These commercials for the Sony Bravia displays are amazing.

Sony Bravia Ad - Making Of

DVD Extras Review:

Usually the best part of DVD extras are the commentaries. That definitely is not the case here. There is only one commentary and that’s by the director. There are two main problems with it: Jon Amiel, the director, is British. While that isn’t a problem in and of itself, unless your French, he does have a very monotone voice and tends to, how to say this without sounding too harsh, he sounds as boring as an afternoon tea with the queen. Now, aside from the director’s commentary the “making of” extra is worth watching if you’re into that sort of thing.

To be fair, many commentaries given by just one person tend to be rather boring. So lets not be too hard on the old chap. I love The Core ($11.99 at Amazon.com) even though it’s just good SciFi flick. The best reason to love this movie is that it makes heroes out of everyday scientists. Okay, these are like super-scientists but still. I love seeing geeks as heroes and it’s something that kids need to see. Yes, science is cool.

As a SciFi movie The Core is very watchable. Forget the fact that it’s off the scale unrealistic. They’re making a movie about going to the core of the earth, what’d you expect. Disliking this movie based on the plot’s implausibility would be like saying Star Trek is stupid because every scientist knows that you can’t travel faster than light. To which I would quote one of the characters from The Core, “Yes, but what if you could.”

The Core doesn’t take itself to seriously either which is important for a movie like this. They’re reference to “unobtainium” is great. (As far as I know unobtainium comes from a review that panned the movie Armageddon in which the reviewer said that the shuttles must have been made out of it in order to bounce off asteroids.)

Aside from the geek-hero this movie offers first rate acting. Tchéky Karyo, Aaron Eckhart, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo and Hilary Swank among others are superb actors. This movie has a female hot-shot pilot, a genius African American, who invents the probe all by himself in the desert, and a French man who is the nuclear bombs specialist - okay, that’s the most unrealistic part of the movie. This movie isn’t about high drama but it has its moments.

The Core also has the obligatory distruction of a prime city. In this case it’s Rome. It’s about time because Paris got obliterated in Armageddon, London gets it’s fair share of abuse and the only good thing to come from 911 is that New York City can be spared from cinematic destruction for at least a few more years. Think about it: the Big Apple got munched on by Godzilla, terrorized in The Siege, laser blasted in Independence Day, smacked around in Armageddon, and sunk in Deep Impact.

The FX are okay. I like the design of the ship and aside from that they just had a bunch of scenes full of magma. (Hey, it’s not lava. Lava is magma that has reached the earth’s surface. It’s the same as the asteroid/meteorite confusion.)
If you have kids make them watch this movie. We need all the positive portrayals of scientists we can get.

The Core was also partly responsible for a geologist proposing a real probe being sent into Earth’s mantle. You can read about it at Wired Online and at Cal Tech’s website.

I’ve always loved the move Sneakers. Not just because it appeals to the geek in me but because it is a finely crafted film.

Listening to the Writers/Director voice over on the DVD brings home the craft of what it’s like to write a fine piece of film. Not only does it help you appreciate this movie more but other well-made films.

Movie Synopsis: Lets keep this simple. It’s about a group of men who get paid to break into secured systems in order to test a companies security. Their leader, played by Robert Redford, has a past that they are not aware of. Two men hire/blackmail Redford’s character into doing a job for them. The job is fairly simple, it’s to recover a little black box from a professor of mathematics. It’s at this point that everything goes to hell for our main characters. To say any more would give away too much of a wonderful story.

Even though this movie is now over 12 years old it still remains timely. Credit that to the writers who had the foresight to see the role information would play in our society with the emergence of the Internet in our everyday lives and the birth of the World Wide Web.

Just a few years after this movie came out we had movies like Hackers and The Net that are in the same genre as Sneakers. It’s amazing to think back and see that this movie, which came out before the common person had ever heard of email, web pages, or the Internet, is one of the better Technology Fiction movies of our time.

The voice over given by the writer/directer Phil Alden Robinson and writer Lawrence Lasker is enlightening. Not just for the occasional bit of trivia - like that the scene in the beginning of the movie where Martin Bryce is standing in a snowy courtyard is the town square courtyard from Back to the Future - but also for the insight into what it’s like to write a screenplay. They bring up many instances of having additional scenes in the screenplay that were unneccesary or how many of the scenes play a dual or even triple role. I even learned a new screen writing term: Laying Pipe; adding something innocuous to a scene that is later shown to be instrumental in a later scene.

