59 posts tagged “review”
Studio Ghibli films have a long tradition of eschewing the typical. These are not films made for endless belly-laughs. These are not films made to show off the latest in CGI technology. These are films that rely on the surreal and the fantastic to entertain. These are films where children are the main characters, but are not necessarily the target audience. Ponyo’s elegant simplicity may not make it a stand-out in the Ghibli film library, but its exuberant tale will capture the hearts of children and the adults who love them.
Ponyo is
very loosely based on “The Little Mermaid,” but its story is an
original creation by master animator Hayao Miyazaki. While playing on
the shore of his tiny Japanese fishing village, five-year-old Sousuke
(Frankie Jonas) finds a goldfish stuck in a bottle. Sousuke decides to
rescue the girl-faced fish, names her Ponyo, and takes on the big
responsibility of caring for her. Ponyo (Noah Lindsey Cyrus) loves
Sousuke for it, but at the moment she professes her love, she is washed
back into the sea, swept away by her sorcerer father.
Ponyo’s father, Fujimoto (Liam Neeson), shunned human society to become caretaker of the sea, longing for the day where the balance between sea-life and the human world will be restored. He’s not as much of a villain as he is a curmudgeon and protective father, but he is unable to restrain Ponyo. In true little-girl fashion, she defies her father and grows up into a human, through her own powers and force of will. Fujimoto is powerless to stop Ponyo, and decides to call upon her mysterious mother to help control their unfettered daughter.
Rating:
Directed and written by: Hayao Miyazaki
Staring: Noah Lindsey Cyrus, Frankie Jonas
Ponyo makes her grand return to the human world, accompanied by Joe Hirashi’s Wagner-esque riding music. The princess of the sea brings an unnatural storm with her; wild winds and rain worry the coastal town. Sousuke’s mother hurries him home while Ponyo chases them atop the swollen sea.
At first, we think the storm may be Fujimoto’s reaction to losing Ponyo, but the storm clears when Ponyo falls asleep, and we learn her true nature. Ponyo is a dervish of a girl, devouring every new experience with a joyous ferocity. She discovers light, tears, and the wonders of ham.
The adventures of Ponyo and Sousuke are the real strength of the film. We typically look to live action films for expressive faces, but in his art, Miyazaki perfectly captures a child’s bold expressions: the stuffed sleepiness of a food coma, bright eyes brimming with tears, innocence while sleeping. Ponyo’s an animated film before all else, and through its visual medium, it’s a rainbowed spectacle to behold, whether the action takes place in an undersea palace or in a retirement home.
The
story is fine-tuned for children. Instead of being an adult’s faded
memoir of what it means to be a child, the story is told from a very
child-like perspective. There are dangers, but precious little fear or
tension, even in the adults. The supernatural exists, but the human
world is quick to accept it. The resolution doesn’t necessarily move
quickly, or in a straight line. There are still classic lessons of love
and devotion (and even a few on preparedness and respect for elders),
but they’re very gently fed. The real locus of the story is how much
fun Sousuke and Ponyo have together, and how natural it is for them to
love one another.
Ponyo will make you remember what you love about children and what you miss about being a child. The story may be aimed at the very young, but its warmth will be felt and appreciated by all.
Like the indestructible constructs it features, Terminator seems to be a franchise that just won’t die. The Governator appears only as a cameo in “Terminator Salvation”, which systematically destroys at least half the reason for the series’ existence. “Salvation” still serves as a passable action movie, but the horrendous script and too-serious tone render the movie almost unlistenable when the action stops.
“Salvation”
opens in 2003 with the execution of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington).
Before he’s executed, he agrees to donate his body to science, raggedly
foreshadowing what we’ve already suspected from the trailers. (”He
thinks he’s human.”)
Flash-forward to 2018 during the war of the machines, just before John Connor’s rise to leadership of the human resistance. Connor (Christian Bale, miles away from Batman) is sent out on a mission to sabotage the robot-corp Skynet’s operations. Instead, he uncovers Skynet’s plot to kidnap humans to make a new line of Terminators.
