Avatar 3d

I'm not sure why so many people get so wrapped up in the thought that art must represent some political opinion or another.  I prefer reviewers who can critique a movie for what it's trying to communicate and to emote and who can clearly define how successful the film-maker was in doing so.

So re this NYTimes interview with the Vatican movie critic, first, the fact that it was necessary to interview the critic is ridiculous.  Second, from what I read, it sounds like the guy is actually reviewing the movie as how I would and I agree with his assessment of Avatar: visually beautiful, a technological step forward for the industry, simplistic storyline, brain-dead character development and an inability to affect the emotions of the view.

As an additional note, I also felt the near-nakedness of the female character throughout the entire film plus the fact that she was part of a stereotypical short-hand tribe, well it just came across as a creepy white guy's fetish image of a tribal African woman.  And as a final note, I do not want to know how many odd fetish Avatar porno's are spun off from this movie.

A History of Violence

A History of Violence
Director: David Cronenberg

Caught this on television the other day and thought it was over-drawn and disappointing.  As noted in the title, Viggo played a man, Tom Stall, with a former life of violence and crime, who chose to give it all up and restart anew, marrying, having kids and settling down in a small town.

He has chosen to hide his past from his family and of course, due to a random event, his past comes back to confront him and shakes up his new lifestyle.

All of that plot summary you could have gotten by watching the trailer and honestly, the movie felt like the trailer stretched out as much as possible, without any addition of the small nuances and character details that make watching the actual movie enjoyable.  The development of any of the characters, the wife, the kids, even the protagonist's, Stall's was just not there.  Instead, it was more like a lot of comic book characters with short-cut personality traits, which didn't allow the viewer to empathize with Stall or any of his family-members, once Stall's old crime-buddies return and cause a tail-spin in their peaceful life. Shug, this was one of those movies that I'll forget about tomorrow.

Fumiko's Confession

I could have used without the gratuitous upskirt shots, but the comedic timing in this animation is classic.

The gist of conversation from JapanProbe is:
Fumiko asks a boy to date her, but he refuses, wanting to concentrate on his baseball skills.
At the end, she offers to make him miso soup every day (a marriage proposal in Japan), but the result is…



Artist website.

[via Mefi, JapanProbe]

Thru You

Finally a decent remix project, making more use of clips as instruments, rather than straight-up beats: Thru-you

[via mefi]

U900

Surf rock, stop-motion puppets. Pretty rad!


More videos here

[via mefi]

Fig. 8 Flash game

Aah, I've played this too long and I'm seeing a little bike and architecture figures when I close my eyes!

Lovely French music to this game. Progressively devious tight spots to maneuver your bike through.


Play here

[via waxy.org]

Cary Grant Series

NYTimes talks about the BAMcinématek Cary Grant series and Cary Grant's works in general. I've always really enjoyed watching Cary Grant and think that no modern movie stars come close to the charm and suaveness that he exuded.

Here's the full article.

Little Wheel

Little Wheel doesn't quite have enough puzzles and interactivity to be called a proper video game. Rather it's more like an interactive animation with pretty graphics and nice jazzy background music.

[via mefi]

Infinity Timelapse/Animation Video of Tokyo

I wish you could see an even higher quality version of this video


[Via Videosift]

Armstrong and Miller

Haha, why are UK comedies so lewd? This is from Armstrong and Miller, a comedic sketch show from the UK. Note the second and particular the third, are NSFW.

Coupling UK Version

I had forgotten how funny the show, Coupling, was:



I think I'll probably buy the dvd collection when I am gainfully employed.

Bathtub iv

I get that this is tilt-shift. But how did they manage to capture the guy falling into the ocean and the rescue portion of the video? Luck? Stop-motion miniatures woven in?


Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

[via Nizmlab.com]

Philips HD TV demo

To promote their ambilight 21:9 HD television, Philips hired some film-makers to make a cool clip to demo. Think Cops, Clown-mask robbers, & explosions in a hospital setting meet single-shot matrix type stuff. Really quite neat.


Check out their mini-site: at www.cinema.philips.com

[via waxy]

Scary Girl : Flash Video Game

Got a chance to play this.  The control of this game is kind of frustrating, especially in certain levels where precision is required for jumping and what not.  It's certainly quite pretty and has some great music, but I found myself quite frustrated by the controls at numerous points in the game.

Haven't yet gotten a chance to play yet, but judging only by the lovely intro scene, Scary Girl, a flash video game, looks to be quite enjoyable. A few screenshots below:






Play here

[via Mefi]

Rupture by Andromeda Software Development

A software demo, which has a pretty interesting aesthetic. Kind of like an updated tron, minus the fluorescent colors:

Stop Motion with Wolf & Pig

Charming stop motion