Now Showing: Aristotle
Well, it's been about a year since Emulsion went online. Now, my next Kanzen short film is finally up and streaming/downloadable. If you have some time, please check it out and give me some feedback, good or bad - I can handle it :)

ARISTOTLE

Incidentally, this film is quite a departure from the style/genre of Emulsion. I consider that a good thing... hopefully you will too.
- posted by Brendan @ 6:49 PM 0 comments

 
Year End Round Up
I finished what is, currently, the Final Cut, of Aristotle last night. I'm playing with different codecs and resolutions for the net release to get it right. I can say right now it'll be up in Windows Media, Divx and probably Quicktime. Do you think it's worth putting up a huge 100+ mb super high-res/full screen release? I have the space/bandwith for it, but I doubt there's enough interest out there to make it worthwhile... oh well, we'll see..

Anyway, that got me thinking about the films I saw this year -

ALIEN VS. PREDATOR - 1
Incredibly bad, bad film. Pussified Predators and "twist" ending make for a very bad experience.

ANCHORMAN : THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY - 3
Will Ferrel is funny. Kudos for not ODing on heroine or coke yet, Will.

BROWN BUNNY, THE - 3.5
Minimalist film on all accounts (I think the credits scroll at the end is one of the shortest I've seen in a theater). However, I still *really* liked this film and after seeing it again last night on DVD I almost pushed this to a - gasp - 4. Then I remembered Vincent Gallo wrote himself a part where he gets an actual blowjob. And then I remembered what an asshole thing that is to do. So 3.5 it is.

BUTTERFLY EFFECT, THE - 3.5
Proving that, yes, Ashton Kutcher can really act. I was very impressed with this film. Very "cool" movie. Glad they ended it the way they did though - the "director's ending" from the DVD was lame and kind of.. silly.

CELLULAR - 1.5
Should have been a made-for-TV movie on USA network or TBS.

COFFEE AND CIGARETTES - 2
Several vignettes of people talking over cigarettes and coffee. Reminds me of all my Saturday nights. Pretty average, as it is.

COLLATERAL - 4
Michael Mann is a badass - as is Tom Cruise in this film. "Hey homie!" Awesomeness.
Also kudos for shooting most of this film on HD 24p video, rather than film. HD Video > Film. W3rd.

CONNIE AND CARLA - 1
Come on.. what'd you expect? Tailor made to be on every gay man's DVD shelf.

DREAMERS, THE - 2
Would have been fine - if there was a *ending* to this movie.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND - 4
I love this film in every way. The structure, the cinematography, performances, direction - all about the best you could see this year.

FAHRENHEIT 9/11 - 1.5
Not for political reasons (I actually agree with a few of Moore's tennants), but because this film is simply a chop and hack job. Documentary does not mean factual, technically, but the stuff Moore did in this film - like Bowling for Columbine - is just offensively bad. For the most part, I spent the whole film waiting for someone to slap that smug smile off Moore's face. When the credits ran, and no one had, I felt cheated.

See "Uncovered: The War in Iraq" for a much better anti-war documentary. F9/11 is self-righteous propagantaintment, Uncovered is a detailed documentary that actually does what it set out to do.

FORGOTTEN, THE - 1.5
It was like two made-for-tv movie scripts from FOX and Lifetime got mixed together. Wow...

GARDEN STATE - 3.5
Probably the most "easy to like" film of the year.

GARFIELD - 2.5
Cute. And Bill Murray was so perfect for that voice..

GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE - 4
Better than the original. And proving me wrong that CG and cel animation should stay seperate. Good work Mr. Oshii.

HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE - 3
Harmless fun. It made me really want white castle when I saw it... and.. something else.

HELLBOY - 2
Meh..

HERO - 1
For all you fascists out there, this movie will make you splooge in your pants. Yay! Lets save the iron-fist ruling dictator tyrant! Way to go China...

INCREDIBLES, THE - 3
Again - just cute. But the least of all the Pixar films. Aftet Toy Story 1/2, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, etc - this one just wasn't 'as good'. Still, worth a ticket.

JU-ON: THE GRUDGE - 1
Please, Japan, just stop. All these "horror" movies? They're bad. All of them. ALL of them.

KILL BILL VOL. 2 - 4
After the mayhem of the first, Vol. 2 adds the human aspect to the duology. Kill Bill complete is one of the best films from 2003 and 2004. The Superman speech at the end is some of Tarantino's best work.

