Motley Is A Fool's Uniform

Artfully lifted from Grognardia. The voice almost redeems the Dino de Horrendous visuals. Appropriate with the upcoming new Conan movie.

Just returned from watching The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. Well, after the obligatory post-movie caffeine infusion. Where I discovered that I was probably the only person who actually followed the storyline (and these were not unintelligent people). Then I realised that, yes Veronica, I am much more widely read on theology, gnostic philosophy, and mythic symbology than the average wombat. An excellent film, with (as you can expect) strong visual imagery and excellent cinematography. But if you can't follow the storyline(s) [there were a couple of important ones], well at least you can, by popular acclaim, still go "look at the pretties!"

Oh, and I misremembered the name of the author of the text. It was James P Carse, and the text was Finite and Infinite Games. If you read that, one of the storylines makes a whole lot more sense. (Of course, one must remember that it is also, and primarily, an entertainment.)

On a side note, my favourite type of furry gets a film with him in the starring role: Fantastic Mr Fox (with George Clooney voicing Mr Fox). [Although that being said, I do love the Badger's reply to "what skills do we bring to this group?" Very much a badger after my own heart.]

Apparently they are showing Repo! The Genetic Opera at the Mercury at 7:30 this Saturday (August 1).

Anyone interested in joining me to view Gile's discourses on zydrate anatomy?

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is one of my favourite plays. The film, staring Tim Roth and Gary Oldman (or was that Gary Oldman and Tim Roth <grin>) as the titular characters, wasn't too bad either. So that means I definitely have to grab a copy of this when it comes out on DVD.

Thanks to the inestimable drjon for the heads up.

Quite enjoyed Appleseed Ex-Machina. Then again, we saw the Japanese (subtitled) version, rather than the dubbed English version, which is always an improvement when watching anime. Well worth catching whilst the Anime Festival is on at the Palace-Nova. Then again I've also been a long time fan of Masamune Shirow and his works. Now I'm just miffed that there is no readily available image of Yoshino (the CEO of Poseidon Industries) to convert into a convenient icon, and I'll have to wait until September to do a screen capture. I'm in icon love.

Meanwhile Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog has fixed it's problem with non-US viewers (who apparently got fairly irate that they couldn't watch it because of IP filtering software), only to encounter the problem of overload from too many people wanting to see it at once. Can't win on the roundabouts and can't win on the swings. So it's off to the slides for me. I'm told it's good by several disreputable sources.

And Sanguine have finally released a new Jadeclaw supplement: Loot the Burning House. Available via Lulu as either a POD or PDF. In case anyone hasn't realised I really like the Ironclaw/Jadeclaw system for mid-level (neither completely realistic nor completely high fantasy) fantasy campaigns (essentially replacing 2nd ed Runequest in my heart).

The list is out for the 2008 Alliance Francaise French Film Festival. Of note is the near-future SF Chrysalis [5pm Saturday 29th (which means I might be able to also attend the Spiral Dance gig if I want to)] and the ribald comedy Moliere [2pm Sunday 30th]. People may find other stuff of interest. Those of you less privileged (that is, not living in Adelaide), should not rely on the above times. That is all.

And there is nothing suitable for URGA, either.

... because life would have no meaning after she left.

I just saw The Golden Compass, the first installment of the movie trilogy of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Very nicely done. The major change from Northern Lights (the first book of the trilogy), being in recasting the enquiry into Dust to be more of a scientific enquiry than a theological enquiry, and elevating the actions of the Magisterium (who will probably fully replace "The Authority" as the "villian" of the third book). They handled the animation of the daemons and armoured bears very well. The costuming and scenes were excellent, especially the Tartar soldiers. Dakota Blue Richards was quite good as Lyra, although the best actor by far was Sam Elliot who stole every scene he was in as the american aerialist Lee Scorseby. And Eva Green was perfectly enchanting as the witch Serifina Pekkala. <sigh>

Well worth seeing, and almost complete in and of itself, it will serve as a good introduction to what follows. But as far as I was concerned it had the bears and the witches, which was what I'd been looking forward to since the movie was first announced.

For those people who are interested they have finally released the theatrical release version of Night Watch, with the integrated subtitles, in Australia. For those who don't know, the subtitles on the theatrical release were very much a part of the film itself. The previous Australian release had a choice of either English dubbed, or Russian with captions for the hearing impaired. It's on the second disk of the Night Watch: Definitive Edition twin DVD pack.

