Month: February 2008

I Am Legend

I went to see “I Am Legend” with a few friends of mine.  Some of them saw the film before a few times, but decided that it was worth another view anyway.  That pushed my expectations up a bit.  But.  The film was indeed worth it.

Here are the things that I liked, in no particular order:

  • Will Smith.  He is a good actor.  It just that most of the times he has to do those rather simplistic roles.  But in this one, you can see the talent.  He does really good.
  • Visuals.  There are some really cool images in the film.  In fact, it’s the visuals that create the bigger part of this movie.  There is some excellent photography, which could have been easily transformed into still images and paintings.
  • Drama.  There seems to be no shortage of movies about viruses, zombies, and the end of the world.  However, so many of them fail to create the drama around the events.  Broken families, numerous victims, and blood rivers seem to be present everywhere.  But rarely they are used to create the horrific sense of sadness and pity.

Of course, there were a few things that sucked in this movie.  I’m not going to go through the details on these, since they aren’t worth it.  However I’d like to mention the zombies.  I think that the choice of rather cartoon-ish characters was wrong.  More “realism” in this area could have made the movie almost perfect.

I’d give it a strong 7.5 out of 10, and a recommendation to watch it, even if you are not a fan of the sci-fi end of the world horror.  It’s pretty good.

A blessing and a curse

Quoting comment in Slashdot discussion:

The truth is both a blessing and a curse. It takes a lot of work to realize the truth and most people will not challenge themselves. Once you learn the truth, however, you are cursed with trying to explain it to others.

This clearly explains the high density of Open Source advocates, as well as many experiences of my own.

By the way -  happy birthday, Open Source!

4,000 posts

While playing around with this and that (more on this a bit later), I noticed a perfectly round number in one of my sidebars – 4,000.  That’s exactly how many posts I have published on this blog.  Technically, I have a little bit more, but it’s 4,000 posts that are available to all of your for reading, linking, and commenting.

Last celebrated milestone of this blog that I could find was 2,000 posts, which was almost three years ago.   Not bad, not bad at all.  I’m still here and I’m still kicking.  Let’s see if I can push it towards 5000, 10000 and 50000…

Limassol getting rid of abandoned cars

Recycled car

Via Google News I came across this article in Cyprus Mail, which talks about the new regulation from Limassol municipality for removing abandoned vehicles.  Interestingly, I thought about it a few times already.  There are many abandoned cars in the city, and they often add to the parking problem that is getting worse and worse by the day.

The picture above shows the abandoned car near my house.  It stays there, with garbage bins, for a couple of years now.  Previously, it was occupying space on our guest parking for at least three more years.  I know there were a few complaints by my neighbors to get rid of it, but somehow it is still standing there.  People cannot remove it by themselves, since it has valid number plates.  And authorities were a tiny bit too slow on it.  Maybe now it will get some attention.

Also, it’s nice to see that Limassol’s municipality takes action on this one, howeve, I believe that the problem is wider than just our area.  I’ve seen quite a few abandoned cars in Agia Napa, Nicosia, and Pafos.  I’m sure there are a few in Larnaca as well, but my routes there are rather limited and short.

Dan in Real Life

I almost missed “Dan in Real Life“.  I wasn’t even planning to see it, since the poster is does not appeal to me and I’m not a big fan of Steve Carell.  I mean, he is OK, but he’s not someone who attracts me to the movie.  But anyway.  I ended up alone in the cinema.  And I’m glad I did.

This is a strong 8 out of 10.  There is no point at telling the story or bringing up any scenes from the film – most of them are rather traditional and have been seen before.  The movie follows the stereotypical love story with all elements such as close family involvement, road trip, hurting someone’s feelings, kids, rain, “go get her”, etc.  All these were present here too, and, I should say, there were very well done.

But the strength of the film is not in the love story.  It’s in other things.  For me personally, it was very refreshing to see a healthy family. And a big one a that.  This whole film was around a well managed and developed family – something they don’t show very often in the movies.  This film shows how parents can spend time with their children, how siblings can be good and supportive friends, how important are good family values and how they are passed along and cultivated.  This part of the film was so good that I almost could not believe my eyes.  That alone is worth the time.

And that wasn’t the only good part.  Somehow, the film is very romantic and sentimental.  Sometimes it’s said, sometimes it’s funny.  Sometimes it’s very social, and sometimes it’s very private.  And it “feels” very good too.  There is an almost natural balance of moods and transitions.  It’s not boring, and it’s not trying to squeeze any tears out of you, while, at the same time, it’s not trying to make you laugh so hard you fell from your chair.  It asks its share of questions, tries to provide some answers, and leaves a lot to think about, while still entertaining.

With all that, I am a little glad that it didn’t have a strong overwhelming story to tell.  It already offered enough, and with a good story it would be pushing its luck.  (However there are movies that do both).

Also, there is plenty of good acting in this film. It’s not brilliant or anything, but it is very believable and human.  There were some familiar faces cast for this movie, and those that aren’t so familiar, did equally good.

Overall : strongly recommended.