Went to see Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep last night and felt like it’s the best piece of alternative cinema we’ve had in a while. Gael Garcia Bernal is perfectly cast as a young man living more in his dreamworld than in the day to day moments of his regular life. The film uses many of Gondry’s tricks which after viewing his music videos in the
Director Series Dvd made it easy for me to spot how he was doing such cool things on screen. It’s a visual treat and the story , that is at times funny, and sweet, ends by making you wonder just how much good you should feel, and how long can you stay asleep.

I’m back in Iowa. Didn’t get to see everyone I wanted too in greenville but got spend some good time with my brother which was nice. Ate lots of good food, and saw some good things.

Got home and watched
2046 which i have to take back tommorow. Pretty film, with great perfomances by Tony Lueng and Zhang Zhiyi, and really atmospheric direction by Wong Kar Wai, but I’m not sure how much I liked the movie over the actual images. It’s really not amazing by any means, but for fans of wide angle shots, and beautiful cinema it’s worth it.

O.k. this should be back to more normal postings this week.

Just watched the White Countess. Pretty good. Effort was made to make it historically accurate. And since Asian History , especially early 20th century has always been my study, I enjoyed it even more.
Now Playing (again) Alien Hominid Gamecube
Now Reading, American Born Chinese (at work)
Now listening, Black Hawk Down soundtrack,
Now eating, Hummus.

Wow. this movie sucks. Neil Burger directs some pretty good actors in Edward Norton and Paul Giammiti and makes a movie that is so trite, so full of cinema faux pas that I just can’t find whats redeeming about this film. The story can be figured out way before the climax, the filming is ugly, janky and dark, and the whole twenty minute introduction feels like an afterthought and not really essential. Certain photoshop elements are used to the point of distraction like the glow on the memories. God, the more i think about this film the more I hate it. I’m sorry, this is just bad cinema. It’s a shame really, I could use a good magic movie. Let’s hope Christopher Nolan’s Prestige delivers because this sure as heck didn’t.

O.k. geek juices in overdrive right now. For the longest time Frank Miller didn’t want his stories filmed. Sure the ones he didnt own got turned into movies anyway(batman, daredevil.) Then came Robert Rodriguez who convinced him to make Sin City with him. And Miller warmed up a little to Hollywood. Now Aint it Cool News has posted the trailer for the upcoming 300 movie based on his graphic novel of the same name. The trailer is here
This looks like it will put the rest the bad memories of Alexander, kingdom of heaven, and Troy, and finally get us back to those Trojan epics we’ve based all our modern storytelling on. hotness.

Well, who knew that Nick Cave could write movies? This is a western, set in Australia, that is as good as any western of the past twenty years. Tightly paced with plenty of wide angle shots and great acting by Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone and John Hurt.
Very gorey violence, so go prepared for that. It’s funny this is a limited theatrical release. It definetly is more of a bigscreen movie than say Beerfest. but oh well America pays for what plays.

It’s not often that September has this many movies I want to see but most likely a few of them won’t even make it here till october so I should be O.K.
The first week of September has one that I will wait for a rental with in Crank. Jason Stathem has become this generations Bruce Willis as the go to action guy. And as long as he keeps up the work ethic I can see him becoming a pretty major action star.

Sept 8th sees the opening of Hollywoodland. Can Ben Affleck shake the doubters in this George Reeve’s biopic and prove that he has a career left in him. Adrien Brody should elevate the game, and who doesn’t want to find out more about the Superman curse?

Sept 15th. Many of you will run out to see the Black Dahlia. Sure Brian DePalma usually delivers and Scarlett Johannsen is about as A-list as an young actress can get right now, but I think I’ll wait and see the audience reaction before i go to this one.

Sept 22nd What a busy weekend, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these gets pushed back. For the boneheads we have Jackass # 2, and then Jet Li’s final Martial arts movie Fearless. On the other side we Have Michel Gondry’s The Science Of Sleep. Can’t wait for that one. Sean Penn’s wannabee oscar movie All the Kings Men about corrupt politicians and Flyboys. What in the world to go see? and why all on the same weekend?

Sept 29th The LAST KING of Scotland. Forrest Whitaker as a real life dictator. Finally a role worthy of this actor. This should be one of the best drama’s this fall.

and my pick for movie that will only play in large cities and be blasted by fox news.
The Us versus John Lennon.

soo many movies. What will you see?

Went to see Little Miss Sunshine tonight, and I think it’s got to be in the running for best screenplay. it’s cute where it needs to be and sad where it needs to be. Greg Kinear is great but he’s got to stop playing these losers. And Steve Carrell shows a much larger range as an actor than I thought he had in him. Very good movie that could of easily slipped into the cheesy category but thanks to it’s cast and crew won me over.

This was pretty neat. Is it really animation though since evrything was filmed live and then colors added afterwards? Either way it creates a very disctinct look for the film and a very nice adaptation of Philip Dicks story. I enjoyed it very much and thought the actors were casted perfectly including, I hate to say it Keanu. Very enjoyable movie, and I’m still a little surprised Warner Bros didn’t give it a wider release.

moon knight # 4 nice.
ubisoft seven wii launch titles. seven? that’s almost more than the entire gamecube launch.
football less than a month away.
bibim-bop.
exclusive trek figures.
of montreal, tuesday night.
scanner darkly wenesday.
three days off. whoopee.
spending those three days with my fellow geeks at anime iowa.
watch out for cat girls, and day old sushi. I hate taking a bite out of day old sushi. yuck.
so yeah, i’ll be at anime iowa for the next three. searching for pocky in all its glorious flavors.