Posts Tagged ‘Review’

Sterility

// September 11th, 2005 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Product Image: THX: 1138
THX: 1138

THX: 1138 is the full length version of an “arty” film George Lucas made as a student. It is something that’s very different from the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, it’s very slow and sedate – basically to the point of being boring.

The story is that of a 1984-style future. No sex allowed, no free thinking, everyone has to take government prescribed sedatives to keep them conforming. In this fascist future the lead character THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) awakens from his drug induced stupor and his feelings towards his flat-mate and to freedom begin to surface.

I expected this film to be redone and to have everything CGI-ified, however Lucas has pretty much kept this to a minimum, at least as far as I could see, having never saw the original. However there’s not really much opportunity for it, the one place that I guess must’ve been redone is in the car chase scene and to my eyes at least, it was tastefully done.

Also for those Star Wars people, there’s a few nods ahead to Lucas’ future films, one quote in particular being “I ran over a wookie” and there’s a C3PO style droid in there somewhere.

It was an ok-ish film, but just a bit too slow for my likings, and there was not much to see during the slow parts…

Digital Dud

// August 11th, 2005 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Product Image: Digital Fortress
Digital Fortress

This is the third Dan Brown book I’ve read, the others being Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. It is also the worst. After reading the other two books I was left expecting something similar (fast action, loosely fact based) but set in the worlds of maths and computers. What I actually got was the same book but set in the worlds of maths and computers.

It seems like Brown has got a writers block somewhere along the line. Not to give too much away but this book, like the other two features a shadowy assasin, a strong male college professor lead, a beautiful and intelligant female lead and a seemingly trustworthy old man who turns out to be not as expected.

There were a fair few flaws from the technical side of things too – some of them big, some not, here’s a few from the top of my head.

The weakness of the NSAs operating system (presumably custom wrote to be fine tuned for brute forcing encrypted files) was also staggering, as soon as the “multi level firewall” was down people were in.

The idea that the case on TRANSLTR (the NSAs supercomputer) was “welded shut” wasn’t too clever either, NSA or not, they’re going to get a hardware failure somewhere at some time or another…Especially as they seemingly used off-the-shelf components – the Digital Fortress file never needed recompiling.

Also the idea that TRANSLTR didn’t need to know an encrypted files algorithm in order to unencrypt it. Uhm, it surely does need the algorithm for decrypting it, else how would it decrypt it?

A couple of another annoying things was that Brown apparently doesn’t appreciate the difference between bit and byte, and the constant referring of X11 as x-eleven.

I know that it’s fiction but at least getting the book proof read would’ve cleared up some of the more glaring errors.

Basically the book was ok-ish, if you’re not into computers and haven’t read any of Browns other books. Otherwise you’re probably best off leaving alone, the other books were better written.

The last of a series

// May 23rd, 2005 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Star Wars: Rise of the Sith

Just got back from watching Star Wars 3: Rise of the Sith, and uhm yay and nay. The film itself was great, the lightsabre fights, Yoda, space battles, the effects etc etc. It pretty much all ties in nicely, wrapping up a few bugs in the story. The plot is essentially spot-on. There seems to be lots of references too, I think I saw the millenium falcon at one point and Chewie makes a cameo. Makes the other episodes all tie in a little more at any rate.

The lightsabre battles are pretty much the best yet, they really manage to show the anger and power of Anakin. There’s plenty of them too, with many different combatants. There’s one thing that Lucas can direct and that’s the lightsabre battles.

The film really is the best of the prequels, it pretty much eclipses them. I feel I can’t really measure it against the original trilogy though, to do that just feels wrong.

However, the same problems plague Sith as they did Menace and Clones. Again the dialogue is kinda weak in places, and a lot of the acting, Hayden Christensen feels ok taking money from this? Still it’s improved from the other prequels.

Oh yeah, Jar Jar is only in for one brief moment and doesn’t speak.

Everyone Hates Me

// May 3rd, 2005 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

I watched Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (aka HGTTG) on Saturday afternoon at the cinemas with my brother. I’ve already read the first two books and thoroughly enjoyed them (the others are on the way), however my brother was a HGTTG virgin, I took him knowing he shared a similar sense of humour to me, so would probably like it…

Contrary to a lot of the press I’ve read, the film is actually very funny… This goes both for bits taken from the book and bits that are film only. The audience had an age rage from young kids to middle aged couples, and I’m pretty sure they were all laughing. Both Lemon and I was laughing really hard at parts of the film.