In Los Angeles, Marcus Wright awakes to scenes of urban holocaust and meets Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, also known as Chekov in this season’s “Star Trek”). Reese is meant to be John Connor’s father. Reese helps Wright into the new decade, but will not follow Wright to Skynet for a flimsily-constructed revenge quest. Reese and Wright don’t get to resolve this conflict before Reese is kidnapped by Skynet as part of the Terminator R&D project.
Rating:
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington
Directed by: McG
Written by: John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris
Through a series of coincidental events and single-use supporting characters, Connor meets Wright, and Wright discovers he’s the first of the new hybrid Terminator line. Connor is looking for his father; Wright knows where Reese is. Dismissed by the token submarine military authority, Connor rebels and turns to Wright for help rescuing Reese from Skynet.
The plot is rather moth-eaten, and sports many lines that will make audiences groan aloud (what else can we expect from the team that brought us “Primeval” and “Catwoman”?). Fortunately, most of the time is spent on action sequences, which are mostly stunning. If you can suspend your disbelief to synchronous orbit and ignore basic physical properties, you can enjoy a good half of the movie. The giant robot scene is particularly nice, eschewing jiggly-cam and fast editing for tracking shots that jettison Reese and Wright from an exploding gas station to a car chase, an aircraft chase, and eventually, the bottom of the a river gorge.
The film is predictably cinematic, with half of its scenes taking place in the pouring rain. The palette is alternately dusty and chrome, accented with lots of red. Skynet seems particularly fond of open flames, hanging wires, and strobelights in all of their facilities - perhaps this is the robot equivalent of New Colonial decorating. They even feature such amenities as unsecured computer terminals in standing water, open vats of molten steel, and nuclear power sources, all in keeping with the robot lifestyle choices we know from some of the previous Terminator movies.
The
questionable choices aren’t limited to Skynet’s retinue. Humans make
some head-scratchers too, like not using the anti-robot codes to
protect their own facility once Connor has developed them. Plot holes
have ever been the bane of action movies, but many manage to patch them
with efficiency. “Salvation” seems too wrapped up in its Serious
Business to see its own security breaches.
The casting and acting don’t help. It’s hard to tell who to blame for this - the actors or the director McG (of “Charlie’s Angels” and “We Are Marshall” fame). Bale screams half of his lines in a way reminiscent of his now infamous tirade. He shares a very awkward face-off with Worthington that was meant to be a dramatic turning point, but read more like two bulldogs barking at each other from the ends of choke chains: ineffectual.
For your own Salvation, I recommend waiting for a DVD release so that you can turn the sound off and provide your own industrial or hard-rock soundtrack, a-la Pink Floyd with the Wizard of Oz. You may also want to leave the movie right after Connor escapes from Skynet. The last five minutes of the movie were apparently covered with processed cheese food product, and making an early escape may help you retain the movie’s good qualities instead of losing them in the ensuing goo-massacre.
Originally posted to http://pixielate.com/booksmovies/?p=145
Instead of doing a traditional review of Wolverine, I thought I’d highlight my feelings for this piece of work by writing a drinking game.
TAKE 1 DRINK:
- Each time claws or swords emerge from someone’s skin in slow motion
- Each time a new mutant is introduced
- Each time an exotic locale is revealed in an an aerial shot.
- Whenever an item is shown for the sole purpose of re-enforcing something that was said in dialog just seconds before.
- Whenever an item is shown for the sole purpose of destroying it
- Whenever Wolverine accidentally destroys something or injures someone
- Each time a non-Wolverine mutant says something snarky
- Each time a character implies or discusses Wolverine being “an animal”
LADIES ONLY: TAKE 2 DRINKS
- Each time Hugh Jackman is naked or partially naked
TAKE 2 DRINKS:
- Whenever Wolverine walks away from a combat when he totally had an opportunity to kill his foe
- Whenever a mutant engages in solo combat, even though other mutants are around to help him/her
- Whenever the moon is mentioned or shown
- Whenever you see an ax
POUR DRINKS FOR EVERYONE ELSE
- When a character loses in combat, even though they had the tools/knowledge to prevent a loss
- When a character *realizes* they had the knowledge to prevent a combat loss
DRINK YOUR NEIGHBOR’S DRINK
- Whenever Wolverine switches sides (or the sides switch for him)
- Each time Wolverine shouts “NOOOOO!” “ARGHHH!” “RAWRRR!” or another one-syllable expletive
"The Soloist" is based off a true story. L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) has a chance meeting with a mentally ill street musician, Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx). Lopez discovers that Ayers is a dropout from the prestigious Julliard School of Music, and begins writing columns about Ayers' struggles. Lopez has a difficult time defining his relationship with Ayers, who doesn't want psychiatric care or a permanent residence.
