Month: January 2005

Gucho upgraded to Fedora Linux Core 3 + updates

I have upgraded gucho.kirzis to Fedora Linux Core 3. All updates were also installed. There were no major problems as always. A couple of tiny bits I ancountered this time were:

  • I had to remove non-standard Exim before I could install a proper one from updates. All config files seem to work, so this is not a major one.
  • Bind has created a new configuration instead of the old one (which was of course saved as .rpmsave). It took me about 20 minutes to realize why my home network is behaving wierdly. Ethereal saved the day with a portion of truth.

I’ll be nailing minor issues for the next day or two. If you will notice anything, please let me know via comments or email.

Hitler: The Rise of Evil

Watched “Hitler: The Rise of Evil” on DVD. For some reason I was thinking that it will be a documentary. Instead it turned out to be a 3 hour long drama about Adolf Hitler.

Production was for television and thus there are many technical annoyances (light and sound come to mind). Acting was good. Robert Carlyle (“Trainspotting“, “The Full Monty“) was an excellent Führer. Somehow I came to think that women acted overall better than men, in this film.

I wish there were more historical information and facts. It would be both more entertaining and educational at the same time. I’ve learned a few things and cleared up some mess in my head, but I could have done more – there’s no question about it.

6 out of 10.

Killing Zoe

With all the movies I am watching, it’s good to once in a while see something from the wishlist. Today I saw “Killing Zoe“. I think I put it on the wishlist because of Quenting Tarantino being one of executive producers while Roger Avary was a writer and a director of the film. Roger and Tarantino worked together on several films – “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992, “True Romance” in 1993, and “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. All four movies are crime actions with drama and a touch of romance (maybe no romance for the Dogs). “Killing Zoe” is the weakest of four films, but it shows, together with the other movies, what ideas were floating in the heads of Tarantino and his comrads at that times.

If I were to point out few interesting bits about this film, I would pick the fact that the events in the movie are happening in Europe (Paris, France to be precise) as opposed to the traditional USA setup. Also, drugs play an important role in this film. And taking drugs is covered specially. I think this movie was a playground for the famous drug scenes in “Pulp Fiction“. And yet another interesting approach was to show that opening a bank vault is indeed a difficult task that requires expertise, skills, equipment, and time. There are not that many movies who remind us of that. There are, though, a number of usual attibutes of a crime movie – criminals, hostages, guns, lots and lots of swear words and blood.

I think that the film could use some character development. There are many people in it, but only three main ones get enough attention. Maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn’t – I couldn’t figure.

I liked the acting. It was very realistic and lively. I don’t know how to properly describe it. Basically, not even once I was reminded that these people are actually acting. Good dialogues, or, rather, monologues helped that.

Anyway, the film, as standalone, is somewhat average crime action. You won’t lose anything if you will miss it, but you won’t regret if you will watch it. Decide for yourself. As a part of Tarantino/Avary and Co work it is a missing bit that puts light on the progress they were making. I found it interesting, educating, and entertaining.

Firm 6 out of 10.

What You’ll Wish You’d Known

Paul Graham has written yet another essey – “What You’ll Wish You’d Known“. This one was originally a speech he prepared for a high school. For some reason, that speech was cancelled, so he just put it up online. I found it very interesting although I am somewhat older than average high school student. Read it, maybe you’ll interest you too.