the Dark Knight returns!

Saw BATMAN on Friday - it is brilliant! Only two critical comments - fight sequences shot REMARKABLY poorly, especially considering who you've got to work with (Christian Bale of EQUILIBRIUM! =) and the nature of the character (BATMAN!) - and well, the weak link of the casting... Katie Holmes, in, as far as I know, her last pre-scientological role. A sad last non-cult-indoctrinated career gasp, altho I suppose the role itself didn't have all that much to it to begin with. I honestly don't remember a Rachel Dawes from any of my BATMAN reading, but I hafta admit I've got a lot of gaps in my knowledge of Batman mythology.

I SUSPECT most of this origin story is taken from a graphic novel called SON OF THE DEMON, but I'm not certain. I don't know that I love the idea that he was exclusively one guy's apprentice. I've always like the idea that he travelled the world to learn from the greatest minds and masters of the modern age - thieves, assassins, fighters, detectives, policemen, lawmen. A lot of kickass heroic types, dark and not-so-dark, including Samurai Jack, actually borrow from that idea of training, or rather, follow the same path. The Batman mythology ultimately probably lifts, knowingly or not, from some ancient text about some legendary figure.

I can't remember now the name of the opera that they're attending when his parents get killed, but I wish I knew better its significance, for a connection to his life. I THOUGHT it was "derfledermaus" (or however that's spelt - which I think translates into "The Bat"), but I'm pretty sure that's not what was credited at the end, though. I think it was something about a descent into hell (Faust? - a deal w the devil?), which also works, but y'know, not being an opera-goer, doesn't ring any particular opera bells for me. But then, maybe that would be TOO "comic booky," to connect the opera/story to his life in a literal or parallel way, and this movie wants to stay away from that feeling?

In most of the tellings of his origin, it's a movie - ZORRO. How perfect is that? =)

The cave of bats, and the swarming bats themselves, were done really well.

I was SO pleased when Gary Oldman's cop was called Gordon in the flashback.

I'm a little sad that the movie got such an AMAZING cast together but also such an aged one. I'm concerned about how many movies we'll get to see this Lucius Fox, Alfred Pennyworth, and even Ras Al Gul in, y'know? I WANT this BATMAN "franchise" to go on for a good long run.

Would LOVE to see a real and true and well done crossover with a Superman movie.

This was the most non-superhero superhero movie I've ever seen. It makes sense that it would be Batman that would accomplish that, tho, as he's "just a man," without any true superhuman powers. But, y'know, this movie could've been made with no mention or reference to Batman, substitute a few things here and there, and just created a new...I dunno...a sort of dark Indiana Jones as a crime fighter character...or something...

And it plays like different genres in different parts, but never really breaks the overall feel of the BATMAN "world" created in the movie, y'know? Part old school hard boiled detective gangster, part modern psycho killer, part horror movie, parts action, but all holding together. Hrmm...maybe it feels more like SEVEN than any other "superhero" movie I've seen?

I DO just wish the hand-to-hand action had been shot better. Seems like a TERRIBLE place to fall short in a Batman story. Hell, even if they'd done some wacked out transition to an animated sequence... would've taken some very clever doing, but I would've preferred it to what I saw on screen.

And oh...Katie...Maybe the scientologists already stepped in at this point. Getting her a gig opposite Christian Bale (not a sci, is he?—I think I'd be quite disappointed to hear that), to get her more practice kissing pointy noses, at a comfortable height at first, y'know?

In the scenes with Bruce near the end, where she says that they can't have anything together until he's no longer needed, I kept dropping in "Dawson" and "Pacey" at the end of every other line. She just didn't seem to own a character called Rachel. She came off as a slightly older Joey Potter to me. Maybe if they showed her actually litigating, y'know, trying a case in court, addressing a judge and jury...?

Ah, but there is so much good and smarts in this movie. I will see it again. =)

Keep on keepin on~

vb-first day at the beach~

Just wanted to share a couple thousand words with everyone on the first Nahant vball day of 2005.

It took a bit of wrangling in a Boston-turned-ghost town by Nationals, but we got a squad of five players out to Nahant on Sunday morning: Christine, Kirsten, Tobi, Rowan, and myself. Thanks to you all for coming out to help enable my fixx! =)

Heh, Glen's take on Boston during Nationals - Only the C players are left! I hear that and I imagine the scene in Oz minutes after Dorothy and her farmhouse land on the Wicked Witch of the East, and the C-rated Munchkins slowly reveal themselves, emerging from their hideyholes and camoflaged bunkers, rubbing their eyes in disbelief at their delivery from the oppression of their evil bully, finally free to set up their own nets and play volleyball without worrying about blockers!

