I've just been watching 'Core' on the FX channel.I remember seeing the trailers for this when it first came out, and scoffing a bit, but there are times (as witness my Irwin Allen obsession) when I'm in the mood for a bit of skiffy adventure without plucky heroes and implausible science, and this definitely fit the bill. (Giant amethyst geodes in the Earth's mantle! Diamonds the size of Cape Cod! Famous landmarks exploding! Whales!
Three random things from the weekend:
1) Why would someone fly in decorators from out of state?
2) I held a baby chick in my cupped hands for a little while. It was very light, all tiny bones and taut muscle under down as soft as a cat's fur.
3) Based on a sample of one psalm, I hypothesize that Swahili has slightly more words per concept than King James English -- maybe twenty per cent or so.
And some things from today:
1) The Post Office claims to have delivered my Voyage DVDs to work on Friday. This is, of course, impossible, as the place was closed. I hope they'll turn up tomorrow, which is what usually happens.
2) In the meantime, today's mail brought me a DVD of my favourite old movie, Hitchcock's Spellbound. It's a region-free Chinese edition (allegedly legit, in English, with Chinese subtitles.) The menus are partly in Chinese, partly in misspelled English, and slightly flaky even allowing for that, but it plays fine and I did manage to turn the subtitles off after a bit of thrashing around.
3) There was also a standard Amazon box which I thought at first was the DVDs, but it was suspiciously light. When I opened it, however, it turned out to be a 1Gb memory card for my camera. It's been a while since 1Gb of storage really took up a box that size!
1) Why would someone fly in decorators from out of state?
2) I held a baby chick in my cupped hands for a little while. It was very light, all tiny bones and taut muscle under down as soft as a cat's fur.
3) Based on a sample of one psalm, I hypothesize that Swahili has slightly more words per concept than King James English -- maybe twenty per cent or so.
And some things from today:
1) The Post Office claims to have delivered my Voyage DVDs to work on Friday. This is, of course, impossible, as the place was closed. I hope they'll turn up tomorrow, which is what usually happens.
2) In the meantime, today's mail brought me a DVD of my favourite old movie, Hitchcock's Spellbound. It's a region-free Chinese edition (allegedly legit, in English, with Chinese subtitles.) The menus are partly in Chinese, partly in misspelled English, and slightly flaky even allowing for that, but it plays fine and I did manage to turn the subtitles off after a bit of thrashing around.
3) There was also a standard Amazon box which I thought at first was the DVDs, but it was suspiciously light. When I opened it, however, it turned out to be a 1Gb memory card for my camera. It's been a while since 1Gb of storage really took up a box that size!
The Chronicles of Narnia (Movie)
Jan. 2nd, 2006 03:48 pmThis was the third movie I went to in 2005, which is a record for me. It was also the only one that wasn't in an almost-empty theatre, so I'm hardly in a position to claim that movie attendance isn't declining.
I enjoyed it; it seemed to be about as faithful an adaptation as a modern movie could be expected to be. (It's no good my trying to assess movies as movies per se; I don't have the experience or the cognitive toolkit for it.) The centaurs and fauns were just about perfect; the talking animals slightly less so, but an order of magnitude better than the ones in the 1980's BBC version, and the White Witch was brilliant if fashion-challenged. (It took me a while to cotton on to where the fur on her battle breastplate came from.) The scenery was lovely, and the look and feel of the whole thing were just about right, with nothing jarring horribly with my 25-year-old memories of the book. One of my companions did complain that the whole thing would have been over a lot faster if Susan had just shot the Witch before she performed the sacrifice.
One thing I realized a couple of days later, and after rewatching part of Peter Jackson's LOTR; the effects were a lot less confined to dim light than the Jackson ones, and the climactic battle takes place in broad daylight! I'm not sure if this reflects improvements in the technology, or a just a slightly different set of priority tradeoffs between visibility and realism.
( Minor spoilery specifics )
I'll have to read the books again one of these days.
I enjoyed it; it seemed to be about as faithful an adaptation as a modern movie could be expected to be. (It's no good my trying to assess movies as movies per se; I don't have the experience or the cognitive toolkit for it.) The centaurs and fauns were just about perfect; the talking animals slightly less so, but an order of magnitude better than the ones in the 1980's BBC version, and the White Witch was brilliant if fashion-challenged. (It took me a while to cotton on to where the fur on her battle breastplate came from.) The scenery was lovely, and the look and feel of the whole thing were just about right, with nothing jarring horribly with my 25-year-old memories of the book. One of my companions did complain that the whole thing would have been over a lot faster if Susan had just shot the Witch before she performed the sacrifice.
One thing I realized a couple of days later, and after rewatching part of Peter Jackson's LOTR; the effects were a lot less confined to dim light than the Jackson ones, and the climactic battle takes place in broad daylight! I'm not sure if this reflects improvements in the technology, or a just a slightly different set of priority tradeoffs between visibility and realism.
( Minor spoilery specifics )
I'll have to read the books again one of these days.
