Movie Review: The Sky Crawlers

The Sky Crawlers is from the creator of one of my favorite anime movies/series of all time, Ghost in the Shell. The premise is that in an alternate history, corporations have replaced countries and warfare is now more of an organized spectacle designed to keep the populace peaceful.

This is one of the most beautifully illustrated anime's that I have ever seen. The settings and scenery are simply gorgeous.

The plot however, is very slow and depressing. The movie is mostly long scenes of the pilots coming to terms with the war and their mortality, interspersed with short bouts of intense aerial action (which is really good when its shown). Overall, it was a good movie to watch, one which I'm glad I watched, but it's a renter, not a buyer.

Happy 4th of July

Happy Birthday U.S.A.!

Movie Review: Blade Runner

I can't believe I haven't seen this movie before, seeing as I love science fiction so much. This is easily one of my favorite movies all time. It's perfect cyberpunk, it captures everything that my imagination created while reading William Gibson's Neuromancer and the Sprawl Trilogy.

It's one of those movies that stands the test of time, and I think watching other movies like Fifth Element, you can definitely see where they get many of their ideas from. Like any good geek, I read up on imdb about the movie, and I read how many of the people working on the movie hated the filming of it, and how many of them didn't like each other. Also, Harrison Ford's voiceover seemed out of place to me, and there's also the rumor that he tanked the voiceover on purpose so it wouldn't be used in the movie (it was). During later interviews, Harrison Ford said that he didn't tank it on purpose, he just didn't do it very well..... Who knows what really happened that day. Either way, it is a brilliant movie, and it's definitely one to purchase as a collectors item.

Movie Review: Let the Right One In

This movie was pretty good, and very disturbing. It doesn't really compare to any American made vampire movies, and it explores many many dark subjects. In short, it's a long slow (but good) drama, punctuated by short moments of shocking scenes.

Movie Review: Chocolate

No no no, this isn't a review of the romantic movie with Johnny Depp, although I do confess to liking most of his movies. This is a review of the Thai action movie Chocolate, starring Jeeja Yanin.

It's a great action flick, and you can tell that the actor Jeeja has some serious martial arts training in her background. Indeed, in the extras, they say that she trained for 2 years before filming began, and the filming itself took another 2 years, so the entire movie is the culmination of 4 years of her martial arts and stunt training. And it totally shows.

If you have traditional martial arts experience, when you watch the movie you can definitely tell that she has traditional training, and is not simple an actor who learned moves for a movie. She moves very quickly, and most importantly, very efficiently with no wasted movement. When she dodges, she doesn't duck ALL the way down, or turn ALL the way away like normal actors would. It's just a slight shift of the head, turning the torso just enough to dodge a blow. All in all, it's a great action movie, and it's almost unbelievable how such a skinny little girl can kick so much butt.

The post where Branden ponders buying more things he doesn't need

I love books. I looooove books. I love everything about them. How they feel in your hand, how they smell, how they look on your shelf and say to everyone "Look how smart I am! I am more intelligent than the average plebe because I READ!". I mean, the whole reason why I'm a giant nerd is because I read the entire science fiction section of my local library while I was growing up. Indeed, this year for christmas I told everyone in my family to get me gift cards for bookstores instead of more aloha shirts (That made me sad by the way. I've reached the age where everyone gets me aloha shirts for Christmas. I remember doing it to my uncles, and now others are doing it to me. It's the Hawaiian version of buying someone a tie for Christmas).

That all being said, I also love gadgets. I love my iPhone, I looove my mac. So I've been reading up on the Amazon Kindle 2 and it's been getting some really good reviews.

I mean.... look at the screen, it's actually pretty readable.

So here's the pros of the Kindle 2:

• The screen is great
• The battery life is great (lasts up to a week)
• It has built in 3g with no fees or contracts
• Has a built in app store to buy e-books

Here's the cons of the Kindle 2:

• It looks like a giant calculator from the 80's
• It has no built in light (not a big deal for many people, but I do a lot of reading at night)
• I would then be buying e-books instead of real books.

So I am torn. I definitely don't need another gadget. When I travel, I often have one bag for clothes, one bag for gadgets and assorted power adapters. I also can't get away from the nostalgia of a real book. Then again, the ability to have hundreds of books at a moments notice on a small 10 ounce device has a powerful draw.

Maybe I'll have to buy both. A Kindle 2 to read e-books, and real books to put on my shelf. Oh my poor wallet, there's no rest for the weary.

Great Aloha Run

It's been awhile since I posted here, but work has been really hectic lately. So in any case, I did the Great Aloha Run. I don't have any official photos, because the rates charged by marathonfoto.com are frickin scandalous. 

In the beginning of the race I was all "Madness!?.... THIS.. IS ... SPARTA!!!". Then about halfway through I died. 

Old ladies and dudes with strollers and babies were passing me by.

The ending of the race was kinda misleading, because there was this huge setup as you enter the stadium parking lot, which made me think that was the end. But no no no, you have to go around the stadium, THEN there is the ending. Because of that, I shut off my nike+ a 1/2 mile too early. All in all, it was tons of fun, I am definitely entering next year. I'm actually looking to run more, because I saw the photos on that marathonfoto site, and I am getting really pale, and really chubby. Need to work on that.