Harry Podder and the Big Apple

Eclipse

hal9209 — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:38:30 +0000

Eclipse was okay in the sense that it is in line with my expectation. One good thing about the Twilight series as movie is that we can get outside of Bella’s head for once, and it’s most noticeable here on Eclipse where there are far more scenes where Bella isn’t there and we still see what’s going on! From the scenes in Seattle to the Volturi’s observation to Victoria escape from the Cullens and the wolves, these are what make it worth the jump to the cinema. The fight scenes, of course, is the main draw this time around. They are great, but it’s a bit short in my opinion.

Jacob’s abs continue to play a major role and command screen time in this movie. But this time around there’s a handsome new vampire Riley fighting for my attention. As for Edward, I guess I finally get used to the diamond skin special effect – either that or they actually improved the effect, because it looks less cheesy than the previous movies. One of the bigger controversy of this movie is the recasting of the character Victoria. The end result is that, I don’t think it make any different whoever play this part. The screen time is a lot more than the previous movie, but in all seriousness, she probably has less than 10 lines in the movie.

Okay, so 3 movies down, 2 more to go! We’ll have to wait for Breaking Dawn Part I in November 2011!

Toy Story 3

hal9209 — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:11:24 +0000

Toy Story 3 possibly is the best “threequel” in recent year. It was made with really an independent story in mind, a story about growing up and letting go. Now that the owner is all grow up and ready for college, what can the toys do? And despite the heavy theme and subject, the movie still carries touch of charm and humor. Pixar can really do no wrong here, even in sequels they can raise up the standard so high that i doubt anyone can come close.

I am not going to spoil the story here because it is a story that you need to see yourself! but one thing I can say is that Pixar seems to find out how to use silent effectively, as demonstrated in WALLE. They use it again here in one climatic scene with none of the characters speaks a word, just a shot panning the faces of the characters and yet the emotions in the scene is so powerful that I dare anyone who saw that scene not to cry.

I want to mention two cameos, one is Miyazaki’s Totoro, another, the iMac~ Seriously this might be the best movie of this summer.

Big Bang Doctor

hal9209 — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:20:34 +0000

***Spoilers alert, especially if you are following the American schedule of Doctor Who****

The latest season of Doctor Who was a strong season with a fantastic Doctor, I do have some problems with a particular plot element, but luckily the season finale completely erased my complain by being so cleverly plotted. The first part “Pandorica Opens” is epic and emotional. The Stonehenge location, Roman time period and the appearance of almost all the villains of Doctor Who Universe make this as big as the other season finale we have seen from the Davies era. Not only that, the cameo of all the supporting characters this season before the credit to give the Doctor his warning really make this season a collection of tightly connected stories that we have not seen before. The stakes is as high as ever because just like last season finale where the entire reality might get erased, this time around, everything would have never been existed. Yet Moffat really is a good writer who is the best when during with the smallest thing to use it the most effectively. Less is more is always his case. This time around is a single cyberman. I have never seen a Cyberman that is this scary before! Moffat is really great with bring out the creepy horror elements!

The emotional part of the story is the reappearance of Rory, who turns out to be an Auton with memories of Rory, in which Amy still don’t remember him because he never existed. Moffat crafted this wonderful and yet heart-wrenching exchange between the two where Rory trying to make Amy remember, and yet by the time Amy remembers, Rory started to lose himself to the programming of Auton. And the role is reversed that Amy is the one who trying to get Rory to remember who he is. Yet Rory eventually lost control of his plastic gun hand and killed Amy.

The second part “Big Bang” explores and push the limit of time travel that Doctor Who, as a show that’s about a Time Traveler, never really addressed head on. And it is this episode that satisfied my complains about time travel and that very front and center crack in time problem. First of all the episode easily solved all the cliffhangers of the previous episode: the death of Amy, Auton-Rory, the evil alliance, and the imprisonment of the Doctor, without falling into cheap tricks. The visual cue of a Fez and a mop to indicate the different time is brilliant! The two Doctor and two Amy from different time can interact together, which is completely cool, kind of like the end of Star Trek the new movie, where the new and old Spock meets. Then there’s once again a single use of Dalek is more effective than the millions of the Daleks as we have seen from the finale of season 1, 2 and 4.

