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Elliot Smith, RIP
21 Oct 2003 -
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Strange Frog
19 Oct 2003Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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Escher, lego-style
17 Oct 2003Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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Alien Ant Farm returns
17 Oct 2003I just noticed that Alien Ant Farm, after suffering an almost lethal bus accident, has gone and made a No Comments »
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iTunes
16 Oct 2003Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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WNMC: The Rundown
14 Oct 2003I was looking forward to writing a double-feature tonight, reviewing “The Rundown” and “House of 1000 Corpses,” but life sucks sometimes, and I don’t get to do everything I want. To anyone in this country who’re thinking of seeing “1000 Corpses,” I strongly, strongly advise you to wait for the DVD. The local theaters are running a heavily edited version that runs about 30 minutes shorter than it was originally released, and you won’t understand shit. I can’t comment on what I haven’t seen, so out of respect for Rob Zombie, I’ll just save this review for when I’ve actually watched more than an hour’s worth of footage.
The WNMC was a bit early this week and ended up seeing “The Rundown” on a Tuesday night, instead of the regular Wednesday. If you’ve seen the trailer for The Rock’s latest attempt at movie stardom, you have probably already surmised what I’m about to repeat here. Basically, this is a guy flick, which in hollywood-y technical terms means fiery automobile explosions, bullet-time-wannabe fight scenes and witty banter, in generous, generous amounts.
There’s an important scene at the very beginning of the film (although it’s not important to the story in any way) where The Rock is shown entering a bar, just as (surprise) Arnold Schwarznegger steps out. Arnold walks right past him, saying “Have fun” over his shoulder as The Rock gives him the People’s Eyebrow. I thought that was a cute way of welcoming The Rock into the action genre that Arnold had embodied over the past decade, and if this movie is any indication, he’s really got his work cut out for him.
I thought that “The Rundown” was a breakthrough for The Rock not because it was good (it wasn’t) or he was good (he wasn’t), but because it was a pretty decent action movie. I know it’s difficult to imagine how a bad movie with a bad actor could still be called “decent,” but that’s the nature of the action genre I suppose. All an action movie has to do to be deemed successful is keep you from yawning for 120 minutes; such is its singularity of purpose.
This isn’t “The Fugitive” or “Under Siege” or even, god forbid, “Goldeneye.” But it’s not “Tomb Raider,” either. Like I said, it was pretty decent.
So instead of pointing out the stuff I didn’t like about this movie (quite a few), I’ll just talk about the stuff I did like, for a change. I liked how The Rock had two distinct facial expressions, instead of the rather singular mask he used for the entire 2 hours of Scorpion King (and indeed, for most of his WWF/E career). I liked how the movie had wonderful, sweeping cinematography and how the Portugese looked like they hailed from Novaliches (watch out for Ernie Reyes, Jr. in a fantastic cameo). I also liked Christopher Walken’s tooth fairy monologue, and Seann William Scott’s thunderfoot, although I just could not see the point of that Irish pilot. I was also grateful for the lack of a token romance angle (which is often just an action-movie trick for keeping the excitement level up between fights).
I can’t really say much else without throwing around some pretty big spoilers, so let’s just leave it at that. Using our brand-new action-movie-only non-rating system, I give this movie 700 out of 1000 bullets, because I can definitely smell what the Rock is cookin’.
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Chinese in Space
14 Oct 2003Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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Inventions and Open-Source
9 Oct 2003Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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WNMC: American Pie 3
7 Oct 2003“American Pie” has always been _the_ teen comedy movie, both because it had a really memorable cast of characters, and because it was the first one that tried to push the limits of how raunchy or offensive a teen comedy could be. “American Pie 2″ showed everyone that it was possible to squeeze just a little bit more out of the formula, giving us still more raunch and even succeeding with some good bits every now and then.
This third entry had me scratching my head initially, seeing as how there weren’t any limits left to break. Rob Schneider, Adam Sandler and Jack Black had pretty much worked over just about every offensive or taboo subject in creation with their shock-humor comedies over the past 2 or 3 years, and I couldn’t imagine what else the Pie gang could bring to this long-past-full table.
The first hour of this movie is as chaotic and disconnected as a hastily-planned wedding, but you’ll be glad to know that, just like the ceremony in the movie, it does smoothen itself out towards the end. All the usual suspects are still present, with Jim, Stifler, Finch and Kevin all coming back. Tara Reid, Mena Suvari and Chris Klein are all no-shows though, but it’s not a big loss. Chris Klein’s character Oz always seemed forced to me, as he was the only one who had a story they didn’t really need to tell. (He may have been written in to pander to the sentimental, girly crowd, but maybe that’s just me.) In my mind, Kevin and Oz are essentially the same character, so I suppose just one of them is enough for this installment.
Although this is basically Jim’s story, it’s Stifler who saves this movie from being mediocre, and it’s a pretty narrow save at that. Seann William Scott is the only actor in the movie who is actually given a workout, and it feels a little thin because of this imbalance. Where the first movie gave equal emphasis to all four characters, this third movie knows what works and leans heavily on it for their money shots. The funny sequences basically involve a) embarassing Jim (6 times) or b) having Stifler act like a jack-ass (most of the movie).
Using our patented non-rating, I give this movie 2 out of 4 stars.
There are some choice moments to be sure, but unfortunately, none that will stick in your mind quite as well as say, the first time you watched Jim doing a warm apple pie.
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Strokes album online
6 Oct 2003In a repeat of the fate that befell Radiohead’s “Hail to the Thief” album, The Strokes latest album “Room On Fire” has been leaked to P2P networks a good 2 weeks before its official release.
Be wary of fakes circulating through the kazaa network though; I’ve already downloaded 3 “songs” that were just static. You’d be better off just downloading the entire album in one ZIP via EDonkey :)
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