It would've been easy to rewrite history, as movies are so fond of doing, in favor of a tidy story where Lopez rescues Ayers from the streets, but this doesn't happen. Lopez's story is given far more screentime than Ayers', and though it's not as compelling, it serves to deliver an important lesson in philanthropy: you cannot presume that the disadvantaged are the same as the unfortunates. The strength of this atypical message is never lost, though the flim does plenty to obscure it.
"The Soloist" may have been an Oscar contender, but was bumped to spring, and it's fairly obvious why. (It's also amusing that Jamie Foxx has a movie out at the same time Miley Cyrus does, but that's an article for another day.)
Robert Downey Jr. does a good job of being Robert Downey Jr., and while that's always entertaining, his portrayal of Steve Lopez is really nothing new. Jamie Foxx avoids overplaying schizophrenia, but the movie almost treats him like a supporting caracter, so the overall effect doesn't have much depth. Catherine Keener plays Lopez' stressed ex-wife, and while I really like Keener, I'm tired of seeing her typecast as a snarky feminista.
The film's treatment of social issues is equal parts piano and forte. In one scene, Lopez tells Ayers that he can't loiter in front of the L.A. Times building with his shopping cart of belongings. Lopez and Ayers are good friends at this point in the film, so Lopez telling Ayers to get lost is stone cold. The audience experiences guilt if they've ever looked down on a vagrant for being an eyesore. Shortly afterward, the police round up homeless on skid row, arresting vanfulls of innocents for illegal posession of shopping carts and milk crates. Individual arrests like this are real, but the scene happens more or less out of context, and is of questionable scale. As a statement against classism, the first scene would've stood alone without the ham-fisted addition of the second.
The details are equally perplexing. There are not one, but two urine jokes. There is a prick in khaki shorts overselling Christianity to an unreceptive, already-faithful Ayers. There is a firelit music montage, a scene following birdflight when Ayers gets a new cello, large rats in the streets where Ayers sleeps. These details don't add much to an already vivid portrayal of disorder, they only serve to shock or amuse you, and they're annoyingly peppered through the film.
Conversely, there are several details that add real artistry to the film. Overhead shots of cookie-cutter suburbs, ordered parking lots, and clover-leaf freeway interchanges highlight Los Angeles' unwelcome attitudes towards the chaos of homelessness and mental illness. Sound bleeds across scenes: soft music that lingers or voices that are so quiet that you wonder if they're on screen or in the row behind you. Graphics bridge decades too, as flashbacks to Ayers' life are neatly spliced with his modern interactions.
"The Soloist" offers plenty of food for thought, but doesn't offer you quite enough context to digest it. If the overstatements and unnecessary details were removed, the story and relationships would have more room to develop depth and subtlety. As is, this plays like an orchestra full of unobservant soloists. All of the necessary components for a provocative and sensitive story are there, and are completely destroyed by a lack of good blending and dynamics.
Originally posted to http://pixielate.com/booksmovies/?p=123
Creating a movie from a cultural icon is tricky business. Do you please the fans, or do you create a good movie? The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but it’s a perilous tightrope. I’m not familiar with the Watchmen comics, and coming out of the movie, I felt like someone’s guest at a work party: politely smiling and nodding at inside remarks I don’t really understand. Watchmen is beautifully marketed, the heroes look interesting and sexy, the concept of not-so-good-guys is intriguing, but this is all just a glossy cover for several stories shoddily bound together.
