Movies

I saw the girl with the dragontatoo or the man who hates women in swedish with english subtitles.
Awesome movie. Check it out before you see the new US edition. :)

I saw the step up 3d movie, and I guess they spent a lot of money on the dancers and none on the script writer because I noticed a really blatent funny plot flaw.
There's the good guys and the bad guys of course the good guys are poor and are about to lose their house, and the bad guys are rich and want to buy the good guys' house just to be dicks.
So they're going to dance it out at a contest, the winnings will be enough to pay for the good guys' house, should they win.
But before the big battle, the bad guys send an emmisary over to the good guys and offer them a deal, the bad guys will get to keep their house (the bad guys will pay for it) if the good guys throw the fight.

Before the good guys could even respond that they'd never throw a fight, it occured to me, it was a win win situation. If they take the deal and lose, they get to keep their house, and if they take the deal and win.... they get the prize money and get to keep their house.
But of course the good guys are dumb ("evil will always prevail because good is dumb") and they refused the offer.

You could argue that the goal was to win the fight and be the best, but as the movie played out, the central theme was the worry about losing the house.

uuuuhhhh...

I feel quite ashamed that not only do I not get it, but I can't even seem to use Google to pretend that I got it. :(

anybody see tron?

I saw it last Thursday at the local IMAX 3D theater. I loved it, but, I've been a big Tron fan since the first movie came out. I thought the graphics were outstanding, but, then, I wasn't really there to nitpick the animation, so a CG expert might have seen things I didn't. The story-line was good.
It gave you just enough information so you knew what was going on, but not too much so you didn't feel like you were being spoon-fed. The pacing was good, too. I dislike movies that move too quickly to where you can't keep up, but Tron: Legacy kept the action going without overloading you.

There was quite a bit of homage paid to the original movie. The obvious being the disc battles, light cycles, recognizers, and light tanks, but there were a number of lines that were almost pulled verbatim from the original Tron. I watched the original movie the day before seeing Tron: Legacy, so I was able to pick up most of the references--and also made me question a couple of plot items in Tron: Legacy. If you're a Tron fan, re-watching the original would be a good idea, but otherwise, not a necessity.

Along those lines, the video-game, Tron: Evolution, does provide some back-story that the movie touches on, but, again, it's not a necessity to play the game before seeing the movie. I did, though, and it did help me to guess a number of details in the movie before they were formally revealed.

If you're not sure whether to see the movie in 2D or 3D, there wasn't very much 3D content in the movie. My vision apparently hampers me from seeing the 3D effect in fast-moving scenes, but my wife, who has normal vision, confirmed that there were only a handful of scenes where the 3D effect was noticeable.
However, I definitely would recommend seeing the movie on an IMAX screen if there's one in your area (http://www.imax.com has theater locations and movie showtimes).
Tron Binder

Speaking of 3D ... here's a great article in the Chicago Sun-Times, in which Roger Ebert presents in its entirety a letter from Walter Murch, the most respected film editor and sound designer in the modern cinema.

It is basically the last word on 3D cinematography: 3D doesn't work and never will, because our brains aren't set up to handle it.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/01/post_4.html

The most fundamental problem, Murch says, is that it requires our eyes to focus at one length and converge at another. Our brains can handle that, but it takes a lot of effort, which is why some people get headaches when watching 3D for more than 20 minutes or so.

Naturally, he also argues that a well produced and edited film is already immersive without having to resort to cheap tricks like 3D. He makes a couple of other points as well.

I agree and hope that this fad passes soon.

Excluded? Why?

Cool, he can wear an eye patch and be a pirate! ARRRRRRR!