Also, Tripod are putting on their Christms Show Smaller Than Jesus on the Gov on Wed 12th and Thu 13th of December at 7:30pm ($35, Venuetix). It shouldn't go that late for anyone overlly concerned about a work night. Anyone else interested in going? If so, which day suits you better?

And most RPGers should have fond memories of the new branding on the Tripod website. It's rather fun. I think I actually played that one, once.

Addenda: And did anyone else who watched the interview of Brendon Nelson on the 7:30 report think that the Senate is going to be rather obstructionalist until July.

You may realise you're in trouble when the first thing you see is a heavily-bearded gentleman, bible in hand, emerging from the veritable jungle surrounding a deserted house, quoting scripture at you with a holy glint in his eyes. Either that, or you are watching Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter ... and you still may be in trouble.

Now this is a film that is almost impossible to explain. Is it a comedy? Obviously. Is it a vampire movie? Certainly. Is it a martial arts film? Of course. Is it a musical? Well, yes. It even has dance routines. Is it a lesbian awareness film? Probably. Is it a homage to the 70's blacksploitation films? Maybe. Does it include the arrival of a famous masked luchadore to be J.C.'s sidekick? A clown car of evil athiests? Beautiful vinyl-clad women riding motorbikes? Beautiful spandex-clad women doing dance routines? Not-so-beautiful transvestites rescueing our hero? A Star Wars scat featuring Hans Solo and Chewbacca? A bowl of talking cherry icecream? An evil doctor? Sexy vampires? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.

As you may have gathered this is a rather bad movie by any measure, but it is so bad it actually becomes watchable. Very much an amateur production by a group of Ottowans having lots of fun and shooting a vampire movie on the cheap (apparently it was shot on weekends over the course of two years).

As for plot, well the Church has discovered that someone is killing the lesbian community ("Fringe Festival in Danger"). Their only hope is to summon Our Lord to battle the horde of atheists, vampires, and their allies. In this he is aided by his new Apostle, Mary Magnum, and El Santos, the Saint of the Wrestling Ring. And so follows the Kung Fu havoc.

My only problem with this film is that in some of the action scenes the actors didn't quite hit their marks, and so you could see the secret of stunt-fighting (the camera does not allow a depth of field). That aside, I don't think they duplicated a single martial arts move in the entire movie (against a not inconsiderable horde of attackers). Admittedly the choice of weapons at times was rather strange (such as the evil doctor resorting to "kidney punches").

I don't think I'd encourage someone to see it, but if you appreciate good bad cinema, you might consider it. And in what other film could you hear Dr Praetorius say "We are running low on skin. Go harvest a few lesbians."

I have to admit there were bits I liked about Day Watch and bits that I didn't. Overall I was rather unsatisfied on leaving the cinema. Don't get me wrong, I liked the film and they managed to maintain much of the ambience of Night Watch. It's just there is a technique to telling a story that I really don't like, but since it involves a fundamental part of the resolution of the movie I shall write it in white in a white box so as not to spoil people.

I still think Zavulon (the King of Darkness) continues to be one of the coolest Dark Lords around – until he loses his cool that is. He continues his manipulations par excellance from the first movie. I was absolutely jealous of his ability to tango (at his wedding with Alicia) – great choreography. And I adore the fact that he and Gesser (the Lord of Light) keep ending up having "friendly" conversations with each other. If one is currently in a truce with one's opponent one might as well be civil about it. You constantly get the feeling that in the chess game between the Light and Dark Gesser is outmatched (which is true) and just relying on the fact that "Good always triumphs in the end." [While there was a hint of the traditional flaws of Evil in the conclusion of the "wedding subplot," it seemed to have little effect on the overall conflict.]

I suspect that a lot of this movie ended up on the cutting room floor in order to reduce its overall running time, leaving it rather disjointed in places. Then again, I admit that I was constantly being distracted by attempting to read the russian signs (which considering that I have to transliterate the cryllic alpabet into the greek alphabet and then into the latin alphabet means I definitely lack a certain fluency). But at least I am starting to remember a little bit of spoken russian. Then again there is some good (if slightly surreal) cinema coming out of russia these days (and if it is nor directly surreal it's usually a James Bond style action movie starring the russians, which is surreal in it's own way).

( spoilers within )

It will be interesting to see what happens in the third film, although a number of people who saw the film are lamenting with me the fact that the next film will be produced by Hollywood. Hopefully it won't lose the fundamental Russian character that suits the genre so well.

And maelorin will be happy to know that a song from his favourite Ukranian band (Verka Serdyuchka) was playing during the party scene.