March 2009
32 posts
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Movie Review – Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – 5...
I can honestly say that there wasn’t anything about this movie that I didn’t like. I thought the writing was great, the acting was outstanding, the visuals were extraordinary (certainly agreeing with what I’ve seen of India), and Danny Boyle’s directing tied it all in fantastically. The way the story is told suits the plot perfectly, and the adaptation from the novel has been pulled off...
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Restaurant Review – The Malaya (Darling Harbour...
Sitting one level up from the ground, overlooking the action of Darling Harbour, ‘The Malaya’ is already impressive. There are plenty of tables here so there wasn’t a problem booking two days out. Set menus are much easier than navigating your way through the extensive menu, especially if you’re indecisive. And these are great with only two or three people, as it allows you to sample more of...
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Movie Review – The Dark Knight (2008) – 3 Stars
I find it odd that everyone thought ‘The Dark Knight’ was so much better than ‘Batman Begins’. I see it the other way. The storyline and plot devices were far too complex (just try to work through the Joker’s elaborate plans, or explain why sonic vision was necessary), Bale’s acting’s become increasingly wooden, and the new Tumbler just can’t compete with the old 1989 Batmobile. What really...
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Website Review – Lifehacker – 4.5 Stars
If I had a dollar for every time that “Lifehacker” has been the answer to, “Wow! Where’d you find that?” – I’d have lots of dollars. I don’t know for sure, exactly how many dollars, but if I wanted to find some free software that’d help me to calculate it easily, you can guess where I’d look. Lifehacker is the best kind of blog, it’s productivity focussed, but doesn’t restrict itself to...
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Movie Review - The Simpsons Movie (2007) - 3 Stars
I don’t know what to say – it’s just a really long episode. I mean, a really long, really good episode; but there’s nothing in this movie that you don’t get on TV. Sure the animation is a tad richer, but it’s the same characters, outlandish stories and jokes. Think of this as the Meat-Lovers pizza of the Simpsons world. There’s a bit of “monorail”, some “chilli-induced-vision-quest”, a...
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Zine Review – Flurb (Issue 1) – 4 Stars
If you’re a sucker for good sci-fi like I am, then you’ll love FLURB. It’s the best place to find great sci-fi authors doing what they do best: writing, not to sell books, but purely to express through the art of storytelling. Issue One is a great place to start, with Cory Doctorow’s enticing exploration of consciousness and it’s detachment from the physical confines in “I, Row-Boat” and Mark...
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Movie Review – Death Race (2008) – 3 Stars
Sometimes there are good stories told badly, and there are bad stories told well. This movie is one of the latter. The premise of the movie is completely ludicrous, but it all fits within the “pure action” stand-point of this film. There are fist fights, bombs, prison riots, and fortified racing cars with giant machine guns on them that spit napalm out the back… I think you get the idea. ...
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TV Review – Futurama (Season 5) – 3.5 Stars
I’d thought that Futurama was all over after season four, but with season five released as four direct-to-DVD movies, Futurama was back to round out the story. It’s not all good news, though. Obviously not used to the movie format, the middle two films become drawn out and lack that ‘bite’ that we love about Futurama. But as far as classic Futurama goes, the first and final films (‘Bender’s...
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Movie Review - Blades of Glory (2007) - 4 Stars
Every so often a film comes along, where you can really feel how much fun the cast and crew were having making it. It’s so crazy and fun that you can’t help but feel like that while you’re watching it. It’s clear that Ferrel and Heder were enjoying their time together, and quality of their comedy timing and ability to work off each other really shows through. The acting is over-the-top to just...
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Food Review – Continental Cup A Soup Xtra Full...
Here’s the story. The dusty brown powder goes into the mug like anthrax cut with topsoil. You add the water and the soup turns to the dirty, lumpy brown of dog poo after a thunderstorm (sorry for the lack of subtlety, but that’s what it’s like). The noodles don’t go soft, and what I think are supposed to be croutons look like torn up cardboard. The whole thing has the acidic smell of...