Note: the writer Lawrence Lasker also wrote the script for War Games which they talk about a few times during the VO.

The music score for the movie is from James Horner who also did Braveheart and Titanic. It would be redundant to mention that it is first rate.

A few suggestions for good romantic SciFi/Fantasy movies, including classics like The Princess Bride, plus a few you might not have considered. I thought I’d throw this together for those SF geeks and geek-lovers out there, those who want to watch a good Science Fiction or Fantasy movie with your clone, robot, replicant, elf, hobbit, alien hottie, human, etc. on Valentine’s Day:

Blade Runner
This movie has to go near the top of the list for anything related to SciFi movies. It’s not just one of the best SciFi movies ever it’s also a very romantic movie. It’s two people looking for answers and finding each other. Oh, did I say “people”? I’m not sure, are replicants people? Does replicant love count? These are the questions Philip K. Dick would be thinking about. And after the movie you could tell your partner, “I’d love you even if you were a replicant.”

GATTACA
In a perfect world two imperfect people find each other. A beautifully filmed movie. They did everything just right. It’s a shame it doesn’t get more credit.

Bicentennial Man
Wow, what a happy sad movie. I cried SO hard at the end. And that doesn’t happen often. I can only think of one other movie that is as happy/sad at the end and that’s the Color Purple.

Fifth Element
Man, was that a whopper of a kiss at the end of the movie or what?

Star Man
Ah, an oldy but a goody. Starman’s speech to the scientist at near the end of the movie is some of the most poignant words ever in a SciFi film. And of course there’s the gift that he gives Karen Allen at the end. (Note to men: if your partner wants to have children and you don’t then do NOT watch this film with her or you’ll be sorry.)

The Matrix
You know, this really doesn’t count because you kinda have to watch all three movies in a row to see the depth of romance between Neo and Trinity. But think about it, Neo dies at the end of The Matrix and Trinity brings him back. Then the roles are reversed at the end of Reloaded and of course Neo sacrifices all of humanity for the chance to save her. Then they both die at the end of Revolutions. If you get a chance to listen to the philosopher’s commentaries on the box set they talk about Neo and Trinity being one soul. Of course Trinity doesn’t get the credit but Neo could never have achieved what he did without his love for Trinity.

Superman
The first Superman movie still stands out as one of the best comic adaptations ever. And talk about romance, Superman reverses the Earth’s spin just to save his love, L.L.

Lord of the Rings/Return of the King
I know what you’re thinking, “Dude, there are only three women with any significant role in the whole series - Arwen, Galadriel, and Eowyn.” But, at the end of the movie we have Aragorn and Arwen hooking up. (Did you notice that Elrond/Hugo Weaving was crying in the background?) Eowyn and Faramir are together and of course Sam and Rosie Cotton are married and have children. And you know, I’ve always wondered about the friendship that Gimli and Legolas formed.

The Princess Bride
This might be the best of the list, at least as a Valentien’s Day movie. Because you know, “Nothing is better than true love, except maybe a MLT sandwich - you know: Mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich; when the mutton is real fresh. Ummm, I just love those.”

Note: I’m playing fast and loose with history here. The details aren’t important. It’s the perceptions that I’m speaking to.

In college I had a professor who was talking to the class about the Napoleonic wars. He set the stage for us by telling us how Europe was transitioning into a modern society and they knew it. For the first time in history people were looking at their present and realizing that it was different than the past.

You know how sometimes someone will ask you how your day was and you say, “Same old. Same old.” That’s how life was before around the 1700s, give or take a few hundred years. Point is that most men and women did what their mothers and fathers had done and that’s pretty much how life had been for generations enumerable.

The point here is that Europeans in the 1800s had a sence that they were permanently different than their ancestors and that maybe they wouldn’t even have any more wars. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Then of course everything went to pot when Napoleon started marching around the continent. Not only were they disappointed that they were back at war but this was really bad. They had cannons and muskets and things that made a real mess out of some really nice estates. Not to mention the raping and pillaging that the soldiers did along the way which is pretty much what soldiers had always done.

