Swollen Pickles

Gran Torino is the movie of the year. I know that is a bold statement, given that the year is less than 30 days old, but if another movie comes out in 2009 that can top Gran Torino, then it is going to have to be mighty good.

Gran Torino is the story of Walt Kowalski, played by Clint Eastwood. Walt is a retired blue collar worker and veteran of the Korean War. With the passing of his wife, Walt is alone in a neighbourhood he no longer recognises. It is now home to a large volume of immigrants, as well as rival gangs, which leads the bitter Walt to become further isolated and resentful of his neighbours. He keeps his remaining family at arms length and spends most of his days sitting on his porch, drinking beer with his dog. He's the epitome of the angry, bitter and racist old man. Walt makes it very hard for the viewer to like him, but at the same time, it's difficult not to feel a little bit sorry for him.

Walt's attitude towards his neighbours only deteriorates further when his teenage Hmong neighbour Thao attempts to steal Walt's prized, mint condition, 1972 Gran Torino, as part of a local gang initiation. When Walt later whips out his rifle (not a euphemism) and steps in to save Thao from gang reprisal, he becomes a hero to his neighbours, whether he likes it or not.

Thao's family force him to work for Walt, in order to pay off the debt he incurred by attempting to steal Walt's car. Walt begrudgingly accepts, and is slowly drawn into the lives of Thao, and Thao's sister Sue, even if it is somewhat by force. Walt takes Thao under his wing, deciding that he'll teach him what it means to be a man.

When the actions of the local gang impact upon Walt's new found contentment, crusty old Walt decides it's time he cleaned up his 'hood.

On paper, Gran Torino has the potential to be a tired, cliche ridden, feel good story of an outcast gaining community acceptance and making friends. In the hands of Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino avoids these pitfalls and thankfully the film steers clear of soppy sentimentality.

There is some classic Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. Eastwood has always been a quote factory, ever since Dirty Harry Callahan snarled, "Do you feel lucky, punk?". As Walt, he doesn't disappoint.

Walt (to gang member): "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have f***ed with? That's me"

Gang member (to Walt): "Are you f***ing crazy? Go back in the house."
Walt (to gang member): "Yeah? I blow a hole in your face and then I go in the house... and I sleep like a baby. You can count on that."

Eastwood is awesome in this film. When he say's that he'll blow a hole in a guys face, as a member of the audience, you believe him.

I can also say that I learnt something from the film. The term "Hmong" comes up a lot, and ignorant lil' ol' me didn't have a clue what it meant or referred to. Thanks to Wikipedia, now I do...

The terms Hmong (pronounced [m̥ɔ̃ŋ]) and Mong ([mɔ̃ŋ]) refer to an Asian ethnic group in the mountainous regions of southeast Asia. Hmong are also one of the largest sub-groups in the Miao minzu population in southern China. Beginning in the 18th century, Hmong groups began a gradual southward migration due to political unrest and to find more arable land. As a result, Hmong currently also live in several countries in Southeast Asia, including northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar-Burma.

Source: Wikipedia.

Gran Torino is one of those films that sticks with you long after you've left the cinema. In that respect I would liken it to Children of Men. I'd heartily recommends this film to anyone, although be warned, there's a lot of very un-PC language that may offend. Go watch it.

I give it 5 out of 5 pickles, a rare honour.

RC45 RADIATOR FILTER CAP 72 73 74 75 GRAN TORINO

US $10.43

5h 5m

CV917C PCV VALVE 74 TORINO GRAN TORINO

US $5.71

5h 49m

Resident Evil: Degeneration is the first full length CG animation film based on the Resident Evil video games by Capcom. Unlike the Resident Evil live action films, Resident Evil: Degeneration is set within the same "universe" that the video games are. If you are into the games at all, Degeneration is said to take place around 12 months after the events of Resident Evil 4.

Clare Redfield (who featured in the Resident Evil 2 game) is at an airport to meet a friend when a passenger plan approaching the airport crash lands following an outbreak of the T-Virus on board. Takes about 20 seconds for the airport to turn into zombie central. Bunkering down in the airports VIP area with a handful of other survivors Clare is rescued by Leon Kennedy, another character from the games.

Meanwhile there's a big conspiracy going on with a dodgy Senator and a pharmaceutical company implicated in the zombie shenanigans.

There's also a terrorist group determined to expose the world to the truth of what happened at Racoon City. Are they behind the airport outbreak? Would they risk a Racoon repeat just to prove a point? Well you'll have to watch it I guess.

To be blunt, I found the plot of Resident Evil: Degeneration hard to follow. I haven't played the games so I didn't have a lot of the background, so I'm guessing a lot of the conspiracy stuff went over my head. The plot seemed to plod along for quite a while before picking up pace at the end. There were a couple of belated plot twists that seemed to just add to my confusion rather than anything else.

The real reason to watch Resident Evil: Degeneration is to check out the impressive CG animation. Some of it is genuinely jaw dropping in terms of it's realism. The one area that CG seems to fall down on at the moment is with characters facial expressions, lip syncing and expressing emotions facially. Once CG animators nail there's the potential to make 'real' actors obsolete. That being said, I'm not sure why they decided to make this film 100% CG as there wasn't a lot on show that couldn't have been achieved with live action. I wonder what the budget was like in comparison to a live action feature of the same kind and length?

In summary

If you are into a) CG animation b) Resident Evil or c) zombies give Resident Evil: Degeneration a look, just don't expect the story line to rock your world. Overall I'd give it a solid 6.5 out of 10.

