On the outside the put in a bunch of decorations and stuff but once you get inside you'll find that not only did they change the look of everything, the entire soundtrack including the voiceover is completely different. Not just on the ride itself but even the little message they play when they stop the ride to let handicapped people on and off is new. Virtually every item inside was either removed and completely replaced with something else, or redecorated and re-themed.
The paintings on the wall as you get out of the stretching room (the normal stretching pictures have been replaced with something completely different... not just simple pictures... the guy hanging from the ceiling has been replaced... the changing paintings that you see as you exit the stretching room are different (and there are more of them)... there's a big "Merry Christmas" display that changes to "Scary Christmas" at the loading area... the changes are just way too numerous to list!
One of the really cool effects that I liked was the replacement of the singing statues with singing jack-o-lanterns... the projected effect looked like the inside of a lit jac-o-lantern and they were singing and it looked great. I gotta say, I was very impressed with what they did with the ride! I mean, it totally blows "It's A Small World Holiday" away! Cuz for that thing all they did was change the song and put a bunch of snow everywhere... the Haunted Mansion conversion was much, much more involved and detailed! So if you got the time and the cash (or an annual passport) I highly suggest checking this out! If you wanna see more pics from Disneyland today, click here to see the gallery that's in my huge repository of photos that is not open 24 hours a day.
Ya know, I realized there is one big thing I take for granted. The Pacific Ocean. Billions of people live their entire lives without ever seeing the ocean, and yet I would curse being stuck in traffic with an ocean view. Going somewhere for lunch and accidentally seeing the ocean there along the way. Being able to go there just to think, or waste time, or whatever. The ocean is good, and I'm glad it's there.
And now, what update would be complete without at least one DVD review? Well, if you read last week's update you already know that on Friday night I bought Space Balls so like, here's the review and stuff.

Spaceballs
The movie: I hadn't seen this movie in a long, long time. Many years. So many in fact that I forgot most of the details of the movie. But yeah. It's a funny parody of Star Wars with Bill Pullman starring as a mostly Han Solo with some Luke Skywalker mixed in character. I'm sure that when I watched this movie as a child I didn't get or even notice the Metamorphosis/Kafka line.
The DVD: Welp I didn't expect much for $9.95, and the cover didn't say "anamorphic" or "enhanced for widescreen TV's" anywhere. The disc is similar to other MGM discs in that it is a dual-sided disc with a 1.85:1 letterboxed widescreen version on one side, and a 4:3 pan and scan version on the other side. Also similar to other MGM DVD's that I own (such as The Princess Bride), the "liner notes" actually have information on them beyond just the chapter list (which is pretty useless anyway). The audio is 5.1 surround, but I watched it on Kenny's TV with no surround sound so I cannot attest to the quality of it, but I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it.
One cool thing about this DVD though is that it has a snazzy menu design that looks like a control panel from the movie... "Mr. DVD" it's called, and the way it's structured, all of the individual menus (the main, languages, special features, etc.) are all part of one very large panel, of which you can only see one part at a time. The panels have humorous labels and animations that are right in line with the style of humor from the movie. I give the menu design an A. Special features include audio commentary by Mel Brooks, a "behind the scenes" featurette (which I have not watched) and the obligatory theatrical trailer.
The end. Coming soon to Bryan's DVD reviews -- Dog Day Afternoon and Snow Falling on Cedars, in that order. Also coming soon... an actual DVD review section on my site where I can put these all together :)

Monday, 26 November 2001 11:59pm

N

ot much to report today except that I started going through a book on PHP and MySQL so I can learn this stuff so I can make a good DVD review site structure that will benefit me by being easy to expand, and good for you guys, the readers, in making it easy to navigate. And also so I can learn this stuff, as it would be quite a marketable skill in my field... and I always find it's best to learn something while doing something you care about, yup... that way it feels less like work and more like fun, and you still come out with the proper skills in the end. Speaking of DVD's...

