15 May 2004
MOVIE: TROY (2004).
This epic melodrama, based on the Homer's Iliad, stars an all-male hotty triple threat (Pitt! Bana! Bloom?) and is made in the good, old-fashioned Hollywood way: all the main characters, Greek or Roman, are downright Aryan and speak with English, or Scottish, or (why not?) Australian accents; the horde of extras, on the other hand, are far, um, swarthier, and speak in a generic ethno-babble straight out of Star Wars' Tatooine. Cecil B. DeMille would have been proud. Parts of the film are so clunky they're downright funny, like when the Trojans stand around scratching their heads at the sight of a massive horse left in the fleeing Greeks' wake (what to do? what to do?), or whenever the script's diction stumbles from faux-Shakespearean ("We shall attack our foes upon the morn") to contemporary ("We can take them on any day!"). And don't even get me started on how this film expected us to believe that Helen was worth all the trouble.
Granted, the showdown between Bana's Hector and Pitt's Achilles was spectacular; there was even a bit of social commentary thrown in, as King Agamemnon stubbornly refuses to leave Troy even after suffering heavy losses--stubbornness that results in him being killed in battle even as he succeeds in sacking the city. Then again, all that could've been a fluke. Who knows?
Ultimately, Troy tries to make the Iliad into Achille's story; but that epic poem defies our traditional man-vs-whatever story structure, leaving the crowd puzzled as to who to root for. So we all wound up snickering, and then giggling, and then laughing. And what a good laugh it was!
"We men are wretched things." -- Achilles, via Brad Pitt
14 May 2004
PHOTO DIARY.
Josh had his staples removed the other day, and he posed for a few pictures to show off his fresh scars.
He'd fallen backward through a glass window. The doctors said he severed two-thirds of his tricep, and half of his bicep.
11 May 2004
MOVIE: SUPER SIZE ME (2004).
I'm Lovin' it! Boy oh boy! One of my favorite topics ever: obesity & fast food. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock takes himself up on his own dare, which is to eat nothing but McDonald's food three times a day for 30 days, and finds his body plummet into decline before his : his liver turns to fat; he suffers headaches, fatigue, depression, and hypertension; he gains close to a pound a day in body weight. Spurlock's class-clown charisma keeps things light-hearted and energetic, and although his documentary isn't as hard-hitting or profound as you'd like it to be, it's as fun as jellybeans to watch. With the connection between fast food and obesity already common knowledge and the McDonald's strategy of "brand imprinting" (getting kids hooked at an early age & omitting information needed to make balanced choices later in life) now common business practice, you shouldn't be surprised if Super Size Me doesn't deliver any world-altering revelations. What it does do is paint a bold, hundred-foot-high portrait of a society gone horribly dystopic, one that's been brainwashed into forgetting how to perform the basic act of feeding itself while at the same time encouraging a culture that mocks the obese as lacking "personal responsibility." After Spurlock finishes his nauseating regimen and returns to a normal diet, his life-threatening McCondition remarkably evaporates in just eight weeks. After the movie let out me and Nicki walked back to the car in a dizzy state, punctuated by nervous laughter.
"It is a sin peculiar to man to hate his victim." (Tacitus)
GAME: MAX PAYNE 2 (2004).
 Stop: bullet time. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne picks up right where the first one left off three years ago, both in story and gameplay. Aside from two or three engaging missions (Escort & Protect, Don't Blow Your Cover, and Speed Sniper), the gameplay feels identical to the original. Not that there's very much of it--I spent much of the game simply paging through comic book story panels, watching cinematics, or jogging through the syrupy haze of trippy, but essentially passive, dream sequences. The story itself, more a stylized noir exercise than a substantial depiction of believably motivated characters, left me feeling an empty satisfaction: after defeating the archenemy at the end, I still puzzled over the significance of my achievement while watching the credits roll.
This isn't to say Max Payne 2 is a bad game. Bullet time still makes for some spectacular slo-mo battle sequences as it did in the original. The level of detail and environmental interactivity is pretty damn astounding, thanks to the Havok physics engine. And I still respect gamemaker Remedy's attempt at integrating more refined storylines in their games (the self-referencing and/or allegorical dramas found playing on televisions throughout the levels, for example). But the relatively simplistic, repetitive game play is too big a fault to ignore, even for this pioneer of the noir game genre.- GAMEPLAY: Straightforward and not too hard, thanks to a PC-like quicksave function.
- REMINISCENT OF: Max Payne, XIII.
- LIBRARY WORTHY? With a heavy heart: no. But definitely rentable.
10 May 2004
PHOTO DIARY.
At work there has been a recent spate of freak accidents among co-workers. This morning, Robert's surfboard fins slashed his ear during a spill, resulting in this ten-stitcher.
But all pales in comparison to Josh's tumble through an older, non-tempered pane of glass last week. He brought in a vial containing a souvenir 3-inch long shard covered in his own blood. And that's just the beginning. More gore to come: surgery, stitches, and (ulp) staples.
PHOTO DIARY.
I went to Hollywood and Highland, deep in the tourist jungles of Los Angeles, with Nicki, my brother, and his wife Jung over the weekend. Lo and behold: Tron on the big screen. It's already on my to-do list.
We went to Lucky Strike, which is the nicest bowling alley I've ever been to.
It's also the most expensive. Close to $10 per person per game.
My brother won, of course.
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