Transformers 3 has been filming in Chicago for the past few weeks. La Salle and Wacker have been closed and helicopters circling in the sky occasionally.

This week my normal car park near the office was closed “for a special event”. On Monday when I walked past, I saw a couple of huge trucks, Optimus Prime sized, as well as an awesome red fire truck and a whole line of Hummers at the back. The security guard said no photos, but whispered to me that he’s told to say that and if I kept moving he won’t do anything. So I quickly took one of the red fire truck.

Wednesday when I left work there were about 10 people at the entrance openly taking pictures. So I took a bunch. Optimus Prime was still there, but the line of Hummers were gone. There were a few other cars, like a taxi and a black SUV. But no Bumblebee. Bummer.

Managed to take 12 pics at the car park. I haven’t been able to catch any of the filming. Set here: flickr.

The idea was to check into the hotel then go check out new shirts at hard rock café and get tickets for wicked later this week. But lunch with J&R didn’t finish till past 3pm, we were talking so much. I had to hurry to the hotel, there wasn’t enough time to get the tube, had to get a taxi to piccadilly circus by 5pm to catch drones as part of the sci-fi london festival. I know I’m supposed to gush lovingly about the film, but truth is, it was okay and I fell asleep several times. It was shot over 2 weeks in an empty office building and is all about discovering that your best friend and girlfriend are both aliens and eventually there is a “save-the-earth” scenario. I could see how it would attract a cult following, with its deadpan humour and obviously actors, writers and directors who put a lot of care into it. May be one of these days when I’m less tired I’ll give it another chance.

Running back at the hotel on the treadmill. Dinner was salt beef sandwich from the Brick Lane shop. The internet in the room is free but slow (there is high speed, which costs money), good enough for me.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDxcHXrPxhs

I have the itinerary for london, ticket will be issued tomorrow. I’ll be there on bank holiday Monday, so time to plan some activity. It so happens that drones will be showing as part of the sci-fi london festival. I reserved my ticket. £8, plus 60p booking fee. Not too bad.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P78pl1FUXfA

Perfect timing, Jeff Bridges wins this year’s Oscar, and the first trailer for Tron Legacy comes out.

I was the absolute right age for the original Tron. I loved, loved, loved it. Who didn’t? Even almost 30 years later, it doesn’t look its age. There was something magical about the film that’s hard to describe.

Man, December seems soooooo far away.

I went to see Avatar on IMAX 3D, it was awesome. The special effects were seamless, Pandora was so stunningly beautiful it’s difficult to describe. It’s as of today the second highest grossing movie behind Titanic, and it’s for sure that it will be the highest soon.

Of course, there’s a lot of media hype and every one and their uncle seems to have a different spin on it. Right wingers are up in arms because it cuts too close to the truth about corporate interests, indiscriminate use of force and disregard for other cultures. Others have picked up on its racist undertones. It’s even said to have caused depression.

Yes, the story is clichéd and the underlying warning message delivered to us by a giant hammer unlike, well, what District 9 managed to do. But D9 was made by a South African, and Avatar is so utterly American. I can’t help but think that giant unsubtle hammer is the only way of delivering these political messages nowadays, and all power to James Cameron to do that, and entertain us in the process.

But anyway, back to the film. There is nothing to fault. There are so many colours and light and surprises on Pandora. My first impression was that it’s like a combination of Endor and Laputa, but it’s much much more. So much care has been put to create landscape, plants and creatures in such detail it is hard to believe it’s all in our imagination. The theme of nature-energy-force-we-are-all-connected-to-mother-earth theme is nothing new (I half expected someone to say ‘midi-chlorians’), and yes I cringed when they started doing voodoo-like chants, but at the end it’s all so, so good. I want to run and jump and fly and shout like a hunter-warrior. I want to sleep in those pod-hammocks. I want to ride the Toruk. I want to touch Eywa herself. For such an unsubtle film, there is an unexpected depth. I’m still thinking about it, and mulling over my experience. I won’t forget this film in a long time.

video link: http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/district-9/trailer

I opened up the NYT today and immediately was drawn to the review of a new film produced by Peter Jackson. District 9 is an alien film with a difference. Yes, there are ugly, dripping aliens who can’t speak Earth. They look dangerous. But it’s not your regular sci-fi film. It’s DEEP and looks amazing and the more poignant because it’s from South Africa. The LA Times says,

In a good summer, there’s usually a movie that will come out of nowhere and completely wow us. This is a good summer, and that movie is District 9.

I don’t know how I can do it, but I need to find the means to go see this one.

Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen movies you’ve seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what movies my friends choose. I hope you participate, even if you didn’t get tagged.

1. Star Wars
2. Lord of the Rings series
3. Casablanca
4. The Great Escape
5. My Fair Lady
6. Reality Bites
7. St Elmo’s Fire
8. Streets of Fire
9. Ladyhawke
10. Chance
11. Il Mare / The Lake House
12. X-files: Fight the Future
13. Blade Runner
14. In the Mood for Love
15. When Harry Met Sally

So, we went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t read the book, I know i need to finish the series. I didn’t mind that the film would spoil the book. Wow, the kids have grown up. I want to see it again already, it was awesome.