Or perhaps it's more like how those Keebler Elves ambushed the Rice Krispy guys, y'know? - They came out of the TREES, man...They came out of the TREES! Oh, Snap. We hardly knew ye...

Right, anyhow...

Rowan and I got to the beach at around 10.45am and it was already packed. On top of that high tide had just passed, so the crowd was all crowded up at the "top" of the beach, y'know? Where all the sand hadn't been touched by the water, which is where I like to set up, so as to provide a somewhat cushiony landing for all the foolish diving that I do.

Well, advance scout Kirsten had gotten there around 10.20 or so and was trying her best to maintain a 30x60 plot for our court, and she did an excellent job. There were a few folks who were still jammed close, but once we unpacked the court bits and peices they seemed to get what was going on and made to move out towards the wet sand, following the receding tide. So, I put down the lines for our court, and they ran behind and next to a few groups who were still staying put. I got the net set up, and that took about ten or fifteen minutes, and in that time, all the very-close-sitters but one (and a foursome who were a few feet out from a corner) had up and moved themselves farther from the court.

This one older woman, tho, she refused to move. She was part of a group, there with a gal pal and both of their husbands, looked like. Her chair was planted closest to our lines, and she was talking w her gal friend who was standing next to her, while their husbands, being husbands, talked amongst themselves, arms crossed, standing a short distance away.

I addressed their group, explaining that this was a volleyball court we'd set up here, and that while we always try to control the ball, a stray ball, or maybe flying sand, might disturb their camp. It was the old gal in the chair who jumped all over the subject, as the menfolk turned away, and her friend just listened. The lady kind of waved her hand and sharply asked - Just what do you want us to do? So I asked if she would be okay with relocating a little distance away from the court, closer to the water? We'd be happy to help move her stuff for her.

And man, this woman was just not having any of it. It was like she was LOOKING for an argument, a fight, a little something to get angry and entitled about, another story to buttress her ongoing crusade against "kids today," to share with her friends (who only put up with her because she put up the dough for the embroidered jackets and matching shirts for their bowling team, the Pin Cushions) at the 4pm early bird dinner...bleah.

She was all - Why should I move? YOU should move! I was here first! You can't make me move. And I swear if one ball hits me, I'll be on the phone in a second! - With whom exactly, she didn't explain. Her lawyer? The police? Her psychic friend? And after repeating my offer to help move her things - I don't WANT your help! Did I ASK for your help? The nerve! Why don't YOU move? There's a whole beach here!

And I explained to her how the town has posted that only certain parts of the beach are available for playing volleyball but of course any part of the beach is fine for sunning... - I don't care what the town says! The town can't tell me what to do. I was here first! (To her gal pal) Can you believe this? He's making me show my Irish temper!

I looked at her friend and couldn't read her at all. I think she might have been a LITTLE embarrassed, but I couldn't tell for certain from her expression. I will say that she did not offer verbal agreement or even a nod of support for the crotchety meanie.

I looked around a bit and noticed that her raised voice had gotten us quite a bit of attention from the little camps of people around our court. The idea that this was becoming a spectacle kinda freaked me out, so I left her with a little repeat of a warning... - I wanted to let you know that we'll be starting soon, and just to be aware that a ball might come this way.

Oh, rewinding a bit...

Earlier on, while we were setting up the court, she was speaking over-loud (working on the net, I didn't catch this myself, but Kirsten and Rowan did) to her friend about how - a ball had better not touch me!

Kirsten stepped up kindly to try to fill her in and advise her about our playing and suggest moving into the less crowded beach now that the tide was going out. She explained this was the only space available that could fit our court, and that we came to the beach to play. Mean Lady asked her - Am I going to see you on TV at the Olympics? Kirsten politely replied in the negative. Mean Lady snipped - I didn't think so!

Witch! Burrrrn herrrrrr!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

I went back to huddle w the rest of our beach vball troupe a while, to recap (alto it was mostly unnecessary, as it seemed everyone within a mile radius heard her half of our friendly little chat), discuss, joke and eye-roll. I felt a bit queasy about getting into such a prolonged argument over such a foolish non-problem, but of course everyone was with me on how ridiculous this woman's behavior was. In my mind I tried to imagine the Mentos commercial that would fix this situation...Perhaps...