Watchmen
takes place in the mid 80s that never was. Richard Nixon is spending
his fourth term nervously fingering the big red button that will send
the world into nuclear holocaust. The Watchmen are bound to stop this,
but Tricky Dick legally disbanded their team when public pressure
turned against the vigilante justice. The Watchmen we’re introduced to
in this movie are actually the second generation of super (and
not-so-super) heroes. The opening credits nicely montage the first
Watchmen’s progress, demise, and retirement.
This second crop theoretically kicked some ass in the 70s, but we don’t see them really spring into action until the second half of the movie. Through the first half of the movie, we’re not even sure what their superpowers are, with the exception of the Vishnu-like Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup). The movie begins with sketchy Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) investigating the murder of the ironically named Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). There’s also a love triangle between Manhattan, Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) and Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson). With all these subplots and seven characters worth of backstory, the movie is slowly muddled over three hours.
Rating:
Directed by:
Written by:
Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson
The visuals are great, though sadly, most of the stunners were revealed in trailers. True to great comic movies before it, Watchmen features lots of dark or high-contrast lighting and sharp camera angles. The use of slow-motion is a little overused, but helps to frame the action in the same way a graphic novel or comic does. The movie accomplishes the rare coupling of both frequent and relevant CGI. I do think someone should get Dr. Manhattan a thong so we don’t see his dongle waggling back and forth as he strides through important dramatic scenes. (Maybe it’s just my dirty, easily distracted mind.)
That’s not the only distracting feature of Watchmen. Women are frequently brutalized through the film, and some of the violent themes are a little difficult to stomach. A vivid sexual assault and a child’s death are particularly gruesome if not graphic.
Though
the art direction is generally very good, if not a little open-handed,
the music is often painful. Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” meets
the tone and has a great lyric match as two heroes stride up to a
villian’s fortress. Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable” is incongruous with
a violent murder, and I understand that artistic dichotomy. Nena’s “99
Luftballoons” serves only to remind us it’s the 80s as Nite Owl and
Silk Spectre meet for a sensual dinner: not appropriate. But Leonard
Cohen’s “Hallelujah” took the cake and ground it into the dirt by
ruining what would’ve otherwise been a perfectly steamy sex scene. So
much for my dirty, easily distracted mind.
Apart from having a slow start and two main characters that never get developed, Watchmen does have some interesting story and dialog. Rorschach’s contempt for the scum of the earth, The Comedian’s fatalism, and Manhattan’s neutrality are all built with internal dialog that occasionally reads false, but is generally engaging. There are even a few great coup de grâce lines, but these vie for attention with all the movie’s bad one liners. I loved the bittersweet ending, but many of the subplots wrapped up in cliched reveals.
I’m not sure what place Watchmen has in comic movie history yet. You can’t watch the three hour movie with earplugs in and enjoy the eye candy; it’s just not that kinetic. You can’t hail this as message-heavy Cinema either, as the attention paid to deeper social issues is rather slipshod and rushed in the reveal. I have a strong suspicion that if these themes are interesting to you, you’re better off reading the comics.
"The International" is the latest entry in a long list of action movies with bad writing. Unlike many of the films on this list, "The International" isn't saved by it's great cast, cinematic action scenes, or lavish locations. It's not even saved by the timely ire of bank-hating U.S. taxpayers. It's simply schizophrenic in its composure, trundling between truly orgiastic destruction and some of the worst dialog issued to A-list actors in recent years.
Clive Owen and Naomi Watts co-star as Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent, and Eleanor Whitman, Manhattan assistant district attorney. They're working to crack the case of the I.B.B.C., an international bank foraying into weapons dealing to third-world nations. The unlikely pair romp around the world trying to find weak links in I.B.B.C.'s chain and fighting the bureaucratic red-tape their own organizations install along the way.
For action movies, we can usually ignore the story as improbable or scanty and focus on the bounding action. For "The International", so much time is devoted to story development that we're forced to consider the writing at great and excruciating lengths. I don't know why director Tom Tykwer decided to go with an unknown writer for this film when he's had relative success with his own writing ("Paris, J'Taime", "Run Lola Run"). Whatever the reason, nearly three quarters of the film is dedicated to exposition that sounds like it's read straight from B-rate novels you pick up from the checkout aisle at the grocery store.
