Posts Tagged ‘WAI’

Short spoiler free review: only go and see this if you can live with an action picture entirely lacking a heart or soul which justifies its existance by lashing itself to a far too cool barrel before throwing itself into a river above a waterfall. Which isn’t a good thing TM.

So I went to see Wanted tonight. More on that later…

I also bought a crab to have for my dinner tonight. Stick with me through this, hopefully I’ll make some sense at the end. I bought a crab because I remember having crab in the hotel we used to go to on holiday when I was little. I had one of the crab shells for years. I had a memory of crab as some sort of exotic, cool experience. Somewhere along the way the crab shell was broken and found its way into a bin. I still had the memory though.

So back to Wanted. I have a liking for escapist action films. The Matrix, Hard Boiled, The Killer, Under Siege, Hot Fuzz… the list just goes on and on. Each in its own way has a certain cool quality. Wanted does cool. It has cool special effects (the curving bullets), it has some cool cast members (Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp), there were some cool ideas and some well constructed action scenes (for the last two you can watch the film). The problem was it left me feeling like I felt after I’d eaten the crab: unfulfilled.

The problem with the crab was it smelt like the memory and it looked like the memory but it didn’t taste like the memory. It just tasted of crab.

Wanted did cool like The Matrix. It did body count like Hard Boiled or The Killer. Unfortunately it left out heart and soul entirely – instead it had a by the numbers plot woven together by a committee who forgot to read the instructions on how to use a loom. It had some mystical mumbo jumbo spun in a loose knit pattern to try to justify wholesale slaughter and the death of innocent bystanders in a nihilistic aberration (I was tempted to say train wreck but that was just one reference too many) that placed no sign of any value being placed on human life. It cynically tried to press buttons: the assassins have a code. The death of a few, chosen by some higher power, saves the many and stops bad things happening to nice people so they don’t end up as assassins.

You may ask “Isn’t that true of all the films you mentioned earlier” – I’d disagree. Under Siege – Stop bad people stealing weapons of mass destruction. The Matrix – save humanity from aliens who have taken over the world. The Killer – he only kills bad people. Hot Fuzz – for laughs. Sorry let me try that again: Hot Fuzz – to satirize action films by showing how silly they are when placed in an incongruous setting. Yes and but also because its funny to see a whole older generation of Britain’s finest actors in a shoot out that isn’t embarrassing to watch. So the grammars a bit ropey at the start of that last sentence – its like the plot of Wanted.

Fortunately, unlike the crab, the next action film I see hopefully wont mistake cool for at least some sort of moral structure. No matter how flimsy.

That’s where I ought to finish. I should at this point not write anything else. Anything more is just me messing up my central thesis and sounding even more pompous than I already have. After all its just an action film that like 99% of its relations will be consigned to late night TV, three quid DVDs in the sales a year from now and taking up space on some film archive shelf and being added to lists of action films kept by people who keep such lists. No where near the top 100 I hope.

However a few parting thoughts that flitted through my mind…

David O’Hara – wasted in more than the literal sense at the start of the film.
Marc Warren – no picture on IMDB? Actually Marc Warren – why did he do this film? To say he’d worked with the cool people or because he gets a gun fired inside his head for part of an action sequence? Thousand Year Old Cult of Assassins – except the Hashshashins didn’t come into being until around 1090 so that would be a rounding error of sorts? OK I’m just being picky but if they predate the group the word comes from wouldn’t this be a film about something called something else. I know I’m losing it somehow here. I really should give up. Sorry I’ve more…

Weavers who a thousand years ago could convert binary found in the cloth produced by a loom and discover that it was a list of names of people to bump off (I did say there were spoilers) – yes the ancient Indian writer Pingala knew about binary some time BC. However we have to wait to 1605 for Francis Bacon for a mention of a system to use binary to encode letters of the alphabet. Six hundred years after our order of killers has been bumping people off. Even then if (whatever mystical force is directing the appearance of binary in the cloth) hasn’t sent a cypher key how do they know that they are bumping off the right people? Plus back when names were more flexible (as little as a couple of hundred years ago) how did they know they were bumping the right people off. Sorry I shouldn’t pick apart the fluff. Except when the fluff is used to justify so much violence someone should have made certain the weft hold the rest of the plot together.

I’d planned to go for an early wander round Liverpool city centre today to take photos of as many of the Superlambbanana as I could before their hoards of screaming fans descend on them. It will have to wait for next weekend as I chickened out with the storm force winds…

So we reach that time of year again when my Internet connection plays up and I get to complain…

Except I don’t. Last night my connection vanished suddenly. This morning I checked the status from work and there was a message that a fault had been fixed however just coming online it wasn’t working. So I call the status line and there is no mention of a fault in my area. So I call the support line and after only two simple questions and no music or call holding I’m through to a human who takes me through a few simple steps. I’m not quite sure what unplugging and reconnecting my network cable is supposed to do but I’ll play along. At no point was I asked to sing the Indian national anthem while holding a fish above my head. A bit of waiting later and my connection came back up.

Now if Orange had been anywhere near that good at resolving a connection problem I’d not be with BT.

I was walking home from work today and was struck by something silly. I was playing a mental word game to keep my mind of the torrential rain. Thats important because towards the end of the walk I pass a row of take aways and so there is a real danger of replacing a healthy meal with something hot and waist line expanding if I’m feeling cold or misserable. So I was playing the lost consonant where you drop a single consonant from a well known phrase or saying and I started on TV Taglines. So “The X Files” tagline “The Truth is out there” become “The Ruth is out there” – clearly a prescient reference to the vanishing character Ruth from Spooks.