One of the women players in our group could wave down a group of young bodybuilder types tossing the football around. A quick bit of exposition, a batting of eyelashes, and she'd have the strongmen march up to the little old lady and pick her up, chair and cooler and concentrated evil and all, and carry her away from the court and towards the water. The woman would be freaked out at first, but y'know, as we start peppering the ball, one of us points back at the strongmen carrying her off, and you see her starting to rub their muscular bods and deliriously smiling, and that's when she looks back at us, and my eyelash-batting friend would toast to her w the Mentos!

Something like that...

Meanwhile, in the real world, while we were talking, the woman's friend and their husbands moved their cooler and chairs away from the witch and our court. The woman didn't budge.

We took that as a good sign and decided to start warming up and playing. I think we might've actually gotten started around noon. We played doubles on and off until around 3.30pm or so.

Man, my legs and feet are achey today, just from staying on my feet and playing on the sand for hours. It must be summer again, cuz it hurts to walk! It was kind of extraordinary how comfortable my Skechers boots felt to my aching feet.

Anyhow, somewhere around 1.45, the witch's friend and her husband packed up and left. The witch herself remained, and at some point turned her seat in reaction to the moving sun. She didn't move away from our court, not an inch. With the beach emptying of people all around her and all, she just turned her chair. She finally ended up leaving w her guy (poor guy) at around 3.00. I'm certain that she stuck it out for as long as she could just to be as much of a thorn in our sides as possible. Sweet, no?

She packed up and left without a word. Do I smell a sequel?

Bleah, I certainly hope not.

Gotta say, it was our first day of ball at the beach, and our crew had some pretty remarkable vball control. We didn't once hit the crone, and skillfully dug up a few hits that might have. We probably only sprayed her w sand maybe twice. Bleah.

Well, so, other than that - a really grand day at the beach. Looking forward to more!


Keep on keepin on~

Boston Fantastic Film Festival report

just had to make another push for everyone to go see ONG BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR.

if you like action flicks at all YOU MUST SEE THIS MOVIE! it's playing at the brattle on sunday at 5pm and monday at 10pm.

watching this movie i kept having flashes to the first time i saw DRUNKEN MASTER 2, jackie chan's all-time best action movie. this movie really is the best NEW action flick i've seen in maybe ten years. "new" may not be completely accurate tho...maybe "fresh" is more what i'm looking for. at least in an environment when most action movies keep trying to out-matrix the matrix, y'know? in ONG BAK you get to see a super-fast super-agile young star throwing around some acrobatic AND hardhitting moves (no digital enhancements, MAYbe some wirework, altho i don't remember thinking there was any when i was watching) that are relatively unfamiliar on the big screen in the states. i wonder that arcade and console tekken/street fighter type game players may know some of his moves from marquee game characters...

anyhow, the kid-star (i don't know any specifics about him, but he LOOKS young) is physically amazing, leaping, bounding, and pounding - as lucy liu described bender in an episode of FUTURAMA, "like jackie chan before he got all doughy." his choreography rocks. his acting is decent. he may need some serious voice-coaching to make it in the states in a big way, but i think his physical prowess will get him a good start if he wants it.

it's got that action/porn formula going, so don't expect anything too sophisticated in the way of plot. there's just enough there for an excuse to get our hero from one chase or fight scene to the next. in between there's actually more character development than most would expect, altho it can happen fast cuz if you've seen a lot of action flicks, you recognize the archetypes and can fill in the blanks pretty quick - the heartless mob boss, the screw-up punk gangster, the well-meaning loser, and so on...there's a good mix-in of laughs.

oh, it's subtitled, so you'll hafta read. i know, i know, at an ACTION MOVIE? it's worth it.

see this. it's good crack.

also, check out the descriptions of the other horror/sci-fi flicks playing on these last two days of the fantastic film festival. and scan the brattle calendar (link at top left of their home page) to see what's coming. they get some really great movies there.

keep on keepin on~

flicks i've seen at the BFFF so far...

INFERNAL AFFAIRS.
feckin brilliant! it should be out this winter in the states courtesy of miramax. stars the hong kong highlander (seemingly immortal and never aging) actors tony leung and andy lau. hong kong cops vs. gangsters film. each side has a deep-cover mole planted in their opponent's camp. when the police close in on the gang boss, he sets out to flush out the double-agent, just as the police superintendent begins to suspect one of his own. it's a very smart cat-and-mouse game that sets up a dozen or so great intense confrontations. see it in its original form, before quentin or some tarentino worshipper rips it off and ruins it.