Not only is the premise ridiculous, the dialog is ghastly. Congenial Clive Owen barely manages to choke lines down with a semblance of intensity. Naomi Watts fails completely, being cursed with both cliched dialog and a role that renders her insignificant to the story's progression; she's reduced to Indignant Female Co-Star Type A, and accomplishes nothing in her quest to bring down the I.B.B.C.
The film has a few high points. The sound design is detailed and disturbing, often signaling plot points that may have otherwise been opaque. The locations are also incredible, and plenty of photography is dedicated to showing off architectural treasures around the world. The action offers mostly minor thrills, but there is one amazing action scene at the Guggenheim. Owen completely destroys the interior of the clean and modern New York museum: waterfalls of glass and bullets, spiraling down to hell, against a backdrop of art films with blooming red roses and virulent disease.
This single scene is action at its best, but sadly, it's alone in the sea of "The International"'s mediocrity.
Sequels are always compared to the original, regardless of whether or not it's fair to do so. In the case of Quantum of Solace, it may not be fair, since the film has a different director and head writer than it's predecessor, Casino Royale. I remember the skepticism that Dainel Craig faced as the first blond Bond, and how quickly that turned around with the elegant, moody, story-driven success of Casino Royale. Quantum of Solace shares a common plot thread and the some of the same characters, but doesn't share much else. This new chapter delivers plenty of car chases and fight scenes, but emerges as only a mildly entertaining chapter in the Bond franchise.
In Quantum of Solace, the newly minted 00 James Bond (Daniel Craig) follows his bloodlust to uncover the organization responsible for his lover Vesper's demise. The little-known Quantum has "people everywhere," even within the special service. Bond eliminates more leads than he interrogates, prompting his boss M (Judi Dench) to question his motives and take him off the case. Bond continues pursuing Quantum anyway, fueled by more of a selfish revenge than for any duty to Vesper.
This is Marc Forster's first action-heavy film, so some rather easy editing is employed. The shake-cam and super-fast cuts make it difficult to focus on the copious action scenes. True to the tone of Casino Royale, we're rewarded with occasional glimpses of despertate men fighting dirty, and the effect is cringeworthy. Unfortunately, these scenes are often interrupted with more motion-sickness-inducing camerawork and editing.
The story doesn't hold much water, either. Precious little time is given to establishing the tone, apart from M's "I thought I could trust you, I thought you weren't motivated by revenge" theme, which is treated like an interruption to the action scenes. We know from Casino Royale that Bond is angrier at himself than he is at Vesper, and his quest for revenge is as disconcerting and narrow as staring down a gun's barrel. It's interesting to see how Bond could transform from a quippy globetrotter into a ruthless, womanizing killer, but unless you're viewing Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace back-to-back, this transition may seem too quick.
We might feel differently about Bond's quest if Quantum's bad guys were more interesting or ire-worthy. Instead of the cruel and calculated snake that was LeChiffe, we're introduced to Dominic Greene, a banker, politico, and worm. The villanry for nearly all of the men in the movie is established more by their constant rape threats than their evil plots. Instead of the campy "save me James!" scenarios, the dark tone of the movie makes these attacks more disturbing, until they start occurring with more frequency, as if the writers were asked to make the bad guys more evil and weren't creative enough to come up with a better way. To be fair, there is some attention given to the socio-political manipulations and master plan of Quantum. Not enough screen time is given to these machinations, so their danger seems remote.
Quantum of Solace may be acting as a sort of bridge between Casino Royale and the rest of the franchise. Between the dark and emotional Casino Royale and the campy Bond we know from the rest of the series, Quantum seeks to wedge in the destructive protagonist with nothing to lose. Here's hoping that the next Bond will develop a sense of humor and a steadier camera.
by Lauren Hutchison
Last week I caved in and bought a G1 "Android" phone, T-Mobile and Google's answer to the iPhone. I'm now convinced that smart phones are a device no internet junkie can live without. With this conclusion, I've been officially welcomed into the current century and am sure to be bombarded by SMS messages any day now.
