Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

Mini Review: Once

Published
by
Austen
on January 29, 2008
in Movies, Music and Reviews
. 3 Comments

If I could sum up Once in only 3 words, I would say: Rent it now.

once.jpg98% on Rotten Tomatoes and me should be reason enough to see it. Yes, I am wholeheartedly recommending this movie because it is amazing. Ok, let’s start from the beginning…

Once is really a modern form of a musical. It works just like a musical, there’s a basic story and songs that interweave with it to further intensify the characters’ emotions. Only this is a super low budget independent film, and instead of showtunes music, it’s - how do I say this - real music that you wouldn’t be afraid to have on your iPod. The actors in the film are actually musicians and the music is theirs.

I don’t want to give too much of the simple story away, but basically: Guy meets girl. Girl has kid from previous marriage. Guy is struggling street musician whose previous girlfriend cheated on him. Guy and Girl record CD together. Not going any farther, it’s a really a great little story with some really great music (be sure to buy the soundtrack after seeing the movie, it’s worth every penny.)

A.O. Scott mentioned in his review of Once that all the glitz and millions of dollars that are poured into movies like Dreamgirls don’t quite equal the heart and soul of Once. (I’m using more mushy words in this review than usual)

So, all in all, if you enjoy music, see Once. If you enjoy movies, see Once. If you enjoy both, well, you should have already seen it. But yeah, see Once. After this review, I have nothing more to do than give Once:

[rating:5]

Mini Review: The Fountain

Published
by
Austen
on January 2, 2008
in Movies and Reviews
. 0 Comments

thefountain.jpgAlthough it had a good deal of hype, The Fountain didn’t get great reviews when it came out during the winter of 2006. Essentially, it was marketed as the story of a man who can live forever, chronicling his journeys from the 1600s to today, and to approximately the year 2600.

The story is… well, not so straight-forward. These things happen, but certainly not in a way that makes very much sense. The movie is confusing as it jumps around between the three different time periods, each featuring Hugh Jackman as the hero.

At first, the stories don’t seem to relate. It’s not the story of a man living for ever - but rather 3 stories with the same actor that have a parallel plot structure and seemingly fit together in the end… kind of. The special effects and filmmaking is beautiful, but sometimes the story lags.

So, the movie was entertaining, in a sort of meditative “I-don’t-understand-what’s-going- on-but-I’d-love-to-theorize-about-it” way. I guess I just feel it was marketed wrong. However, it is an interesting story that I enjoyed even though it was a bit sappy for my tastes.

[rating:3.5]
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This will be the first in a collection of my “mini reviews” that I’ll be writing about movies. I’ve seen a bunch of good movies over the past month or so, but I don’t have the right history teacher, and therefore enough time, to write a full-fledged reviews for each one.

Movie Review: The Prestige

Published
by
Austen
on July 6, 2007
in Movies and Reviews
. 0 Comments

It’s not often that a movie really makes you think. Not something like Crash - that made you think about the issue being presented, but it didn’t make you actually think. The Prestige did that for me.

The Prestige stars Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as two rival magicians who keep trying to out-do each other. Every time that one does a new magic trick, the other attempts to find out how it was done and duplicate it. They each become so obsessed with out-doing the other that they start going to crazy lengths, eventually dealing with more than just typical magician trickery.

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Movie Review: Eragon

Published
by
Austen
on July 2, 2007
in Movies and Reviews
. 1 Comment

Let’s say that we have a really good book. It’s a book by someone who is only a teenager, and his coming-of-age shows through in it. It’s a very good book. Then, some greedy Hollywood filmmakers crapmakers come along and turn it into, well, crap.

That’s exactly what happened with Eragon. Christopher Paolini, who was only 15 when he started writing the book, wrote it in such a way that teens could relate to. It was a great fantasy book that seemed slightly familiar *cough*Star Wars*cough*Lord of the Rings*cough*. But it was all good. Until the movie was made.

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Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Published
by
Austen
on May 31, 2007
in Movies and Reviews
. 2 Comments

Okay. I’m going to try and be as truthful as possible with this review, and not let any reviews that I’ve read or things that I’ve heard persuade me in my opinion of this movie. Which is hard because on one side I have Rotten Tomatoes telling me it’s a “glazed, inhuman, cluttered piece of work” and then kids at school telling met that the end fight scene was “So awesome!!! That whirlpool was amazing!” Now, I try to mix both of these sides into my review fairly…

After the somewhat dissappointing Pirates of the Caribbean 2 I wasn’t originally planning to see the 3rd film in theaters. But the magic of advertising got me excited about it and, well, I saw it last Monday.

“Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End” is really not a good name for the movie. Sure, they go to the end of the world. But a more aptly named title would be “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, in Singapore, in Antartica, and of course the Caribbean.” The movie is all over the place. They’re in Singapore, then snap they’re on the largest waterfall you’ve ever seen, then snap they’re back in the Caribbean. Much like the second movie, the storyline is confusing because the characters seem to suddenly be on the other side of the world whenever they need to be.

I’m not going to explain any of the storyline, because there’s just too much. And you probably know most of it. But anyway, Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer tried to mix in waay to many stories into this movie. Having so many stories and substories is confusing and just drags the movie on longer.

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Movie Review: The Departed

Published
by
Austen
on May 13, 2007
in Movies and Reviews
. 0 Comments

Note that this movie is rated R (and for good reason) and should not be watched lightly. I refer to a couple of graphic scenes during this review.

Whooooaaa. Wow. Oh my god. The Departed is… an amazing movie. The acting is incredible, and so is the directing. It’s just… great. Great filmmaking.

The Departed is the winner of 4 Oscars: Best director, editing, best adapted screen play, and of course best picture. And yes, it deserved it. The Departed is directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Jack Nicholson as the head of the Irish Mafia in contemporary Boston. Matt Damon plays his mole in the Boston police department, and Leonardo DiCaprio plays the police department’s mole in Nicholson’s mafia.

The story generally follows DiCaprio and Damon, both who are terrific actors in this movie. Damon is great, but DiCaprio really steals the show. (DON’T think Titanic) He does an amazing job playing a good guy playing a bad guy. Both DiCaprio and Damon’s character’s stories unravel and relate to each other over the course of the film, and when they finally meet it’s great. Jack Nicholson is, well, Jack Nicholson. He delivers a great performance even at 70 years of age.

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Software Review: MusikCube

Published
by
Austen
on May 5, 2007
in Music, Reviews and Technology
. 0 Comments

musikCube is yet another open source music player and organizer. Only with this one it’s all about the basics.

The point of musikCube is to provide a music library organizer and player that’s simple and runs fast. And it really does. Obviously based on the iTunes interface (but what isn’t these days?), musikCube only gives you what you need. The interface is as basic as possible, and very customizable.

Not only that, but musikCube also has a large array of plugins to help extend the functionality of it. But what makes musikCube appeal to me beyond other programs like Songbird and Amarok is how fast it runs. I don’t have a super-fast computer. My computer is over 4 years old, and it’s full of applications that hog all 384 MB of my RAM. This has made running iTunes on it a bit of a hassle, as it degraded the functionality of my other programs.

But when I tried out musikCube my computer didn’t skip a beat. It loaded up, I imported my music, and I started playing music. The difference between the processing power that iTunes take up to this is enough to make me leave iTunes behind altogether. But I can’t, and for two reasons. One, I have almost 200 songs bought from the iTunes Store, and two musikCube doesn’t yet support iPod integration, although it is in the works.

But besides that, musikCube just works. It has a fantastic mini player, support for tagging, EQ, web radio, and even “dynamic” (smart) playlists. And finally, it also has something called “Collected” which is sort of like a place to put your music that you haven’t yet listened to, and aren’t ready to put into your library yet. Sort of like a queue of music.

Before, I could never have Firefox (with multiple tabs,) Photoshop, Gaim and iTunes playing music open all at the same time. But with musikCube, it’s like it isn’t even there. That’s how music should be heard… in the background, not hogging all of your system’s memory.

musikCube is available at musikcube.com as a free 3 MB download for Windows 2000 and XP only. Installation is quick and easy. And you won’t be disappointed.

Movie Review: 300

Published
by
Austen
on April 4, 2007
in Movies and Reviews
. 1 Comment

300 is Lord of Rings + Sin City + 300 gallons of blood.

300 graphically depicts the Battle of Thermopylae, the ancient battle between 300 Spartans and 10,000 Persians. King Leonidas leads the 300 men, going against the wishes of the Spartan council. The majority of the movie consists of the different waves of attacks by the Persians, (almost) all of which are met with… lots of very pointy sticks. Meanwhile, back in Sparta, Leonidas’s wife (the Queen) is trying to convince the Spartan council to go and send the rest of the Spartan army to go and help King Leonidas.

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