Month: November 2004

Knockaround Guys

I just watched “Knockaround Guys” on DVD. It is a decent movie, but it lacks something.

In short, it looks like a slower, simplier, and American version of “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels“. There is the mob and style to it – no question about it. It lacks the details and the depth though. Characters are not well-developed and there is no thrill to it.

Action is missing some. There is almost no cool talk. Except for a short thingy done by Vin Diesel about street fighting before kicking one guy’s butt. That was misplaced though. And there were another two shorties by John Malkovich. There was some economy over the acting, although there were plenty of people who could deliver. Why they didn’t – I don’t know.

Anyway, this is a kind of 6 out of 10 movie. You can watch it or you can skip it – you won’t miss much.

Blinds in perspective

Blinds in perspective

Here is something else from the office for the ‘Picture of the day’ submission – blinds. I was pretty amazed by how photogenic blinds are. With the wide-angle lens I didn’t even have to open them to get few nice pictures. I will think of some other ways of photographing them, but for now three pictures will do.

I find the perspective one to be the best, because it has this visual illusion of being not rectangular. Although it is! First time I saw it, I almost broke my head on how I managed to take a non-rectangular picture. I was rotating and adjusting it in Gimp for a couple of minutes. Then I realized that I need more sleep. :)

Album location: /photos/2004/2004-11-01_POTD

Virtuosity

Olga and I just watched “Virtuosity” on DVD. It is a nice action movie back from almost 10 years ago that touches the issues with virtual reality. And so that you are not bored with it, it mixes in Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.

I find it interesting how this film brings back the memories of few old and new films, such as “The Matrix“, “The Cell” and “I, Robot“. I have a feeling that “Virtuosity” has it’s share of inspiration for all three of the above movies, and probably some more.

I liked this film. I cannot put it on my favourite shelve, but it does deserve the two hours of your time. It is a good combination of action, computer graphics, drama, and black humour (that part with the crying symphony was really nice). The only mistake that I can point out was putting Kelly Lynch in it. There was no acting what-so-ever on her behalf. Other than that, everything was pretty good.

I’ll give it a rating of 6.5 out of 10, which kind of round me about 7.