Journal

Thoughts on the TechCrunch redesign from a non TechCrunch reader

BWassink — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:46:51 +0000

I'm not a Tech Crunch reader in the first place but I have to say... The redesign that they released tonight is pretty terrible. I don't know what their old site looked like so I have no affinity for it. Starting with their logo, the only good thing I can say about it, is its recognizable, but they have an issue in that they've already shown it now in two different states. A bold single color version and a pixelated gradient, so, we're less than a day in and already diluting the brand. Clever... I guess the next thing that stands out to me me are the overly large chunky headers, I guess TC's new target audience is "older with poor vision". Their menu isn't terrible, its nothing innovative but it works well enough. Though I believe they should only have one menu, not two. Well... good luck with that one Tech Crunch.

Super 8

BWassink — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:24:41 +0000

Super 8 follows six friends around as they attempt to film a zombie movie. The movie does a good job of portraying kids as actual kids and not what we would normally think kids would act like. You get a real feeling of friendship between the group and I think the movie is much better because of it. Super 8 does a very good job of making you feel that sense of being a kid again even with all that they’re going through. That being said sitting and writing this right now (about 30 min after watching the film) I can remember exactly two names, neither is actually the main character. We should probably just attribute that to my terrible memory though. The driving event of the plot is a train derailment which our young group of friends is witness too and then shapes their lives for the length of the movie. Of course being an Amblin film the military is called in and they become our “big bad” for the movie. One thing that I noticed early on but then either faded out or just toned down, were there were A LOT of lens flares in the film. Now I know this is kind of J.J. Abrams shtick but its pretty noticeable, it doesn’t really detract from the film it was just a little distracting in a couple of scenes. Over all the film was good, the kids all were good in their roles and pretty believable. So if you want a reminder of what its like to be a kid again and how much adults suck some times, go check out Super 8.

Battle: LA and Sucker Punch

BWassink — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:30:21 +0000

I forgot to talk about Battle: Los Angeles after I saw it last week so I'll talk about it this week. Battle LA (from here on called BLA) is a little different than your normal aliens invade the planet movie. Starting with the difference of its not just a small group of them and they also aren't going to give us any time. This movie takes off at a run and tries to hold the pace through out the entire film. It succeeds with that, mostly but there are a couple dry spells so that we can learn something about our characters and why we should care if they make it or not. I think in the last respect the film falls flat, most people are your standard millitary type and doesn't really veer too wildly off center. I found the movie ultimately to be enjoyable but it wasn't with out its flaws. I did like however that they didn't take any short cuts with giving the invaders some outrageously convient flaw for our protaganists to exploit. So kudos to them for that, all in all there are worse movies out right now but if you have your doubts you're not missing anything by renting it.

So... now on to Sucker Punch. First a little background on my history with this film. From the first trailer I saw and went "Oh wow, I'm so seeing that." I put my self on a media black out. I avoided any and all further trailers (even the one I'd already seen) and tried to not hear anything about film. As it turns out, it's REALLY hard to do in this day and age. So any way, I'll start off by saying that this film is a narrative mess. I understand that, anybody who sees the film will understand that. But, from the very first scene you can tell that this film will be unlike many if any other film you'd ever seen. The film looks gorgeous even in all of its grimy and dirty settings. The special effects are well done and just what you'd expect from a Z. Snyder film. The characters can be a little one note at times but I think that the main actresses really did a pretty good job with what was given to them. This film isn't high drama, its five girls in slightly revealing clothing kicking lots of ass. This movie was pretty much made for me... Once you get over the initial hurdle of "what the hell is going on?" this movie was pretty easy for me to sit back and enjoy. You're not going to get any huge twists, grandiose statements on society or comments on the economy. What you will get though is five very attractive girls shooting guns and swinging swords and you know what? I'm ok with that.

HTML5, Google, and the wonderful things people are doing.

BWassink — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:57:31 +0000

I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of HTML5 and the things that will come of it in the future. Google and their engineers have been doing some really cool things with HTML5. This clock catches the eye and makes something as everyday and forgetable as a clock awesome and with only CSS 3 and HTML5. Then today I see that one of them used a New York Subway map to make music. This is pretty cool. All of this just makes me more and more excited for the things to come from HTML5 and CSS 3. Well Flash I'd like to say it was fun... but my Mother told me not to lie.

Black Swan

BWassink — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:52:53 +0000

I saw “Black Swan” a couple weeks ago and haven't really written about it yet. I was really looking forward to seeing this movie from the trailers I saw and even they couldn't have prepared me for it. “Black Swan” is a story about a young ballerina (Natalie Portman) who fights to become the Prima Ballerina in her troupe. Along the way she struggles against her technical nature to become more emotional and passionate. She meets a new dancer (Mila Kunis) who is aloof and reckless, Kunis tries to get Portman to loosen up and have more fun. As the movie continues Portman begins to lose herself and get more into her character.

“Black Swan” is an intriguing look at what professional dancers go through. Much like Aronofsky’s last film “The Wrestler” you learn things about the people who choose to make their livings in these professions. Portman is amazing her roll and is believable until the end. This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while and has a fantastic ending.

