Recently Viewed DVD Rundown

As of yesterday I am finished with the colossal waste of time that is WLC (Warrior Leadership Course) - a combination of sleep-inducing classes and tediously irrelevant field training that could easily condensed from the 30 days it still lasts in Korea to the 14 day standard in the US without missing a beat.

As I prepare to ship another load of empty dvd cases back to the US to free up space in my small room here in Seoul, I've decided to forgo any real attempts at in-depth reviews and just give a few words on some of the less-mainstream DVDs that I've viewed and enjoyed recently.

Aachi and Ssipak
Available at Yesasia, this well-animated and incredibly bizarre film is definitely worth checking out for folks interested in Korean home-grown animation.

Weird doesn't even begin to describe a movie that focuses on a future world where feces are used as fuel and it is every citizen's duty to contribute to the well-being of society -- being rewarded by phallic-looking addictive popsicles that are in turn stolen and traded on the black market by various types of gangsters and mutants.

This one disc DVD includes English subtitles on the main feature but doesn't have any on the extra features (which include deleted scenes, trailers, street team footage and a music video).






Amazing Nuts


This DVD is a little disappointing overall -- an anthology video of 4 short films by Studio 4[deg] Fahrenheit (the company behind one of the Animatrix shorts as well as the stunning feature length Mind Game - essentially 4 extended music videos in varying animation styles for tracks by M-Flo, Koda Kumi and a couple other Jpop artists I'm not as familiar with.

While the animation is pretty good for most of the tracks - combining CGI with traditional styles, and I really enjoyed the M-flo track, there's really not enough to justify the sticker price, even coming from Yesasia. It's also a little frustrating with the lack of any available subtitles, even on portions of spoken dialog.

Probably only really worth recommending for completists or hardcore fans of the artists in question or the company.

The Amazing Screw-On Head

This DVD is an extremely well-done adaptation of the Mike Mignola (Hellboy) one-shot comic book of the same name. Basically a single story combining all the most absurd and fun bits and pieces he's come up with over the years, but couldn't use in Hellboy or other stories ASH features a robotic head in the 19th century attempting to save the world from his former assistant turned evil zombie. It's not really worth breaking down the plot, suffice to say that it's extremely funny, completely in the artistic style of Mignola and features the best voice acting I've heard in a long time. I can't recommend this one enough. Scifi channel which ordered this one as a possible pilot and had it available for viewing on their website for a few months has shown themselves once again to be run by a load of complete imbeciles as they naturally decided against picking it up for future episodes. This baby is available at Amazon or anywhere else you want to look.


Apocalypse Oz


This is a really interesting short film advertised as having 0% original dialogue. The film itself is an interesting combination of "Apocalypse Now" and "The Wizard of Oz", as should be pretty evident from the title. I can't verify if all the dialogue is actually from those 2 specific films only but the result is an excellent piece of work that I highly recommend if you can find it. Somehow I got lucky and managed to score a free copy by filling out a form on the official website, although it doesn't appear to be available on DVD at this time any longer -- copyright issues? Check it out if you can find it!








Bimmer

I can't say if this film completely lived up to my expectations -- especially given how long it took to get a legit subtitled version for viewing. I didn't even find out about it till Twitch started posting news on the sequel (which is still unavailable subbed).

Basically a road movie about some low-grade Russian car thieves (Bimmer is the equivalent term for "Beamer" or whatever you want to call a BMW) who are forced to leave town in a hurry for a variety of reasons and have a series of different encounters as they attempt to avoid the law as well as other gangsters.


This Singapore DVD is naturally R3 and although barebones, features good audio and video as well as mostly accurate subtitles.

Reviews: Adam's Apples and Singapore Dreaming

Well, as much as I'd like to hit each one of these films in greater detail - hopefully I'll have that opportunity in the near future - my schedule of late has been such that I simply haven't had the time. That said they've been burning a hole here on my desk and I've been waiting to post comments on them for a while now.

FWIW, I don't expect to be handing out too many low ratings for the films that show up here simply because I try to be a little picky in my purchases. Similarly, I may not feel like writing a review for every single movie I see. I'll admit to getting burned on blind buys based on reviews from some of the other sites I've mentioned previously, but those are few and far between and hopefully I'll get a chance to address them soon too.