The best part of the episode is of course after the Doctor sacrifice himself and woke up in a time-rewinding and erasing “zone.” We finally found out the meaning behind that out of place cryptic talk the Doctor had with Amy in the Weeping Angel episode! It wasn’t the Doctor from that episode, it’s the Doctor from the future at this moment! No wonder! That’s so awesome! And that bed time story the Doctor planted in Amy’s head when she’s little was brilliant: the doctor and the TARDIS, something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Who would have thought it fit right into the old wedding saying and work itself perfectly to bring the Doctor back to existance on Amy’s wedding day!

I can’t wait for the Christmas episode and next season! Steve Moffat really is a great!!

iPhone 4 impressions

hal9209 — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:08:26 +0000

After a 3 hours wait at the 14th Street Apple Store on the launch day, I got my new iPhone!! I always said descriptions, specs, pictures don’t do justice to an Apple product. You can to see it in person and touch it with your own hands to really understand what it is. Same situation with iPhone 4. The press all said how good the physical design and screen is, but it will still manage to wow you when you see it for yourself!

The screen is crystal clear and with vivid color. But truly words can’t describe it, it’s like the screen is magical that things can all of the sudden looks good on it! I was browsing some of my pictures and videos taken before this and through this screen they suddenly looks fantastic! I am not kidding! and even Youtube videos looks amazing! I have never seen text render so good before. The density of pixels make this a true HD screen! The feeling is like when you go from a standard TV to a high-def, you will be amazed!

The physical design of the phone itself just screams high quality and style, gone are the plastic and the “thickness.” Honestly you can’t really said the iPhone 3GS was thick, but next to the new iPhone, it looks obese! I can not get my hands off the new phone, if you think I was obsessed before, you have seen nothing yet!

As for the performance, everything is either instantly, like the camera operation or much faster like loading many big heavy apps! ”Multitasking” works great and I love the orientation lock before I am those lazy type that read thing lying down~ lol~ Speaking of camera, it takes much much better pictures, in fact I am amazed at how good it look! It rivals your point and shoot camera.

I bought the bumper as well. I didn’t think I was going to buy it, but once I see it in person, I was intrigued. It looks great with hard and soft rubber mix in the design and additional metallic buttons for sleep/wake and volumes are on the bumper itself, therefore the design really merges the bumper with the phone, I love it!

The only problem so far is waiting for the third party app to update to support the better looking graphics and multitasking and other great features in iOS4 and the new phone. They still works great even without supporting it, but they will look a hell lot better if they do!

Prince of Persia

hal9209 — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:42:05 +0000

I walked into the theater without much expectation, if any, at all. We all know video games based movie sucks big time. This movie doesn’t change that, but surprisingly, is probably the most enjoyable video game based movies I have seen.

Directed by the fourth Harry Potter movie’s director Mike Newell, the movie run rather smoothly. Even when it switch between a Period epic to some kind of romantic comedy where the leads have the standard love-hate arguments the whole journey relationship to the insertion of goofy elements like a gambling ranch of tax-hating entrepreneur that was built upon an ostrich race. Now that guy was silly and goofy all at one, but I can’t help but laugh about how the great villain of Doc Octopus from Spider-man is now a comic relief. Jake Gyllenhaal did a good job to be a muscular Persian warrior prince, even though to me, underneath all that muscle, he’s still that same kid in the dark Donnie Darko that has a goofy smile. As for Sir Ben Kingsley, he looks bored, and I am bored too, please stop casting him as a villain in some epic children’s summer movies! The man was Gandhi!! There must be some role of him other than a typical villain!

The major element in the movie is of course, going back in time using sand and the dagger of time. I have always hated that plot device, no matter what movie it is. Because it make the last 90 minutes almost irelevant! Some less talented writers and directors would probably, well, most likely use it to get themselves out of a dead end in the story, or to pretty much hit the reset button cos they have no idea how to continue. Case in point is season finale of Doctor Who’s third season where 10% of human race were killed and the rest were enslaved for an entire year, the entire planet become a war factory for war against the worlds. And yet in the end, all of that never really happened because of time reverse plot device! In this movie, it has a slight better used because the characters experienced the future so they know how to act to correct their action and avoid a certain fate. Still, I do not like this plot device and hope no stories ever use it again.

