Conflict is the essence of drama. Conflict between people is easy enough to construct - the villain, the hero and the heroine. Put a face on each and the characters play themselves out. Evil shall rule, but it shall be short-lived. Good shall win at the end and order shall be restored.

But occasionally something comes along which distills drama out of nothing but circumstances. No evil, merely ordinary people, their thoughts and cognitive dissonances echoing off each other. That's how I felt at the end of watching Juno.

Unlike other movies I write about, I have no spoilers for this one. But the soundtrack haunts me. Definitely something to go back and listen to - not just for the melody, but for the lyrics.

You're such a good friend   
I haveta break your heart.  
Tell you that I love you    
then tear your world apart.

Listen - and hum along ... ~~ you're a part time lover and a full time friend ~~.

posted at: 15:12 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, movies

Futurama, it just won't stay dead.

If you're a Futurama fan, you *have* to watch Bender's Big Score. It's a movie made for the hardcore fan, unlike the Simpsons Movie or other carry-overs from tv into the big screen. Read on for the spoilers.

Since Futurama is going to be running on Comedy Central from now on, they've spent the first four minutes of the movie dissing Fox (oops, I mean the BOX Network). The FOX BOX executives have been fired, beaten up, killed and made into a fine pink powder (TORGO'S Executive Powder), which appears anywhere where any ingredient is required (*bam*).

The movie does a nice take on the information centric world of ours, with the main villains being the spammers/scammers who manage to take over the world with a nice parody of nigerian 419 spam, popup malware and just plain old lottery scams. Of course, from that point onwards the movie has no real plot at all.

Honestly, the movie is just an attempt to make a happier past for Jurassic Bark. Considering how Nibbler blows his cover, Robot Santa turns good, Bender apologizes to all and the Professor never invents anything - the plot is not following canon for any character (except perhaps Zoidberg).

But the role of Fry fills up into someone who'd sacrifice his own happiness to let Leela be happy. Not typical either, but that's a very touching transformation for someone who's been portrayed as immature for all the episodes.

And not even a can of Slurm to be seen.

But I loved it, nonetheless.

posted at: 06:51 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, movies, futurama

It's about a movie and I watched it.

But there's nothing you're going to take away from this movie - whatever you think you took away, you brought it with you when you walked into the theatre.

Just a like a mirror holds no content, the movie too is fairly bereft of a consistent plotline (albeit what's borrowed from Quitters, Inc), but merely reflections of reality appearing and disappearing from a multitude of mirrors.

The camerawork and the general feel of the movie is pretty interesting, (albeit the cabaret song) for a bollywood production, but beyond that the movie has nothing to offer but completely unconnected sequences of plot.

But it is our nature to see patterns where are none, built out of our own biases in perception, in a nonpareil effect. The attempts to make sense out of the confused jumble of thoughts presented results in interesting results indeed.

To make things a lot more blurred than they are right now, let me first touch upon my thoughts - and remember that these are my personal thoughts and not the director's. The movie is about consequences of our actions, as we move through life - the ripples adding up to a tidal wave in the ocean that is life.

The movie starts with the standard caricature of a wannabe rebel yuppie (and smoking is his rebellion) with his socialite wife and their marital issues. Starting from a clear-cut real world scenario, the movie diverges further and further into down-the-rabbit-hole land (even literally) without any perceptible movement out of reality.

Then the social contract is presented and there is no escape. And society steers people with consequences - but here the hidden, mild consequences are merely exaggerated. The basic "How much could one more hurt?" excuse of the habit has been tackled and short-circuited by providing rather harsh penalties indeed. To see someone pass out in a gas chamber full of second-hand smoke is somehow more real than the same happening over a couple of years of constant exposure - somehow the quality of effect alters rather than merely the quantity. And then there's the underline of the paranoia put down by erosion of privacy due to constant surveillance.

To me, the antagonist of the whole sequence is the protagonist himself - not the Baba Bengali or the reality altering effects he seems to have. The struggle between good and evil has been very conveniently left out of the entire script - undergoing a metamorphosis into a mere squabble between your needs and wants. To face himself after realizing the consequences his acts have, learning the lessons from the rough teacher experience is, to be offered the choice again in the end - real life is not so kind (and this was being cruel to be kind).

The basic mode of coercion of an individual to be a building block of a society with rewards and consequences comes out of the seemingly random treatment of the character(s) and the plotline...

