| Cat People |
[Dec. 13th, 2005|12:15 pm] |
Details
Starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell and John Heard, directed in 1982 by Paul Shrader.
Plot
An orphaned sister reunites with a long-lost brother and they both share a secret curse. They turn into large cats and kill people and only one thing can set them free.
Comment
This is a "grown up's" movie from when I was a small boy. For some reason even the cover on the video always scared me and it seemed too "artistic" for me to bother with in the past. Anyway, I borrowed it and watched it and discovered it's quite a unique film. The horror comes along in bits and pieces and there is a lot of quiet moments and dark sets. But as usual, the music is one thing I noticed the most, provided by the talented synthesizer god Giorgio Moroder. His music provided the right kind of atmosphere for this slow horror film. The opening theme features vocals by the classical David Bowie and has visuals with the big black leopards that you have to seeeeeee. Words on a web page do such little justice. It is also very erotic, with a lot of frank nudity and is a remake of an older film.
Best Moment
From a technical point of view, the scene in the swimming pool is incredible with the waves shimmering on the walls and the black cat vanishing into the dark corners, using the power of suggestion in its maximum form to frighten you. But the running scene with that incredible Moroder soundtrack was probably my favorite scene, as short as it was. But!! You also get to see Ed Bengley Jr's arm get ripped off by a leopard.
OOooo |
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| Spiders |
[Dec. 12th, 2005|09:41 am] |
Summer is here again and with it comes spiders. My pet huntsman met an unfortunate end when I placed a captured black, pointy spider in there with it. I looked over one day and saw it coming up slowly behind him and grabbed the camera but by the time it was ready, it was all over. The little black new spider won the battle easily. Then it proceeded to suck all its body juices out right away.
Last night I found another of the same type as the one that ate the huntsman and this morning only one has survived. In fact, it's sucking all its juices from the corpse as I type this rubbish. Must find out what type it is. |
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| The Speed of Light and Other News |
[Dec. 8th, 2005|09:17 am] |
If you're travelling on a space ship that's going at the "theoretical" limit of speed in the universe, the speed of light, and then you look into a mirror, of course you would have to see yourself. The particles of light coming off you and hitting the mirror and bouncing back would be relative to you, not the spaceship. So you should be able to at least travel twice the speed of light, if not faster.
It's been a busy past six months for me. Next week I will be fitting in the shooting of a second TV pilot for which I have written two teleplays and will be the cameraman again. It's going to be shot in high definition and I'm doing all the music as well. We've been given permission to shoot onboard a navy ship, which should be cool.
I recently "released" my first complete album and so far the feedback has been great, although local distribution companies are hopeless. They all have websites and contact email addresses but they never respond to simple email enquiries.
So I thought of a little game to play. Who are the most famous people you've ever received an email from? Here's my list, in no particular order:
1. Dan O'Bannon (writer of films Alien, Return of the Living Dead, Total Recall, Dark Star, Blue Thunder, etc).
2. Ben Liebrand, an old, famous European music producer and DJ.
3. Kenneth Johnson, the writer and director of the '80s alien invasion television series V.
That's it!
Apparently the Earth is going through a meteor storm thanks to the planet going through a comet's tail. So check the night sky for more frequent falling stars than normal. |
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| Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) |
[Nov. 24th, 2005|11:14 am] |
Details
Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, directed in 1966 by Sergio Leone.
Plot
Three gunmen set out to find a hidden fortune during a War in the South West.
Comment
I can say a lot about this film but I won't bore you. Great film that I've thought about seeing for the past 25 years. Finally glad I did it because it left me with a sense of wonder about the old times (eg: before there was anything resembling a microprocessor). The music is also such a beautiful thing in this film, especially the desperate search by Tuco near the end and the final fight. Now to download it from SoulSeek.
Best Moment
It is hard to pick one from the 2.7 hours running time of this film. Perhaps when the guys steal the dynamite to blow up the bridge and they are running around with the explosives on the stretcher amongst all the other soliders with the wounded on their stretchers, or when Tuco finds an ingenious way to cut his handcuffs. But then there's the classic confrontation scenes that I don't want to spoil for you.
