Sin City - Movie

Murder, betrayal, prostitution and corruption. Sin City has it all and a lot more.

I've been hearing many great things about the graphic novels of the same name which I haven't had a chance to read yet. I was quite happy to hear that a movie based on it was being released.

Sin City is a very intruiguing movie from the very beginning. It is presented using 3 different stories, broken into 4 parts. These at first seem to be apart from eachother, but parts of each story start to intertwine with one another. This happens more and more as the film progresses. Would it surprise you that Quentin Tarantino had a hand in this movie after hearing that.

Although this sounds like another Pulp Fiction, it is far from that. This movie has a more film noir feel to it, almost like a very violent Humphrey Bogart movie, with the cool lines to match. Shooting the film in black and white helped to add the "classic" feel to this movie that was needed to pull it off. There are dashes of red and yellow thrown in around dramatic moments, as it was done in the comics.

In a very strange way, the 3 directors involved in this film: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and Quentin Tarantino (as a guest director) were able to transfer the feel of a comic book onto the big screen. The most obvious technique, besides the character presentation, was in the car chases and the way the cars move. You will know what I mean if you see this movie, it seems very strange at first, but it works so well. Having the story's creator on hand to have a direct say in how it should be presented doesn't hurt either.

Pros: The cast! Could they have chosen a better bunch of actors? Watch Mickey Rourke's efforts in this film, he is brilliant. All exceptional choices besides Brittany Murphy, who could have done a better job. She did improve slightly after her first line in the film, I'll give her that. The cinematography was fantastic with the cameras were always in the right spot, framing each moment prefectly. Dialogue was another thing that I found almost flawless, complemented by the clever narration with its black humour.

Cons: After seeing this movie, I want to read the graphic novels and then see the movie again. All time and money. Not really a downside, but hey.

This is a very violent film, but it is partially disguised by being shot in black and white. However, you will still cringe at many points throughout. If you are a bit squeamish, you have been warned. Don't be swayed by this too much, it is a brilliant story that could not have been presented any better. Once again, Rodgriguez proves to be very stylish and extremely talented. Together with Frank Miller, I think they have produced exactly what they set out to achieve.

Sin City has plenty of style and the substance to match. This is the pinnacle of film noir.

Overall 4.9 / 5

Elfen Lied - Anime

Elfen Lied tells the story of a new breed of human being born, noticed as mutants with horns growing from their skull. From a young age, their instinct is to kill many humans by use of their telekinetic type abilities. They are able to control numerous "vectors", these are basically invisible arms that can control objects, kill people and transmit the virus that gave birth to them in the first place.

This is one of the most violent anime's I have ever seen with nudity all over the shop. Combine these things together and you'd expect a very shallow story with nothing but action and naked girls to keep you interested. The opposite is true in this particular case.

All the main characters are well thought out. Each of them has a backstory, though some are more detailed than others. It tells a very engrossing tale and leaves you begging for more at the end of each episode. It only goes for 13 episodes, with an additonal 14th (and much needed) episode to be released on DVD. So it's easily watchable in one sitting, which I did besides the meal and toilet breaks. The series ended kind-of abruptly, but it was clever. I'm still dying to see more though.

I definitely recommend this to any anime fan, over 18 of course. But it all boils down to whether or not you can stand all the blood, gore and nudity... no matter how old or mature you are. Even with the vast amounts of violence and bare skin, it's worth sitting through it all to experience the rivoting storyline.

Overall 4.8 / 5

Strung Out - Gaelic Club Show

I went to see the Strung Out show last night at The Gaelic Club in the city. Had a bit of a shocker after I got out the front and lined up. I realised that I had forgotten my ID and this was an over 18's gig. One of the bouncers started to walk along the line checking peoples ID as he went. I took the opportunity and left the line, telling my mate I'd be back in a minute. I waited until he worked his way a bit further up from where I was (near the front) and then I made my way back.

I said to my mate "Lucky he checked ID's that way and not at the door eh?" Shortly after, they opened the door and started letting people in. I saw people getting their wallets out and knew I was screwed. When I got to the front, I played dumb and showed the guy my ticket (which was on a keycard type thing from MoshTix). He asked to see my ID, so I had to tell him I left it at home. He asked me to stand to the side as my mate went inside.

Realising I couldn't get in, my mate came out and asked what I wanted to do. I decided to wait to see what the bouncer did. After the next guy went in, the bouncer turned to me and asked: "What's your star sign?" I was taken by surprise by such a random question... "My star sign? Scorpio." He told me to go on inside. Fucking cheering!

So I went in, grabbed a t-shirt. Damn they look spiffy too, see for yourself.

The first band was awesome, don't know what their name is though. Useless ID was on next, but surprisingly not as good as the band before them. The death-circles started cranking as soon as they started playing and it was hectic as. I was standing next to this pillar with broken marble all around it, a bit above waist height. I can't remember how many times I got smashed into that marble, but it was a lot and it fucking hurt. Don't ask me why I continued to stand there for the duration of the entire show.

