Tag: movies

Disney buys Pixar

Post ImageLast week I mentioned that Disney was in talks to buy Pixar, and today they announced that the deal is done. Disney is paying $7.4 billion in stock for the company, and Steve Jobs will get a seat on the board:

As part of the deal, which is expected to be completed this summer, two Pixar veterans will head Disney’s animation efforts. Ed Catmull, who had served as Pixar’s president, was named president of the combined Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. John Lasseter, the Pixar executive vice president who is widely regarded as the studio’s creative leader, was named chief creative officer. Pixar will remain in its San Francisco Bay Area headquarters.

Additionally, Steve Jobs is now the largest individual shareholder of Disney. I think it’s a great move for Disney, as long as they execute properly – and by that I mean don’t screw things up.

What has been most successful for the two companies? Pixar made the movies, Disney handled the distribution. I don’t see any reason that should drastically change, so I hope the combined company still leaves the bulk of the creative stuff to Pixar.

Read: CNET News.com

Disney in talks to buy Pixar

Post ImageI was a little surprised to run across this article at Reuters this afternoon. Apparently Disney is in “serious talks” to buy Pixar Animation Studios, according to a report in the Wall Stree Journal:

The newspaper report said terms under discussion would have Disney pay a small premium to Pixar’s current stock market value of $6.7 billion. The deal would be a stock transaction and make Pixar Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs the biggest individual shareholder in Disney, the newspaper reported.

The talks are at a sensitive stage and other options are possible, including an agreement for Disney to distribute Pixar movies, the report said, citing people familiar with the situation.

Given that Jobs has been quite vocal about his dislike for Disney’s deal making in the past (though I am sure he wouldn’t mind being the largest shareholder), and considering the fact that Disney has already invested a lot of money in their own digital animation studio, the rumor is a bit surprising to me. I would be less surprised if the two worked out a new distribution deal for Pixar movies, all of which have been tremendously successful.

Of course, depsite all of that, the move would be great for Disney – a way to keep them relevant. Definitely another rumor to watch!

Read: Reuters

King Kong

Post ImageI went to see King Kong on Friday night, a movie I have been looking forward to seeing for quite a while. And I wasn’t looking forward to it because of Peter Jackson or any reason in particular, other than the fact that it looked pretty amazing in trailers and commercials. Overall, I’d say I came away quite impressed.

The film has an excellent rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and most of the negative reviews cite the fact that the film is over three hours in length as a drawback. After watching the movie though, I didn’t feel that it was excessively long at all! In fact, if I didn’t know any better I wouldn’t have thought it was a three hour movie. I thought it flowed quite well, and unlike some other long movies (Pearl Harbor, for example) there was no point at which you go “ah, it could have ended there.”

A group of us went on Friday, including Sharon who said that she really didn’t like Jack Black. I on the other hand was quite impressed by Jack Black and somewhat disappointed by Adrien Brody. I think Black played his character very well, even if he did have some of the cheesier lines in the movie. Brody on the other hand didn’t seem to make his character that endearing – I was less interested in his character than almost any other.

The CGI in King Kong is quite simply, amazing. There was only one, maybe two places where you think “ah that looks kind of like a green screen” or something. For the most part, I felt the CGI was so good you don’t even realize that you’re watching something that isn’t real. Well, aside from the fact that there are dinosaurs and bugs as large as houses. Some will say that the movie went overboard with all of the different creatures on the island, but I think it was an incredibly brave undertaking by Jackson and his crew, and it paid off. The movie would have been much less interesting if they hadn’t created an entirely new world with really a entire ecosystem all it’s own.

The stars of the movie, King Kong and Ann Darrow, were awesome. Naomi Watts was brilliantly cast, and she did a great job considering almost ever scene she’s in has tons of CGI. In a lot of places she looked kind of like Scarlett Johansson, but other than that, I don’t have any ideas for who else I would have cast. Andy Serkis once again brought a computer generated character to life, and he did a great job at it indeed. Kong is very believable throughout the movie.

There were only minor oddities with the film. For instance, the beginning of the movie does a good job of portraying Depression-era New York (the film takes place in 1933) but when Denham and his team return from the island a month or so later with Kong, everyone seems rich again. People will think the creatures were overdone, but I think the Natives were overdone. I mean really, they were incredibly too ugly, and far too scary. The airplanes at the end seemed kind of fake, but fortunately they were probably the worst of the CGI. Maybe it’s because I have seen Serendipity too many times, but I felt that the ice skating scene was far too “stereotypical New York”.

