Viewing Category: Review
2012 Jan 03
We went to watch ”The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” the other night at the Flix Brewhouse. I hadn’t heard of this movie until pretty recently and when I saw the trailer, I thought that I had to go see it. It’s set in a time period that I really like (maybe the 30’s or early 40’s) and is full of adventure in exotic places. It really reminded me of the Indy movies, which isn’t surprising since this is also a Spielberg movie. When they were on the ship, I thought I heard a little bit of Indy music (John Williams!)!
I really enjoyed the animation (it looked amazing!) and the action, but I felt that there was maybe a little too much action. The chase scene where Tintin goes after Sakharine’s bird went on for way too long. I felt that the entire continuous scene was tiresome. There were some cool little puzzles like how the bulletproof glass was shattered, but I wish there were more of those. Instead, there was just more action. I thought the crane duel was actually pretty silly. But I was blown away by the pirate battle. That was really well-done! So for next time, I’m hoping for more evenly-spaced action sequences with a decent amount of “downtime” and clever puzzles.
2011 Aug 18
Cycles South appeared in my Netflix queue and it looked pretty fun so after the kids went to bed I watched it. It’s a travel movie made in the early 70’s and has the feel of a Bruce Brown film like On Any Sunday. The plot is basically three friends take off from their jobs and ride motorcycles down from the west coast of the US (maybe Northern California?) all the way down to Panama. They complete the journey spending about $60 each. It’s a fun journey and extremely interesting in how it shows how much times change.
From the view of motorcycling, the bikes are small UJM streetbikes. They look like Honda CBs. They ride them like dirtbikes, going off jumps, off pavement, bushwacking, and on railroad tracks. I hardly ever seem them standing on the pegs either! They mainly just bounce along. Kind of cool that they don’t worry about the machine or gear so much (or at all), unlike these days when there is so much focus on the type of equipment and bike you have. I like that kind of “ride what you got” attitude.
Culturally, the movie is funny and potentially disturbing (depending on your lifestyle) when they happen upon an old town/commune and proceed to “recreate” with the locals. There’s quite a bit of free-love and partaking of illegal drugs going on. Then they go out on a psychedelic joyride on their bikes. It’s all pretty amusing, but that joyride scene went on for way too long, and had some really annoying “spacey” sound effects.
I really enjoyed the movie after they traveled south of the border. They camped on the beach and went spearfishing for their food. Kinda strange when they killed and ate a sea turtle, but it just goes to show you how times change. There are a couple really cool scenes where they go surfing and hang out on the beach playing with fireworks. Looks like so much fun.
I’d recommend checking this movie out especially because it’s available for streaming. It’s not as polished or charming as a Bruce Brown classic, but it’s still a fun flick.
2011 Apr 19
The kids wanted to see a movie on Sunday so I took them to the local theater for the 10am showing of Rango. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there were several great reviews on Fandango so I was looking forward to it. The other movie choice was Hop, which didn’t look too promising. I think that’s a perfect candidate for Netflix streaming later on.
Rango was a strange movie. It’s hard to describe but I’ll start by saying that both kids and adults will enjoy it. There’s a lot of humor in it that will appeal to grown-ups, plus a fair share of physical comedy that children will enjoy. For animation fans, Rango combines state-of-the-art realistic CG graphics as well as stylized scenes. Some of the images of the desert were straight out of a dream. The action scenes (prarie dogs riding on bats!?) were exciting and the voice acting was superb.
I’ll finish this mini-review by saying that Rango is a definite candidate for Blu-ray ownership in the future!
2010 Aug 10
While looking through the Aerostich catalog I noticed they were selling an anime named “Kino’s Journey”. I checked for it on Netflix and saw that the 15 episode series was available so I put it in my queue. The story is about a traveler, Kino, and her talking motorcycle, Hermes. They travel the semi-fictitious world, stopping and visiting many different countries. These countries vary in size, technology, and culture. Each episode is a small self-contained story and usually has some insight into human behavior. I found the series to be pretty interesting, sometimes shocking, sometimes funny. But most of all, I enjoyed the motorcycle footage. It looked like a cool “motorrad”. The opening and closing theme songs are really good too. When I was riding my motorcycle last week, I couldn’t get the opening song out of my head!
2010 Apr 27
After about 10 years of off-and-on reading, I finally finished Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. What a great relief to finally be done with it. I’ve started this book several times, and really enjoyed how it began, but always hit a wall at around the same point. I love working on my motorbike, and I love traveling, so I always thought this book would be perfect for me. But there’s the third part of the story, which is the philosophical sub-plot which had always derailed me. The seemingly endless “chautauquas” or lectures about Quality were so obscure to me, I always lost interest. When Pirsig applies his classic and romantic reasoning to matters of motorcycle maintenance, the book was thoroughly enjoyable. But the story of Phaedrus left me wishing he’d go back to something related to motorcycles. My most recent effort at reading the book had me not spending so much energy trying to understand Phaedrus’ quest for Quality, but rather skimming over these parts, trying to get back to the travel plot. In the end, I enjoyed the book but also can’t help feeling that Pirsig’s Zen was so obscure, it could have all been a bunch of nonsense.
2010 Apr 12
With all this talk about e-Books on the web these days I figure I’ll talk about a few books that I am reading/have read recently. None are e-Books, by the way. Just good ol bound paper, two from the public library.
Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz
I really like reading travel narratives, especially humorous ones like Bill Bryson’s. I came across Blue Latitudes at the library and it looked great. It even has some praise from Bryson on the back cover. Plus, old sailing ships and adventure are always attractive! Tony Horwitz is fascinated by Captain James Cook, and follows the path Cook took in the late 1700’s when Cook explored the Pacific. The story goes back and forth between describing the adventures Cook and his crew had, and the hilarious adventures Horwitz and his friend Roger had following Cook’s trail. I learned so much in Blue Latitudes: about life aboard Cook’s ship, the contact and interaction of his crew with the natives of the lands he traveled to, and what these lands are like in the present day. Horwitz interviews many native people and gets their thoughts and varying opinions about Cook. What is neat is that the people Horwitz talks to are real. I’ve even done some googling to find out more about some of the scholars and artists Horwitz interviews. I guess that’s part of the appeal of non-fiction.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
This is the final book of the Harry Potter story, but it’s my first book to read. I’ve seen (and enjoyed) the movies, so I’m pretty excited to find out how it all ends. I’m about half way through, but I realize there are so many details, especially about the supporting characters, that I have missed since I haven’t read the previous books. My plan is to finish Deathly Hallows, then go back and read the series from the beginning. It’s pretty easy to get through a book since it was written for younger readers, so I’m not put off by the page count (each book is about 600-800 pages long). I’m enjoying this last book a lot, and will hopefully finish it in a couple days.
Long Way Round by Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor
I love the Long Way Down and Long Way Round videos, and the books are the perfect complement to them. The writing isn’t too deep, but you do gain some insights as to what was going through Charley and Ewan’s minds during the scenes in the TV show. For instance, the one scene where the two are taken in by Igor, and spend the night at his house and party with his friends is much more interesting if you read the chapter to get the full story about their apprehension, fear, and eventual guilt at being so suspicious of their host. It’s sort of like the commentary extra feature of a DVD or Blu-ray disc. If you are a fan of the TV series, I’d recommend picking up the book to go along with it, but I don’t think the book would stand on its own very well.
2010 Apr 09
A few weeks ago, Mariko got a nice new Olympus E-PL1 camera. I’ve had some time to play with it, and it’s a sweet little rig! It is part of Olympus’ micro-four-thirds system, which uses interchangeable lenses in a mirrorless body. It’s a lot smaller than a traditional SLR, but the quality of the photos is impressive. This model comes with a 14-42mm kit lens (with plastic mount as opposed to the other 14-42mm kit’s metal mount. The optics are the same, however, and it’s a very convenient lens. You multiply to focal length by a factor of two to calculate the 35mm SLR equivalent, so it’s pretty much a standard 28-80ish mm lens. Like an SLR, you have all the different modes like shutter priority, aperture priority, program mode, and manual if you so desire. On the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty of automatic scene modes, such as sports, portrait and macro. Also included are more obscure ones, like fireworks and beach, and lastly there are the effects such as soft-focus, pop-art, toy, and even tilt-shift. There’s so much to play around with! On the video side, the camera is equipped to record 720p HD at 30fps, as well as standard def mode. I haven’t played with the video too much, other that to check that the AF works even while you are taking video. Very nice, although a little slow and hunts a bit. It’s probably better to practice manually focusing for this.
Unlike an SLR, there is no optical viewfinder. There’s an optional electronic viewfinder attachment, but we don’t have that. Fortunately, the LCD screen is beautiful and sharp. It’s really easy to make sure you are focusing on the right spot because focus indicators will overlay onto the image. AF action is quick, although not as fast as an SLR. Still, it’s perfectly adequate for most things.
My main gripe with the camera is that it would be much better with an articulating LCD. If the LCD swiveled so that it was facing up, it would be much easier to take shots from the hip for more interesting photos of the kids. Even at an angle, however, the LCD is good enough that you can frame the shot, but it would have been awesome if you could tilt that screen up just like on our old Olympus E-10.
Ever since we got the new camera, I’ve only taken a few shots with my own dSLR. It feels so heavy and probably overkill for much of what we photograph. The Olympus is such a nice combination of small size, lightness, versatility, and expandability that it makes a really capable SLR replacement. If all my SLR gear suddenly went poof, I would probably go for a micro-four-thirds set up.
2010 Feb 12
I’m not sure how I missed this dorama when it first aired, but I’m happy to have found it and watched the whole series in a couple days. (A couple long nights, actually) I’m a fan of Miho Kanno and thought she did a great job as Kiina, a detective who handles the odd cases that the regular detectives find either too goofy to take. Each episode is about a single case, usually involving some kind of supernatural angle, but ultimately is solved by some kind of scientific explanation. It’s pretty easy to figure out who the culprit is but the interesting part is how they explain how the crime was done. What makes Kiina (the character) special is that she has a photographic memory, and picks up on obscure clues throughout the investigation. She’s also very idealistic, and her partner serves as a counterbalance to her personality. It’s a pretty good dorama, and I recommend watching it. My only complaint was that the subplot involving the chief wasn’t very interesting, or the resolution of that subplot wasn’t as fulfilling as it could have been. But still, each episode is pretty fun to watch. Also, each episode features a different guest star who will be familiar to regular dorama viewers.
Kiina site at DramaWiki
Official Kiina Site
2009 Sep 14
This weekend we watched the movie Departures, the 2009 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film. It’s about a man who loses his job as a cellist when the orchestra disbands, and his new job as an “encoffiner” which mean he prepares dead bodies for the coffin. At first I thought that this is going to be a really upsetting movie, but it is actually really touching and has a lot of humor as well. Throughout the movie, you experience the emotions that Daigo (the main character played by Masahiro Motoki) has, starting with shock and surprise. Soon, you start to see the importance of his job to the families of the deceased. You also understand the feelings of his wife Mika (Hirosue Ryoko) and her objections to his new line of work, and then you relate to the predicament that Daigo is in. The story is excellent and the acting is great. My favorite character is the owner of the encoffining business. You would probably recognize him as the cowboy from Tampopo. He’s so cool, yet you can tell how caring he is. All-in-all, Departures is a great movie. Just make sure to have some tissues handy since it can be a real tear-jerker!
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