Pride and Prejudice (2005 movie)
Dec. 1st, 2005 01:03 pmThe short version: I enjoyed it, but thought it fell apart rather in the closing half-hour or so.
( Details and spoilers )
( Details and spoilers )
Winter would appear to have arrived; the high and low temperatures today were 54F and freezing, respectively. There were 589 minutes of sunshine, though; in fact, it's been one of those days with not a wisp of cloud in the sky.
This afternoon I lugged two boxes of books down to the used bookstore, and traded them in for a slip of paper, about half of which I then spent on three frivolous DVDs and a pretty little Indian papier-mache box. I also picked up four assorted paperbacks. ( List of Spoils )
Then I went next door and saw Good Night, and Good Luck in a shabby and almost empty theater. I thought it was well done and thought-provoking, and possibly evidence that George Clooney has grown up. I'd still like to see Pride and Prejudice, too, but that requires more planning as it will involve at least two buses each way.
This afternoon I lugged two boxes of books down to the used bookstore, and traded them in for a slip of paper, about half of which I then spent on three frivolous DVDs and a pretty little Indian papier-mache box. I also picked up four assorted paperbacks. ( List of Spoils )
Then I went next door and saw Good Night, and Good Luck in a shabby and almost empty theater. I thought it was well done and thought-provoking, and possibly evidence that George Clooney has grown up. I'd still like to see Pride and Prejudice, too, but that requires more planning as it will involve at least two buses each way.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Well, that was fun. Also cute, without being too cutesy, and sprinkled with movie and fairy-tale references.
Favorite line: 'Shrek, it's time to stop living in a fairy tale. She's a princess and you're an ogre.'
Also, it's worth sticking around for at least the first few minutes of the credits.
Favorite line: 'Shrek, it's time to stop living in a fairy tale. She's a princess and you're an ogre.'
Also, it's worth sticking around for at least the first few minutes of the credits.
Familiar Landscapes
Jan. 29th, 2005 09:26 pmI've just been watching The Princess Bride, which seemed a nice way to spend a lazy evening. I saw it once before, years ago, but that time I didn't notice that bits of it were shot within a few miles of my childhood home. The moor that Wesley and Buttercup escape across is in the vicinity of the Burbage valley, if I'm not mistaken, with Higgar Tor on the skyline, and the ravine they fall down is Cavedale, near Castleton, though in my world it ends in a quiet back street, not a scary forest. I've sat on those rocks and walked among that heather all my life; it's the landscape of my heart, the place I come back to every year and know for the one true countryside.
( Photo behind the cut )
( Photo behind the cut )
I had half a dozen things I wanted to post this weekend, but now that LJ seems to be running smoothly again, I'm too tired to go on about index cards or Linux desktops or Tim Powers or how I didn't become a writer or even my controlled splurge at the bookstore yesterday. I'm slightly alarmed at how much I missed LJ while it was gone, and seriously considering buying some paid time, if only to contribute a little to those UPSs.
I picked up a copy of Moby Dick from the grocery store rack of cheap DVDs this afternoon. Let's just say that I have a soft spot for Gregory Peck and am downright fangirlish about Richard Basehart, so this is a happy thing. (It's also nice to have groceries; I was getting tired of cereal-and-water breakfasts.) What I actually watched this evening was 84 Charing Cross Road on cable, which provoked the immediate thought that it could never happen in these days of Amazon and bookfinder.com, and also jogged some memories -- not only of London. Some of the British interiors reminded me a lot of my grandparents' houses. One scene had a mirror hanging from a picture rail -- a big frameless mirror with a shaped, bevelled edge, exactly like the one in Grandma's living room. The postwar bleakness and hardship was over before I was born, but my mother grew up with rationing and I still sometimes find myself looking at an American sandwich and thinking, 'That's a week's meat and cheese ration.'
I picked up a copy of Moby Dick from the grocery store rack of cheap DVDs this afternoon. Let's just say that I have a soft spot for Gregory Peck and am downright fangirlish about Richard Basehart, so this is a happy thing. (It's also nice to have groceries; I was getting tired of cereal-and-water breakfasts.) What I actually watched this evening was 84 Charing Cross Road on cable, which provoked the immediate thought that it could never happen in these days of Amazon and bookfinder.com, and also jogged some memories -- not only of London. Some of the British interiors reminded me a lot of my grandparents' houses. One scene had a mirror hanging from a picture rail -- a big frameless mirror with a shaped, bevelled edge, exactly like the one in Grandma's living room. The postwar bleakness and hardship was over before I was born, but my mother grew up with rationing and I still sometimes find myself looking at an American sandwich and thinking, 'That's a week's meat and cheese ration.'
The Two Towers
Dec. 19th, 2004 11:46 amYesterday I watched the Two Towers extended DVD for the second time.
( Cut because it's long and some people may not care to read it. )
Tonight, if the other jobs get done, I'll see what I make of the extended ROTK.
( Cut because it's long and some people may not care to read it. )
Tonight, if the other jobs get done, I'll see what I make of the extended ROTK.