So just when they thought they were finally pulling themselves out of the mud they fell into a shit hole.

That’s the essence of what my professor was communicating to us.

I raised my hand and said, “But you know, we did get Beethoven’s 9th Symphony out of it.” That pretty much got me a “globber” from everyone in the class including the professor.

My point was that, while it may have been really crappy for those stuck in the mess it’s really pretty far removed from us now. Plus we’ve seen things like the Holocaust and such that makes the Napoleonic wars look like a garden party.

But it was the tragedy of those times that inspired Beethoven’s 9th. That symphony will endure. When the Alps are worn down into gentle rolling hills the air will still occasionally vibrate to the tune of Beethoven’s 9th.

So were the Napoleonic wars bad? Is it appropriate to label something historical in that way? Certainly as we distance ourselves from it we are more inclined to focus on the greatness that they produced instead of the horror they suffered.

So what of today? How will people of the future view the events of today and near future? I think of this often when I think of what might be in store for humanity if global warming turns into a worse case scenario.

Perhaps in the generations to follow they will think of us today, the agents of global warming, as the unknowing saviors of the human race. It could be our actions that in the immediate future will be universally considered “bad” that leads to the next evolution of humanity into a true global society. And so our distant children will be thankful that we blundered yet gave birth to something they cherish.

Then again, maybe we’re all doomed. At any rate. I often think of Shakespeare’s quote in Hamlet who said, “There is nothing neither good nor bad. But thinking makes it so.”

Although Douglas Adams is best known for writing the science fiction novels of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy he did write a none fiction book called, A Last Chance to See.

I think A Last Chance to See is some of his funniest and best work and it’s all true. The book describes his adventures with the zooligist Mark Carwardine as they travel around to see some of the most endangered creatures in the world.

They visit such places as Madagascar, Zaire, New Zealand - the South Island, Mauritius, Bali - the ugly part, not the part that David Attenborough saw - and the Island of Komodo where they have, you guessed it, Komodo Dragons.

Along the way they get to see, or hear, dolphins, gorillas, hippos, spiders, snakes, aye-ayes, kakapos, giant elands, rhrinos, hyenas and lots of other animals.

Everywhere they go there is an adventure and Douglas Adams makes even a sleepless night listening to dogs fighting sound hilarious.

I got to meet Douglas Adams at a book convention once. He read a chapter from his latest book, So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish which he was there promoting. He also read chapter eight from the The Restaurant and the end of the Universe. You know, the bit about Marvin and the tank. And then he read a part from this other book A Last Chance to See. That was one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. It was the meeting with Dr. Struan Sutherland. If you want to know a little bit about venomous animals read this part. It’s only a few pages long but it may take a while to read. That’s only because it’s hard to read and cry with laughter at the same time.

In the end the book is much more than just a few laughs. It’s a look at how we are treating our animal kin. And as funny as the book is the last chapter is perhaps the most poignant material I have ever read. You’ll have to check it out for yourself.

In the end it’s good enough that I have bought at least five copies of the book myself because I keep giving it away to friends. You’ll have to get your own.

I love British films. Films like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sliding Doors, Notting Hill, Love Actually. I could go on but it would be easier to just go to list all the films that Hugh Grant has been in. Now I can add another movie to my list of favorite British flicks: Shaun of the Dead.

Shaun of the Dead is fantastic comedy and social commentary. I especially like the beginning part where everyone seems like they are zombies but they’re really just plain British folks going about their boring, daily lives. The middle part of the movie is loads of fun. Most zombie movies have some super hero guy/gal who kicks some zombie ass. Not this film. We get an average bloke with a cricket bat. And as with all zombie films we get to wonder which main character gets munched next. The denouement is good fun to.

Basically Shaun of the Dead is good fun from beginning to end.

Few people outside of Brittan will recognize any of the cast and crew but they did the British TV-series “Spaced”. Come to think of it “Spaced” only ran for 2 years in Brittan so there may not be many people in Brittan who recognize the cast/crew. Nevertheless Shaun of the Dead has a TV quality cinematography to it. Not that it’s bad or anything. This isn’t a film that is based on cool filming or special effects. Although the Fx are better than those in Phantom Menace. (Note: there are no Fx in Shaun of the Dead.)