In terms of things like character development and plot building the movie was a little..strange. For example for what seems like no reason what so ever there was a large scene featuring Zaphods presidancy rival, that basically, never got finished. Also the Heart of Gold, managed to improbably appear right where the drivers wished to go each time..I thought that Ford (played by Mos Def) was a bit of a weak character – he seemed slightly superfluous to me. The star of the show has to be Alan Rickman who played Marvin, his character was the one which raised most laughs from the audience, Rickmans voice was very well suited for the role too.

Compared to the book the film doesn’t do too well, many of the books most funny moments haven’t been saved for the big screen, and the jokes that the movie version adds aren’t all strong enough, to pull the movie and books level.

Saying that both me and my brother laughed lots at the film, it helps if you have the Adams kind of humour, without it the film will probably be not recieved to well. Big fans of the book may be dissapointed too, luckily for me it was a few months ago since I read it…

A long path

// April 24th, 2005 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Product Image: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Wow. This is a Star Wars RPG that like a good book, I couldn’t put down. The game is essentially an adapted set of dungeon and dragons rules set in the Star Wars universe. However all the geeky dungeons and dragons dice roles etc has been hid away….and replaced by geeky Star Wars stuff, which is more appealable.

Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) has a great storyline set 4000 years before the films- it actually feels like it could actually be a Star Wars film, there’s plot twists ahoy and the chance to shape the story and your destiny nearly everytime you speak to someone. The graphics are really nice too, though I couldn’t get the best out of them on my Geforce 4 MX and being Star Wars it has lots of lovely noises with lightsabres crackling and starships blasting.

Beneath all that is the gameplay though, and KOTOR is easy to get to grips with (though the difficulty in some places was very high), involving and most importantly very fun. There’s no shortage of things to do either, as well as the main quest you have a few sub games and a variety of sub quests which tend to fill out your partys characters.. I’ve just completed it in roughly 38 hours and at that I know there’s plenty of subquests that went unfulfilled…

I think anyone could play this game, whether they’re an RPG fan or not (all the
experience points and RPG type stuff can be taken care of automatically if you so desire) but it’ll (obviously) appeal to Star Wars fans the most..

I already have got the sequel to start playing….must try and wait till after exams though!

IOU: The Debt Threat and Why We Must Defuse It

// April 11th, 2005 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Product Image: IOU: The Debt Threat and Why We Must Defuse It
IOU: The Debt Threat and Why We Must Defuse It

IOU is a book by Noreena Hertz about third world debt, she discusses the different methods countries acquire debt, how those methods come to be and the downsides of each one. She then goes on to talk about why the developed world should care – and there are selfish reasons as well as to be a “do gooder” She finishes off with her blueprint for the way to solve the debt crisis.

As a whole the books is very well wrote – economics doesn’t sound like the most interesting of subjects yet Hertz manages to keep the readers attention with her writing style. There’s not really any jargon or hugely complex economic theories in the book, the writing is very accessible. She even managed to make me laugh a couple of times. You can tell that Hertz really believes in what she writes.

One thing that the book has aplenty though is damning statistics – “for every $1 donated to the developing world $9 is paid to the developed countries in debt interest”

I feel that this book has taught me much about the economic state of the world, what happens when a country goes bankrupt and the methods in which countries acquire debts. The sad thing is, that in many cases the developing world didn’t need the loans, however they were gave them cheaply and encouraged to buy arms from the lender as part of the cold war. After the cold war ended, so did the supply of cheap credit. That’s when the commercial banks stepped in.

The one minus point is the opening chapter, which is about Bono and his struggles to get 3rd world debt cancelled. I feel that this is a bit gushy and overly fawning of Bono but you quickly forget as you progress through the book.

The Da-Vinci Code

// March 12th, 2005 // No Comments » // General

The Da-Vinci Code is the last of the books I acquired from London. The story is one that mixes a crime thriller with lots of twists and excitement with the revealing of secretive religous sects and ceremonies and manages to provide an explanation for Mona Lisa’s smile along the way.

The storyline is based on the Christian Legend of the Holy Grail, which has been hidden over the ages by a secret society. When cryptologist Nevue’s grandfather is murdered he leaves a grisly clue on his death. It is up to Neveu and Symbologist Langdon to solve her grandfathers clues and riddles, before they’re arrested for Nevue’s grandfathers death, or the shadowy Catholic sect Opus Dei obtain the grail first.

Dan Brown has created a book that I simply couldn’t put down – I sat and read it from cover to cover in one three hour sitting without batting an eyelid. I think I’m right in saying that this is the biggest selling book so far this century, it has also spawned a lot of books debunking some of Browns statements in the book. A movie is also planned to be made.

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