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I ran across these this morning while searching for something for a client. They are free for personal use (though if find yourself using PowerPoint a lot in your personal life, you have my deepest sympathies). There are some nice designs here.
Talk about counterprogamming. In the middle of a summer filled with giant robots and time travelling Vulcans comes a Steven Soderbergh film about the life of a high class call girl. This is the very definition of a "small" film. There are no stars (unless you count the lead, Sasha Grey, who is a porn star) and there's very little in the way of production value on the screen. I think the permits to shoot in Soho (shout out!) probably cost more than the salaries of the entire cast.
But small doesn't mean bad. Soderbergh does an interesting thing with the editing, switching around between a number of scenes that the girl (Chelsea) is in: talking to a fellow escort, talking to a journalist, talking to her longtime boyfriend, talking to her new john that she starts to fall for. Her performance is pretty good. The story implies that she's got a wall up around her at all times, so she seems pretty flat most of the time. She has a couple of acting scenes (laughing, crying, etc) which work fairly well. But I'm not holding my breath for a cross-over acting career.
What was kind of surprising (though not in retrospect) is how unsexy the film is. Even the scenes of sensuality have a kind of plastic coating over them. It's obvious that Chelsea's "interest" is feigned, and that her clients (except for one memorable guy at the end) see her as a commodity, not a person.
The best scene is one in which Chelsea visits a "sex connoisseur" who offers her an excellent review on his website in exchange for some free sex. This guy was the most wonderfully unlikeable character I've seen on film in years. Take this line that comes during his proposal to take Chelsea on a working excursion to Dubai: "The best thing about it is that it sounds like white slavery... but it's not."
All in all, it's a pretty interesting film, and not nearly as seedy as the premise (or the casting) might indicate.
Here's a refrain that anyone who reads my reviews might recognize: this film was okay, but not as good at its predecessor. If you don't like big, dumb blockbusters, or if you saw "Transformers" and didn't like it, do not see this one. In fact, I can't recommend it at all. It kind of blows. (But not nearly as much as the other critics think.)
First, the good. Strangely, I really liked Josh Duhamel's military guy in this one. He seemed kind of flat in the first film, but he's much better here. That's the main improvement, as far as I can tell. There's one really amazing battle sequence in the middle of the film where Optimus has to fight off three Decepticons. That one raised the bar... which the film never seemed to live up to for the balance of the two-and-a-half hour running time.
Basically, Michael Bay decided to multiply everything about this film. Some of the increases were okay, but most were just annoying. I liked the fact that there were more robots to follow, but at some point it just got confusing trying to keep track of them. There're more action sequences, which is great, and they're bigger, which is also great. But they're also more disjointed and meandering. He also greatly increased the danger to humanity in this one compared to the first film... but it seemed strangely tacked on and uninvolving. I'll go into a little more detail about that in the next section, where I'll be spoiling some of the "plot" points.
Continue reading "Summer '09 - Blockbuster #7 - "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"" »
This one I really liked. Yes, I have a fondness for these kinds of Die-Hard-like films, but I think this example of the genre has a lot of things to recommend it that put it a notch above the average heist-hostage flick.
John Travolta's character takes over a single subway car and then proceeds to send his orders for monetary payment to the transit authority. Denzel Washington is the guy unlucky enough to answer the call. The main fun about the movie is the conversations these two guys have. They're both brilliant, but in very different ways. Washington is a quick-thinking, logical, pragmatic multi-tasker. Travolta is a fly-the-the-seat-of-his-pants genius. Both performances are great, but Travolta gets extra points in my book for making it clear that his character is actually a little bit crazy, while he pretends to be much crazier.
The supporting cast (John Turturro as an FBI agent, James Gandolfini as the Mayor of New York) are good, too. The action is enjoyable, and the ending is really quite good. This isn't the best film of the summer (that one had a few more Vulcans in it) but it's definitely a candidate for second place.
Wow, did the critics hate this one. I'm not going to be putting it on any Top Ten lists, but I'm also not putting it on any Bottom Ten lists. So, pretty good, not nearly great is my short review. For details (and spoilers) read on...
Continue reading "Summer '09 - Blockbuster #5 - "Terminator Salvation"" »
And by "unique" I think they may mean "horrifying."
How to make decisions outside of your core competencies in BusinessWeek. “When faced with a new challenge, forget about acting fast. Instead start a three-step process to formulate the best solution.” As an NT, of course, I love this idea. Via Lifehacker.
In the Florida sun for hours on end yesterday; with no sunburn at all. Those of you who know how pale my skin is will realize just how impressive this is.
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