The video games elements did creep into the movie a bit, like how prince of persia jumping around walls and roofs, because you have to do all that in the game! And I believe that dagger of time also made appearance in the latest incarnation of the game. In all, this movie was surprisingly decent, aside from Sir Ben Kingsley, I don’t think anyone is bored~ lol

The Crack in Time and Space

hal9209 — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:16:02 +0000

I still very much like this new season of Doctor Who and the New Doctor, but one problem has been staring at me the whole time – how they treat the season arc this season! In the past seasons under Russell Davis, the arc are very subtle hints and words that none of the characters really notice until almost the last episodes, like Bad Wolf in season 1, Saxon in season 3, or missing planets in season 4. This season, however, the crack in time and space is front and center, and not only that, the Doctor and Amy all noticed it and know what it does, especially after the Weeping Angels episodes, and yet they are still going on business as usual, just traveling!! You would think the Doctor would go everywhere to try to get to the bottom of it right? But no, they are just continue traveling, and here and there they would notice oh there’s the crack again! and that’s when they would deal with it, and yet the next episode they will seemingly forgot the threat the crack pose to everyone, until they find another crack!

That being said, this past episode on Vincent Van Gogh is probably the best in the season. (The crack wasn’t in the episode probably contributed too!) Each season the Doctor has at least one episode to interact with an historical figure, it’s usually very entertaining and good, probably due to the strength BBC has with period piece. This time though, it’s so good it brings me to tears in the end. First of all the writer of the episode is Richard Curtis, you heard it right, the writer behind most of your favorite British romantic comedies – Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones, and Love Actually! And to bring in such an experienced writer you can really see the difference in the quality of the script! The subject matter also have additional emotional resonance because Vincent Van Gogh is such a tragic figure and yet his painting brings out the best of humanity. Depression is something that every one can connect with. Here is the greatest painter of all time that when he was alive he never find out people love and celebrate his paintings. In a sci-fi setting of Doctor Who, we got to witness the what-if – what if Van Gogh can witness his popularity nowadays, what is his reaction! and that scene was so powerful! The use of Athlete’s song Chances is particularly moving as well. Last but not least I have to praise the casting decision of Tony Curran as Vincent Van Gogh. Their resemblance is uncanny! Put some 19 century clothes on and he is Vincent Van Gogh!!

Air Video

hal9209 — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:34:36 +0000

There used to be an app on the iPhone called Simplify Media. What it did was to stream the music that was sitting in your home computer to your iPhone over the air. No matter where you go you would have access to every song in your library, as long as you have cell reception. It works as advertised but for my huge iTunes Library, it seems a bit slow. Not to mention as a New Yorker, I dash in and out of the subway all the time, if I completely rely on this app I would have no music to play. So I rather sync my music to iPhone the “old-fashion” way. Then Google bought Simplify Media take it off the app store, and transform it into a streaming music feature on the upcoming android 2.2 OS.

Anyway, that wasn’t really what I want to talk about, I was simply providing a background. What I want to talk about is an app called Air Video, which does what Simplify Media did to music, but for your videos on the computer! What’s more amazing is that it does it fast, and not only over wi-fi but 3G as well!!! In addition, your video don’t even need to be iPhone compatible at all, because it convert the video on the fly! so even if you have videos that are in Real Video, WMV, AVI, MKV, DIVX, you name it, it can show it on your iPhone over the air. To me it’s like magic! Seriously I am now able to watch some HD quality video files that are like 2.GB + big that I have in my computer on my iPhone! Now I don’t have to keep two copies like what I used to if I want to have high quality file at home while bring a smaller copy with me on the iPhone!

If you know about converting video files takes time, and yet this app can do it instantly so that you are watching the video on the iPhone right away is what makes it magical! It’s so easy to access your entire video library from home using this app. Now I don’t have an iPad just yet, but imagine you use it on the iPad, You can now buy the lowest capacity iPad but can access unlimited videos from your own home computer! Now one slight problem is that it doesn’t work with videos that has DRM, which means, ironically, any videos you bought digitally legally.