I put my new toy through its paces with a four-day weekend in New York City and 1000 mile roadtrip. From these wild excursions, I became intimately familiar with the G1's flaws and features. I've never used an iPhone, so I can't compare, but I can tell you the ways in which the G1 and it's Android operating system satisfy socialites and uber-geeks alike.
Hardware
If
you've never used a touchscreen before, you may dislike the lack of
tactile buttons. But there's a definete advantage in being able to
click and drag a scrolling window or change screens with a gesture.
Most of Android's applications and functions sport big buttons that are
easy to press, even for those with chubby fingers (like myself). The G1
has an advantage over many other phones: its sliding keyboard, which
will make Sidekick fans feel right at home. You won't be able to reach
75WPM on the tiny hunt-and-peck keys, but it's much simpler to write
with than any touch screen I've used. The accessible keyboard allows
you to turn your internet communications from read-only to true mobile
office, a feature that's made my day job much more enjoyable.
There's also a scroll wheel, so for tiny links and buttons that are close together, you can scroll with more precision and use the enter key on the keyboard to select your destination. Some of the browsing does get very tiny, so this is probably not a phone for those with poor vision, but the browser does have controls for enlarging text on a page.
I miss the ability to answer and end calls with a flip, and having a phone that curves to my ear and mouth. Making calls on the G1 does feel like you're holding a small brick to your face, but it does have a slight curve toward your mouth, so the phone is not entirely flat. The phone weighs nearly 6 ounces with a battery and is around 5x2 inches with a depth of about half an inch: about the size of a longish pack of cards.
Apart from the touch screen, the surface of the phone is brushed plastic, so it's a bit more resistant to scratches and dings than chrome or plastic devices. I dropped my phone twice (accidentally) on my trip and have no problems to report.
The phone comes with a carrying case, charger, headphones with mic and volume control, and data cable. There is no separate headphone jack, so you will be stuck with using mini USB headphones for your calls or music. You will want to purchase screen protectors for the sensitive touch screen.
The G1 does not come with a micro SD card, which is required for any pictures, video, or music (including ringtones) you'd like to download. A micro SD card is a must-have for anything apart from making basic phone calls; a 1Gb card will be more than enough for a frugal user, while music and video fans may want to look online to buy a 16Gb card. This card option is exciting, since other phones only offer a limited capacity, and SD cards are doubling their capacity every year or so.
Network and Reception
Many
T-Mobile stores aren't selling the phone because only a few large
cities and west-coast areas have access to T-Mobile's G3 network,
allowing for speedier communications. I'm not sure why this is a
problem: while driving across the vast farmlands in Pennsylvania,
browsing was a little sluggish off of a G3 network, but not unbearably
so. Emails and text messages are still nearly instant, and since many
of your favorite websites offer mobile versions or RSS feeds, you can
reduce download times and cut straight to the important text. The
required service plan from T-Mobile also allows you to access T-Mobile
hotspots.
Photos
The G1's camera is not superb: 3
megapixels, which is a little better than average, but the camera has
no flash, so unless you have the hands of a surgeon and great lighting,
your photos will turn out a little blurry. Android's built in photo
management application leaves much to be desired, as you can't organize
photos with tags or folders. Unlike some other phones, you can share
them via email or with the MySpace application. You can also connect
your G1 directly to your computer with the data cable and access your
files without the need to install additional software.
Email
The
G1 requires a gmail account during its setup; you don't have to use the
account once you've created it, but I'm not sure why you wouldn't,
since gmail's spam filtering and storage space is so excellent. Android
also has a built in application for other email, which works fine with
other POP3 and IMAP accounts, though its features are extremely basic,
there are still some problems with Microsoft Exchange, and SSL isn't
working quite right with some outgoing mail servers.
You get a notification sound and alert at the top of your screen when new email arrives, and it's easy to click the notification and go straight to your new email, regardless of what else you may be doing with the phone. It's also simple to use the menu button on your phone to disable notifications for each program that uses them.
SMS and Instant Messaging
Android
supports GTalk, MSN, Yahoo and AIM instant messangers by default.
There's another application that will allow you to send
mobile-to-mobile text messages. You can also set all of these
applications to play a notification sound or give a notification alert
when an instant message or text message arrives. For other chat
programs, check the Android "Market" application - a few free
applications exist now, with more on the way.