When I lived in NYC, I remember watching some Julia Child. I had no idea of her significance or influence on Americans, just that she seemed important in a Delia Smith sort of way. This film looks really really good. I even checked out julie powell’s current blog.

I have zero comics / graphic novels cred. I want to be all geeky about it, but alas I never got round to it. This looks absolutely fascinating.

meme #12. Tagged by Bobbi.

Instructions: A list of every movie to ever be nominated for a BEST PICTURE Academy Award follows. For each year, the film to actually win the Oscar is listed first. Mark every film you have seen, total them up, and divide the total by your age.

Very long list behind the cut.

meme #11. Tagged by Car who, together with airlines, provides me with film entertainment.

SUPPOSEDLY if you’ve seen over 85 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own Facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put x’s next to the films you’ve seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun.

( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total: 6

( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
(x) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 9

( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 13

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 18

(x) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
( ) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
( ) Robots
Total so far: 21

( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
( ) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
( ) King Kong
Total so far: 23

( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-mas
( ) Flubber
Total so far: 24

( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 26

(x) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
( ) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 28

( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean’s Eleven
(x) Ocean’s Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog (the original)
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 30

(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 34

( ) Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
(x) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
( ) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 44

(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 54

( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street [the original]
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 54

(x) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 60

( ) Basketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
(x) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 61

( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
( ) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 63

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
( ) Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
Total so far: 65

( ) Kill Bill vol 1
( ) Kill Bill vol 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 65

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 71

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
Grand Total: 75

Long flight, with a 4 hour transit in the middle. I’ve been up for I don’t know how many hours, eaten all sorts of unhealthy food, and slept on and off.

i shouldn’t complain. I can hang out at the lounge, I have comfortable seats on the plane. And there is on demand movies and tv programs. Planes are where i watch the latest films, sometimes even catching up on old ones.

This trip I watched Eagle Eye, Ghost town and Juno. i find that i tend to gravitate towards smash bang adventures or light comedies on planes — anything else is too heavy. Eagle Eye was so implausible and kinda silly, but i loved the mindless loudness. Ghost Town was funny in places, but i wouldn’t have wanted to pay for it. Juno was really good, as all the reviews said when it came out.

Ignore the fact that mm had to work over the weekend. We’d originally (or rather, I’d begged and begged) planned to see the X-files movie sometime over the weekend. But when I got back I found out that it was on for a week, then disappeared. Either The Dark Knight was too strong, or the people here too stupid to remember. I suppose I have to be resigned to waiting for the dvd.

I’m reminded of this strange article in the USA Today a couple of weeks ago. Most of the article was blurb about the film, which appeared with all the other blurbs out there. But the bits about the Museum of Jurassic Technology inserted into the article were truly weird, like they were trying to be as weird as the show in the early days of the mythology and it ends up seeming forced.

Unfortunately the reviews of the film were pretty harsh. Perhaps Chris Carter was trying too hard? Trying to satisfy the formerly faithfuls while trying not to confuse newcomers. It’s like trying to park a car with 2 open spaces, you’re never as focused as when you have only one space available.

I dunno. May be I managed to convince myself that the film wasn’t worth the hype and anticipation cos I missed it. I may have felt differently if we’d gone and seen it. May be. I hope they aren’t too disappointed and bounce back with a third movie. After all, we still haven’t used the tagline The Truth is Out There.

Quiet reading day today. I hadn’t done much reading during the week between eating out, jetlag and watching the travel channel. I got through 2 books before dinner (okay, that includes last night).

We spent a little time persuading Gram to come watch Mamma Mia with us and were pleased when she agreed finally. It wasn’t a wasted trip cos she was laughing and humming along.

I saw the musical with mm a few years ago and the film followed the musical pretty loyally. The reviews have been mixed but my reaction to the film is that it was very enjoyable. Sure, Meryl Streep was extra twitchy, Pierce Brosnan can’t sing, Colin Firth was hideously underused and there was an uncurrently of cheesiness to the whole endeavour. But I suspect the viewers weren’t supposed to take it too seriously, and the reviewers who trashed it were probably those who didn’t know how to let their hair down and just have fun. I really wanted to sing along with the songs but was too shy, heehee.

Less than 2 weeks from the opening of the one film I’ve been looking forward to all year, the New York Times tells us that Chris Carter has a message for us.

CHRIS CARTER, the creator of “The X-Files,” has a message for anyone who, some time during the show’s nine-season run, threw up his hands trying to figure out exactly what was going on with the extraterrestrial abductions, the black-oil aliens, the metal sinus implants, the Syndicate, the Cigarette Smoking Man, Mulder’s sister, Scully’s baby, Mulder’s father, Scully’s cancer, the colonists, the Lone Gunmen, Deep Throat and all the rest of the show’s staggeringly complex and often murky mythology:

You can come back now.