Snow Falling On Cedars
The movie: When I put this movie in my DVD player, I had no idea what it was about. Netflix had it listed as a "thriller" which turned out (in my opinion) to be entirely wrong. I didn't even know it came from a book. All I knew is that the name was familiar to me as a movie that would be worth seeing, so hey, why not just check the little box and have it arrive at my doorstep?
The story was pretty good. It wasn't mindblowingly spectacular, but it was worth seeing. I'd say it was more of a drama than a "thriller". Maybe I am getting the definitions wrong or something but I thought thrillers were supposed to be horror/suspense type movies... keeping you on the edge of your seat... that is definitely not the type of movie this was.
But the most striking thing to me was the cinematography -- each and every shot was beautifully composed... it wasn't like most movies where the camera is just there and there is this one cool shot... it seemed like every shot in this movie was a cool shot that was meant to do more than just convey information.
I gotta be honest and say that despite all the hubbub about widescreen aspect ratios "preserving the director's original vision", most of the movies that are out there today just don't have much vision in that department. Like I said, they mostly have just that one cool shot. That being said... this is one of those very rare movies that would truly be butchered by being forced into a 4:3 pan-and-scan frame.
The editing and sound design were interesting at times, with flashback type sequences being cut together with sound and images repeated and overlapping... I can't really describe it except to say that it resembled the way the mind recalls events from memory -- when we remember things that happened to us in the past we don't see them linearly from beginning to end like watching a surveilance video tape... anyway. I hope that's the effect they were going for because that's what I got out of it.
The DVD: The movie is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio anamorphic widescreen, and the film transfer is spectacular. A lot of the movie is shot with different lighting an d film effects that change the saturation or overall color cast of the image, and the DVD captures them perfectly... and it's so clean, I'd say that it was probably more enjoyable to watch on my TV than it would have been in the theater. The 5.1 soundtrack is mostly biased toward the front, but hey, this ain't no action movie.
The bonus material includes a behind the scenes featurette, theatrical trailer, production notes, bios, and scenes that were either deleted or edited differently in the final version of the film.
So yeah, overall, this was a movie worth watching if for nothing else than to look at just how beautiful it looks on the screen. As for Dog Day Afternoon, I think we'll be watching that on Wendesday night, so I'll let y'all know how that all goes.

Wednesday, 28 November 2001 11:59pm

W

elp, tonight Cami, Jeff and myself headed to Home Depot and got ourselves a Christmas tree! We also got some lights, put them on and also put some ornaments on. It's right next to the window so all the other suckaz in the apartment complex can see that we have a tree. The photo here is one of us holding up our glasses of wine and toasting the tree.
Tree selection was somewhat interesting. Cami mentioned that her coworker's wife selected a tree because it was speaking to her. Taking a cue from that, I stood in front of a bunch of trees, closed my eyes, and held my hands out and listened... and a tree called out from the right side of me. Jeff went into the back and grabbed the tree, and it was still all tied up with all the branches taut. We couldn't really see the tree, but that was the one.
The Home Depot employee said to me, "you guys didn't even need to open it up, you knew it was the tree, eh?" and I was like yep. And sure enough, when we got it home and opened it up, it was a beautifully symmetrical tree. Now our living room is full of the aroma of piney goodness, and the neighbors can be jealous cuz they can see it through the window. Fuck Pine-Sol, we got the real thing! This is actually the first Christmas tree I've had in a while... we didn't get one last year, and my family hasn't had one in years.
And now I present to you... the DVD review. Hmmm. Does it seem like all I do is watch movies? Maybe that's because... it's TRUE.

Dog Day Afternoon
The Movie: Yet another one of these movies that I should have already seen but haven't, and it was quite an interesting movie at that. Based on a true story, it's about a guy who robs a bank so he can buy a sex change operation for his gay lover who is a woman trapped in a man's body. As the DVD cover says, it should have taken 10 minutes, but it ended up becoming a media circus and taking 12 hours. The main character is beautifully played by Al Pacino, and an interesting point for me was that his accomplice in the bank was played by John Cazale... "Fredo" from the Godfather. Weird, eh?
Again, I gotta say that Al Pacino was great in this movie. After getting off the phone with his nagging (and "nagging" is a serious understatement) wife, he made this face... the most pathetic, desperate, hopeless face I have ever seen in my entire life, and it totally fit the moment perfectly... But yeah, overall, the movie was pretty good, and interesting, and also oozing of 1970's goodness... the cars... the helicoptors, the clothes, the hair...

