05 June 2007
London, How do I Hate Thee? Let me Count the Ways, 1, 2... 2012
London, How do I Hate Thee? Let me Count the Ways, 1, 2… 2012
Reaction to the unveiling of the ugly, ugly logo for the 2012 Olympic games.
04 June 2007
iPhone Ads: Perfect advertising
iPhone Ads: Perfect advertising
Why the new ads are so good.
Embiggen, a perfectly cromulent word (kottke.org)
Embiggen, a perfectly cromulent word (kottke.org)
“Embiggen” winds up in a paper on string theory.
03 June 2007
Knocked Up
Metacritic’s currently showing Knocked Up at an 85, which is about right. Very funny, not quite historic. As in The 40 Year Old Virgin [sic], writer/director Judd Apatow knows how to make an amusing, raunchy comedy, but doesn’t know which scenes to cut out. 129 minutes was too long for this movie, as much as I enjoyed it. The extra running length gives time to flesh out the characters, but it also makes the formulaic “characters go into a slump before the third act” part seem way too perfunctory. Wedding Crashers was guilty of this, too. Aside from that, unless The Simpsons Movie turns out to be way better than anyone expects, this will probably be the comedy of the summer.
01 June 2007
Schrodinger's lolcat on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Schrodinger’s lolcat on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I think this wins the lolcat game. Time for something new.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Remember how Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was this awesome movie about a ghost ship?
Remember how Pirates of the Caribbean: Dean Man’s Chest was almost an awesome movie about sea monsters, but it was 15 minutes too long and didn’t have an ending for no reason whatsoever?
Now, imagine if instead of being 15 minutes too long, it was three hours too long!
The real shame of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End isn’t how bad it is, or how boring it is, or how long it is, or how unnecessary the plot is, but at how good it could have been, had it been made an entirely different movie. When we saw the second one, my feeling was that it should have been a closed story. Jack could easily have had a fight with Davey Jones at the end, killed him, and sailed away to another adventure. The third one could have been about mermaids, or voodoo priestesses, or the fountain of Youth, or any other sea legend. Instead, it’s a sequel to a movie that didn’t need one with no purpose of its own.
Ah well, at least there’s a Fantastic Four sequel to look forward to, right?
"A Hell of an Experience"
Interview with Leon Vitali, Stanley Kubrick’s assistant for 25 years.
Platform 9 3/4, King's Cross Station
Platform 9¾, King’s Cross Station
Harry Potter comes to life.