When Strung Out finally came on, the entire room went fucking mental. It was like The Gaelic Club turned into a massive death-circle, I've never seen anything like it before. They rocked hard and put on one of the best shows I've ever seen, playing all the songs I wanted to hear except Monster. But still, fucking awesome show. Strung Out rocks, best punk band ever.

Hot German Chick

German girl, courtesy of google image search.

There's a home-style takeaway shop near where I work and a friend recommended me to them. I walk in there one day earlier this week and I'm greeted by this sexy girl. She's tallish, dark blonde hair in a pony tail and glasses (the thin-framed classy looking ones). Her accent had me drawn in from the beginning, but I couldn't put my finger on it. My workmate thought she was American. Where he got that from I have no idea. After speaking with someone else, it turns out they asked her and she's German. "Oooh!" was my initial reaction... "Kinky!" shortly followed, haha.

The hot-librarian looking German chick popped into my head a little while ago, so I just googled "german girl" or something and this is what was thrown at me. I think there were some sausages with sauce pictures, but I I'll just stick with the pic I've got here. Enjoy.

Today is tightarse Tuesday

A workmate invited me out to catch a flick tonight. I had nothing else to do and hadn't been to the cinemas in ages, so I thought it would be cool. We were hoping to see Ong Bak with it's mad kung fu action, but it wasn't to be. The cinema we went to wasn't showing it. We settled for Assault On Precinct 13, which kinda looked cool... even though it's a remake. Gotta love Hollywood and it's lack of new ideas.

I must say, this movie was better than what I was expecting it to be, which isn't saying too much. The acting wasn't bad, except for Ja Rule, no surprises there. Nobody's holding their breath to see an Academy Award winning performance from a shit gangsta rapper. Lawrence Fishburne was his usual cool-ass self in this flick, there's not much more he could have done with his character... except maybe act a little more like Morpheus. Ethan Hawke was great in the opening sequence, but after that he was pretty much the same throughout the rest of the film. John Leguizamo couldn't have captured his character better, the best of the lot.

The one thing I liked about this movie is that it doesn't pretend to be something that it isn't. The script was something you'd pretty much expect from this style of movie. It has it's standard humourous moments, one that actually took me by surprise. I forgot how funny ultra-violence can be sometimes. What is unlike this style of movie is for it to completely run out of steam about 3/4 of the way through, right about the time when the movie should have actually ended.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone who actually reads this and hasn't seen the movie yet. So I won't say too much more except that the ending is pretty predictable and cliche. One more thing is that shortly into the movie, you'll be asking yourself, "Why the fuck are they still using silencers?"

If you're looking for a popcorn movie with mindless action, this one might do the trick. Don't expect too much, but who thinks they're going to get meaningful dialogue and fully fleshed out characters from an action movie?

Overall 2.5 / 5

This movie seems pretty awesome while you're watching it, this changes once the glow of the gunfights, explosions and headshots has worn off. To enjoy this one as with all action movies... don't think, just watch.

Notable moments are Ethan Hawke's character introduction, Lawrence Fishburne's coolness & stage prescence and John Leguizamo's superbly acted character... he may be annoying, but that just means he did his job right.

The shit tv continues...

A lot of my mates have been telling me "Dude! You've got to watch Desperate Housewives, its awesome!" I didn't give it too much thought for a while because let's face it, most tv is shithouse. Without much else to do tonight, I thought I'd watch it and see what all the fuss was about. What did I discover? Nothing.

This show is so shit, it's not funny. Sure, there's a hot chick in it but she can't salvage this show from its own shitness. If this show was on after 9:30pm so she could take her top off on a regular basis, then just maybe it could get me to watch this show. There's no way that's going to happen, so there goes another show that can be added to the list of new series with fuck-all fresh ideas.

New blog

I noticed that my first ramblings have all been about Lost, because it's so damn addictive. So I decided to bust out with a new blog dedicated to Lost called "Lost Is The Shiznit", pretty self-explanatory. This way, I can get this blog back to its random roots. Some of it's the same shit that I posted here, but it won't be for long. You won't see any random shit like this at my Lost blog.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Lost fucking rocks!

I just finished watching episodes 14-19 of Lost. So now I am finally all caught up with the latest episode released in the US. It's bloody annoying though. Now that I have watched all the episodes I have downloaded, I'm really stuck at the usual end-of-episode cliffhanger. At least they have fed my Lost addiction well while Channel 7 has taken a 2 week break from airing new episodes.

After getting to the end of episode 19, all that I can say is that Lost is fucking ace! This show is like a drug, I can't wait for my next fix, haha. If you're not watching Lost, you're seriously missing out. Watch it on Channel 7, Thursday 8:30pm... or just download it ;D

There's always a first...

I was shit bored one night so I thought "Fuck it! Why not make a blog". So here it is then.

I just finished downloading up to episode 19 of Lost. I swear, that is the only good thing on TV. Thank fuck for video games to fill in the rest of the time aye. Having a quick surf through Foxtel and it seems that nothing is on TV tonight either...not much changes. Ah well, guess it's time to go and watch these episodes of Lost then.

I might post something worth reading here sometime soon.