Social Networking
If
you would like to use your favorite social networking site without
having to navigate a large website, there are a few applications
available in the Android "Market" for free. MySpace users can use the
"MySpace" application, and Twitter users can get their fix via
"Twidroid". There's no application for Facebook users at the moment,
but since Android is open source and Facebook has a strong development
community, it's very possible that we will see one in the near future.
Maps and Directions
Android
comes with a GPS-capable version of Google Maps installed. In New York,
I clicked the "My Location" button to pinpoint where I was, then used
Google Maps' search for "coffee" to see all of the local coffee shops
around my location. When I got lost on the roadtrip, I used the driving
directions with my current location to receive an updated map and set
of instructions on where to go. You can even use Google's street view
to see the landmarks around where you're going. My only wish is that it
would integrate with Google's "My Maps."
Video
Android
has a built-in YouTube player, which will open embedded videos in a new
application and display them in fullscreen, landscape orientation on
your phone. The built-in speakers are fine for phone calls, but not so
great with video playback, especially when YouTube's users don't edit
their videos' sound very well.
Google Applications
If
you're already using Google for your calendar, news reader, photos and
documents, this is a no-brainer. If you're not, get with the program!
Google applications allow you to store all of these things on the
internet, so you don't have to juggle between multiple computers and
devices. Android's built in calendar synchs with your Google account's
calendar. The notebook is the only semblance of quick note taking
available on Android, though you can download other notepad-like
applications that don't require an internet connection.
Google's
reader is particularly nice, showing headlines that can be expanded at
a touch into photos and text that are appropriately scaled for your
screen. You can save, share, or email articles, view their original
source, and organize your feeds.
Other Applications
This
is by far the most promising feature of Android. Since the operating
system is open source, this means it's easier for independent
developers to make applications for the phone and release them - for
free! There are already some very useful applications that fill in
Android's gaps, allowing you to customize your phone, play games, or
script special conditions for your phone's ringer, battery, and more.
The Bottom Line
With
a slick, easy-to-use interface and its open development platform, I
predict that Android will be a real market force. The G1 phone itself
is not going to be the last phone to offer Android, so if you still
want to wait for all the kinks to work out, something even more
impressive may surface in the future.
Socialites will be wooed by the easy integration with email, SMS, and social networking, paired with a Sidekick-like keyboard. Geeks will be wooed by the promise of operating system hacks and information at your fingertips. Between these features, there's no excuse for an internet lover not to be mobile, or a mobile lover not to utilize the internet to its fullest advantage.
by Lauren Hutchison
Approach a film with suspicion when a TV commercial uses single words from reviews to promote the movie. Many period dramas are rather generic, and "The Duchess" is no exception.
"The Duchess" serves as a biopic of young Georgiana Cavendish (Keira Knightley), who was married off to the much older Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes). G's youthful exuberance and accomplishments are subsequently crushed under the dual ice blocks of a loveless marriage and her marital obligations. What do couples do when they're trapped in such a situation? History and Hollywood both dictate that the unhappy pair take lovers. The Duke is afforded his affairs. The Duchess is not; at least not until she produces a male heir.
We're familiar with such stories from films as recent as "Marie Antoinette" and as old as "Henry VIII". Genetics now tells us it's the father's contribution that determines the sex of a child, but discovery is only a century old. Between this fact, the stereotypical English chill of emotion, and the May/December marriage, you can draw your own clear conclusions of how Georgiana is treated and how she might react.
The appeal of this genre is the costumes, cinematography, and sympathetic portrayals of a hero or heroine. While "The Duchess" is based on true events, this shopping list is completed with as much passion as the Duke has for his wife (which is to say none at all). The costumes are not too decadent, the scenery pays proper homage to English symmetry, but the screen time for all of this eye candy is far short of indulgent. Once the setting is established, remarks on G's fashionable creations are treated by the film as an interruption to the unfolding story.