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Movie Review – Eagle Eye (2008) – 3.5 Stars
There’s something to be said about movies of which you have very low expectations. I’d heard many stories about how boring ‘Eagle Eye’ was, and about how terrible Shia LaBeouf’s acting was. I disagree. I quite enjoyed this movie, and actually thought Shia did quite well (better than in ‘Transformers’, anyway). You can excuse the plot holes, as the action keeps moving on nicely regardless. ...
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Music Review – The Prodigy ‘Invaders Must Die’ –...
It’s a real shame to see the bastion of 90s hard dance fade like this. Listening to a Prodigy album these days is like playing kick-to-kick with your uncle who still thinks he’s in the South Melbourne reserve squad. The game’s moved on, but they’re still trying to keep up. You really the feel the 12 years since ‘The Fat of the Land’. They used to be right out in front, but now that mantle’s...
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Movie Review – Cashback (2006) – 4 Stars
What would you do if you couldn’t sleep? How would you fill those extra eight hours? And how would suddenly finding yourself with more time change your perception of it? Originally a multiple award winning eighteen minute short film from 2004, ‘Cashback’ was extended to feature length (still containing the original) two years later. The performances are outstanding, and the themes that are...
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Meme Review – Mr. Men Friends (Facebook) – 3 Stars
The ability to tag friends in images is adding a whole new dimension to the “Most likely to…” meme. It’s making things easy to visualise, easy to share, easy to notify those that have been categorised, and easy for each of them to categorise their friends in turn. The concept isn’t original, though, so it’s lost points there. It does, however, lend itself to interpretation and innovation. ...
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Movie Review - The Sentinel (2006) - 2 Stars
Here’s a movies that simply doesn’t live up to its trailer. “He’s smarter and more experienced than all of you. He knows how you think, he knows how you operate, and he will use that against you.” – but he doesn’t. I wanted techno-secret-service-training-wizardry. I got Michael Douglas whinging about being framed, and using a fridge magnet to hold a door open. The only believable actor is...
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Game Review – Cursor Chaos (Browser) – 4.5 Stars
This is exactly what an online flash game should be. If I’m playing an in-browser game, I’m not looking for bells, whistles, graphics and storylines; I’m looking for light-hearted fun. And Cursor Chaos is exactly that. It’s a series of 42 mini-games that are controlled with the arrow keys and the space bar. Each game must be completed within five seconds before moving to the next. ...
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Movie Review – Beerfest (2006) – 3 Stars
I loved ‘Super Troopers’, so I had a pretty good feeling about Broken Lizard’s fourth offering, ‘Beerfest’. The movie revolves around a group of Americans competing in an underground drinking competition held in Munich to coincide with Oktoberfest. The German accents are laughable, but considering that it’s a comedy, that’s a good thing. It’s a fun movie and the characters are very likeable...
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Music Review – Kutiman ‘ThruYou’ – 4 Stars
Kutiman is an audio-visual mash-up artist. And he’s one of the best I’ve ever seen or heard. In ‘Thru You’ he’s scoured YouTube in search of videos that he’s sampled and looped to create his tracks. Most of his tracks are made up of over 20 individual source videos: from school recitals, to tutorial videos, to people just showing off. It’s hard to imagine how much effort would have gone...
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Movie Review - Adam & Eve (2005) - 0.5 Stars
I want that hour and a half of my life back. National Lampoon have done some good stuff in the past, so when I heard this being advertised as an “Hilarious comedy in the spirit of Animal House and Van Wilder” I thought it might be worthwhile. I was wrong. It’s a combination of contrived storyline, terrible writing, and dour acting. The only thing that I liked about this movie was...
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Book Review – ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ by J....
A lot of effort has gone into these stories. They’re not just short story jottings that weren’t good enough to get mentioned in the Potter series, these are meticulously crafted fables, written (as per their muggle counterparts) to promote moral living by showing the consequences of greed, avarice, and bigotry. Each fable is followed by notes written by Albus Dumbledore to give the reader an...
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Movie Review – Burn After Reading (2008) – 4 Stars
I can’t help but feel that the Coen brothers can do no wrong. They’ve obviously got a knack for writing great scripts, but they’ve also got a knack for pulling together a great cast and getting fantastic performances out of them. John Malkovich is as crazy as ever, and Brad Pitt plays the opportunistic idiot so well, you’d be forgiven for thinking he was playing himself. Great work also with...