Yes on the whole, I really enjoyed King Kong! There is a lot to like in the movie, and the critics are right, it’s quite a ride. The action sequences are incredible, broken up by a very interesting storyline. I am not a huge Lord of the Rings fan, so I don’t know if Jackson-faithful will enjoy the movie, but I think most others will.

Corpse Bride

Post ImageI went to a TechNet event this afternoon with Dickson, and after the technical presentations were done (they showed Vista and some mobile stuff) everyone was treated to free popcorn, drinks, and a screening of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. I had heard some good things about the movie, as well as some very negative things, but I figured it was free so what the heck!

Turns out the movie was actually pretty good! Not amazing or anything, and I’d rather watch a Pixar movie over this, but not bad. I just don’t get Tim Burton’s darkness and eccentricities I guess, both of which are quite prevalent in this film. The story was very unique and well thought out, in my opinion. Even though Johnny Depp voices the main character, I didn’t realize it was him. Didn’t sound like him to me anyway! I think maybe the best part of the movie was the music, which was composed by Danny Elfman. It really made the movie!

Perhaps not a movie I’d recommend for the theatre, but definitely worth a rental!

Read: Corpse Bride

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Post ImageI went to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose on Saturday night, expecting a very scary film. The movie did have it’s scary moments, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. I think the original Exorcist movie was much more frightening. Strangely though, I found myself really enjoying this film.

I think a better word to describe The Exorcism of Emily Rose than “scary” is “intriguing”. The movie was exceptionally well done, I thought. Instead of just showing an exorcism, the movie looks back on the event from within the courtroom trial where Father Moore is being blamed for the death of Emily Rose. Laura Linney plays Erin Brunner, the defense attorney who experiences some supernatural events of her own as the trial progresses. I thought of all the actors in the film, Linney stood out. She played her character with conviction and passion.

The fact that the movie is based on a true story kind of makes me hesitate about just what creative liberties the filmmakers took. Regardless, the film seemed believable enough. And because the story was told from the courtroom, it made events seem more real, as you had two lawyers trying to establish facts. And fortunately, in the year 2005, our special effects are good enough to make body contortions and demons seem real.

One criticism I have of the movie is that by the end, it sort of felt like the trial had turned into advertising for the church. Erin Brunner’s closing arguments in the trial were especially true of this, as she proclaimed that “facts don’t leave room for possibilities” and encouraged the jurors to look at the possibilities. Maybe Emily Rose really was possessed. Maybe she really was touched by god. On and on and on.

All in all, a very interesting film, and worth the money in my opinion. I’d give it a 7/10 probably. If you’re looking for a horror, this isn’t the movie for you. If you’re looking for a very well done psychological thriller on the other hand, check out The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Read: IMDB

Batman Begins

Post ImageI finally went and saw Batman Begins last night. I don’t have too much to say, other than if you haven’t seen this movie, you probably should! It was, in a word, amazing. I totally think they should remake every Batman movie ever made.

All of the performances were excellent, with the exception of Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. She just didn’t fit the part, and looked out of place in every scene. I used to think that Michael Keaton was the one and only Batman, but Christian Bale changed my mind about that. He played the character amazingly well, and very convincingly. Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors and his character was probably one of the more interesting ones. I was surprised, but I actually liked Liam Neeson as a villain. And finally, probably the best performance in the movie, was Michael Caine as Alfred. Wonderfully cast!

The movie is appropriately dark, and does a nice job of building up the story. In fact, you don’t see any “dark night” action until the second hour of the movie. The Batman gadgetry is pretty cool, even the half-tank, half-Hummer Batmobile (called the “tumbler”). And the city of Gotham finally looks the way it should.

Perhaps the only part of the movie I didn’t like was the very end when a reference is made to The Joker. I would have appreciated a complete and total break from the previous Batman movies a lot more than a 95% break. Though I suppose that is a very small price to pay for such a wonderful movie.

I liked Batman Begins so much, I’d be willing to go see it again!