For me it just works so well that I think it’s one of the best 3 dollars I spent on the app store! If you still isn’t convince, you can download the free version and try it out yourself!

Lost Exhibit

hal9209 — Sun, 23 May 2010 03:16:51 +0000

While Lost is coming to an end this weekend, there’s an exhibit that bring the artifacts from that mysterious island to this island – Manhattan! The exhibit is in the Vilcek Foundation in the Upper East Side. Vilcek Foundation concentrates on the contributions of immigrants to the sciences, arts and culture in the United States. Lost, aside from being an international television hit series, is also a result of collaborations of a diverse casts and crews of which many of them are immigrants or first-generation descendants of immigrants. That’s why it is exhibiting in this unique place instead of other much more well-known museums in New York.

As a fan of the show this exhibit is a must-see! Many original set pieces and recognizable props are on display. From the Dharma van to their beer cans, the jaghead, the stone engraving of the temple, Ben’s fake passport, Oceanic Airline’s tickets, Hurley’s lottery tickets and many many more! It is a small exhibit that will only last for about 2 weeks, so if you want to see it you better hurry up!!

(I am not labeling my pictures below because if you are a fan of the show you will recognize what these are!)

Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Exhibition

hal9209 — Sun, 23 May 2010 02:52:37 +0000

I always love the East River State Park in Williamsburg despite it’s barren appearance with absolutely nothing but a lawn and some stones. I suppose the combination of the Manhattan skyline and waterfront is more than made up for the lack of anything else. Last week I walked by and found out that there is a Sculpture Exhibition going on inside the park. I was excited to see it. To me they have no uniform theme or anything, but I find them to be a nice addition that actually blend in to the park itself and think it would be good if they could be made permanent, well, at least some of them.

One of them that should stay is Nathan Slate Joseph’s steel stones labeled “Balls.” Because of the use of the most industrial material, but in the form of a natural stone, it just fit perfectly with this park with its industrial past. Howard Kalish’s “Child” is like a giant version of those kids’ plastic toy ball that can expand and collapse, while Sarah Fonzi’s “Machine Lace on Torchon Ground” could have been mistaken as a still peacock’s feather fan from afar.

Aside from the sculptures, there are some new additions to the park that are actually permanent – Kids’ playground! All of them made out of wood, there’s a cute wood train that line up with the historic tracks that are still embedded in the ground from the industrial past and some jumping platforms and a see-saw-like human scale. Aside from the kids who can enjoy them, I actually witness some adults who plays with them as well.

Iron Man 2

hal9209 — Tue, 18 May 2010 02:44:14 +0000

Iron Man 2 is less about the actions and the explosions that comes with a typical summer blockbuster superhero movie but comedy with really good actors, and occasionally, actions. Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow are masters at delivering comedy through dialogues. They don’t even need to do any physical comedy to make you laugh. Just the way they interact with each other is good enough. Throw in a few extremely good comedic actors like Sam Rockwell (who is always awesome playing a*hole character), driver/director Jon Favreau and Garry Shandling as the sleazy Senator, what more can you ask for? Then there’s scary Micky Rourke that just dominated the screen whenever he’s on it and the sexy Scarlett Johansson and the always fun to have Samuel L Jackson. Seriously the only problem I have with the cast is Don Cheadle, who is just too stiff and serious, it’s too bad Terrence Howard couldn’t come back because he price himself out, he was a much better fit because he can lighten up and be serious at the same time.

I also love the setting of using Flushing Meadow Park’s old World Fair site as a main plot device and location. The place is really beautiful at its prime, too bad in reality there’s no money for upkeep and it is now fallen in disrepair and most likely will remain so. However, the movie version really show how fantastic it could look! Another point in the movie are the not so subtle hints of how this movie tie into the rest of Marvel superheroes world and the upcoming movies. The shield of Captain America, the hammer of Thor, and the ever present Nick Fury. Few movies can do such a crossover connect the dot kind of thing because in large movies are independent creation, unless they are in a trilogy or so. Pixar’s movies has all kind of easter egg images from all their previous and future films, but that’s about it, not that many films can do such a crossover connection. I really dig this kind of thing and I can’t wait to see the rest of Marvel movies for them to connect the dots!