The Oscars

OK… so the Oscars were last week. I didn’t watch them, I never do (I’ll get to that later), but I did manage to see the cool Horror Montage the morning after. Very cool.

A couple of days later, my buddy Cinesthete, at Reel Friction posted his thoughts on the Oscars. Upon reading it, I felt that I had express some of my own thoughts… mostly as rebuttal to his thoughts, and adding a few of my own.

I reproduced most of his article here, at least the parts that I had felt the need to comment. To read the whole article, go here. There were a few things that I had no thoughts or cares about.

Here goes:

I don’t pretend to understand cinematography (anyone who has seen my films can attest to that), but does lighting generated on a computer count? I’m surprised Avatar won.

I won’t even claim to understand any cinematography (at least you made a few films, Cinesthete), but as a 3D artist and animator, I can say that lighting is one of the most challenging aspects of the job. Every aspect of lighting is translated through hundreds of parameters that we take for granted. Positioning, intensity, and attenuation are just a difficult to determine in a virtual scene as it is in real life. And then there is the whole science of Radiosity (shadows and light bounces) that need to be configured… otherwise you’ll end up with something like a scene in the original Tron (they may have been ground breaking in 3D, but we have gone a long way since then).

Once you tweak all the parameters in order to imitate real life, you then have to marry it to actual real life footage. Granted, on many of todays sophisticated computers and equipment (thanks to George Lucas), this is not too difficult. But trust me, it takes damn near rocket science to figure out how to use all that equipment and programs.

So “lighting generated on a computer” is really putting it lightly. It’s like saying anyone can pickup a camera and become a James Cameron. It is, after all, just “looking through a lens”, right? I’m not shocked that Avatar won that award. As a matter of fact, I am shocked it didn’t received more technical awards, but thats how the Oscars work…
Read the rest of this entry »

Box of Shadows – Trailer

Pulled this off their official website… A different kind of movie. It sounds pretty cool:

BOX OF SHADOWS, centers around a group of college friends, who discover a 15th century coffin that allows them to experience the world as ghosts. While their first adventures in the spirit world are playful and innocent, the “Box of Shadows” soon brings out the group’s most dangerous impulses and desires. The friends find themselves pulled into a world of evil where they learn the line between life and death is there for a reason.

Yeah… I’m there. Release scheduled for July 2, 2010. I think I need to start a “wish list” of movies that I want to see… gets a bit rough keeping track. By the way, don’t forget to check out my movie activity log every once in a while (accessible at the top of the sidebar).

Daybreakers (2009)

Directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig

Starring Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, and Isabel Lucas

Finally, a movie that goes back to the basic concept of vampires being bad! It’s a bit refreshing to the recent releases of movies and TV show that make cool to be a vampire. HELLO! Vampires are evil. They feed off human blood! How can that be good? Nothing good can come of it. And that’s where this movie goes.

It’s the future, and vampires have basically taken over the world. They control the media, the politicians, and the private sector. Normal humans have become the commodity (the food). And the supply is running dry… but the demand is still rising. There is hope however, and it all lies in a vampire that, somehow, managed to turn himself back into a human again. And that’s were the story starts to fail. Read the rest of this entry »

Exhumed’s 24 Hour Horror Fest

The third annual 24 Hour Horror Fest by Exhumed Films happened in Philadelphia last weekend. I got the chance to go with my fellow movie enthusiast Cinesthete (see his take on the films at Reel Friction). I had a blast. It was really awesome to see some classics in the big screen, and I got to see some new stuff that brought me to a new level of appreciation for films.

One of the unique things about this festival is that you don’t know the list of movies before hand, not even when you get there, too. They hand you a program, but instead of titles, they present you with clues or hints. Visit my friend’s site, above,  the descriptions from the program (and links to the IMDB site).

Here is the list of films presented, and my thoughts on them: Read the rest of this entry »

Outlander

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A traditional Sci-Fi film that pits man against beast using only swords and axes with a high tech twist. An alien (the outlander) crash lands on Earth, during the height of the Viking Age, and brings with him a viscous predator. Both outlander and beast have revenge on there minds, but the outlander allies himself with the locals and together they fight to destroy the monster.

This movie brought back memories of the old “Predator” days, but with it’s own merits. Read the rest of this entry »

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

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An overload of sensory stimuli to cover up the lack of any good writing leaves this movie in a two and half hour “rock ‘em, sock ‘em robot” nonsense.

I didn’t expect too much when I walked into the theater, really. I guess my problem was that I haven’t watched the first one recently enough to prepare me for what was to come. But what really upsets me is that Hollywood thinks it can get away with loading a movie up with grandiose special effects and some hot looking chicks to make a blockbuster of a film. Oh… wait… they have been getting away with it, and probably will continue to. This movie has made over $100 million domestically, so far, before the weekend even closed.
Read the rest of this entry »

Terminator: Salvation

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Skynet fails yet again in stopping the resistance’s strongest leader, John Conner, in the most pitiful way imaginable: the bad guy monologue.

The movie had some awesome action scenes. The setting was beautiful (if you are into the dismal and dark, like myself). The effects were spectacular. The characters, and their performances, were very decent. There were references and nods to the originals that were appropriate. But the story was so very dry. And as far as the bad guys go… ultimately: they were lame, as well. Don’t get me wrong… the Terminators themselves were awesome. It was a great to see what Skynet sent to hunt down (and capture) the surviving humans. But the main “boss”… a highly evolved, artificially intelligent sentient “life”, fails. Read the rest of this entry »

Come with me if you want to live…

I will not be seeing this tonight, at the midnight showing, as originally planned. A shame… I recall seeing T2 at a midnight showing. First time I ever did that.

Never-the-less, I found a cool 4 minute trailer that has kept my interest peeked, regardless of the 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Good thing is, I’m not really expecting “ground breaking” story telling here. I’m just looking forward to seeing those T-800′s in action.

We just want to go home…

Oh yeah, this one is going to be awesome…

“An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly find a kindred spirit in a government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology.”

Oh, and this trailer has subtitles and no blur during the alien interrogation (not initially seen when first presented before Wolverine).

Transformers 2 Trailer

I wasn’t a huge fan of the first one, but this looks like it could have a bid more actions (and Transformers) than the original. Yep, I’m looking forward to it.

“The battle for Earth has ended but the battle for the universe has just begun. After returning to Cybertron, Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons, and has decided to return to Earth with force. The Autobots believing that peace was possible finds out that Megatron’s dead body has been stolen from the US Military by Skorpinox and revives him using his own spark. Now Megatron is back seeking revenge and with Starscream and more Decepticon reinforcements on the way, the Autobots with reinforcements of their own, may have more to deal with then meets the eye.”