OOOOo |
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| Flightplan |
[Nov. 17th, 2005|09:25 am] |
Details
Starring Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard and Sean Bean, directed in 2005 by Robert Schwentke.
Plot
The propulsion engineer who worked on a new 425-passenger advanced airliner falls asleep and loses her daughter. When she awakens, nobody remembers she even had a daughter and facts soon reveal that she's probably crazy from drugs she has been taking to cope with her husband's recent suicide. However, she knows something isn't right.
Comment
A lot of people are comparing this film to Red Eye, another recent film about trouble on a plane. They have many similarities but different styles. The way the story was told made it easy to work out that there was more to it than we're being told at the time. You're better off renting this one at the video rental store for $2.95 instead of seeing it for $14.50 at the cinema.
Best Moment
All the climbing around the inner bowels of the aircraft and little technical conversations about it. Someone should certainly win an award for the set designs.
OOooo |
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| It Arrives, November 14! |
[Nov. 11th, 2005|05:48 pm] |
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The next "big" thing in commercial aviation: The Airbus A380. At approx. 12:30 PM Monday it'll land on the active runway at Melbourne Airport and hopefully I'll find a spot at the approach point to snap a few photos and a video. |
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| Ultimate Movie Villains Part 1 |
[Oct. 15th, 2005|10:51 am] |
Well I watched a classic slasher film called The Hitcher last night and couldn't believe that I missed this classic horror film since its 1986 release. So I thought I'd write an entry regarding ultimate movie villains, not including obvious dumb horror ones like Freddy Kruger.
John Ryder (Rutger Hauer, The Hitcher)
After being picked up by a friendly young man on a highway, Ryder proceeds to turn this poor man's life into hell, forcing the police to always think it is the young man doing the horrible acts. His horror climaxes when Ryder ties the young man's new terrorised girlfriend to a truck trailer, and the other half of her to a truck, and proceeds to rip her in half. Rutger Hauer is very underrated and has a very calm nature about him which is unsettling in this role, with a strong, handsome face and bright blonde hair. Combined with the long pre-Matrix leather jacket wardrobe and shotgun in one hand, he presented a new villain for me in a great old film I somehow missed.
Dennis Peck (Richard Gere, Internal Affairs)
"Trust me, I'm a cop," says Peck with a trustworthy smile after meeting a client to arrange the killing of someone and poking his finger into the wife of the client under the table. Gere plays a street cop who does what he wants, who he wants and when he wants. On the trail of his corrupt actions is Andy Garcia. Sleeping around with his partner's wife, planting weapons on unarmed dead suspects and generally helping to get people killed when they become a liability, Gere is a real bastard.
General Zod (Terrance Stamp, Superman)
Why not Lex Luthor? Well, Gene Hackman doesn't really cut it as a villain for me, but Terrance Stamp's stiff portayal of an intergalactic super-powered dictator frightened me as a kid as I wondered what the human race is going to do after he stormed into town. I've only ever seen him since in a brief appearance in one of the new Star Wars films, otherwise, he will always be General Zod to me.
Jack the Ripper (David Warner, Time After Time)
In Time After Time, Jack the Ripper escapes old Victorian London to 20th New York using H.G. Well's (Malcolm McDowell) new time machine. H.G. follows him in an attempt to get him back to face the crimes he did back in his day, but Jack loves it in New York. To ilustrate his reason to stay when Wells catches up with him, he turns on the television (a miracle device compared to his technology) and channel surfs through news reports of violence, war films and sex. But then the film turns into a romance with Jack getting hold of Wells' girl. Warner's evil character has the charm of old-fashioned English manners while him and McDowell provide an unexpected comedy as they try to adjust to modern life.
Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith, RoboCop)
The thug of the corporation, going around to get rid of what his bosses don't want. This guy doesn't think twice about killing a cop or throwing his own injured men to death after a bungled bank robbery. The whole image of this guy in this film will never fade and I can't imagine him ever playing a nice guy. I've seen both him and Miguel Ferrier in recent television dramas, but they are still the mean guys from RoboCop for me.
Max Zorin (Christopher Walken, For Your Eyes Only)
No matter what he does, Christopher Walken commands attention. His "hestitation" style of acting, combined with his intense nervous stare give a most unique experience, and he played the best villian in the Bond flick For Your Eyes Only, which culminates in a fight aboard an airship stuck over the San Fransisco bay bridge.
Khan (Ricardo Montalban, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan)
Khan managed to hijack his own federation starship (twice!), put little bugs in the crews' ears, raid and slay the crew of a space station, get his hands on a powerful planet-destroying device and provoke the loudest, longest scream ever to be emmitted from a starship captain. Worse than any Klingon or Romulan.
Maybe they'll be a Part 2 list. |
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| Yoyodyne Hamburgers |
[Oct. 7th, 2005|12:32 pm] |
1. Put mince meat into a large bowl.
2. Chop an onion in half. Chop up one side into small bits and the other into rings. Put small bits in bowl.
3. Add one egg. breadcrumbs and your favorite spices and salt.
4. Use your hands to knead it all together, adding more breadcrumbs until it becomes a blob that sticks together well in a big ball.
5. Make the burger patties from this blob. Cook them on the frying pan until browned inside and out.
6. Chuck in onion towards end of cooking the patties.
7. Slice bread rolls / hamburger buns in half and place in oven on low temperature until softly toasted.
8. Chop up some lettuce, tomatoe (slices) and beetroot.
9. Place lettuce and onion onto roll / bun base, add pattie, add tomatie, beetroot and tomato sauce.
10. Optionally cook bacon and eggs to go on top.
11. Replace top half of roll / bun and eat.
Note: These can end up being prety big. |
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| Damn, and other things |
[Oct. 2nd, 2005|07:31 pm] |
Friday's news carried with it the notice that a heap of general grocery types are going to rise due to the elevated petrol prices. Well, I thought this was gonna happen but I didn't expect it to be as bad until I went to buy my usual 2 litre tub of Home Brand (Safeway) ice cream today and discovered it had risen from $2.19 to $3.46. As a result, I bought the premium Peter's brand instead, which was only 40c more. I've always admired the Black & Gold / Home Brand / No Frills initiative but now....... hmm. Have to see how other items go.
I was buying it to make milkshakes:
1. Put six or seven (or more) good-sized strawberries into a container with a flat bottom.
2. Use the bottom of a cup to squash and crush it all to juice (or use your favorite blender, but I don't have one).
3. Add some milk.
4. Use a mixer (I got one of these, though) to mix it all together.
5. Wash large chunks of solid strawberry crap from mixer thing.
6. Add ice cream and continue mixing.
7. Wash further chunks of strawberry crap from mixing thing.
8. Add more milk, some malt and continue mixing.
9. Serve into large cup and drink.
10. Wash container, glass and mixer thing.
My mother was telling me on the phone the other day, "Yoyodyne, try giving almonds to your pet bird." So I got some and sure enough, cockatiels love them. Okay, I've finished work for Sunday so now I'm going to watch an SBS documentary on light, of all things. |
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| Royal Melbourne Show |
[Sep. 26th, 2005|11:44 am] |
I went to the show and it was funny to watch all the people in the crowd. I haven't seen such a large collection of miserable people since last-minute Christmas shopping time in the shopping centres. I got the strong feeling that about two minutes after paying $20 per adult head to get into the showgrounds, everyone over the age of twenty wished they had stayed home.
Highlights include:
- Watching a family argue, being watched by another family eating ice cream and getting the free entertainment.
- Rocketman testing his rocket jetpack.
- Getting bumped a thousand times and bumping others with my backpack.
- Seeing the "hello, hello" couple in the flesh.
- Constant helicopters arriving and departing from the joyride section.
- KFC Pepsi with no ice.