Designating drama as the focal point may not have been the best choice. Historical females are almost universally caged and trod upon, and cinema's retold these sob stories at the rate of two or three a year for the last century. We've seen these movies before, so we expect some new twists. The film gives us this with a few facts of the Devonshire's scandalous estate arrangements, then throws in a rape and a near-lesbian scene for gratuitous measure. These scenes are important to the story, but are integrated with as much finesse as a goathair wig.
The movie is all about Georgiana, so Keira Knightley's acting skills are thrust into the forefront. This worked well for "Attonement," where Knightley's own tears were tempered with cynicism and loss, but in "The Duchess," Georgiana is childish, overwrought and a little shrill. Ralph Feinnes' character is much more interesting; he goes far beyond misogynist, he's almost sociopathic and has taken the burden of privilege to new fatalistic depths. The Duke is vilified so thoroughly that any intrigue built up in the first half of the film is lost by the second. His mistress Bess (Hayley Atwell) is even more of a mystery: we can sympathize with her plight and understand some of her decisions, but why she stays with the evil Duke is never explained.
Period films serve as a "didn't it suck back then" or even a "this is similar to how things still suck today" landmark, and this message is definetely present in "The Duchess." Georgiana's first conversation with her husband is on how fashion is the only means a woman has to express herself. Later, during her first dinner with the Whig party, Georgiana adeptly argues that freedom is not relative. Between the frenetic or superfluous scenes, this message remains "The Duchess"' greatest strength.
When reviewing the script for the play in Hamlet 2, young critic Noah Sapperstein remarks that "some things are so bad that they can become good again." This is our universal hope for Hamlet 2. Like many comedy movies, the ridiculous premise, seasoned cast, and riotous trailer contain all the elements for success, but the funniest parts are revealed in its overmarketed trailer.
High School drama teacher Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan) is a social outcast with no talent but a lot of enthusiasm. His life becomes a tangle of satire: his relationship is in trouble, his students hate him, and the drama department is eliminated due to budget cuts. Mr. Marschz' only hope is to produce a play so amazing that the community will have no choice but to support the program and keep drama classes at the high school.
Dana's character is a satirization of the "those who can't, teach" stereotype, and also hopes to capitalize on the dork-protagonist genre of comedy that's made a comeback in recent years. Hamlet 2 self-references every inner-city high school "how do I reach these keeeds?" movie that's been made since 1980. The movie also highlights the importance or absurdity of free speech battles, with a brief appearance by Amy Poehler as a sue-happy ACLU lawyer. With this many goals, it's no suprise that the direction meanders and is eventually abandoned alltogether.
Catherine Keener is typecast as Brie Marschz, an eccentric bitch, and while that role's a joy to watch, one can't help but feel we've seen it before. All of the kids in the class are cardboard cutouts of your high school's cliques: the bad boy, the spaz, the teacher's pet, the girl with attitude... the only exception here seems to be Hamlet himself (Joseph Julian Soria), who is cast for his bad-boy fire. We later learn that his background is not a stereotypical one, which adds a pointed comment on racism, but isn't very effective, since Hamlet's screentime is cut short for other plotlines.
Dana Marschz isn't quite outrageous enough to be funny (except for a few winning musical numbers). His pathetic life isn't funny, it's just tragic, and a little overwrought. No one knows why he's married to Brie - the chemistry between these two is effectively zero, to the point that even her vitrol doesn't seem to connect. The focus on Dana's sad life makes us want to fast-forward to what we KNOW will be the good part: the Hamlet 2 play.
The play is hyped through cries of outrage, but most of the bits that people complain about aren't featured in the short, 3-song montage. "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" is composed with clever lyrics, but lacks any real social bite. "Raped in the Face" is a hysterical turn-of-phrase that wears out very quickly when it's attached to something plausible.
Effectively, Hamlet 2 feels like loosely-tied sketches. Yes, it all makes sense, but none of the story elements are fully developed, so it's hard for anyone to relate to Dana Marschz's tragedy. If Hamlet 2 had been a little more outrageous and simplified, it could have been hysterical. Instead, it's as impotent as Mr. Marschz. Yes, there were giggle moments, but when you're at a comedy movie, don't you excpect the audience to laugh more than five times? They didn't. At least Hamlet 2 is mercifully short at 120 minutes.
