Moulin Rouge!
The movie: This is easily the best movie I've seen this year. Not only is it thoroughly entertaining, but it's the boldest artistic statement to come from a major movie studio in a very long time. But I'm not gonna go on and on about this movie, because I already did in my June 4 update so if you want to read more about the movie, just go there!
The DVD: What we've got here is a typical 2 disc set, with disc 1 being the main feature, with director's commentary and other "runs with the movie" type special features, and a second disc full of more special features that are not dependent on running the entire film. The main feature is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen format, and the clarity and color of the film transfer are nothing short of excellent. It really does justice to the vibrant (and contrasting) colors in this film.
The menu's are better than your average "thrown together" DVD, but nothing home to write home about... and one majorly irritating thing about disc 1 is that it takes about 5 minutes from popping the disc in to actually watching the movie. There's an incredibly long FBI warning, followed by a completely unnecessary "this film has been rated PG-13" screen (both not bypassable), followed by a Fox DVD promo (bypassable). Then once you hit play, there's Fox DVD splash screen followed by the THX thing, and then finally the movie starts!
Disc 2 is full of special features, some much better than others. Most of the interviews (as most DVD interviews are) were boring. The rejected edits of different musical numbers were pretty interesting (some were cut down for length, others were completely redone). There was one section of footage which was made in preparation of some reshoots -- featuring some live motion, intercut with still frames of actors over which the director Baz Luhrmann imitated the voices of the actors, saying the words he wanted them to say in the reshoots... god damn this section was one of the funniest things I've ever seen! It was also an interesting insight into the filmmaking process.
Another interesting thing on the special features disc was the inclusion of theatrical trailers for both the American and Japanese markets -- and you can see how they used completely different marketing plans for the two very different markets. In America the film was marketed as a sexy and exciting love story, full of sex, dancing, and excitement... in Japan it was sold as a tragic love story, full of death and tragedy... like woah.
Also, unexpected for me, was the fact that the "cast" section of the special features disc wasn't just a bio and filmography... but actually led to interviews with the cast members. A nice "extra mile" touch.
And now the very irritating (for me, anyway) feature of disc 2... non-anamorphic, letterboxed widescreen format! It's actually very common for the special features on a DVD to not be in an anamorphic widescreen format -- that's because most of the time, they aren't in any kind of widescreen format at all! But this disc... every last bit of footage (that I can remember anyway), was in a letterboxed widescreen format.
The entire thing is widescreen, so why wouldn't you make it anamorphic? Admittedly, Rush Hour 2 is the only DVD I've seen with entirely anamorphic widescreen special features, but still, it just seems kind of weird to me that the movie and entire lot of special features would be shot in a widescreen format... and while the main feature is anamorphic, the special features aren't? WTF? I guess for those of us with standard televisions it doesn't make a lick of difference, but for those of us with widescreen TV's... it's pretty irritating.
One of the poorest parts of the special features was the still photos photos section (they are so tiny, you can't really see anything), and again, most of the interviews were pretty boring.
Overall though, I'm very glad I got this DVD -- I just love the movie, and it looks and sounds really great on this DVD. The special features are plentiful, but a mixed bag of great content, good content, and mediocre content. But hey, I got this for the movie anyway :)

Sting: ...all this time
The "movie": It's not a movie, it's a live concert DVD. Actually, it's not really a concert, as this concert was planned and rehearsed exclusively for this DVD and it's accompanying live album with the same title. I'm a big fan of Sting, and I think he's absolutely brilliant in concert, so hey, how could I not get this thing? There is, however, an interesting (and unintentional) twist to this performance -- it was originally scheduled for, and was performed on September 11, 2001.
There are two main parts to this DVD -- a documentary about the preparations for the performance, and the performance itself. The whole thing took place at Sting's "house" (more like a villa) in Tuscany. The band is a combination of guys he's been on tour with for the last two years, and some new blood. The premise is that there's gonna be a concert for a few friends (including us) in Sting's backyard.
An added factor -- Sting wanted to rework and rearrange all the songs... and he purposely wanted it to be rushed. All the preparations, rehearsals, etc. happened in only 2 weeks. Sting wanted that energy in the arrangements that can only come from the pressure of a looming deadline. Pretty hefty considering that the guy he wanted to play upright bass for the event is completely new and didn't know the songs!
And the arrangements are great... many of the songs are copmletely different! Especially interesting since a lot of them are songs he's been playing every night (mostly the same way) for the last 15-20 years. "Fragile" became very complex and multilayered, while "When We Dance" was stripped down. Arrangements of "All This Time", "Don't Stand So Close To Me", and "Brand New Day" were completely different from the versions we're used to. And some classics like "Roxanne" are different from the original versions, but similar to versions Sting has played in his live concerts... including ending with "Every Breath You Take" which was pretty much identical to the way he performed it on his last tour, down to the way he introduced the band members.
And I'm always glad when Sting plays "Seven Days", one of my favorite songs, one which was never a hit, and yet, he plays it at every concert, so it must be one of his favorites too. And yet, this song doesn't appear on the CD of this performance (which I don't own... yet).
If you watch the documentary part, you get to see various aspects of the arranging process as they revamp the songs, the opinions of some of the other musicians, and some rehearsal footage, including dress rehearsal footage shot on September 10... including songs that didn't make it into the final performance because...
September 11 arrived, and news of the World Trade Center attack reached Italy as they were eating lunch... and everything changed. Sting had doubts about doing the performance at all, but the other musicians convinced him that the show must go on... however, the set list was changed quite a bit, and many of the songs that Sting thought would be inappropriate for the occasion were cut.
As Sting mentioned a few times during the show, it was supposed to be a time of joyful rejoicing, but due to the events of that morning, rejoicing didn't seem too appropriate. The final set list ended up being:

• Fragile
• A Thosuand Years
• Perfect Love... Gone Wrong
• All This Time
• Seven Days
• The Hounds Of Winter
• Don't Stand So Close To Me
• When We Dance
• Dienda (a tribute to Kenny Kirkland, long time keyboardist for Sting)
• Roxanne
• If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
• Brand New Day
• Fields Of Gold
• Shape Of My Heart
• If I Ever Lose My Faith In You
• Every Breath You Take

Thursday, 20 December 2001 11:59pm

C

hristmas music at shopping malls. As you may or may not know, most of the malls in San Diego are of the outdoor variety, and the other day it was actually pretty warm outside. I couldn't help but chuckle when the line "walking in a winter wonderland" popped up. Who are we trying to kid? This ain't no winter wonderland! Folks are running around with short sleeves on! But all that being said... the weather has been a lot nicer this week than it's been... particularly at night. The past few weeks have been getting pretty cold outside at night, but it looks like we're back into the 50's for now.
Christmas shopping is pretty dangerous for me though... I always end up buying more stuff for myself than I do for anyone else. This year I ended up buying myself an 80 gig hard drive, that 8 port router/switch, Moulin Rouge and Sting DVD's... oh well, Christmas presents to myself, I guess!
Oh here's a weird thing... why do they give you a gift receipt when you buy gift cards from Best Buy? Even if the person who you bought it for decides they don't want it, the only thing that receipt is good for is to receive store credit... but isn't the gift card just store credit in the first place? What the heck, it just doesn't make any sense! "Excuse me, I'd like to return this gift card. I have a gift receipt here..." "Thank you sir, here's a card with store credit in the amount of the gift card's value.... uhhh ok. Anyway. Guess what's coming next.

The Nightmare Before Christmas
The movie: Ok everybody, start throwing tomatoes at me, cuz I had never seen this movie before. All I have to say is that it is really cool, with a very unique look, and a great story... and the music is great too. A fresh (ok, so it's almost 10 years old) and fun Christmas story.
The DVD: Eh, not much to write home about. The movie is presented in a letterboxed 1.66:1 widescreen format with a mediocre film transfer. The only special feature (besides "see these other movies") was pretty weak, especially when you consider that this "theatrical trailer" was actually a TV spot for the home video! The menus are ugly. This disc just doesn't have much going for it (except, of course, the movie itself). I guess that's why they came out with the Special Edition, which I'm sure is a lot better, with director commentary, outtakes, and a bunch of other goodies that might actually be interesting when you've got a creative team headed up by Tim Burton.

The Thomas Crown Affair
The movie: This film is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name which starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. The 1999 version stars Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. Faye Dunaway also has a small role in the new version. I've never seen the original film, and truthfully, the only reason why I rented this movie in the first place was because I knew Sting wrote the theme song for it.
Basically the story goes that Pierce Brosnan is a billionaire who steals a very important painting for a museum for fun. Rene Russo is working for the insurance company who would rather not write a $100 million check for the painting. She knows he did it, and he knows she knows he did it, so the rest of the movie is a big game between the two of them, and somewhere in there there's a love story too.
But I don't know if I really noticed that since for the middle, oh 1/4th of the movie or so, Rene Russo pretty much spent the whole time with no top on. Overall though, I thought it was a pretty entertaining movie, with some suspense and interesting twists and turns, but it was no rollercoaster ride, and it was no Bond movie either. But definitely worth the rental.
The DVD: Lessee... 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer of average quality, and pretty good sound. The main menu had a cute museum theme to it, but it did not carry over to all of the other menus. Special features include director's commentary, theatrical trailer, and the most interesting of the three -- the theatrical trailer from the 1968 original. Basically what you're getting is the movie, but that's the most important part of all :)

