OO is quicker than any MS product I’ve used, and this is on an old clunker of a PC, mind you. Writer hurray!

A Halloween tradition that’s been popular for some time is the marathon of scary movies. I know at least one movie theater that’s doing it here, and it sounds like a good idea to me. For one thing, even if they screen only one movie a day/night they’ll never run out of things to put up – but then it’ll be a question of quality. The smaller, indie, slacker-chic theaters won’t care one bit, of course. This is akin to the record store run by elitist vinyl snobs seen in High Fidelity, John Cusack and co, if you know what I mean. I don’t think any of the first-run places does this Halloween 31 movies in 31 days type thing. But they could …maybe.

Anyway. I Sell The Dead is easy on the eyes if it were ever in a Halloween marathon. Minimal CGI, plot’s on the no surprises here side, the acting’s okay as it goes. Sort of hard to peg this flick as horror though, it finds itself more on the comedy side, more Weird than Scary. A couple of big name actors and the rest are no-listers but that’s not a bad thing. Pop some corn, butter it up and sit back for an hour. This one’s an enjoyable – if forgettable (non)scary movie.

From first scene to last, you can’t take your eyes off Where The Wild Things Are. Alternately funny or sad but always endearing, Max and his gang of Wild Things are a treat for children and adults alike. Might give any kids you being along ideas (tsk tsk!), but this is the sort of film I’d like my folks to see. They’d love it too. (We saw Amelie at the BAM when they visited me in Brooklyn, lifetimes ago.)

Anyway, a welcome addition to any video library once the DVD/BRD comes out. :)

Haven’t had to use any office app in quite some time, and while google docs provides ample service sometimes I’m not online. So, enter OpenOffice. Downloaded the portable version from portableapps and it’s taken an hour to install and launch on this clunker of a computer. Will run more tests on other machines to see if it’s the machine that’s causing the lag, but I’m pretty sure of it. Still, open source software FTW!

Lackluster indie film from down undah excels at slacker-uncomedy, the way people say “That’s …funny” when something decidedly not funny is mentioned. Classic classification confusion ‘cos this might actually be better packaged as a drama. Y/N?

Muddy direction made this reviewer fall asleep twice in a 30 minute first screening, the only reason he’d wake up was when the cat would jump on his stomach. Otherwise this flick’s a total snoozefest. Could try again, a second screening might be the trick, but looks iffy. Go rent Felafel instead.

Easily dismissed as yet another travelogue, Madventures in its third season shifts to English audio with Finnish subtitles – the show’s native audience being the folks back home Finland. Season 3 (S3)’s first episode opens with Riku giving the 1 minute roundup of S1, explanation of the show’s premise and many cut-scenes to drive to point home. Riku speaks a brand of oddly-poetic English that sounds jarring and strangely attractive at the same time, possibly because you have to listen more carefully to understand his patois and his (Finnish?) way of accenting words in unusual places. Madventures S3 promises to continue its mad mix of global exploration, crazy cuisine sampling and hijinks/pranks that differentiate the show from its better-behaved brethren. This reviewer recommends: Stay tuned for more.

When I read the book I knew at once that it was going to be adapted for the big screen. I was excited, thinking it’d be tech-noir or something even sweeter, oh I dunno, Hollywood happens to have some sharp minds. I was pretty sure they’d spare a few and give us Bladerunner 2009. Of course, everything is on the net nowadays, but I stayed away from reviews, trailers, teasers, blog entries even remotely hinting at anything related to the book. Good thing.

The movie could be a remix of any of the technothrillers from recent years, and casting Bruce Willis sort of reminds the viewer that the big screen adaptation wasn’t going to be cerebral, or pretend to be sophisticated say, Minority Report? Cmon, if anything this was gonna be Die Hard! But With Robots!

Despite that, Surrogates is an okay whodunit. We can go on for a while longer about how the script could’ve been written better, the screenplay, the effects, the acting. But just this once I’m fine with a little bit of Hollywood mostly-fluff mediocrity, although …I’m not exactly sure why.

Madventures S1 (first season) in the original Finnish audio with no subtitles, are I a hardcores or what lulzors! Seriously though, I know only 1 Finn around these parts and had no idea that they (Riku and Tunna, who of course represent Finland) are such party animals. Party! Finnish people are cool, and a little crazy.

4.5 out of 5. Compelling (if a tad confusing) adventure set in a post-apoc world where Man vs Machine and Man loses. Not a novel concept, Matrix (cough) Terminator (cough) but 9 delivers this in loads of style.

Instant wow. I’ve watched High Art many, many times and every time it’s excellent. Highly suitable viewing for rainy, cold autumn days or lazy summer afternoons, or any time at all. The writing and direction are top-notch, spot-on excellent acting – acting the way it seems that the actors are just being themselves, way to go! The humour is very cynical, New York, hip (so hip it hurts!), &c. That’s the only way I can describe it – of course this statement only makes sense to me, and I only lived in NYC for a handful of years, but I ran across many artistic, hip, gay, drugged-out types typified herein.

Fast forward to life after NYC and I am now in Photography, and in one class we’re shown the work of Nan Goldin and her contemporaries. I find myself thrilled, surprised, I’m not sure what. That’s when I hopped online and (only then) found out that High Art + Nan Goldin = pretty much the same thing …with a few Hollywood liberties, of course. Pretty cool. Since then every once in a great while when I have a taste for a well-made cool flick I pop the disc out of the vault, put it on, get into some sort of somnolent, chill, laid-back mood. It’s the film. It has that effect on me. As we speak it’s Sunday evening, a cuppa tea, the heat’s on (it’s officially Autumn in the States, what do you know) and High Art is, appropriately, tonight’s featured presentation.