- Free calendar from the Victorian Government Expo area, as well as a free National Anthem booklet.
- Being unable to walk in a straight line for longer than an entire second without someone being there.
- Getting up close and personal with ducks, llamas, kelpies and other farmyard animals.
- Almost got to hold off the crowd of onlookers long enough to see a egg hatch.
- Being spared from the masses of parking tickets we saw as we returned to the car.
- Attractive $2 milkshake offer that was just that - milk.
There were lots of other things but it was all pretty much not worth it and I won't be returning next year. |
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| Red Eye |
[Sep. 19th, 2005|02:31 pm] |
Details
Starring Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, directed in 2005 by Wes Craven.
Plot
A lady takes a flight to visit her father but is sitting next to a man who needs her to do something terrible.
Comment
I had only seen the teaser to this, and it was very vague. The bad guy (Murphy) had a glowing red eye at the end of it and I thought he was some kind of devil who was going to cause havoc with the flight. So to my surprise, it was a completely different film. Half psychological thriller / half terrorist action flick.
The last act was pretty predictable but the first two made up for it.
One thing that struck me is the "everyday woman" style they gave the McAdams character. She was quite believable and I imagine that if it really happened, that adrenalin alone would indeed turn her into the hero we see in the film. It also made me recollect Bruce Willis's character in the Die Hard series. Adrenlin can make you do a lot when you have to.
Best Moment
When the baddie reveals that she is his new job.
OOOoo |
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| Everyone Has Something to Say About Banks, eh? |
[Aug. 21st, 2005|04:31 pm] |
A couple of months ago an ANZ telemarketer convinced me to sign up to this dumb program they call eDine, which offers all this free and discounted shit from participating restaurants and other establishments, all coz of my credit card. Even though I was embarrassed to keep telling her that I didn't know restaurant-after-restaurant that she was reading out to me from the list, I said okay.
It's now two months since I paid for the luxury and the documents that come with the card say to check the eDine website for the list of places to use it. I keep checking the page and it keeps saying it's "down for maintenance" and to check back soon. Today I had enough of this and sent them a complaint through their online form. But the form kept telling me to complete all the form fields, even though I had.
Bloody banks! |
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| Owning Up |
[Aug. 19th, 2005|12:58 pm] |
I once played a prank on a colleague in the office. For years it was brought up once a month and he was teased about it. No one ever knew it was me and I had to keep a straight face every time someone mentioned it. The victim felt so victimised that he went to the supervisor of our managers to complain about it when it happened.
So what did I do? I printed out a life-size photo of Hugh Grant's face off the internet using the printer and stuck it behind the glare filter on this guy's computer monitor. When he came back from lunch he was in shock, speechless. He took it so badly and I didn't dare own up for fear of my contract being prematurely terminated.
A female co-worker came to comfort him and I overheard her say, "Whoever did this must be sick in the head." Whoops. |
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| Shopping |
[Aug. 17th, 2005|03:14 pm] |
A weekend trip to the city netted the following:
- Large sketch pad for my hobby of car design.
- DVD: Deep Impact Special Edition for $10.00 from Dirt Cheap ($29 everywhere else, inc. JB and EzyDVD!). The location of this shop is where the old twin-level Timezone on Swanston St used to be, which then became something called World Food Gallery and now it is a couple of converted little shops.
- DVD: Kenny Everitt Video Show - The Naughty Bits. Once again, for only $10.00 when everwhere else wanted $30.00 for it. I look forward to watching Captain Kremmin.
- A bowl of crushed ice with ice cream and raspberry syrup topping from a Japanese place on Swanston St in between Bourke and Lt Bourke. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TRYING THIS THING - it's in the shop window. Gonna start making them at home.
- 2005 World Car Guide - Imported from the UK, I get it every year when it becomes discounted.
- A new bird toy for my birds, to install on an activity playset that I am building for them.