I have a couple complaints with the film, the middle seemed a little slow to me. That being said it built up the tension nicely and probably isn’t a flaw with the film so much as with my patience. Second and this one I think is a flaw of the film, or maybe just the actual reel I saw, this film has a LOT of grain in it. I understand that people like the feel of film and that its supposed to be warmer and more rich but, the grain stood out to me far too much. It literally distracted me at times during the film it was so heavy. Those are really my only two complaints. My suggestion, go see this film, its an engrossing look in to a life that most of us will never live and I have a deeper appreciation for it after seeing this movie, just like with “The Wrestler”

The Mechanic (2011 Version)

BWassink — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:16:25 +0000

When you go to a movie starring Jason Statham you pretty much know what to expect. That’s not always a bad thing, especially when you actually like those kind of movies. I’m one of those people, on occasion I like a good gun shot and explosion filled movie. This of course follows along the lines of many of Statham’s other films, he plays a man who fires more bullets than lines of dialogue. After one of his jobs he befriends a grieving young man (Ben Foster) and starts to teach him his craft.

Now that we have the basis of the plot out of the way we can talk about the actual movie. I liked this movie for the most part, Statham and Foster have pretty decent chemistry and you could actually see them working together. High art this isn’t, you won’t find any shocking plot twists or high concepts everything is pretty straight forward. As I said I liked the movie but there really isn’t anything new here. If you’re a fan of Stathams other movies or you’re big on action movies this one is worth of viewing.

Oh it may be worth noting for some that this is actually a remake of a Charles Bronson film. I didn’t find that out until after I saw the film. Oh and this has nothing to do with the film other than it happened in my viewing but, I’m pretty sure taking your single digit aged child to a “rated R” film, not the most responsible thing. Anyway I’ll get off my soap box now.

One of the best ways I've spent 3 Minutes

BWassink — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 04:36:42 +0000

3 Minutes from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

Zombieland

BWassink — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:30:28 +0000

Zombieland is hilarious... I want to start with that because its the most noticeable part of the movie. This movie is cast perfectly and works well as a cohesive group. Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg) makes a good narrator as a quirky and paranoid “every geek”. The talented Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) is great at what he does and he does a lot of it through the movie. Then there is Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who help to drive the plot along. With a big name cameo in there too I love this cast, they have great chemistry and you can’t help but love each of them in their own way. Now, speaking of love I’m pretty sure I fell in love with Emma Stone some time ago but this movie only helps to further that feeling. I highly suggest that everyone that isn’t too squeamish go see this movie, its full of zombies, spatter, jokes and win.

Ong Bak 2 with no dialogue

BWassink — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:50:43 +0000

I decided tonight that I was going to watch Ong Bak 2, now I have a digital copy of this and I have the subtitles for it in english. But I wanted to be able to stream it over my 360 because that was going to be my best experience. I wasn’t really in the mood to figure out how to make the subs work on the 360 so I decided, “eh who really watches this movie for the plot”. You’d be surprise just how much of the “story” you can pick up even with out being able to understand the language. Now I can’t speak to the actual story but the perceived story is pretty cliched, but what people really want to know about is the fights and this movie has so great scenes.

This movie is a marshal arts fans orgasm of fight scenes including a fight ON an animal. I can’t say there is a lot to love about this movie but I really enjoyed the fight choreography. Also and I’m sure having either understood what they were saying or having the subs on would’ve maybe explained this to me but I really didn’t understand the very ending of the movie. Maybe you can watch it and clue me in. You know for something that I thought was going to be a horrible experience but it turned out to be rather enjoyable even though I didn’t get the full story. If you curious as to whether you should watch this movie or not I’d say if you like marshal arts films like I do and you really aren’t looking for story give Ong Bak 2 a shot its really not too bad.

Sci-Fi Shoot Out

BWassink — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:52:30 +0000

This past weekend I saw both Surrogates and Pandorum. We'll start with Surrogates, this is a movie that finds our civilization living through mechanical avatars as we live our lives in chairs. There is no communicable diseases, no deaths from accidents, drastic reduction in crimes. The problem comes when the outliers, the people who have a problem with these robots called "Surrogates" (title tie in) find that one of their own have a weapon capable of not only frying the surrogate but killing the controller as well. Enter Bruce Willis as an FBI agent and follow him and his efforts to try and recover the device. This movie has a lot to say about our current idea of civilization and the way we live through social networking. I don’t find that it makes its point very well and that the movie isn't even particularly entertaining. Its predictable and in the end just kind of hokey. Considering that all of the actors are trying to play emotionless robots, they all seem to hit their mark as most of the actors are as stiff and lifeless as the characters they're trying to portray.

Now, Pandorum follows two members a flight crew who awake from hyper sleep and try to figure out whats going on, on their ship. I’m not going to go deeply into the story line of this mystery/thriller. After watching this movie my initial thought was that I liked it. Then I thought a little bit more about the plot and the concept and its definitely got some flaws. The plot device they use to explain whats going on with the antagonists is some what feasible in the context of the universe they’ve created but some may find it a bit of a cop out. I still enjoyed this movie but I can see how some may take some issue with some of its plot points.

My recommendation on these two movies is if you really want to see Surrogates, wait. Wait for it to come out and rent it. The story is thin and the acting is bland from a cast that really should’ve done a better job. As for Pandorum I’d say its worth going to see in the theater. The plot keeps you guessing and the action sequences are pretty good. I can’t wait for this weekend to come and bring Zombieland, I’m looking forward to a good zombie comedy. I’ll have a review of that next week.