The film is simply about a guy who hasn’t gotten anywhere with his life, who has a mundane job, and a predictable social life. Basically your typical British bloke. And just when he decides to suss out his life all zombie breaks loose.

Perfect (pur’ fikt)
1. Complete of its nature or kind.
2. Being without defect or blemish: a perfect specimen.
3. Thoroughly skilled or talented in a certain field or area; proficient.
4. Completely suited for a particular purpose or situation: She was the perfect actress for the part.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow may not be the best movie ever; I wouldn’t even say that it’s my favorite SciFi film. However, I do think it was perfect. It’s perfect because after re watching it and listening to the commentaries I just can’t imagine that it could have been any better.

It’s impossible to review Sky Captain and not talk about the beautiful visuals and the style of which the film was shot. The work they did is just incredible. I’m not going to name names here - Phantom Menace - but there have been many recent SciFi films that have over used CGI. Often it’s like watching a cartoon and a film spliced together and the effect just comes off as amateurish. Sky Captain brings the best of CGI and cinematography together seamlessly, and, dare I say, perfectly.

But don’t think that Sky Captain is just a bunch of cool visuals. The story here is fabulous. It captures the early SciFi films of the 40s and 50s. You know, those films that used to come on TV during late Sunday afternoons. These were SciFi films that threw caution, and realism, to the aether. An innocent time when things were so much more unbelievably believable and realistically impossible.

Sky Captain comes close to being a parody. The secret base is always remotely located right around the corner; robots the size of buildings can fly - much like bricks don’t; planes can fly underwater and of course they save the day at the last possible moment. However, the story is well paced. It doesn’t slow down enough for you to say to yourself, “This is ridiculous.” Instead it’s more of an homage to the early classics in much the same way as <em>Raiders of the Lost Ark</em>.

Beyond that there is the interaction of the characters. Even here they draw inspiration from the classics. Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow play off each other wonderfully. Again, it reminds me of Karen Allen and Harrison Ford in <em>Raiders</em>. Plus you have to give all of the actors kudos for acting on a mostly empty stage surrounded by blue screens.

The DVD has all the extras you would want. There’s the commentary with Writer/Director Karry Conran and the VFX Crew. I enjoyed that mainly because I like hearing of the technical details and easter eggs in the film. There’s another commentary with the producer Jon Avnet that is okay. It’s hard for one person talking to do much with a commentary.

I wish they would have had a commentary with Gwen and Jude but that probably would have been pretty boring, “Hey, remember this scene? It’s where we were standing on a big, empty sound stage surrounded by blue walls. Oh, and this scene was great. I particularly liked sitting on a box, surrounded by blue walls, while pretending to drive a car.” It probably would have been a lot like that so maybe it’s best there was no actor’s commentary.

There are a few deleted scenes, a “gag reel” that’s full of bloopers and then “The Art of World of Tomorrow” that’s definitely worth watching.

The best part of the DVD extras is the two part “Brave New World” which is a behind the scenes look at making the movie. When you see that you’ll probably want to go out and buy another copy of the DVD just to give these guys some more money. This film was a vision of one man and the hard work of hundreds. People who put up with no money but wanted to see this project through. If you’ve ever thought of putting a film together you’ll want to see this.

Passwords used to be something that only kids with a tree house or CIA agents needed. Could you have imagined 10 years ago that you would have so many places where you would need passwords? Doubtful, unless you thought you would grow up to be a spy.

With the need for so many passwords it’s hard to keep them sorted out - of course, everyone tells you not to use something that is too personal that someone might be able to guess. So, here’s a list potential passwords from, mostly, science fiction movies.

Star Trek

• 16309 : Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan: The prefix number for Reliant’s combination code.
• 17346721476C3278977763T732V731171888732476789764376 : From Star Trek: TNG, “Brothers”. This is the password that Data uses - while imitating Picard’s voice - to lock out the Enterprise’s computer.
• aaaDistructA : Star Trek: The Search for Spock: Kirk’s distruct code for the Enterprise.