ALIVE.
a TON of stylish action fun. i think it's available on dvd now - look for it. y'know the porn/action formula i mentioned earlier? the same applies here, but it's amped up. the out-matrixing also applies here, only this movie may actually do it (in the style and fighting departments, not the plot, character, or philosophy ones). along the way it also rips off at least a half-dozen big budget action flicks and excellent video games. but it does so with respect.

based on a japanese graphic novel/manga series, the action kicks off when a death row convict survives his electrocution. declared legally dead, he can choose between another go in the chair or volunteering to be a test subject for a super-secret government project. he chooses to join the project and finds himself bunking with another death row survivor in a high-tech observation chamber. both of them are subjected to psychological abuse that all seems aimed to pit them against one another in physical combat. as the movie progresses, you find that the real purpose behind the manipulation is far more complex, bizarre, and high-stakes than a simple deathmatch.

FIVE CHILDREN AND IT.
gorgeous movie adapation of a children's book from england. great cast of children and adults (a zany eccentric kenneth brannaugh) and...umm...creatures (conjured by team henson and voiced by comedian eddie izzard). the set-up and storytelling reminds one a bit of THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE. five brothers and sisters are evacuated from london during world war one, sent to live with their uncle and cousin in the country. during their stay they trespass into the one part of the uncles mansion that is forbidden and discover a very odd fairy. having been found, he will grant the children their wishes, but, as is the way in wish-making, there are unforeseen consequences to desire fulfilled. eddie izzard turns out to make an excellent fairy! his off-the-fairy-cuff dialogue, along with the wonderfully written sharp-witted children and absent-minded professor uncle, provide entertainment for ages 5 thru 55. very fun and sweet stuff.

APPLESEED.
based on the manga series by masamune shirow, the creator of GHOST IN THE SHELL, this cutting-edge "anime" is bee-yoo-tiful. the thoughtful use of the technology behind its making sets it apart from pure-cg animated flicks (a la FINAL FANTASY - oh, you should've gone with a dumber plot and dumber ideas), and cel animation combined with cg (stuff like GUNDAM SEED...if you like animation, you've seen it around). judging by the look and style of the final product, everything, characters and environments, is modelled and animated with computer assistance, but the way humans are RENDERED by the computer is different from the way inanimate objects and their surroundings are. environmental features, like skyscrapers and vehicles and the ocean, are all treated as real/photo-real, as everything in the movie FINAL FANTASY is, while characters, are treated as inked and painted, using some kind of smart rendering algorithm, maybe supported with some human hands for touch-ups.

sorry if all of that hackish mumbo-jumbo doesn't clear anything up. bottom-line, this is some beautiful animation used to tell a decent post-apocolypse story that features some perfectly "shot" action and battle scenes. if you're an anime fan, you will want to see this.

the brattle staff is pretty certain that the screening this evening was the only u.s. showing of the original in japanese and subtitled in english. the film is slated for an english dub and american release in the near future.

Vball hiatus | SHAUN OF THE DEAD

hoi hoi ball-volleyers---

damn it all if THIS wasn't a freakin beach weekend! frickin frackin sazzafrazzzin...grrrr...

right. pardon me. couldn't control that bit there...

i'm writing out atcha to get everyone on the same page about my vball-playing status this fall and winter...

bottom line -carnsarnit- i'm out.

bleah.

i've been waffling on sending something out about this to y'all, my volleyball roundup-ees. didn't see as how it would be all that helpful to pass along this information. y'know, unlike how my plugs for NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and THE CORPORATION and midnight 70s kung fu at the coolidge corner theater have no doubt enriched your lives.~ =) but, having initially told only a few people - captains and teammates of my fall rosters - i've had questions come back at me from other folks i'd usually catch up with between games or at anna's or white horse and such. so, i figured i'd let "everyone" know whatall's up.

i went and did Something Bad to my shoulder. it felt like i initally tweaked it sometime around the second week of august. it continued to bother me and got more painful, restricting more motion, thru the rest of the summer. and on labor day at the beach i found i couldn't fully extend my right arm without a lot of freakin pain. since labor day i've seen my primary care doc and then doctor zahner (orthopedic surgeon at st. e's in brighton) about it and they inform me that my mri reveals a rotator cuff tear. my visit with doc z was this past tuesday and he told me that if i want to be able to play volleyball again at the level i was playing before the injury, i would need surgery to re-attach my muscle (or is it tendon? frack, i should've taken notes) to bone in my shoulder.

i thought about that a while and then said - gosh, that's super, but isn't there anything they could do so that i could play at a HIGHER level?

heh. actually, he said he was surprised to see this kind of damage in a 32 year-old and wanted to review the mri with another radiologist for a second opinion. i think he was maybe skeptical of just how bad my volleyball problem is. =)

so, i'm supposed to consult w him again in two tuesdays. i'm quite certain that it is a tear - sounds dumb, but i feel like i can FEEL that it's torn, that there's a loose end of something lost and sandwiched and sliding between layers of other muscle - ick! - and once dr. zaius confirms it when i see him next, i'll be opting for surgery. he told me that post-surgery recovery time could run from eight to twelve months. so, at best, back in time for some summer ball, and at not-so-best, back for the fall.