Have you ever seen a more desparate looking face?

Speaking of the cars, check out this beauty... people think that these Ford Excursion and Expedition limos are something new? Check out this stretched IH Scout! And it's got the craziest design... there's a series of bench seats and each row has it's own set of doors! Crazy! And the luggage rack! This is genuine 70's... you can't make a period piece this authentic!
The DVD: This DVD is a dual-sided disc with 4:3 pan-and-scan on one side, and a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen version on the other. The transfer is pretty damned clean... you can see that quality of film that definitely marks it as something from the 70's... it looks old, like the old film stuff that you see on Sesame Street... and yet you don't see much dust and scratches, so you know it's the true quality of the film coming through.
The audio format is the original mono soundtrack, and special features are sparse... Cast & Crew bios, and a list of awards won by this film, including an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, a British Academy Award for Best Actor (Al Pacino), and the National Board of Review award of Best Supporting Actor (Charles Durning).
Some DVD's have "recommended" other movies to see if you liked the one you just watched, and most of them are lame, and this disc is no exception in that deparmtent. Some of the movies they suggested you see if you enjoyed Dog Day Afternoon include Eraser, Under Siege, and Under Siege 2. Riiiiiiight.

Thursday, 29 November 2001 3:15am (late thursday night)

S

o I noticed Cami mentioned something about people wanting to boycott the makers of Grand Theft Auto III for the Playstation 2 because of the content and the potential for it to corrupt our youth. Well, first of all, the game has been rated "M" for Mature by the ESRB. You don't have to boycott the makers of the game to protect your kids because this game was not made for your kids. The game is clearly marked with this rating and thus as your parent, it's up to you to make sure that your kids should not be playing this game in the first place.
Should we boycott the makers of all rated "R" movies because they would corrupt the minds of our young children if they watched them? No, because you shouldn't be taking your kids to see these movies in the first place. Likewise with these games.
In the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the majority of video game players were children. The games were geared toward children because that's where the market was. Well guess what? That was 1985! Those children have grown up! Maybe the fact that I am not a parent myself prevents me from having the correct point of view on this, but it seems to me that people these days want to take less and less responsibility for their own actions... including when it comes to raising their kids.
But anyway. This game is great. The level of detail and freedom is immense and probably would have been impossible to acheive before the advent of DVD-ROM. The city in which you drive around in is just plain huge, and you have free reign over your actions. You can choose to follow the story and do the missions as an up and coming mob button-man... or you can forget about that and just wreak havok all over the streets.
Detail, detail, did I say detail? You can drive to the seedier parts of town late at night, pick up a prostitute, drive her to a dark alley and she will have her way with you... for a price. Of course, once she's done and gets out of the car, you can get out of the car too... and shoot her, slap her, or beat her to a pulp with a baseball bat and take your money back. Didn't I say this game wasn't for your kids?
There are some 80 different vehicles in this game for you to try out, all with their own characteristics, ranging from speedy sports cars and exotics, to gigantic 70's Cadillac style "boats", plain jane minivans and SUVs, all the way to garbage trucks and tanks! Hey, steal someone's taxi cab and make a few bucks on the side giving people rides... or steal an ambulance or fire truck and make some cash taking people to the hospital or putting out fires!
And the sound design is excellent. There are multiple radio stations, each a parody of a generic type of radio station... talk radio, hip hop, top 40, house/trance type stuff, a reggae station, etc... all complete with parody commercials, my personal favorite being the one for an SUV called the "Monstrosity" with the great line, "So what if it only gets 3 miles to the gallon? I'm a mom, not a conservationist!"
So yeah. The sheer degree of freedom you have, with the immense size of this game's world, and the level of detail in the graphics and sounds all together make this one heck of a great game... for those of us over the age of 17 :) And how playable and replayable is it? Well, even though I've already beaten the main story mission parts of the game, I'm only 40% done with all the other goals and side missions. Unlike many other games, I'm actually still interested enough in it to be playing this game until 3am despite the fact that I've already "beaten" it.