The Matrix Trilogy

• B166ER : From the Animatrix: This is the first robot to murder a human and get the war between man and machine started.
• 2-19-96 13:24:18 : The date and time that the movie starts.
• 312-555-0690 : Trinity’s phone number - you have to read the script for this one.
• room1313 : The room where Neo meets Morpheus.
• room303 : The room Trinity is in at the beginning of the movie.
• room101 : The apartment Neo lives in inside the Matrix.

X-Files

• MN1068-06 : In Redux II (5.03) Mulder finds Scully’s file in the basement of the Pentagon. Inside is the vile that contains the microchip that cures Scully’s cancer.
• trustno1 : Little Green Men (2.01) Mulder’s password is ‘trustno1′, the final words spoken by Deep Throat in the first season’s closer.
• 202-555-1030 : Call this number to for the cure for cancer.
• 1013-113 : Gibson Praise’s FBI file number.
• QUEEQUEG0925 : In the episode Trust No 1 Scully’s screen-name is QUEEQUEG0925. Queequeq was Scully’s dog in Season 3, which was eaten in ‘Quagmire’. 09/25 is the birthdate of Gillian Anderson’s daughter, Piper.
• Season 9 Credits : :  The opening credits for season 9 displayed a list of fan usernames and anagrams from character names. Visit the X-Files UK fan site for a complete list.

Contact

• W9GFO : Ellie Arroway’s HAM radio callsign
• 18h 36m 56.2s / +36d 47m 1.291s : Right ascension/declination for Vega
• 4.4623GHZ : Hydrogen x Pi - the frequency that the message was being transmitted on

Terminator

• 08/29/1997 : This is the date of Judgement Day according to the first two Terminator movies.
• 07/24/2004 : The date for Judgement Day in Terminator 3.

War Games

• CPE 1704 TKS : The launch code that Joshua “figures out” at the end of the movie.
• 399-2364 : The phone number that David used to call the Norad WOPR computer.
• RONCTTLA : The launch message given at the beginning of the movie.
• 220040DL : The authentication code for the launch message given to the officers in the silo.
• DLG2209TVX : The launch code given to the officers in the beginning of the movie
• PUBLIC, HANDLE, EFFORT, Points, Double, Pencil : The passwords to the school’s computer that David uses to change his grades.
• J08 9515 VNS : The launch code on the panel in the silo.
• 65050 : The high score on the video game that David is playing (I can’t remember the name of that game to save my life.)
• June 23, 1973: 062373 : The date reported as Falken’s faked death
• 7KQ201 : McKittrick’s username
• Joshua : And of course, the backdoor password that David figures out just to log into the WOPR computer

Sneakers

• SETEC ASTRONOMY : Anagram for: TOO MANY SECRETS
• 46-99402 : This is the first line from the movie. It’s the “ABA Source ID” for the Republican Parties checking account.
• 53-01138 : The “ABA Receive ID” that the money is being deposited into which belongs to the Black Panthers.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

• 90216 : The “Emergency Protocol” that is broadcast to call Sky Captain
• h1-1-od : The call letters on the side of Sky Captain’s plane. When seen reflected in the water it spells out “polly”.

Miscellaneous

• THX1138 : The name of George Lucas’ first film.
• Cell2187 : Star Wars IV A New Hope: The Death Star cell in which Princess Leah is being held.
• 9906753 : Raiders of the lost Ark: The number that is stenciled on the box which the Ark is placed in the government warehouse.
• AE35 : 2001: A Space Odyssey: The name of the antena that HAL reports has malfunctioned.
• LV-426 : Alien/Aliens: The planet where all hell brakes loose.
• Swordfish : Swordfish: The title of the movie comes from the classic 1932 Marx Brothers’ film, Horse Feathers (1932). “Swordfish” was the password for entering the speakeasy - one of the movie’s funniest scenes - and became the archetypal password (at least for older movie-goers).
• Mellon : “Speak Friend and enter”, From LOTR/Fellowship.

It’s snowing here in Seattle on Christmas day. My wife commented, sarcastically, “To some this would prove the existence of God.”

To which I replied, “To an epistimilogical skeptic this wouldn’t even prove the existence of snow. It would prove the perception of snow, to the observer. But since the observers’ existence remains in question it leaves the existence of snow unproven.”