Jackie Chan’s badly-scripted but action-packed adventures in central #Melbourne
Category: Film
I lived in Elsternwick once, and since then have always envied residents there. Everything’s there: supermarket, lots of shops, restauraunts, train or tram to city, bus to the beach. And a cinema: The Classic, which originated in 1913, and thanks to investment and renovations in the 90s, survives (and thrives) today. Bentleigh, where I now ... [More]
A few quick reviews of things I’ve read or watched recently… (The DVDs fall into the category of “I’ve been meaning to watch that; I’ll buy that if it’s less than $10. Ooh, there it is!” One book was borrowed, the other I got for Christmas.) A Hard Day’s Night — got this cheap on ... [More]
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Which movies are suitable for older kids?
As my kids have grown, the choices of movies has become a little harder. With one 14 and the other 11, most kids’ movies aren’t very appealing, but many adult M-rated movies aren’t suitable either. MA15+ is a legal restriction — kids under 15 can’t legally see the movie unsupervised, and although they can see ... [More]
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Bullet time
You may think you’ve seen some cool stuff today, but I’ll wager you haven’t seen yourself in Matrix-style “bullet time“. It’s part of the new “Screen Worlds” exhibit at ACMI at Federation Square. Pretty damn cool huh?
Forgot to review the Star Trek movie. In summary: great stuff, really enjoyable. (And still chuckling over The Onion’s take on it.) How is it that Rivers in Victoria have 7 retail outlets, but 31 clearance centres? For those of you who want to browse PT timetables online while out and about, bookmark this in ... [More]
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Quick things
Why is Westpac bank turning into my mother? Do they really expect to get more customers like this? Great quote: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” — Robert J. Hanlon Star Trek: all creeds and colours of humanity, in a spirit of co-operation and harmony, working together at hating the ... [More]
A few weeks ago we watched Buster Keaton’s The General the other day. It’s public domain, a free download from the Internet Archive. Very funny stuff, and some quite remarkable stunts considering they had so few safety precautions compared to nowadays. I had been pondering if it was rude to talk during a silent movie. ... [More]
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Brief things
Computer: I like it when computers reach the point at which a good upgrade is cheap, quick and cheerful. In this case on my two-year-old box, tripling the RAM cost me $45, tripling the hard disk space cost $130. And as the new disk is faster than the old one, I’ll take the opportunity to ... [More]
A few quick reviews. No Country for Old Men — great stuff from the Coens. Gripping. Quite violent though; bits of it almost gave me nightmares. Is it trying to make a point at the end? Ummm… probably. Burn After Reading — more Coen brothers. Some very funny characters, and genuine surprises along the way. ... [More]
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Nine Queens
Ever see the film Nine Queens? It was very enjoyable Argentine movie about a couple of conmen. I’m not sure where my copy is at the moment, but anyway… (SPOILER FOLLOWS)
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Civil rights themes
Judging from the reviews, Salute looks like a good film. I was pondering if it might be educational to my kids, when I noticed the rating. PG. For “Civil rights themes”. Hmm. Can’t say I’ve spotted that particular classification before. It almost sounds like more of a recommendation than a warning. (The trailer is here.)
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Friday fotos
Another top class bit of parking. Okay, so it doesn’t appear to actually say “No parking”, but it’s not hard to imagine what the intent was. I haven’t seen the Get Smart movie yet, but I’m quite amused by these telephone box adverts for it. In Rippon Street, they’re apparently very proud of that beautification ... [More]
I used to give either thumbs up or thumbs down. I’m switching to thumbs up, thumbs down, or neither. Microserfs — This is the kind of book I should just lap up, isn’t it? A geek novel? But I didn’t. It dragged. J-Pod — More enjoyable than Microserfs. Douglas Coupland’s self-referential bits were a bit ... [More]
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I must see this movie
OMG. Why did nobody tell me about this before? The King of Kong. I know, I know… I didn’t actually list the original Donkey Kong in my top ten games… I don’t know what I was thinking of — it’s definitely one of my favourites. My own high score is around the 31,000 mark. It’s ... [More]
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Finding Pixar
Had a day off yesterday. Took the kids on a couple of errands, and went through Fed Square to visit ACMI. I never fail to be impressed with ACMI, especially since I discovered their Games Lab. Last time I was there they had old Commodore 64 games. This time they were highlighting some of the ... [More]