I love that all the players are back. The producers, the stars, the back-to-early-seasons standalone type story. Great article. Must read.

I have no idea how much time I’ve spent waiting for mm. So when we were trying to arrange to meet after her church, I left plenty of time. She said 12.30pm, so I said 12.45pm, knowing that it means her 12.40pm at the earliest.

But by a strange type of luck: a) she was done early and b) I left my cellphone at home. So she got there really early and got tickets. I got there my usual 15 mins early and I got tickets.

Oooooooops.

With some persistence we were able to exchange the tickets for Price of Caspian in a couple of weeks’ time. Phew.

We were at the cinema to see Ironman. It was awesome. All that gadgetry … drool. But accomplished dramatic actors as Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges brought sensitivity and acting — who would have thought the 3 of them in a blockbuster superhero film. The CGI was flawless, there was enough story to add to the action, and so what if some of the technology was too fantastic? It’s a superhero film!

Definitely comparable to Transformers.

It’s official, the X-files 2 movie will be called X-files: I Want to Believe. Chris Carter said, “It’s a natural title.”

It won’t deal too much into the mythology, but rather will be an earthbound standalone story aimed at both die-hard fans and newcomers. Chris Carter has a good point:

“It has struck me over the last several years talking to college-age kids that a lot of them really don’t know the show or haven’t seen it. If you’re 20 years old now, the show started when you were 4. It was probably too scary for you or your parents wouldn’t let you watch it. So there’s a whole new audience that might have liked the show. This was made to, I would call it, satisfy everyone.”

I don’t know about other fans, but my first reaction was that if they wanted to use a familiar phrase, they really should have used The Truth is Out There, unless they wanted to save it for film #3. That said, I don’t give a damn what they call it, 10 years is a long time to wait for the second film and July can’t come quickly enough for me. There are so many unresolved issues, like the baby, like what happened at the end of Fight the Future, the baby, and most importantly:

I have a soft spot for charming, off-beat, Sundance-type of films. Sideways, What’s Cooking, Before Sunrise (but not Before Sunset), Oldboy, an obscure French film called Nanou, and I’ll admit it…Reality Bites are ones that I remember long after I’ve seen them.

I watched Once on the plane. It won the World Cinema Audience Award at this year’s Sundance. And well deserved, it was absolutely charming and wonderful. A simple story — an Irish busker meets immigrant woman and they find music, friendship and love. There’s a lot of chemistry between the 2 leads, who are more musicians than actors; and for a short film the character development was fantastic. A sign of quirkiness is that the characters were never named, just going by “Guy” and “Girl”; it also has the type of ending I enjoy.

The film starts with a man and a guitar. My first thought was, it’s another Chance! No offense to Amber Benson, but this is what Chance tried, but couldn’t quite get to be. Conceived by director John Carney as a “video album” much of the film was just the leads singing some songs. And what songs! Wow. A commenter wrote on the Time Out London review wrote:

The kind of film which overwhelms me in its breathless scope. Genuine, big hearted, generous. It touches at our romantic notions if we have them. I wanted them to be together. I wanted to listen to the songs over and over again with my own sense of resonance with my own meaning in perception of it. I felt emotional but I didn’t cry, I just recognised my own experience of life through this film.

The official website streams the songs endlessly and I’ve been listening to them all night. There’s an official soundtrack but Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová also recorded a cd of songs called The Swell Season — some of the songs are on the film, some are not.

I shouldn’t put 2 videos in one post but I simply have to. This next one is of Glen and Markéta performing “If You Want me” my favourite song from the film. I actually rewound a couple of times when i was watching to listen to it again.

ETA: some stats. The film cost $160,000 and has grossed over $14million worldwide as of 6-Dec-07. The soundtrack was #1 on the iTunes soundtrack chart. There’s low level Oscar buzz too.

We went to see Transformers mainly at my behest. I kinda wanted to see a film and there weren’t so many choices. I’ve heard of Transformers as toys and a cartoon when I was young, but I was never into it. I mean, I’ve seen my fair share of Japanese giant robot cartoons, but I didn’t obsessively follow them, nor found them memorable.

When the film started and the military base was being attacked, mm was scared and I was afraid she wouldn’t like the film.

Then the action got bigger, and everything got bigger. (Come on, it’s a Michael Bay film after all.) I was flabbergasted at the CGI effects — so seamless, to make the solid mechanical transformers move so fluidly. Wow, ILM really did their stuff. mm was getting into it too, so that was a relief.

We thought it was a very enjoyable film, one of the best we’d seen in a while. Yes the dialogue was clichéd and exposition-like at times; some of the human characters were extraneous and parts of the film were plain corny. But it’s not high drama — it’s a action film that’s based on toys! The main characters are the robots, there isn’t supposed to be a great human story there.

Like one of the critics said on rotten tomatoes: “there is so much action packed into every second of Transformers that by the time it’s over, you may be tempted to go outside and give the box office another 10 bucks.”