MAN ON FIRE - 3
THe ending was a bit too deliberately tear-jerker for me, but overall well thought out tale of revenge and badassery.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE - 2
Still don't see why this film is so loved.

PASSION OF THE CHRIST, THE - 4
Not for any religious reasons, but because The Passion was an incredibly well put together film. Too bad it made so many people go crazy... including Mel Gibson.

SAW - 1
Overacting ahoy!

SIDEWAYS - 4
Hilarity. Alexander Payne's admirable dramady.

SPIDERMAN 2 - 3
So much better than the original. The scene with Parker on the L, when the public sees his face, made me tear up. I'm actually interested in part 3 now.

STARSKY & HUTCH - 2
Not as funny as it should have been. Stiller needs to stop making faces, too.

SUPER SIZE ME - 2
McDonalds is bad for you? NO WAY! God.. what a stupid premise for a documentary. Still, it was fun to watch even if the entire idea was moronic. The application of the premise was moronic as well (you don't *have* to have double quarterpounders you retard!)

TAKING LIVES - 2
Was there any reason to watch this besides Ethan Hawke and Angelina Jolie's sex scene? I propose not.
And Keifer Sutherland is so wasted on this picture. Mr. Sutherland, get the 24 movie made so you have a reason to be in a film. You're so much better than Taking Lives.

TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE - 4
Finally - politics I can agree with: "Attention everyone - you're *all* stupid." - Matt and Trey rock.

TERMINAL, THE - 3.5
Tom Hanks' and Steven Spielberg's little collaberation that was snuck into the theater with barely a whisper. A pity too - this is a great little gem.

VILLAGE, THE - 1
You know, the more I see, and re-see, Shyamalan's work - the more it becomes apparent that he isn't really that good at what he does. :(



Things I want to see but have not seen:
FINDING NEVERLAND
HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD, A
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVEN ZISSOU, The
UNDERTOW
WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON!
YOUNG ADAM
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
- posted by Brendan @ 4:41 PM 0 comments

 
What in the hell?
Very strange conversation on AIM last night. A certain person got a little hung up about something.. I'll maintain anonymity though, to protect.. well.. the guilty, actually. ¬_¬

[censored]: aren't you?
brendan: I don't answer such questions
brendan: and that's not relatvent
[censored]: i tell you if you tell me
brendan: I don't care :P
brendan: No more talking about our penises!
[censored]: you're no fun anymore
brendan: Booo..
[censored]: tell me dammit!
[censored]: this, i command!
brendan: I am a man of mystery
[censored]: bullshit
[censored]: tell me

Meanwhile - in another AIM window with David...

brendan: what the fuck.. [censored] has lost his mind:
David: NO SHIT!
David: [censored]: david?
David: [censored]?
[censored]: is brendan circmsized?
David: What
brendan: LOL
David: The
David: Fuck
David: Do I say to that?
brendan: well that saves me the effort of copy/pasting on my end



Annnnnyway, I've been playing absolutely gash at Halo 2 lately. Well, actually I did have a bad spell but I seem to be over it, however playing on Team Slayer has been terrible all week. My teammates, I'm sorry - I know 'blaming the team' is lame - never seem to be as good as the other team's. I mean, take my last match. I had 13 kills and like 8 deaths. My team lost, but I was at the top of my team. The guy below me had 13 kills too, but like... 18 deaths. And everyone after that's kill/death ratio was horrible. I think I need to stop playing Team Slayer with lottery team mates and only play it if I'm with Pat, Halo 2 Friends, or clanmates. Cuz playing with random teammates aint' jiving. :(

- posted by Brendan @ 11:32 PM 0 comments

 
Now what?
Okay, so Naruto is not licensed in the US by ShoPro/Viz (wtf?) which has left all us Naruto fans awaiting the impending shutdown of the BitTorrent trackers, and that means I spent 4 months and 121 episodes to get to this point, and I will not be seeing the end of this story arc for... oh, probably, *years*.

If anyone happens to come across a source still subbing and distributing Naruto, please let me know. I seed!

*sigh*
- posted by Brendan @ 5:29 PM 0 comments

 
I'm not so sure about this..
I don't know... I've been called many things in life, but "violent" is not one of them...

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Extreme
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test
- posted by Brendan @ 4:55 AM 0 comments