For starters:

"Adam's Apples"

This Danish comedy by Anders Thomas Jensen is an excellent and admittedly extremely dark take on the book of Job. Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen) is a priest with a life filled with pain and misfortune. His take on things is to ignore everything that happens to him and just claim that it's all a result of the Devil testing him because people aren't evil. His counterpoint is Adam (Ulrich Thomsen) a neo-Nazi sent to Ivan's church to complete his community service. Adam is frustrated by Ivan's refusal to accept the truth behind his circumstances. When given a choice of a task to complete before his service is up, Adam chooses to bake an apple pie ("cake" in my subtitles) from the apples on the tree in the church yard. Almost from the beginning, it appears that failure is imminent as birds begin to eat the apples. Meanwhile, he has to contend with the other community service residents, his fellow neo-Nazi gang members, and Ivan, as he learns about the meaning of faith and belief.

I enjoyed this movie a lot overall. It provides a lot to think about on several levels although I can't recommend it to everyone due to the strong language and violence in several scenes. On a metaphysical level, it provides an interesting view of the story of Job (Ivan) -- is he actually being tested by the Devil or punished by God, or is he just unlucky? The redemption of Adam is shown really well in several scenes as well -- Ivan provides a good witness in his life, although I can't say much for his preaching skills. I haven't seen any other films by Jensen though so I can't compare the spiritual content here with anything else he's done. It's certainly deeper in this sense than most of the other European films I've seen lately (and certainly the Danish ones).

8/10

The DVD I viewed is the Singaporean R3 version available online from MovieXclusive. It's sad to say that this film is not out on DVD in the US or UK even though the film came out back in 2005. The English subtitles were excellent although there were a couple spoken sentences that didn't receive subtitling -- an issue I've seen before on Singaporean releases, although I can't comment on how common it is. The Danish track is available in 2.0 or 5.1 DD and sounds excellent -- check out the storm scene in particular. The only extra however is the trailer.

If you choose to use this e-tailer, be warned -- I do recommend them for excellent selection and service, but the shipping is a little high to the US and you're best off picking up 5 or more DVDs at one time.

"Singapore Dreaming"

My primary experience with Singaporean films until now has been primarily commercial comedies such as those by Jack Neo ("I Not Stupid", "Home Run"). While they are excellent films and bring back a certain nostalgia for someone who grew up in SE Asia, they're not necessarily the same as the mature filmmaking styles that I'm trying to find in the area as well. Although there have been a number of other good movies released from Singapore, it's been very difficult until now to find good DVD releases of them (barring actually going to Singapore). Thankfully MovieXclusive did open their store - linked above - and I was able to pick up this new film as well as several older ones I hope to watch soon.

Not as dark as "Adam's Apples" but still not a happy comedy as such, "Singapore Dreaming" takes a good look at the little island nation and what it takes to get ahead there -- as well as all the hot topic issues that have arisen over the past few years. Traffic, foreign maids, US degrees and public urination all get equal time in a very poignant family focused story. It's also a good picture of how money can cause more problems than it fixes.

7/10

The DVD here is excellent as well. There are a few additional extra features here including a "making of" section and some deleted scenes. Good DD 5.1 in "Singlish" with English subtitles. Don't look for this one in Amazon too soon either.

New Links

I've started updating the page by adding some new links.

To start at the bottom, Ender's Game author and fellow Greensboro, NC native Orson Scott Card has an excellent site of essays that is unfortunately being updated rather sporadically lately. I highly recommend checking out his World Watch page at The Ornery American. I can't say that I necessarily agree with all his positions nor would I expect the same from him, but I will say that he's one of the few Democrats with whom I share a rather distinctive view on US foreign policy.

To move into more thematic territory, I recommend DVD Aficionado as a useful cataloging site -- though it's definitely tailored more towards collectors in the UK or US. I'm afraid that my site as listed is missing a considerable number of thoroughly legitimate titles that I've picked up online from different regions and does not as such present a complete view of my tastes. Unfortunately although the layout and convenience in a program like DVD Profiler is also extremely simple while remaining aesthetically pleasing, it still features a number of missing titles and/or images (though not always the same ones as DVDAF). As a collector and user of both programs though I highly recommend both -- though it is worth mentioning that while the free version of DVD Profiler is nice, I personally prefer the enhanced image quality of the premium version, especially because I've had to leave all my DVD cases in storage in the US while I'm overseas -- mainly for space reasons.

Jumping to the review sites, although DVD Savant is attached to DVD Talk's main section, I mention him specifically for his focus on older films - often with personal anecdotes of memorable viewings which are extremely interesting. His reviews are also worth reading for the veritable encyclopedia of filmmaking references and namedropping that show up on a regular basis. Very often I will find myself following links through 2, 3 or even more of his reviews at one time tracing back references to other films -- all the while making notes on my list of future films to check out when I have the chance.

