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Monday, March 19, 2007

The Epic That Isn't

I'm glad to say I did not pay to watch 300. It was a friend's treat, after I bought him brunch. After all the buzz and positive reviews about a movie that supposedly broke new ground, I'm not impressed. In fact, I'm mildly offended. The only thing the movie broke is my faith in Hollywood's ability to tell good stories.

300 is based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller about the ancient Battle of Thermopylae where 300 brave Spartan soldiers took a stand against a gargantuan invading Persian army. Spoiler alert - of course, in the end they all died, but their story inspired all of Greece and somehow contributed to the inabiity of the Persian empire to thrust into Europe.

The movie is visually unique - it uses overexposed, grainy imagery and a monochrome palette to give a period feel. The CG work is excellent. The men are buff and sporting massive six-packs. However, all the blood & gore distracts from the fundamental story, which is rather simplistic. There are no epic wars being fought, alliances being forged or nations being conquered. It's the story of one battle. There're little background sub-plots thrown in to break the monotony, but they have little bearing on the principal storyline.

The movie also goes out of its way to depict the enemy as barbarians and thus, by inference, the Spartan warriors righteous. It's really over the top. The media calls this "Hollywood's invasion of Persia". Perhaps a retaliation for the overt anti-Semitic tirades coming from present-day Iran?

What I found personally offensive are the racist undertones in the setup. The Persian army presumably invaded from North Africa, and was thus made up of slaves from the area. It ended up being a battle of white Europeans vs. brown/black Asians with references to Asian culture being inferior - the classic white supremacy theory. I don't know if this was intentional - probably not. While I adore and respect Spartan bravery, I'm glad I did not pay $10 to watch my heritage being maligned. There's an Indiana Jones DVD on a sale rack somewhere that will do the job just fine.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

American Idol

While I'm no dedicated fan of the show, I'm certainly a fan of Ryan Seacrest. I first noticed him when he did an Oscars pre-show many many years ago - before American Idol. Of course, the usual rumours have been circulating about his sexuality. While he can be trumped by every other West Hollywood queen in the looks department, he has a certain on-screen charisma that I find very sexy.

Driven indoors by the cold Toronto winters, and wanting to make good use of my HD cable subscription, I've been watching a lot of American Idol this season. There's certainly a crescendo building up around Ryan's sexuality. Simon has been making jabs at him, and I've been carefully watching Ryan's responses. He's making measured retorts but doesn't get defensive about it. Today it reached a new peak when Simon asked Ryan to come out of the closet - in so many words. Wonder where this is going. My intuition tells me Ryan's going to make an announcement soon ;-)

Spring Is In The Air

The ice is melting, the wind is gentle and humid, the grass is peeking through and the earth smells of spring showers. Days like this remind me that I've been whining too much and Toronto has lovely outdoor weather for half a year. Weather that invites you to step out and walk. A lot.

Thursday, the mercury dips below freezing. I'm not whining anymore.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Escape

I need a vacation. A real vacation. Somewhere far from the bustle and close to nature. Someplace warm where I won't need five layers of clothes just to step out of home.

This winter is turning out to be one long endurance test. I am truly ready for Spring - which won't really be here till May. Sigh.

The Prestige

One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Run to the nearest DVD store and rent it. The plot is complex and incredibly clever. The performances, art direction and cinematography are flawless. If that's not enough, the two lead roles are played by Hollywood hotties Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman.

This isn't a movie to watch over dinner, or while making out with a date. This is a movie that demands 100% attention throughout. You won't have to try very hard though, it pulls you in from the very first scene. It's like watching a two hour magic trick. You're expecting to be deceived and you enjoy every moment of it. Enough said. Just watch it!

Monday, March 05, 2007

Update

Hmm - I just realized my last three posts are weather related. I swear it wasn't planned that way but weather has been on my mind a lot. The only good thing about a Toronto winter is the fact that it tightens up your pores and keeps your skin clean. That and curling.

Ok - I'm just kidding about curling, which, for the uninitiated, is yet another pointless sport invented by the Scots out of sheer boredom. They spent their summers whacking a pebble around the meadows with a stick and called it golf. They spent their winters pushing a piece of rock on ice aided by the smoothening power of brooms and called it curling. I'm not making any of this up.

Some of you have expressed great concern at my absence from the blogosphere for - gosh - a whole month. I've been busy doing actual work for a change. Very interesting, yet intense work. This is my first normal week in a while. Hope to post more regularly going forward. Stay tuned!

Climate Change

While the Bush administration has been busy re-christening global warming as cimate change for political reasons, they might have a point after all. Warming conjures up images of heat, sun and floods. Climate change manifests itself in more ways than that. Take today for example. They shut down the Gardiner Expressway and certain streets in downtown Toronto after baseball sized chunks of ice started flying off buildings. Some quotes from today's Toronto Star:

Experts say this is the first time since 1976 — when the CN Tower was finished — that the structure has seen such an ice buildup.

The cause was a rare confluence of weather factors beginning with the March 1 storm. The accumulations of wet snow and freezing rain (about 6 centimetres of snow and another 13 millimetres of rain) got the ball rolling.


That wouldn't be the first weather-related rare occurrence we've seen in the past couple of years. While Canadians may welcome the general rise in temperatures and look forward to someday spending March-break sunning themselves on the shores of Lake Ontario, we should realize that there may not be a Lake Ontario left by then.

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore has finally made peace with himself. He may have been an average politician but he's a kick-ass campaigner for combating global warming. His movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is a taped version of his lecture on global warming, interspersed with vignettes of his life that cast him as an authorative figure on the topic. Regardless of his credentials, the arguments he makes are based on hard, irrefutable facts. It's impossible to watch this movie and still not believe in global warming.

According to Al Gore, we're like frogs in a pot of water, slowly simmering towards certain death. Parallels are drawn to the denial around the smoking crisis. His own family grew tobacco, he says, till the death of his sister from lung cancer shook them up. It's not all gloomy though, he says. We have the technology and means today to drive down emissions to pre-1970s levels. What's lacking is the political will.

Well, global warming is a real problem, whether Al Gore says it or not. Companies have been actively taking notice and buiding strategies around it. After all, climate change will impact bottomlines. The cost of doing nothing is probbaly far greater than the cost of adapting. It's a matter of getting people out of denial and to accept certain action plans.

On a more personal level, I have made changes to my lifestyle in the past two years that hopefully have some impact. My car stays mostly in the garage these days. I walk or take the transit to most places. I live in a condo with substantial heating/cooling efficiencies. I choose simpler foods with less industrial processing involved. On a professional level, I help businesses communicate electronically, thus saving paper and travel. My job involves a non-trivial amount of travel but I've always taken trains and car-pooled whenever possible. Am I doing enough? Time will tell.