Read: Batman Begins

BitTorrent Search

Post ImageAccording to Wired News, Bram Cohen, who created BitTorrent, and his team of developers are getting ready to release an advertising-supported search engine for torrent files. Ask Jeeves is slated to provide the sponsored links for the search site, which will be available at the BitTorrent website. And apparently, the team is pretty confident that they won’t get sued either:

But [Chief Operating Officer Ashwin] Navin isn’t worried — because the new search engine indexes every torrent it can find without human intervention, the company can’t be held liable for results that happen to point to infringing content, he says. [Stanford University Law Professor Mark] Lemley says that’s probably right, at least as a matter of law: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides safe harbor for “information location tools” if administrators promptly remove links to infringing content upon notice by the copyright holder.

Lots of other people seem to think its only a matter of time until we see a lawsuit, mostly because the MPAA is just dying to sue Cohen:

The MPAA slammed BitTorrent last week for accelerating the spread of a pirated copy of Revenge of the Sith — a leaked studio workprint of the third Star Wars prequel debuted online even as fans queued up for Thursday’s theatrical release.

You would think that the MPAA would learn from the RIAA’s mistakes, but apparently not. Just like CD sales went up in recent years despite downloading, movies show no sign of slowing down either. Episode 3 almost broke Spiderman’s opening weekend record, taking in $108 million. Oh yes, that BitTorrent protocol is doing such harm! Please.

More importantly, even if they do somehow successfully sue the new BitTorrent search engine, they can’t shutdown the protocol, so there will always be torrent files available.

Read: BitTorrent

REVIEW: Revenge of the Sith

Post ImageRevenge of the Sith opened yesterday, as I am sure you’re aware. How could I not go? I have been waiting for this movie for a long time now. I had big expectations going in. Some of my friends warned me that I was setting myself up for disappointment, but I would retort “that’s a risk I’m willing to take!” And I am glad I did. I was not disappointed. So with that, here’s my mini-review, which might contain spoilers if you don’t know the story.

Where to start? Episode III is everything the first two movies were not. Exciting, visually stunning, emotionally grabbing, and it tells a story too. Actually, that’s a good place to start. There is more story told in ROTS than in the first two movies combined. If I had one complaint about the movie, it would be that there was so much story to tell, the ending felt sort of rushed, or abrupt. Fans of the series will be happy to know however, that the story which is known so well is finally explained on screen. It’s different knowing the story about how Darth Vader came to be than it is seeing it brought to life by George Lucas. I think ROTS has been placed in the role of “bridge” from the new movies to the old movies, and it does an excellent job of that.

I expected lots of death, lots of light sabres, and I definitely got that. The effects were what you’d expect from a Star Wars movie; amazing. It was also interesting to see some of the other worlds explored, for example, the home of the Wookiees (if you like those furry guys, there’s lots of them in ROTS). The battle between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi was amazing, as was the battle between Yoda and Darth Sidious. They have been called two of the most anticipated on-screen battles, and they do not disappoint. I am continually amazed at Yoda’s capabilities!

What I did not expect, was to get so completely pulled into the story. I mean, I knew what happened to Anakin, but I never thought it would be so emotionally jarring. You can’t help but feel bad for him. In one single movie, Anakin destroys everything and everyone he has ever loved. He changes completely – mentally he is drawn to the darkside and is quite simply destroyed by the death of Padmé. Physically, he is destroyed too, hurt badly in the battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi. When he first becomes concious in the new suit, he is told by Lord Sidious that Padme is dead, and Anakin lets out a terrible scream (actually, it reminded me of Frankenstein). In that moment, you can see that he is destroyed. The chosen one has lost everything, and is now imprisoned in the black suit keeping him alive. It’s actually very sad.

That’s the best part of the movie. Lucas creates a villain you can’t help but feel sorry for. Is Revenge of the Sith the best Star Wars movie ever? Maybe. What could possibly rival the death of Darth Vader? Well his birth of course. In any case, Episode III is much better than the first two. This is supposed to be the last Star Wars movie, and maybe it will be, but I’m holding out hope for episodes seven through nine.

Some other things to point out:

  • Jar Jar makes an appearance, but he does not speak, thank goodness.
  • Natalie Portman doesn’t get enough screen time, IMO. And her dialogue is probably the worst in the movie, seems very fake. It’s not a reflection of her acting either, it’s just that her lines are so…expected?
  • Regardless of what the critics say, I think Hayden Christensen did an excellent job in this movie. Much better than his previous performances.

If you want to read more reviews, check out the Episode III page at Rotten Tomatoes.

Read: Star Wars