The jigsaw puzzle that the movie is perhaps unappealing to a critic who expects a coherent movie. But what you enjoy out of the movie is synthesising the story out of the jigsaw peices you are handed, not analyzing the plot-holes in depth - and that takes effort. The Hindustan times review of the movie was acidly critical and downright mean (and the director failed to show any maturity with a completely Ad Hominem response).

Perhaps you'll find another reviewer talk about this movie as one of individuality or about smoking as peer-induced (Abbas), yet another talking about the religious slants on the concept of the soul & its journey independent from the body's journey (to quote "Athma hai tho shareer ishwar hai, athma nahin hai tho nashwar hai"). And then there'd be the ones who carry an open mind into the movie and carry it rather empty out of it - walk in with your preconceptions & prejudices and you'll find that there's a movie playing.

In short, if you're hoping to be entertained, don't show up till the Bipasha Basu dance sequence :)

posted at: 10:24 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, movies

Ratatouille was a funny movie, no doubt. But what set the tone to the hilarity that was to ensue was the Pixar short 'Lifted'. If you've watched Taken & E.T, take five minutes off and watch it on youtube.

Exquisitely animated, with amazingly clear graphics. the movie is a masterpeice of picture perfect pixels. But the story sort of drags in the middle, after a rather interesting few minutes in the beginning. The whole premise of the movie is somehow flawed at some level, but still it is peppered with a few one liners to remember (like the "what dad doesn't know could fill a few books; And they did, which is why I read them").

Still, the voice of Anton Ego (the food critic) deserves special mention. Somehow it redeems the entire movie by giving it a villain where there really isn't one - Skinner (the short chef) just doesn't cut it. If he had to have a nickname it would be the 'Grim Eater'. Ego's final article about being a critic is a masterpeice in itself.

But this movie doesn't even compare to Monster's Inc, Finding Nemo or Toy Story and has a more forgettable Disney quality rather than pure Pixar magic. Still, there are moments to remember - though maybe not a full movie.

posted at: 22:54 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, movies, pixar

Some movies are so bad they're good. And there are none which explore this area of beyond-badness than the highschool movies. But the average highschool movie has become a complet cliche. I mean, if you've seen one you've seen 'em all. And if you've seen 'em all, you need to pick up Not Another Teen Movie. And once in a while a movie comes out which falls slightly further from the tree, I think that's SuperBad this year.

Characters: The movie sticks to my favourite combination of characters - the befuddled hero, self-confident heroine, weirdo side-kick and a couple of reverse stereotypes. The very same mix which makes me love H2G2 (Arthur, Trillian, Ford, Zaphod & Marvin), Coupling (Steve, Susan, Jeff, Patrick & Jane) or even Futurama (Fry, Leela, Bender, Prof. Farnsworth & Zoidberg).

In fact Michael Cera plays the befuddled teenager (Evan) to a T. The co-dependent pairing with Seth and the complicated issues around their separation for college brings in some funny dialogues, especially towards the end. Their chemistry is paired into the two girls they are chasing (mm... Becca). Now, add two cops spouting Star Trek & Star Wars one liners. and a nerd pretending to be 25 year old McLovin. But of all the caricatures in the movie, the the cops came out of it more real than anyone else when he says "When I was your age, I hated cops too".

Combine them all up and you've got all the laughs you want. Mindless though it is at the surface, somehow the dillemmas of Evan sprinkles a non-preachy moral editorial in between the laughs. Even the ending seemed appropriate, almost coincidental, yet not final in any way.

Watch the trailer, you just might McLuv it.

posted at: 04:12 | path: /movies | permalink |

There are some movies so cool that they can exist only as trailers. While trawling the depths of the internets, I ran into a bunch of them - well collected & catalogued. Here are a few interesting clips from collegehumor.com.

First up is an epic tale of a young man's struggle against the burdens of his conscience. Of someone who's entire life is about not getting blown up. Experience the safety of being a minesweeper, with all the danger of playing it on your own computer in - The Minesweeper Movie.

If you are more into crime thrillers, rather than the war kind, you might enjoy Facebook / Off. An excellent combination of the classic Face/Off with online identity theft. As you might have guessed, this won't end well.

And for those of us who grew up playing "Where in the World is Carmen Santiago?" (smuggled into school on multiple floppies), here's a Quentin Tarantino-esque adaptation, aptly titled Where the F*ck is Carmen Santiago. After all, you'd have a tough time finding out even with the help of google maps.

Well, this statistical anomaly is from the Daily Show, as presented by the special correspondent Aasif Mandvi. Somewhat in the same lines as most environmental conservation ads - hopefully the comedy central web-player works for you. It didn't for me - but I found a workable workaround (so to speak).

