Movie review: Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007)

May 25, 2008
James Skemp

The release of Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007) came as a bit of surprise to me, since I hadn't heard it was coming out (not that I generally look very hard into these things). Initial reviews seemed mixed - pretty and featuring direct John Woo influence, but no story. When I saw it was available for Netflix instant viewing, I couldn't resist. While it's true that the story is pretty simple, i.

February 23, 2008
James Skemp

Pre-emptive clarifications First, by a 'good man' we specifically mean here one who is truly good. By 'good' we mean one who, by their actions, attempts to decrease the amount of evil. By 'evil' we mean those actions which are disruptive towards a social, unified, ordered, society. For example, murder, theft and pillaging. This by no means exhausts all potential issues with the below, but if one assumes the common definitions, it should make sense.

February 23, 2008
James Skemp

I purchased a Casio EX-Z1200 a bit ago, which I've been playing around with. Overall, I've been very happy with it, however, it outputs movies to the MOV format. While this seemed great for Apple, it wasn't the best for me. After testing out QuickTime Pro (7. something) and Ulead Movie Wizard 3.2 SE VCD (which came with the camera), I was about to settle for less than I hoped for.

February 17, 2008
James Skemp

The first one is great (the cranky old man). The others have their good spots, but I wouldn't feel too bad having to shut it off after he left the stage. If it would have continued at this level through the end, it would truly have been great! See what else I've been watching through Netflix.

February 17, 2008
James Skemp

So maybe you remember watching this when you were little, or think you must have. And maybe you watched the Robot Chicken episode covering this movie. And maybe you're really tired when you decide to watch this movie. You're in for comedy gold. Overall, a pretty good movie, with a good message that won't be lost. But, older and wiser, there's just too many loop-holes, and that Robot Chicken spoof will overpower everything else.

January 5, 2008
James Skemp

Catching up on the news, it seems Warner will be switching over to Blu-ray, exclusively, after May 2008. What surprises me is that they're just now saying that this is ending the format wars. The fact that Warner was supporting both, while Fox, Disney, Lion's Gate, MGM, and Sony were only Blu-ray (compared with Paramount and Universal going HD DVD, after Paramount was effectively paid-off) suggested, to me, that the 'war' was already over.

December 21, 2007
James Skemp

Thanks to Rob Lumley, I'll be watching four different P.T. Anderson films over the extended holiday weekend. Brief comments on the first film watched, below. Hard Eight (1996) Interesting. In more than a couple of places, I was reminded of Jackie Brown. Lots of dialogue, but even more quiet, giving an emphasis to not only what is said, but what is not. It's slow, which may turn some away, but the story of Sydney is interesting all the same .

December 21, 2007
James Skemp

Well, I missed this when it first came out, and only saw it while trying to find show times for tomorrow ... Milwaukee, Wis., December 13, 2007..... Marcus Theatres Corporation, a division of The Marcus Corporation (NYSE: MCS), today announced it was not able to reach an agreement with Paramount Pictures on the film cost of the new motion picture, Sweeney Todd, which will be released by Paramount on December 21, 2007.

December 18, 2007
James Skemp

I watched the Blu-ray version of this movie. Other editions may play differently, although since I don't discuss the audio or video components of this film, my review will stand as-is. This is, by far, one of the most wonderful films I've seen in a very long time. While I haven't been much of a Will Ferrell fan in the past, this movie has truly opened my eyes to just how great of an actor he really is.

October 28, 2007
James Skemp

I'm a fan of PKD, but this documentary fails in a number of major areas, making it almost useless in its scope. First of all, the animations that are used in place of slides are annoying beyond _, but I suppose if they trimmed those up they'd only have an hour of play time. The music reminded me of Assault on Precinct 13, and while it wasn't too bad, it was utterly diabolical when it was close to drowning out the interviewed individuals while they spoke.

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