Well, yes, here we are again I suppose. It's true, I have been neglecting this blog somewhat. The reason? Well, I suppose when I started this thing, the idea was to chronicle the movies that I watched and to add in some other stuff too. Lately though, well, I've kinda stopped watching movies and thus, this blog has lost it's core structure. I still watch movies here and there of course, but I haven't deliberately been setting out to watch things.

Why is this exactly? To an extent, I felt like it was a bit of a chore at times. I wasn't getting the most out of the movies. Perhaps I wasn't in the right mindset? I was movie-d out I guess. So that's my excuse for fewer blogs, but I can assure you that the blogs will pick up again soon. Oh, I suppose the other thing is that my writing focus has been directed elsewhere. I have been focused on this zombie film project, but to a greater extent I have been writing a lot more short humour pieces for this other project I'm working on.

This week? Lots of work, I'm afraid. Soccer on Monday. Thursday I ventured out into the rain and met up with Kaiser, Lachlan and Caitlin at the Astor to watch 'Kill Bill 1' and 'Kill Bill 2'. I'd seen these films before, but not together on the big screen. You know what? I don't think they're very good, really. I feel that Tarantino's recent films have been a little too affected by that Tarantino-esque sensibility lately. It's as though he's been told a little too often how great he is and so the films have become a bit self-conscious. It's as though he's almost saying "Hey, you thought that was good, check THIS out!" That doesn't make them bad films, they're distinct, unique, interesting films all of them. But they just feel messy to me and the visual side of things tends to be a lot better than the writing. I do believe that Tarantino writes really great individual scenes in these films but altogether they don't feel all that cohesive. I'm not a big fan of the way he divides these films into chapters either. Interestingly, a lot of the stuff he was being lauded for in 'Inglourious Basterds' - structure, the mixing up of languages - it's all already prevalent in the 'Kill Bill' films. I don't know, I just felt that scenes tended to go on a little too long, dialogue was drawn out and nowhere near as punchy as in his earlier films. And at the end of the day, the storyline to 'Kill Bill' is pretty boring. If I was asked to choose which film is better, volume 1 or 2, I would probably argue that 2 is superior, though chiefly due to the presence of Michael Madsen, who gives the film a lot of character. But that's really just a personal preference.

Well, it has been some time. I've been exhausted, I think.

Big weekend. Chris and Amelia's wedding on Saturday. It was a nice wedding. Long day when you combine the wedding, the in-between afternoon tea bit and the reception so I was pretty tired by the end of it. Nice though.

Sunday I went into the city with Michelle and met up with Lorry, Anna, Pete and Duy. We watched 'The Wiz' at ACMI.

'The Wiz' (1978) directed by Sidney Lumet

Wow, I really did not like this film. It was basically a re-make of 'The Wizard of Oz' but pretty shithouse. The songs weren't memorable, it was overlong, Diana Ross wasn't likeable at all in the main role, she was a bit too screechy. The design of the film looked cheap and hasn't dated well. A lot of it is quite creepy and yeah, it was a struggle to get through. There seemed to be a song for every moment in the film - irritating. Lorry started groaning every time a character would start to sing, it was indeed very groan-worthy.

'Daybreakers' (2009) directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig

A really cool, original take on the vampire film. The story felt fresh and interesting and not all that predictable. Although it was cheesy in parts and the cinematographer seemed to love using the slo-mo effect, it was highly entertaining throughout. I really enjoyed it.

Sometimes I drink too much coffee and I feel anxious.

Big, huge, epic weekend. Saturday, Chris's bucks party. It involved a lot of paintball and eating all that I could (which wasn't much). Paintball hurts! But not as much as I thought it would. Still, now I'm covered in bruises. It was a boiling hot day and wearing all the protective gear and the camo stuff, I was sweating right from the start. The games were pretty fun, although it took me a little while to get into it. I found that I really enjoyed finding a good spot and then sniping people. Once I worked out the trajectory of the paintball, the wind and weather patterns and other variables, I was well into it. Exhausting though.