Apparently, youtube isn't the only place to waste time on the intarweb.

posted at: 12:48 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, movies, linkblog

There's no way to satisfy a Simpsons fan. I mean, for a tv show which has technically reached the age of consent ? I didn't think so and I was right. But before anyone can say "Worst. Simpsons. Ever", I have to say that the movie does cater to the average movie goer. I mean, it is no coincidence that the movie begins with Homer asking "Why would anyone pay to see something they could watch on TV for free ?".

Because they make me laugh, that's why. Actually, I started laughing way before the movie began. As I sat through the previews of movies, there was one uber hilarious preview - Balls of Fury. Well, imagine a table tennis deathmatch ala Bloodsport, but with a straight-faced Christopher Walken (well, watch that trailer). Anyway, onto the Simpsons movie spoilers we go.

The movie opens up pretty decently with enough straight up gags. The Green Day concert accident, their funeral being held with American Idiot played on a church organ. But some of those were repetitive. Lisa and the cute environmentalist kid, for instance (anyone remember the "Dirt First" episode?). Or the Bart nude on a skateboard which was faintly reminiscent of the Austin Powers movies, except the part where he goes through the hedge and there's a glimpse of his ... y'know. And well, you *have* to hear "Spider Pig" to find it hilarious.

Then there's the environmentalists, except instead of being green peace style sabotage - there's real authority in the shape of EPA. The moment I heard the voice of the EPA chief Russ Cargil, I already knew they were the villains - they could've gotten a new voice instead of reminding me of Hank Scorpio. And he goes mad with power, as he himself says - "Yes, I'm mad with power. Have you ever seen someone go mad without power ? It's boring."

They seal off Springfield in a transparent dome to prevent the pollution from leaking (Marge knits "Dome, Sweet Dome"). And Kent Brockman calling it the "Trappuchino" (cue a starbucks cup with a transparent cover). And then they find that Homer is responsible for the last sludge tank which brings out a whole lynch mob for the Simpson family. And we see Homer go back to being a jerkass as he escapes through the sinkhole in maggie's sandbox.

And then they move to Alaska - but without the cliched "The Simpsons are going to _____" (Marge re-knits "Nome, sweet Nome"). Still, the Alaska sequence was perhaps the most funny part of the movie. A Disney movie parody of Snow White, Bambi and Cindrella - except, they're in a bedroom helping Homer & Marge get undressed. And Homer saying "I'm staying in Alaska, nothing can make me go back to America".

Eventually, we have Cargill talking about the "new" Grand Canyon between Shelbyville and Capitol City. Marge realizes that they are going to destroy Springfield, but Homer doesn't want to help the town. They split up and we have Homer trying to save his family.

But it had to have a happy ending, right ? And the movie closes with Maggie saying her second ever (heh) word - sequel and a La Marseillaise parody for the credits.

But to the fan inside me, there were some things glaringly missing. I mean, two hours of a movie and the only one getting drunk is Bart ? Where is Moe's Tavern, Barney or Homer hanging out with Lenny/Carl ? Flanders is a cool normal person, rather than being a complete example of square-hood. There's no Apu at all and I don't know why we didn't get to see Patty & Selma blame it all on Homer. On the other hand, there's Lisa knocking out Bart, which has never happened so far in the series either. And instead of Rainer Wolfcastle we have Ahnold Schwarzenegger, who was elected to lead & not to read.

But where are the flourishes of George Meyer or John Schwartzwelder ? If I wanted to draw parallels, compare an average Southpark episode with the movie itself to get an idea of how to drag three storylines together into a two hour movie - with the odd song thrown in. The Simpsons movie, as funny as the scattered gags were, hardly has anything which makes me really want to watch it again.

Memorable or not, it was funny while it lasted.

posted at: 03:41 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, movies, simpsons

I wouldn't have paid to watch this movie. Instead of the dark, deep conflict between power and losing control, the movie is peppered with a self-obsessed Peter Parker and a depressed MJ. Neither of which are wrong or bad, but the emotional drama is also not used to any effect.

No Villains: Topher Grace is the only saving grace in the whole movie. His transformation into Venom gives a decent bad guy. The sandman puts me to sleep and Harry flips-flops in & out of villainhood. The small tugs & pulls of conflict in the former was brought out in the wrong light - less of dark desperation than I'd imagine.