- New box of cleaning fluid for my contact lens, and they've gone and changed it again. Some sort of new "Moisture Loc" technology. |
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| The Ice Pirates |
[Aug. 8th, 2005|10:14 am] |
Details
Starring Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Michael D. Roberts, Anjelica Huston and John Carradine, directed in 1984 by Stewart Rafill.
Plot
In the far future, water is a rare and precious commodity. Space pirates try to steal the ice from an evil empire, only to be captured and rescued by a princess with a personal mission.
Comment
Sounds a lot like Star Wars, but it is a comedy with some funny moments and clever little ideas. The unreliable and lousy (and expensive!) robot warriors are a running joke and the bunch of space bums who call themselves pirates are pretty lousy as well.
Jumping from planet to planet, ship to ship, the film never really slows down, probably because it has only 93 minutes to tell the story. At the time of release when it flopped, sci-fi fans may not have handled humour injected into sci-fi, but it is a different world today.
This has bad special effects and a galant effort on customised road vehicles and cool small-studio music. Robert Urich, normally a serious actor, should be proud of this little diversion. As good as Spaceballs looked, I think that The Ice Pirates was the better film.
Best Moment
The time warp towards the end of the film when everyone begins getting older in a few minutes.
OOOoo |
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| Microsoft Bug Fixed! |
[Jul. 13th, 2005|10:55 am] |
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In my line of work, web browser bugs can be a real problem. So I finally did something about fixing a problem where I can't view the source of a web page in Internet Explorer. If I clicked "View Source", nothing would happen. It turns out that it is caused by having a full browser cache. Deleting your temporary internet files will bring this function back to life. |
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| The French Connection |
[Jul. 11th, 2005|02:31 pm] |
Details
Starring Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, directed in 1971 by William Friedkin.
Plot
Two New York detectives get on the trail of what becomes the biggest drug bust in US history.
Comment
Based on a true case of the biggest ever drug bust in the US, this is a documentary-style film about surveillence and the process of being a detective in 1971, where Hackman delivers his award-winning performance as "Popeye" Doyle, a harsh but complex detective who is stabilised by his partner Cloudy, played by Scheider.
Using real locations all around New York of the time, the gripping investigation music and bleak reality revealed in the film make it a real classic. Not to mention one of the best car chases ever done (actually a car-train chase), where Hackman did a lot of the driving himself. The director stuck a big police siren on the roof of the car and drove it through red lights of unsuspecting public roadways for a lot of the footage, which could never be done now!
Then there are the scenes where Hackman and his helpers are following the suspects around without being detected, and I can't help but feel tense when Hackman tries to keep with Alain on the train in the subway.
Best Moment
Has to be the car-train chase and the stripping down of a very classic automobile to find the drugs, then magical reassembly.
OOOoo |
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| Oh yeah, forgot. |
[Jul. 1st, 2005|04:13 pm] |
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Finally got my hands on MP3s from the most expensive soundtrack CD ever to pass through eBay. It set the "world record." Airwolf - the recreated soundtrack from the television series by Mark J. Cairns from Sylvester Levay's notes. |
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| Lack of Imagination |
[Jul. 1st, 2005|10:51 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Tending to Huey (Silent Running soundtrack, 1972) | ] |
I said just before that there will no doubt be a new Superman film finally done. I didn't know it was in production, but it's almost ready to be released. Here I was thinking it'll be fun to script a new Superman film, but they've already done it. Tha fans have criticised him for having too small a logo on his chest and too dark a red on his costume.
So the other night I was watching the specials on The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy DVD (the TV series) and the Don't Panic documentary has an animation showing the Heart of Gold followed by the TARDIS and the Liberator (I think) from Blake's 7. So it made me think, "Wow, a modern movie version of Blake's 7 could be interesting!" Opening Google and ready to type in Blake's 7 to refresh my info, I thought, "I bet there's a blakes7.com website." I typed it in and to my surprise, it's the website of a movie version already in production. Oh well.
My Last Starfighter II screenplay is out there and has had good feedback. I am working on a low-budget horror-sci-fi at the moment. It revolves around a teleportation machine and has some violent rape scenes. Sound weird? |
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