Saturday, July 17th, 2004

Gold Star For Robot Boy

Went to see I, Robot last night (after a long day of doing nothing and napping) and I have to say – it didn’t suck, not nearly, and I was fully expecting it to suck. Now I’ve never read the original Asimov book beyond the back cover (and since the moviemakers distanced themselves from the source material by saying it only “suggested” the story, they may not have either), so I wasn’t coming at this as a purist ready to scream bloody murder at Hollywood trashing a sacred cow. No, I just thought it looked bland and predictable from the trailers. Surprisingly, it turned out to be somewhat deeper and more engrossing than your typical Summer blockbuster, which I suppose isn’t saying much, but it’s not just a brainless action film. It’s a little bit mystery, little bit philosophy and a lot action but it all comes together in a decent couple hours of entertainment. There’s nothing revolutionary put forward in either story or execution, sure, but neither are there gaping plot holes or maddening narrative inconsistencies. Effects are good, performances are decent. Count me as one reasonably satisfied moviegoer on this eve. Now I’m sure I’ll get a slew of comments from people who hated it – feel free to vent, but don’t expect me to defend the film. I’m just saying it’s not nearly an abomination. That’s all.

Redesigning the books to feature the movie art, however, is just wrong.

The 100 greatest comics of the 20th century – from Tim O Thompson.

Popmatters has a review of A Ghost Is Born and extended band profile all in one convenient article!

My plane leaves around noon today, so I’m outta here shortly. Just wanted to mention that despite my being so proud of myself for setting up the mp3 of the week to automatically update last week, I totally forgot that I wasn’t going to be getting back to my computer till tomorrow sometime so this week’s update will be about a half-day late. That’ll teach me. And while I’ve only been away a week, I’m pretty sure I’ve completely forgotten how to do my job. Monday will be interesting.

That’s it from the West Coast. Excelsior!

By : Frank Yang at 11:21 am
Category: Uncategorized
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