After a while I hit on a change to the Heroes line “Save the Cheerleader. Save the World.” although this time I had to add a “h” making it into “Shave the Cheerleader. Shave the World.” Which left me with a mental picture of Hiro using his time travelling / teleporting abilities and his sword to shave Claire after her regenerative powers get out of hand and every hair that ever falls from her regenerates. Silly I know but it saved me from the temptation of pizza, fried rice or fish and chips.

The first thing I remember reading of Kim’s was the start of 7% and Rising. She’s finally finished it and it’s out now. I’ve not had a chance to read the whole book yet but I’m looking forward to it. If you can learn more about 7% and Rising at Kim’s Blog or buy it from My Bookstore and More.

1. Boy Meets Girl – Waiting for a Star to Fall
2. Bob Marley – Iron Lion Zion
3. Beverly Craven – Promise me
4. Tasmin Archer – Sleeping Satellite
5. Jennifer Warnes – First We Take Manhattan
6. Level 42 – Running in the Family
7. Pearl Jam / Neil Young: Rockin in the free world
8. Michael McDonald – Sweet Freedom
9. Mark Cohn – Walking in Memphis
10. tanita tikaram – Good Tradition
11. Starship-Nothing´s Gonna Stop Us Now
12. John Farnham – You’re The Voice
13. Midnight Oil – Beds are Burning

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

I’ve noticed a lot of the new breed of pedestrian crossing and light controlled junctions appearing across Liverpool recently. They’ve got sensors to see if there is traffic, that the traffic hasn’t blocked the crossing and to check the pedestians are standing at the crossing. They encourage pedestrians to look in the right direction by having the display to one side rather than ahead. On paper they probably look a lot better than earlier generations of crossings. I’ve had two other peoples experiences of them so I thought I’d share mine and theirs…

Perspective 1 – The Pedestrian: When they work these new lights are good but a lot of the time they don’t work. You press the button and wait, and wait… and wait… and wait a bit more… theres a gap in the traffic you could drive a convoy of snails through… you wait and you carry on waiting. Sometimes you wait and then the lights decide that there isn’t anyone there and you have to press the button again. Eventually you give in and cross the road without the aid of the lights when there is a gap in the traffic or a kind motorist waves you across.

Perspective 2 – The Taxi Driver: Pedestrians are ignoring the crossings and running through the traffic like chickens or the lights are changing with no one anywhere in sight.

Perspective 3 – The Motorcyclist: You pull up at a junction and wait, and wait… and wait… and wait a bit more… you bounce your bike over the detector in the road, you wait some more and you carry on waiting till a car pulls up and triggers the lights.

Don’t get me wrong I’m pleased the city is finally putting in better crossings on dangerous roads and better junctions but someone needs to make sure they work, and carry on working, properly.

This third of my lighting rigs for Vue following on from last Mondays Vue Lighting Rig #2. This week the point light has been moved behind so it shines on the figure including both the top of their head and the bottom of their feet.

With a single light source behind an actor no light falls on any of the facial features. Some light does fall on the top of the head and the shoulders creating highlights.

This rig, like the first two, is simple and quick to render with last weeks. The shadow cast on the stage is small but is longer in length than the first week. The actor’s shadow is cast forward on the stage avoiding the backdrop and any scenery behind them. With a little haze the actor is effectively separated from the scenery.

Since the actor’s face is in deep shadow strong colours and bright volumetric lighting can be used effectively to create dramatic effects. This second example shows the use of both these lighting techniques.

All of the above images were made using Poser 7 and Vue 6 Infinite. They could have been made using any version of Vue 6 including Vue 6 Pro or Vue 6 Easel.

… you wait for ages and then three come along at once. Things had been quiet on the Vue News Blog for a few days. Then three stories came along this morning and the Cornucopia 3D sale that I forgot was starting yesterday too.

I watched The Departed on DVD for the first time last night, Martin Scorsese take on the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs. Both have their good points and bad points. On balance I’d say I prefer the plot of Infernal Affairs and Tony Leung Chiu Wai’s Chan Wing Yan (as Tony Leung) is more interesting than Leonardo DiCaprio’s William ‘Billy’ Costigan Junior. The cinematography of The Departed is a bit slicker than Infernal affairs and being in English it’s a film I can watch without having to be in the mood for reading sub titles. I also found the cast of lesser gangsters stronger in The Departed although this may be down to sub titling distracting from watching performances. The Departed recreated many of the iconic scenes from Infernal Affairs really well and where it went in its own direction it wasn’t detrimental.

One deviation from Infernal Affairs was the introduction of Mark Wahlberg’s SSgt. Sean Dignam. Now Wahlberg, like co-star Damon, is from Boston where the film is set so I wondered if it was a case of using actors from Boston to try and build the local feel. In the very last scene the reason for his inclusion becomes apparent. Western film makers still like to have the moral ending where no bad guy gets away unpunished.

Now Infernal Affairs has a prequel and a sequel. The prequel is actually my favourite of the three Infernal Affairs films because of the way it plays with the characters but I we’ll see a Hollywood version. Even though the sequel is the weakest of the three the ending of Infernal Affairs actually removes the opportunity for an interesting face off between Damon and Wahlberg. I’m shocked at even typing that but Wahlberg seemed to be a lot better actor in The Departed than any other film I’ve seen him in. Acting with Damon, DiCaprio and Sheen seemed to make him actually work at his part rather than cruise through the film.