THANKS! to bruno for polling the online vb community for personal experience info on rotator cuff surgery and recovery. if you've got something to share, good, or not-so-good, about shoulder injury, surgery, and recovery, i'd appreciate hearing it.

* today you read an email dealing with a shoulder injury that changed one boy's life. how might such an incident change yours? to find out more about the rotator cuff, surgery, and the human body in general, consult the books at your local community public library! remember, reading is fundamental!

i tried brushing my teeth today only lefty, to see what i'd have to deal with for a chunk of the recovery time while my right arm is useless, y'know?...anyhow, my technique needs a little work. they'll release me from surgery only to have me back at the hospital the next day to have a toothbrush removed from my sinus.

hrmm...thinking maybe i should get my hair cropped down to a quarter inch or so all around to not hafta deal w the washing and drying. whaddyathink?

keep on keepin on,
brian out
---------------------------------------------------------------
and speaking of ripping arms out of sockets...

go see SHAUN OF THE DEAD! you think it's a movie about zombies, but really, it's about everyday life and relationships. =) if "living dead" isn't typically your favorite genre, i have to recommend this as a great gateway film. and if you're a fan of the living dead, it's a really sweet and clever addition to the existing body of quality work out there.

crazy paik digest armchair thinking - i dunno what hollywood would say about it. the studios may just be unwitting conduits, believing they're just tapping into some odd spike in marketability, figuring out that, "hey, the kids today, they just LOVE zombies!" and a huge bonus for an action flick built around the undead - it opens up all the doors to portraying ridiculous violence on screen, cuz y'know, you can't REALLY hurt them - "they're dead. they're ALL messed up." and c'mon, EVERYONE wants to take a cricket bat to the bobbling heads of their neighbors, right?

y'know, years ago there was a PC video game called CARMAGEDDON that had the player driving all around town smashing other cars and mowing down pedestrians, all the while running from suped up cop-mobiles. wow, y'know, i forget which way the restriction went now. if the u.s. was harsher or if it was europe...? well, anyhow, let's say it was the u.s. while the game was approved for release in europe, in order for the game to get a teen-OK rating in the states, the creators had to turn all of the pedestrians into zombies. a teen could mow down all the pedestrians s/he wanted to so long as they were green and kind of raggedly dressed! a bold statement on the homeless and panhandling? isn't drawing lines fun! =)

anyhow, it's looking to me like the "living dead" is a genre that's making a bit of a legitimate comeback -in gaming for several years now, and now on the big screen, w remakes of the romero classics, and me being me- i wonder why. look for something in human nature...in these times of "see something? say something!" the need for an obvious evil threat, a true unambiguous enemy...? or the dilemmas that arise from painting someone as such? i mean, you love your grandparents, right? what happens when they come THRILLERing back to life hungry for your grey matter?

or perhaps they are a reflection of ourselves, a commentary on the effect of modern life on actual living - or at least, feeling like you're living, alive?

and now, here's a group of words that have never been put together in this order before...

much like monkeys, the undead really are an excellent device for turning the magnifying glass on ourselves.

*zap*

talk amongst yourselves. discuss.

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY

Recently caught THE PHILADELPHIA STORY at the Brattle again and, Obi-Wan! Why don't they write movies (okay, okay, adapt plays) like this anymore? And for such a brilliant cast — Grant, Hepburn, and Stewart!

*sigh*

A brilliant little back-n-forth between Cary Grant's C.K. Dexter Haven and James Stewart's Macauley Connor. They are both visiting with the family of Philadelphia heiress Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn) on the occasion of her second wedding. Dexter is Lord's first husband and Connor is a reporter sent to cover the event...

Dexter:		How bout you Mr. Connor? You drink, don't you? Alcohol, I mean.
Connor:		Oh, a little.
Dexter:		A lit— A little? And you, a writer? Tch tch tch. I thought all writers drank to excess and beat their wives. You know, one time, I think I secretly wanted to be a writer.

THAT is good crack! =)

Keep on keepin on~

Nahant 2002-Are Your Kids Playing Safely?

Here's a little flashback at our first(?) summer weekend at nahant last year =)


Keep on keepin on~