Sunday I was feeling rather wrecked. That didn't stop me from heading over to Lachlan's place where we began writing this feature film. I reckon it went really well. I've never really co-written something before, but it seemed to make things easier, it's a lot of discussion basically. So yeah, we worked out the overall framework of the story, some of the key scenes and characters. Should be good.

'Sydney White' (2007) directed by Joe Nussbaum

A pretty mindless Amanda Bynes teen comedy, sort of a modern day re-telling of 'Snow White', but not really. I enjoyed it, even though it was pretty rubbish. It was fun to just watch the different shades of orange that Amanda Bynes turned from scene to scene.

So, here's another blog.

Australia Day was on the other day. January 26th. I went to Healesville Sanctuary with Michelle, just for something to do that was a bit different. It was quite nice, wandering around and looking at animals. My favourite was the 'Birds of Prey' show, that was quite cool. We also ate lunch at the bistro there, not bad, although some woman smashed a bunch of glasses and then said "I apologise". That's a weird phrase I reckon.

I haven't watched very many films lately although I did watch 'Bad Eggs' again, a DVD I picked up for about 6 dollars at JB recently. I mainly got it because I'm a big Tony Martin fan and it's the only feature film he's directed. It also features a 65 minute documentary on the making of the film, which is quite good.

Other than that, I watched all of 'Dead Set', the Charlie Brooker penned zombie TV show. Solid show that, really well written and paced. The way it's shot looks great too.

Oh, and I bought a Playstation 2. They're quite cheap at K-mart at the moment and games/accessories are very cheap for it too. I reckon it was money well spent. I'm not really in the market for buying a more new console, just wanted something to play now and then and the Playstation 2 has a huge back catalogue of very good games. Anyway, so I'm having fun playing 'Black' at the moment.

So there's an update. Big weekend coming up, I feel.

Pretty good long weekend thus far. Saturday night was a night out with Duy, Pete and Bart. Headed to Cabana, some lounge cocktail bar place where Pete's friend was having a birthday. It was pretty good and long islands were cheap for a little while. After that we headed to Ding Dong, ran into Lashi, drank some more, danced a little, ordered a mystery shot, pretty sure it was chartreuse and vodka, instantly regretted it and then seconds later felt a lot better about it. So that was good but eventually we left, stood around outside while certain members of our party smoked cigarettes. Then a bloke from New Orleans came up to us, gathered the surrounding people into a circle and told a rather lewd joke, the punchline of which, in retrospect, I don't really get. It didn't stop me from laughing wholeheartedly at the time however. Following all that, we went to China Bar for nasi lemak. Somehow in the last 6 months, the late night kebab has been replaced by China Bar. This is not necessarily a good thing.

Yesterday I went to the cinema with Michelle to watch the double feature of 'Toy Story' and 'Toy Story 2' in 3D. It was really good and I recommend it. Although I'd seen both films when they came out originally, I hadn't seen them since then so basically I'd forgotten a lot of the plot, especially the first 'Toy Story'. That film has some really dark elements actually, such as Woody having vaguely murderous thoughts about Buzz. I mean, at one point Woody tries to run over Buzz with a remote control car. There's also that kid who exhibits all the warning signs for a future serial killer who has created all of those bizarre circus freak toys. Scary stuff.

As for the 3D, it's good and not gimmicky, it just makes everything look a lot crisper. The animation of 'Toy Story 2' is a little more sophisticated when compared to the first film, but then you'd expect that. Also, there's an intermission between the two films where for ten minutes you get a bunch of trivia and animations, almost like some special features from the DVD or something. It's quite good and keeps you entertained if you decide to stay in the cinema rather than leave to get, I dunno, toast or something.

To say that I haven't seen any movies lately would not be strictly true. In fact, it would be a downright lie. A downright lie. The reality of the situation is far different.

I have watched three Wes Anderson films. Twice. Twice each, I mean. Once without commentary and then once again with commentary. The films that I have watched are as follows: 'Rushmore', 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and lastly 'The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou'.

I've seen all of these films before, but after recently watching 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', I was keen to re-watch them in greater depth. I suppose what I got out of this was that Wes Anderson is very much the complete writer-director. He writes with a very clear visual sense of what the film will be like and executes it perfectly as a director. It is as though he sees the film as a whole, even at the writing stage. He also has a very strong sense of visual style. I think it would be fair to say that he is an auteur director, certainly.