The scenes looked peiced together from clips inspired from movies. The comedy just didn't fit in and neither did the cool Peter Parker doing a Saturday Night Fever sequence down the boulevard. And the tower spire with the dark spiderman on top looked nearly identical to the scenes from Underworld, including the jump off the top. It attempts to do a fair bit of moralizing, but the message falls far short of the original With great power comes great responsibility, even after they got Stan Lee to say it ("I guess one *Superhero* can make a difference.", 'nuff said). But there is one quote off the movie which I'm still going to take to heart.

Aunt May: You start by doing the hardest thing: you forgive yourself.

All in all, I think I forgive myself for wasting those hours of my life.

posted at: 10:12 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, movies

While on my way back from Sydney on Singapore airlines, I ran out of things to do. Now, rather than play Mario on their onboard entertainment, I took a look at their comedy section. That's how I saw my first episode of Futurama - Roswell that ends well. And I was a fan in a few minutes. Thanks to set of borrowed DVDs, I've finished watching every single episode - yup, all 72 of them. I love the series for the the very same reasons I love the other Matt Groening creation - the Simpsons. The referential coherence of both series shows a nearly impossible amount of research put into the script and story line.

Good News, Everyone: Just like every other good cartoon, the jokes are at every level of the series - the characters, situations and even tag lines. In fact, the whole plotline is one giant inside joke about how things change, yet stay the same. For instance, Fry who was a delivery boy in the year 1999, ends up as a delivery boy in the year 3000 - except the deliveries are now to far-off planets, rather than to city blocks.

The Characters: The character set for the show is literally identical to my standard comedy situation. A befuddled hero, a self-confident heroine, one weirdo side-kick and then a couple of total reverse stereotypes. This is literally identical to say, h2g2 (Arthur, Trillian, Zaphod) or Coupling (Steve, Susan, Jeff) - we find Fry, Leela and Bender in each of those slots. Of course, Futurama would be a non-starter without Bender (aka Bender Bending Rodríguez). Rather than being a logical minded machine, he's the ultimate personification of the human vices - drinking, smoking, swearing, gambling, stealing ... in short, the whole deal. Or take the professor for instance, who is actually Fry's nephew by a long way, but is older than Fry. Even Dr Zoidberg, who sounds like a Jewish doctor but is not a doctor (heh, the intro sequence is amazing) and of course, a shellfish (i.e not Kosher). Even Leela, whose one eye gives her no depth perception which is actually essential to flying an aircraft. Add a rich intern, a rastafarian accountant, a shatner clone in short underpants, a robot devil (Beezelbot), a killer Santa - stop laughing !

Cultural Leakages: Bender's "bite my shiny metal ass" has moved out the world of cartoons into being a real cult phrase. For instance, if you do a reverse dns lookup of the pirate bay servers you'll get bite.my.shiny.metal.ass in the domain name. I occasionally run into even more obscure Futurama references such as "What ? My mother was a saint !" in response to utter gibberish. Even the "Why worry about this planet ? It's not like this is the only one we got" makes me smile, although wryly.

Episodes: If I had to pick a couple of favourite episodes. I'd definitely pick Spanish Fry as the one I liked best. The concept of poaching humans for their human horn truly draws parallels to the african rhino situation. The Godfellas episode is also thought provoking - especially the last few minutes. And the section about greenhouse effect in the Crimes of the Hot truly belongs in an educational film - especially the silencing of the questioning child. There are touching episodes as well, like The Sting or The Luck of the Fryrish - both of which have heart-tugging endings.

Language: Every good Sci-Fi sequence requires its own language. Futurama doesn't just stop at using new words like Blernsball or Slurm, but also goes onto redefine some old words like XMas which is pronounced as it is written and nobody remembers the Christ part of it. They even went further to invent a whole new alphabet to put alien messages in. Here's how it actually looks - I wonder if I can get a t-shirt printed (but nobody except Futurama fans will get it).

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable but pleasantly thought-provoking animated series for educated adults.

posted at: 23:27 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, movies

You can't keep a rain-forest in your backyard, but sometimes a tape of David Attenborough's productions will serve as a sufficient substitute. Not only did he produce groundbreaking nature documentaries, but he assembled an amazing team who were equally passionate about the unrivaled beauty of nature. The Bristol division of BBC turned out a series of expensive nature documentaries which were setting a standard in the field.

My attraction to his particular brand of nature documentaries come from the frequent change of scenery. Where most of the "modern" documentaries reserve an entire half-hour to a particular location or activity, Attenborough documentaries generally travel across the world in the hour. Also the documentaries hardly have any people and does not track people as characters in the story being played out. I am pretty sure they could've made a few more hours of documentaries with the reels they cut out per hour.

