Seems as if I’m doing nothing other than making up yearly goals for myself because my group is lacking a manager, and writing scripts to automate auditing tasks for this quarter.  For the past few days I’ve come home mentally drained with just enough energy to shake my head in quiet desperation, then pass out on the couch as dreams of winning the lottery dance though my head.

Ah well.  Such is life.  Perhaps I’ll take a bit of revenge out on work in subtle, passive-aggressive style:

Oh, and before I forget, check out this awesome new point-and-click adventure game called Machinarium. Anyone want to buy me a copy?

Kinda brings a happy tear to your eye, no?

This film pulls off such a macabre premise with style and flair that doesn’t rely on shocking violence, but instead thrives on brilliant characters and some of the most amazing set designs you’ll ever see on film.  Nothing short of a Terri Gilliam film could even come close to touching the style that this movie managed to capture.  Easy enough for the entire family to watch, but filled to the brim with enough bizarre situations and filming techniques to keep this flick firmly entrenched in cult status, this is one movie you can’t afford to miss.  

Luckily this film was re-released on DVD in 2008, and can easily be picked up from Amazon.  Be sure to check out Jean Jeunet and Marc Caro’s other film The City Of Lost Children, which stars a pre-Hellboy Ron Perlman.  TCoLC is about a scientist who steals the dreams of children in a bid for eternal life.  This movie is much like Delicatessen, but to the 10th power.  Best to ease into this one with a viewing of Delicatessen first…

Dominique Pinon (whom you might remember from the movie Alien Resurrection) plays an unemployed clown who's duped into becoming the latest in a long line of unfortunate handymen.

The Frog Man, who lives in an apartment inhabited with frogs and sails.

The fragile Aurore Interligator who believes that spirits in her apartment are urging her to kill herself in ever more complex ways.

The underground rebellion who live, literally, underground.

The mad butcher anxiously awaits the arrival of the newest handyman.

“Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day 
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say”

Let me tell you, when people say that “3D is the future of Hollywood”, they aren’t kidding.  Gone are the days of cheesy “poke a stick at the audience” effects.  James Cameron has shown the world how to make a 3-D movie that works.  It doesn’t pander to the audience with traditional gimmicky 3-D shots.  Rather, it seamlessly incorporates three dimensions into the story.  It does the job so well that you soon begin to forget that it’s a 3D film, and instead accept it as an natural, essential part of the story.  Your brain quickly conditions itself to embrace this film like none other before.  

It’s hard to explain, but when you’re thrown into the world of Pandora you actually feel that you’re witnessing something firsthand…that you’re a part of something.  It’s almost as if the 4th wall has been broken, and you, the audience, are in the briefing room with the Colonel Quaritch as he sternly tells you that you’re about to go on the offensive against the Na’vi, circling the great floating islands on the back of a Banshee, and jumping off a cliff as you attempt to run away from a sharp-fanged Thanator.  

I can understand why some people are watching this movie multiple times.  I hope that when this flick is released on blu-ray that it a 3D version is available.

Oh, and if you haven’t seen this movie yet, please do so before it leaves the theaters.  Watching this film on anything less than on an IMAX screen in 3D would be criminal.