Kimputer's Weblog

Internationally, Yimou Zhang made quite a name for himself a few years back, with the a graceful and quite unforgettable Hero (and along, bringing the best out Jet Li). It was later followed by an almost as brilliant House of Flying Daggers (this time headlined by the beautiful Ziyi Zhang).
For this movie, the ante is WAY up, as we no have the biggest budget for a chinese movie, ever. And it shows. The production design is marvelous. Both exterior and interior shots are an attack on your eyeballs, with rich colors and texture, immense detail, and just sheer beauty. If set decoration and/or costume design don’t reign in a battlewagon full of awards, I’ll drop down dead where I stand. (I just looked it up, and I guess the people at the Oscars need a battlewagon full of glasses, since they actually snubbed the award away in favor of the standard costume drama Marie Antoinette)
Grand as it visually is, it’s actually an intimite look in the life of an Emperor and his family (wife and 3 brothers). It plays out like the tragic opera you’ve come to expect, and some here and there, the emotion doesn’t get transfered quite correctly. While I can’t say it has a full 100% WOW factor, it’s definitely a nice sidestep from your average Hollywood production.7½.

In this low-competition release week, Blades of Glory slides its way to the top spot. This comedy, starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as figure iceskating rivals, earns champion-worthy $33 million.
The only other competing flick was Disney’s animated movie Meet the Robinsons. With $25 million, this family can’t really complain.
Left-overs finish the top 5, respectively 300 ($11.2 million), TMNT ($9.2 million) and Wild Hogs ($8.4 million).

Geek that I am, whenever I need a new tooth-brush, when I’m finally standing in front of the collection at the supermarket, I always choose the most flashy, with the most features. Be it extra cross-directional brushes from some kinda super plastic, or the specially designed flexible neck.
This time I chose this one:

I dare you to compare the features of my new one with your own current one !

A decade has past (the first movie, Bean, was realeased in 1997), and this movie kinda comes in a bit under-hyped. A good sign for a change ? No.
With 10 years to spawn a sequel to a luke-warm received movie, itself a sequel to a highly funny series, was it enough time ? Apparently not. I now upgrage my judgement that ANY of the 18 episodes (running from 1990 till 1995) is more memorably than BOTH movies together. That’s basically because of the non-existent story and the lack of the outrageously selfish character you’ve loved to hate. This one relies on weak jokes that wouldn’t make it into one of those aforementioned episodes (also totally lacking any surprise punch to it), and a bit on Rowan Atkinson’s mime skills (again, belly-achingly funny in his Live show from 1992, but not so much here). In essence, it’s not memorable at all.5½.

Guess which ankle I sprained while walking out the door with my big notebook bag and back-pack ? (Luckily, nothing broke, even though I fell pretty hard)

Anywayz, be assured, the other one is growing too, but that’s mainly because of all the muscle growing since I’ve been hopping around on that leg all day.

Again swords and shields reign the box office, ‘cept it’s a different kind at the top spot. TMNT, the CGI follow-up to the eighties, then live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. People were eager enough to shell out a total of $25.5 million to this movie with a host of high profile voices (Sarah Michelle Gellar, the late Mako, Kevin Smith, Patrick Stewart, Laurence Fishburne, Ziyi Zhang).
This means 300 will have to take the runner-up spot, still with an admirable $20.5 million.
At 3, Shooter opens with $14.5 million. Not a spectacular premiere by any standard, but it’s probably to get its mid-budget returned ($60 million) when it ends its run.
Leftovers round out the top 5, with Wild Hogs adding $14.4 million and Premonition adding $10.1 million.

Maybe a bit over-hyped (must be the Frank Miller angle), because while this movie is mildly entertaining, it’s far from brilliant (which most Frank Miller fans will probably make it out to be). Biggest and most obvious point is the lack of story, characters and depth. So you wanna talk glory, honor and courage. That’s fine, just don’t do in for a full 2 hour stretch without pause.
The positive things are, there’s bloody gore, and enough brutal violence so you won’t doze off. The virtual studio technology is going ahead pretty well too. It’s not as obvious if you’re in the movie (it did bother me a bit looking at the trailer, always the same kind of activity and placement in the foreground). And of course, two critical scenes involving breasts and nipples will make your mouth water worse than you see in a typical Sunday morning cartoon cliche.
One last thing, don’t take your girlfriend along, as there’s nothing in for her unless she’s a sixpack-ogler.7+.