Private Life of Plants is my favorite series by David Attenborough. Now, Blue Planet and other works have taken me far, wide and deep throughout the biosphere. But those leave me with a distant yearning to see for myself these wonders of the world - Christmas Island while the crabs migrate, Palau to see the jellyfish swarms, Fjords of Norway where the whales sound, Great Barrier Reef when the corals are spawning. Deep in my heart, I know that I'll probably die before I see these desires fulfilled. Private Life of Plants, on the other hand takes me somewhere which doesn't exist - the world of plants where months seem to pass in minutes and in 30 seconds we've moved from a frigid winter to a warm spring, through the thaws and amidst the flowers that declare the arrival of spring.

That by itself may seem like a magical trip across time. But there's magic even in the simple things. The background music for instance is very appropriate and literally blends into the actions on screen, as if they had been scripted to the music. There are visits to the inaccessible islands in the pacific, which are preceded by the aerial views of them which add to the environmental setup for some exotic flowers. Even something as simple as a himalayan balsam seed falling into the nearby water is dramatic and accentuated by the plink of the drop, pulled into focus in slow motion.

Amidst all these scenery switches, there are no pictures of an elderly (well, in his early forties) English gentleman lugging his luggage, sweating it out in a 4x4 jeep (no Steve Ervin, he is). Even when we rarely see him, it is merely to emphasize the extremity of the environment and how exactly we (or he) just don't fit in.

But as I said earlier, the truly remarkable thing is its fast forwarded view of the plant world, documenting the fights, battles and conquests of these outwardly immobile flora. There is beauty in a flower opening, blackberries ripening and a mushroom slowly poking its head through the dead leaves. There is nothing beyond just sitting and watching wind hit a dandelion patch. Watching and wondering, you couldn't get tired of the magic on screen.

This is the ultimate documentary. *THE* Ultimate.

posted at: 10:57 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, nature, documentaries

Most people actually kid around when they say that I shall watch your career with interest. But ever since I watched Coupling, I've sort of peeked around for overflow of the cast into other shows. The latest among those is NBC's Teachers. This has our very own Susan (Sarah Alexander) in it and even more interestingly she seems to be dressed to please :)

This bears watching ... quite close watching indeed. Somebody watch this and tell me if it's any good :)

posted at: 23:30 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, coupling

So there I was watching Simpsons episode 9F21 where Homer talks about his barbershop quartet - the The Be Sharps. It was a quite unmistakable take on the original fab four - The Beatles. But what I hadn't counted on was the amount of research the screenplay and directors had been willing to put into this (or the one I was about to undertake).

I am not talking about the storyline and the parallels between the incident of Pete Best or the arrival of Barney's japanese girlfriend. I am talking about things which you'd miss out unless you took pains to research yourself. Take the Meet the Be Sharps album cover, for example. Compare it with the original cover of the Sgt. Pepper album .

Then there are the stunts which would've been hard to capture easily if it were not for the fact that Simpsons was a cartoon. In one of the studio stills from the recording of Let it be, Yoko Ono is in frame and hiding behind Lennon. In Simpsons we see the same with the machine playing a Number 8 which is sneaky take on the controversial Revolution 9 soundtrack.

John Lennon became infamous for one of his statements which in more cultured terms could be put as - "music transcends all borders, even religion". But he had to brashly put it down as "We're more popular than Jesus now." - this and the previous statements about religion and rock-n-roll cause no end of trouble for the beatles. It does put the following sequel album cover (of the quartet walking on water, like the Abbey Road album) in context (for the Be Sharps).

I can't imagine to quantify the effort pushed into twenty minutes of comedy where all these jokes just fade away on the TV screen before two in a hunderd thousand note these down on a pad to laugh later. I just had the luxury of screenshots and dynamic pausing to actually enjoy these jokes interspersed in the actually story. Of course, it takes a hardcore fan to note down the Moe's *C*avern and that Skinner's prisoner number (#24601) is the same as Jean Valjean.

Simpsons, the Most Accurate Cartoon ever.
And I am a night bird.

posted at: 16:53 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, simpsons

Yes, I did have Fun with Dick and Jane yesterday. Watched the movie and about half-hour of commercials in Symphony. Awesome good fun to just stop thinking and watch the movie. The movie has Jim Carrey in it, which in itself is a good reason to watch it (once). Ever since I saw Ace Ventura - When Nature Calls I've been attracted to Jim's particular style of comedy which has been merely about doing things as they came to him. Bruce Almighty just stamped his pass into my hall of fame - occupied by such as Steve Martin and Leslie Nielsen.

