Home of DJ and technophile Jonathan Puddle (aka J Puddy)
Movies
10 favourite cinematic experiences of the last decade
Dec 31st
Many people and organizations have released their best 100 or best 50 films of the last decade already, which are available elsewhere. I’ve decided to distill my own favourites into 10 of the best cinematic experiences. So that means the Lord of the Rings trilogy are grouped into one, as they truly are intended to be a coherent cinematic experience, but Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are separate. This is not what I think to be the best of the decade, just the ones that I personally enjoyed the most.
- Lord of the Rings (a masterpiece)
- Avatar (Avatar will literally and figuratively More >
Iron Man
May 4th
I’m not going to write a long review, as there are enough others out there that I feel are on the money. In brief, Iron Man was excellent. Masterfully acted, cleverly scripted, story was engaging enough, effects were top notch; superb movie.
Jeff Bridges played an excellent villain. Totally well done. Robert Downey Jr… what can you say? Tony Stark. To the letter. The suit, perfect. Pepper Potts, lovely! For those of you in the know, who stayed till the end of the credits, Nick Fury: Excellent! Can’t wait for Hulk.
What’d you all think?
I’m a Marvel, and I’m a DC
Mar 23rd
Have you seen these Marvel/DC (Mac/PC) parodies? Haha, so good. I like this one the best.
Boom Boom Rocket
Oct 7th
Not the Xbox Live Arcade game that I love so much… but the just-about-life-size model X-Wing.
The Pirate Bay sues Big Media
Sep 23rd
The Pirate Bay are a large bittorrent tracker. That means they provide tracking data so you can download bittorrent files, which are streamed from other people’s computers. They made a documentary recently about their experience with the Swedish police and the US government.
In a nutshell, by Swedish law they are providing nothing more than metadata for people. Any files downloaded are pulled from participants computers, not The Pirate Bay. Think of Pirate Bay as a phone book, maybe. So the MPAA (evil) calls up the Whitehouse and says “These Swedish kids are hurting our profits. Help.” So Uncle Sam threatens Sweden More >
300
Mar 11th
If you’ve ever played the Lord of the Rings games, namely The Two Towers, you’ll remember many moments of fighting vaste hordes of enemies, for ages and ages. Swing your sword, turn behind you, swing your sword, turn back in front, repeat.
This is what came to mind as I sat mesmerized by the glorious bloody carnage that is 300. I’m not going to bother giving it a rating, as ratings are purely subjective to the raters tastes. (This is actually a rule from now on, except for movies that really stand out as being near perfect.)
I enjoyed 300. 300 incredibly More >
Blood Diamond
Dec 31st
I knew a bit about the dodgy dealings in the diamond industry before going to see this movie. My wife in fact does not wear a diamond on her finger; her engagement ring is adorned with a moissanite. But having now seen Blood Diamond there’s even more going on than I had realised.
I’d recommend you go and see it. For a few reasons… first and foremost (because this is a movie review) it’s a GREAT piece of cinema. Incredible performances from Honsou and de Caprio. Best actor material for both of them. To those who’ve not seen the film and More >
Halo Excitement Goes Way High
Oct 1st
I’m going to guess most of you have heard of the Halo video game series. It’s great. News to some might be the fact that Peter Jackson is Executive Producing the forthcoming Halo film. Well, new news is that Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh and working on a new Halo project, designed to be quite unlike anything the video game industry has been before. Promising? I think so.
Huge news is also that Ensemble Studios, the legends who made the Age of Empires series, is hard at work on a Halo RTS (real-time strategy). The trailer will make you wet More >
Duality
Jun 29th
My wife made love to a Canadian guy today. I’m still deciding how that makes me feel.
We just saw Nacho Libre. Gold! Pure gold.
Saw Superman Returns last night. Let me preface my opinion of it by saying that I had very low expectations for this movie; the trailer really turned me off. That said… I thought it was pretty good. The story was decent and mostly in fitting with previous Superman big screen adventures. The flick was well cast, especially Brandon Routh, who I felt did a really really good job. The special effects were second to none, and I saw More >
Remember, remember…
Mar 18th
The 5th of November. I just got back from seeing V for Vendetta. Two words: freaking wow.
The movie is based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore. It takes place some 30 years in the future, in a distopian England. The United States’ various wars eventually ripped the world apart, and the power-hungry religious-oriented leader of England made radical steps to rid the country of immigrants and undesirables (gays, rioters, Muslims, and the like), and built a new position for himself as High Chancellor. As the movie unfolds you siwftly realise that this future is not a happy place, and people are More >
North Country
Mar 1st
Maija and I just finished watching North Country, with Charlize Theron and Sissy Spacek. Man… very powerful movie. Maija’s still wiping the tears from her cheeks, but at least they’re smiling cheeks (due in part to my kisses, naturally).
For those who don’t know, the film is set in Minnesota in the 1970s, and is the story (based on true events) of women mine workers and their struggle against sexual harassment. It’s directed by Niki Caro, the New Zealand born director of Whale Rider (if you haven’t seen Whale Rider, rent it soon time). Also staring is the ever excellent Sean Bean (who More >
Review: King Kong
Dec 21st
If I had to describe the movie in just a few words, I would use words like: incredible, artful, moving, mind-blowing, thrilling… you know.
Honestly, I was thoroughly impressed. It’s long… at it had it’s weak spots, but it’s an amazing movie. Quite likely the best movie I’ve seen this year. Go see it.
I mean, we’re talking three on one T-Rex vs. Kong battles, Kong vs. inhabitants of New York City battles, and of course, the classic Kong vs. Airplanes… and so much more. The scope of this film is what totally blew me away. There were so many spots More >