absence of movie piracy, video retailers would sell and rent more titles. Movie theatres would sell more tickets and popcorn. Corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment.” src: digitalspy

So, every time you grab that film from thepiratebay a tractor doesn’t get built. Which hurts the engine builders and the tyre makers and the hydraulics makers and everyone else involved in creating that tractor. It seems rather simple then:
- pay for a ticket at the cinema and cause a tractor to be born
- torrent the film
The former costs a few quid and is very bad for the environment what with all that manufacturing and waste products.
The latter costs nothing and is environmentally friendly.

No-brainer really.

Last night finished reading Donnie Brasco. Good book. I’ve had the DVD for a long time but the few times I’d tried to watch it the film hadn’t grabbed my attention. So after finishing the book I wondered whether watching the film would be a good idea. No it would not, so I did and now I’m going to say the film was really not that good at all.
The blurb on the cover was praising the film hugely but then it had Pacino (excellent), Depp (okay), Madsen (too young) in so it was always going to garner some good reviews.
They tried to squash too much story into too few minutes. It jumped really badly, the plot was thin, no depth. The domestic scenes were unnecessary. The only scene – just the one – that I thought was close to the book was when the cops raided Kings Court. The end both of the undercover operation and of the film were poor – the former was just wrong and badly so, the latter was empty. Maybe it was too ambitious to try and squeeze 6 years into 120 minutes but then they shouldn’t have tried.
I’d recommend the book certainly but the DVD will go dusty and unwatched.

Some time ago I wrote 4 films I can watch over and over:
Leon (Director’s Cut)
Monsters Inc
Godfather
Aliens

Lord of War and The Departed join that list. These latest additions are just superb and now I’m watching more films as I work I still get something from them despite them being the nth viewing. Maybe I should do an all day LOTR marathon…

I’ve been watching some films recently while working. Helps me to cut out background distractions and as they are films I have seen before I know when to stop for the good bits. I’m using earphones which is the new part. Before I would have it through the speakers but I was limited to late at night. Right now it’s 4:20pm and I’m halfway through Final Fantasy: Advent Children which is good because I do have a fair amount to do still. But what I’ve noticed with all films – but particularly this one because of the music – is that I’m hearing so much more. The film becomes that much better because of the sound.
I didn’t realise just how much sound I’d been missing – and I’m picky in that I don’t like watching films with other noises going on. Cinema? Popcorn? Crinkly sweet wrappers? Yabbering people? Murderous thoughts :)
While I don’t think Hannibal or Sea of Love will improve much with better sound, I’m sure others most certainly will.

(And Advent Children is just amazing, every time…)

Costello (Nicholson) is walking through from what I think is the bay toward a procession. It’s daytime. You briefly see a lady and child in the procession. He passes through/under a bricked area (this is a terrible description) and he turns to his left. The camera swings round in front of him and you see the 2 cops who lead the snitches leaning against the wall to Costello’s right. They chat. Costello then turns and leaves. The camera swings back to show the two cops again – only now there are 3. Odd.