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Movie Review – Watchmen (2009) – 3.5 Stars
I’m not sure why I didn’t enjoy this movie as much as I’d expected. It certainly seems like all the elements are there. The visuals are perfect for a graphic novel adaptation, the story-line, dialogue, costumes, and props all seem to fit the source material perfectly, and I loved the time-dilation used in most of the fight scenes. But for some reason, it didn’t hit me as a fantastic film. ...
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Restaurant Review – The Welcome Hotel (Rozelle...
I’m not really sure how they managed it. I don’t think I’ve ever had a meal where all the individual flavours were so delicately balanced that they came together this well without being overpowering. The crispy duck salad matched the gamey flavours of the duck with the tang of balsamic and crunchy sweetness of hazelnuts. And I felt like I was in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory when my lamb...
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Movie Review – Casino Royale (2006) – 4 Stars
Any time a new actor comes along to take over the Bond mantle, there seems to be a lot of scepticism - and this was no exception. But I have to say I had faith in Craig’s Connery Jr blonde haired, blue eyed Bond. And I’m so glad that they did this well with this movie. The franchise was sorely in need of a shot in the arm after all the Brosnan stuff that they tried to pass off as...
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Movie Review – Punisher: War Zone (2008) - 2 Stars
First – the facts. I’ve never read a ‘Punisher’ comic book, and know very little back-story. So this review is about this movie only, not the character. And as far as movies go, this really isn’t a very good one. You notice right from the start that the editing isn’t up to scratch, and because of this the timeline gets very jumpy. A straight cut to a similar scene can skip forward a couple...
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ISP Review – Unwired (Australia) – 3.5 Stars
Like anything, there are pros and cons with this service. On the cons side, it’s a bit more expensive and slower than most other ISPs. For example, my plan (16GB/month at 1024/256kbps) sets me back about $75 per month. The pros are that it’s completely portable, so it suits my life-style and I’m not locked in to a landline that I don’t need. Also, the support’s been surprisingly good. I’ve...
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Movie Review - A History of Violence (2005) - 2.5...
While an interesting take on trust, family, identity, and second chances; this movie really didn’t capture my interest. I’d expected a lot, even from the preview alone. Then the awards and nominations left me wondering why I hadn’t seen it earlier. But I still hadn’t until tonight. Maybe it was due to the years spent on my mental movies-to-see list that my expectations...
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TV Review – The Biggest Loser – 0.5 Stars
Why do intelligent people continue to watch this crap? Is it really as base a desire as the need to sit on the couch, eating pizza, and thinking, “At least I’m not as fat as them”? There’s no reason that weight loss should be done on television and no reason for it to be a competition. The participants on the show are losing weight in an unhealthy manner. Medically, they should be losing no...
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Movie Review – Dogma (1999) – 4 Stars
Tonight I just felt like going back to this irreverent take on Catholic mythology (oh, sorry, She doesn’t like it when you call it “mythology”). It’s hard to believe that this movie is ten years old - it certainly hasn’t lost any relevance. It’s my favourite Kevin Smith movie, and as always, the cast that he’s pulled together is fantastic. I’m especially a fan, due to the inclusion of Alan...
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Book Review – ‘The Hobbit’ by J.R.R. Tolkien – 3...
I know it’s sacrilege to give Tolkien anything less than five stars, but I wasn’t completely convinced by this book. I’m aware that it was intended for a different audience from the ‘Lord of the Rings’ series; and for that reason, I don’t think it measures up. Of course, you grant leave of believability for the fantasy world, but even so, some of the “luck” that befalls the characters is just...
February 2009
24 posts
2 tags
Movie Review - Les 11 Commandements (2004) - 4...
If anyone has watched a Jackass movie and thought that maybe it was just that little bit too crass, then this movie is for you. It’s a European take on the genre, and for a change, it’s actually got a story-line… kind of. We have a group of trouble-makers taken to Heaven and told by The God of Jokes that they need to be stupid and make people laugh in order to save the world. He...