The Matrix Revisited
The movie: This isn't really a movie, it's a documentary about the movie The Matrix shot well after the fact, mostly during training and preparations for the upcoming sequels. They sell this as either part of a two disc set (with The Matrix and this disc), and they also sell it alone. Jeff got me the set (he couldn't believe that I didn't already own The Matrix). Those of you who buy it alone and pay full price, well, I hope you are a really, really big fan of the movie.
To me it seemed like most of the content on the disc was pretty much exactly the type of thing you'd find on the second disc of any two-disc set. It's basically a series of interviews with the actors and members of the creative team, reflecting on their experiences with The Matrix. What disappointed me the most though, is that a lot of the hype surrounding this DVD had to do with the fact that it was supposed to give some insight into what's going on with the sequels, but there turned out to be almost none of that in there. This is basically a two hour long "making-of" and although it had its moments, the majority of it just wasn't that interesting.
The DVD: The whole thing is presented in standard 4:3 format, and was shot some on film, some on video, and with clips from the actual film presented in a letterboxed format. Some of the video quality and compression quality were actually bad enough to call bad. There are no special features because basically, this DVD is just one long special feature. So what can I say... I really loved the movie, but I also really don't think anyone but the people with the most insatiable appetites for anything Matrix would find this DVD worth buying (or even interesting).
And Jeff, thanks for getting me this for Christmas, the movie is really great (and I already watched it), just please don't take me not particularly enjoying this Revisited DVD as me not appreciating it, after all, there was no way for you to know it wasn't going to be that good anyway :)
So that's it for today... coming soon to the DVD reviews... Iron Giant. Also, I'll probably write something about the actual The Matrix DVD :)

Friday, 21 December 2001 11:59pm

O

oops I just realized that I never told you people to check out my tribute to Grand Theft Auto 3. It's a video I edited together with video captured from the game as I was playing it. Not to toot my own horn, but it's pretty cool. But a warning for you sensitive folks out there -- this video contains lots of violence and coarse language. But if you can get over that, then check it out. They are in Windows Media format and are kindly being hosted by wherearemypants.com! I suggest you right click on these and save them, rather than try to stream them as they are kind of large.

LOW VERSION - 10MB WMV file
HIGH VERSION - 20MB WMV file

The Iron Giant
The movie: Wow, I can't believe I never watched this before! This is an animated movie from 1999, and although it is really great, It never really acheived much commercial success. That's pretty unfortunate, as I feel this movie told a great story that I got into. Plus the robot is really cool too! It features the voices of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., and Vin Diesel provided the voice of the big robot.
It was cute, it was fun, it was interesting, and it was something you could get into. And it had a very non-Disney feel to it in many aspects, from the look of it to the plot, and everything in between. I definitely recommend this movie. One thing of interest (at least to me) is that Des McAnuff is listed as one of the film's producers. He is the artistic director over at the La Jolla Playhouse (not to mention being a multiple-Tony award winning director), and he just seems to keep popping up in the strangest places.
The DVD: I have to admit that I didn't root around the DVD too much, but I did watch the movie itself. This is another one of those Warner Brothers dual-sided discs with a standard 4:3 pan and scan version on one side, and an anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 version on the other. I actually wish more movies would come this way that way folks with standard TV's who don't like letterboxed movies can have their way, and the other folks that don't mind the black bars, or have widescreen TV's can have their way too.
Special features. Hmmm... well I know there is a theatrical trailer because I watched it. There is also a making-of documentary which I did not watch, and I think there may possibly be a director's commentary track as well. But yeah. Good movie.

Saturday, 22 December 2001 11:59pm

W

oohoo, Disneyland! Cami's family was already there, and I stopped by to renew my annual pass later in the day so we all met up. I hadn't seen her whole family in quite a while, but I had a lot of fun. Here is a lovely picture of Cami and Trista at Roger Rabbit's Car-Toon Spin. Notice how the car has a door on it now. That's because of that kid that climbed out of the car and got his leg stuck in the track. Dumb kids.
While we were there, Cami, both her sisters, and her mother all insisted that there were these girls at the Matterhorn pointing at me and talking about me. Presumably, they recognize me from here, I guess. Which I guess means there's a good chance they are reading this right now. Cami's mom even said she saw them over by the Space Mountain Fastpass area and overheard them talking about me over there too. I didn't notice any of this though, and I don't think Cami's dad or her brother noticed either.
Which brings me to a point that I've made somewhere in my updates before -- the #1 reason girls think guys are so complicated isn't because guys are complicated... it's just that us guys are freakin' oblivious to all kinds of things that girls pick up on... Of course, it works the other way too. For example, to many girls, a perfectly appropriate answer to the question "what kind of car was it?" might be "a red one". Such a response would make most guys smack themselves in the forehead though. And of course, I'm doing all kinds of stereotyping here... but isn't that what sociologists do anyway? Haha.
Anyway, I left the Chans at around 8pm to drive to Zac and Karen's place and exchange gifts with them. I got them a set of four margarita glasses, some tequila, some margarita mix, and a tub of margarita salt. They got me a lava lamp. I've always wanted a lava lamp, yet I've never gotten around to buying one. Now I don't have to.
On the way up from San Diego I passed by a gas station... at first I couldn't figure out why, but the sign looked strange for some reason... Then I realized that there wasn't a "1" in front of the price of the regular gas! Later on I passed by a different station with regular at 89 cents, and the midgrade at 99! Woah! Gas is still about $1.10 for regular in San Diego... it's always been more expensive there, for no real reason at all. That's it for today's update. I wanna go to bed... I don't feel very good right now :(