Year: 2004

The Hunt for Red October

Watched “The Hunt for Red October” on DVD. It is an old one, but somehow I missed it.

There are a number of movies about submarines and submarine fights. This is one of them. It is pretty good as the others. I haven’t seen any submarine movie that sucked. Likewise I haven’t seen any submarine movie that blew me away.

It has everything other movies have: lots and lots of submarine internals, some shots of submarines from outside, ships, airplanes and helicopters, torpedos and what not. Captains try to trick each other in the same way, dodging bullets torpedos, changing directions, switching off engines and maintaing radio silence. This movie misses nothing. It even adds something to the mix. Actually not somthing, but somebody. Sean Connery. He is a captain of one of the Russian submarines. But his Russian sucks. Not that I blame him though (even my Russian suck).

I wish this film had something original. Or at least more action to compensate. Also, I am not the fan of usual mixture of English language with Russian. I think that it should be either done properly or not done at all. Otherwise it is very depressing. Oh, and I also have my doubts about smoking in the submarine…

Anyway, this is a good 6-6.5 out of 10 movie. Watch it if you are submarine fan. You’ll enjoy it.

Drop of water

Drop of water

Today I tried to photograph a perfect drop of water. This is not as easy a task as it may sound. Luckily, I’ve read few tips on how to do it some time ago. Interesting background is easy to make – just rip an advertising page out of some magazine (such as Cosmopolitan) – and you are done. Drops fall fast, so shutter priority mode is preferrable. I shot in Manual (1/200, f/5.6, ISO 100), since Rebel’s metering system was confused about what I wanted to do and overexposed everything way too much.

The only thing which I didn’t have with me was a tripod. Tripod is needed to prefocus camera, since it does a louzy job of finding focus points in the pool of water and some magazine page at the bottom. It always tried to focus on the magazine page. I’ll leave tripod for the next time.

Album location: /photos/2004/2004-10-31_POTD

Lethal Weapon

I just watched “Lethal Weapon” on TV. I’ve seen plenty of times before, even had it on video. It’s been a while since I saw it last time though. This film is one of those actions which never get old. You can see that special effects and budget are not up to today’s levels, but it does still provide a lot of entertainment.

What I like about this film is that it is very thourough with details. All characters are well developed and individual. There are plenty of these tiny bits which are not important, but which add a lot to the quality of the movie. Like the bad cooking of Roger’s wife and singing cops in the station. All of these makes a movie so much more beleivable.

Since I haven’t voted for it at IMDB yet, I’ll go and give a 7 out of 10. Sequals rule too, but more on this later…

Amateur Song Festival No. 3

KSP No.3Most of today I spent at Amateur Song Festival in Kakomalis. It was the third one in the last two years. By the way, the official name is KSP, which should be written in Russian letters. It can be roughly translated as Kakomalis Song Phestival. :)

Anyway, there were lots and lots of people, nevermind the lack of advertising. Plenty of regulars, but few new faces too. Lots and lots of music, food, and drinks, and general fun. Those who didn’t go missed a lot!

I have made a few pictures, which are available here.