The Gline is another site featuring reviews on a fairly wide variety of films. While not all the movies reviewed there are to my taste, I always enjoy reading Gline's detailed, well thought out posts.

Finally (for this edition) is Twitch. I still haven't checked out their forums, but I load the page on a daily basis to look for new announcements of films coming out, trailers to download, and reviews of films -- though most ones featured here are foreign, and more than a few will never even play in US theaters (and sadly never arrive on DVD in the US either).

I'd say that outside of films I've watched in the theaters and since ordered on DVD or older action films that I've seen before, the vast majority of my recent purchases in the past few years can be traced back to reviews, and in some cases just articles or news postings on these three sites. I highly recommend all of them for intelligent writing, broad interests and good technical knowledge. Although I don't have the knowledge or experience to start dropping names and references nearly as well as any of them, I do hope to put out some good reviews as well -- and hopefully get the drop on them for a few films ;p

Back from the dead

It took a while, but I finally got around to resurrecting this site. It does help that they've put in a new format, particularly for conducting personal redesigns - especially for those of us on tight schedules without the time to dig through our limited html repertoires.

Quick wrapup - I redeployed to Ft. Drum in July 06 and PCS'd to Seoul, South Korea Dec. 06. I'll probably be here for another year or so.

This site will continue to play host to some random ramblings, but I also hope to tailor it a little closer to my personal hobbies and interests (especially given that they're much more interesting to write about than anything I do at work).

Look for new links, reviews and other things in the near future.

Periodic Update

Well, things are going pretty well at the moment, not least is the fact that I'm currently on R&R leave. It's a nice chance for a break, time to relax, catch up on movies, some PC gaming, etc.

Still not a whole lot to say about anything else that's going on. I've got my opinions and thoughts on lots of different issues and situations here, it's just a matter of what's appropriate to post on or even to discuss while I'm in the military.

Oh well, here're some photos from the past few months.

Current Situation

Two and a half months since the last update and nary an excuse to show for it. We had a reasonable (if exceptionally crowded) flight from NY to Kuwait via Shannon, Ireland (have to make it back there sometime). Describing Ft. Drum in my opening post as the frozen wasteland at the base of Dante’s Hell was certainly an apt comparison and still stands, but Kuwait in all it’s barren glory certainly matches the typical western archetype of the infernal regions. Blazing sun morning to night, no shade anywhere outside of a building, and aside from a few small grasses I saw at the firing range, not a plant to be seen around the post.

We didn’t do too much there other than get acclimatized. Unfortunately, acclimatization seemed to include going to the firing ranges an awful lot. Wearing all that gear (shown earlier) and trudging through ankle deep sand at 120+ doesn’t do the body good – that’s all I’m going to say.

Soon enough however, we were crammed sardine style on another flight to Baghdad (possible photos to follow). The arrival was not too bad however, and it was a relief to find that Iraq has an actual climate – even the occasional cloudy day. I hear tell that they actually get a couple of rain showers in December. I’ll keep you posted on this development.

We took over from the previous unit without any real issues, sending an LA guard unit back to the remains of Katrina. My hopes and prayers go with those guys – out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Two months of routine is working pretty well right now. 12 hours a day, 1900-0700 – the night shift. You start developing habits, good and bad. After most of a month slacking, trying to get adjusted, I have my off-shift schedule down pretty well, including workouts after I finish my shift on most days. That and a movie or hour ½ of xbox normally ties up most of my non-sleeping time. Only a couple of actual days off since I arrived and none since Sept, but at least I’ve been given a few extra hours here and there. My MSG keeps me squared away.

Not too much reading done lately, but as my schedule has developed, I think I’ll be able to work in considerably more in the near future. Nothing big since I finished Quicksilver by Neal “Cryptonomicon” Stephenson in Kuwait. I’m really looking forward to digging out my Charles Williams novels pretty soon and starting them again.

The distraction keeping me from real reading right now is largely from studying for the board. On the first I go up for promotion to SGT. Looking forward to it, although it’s my first one. I was supposed to have gone before the board this summer for “soldier of the month” but never had the chance so it’s still a new experience, although I have gotten a little practice from some folks thankfully. Kinda weird how it’s not just what you know – appearance and bearing counts for as much or even more in some circumstances. Professionalism sure doesn’t hurt in any business.

Updates to follow.