See Dick Run !!

Téa Leoni also seems to find her funny side - mainly by quick thinking in unfortunate situations rather than by outright comedy. Imagine Téa and Jim in bed and she says We should have sex and a definite pause later completes with on saturday with candles. That is definitely funny if your head autocompletes pauses in conversation.

On the other hand there is the classical humour where Jim's in an elevator and dancing to I believe I can fly and the moment the lift touches 51st floor we see him standing with his back to the wall as if nothing happened. Or when you see him walking with his hand stretched out for ten feet to shake hands with the CFO. Even the stock ticker going down as Jim Carrey stutters during the quarterly financial report. Even the hunt in Georgia when the CEO misses but the spotter shoots the duck and says you got him boss.

Jane: when this week is over, we're all out of options
Dick: there's always prostitution
* Jane does a look LOOK
Dick: I meant me !!

Then the accident, getting deported to mexico and all that compounded with the kid speaking spanish on the phone. I mean you have to watch the movie to get the joke. The movie's sort of feel good finally - stealing money back from the bad guy.

And finally a sting in the tail - Alec Baldwin driving by in his new Mercedes saying You gotta join this new company, they have the best benifits. It's called ... Enron. That was double funny because the movie started with 'A long long time ago ... in the year 2000'.

posted at: 19:12 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public, jimcarrey, movies

If you see me walking around today, do me a favour - don't ask about Mrs Cake or how I'm feeling today. The most irritating thing about a fever is that it doesn't let you sleep. After 3 hours of tossing and turning, I decided to read a good book or watch an old movie. The book having denied itself the chance by refusing to be found, I turned to the movie option - Star Wars.

I had watched A New Hope on saturday night. I just love osd_cat - All I need to do is "gmake 2> err | tee log | osd_cat -l 16" and I can continue watching a movie while the build just scrolls by on the bottom of the screen. But on sunday night, I was just concentrating on getting sleepy and watched the other two of the trilogy (mostly in fast forward). Sadly, the DVD versions contain the re-re-re-mastered stuff.

Anyway, let me just say that Ewoks were the first signs of George Lucas going bad. At least I can ignore most of the mistakes he made - just because of some of the dialogues I re-caught on the movie. These two dialogues are seperated by over two hours of film tape - but just held on to my brain.

The Empire Strikes Back - Solo is going to be frozen in carbonite

Princess Leia: I love you.
Han Solo: I know.


The Return of the Jedi - Leia shows Solo the gun she's holding while
the troopers ask Solo to stand up.

Han Solo: I love you.
Princess Leia: I know.

And of course, I just loved Carrie Fisher as Leia. Of course I have to take up my problems with George Lucas when I meet him - especially about the Leia and Jabba the Hutt (is it just me or does he/that look too much like Leto II in God Emperor of Dune).

Even better is the part where Leia and Han Solo watch the re-furbished death star explode.

Han Solo: He must've got off it before it blew up
Leia: I know, I can feel him
Han Solo: You love him, don't you ?
Leia: Yeah
Han Solo: When he comes back, I'll not be in the way.

Yeah, fever turns my brains into mush ...

posted at: 17:20 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public

We refuse to see the world as it is, as Douglas Adams's ^[1] immortal words (though in person having proved himself to be quite mortal) go - the one thing sentient life cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion. In my earlier blog about the goggles of selective blindness that I myself wear when I go nostalgic.

The following screenies are from a Simpsons episode - a series of which I am a great fan. After losing his job at the bowling alley, Homer goes back to work at the Nucular power plant. Mr Burns decides to hire him back and give him plague. Smithers corrects him saying that A plaque, sir. A demotivational plaque.

A demotivational plaque from the Nucular power plant

The episode then moves into why they don't have any baby pictures of Maggie. After fifteen odd minutes and concluding the story, Lisa asks So why aren't there any pictures of Maggie here ?. Homer says Oh, I keep them where I need them the most.

Do it for money, do it for luck or do it for love - Just do it.

posted at: 15:12 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public

Ran into this while watching Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. You know how the ship turns into different things before normalcy is restored ? Well, the last thing the ship turns to is a face, a very interesting face.

When I was reading Going Postal, one particular concept hit me harder than the whole book's story. A man's never dead while his name's still spoken, maybe they aren't till they are forgotten. After all, does a falling tree make a noise if there's nobody to hear it.

posted at: 11:20 | path: /movies | permalink | Tags: public