RESIDENT EVIL 2 II GAMECUBE GAME BRAND NEW SEALED RARE

1 Bid

US $19.99

16m

WRE1 RESIDENT EVIL SKIN for WII CONSOLE

0 Bid

US $11.89

18m

RESIDENT EVIL 2 PLAYSTATION DISCS ONLY

3 Bids

US $2.50

22m

I missed seeing Wanted at the movies, but on the weekend I finally got around to catching it on DVD. I found it to be an entertaining action movie, however my gripe with it was that it had very little in common with the graphic novel of which it was supposedly based on.

Wanted, the mini-series written by Mark Millar, is in my top 10 favorite graphic novels of all time. It's funny, thought provoking and entertaining. With that said, the film version had a lot to live up to. Here's my review of the graphic novel Wanted.

Wanted, the film, follows white collar office drone, Wesley Gibson's transformation into one of the worlds top assassins, working for "The Fraternity" dispatching those that 'fate' determines need to be removed from the playing field. The Fraternity are a guild of assassins that have existed for centuries, that take their kill orders from a binary code printing loom. Why? I don't know.

I originally thought that I'd write about the differences between the film and the graphic novel. However, on reflection, I'm not sure that there's much point. Similarities between the two are few and far between. In that respect, the film was somewhat disappointing.

Like the comic, the film opens with the assassination of an assassin, and an introduction into the daily grind experienced by Wesley Gibson. His life is dull and repetitive, and will have you drawing initial comparisons to Fight Club. After the first 10-15 minutes though, the comic and the film head off in completely different directions.

I can understand that some elements from the comic would be difficult to pull off, without causing a panic at the censors office, but surely the core of the story could have been retained?

Why the film makers would decide to stray so far from the source material is beyond me, however I can say that one of the things that saves the film from being just another action romp with the of director Timur Bekmambetov. Bekmambetov is the man behind the Russian film adaptation of Night Watch, and the guy certainly has a keen sense of cinematic style. The other major positive for the film is that it features Angelina Jolie. Enough said.

Watched independently of the comic, the film is an entertaining pop corn flick. Compared to the comic however, it doesn't quite make the grade.

I took advantage of Melbourne Cup Day to get myself along to the cinema to see RocknRolla, the latest film from Guy Ritchie, the guy that brought us Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.

As per Lock Stock... and Snatch, the plot in RocknRolla is hard to summarize. Basically, the film tells the story of a few relatively low level criminals going about their business. It's bad guys getting in well over there heads, building up hefty debts, finding creative ways to pay them off, bad guys double crossing bad guys double crossing bad guys, with a few twists toward the end.

RocknRolla could hardly be described as breaking new ground for Guy Ritchie. I guess after a couple of box office bombs (Swept Away anyone?), Ritchie decided it was time to get back to what he does best, telling cracking good gangster yarns.

It's fairly safe to say that if you enjoyed Lock Stock... and Snatch then you'll enjoy RocknRolla. In my opinion, this movie would have been a lot better had they used the word "bollocks" more often. There was also the transitional period where I had to grow accustomed to seeing Gerard Butler in something other than a loin cloth, having only previously seen him in 300.

If you go and see it, keep an eye out for the opening vectorized credits. They looked cool, but then maybe I'm easy pleased. The soundtrack is pretty groovy as well, the highlight being "Rock & Roll Queen (album version)" by The Subways. Check 'em out.

Overall, I'd give the movie a solid 3.5 out of 5 pickles. It would have scored slightly higher had there been more bollocks.

I'm glad to report that The Dark Knight lived up to both the hype, and my high expectations. I saw it in a sold out cinema on Sunday night, and three days on, I'm still buzzed.

The film ran for just over 150mins, but there was not a single moment where I felt compelled to check my watch. The film was 'gritty' and 'dark', everything a Batman movie should be. Paired with Batman Begins, these two movies have done enough to erase the terrible 1990's Batman outings from my mind.

Without trying to outline the entire plot, The Dark Knight covers the emergence of the Joker as well as the idea that Gotham City has two protectors, Harvey Dent as the White Knight to Batman's Dark Knight. A large part of the film deals with Batman/Bruce Wayne positioning Harvey Dent as the hero that Batman could never be, with a view to retiring the Batman persona.
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Walking out of the cinema after watching 300 last night, I didn't exactly know what to think. I was both impressed and disappointed. Yes, the movie was a visual orgy (or 'vorgy'), but character development and dialogue wise it could have been cooked up by a preschool kid.

It was a 'manly' movie, but at the same time, it also drifted down the "Big Gay Al" route. When the Persian King first hit the screen, you'd be forgiven for thinking that a float from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras had taken a wrong turn and somehow ended up in Sparta.

The voice overs and repeated speeches started to grate after about five minutes, and you couldn't help feeling that the Persians were attacking in the hope that the Spartans would just shut the hell up!

There were weird mutant things, a massive blob guy with sword arms (who deserved far more screen time) and some intense people skewering. With that being said, 300 was no where near as gory as I was expecting. Yes, there were decapitations and dismemberment, but they weren't as sick looking as the stuff you'd see in a movie like Saw.

Computer technology obviously played a big part in the film which leads me to my biggest question. Were the Queens nipples digitally enhanced? Holy geez those things could have taken an eye out! I kept expecting her breasts to start scratching the decks like in the Mentos commercial.

All in all, I was impressed with the look of 300 but felt it was let down by some of the poxiest dialogue committed to celluloid. At the end of the night, I left for home impressed, but without the chubby expected after viewing cinematic viagra.