January 11, 2006 at 9:01 pm · Filed under Blogstuff
You may have seen the Million Dollar Homepage, wherein some guy is selling ads on his site at $1 per pixel. Bet you wish you thought of that, huh?
There have been many variations to draw inspiration from that model in the few months since it’s been up, and here’s the latest: 1000tags, which is combining the Web 2.0 notion of tags and folksonomies with that there filthy lucre to offer a way to buy your way into a paid tag cloud.
The flipside of their deal, is 1000tags is giving a certain number of bloggers who talk about them their own tag for free if they talk about the service. So here I am. Do I win a tag?
January 9, 2006 at 2:48 am · Filed under Asides
I am very happy that for the nonce at least, Google considers this page to be similar to The Monoglot.
January 9, 2006 at 2:29 am · Filed under Movies
I realize that there are very few movie-goers who have not seen this, and now I am finally one of them uh, finally no longer one of them.
Let me just say that it was fairly dull. We know whassup from the beginning, and that Colonel Jack is behind it all, and from there we proceed linearly until the lightbulb goes on in what’s-his-Cruise’s head and HE CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH. Ugh. Demi Moore is probably at her cardboard worst in this film. Tom is doing his “I am callow, yet I will find a cause” shtick that he spent the 1990s perfecting.
Can I admit that I don’t like Jack Nicholson? Dude’s got the kevorka, I will grant, but I don’t think he’s much of an actor. I realize it’s a heretical notion.
How did Aaron Sorkin get work after this movie? I liked “Sports Night”, and “The West Wing” has its moments, but writing A Few Good Men should not get you other gigs.
And let’s not even talk about Rob Reiner. Okay, let’s. Take a look at his films before this:
So that’s two absolute classics, and four pretty darn good films. Not too shabby. After AFGM:
By my count, that’s two middling, earnest but commercial potboilers and four pieces of total poopoo. This movie completely ruined his artistic instincts, and I’m not sure I’ll willingly see anything else he directs. Shame, meathead, shame.
January 9, 2006 at 1:52 am · Filed under Movies
I’ve heard a fair number of complaints about the length of this movie, but honestly, that didn’t bother me. I felt it zipped along appropriately, and I like three hour movies that you can say that about. It felt like a novelty to see a film set in the thirties that wasn’t in black and white. (Probably, I’ve seen a bunch of ‘em and hadn’t noticed.)
However, I wasn’t moved. Sure, I felt for the big fella, and I thought Naomi Watts was great, but there were some story and technical distractions that made it difficult to buy the story emotionally.
- For example, why did these people go to an island teeming with dinosaurs and come back with a big monkey?
- Why does the wall that the natives have built have an ape-sized door?
- Who built the stairs up to the Kong lair?
- Where did the natives go after their one big scene?
- Why was the CGI so great on the monkey closeups, and so suboptimal on the long shots and the scenes when he’s carrying Anne?
- Why did the dinosaurs in the first Jurassic Park look more realistic than these ‘uns?
The sad fact is, we’re not at CGI verisimilitude yet when it comes to people and creatures. Oh well. Let’s check back in in two years or so. In the meantime, I think I want me a re-viewing of the the original.
January 8, 2006 at 11:51 pm · Filed under Blogstuff
At least I think this is in Turkish. I wonder why he has linked to my site? I do not know you, but thank you, friend.
January 5, 2006 at 11:08 pm · Filed under Movies
2005 wasn’t a fantastic year for movies (although I haven’t seen a lot of the late heavyweights yet), but this is a gem. Danny Trainspotting Boyle has made his sweetest film, about a Northern English kid who find a bag full of money from a train heist, and who speaks regularly with saints — Clare and Francis of Assisi, for two. There’s a nice homage to Shallow Grave (lots of hiding in attics with a whole bunch o’ money), but the scary factor is amped way down. I’m putting this at the top of the family-friendly best of 2005.
Oh dear, I’ve just checked in with the ol’ IMDb, and this is technically a 2004 release, since they showed it at the Toronto Film Festival in a particular even-numbered year.
January 5, 2006 at 10:46 pm · Filed under Fun
Make this guy say such things. Lots of possibilities here.
January 5, 2006 at 12:11 am · Filed under Asides, Teevee
“Why not?” asks the indignant Jessica. “I’m not indignant!” she declares, indignantly.
January 2, 2006 at 8:26 pm · Filed under Movies
A cute little short on the TCM. A newspaper editor decides “Frost Warning!” is a more important headline for his readership than the gangster that was gunned down in front of him. His assistant: a geeky 28-year-old named Jimmy Stewart, in one of his first roles.
Anyway, it’s great to have priorities.
January 2, 2006 at 4:38 am · Filed under Movies
This is an important talkie, I think. Edward G. Robinson (was there another Edward Robinson that made G. become the Daniel J. Travanti of his day?) rises from Rico the street hood to the top of the crime food chain, and then back down he goes. It anticipates by a few years Paul Muni’s Scarface and all those Cagney movies like The Public Enemy and White Heat. I couldn’t really get into it, however. I did notice some pre-Hays Code insinuations about Rico’s non-hetero leanings, but other than that I feel like I’ve seen this movie a few times in a few better ways, even if this one came first.
Jessica noticed that what appeared to be ceilings in low-angled shots were actually just extensions of the backdrop painted trompe l’oeil. It was an interesting effect, apparently abandoned soon after this film, because you don’t see much in the way of movie set ceilings again, or even low-angle shots (due to the pesky intrusion of overhead lights and booms and the like), until Citizen Kane ten years later.
It’s a short movie at 80 minutes. There was barely time for any “pizza pizza” jokes from the peanut gallery.
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