I went shopping for DVD’s yesterday, and while walking to the correct floor I passed the gaming section of the store. Huge stockpiles of Playstation 3’s. And it had already been released for more than a day. And they even threw in a free Blu-Ray disc of the also just released “Casino Royale” movie.
So, does the PS3 have a better distribution, or did the Wii just kick everyone’s ass (since the Wii is more fun for less than half the money and it’s still behind with back-orders, while the Xbox 360 has proven to be graphically superior to the PS3) ? You just do the math while I swing away my Wiimote for my daily fitness training.

The Youtube Awards Show 2006. What a show that will be. Oh wait, there probably won’t be any show. Only bits’n’bytes invited and showcased. Anywayz, I went ahead to start a voting round here. After some non-motivating videos in the Most Creative section, I was about to give up. But I wanted to finish what I started, so I got through them all. And now I have found a really funny comic I probably wouldn’t have found out about were it not for Youtube.
Have a few good laughs here or here. (Besides, it’s pretty insightful too)

Rate 1 (sucks) to 5 (cool). Only rate the latest pictures, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 809 out of 249 votes > Average is: 3.249

“Come kitty kitty”
Another cabling job somewhere. And no (for you nerds who noticed it), I’m not installing coax, no token ring has taken over my brains. I was in the midst of removing it and checking the CAT5e status. Look at that monster, compare it to the size of my fingers and you’ll realise it’s huge. I should ask for a hazard pay in my employment contract. I’m sure if that thing was alive, it could easily paralise a WHOLE finger if it wanted too (I actually wouldn’t mind, as long as I get superpowers for it in return).

While I only had a few songs from this Indiana (US) based rock group, I knew I had an affinity for their unpretentious solid rock style, only hearing them in their post punk-rock era, just like I do with so many other groups, for instance the Goo Goo Dolls. You know those songs, you listen to them and it’s just too easy not to scream along loudly (take for instance, In This Diary, or The Night that the Lights Went Out in NYC). Why not handle the air guitar while your at it ? Not to mention the air drums.
Anyway, that’s kinda gone with this new album. Bombastic is a word that comes to mind. Both the type of music, and how it’s almost like there is a totally new singer involved (searching the internet, it seems it’s still the same singer, strangely). It’s a pretentious over-dramatised rough version of The Cure’s Robert Smith. And that bugs me.
So there are high tempo rock songs, witch screeching heavy electric guitars, but it still kinda depress me. I’m not even going to touch the slower songs. It takes time to listen what’s really behind the noise generated by the guitars, and some subtlety can be discovered given enough (a LOT!) time, and for that, it gets points. But it’s just not enough. It’s too far gone from my comfort zone.5½.

300 is thriumphant another week at the top of the box office, with another massive $31.2 million. Meanwhile Wild Hogs hangs on quite well too, with $18.8 the total stands at $104 million after three weeks.
At 3, the first new entry is Premonition, a paranormal thriller starring Sandra Bullock and Julian McMahon. With $18 million, it’s better than critics would have predicted, as they’ve collectively slammed this film.
After the success of the Saw series, writer/director James Wan continues the horror flick business with Dead Silence. This time a less than spectacular opening, at 4 with $7.8 million.
Another writer/director fails at 5, as Chris Rock gives his second try with I Think I Love My Wife. It fares worse than his first try (Head of State), premiering at almost a half of that movie ($5.7 million).

With the advancement of the internet, 24/7 broadband connections, the world has become so much smaller. Not small enough though. No online transaction technology, no credit card, no express service will get me any closer to this:

And that makes me sad, a hero’s dessert so unreachable. With the recent demise of Captain America (volume 5 issue 25), I could really use such a tasty ice cream to get me out of my depression.

From the trailer, it was as obvious as a solar eclipse on a clear and sunny day. It just couldn’t be funny. Pair Eddie Murphy with Eddie Murphy as a super-duper loser and a bitchy obnoxious fat lady. Maybe throw in a love cross-over just for cliche’s sake, because with just the lowest denominator humor you don’t have enough.
Sure we know the make-up, the fat suit and the characters Eddie can play, we’ve seen it all before. We even liked most of’m (The Nutty Professor, Coming to America). But with this latest installment, it’s like there’s literally a fat lady sitting on you. It’s kinda tough to sit through the whole movie.4-.

With only 300 Spartan soldiers, the Frank Miller graphic novel turned virtual studio movie hauled in a whopping $70 million. Mixed critic reviews but positive exit polls from men, but also surprisingly female audience, makes this movie open higher than the total take of director Zack Snyder’s previous entry, Dawn of the Dead.
Wild Hogs proves to have enough fuel in the tank for another long leg, dropping one spot, at two with $28 million. At three, Bridge to Terabithia earns $6.9 million in its fourth week of release. Rounding out the top 5 is Ghost Rider with $6.8 million and Zodiac with $6.77 million.