Other than that, I suppose I consolidated in my mind my responses t0 all of his films.

To me, 'The Darjeeling Limited' is still my favourite. It's a simple film on the surface, but has a lot of depth and it's paced very well. The jokes aren't overt and yet it is still very funny in parts. It helps that it was co-written by Jason Schwartzman, I think. It has a Schwartzman sensibility that complements Anderson's style. This is what made 'Rushmore' such a great film. Schwartzman's lead performance in 'Rushmore' is great and just really suits the film, it has this real quirky feel. 'Rushmore' is probably my second favourite. The storyline is interesting and the relationships are very dynamic, constantly changing throughout the film.

'The Life Aquatic' is the weakest film, I reckon. There's something about it that doesn't quite work, perhaps it's that there are far too many peripheral characters that aren't really fleshed out. Maybe that dilutes the importance of the other characters. Or perhaps it's just too cute. Too much style over substance though and it makes it a little bit boring, even though it's visually so dynamic. I'm not sure, I mean, listening to the commentary track from Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach, it seems as though the focus of the film was chiefly on the relationships between the characters. Although, this aspect seems to get a little bit overshadowed by the overall look of the film, I feel. Bill Murray isn't used all that effectively either, he's great when he's playing off other actors but too often in this film he's a solitary figure, acting on his own.

'The Royal Tenenbaums' is somewhere in the middle for me. I'm a little indifferent towards this film. I think it's good, but a bit overrated. It looks great, has interesting characters, but again perhaps suffers from having too many characters. For instance, Bill Murray's character in this film is presented as a main character, but he isn't really. I wonder if this character and the Dudley character could have been cut, who knows. Anyway, there are some great sequences in this movie and I reckon Luke Wilson is excellent here. It just lacks a real emotional punch somehow. The closest is the scene with Angelica Huston and Gene Hackman in the street, near the start of the film.

As for the other films, 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' and 'Bottle Rocket', well I've only seen each of them once. 'Bottle Rocket' was pretty good, but it's Anderson's first film, it's low budget and so it's hard to rate it compared to the other films. I remember it being quite funny though and I'd like to watch it again. And 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', well I'd probably put it somewhere in the middle too, probably after 'The Darjeeling Limited' and 'Rushmore', maybe around about 'The Royal Tenenbaums'.

I know it's a bit of a pointless exercise in ranking films like that, but whatever.

So those are the only movies I've watched lately.

So it's been an interesting week. My car didn't start the other day. Turned out I needed a new starter motor. Money, money. Also had to take a bunch of days off work because they're upgrading the computer system. And my auntie and cousins are visiting. So it's been good.

'Up In The Air' (2009) directed by Jason Reitman

Cool film. It's clever, has interesting characters and while some bits are a little predictable, the overall arc of the film did not end up where I expected. A pleasant surprise, that. George Clooney is excellent in the main role, as is Anna Kendrick playing the main supporting role. Together they work well as a different take on the classic odd couple dynamic. So yeah, I thought it was sharply written and worked well, it's funny but also has a lot of depth. Jason Reitman is certainly shaping up to be an excellent director. Oh, the other thing that was cool was the presence of some excellent comic actors in small supporting roles, including Zach Galifianakis, Danny McBride and Jason Bateman.

'The Princess And The Frog' (2009) directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

I took some of my young cousins along to see this and it was pretty enjoyable overall. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm a bit older these days but it didn't quite seem to have the same charm or humour as some of Disney's earlier animated films. I'm thinking mainly of films like 'Aladdin', 'The Lion King' or 'The Emperor's New Groove'. This film feels a little smaller in scale than those films, less epic somehow, but it's still good fun. The hand drawn animation is in stark contrast to the now more prevalent 3D computer generated style, but it still looks great. The story in this film is perhaps a little bit weak, the bad guy's plan seemed pretty convoluted and silly to me and the essential underlying moral of the film seemed a little unclear at times. Basically though, this film isn't aimed towards me, it's aimed at a much younger audience and the kids I was with seemed to enjoy it.