09 in Movies: The top 5 of the first half of the year.

2009 has been a glorious film year so far. And given the fact that The Academy of Motion Pictures and Snooty Awesomeness has decided to expand the pool of candidates for Best Film of the Year to 10, I have decided that this year has been so remarkable so far that it deserved TWO top fives. The second half of the year promises to have tons of weepy independent fodder, like Zombie Land, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and Where the Wild Things Are. So check back here towards the beginning of 2010 for that.

BTW There might be some spoilers. But probably not that many more than the trailers.

THE BEST FIVE FILMS OF THE FIRST HALF OF 2009 ARE…

5. Brothers Bloom

Wait what?

The dude from King Kong (no, not the gorilla… no, not Jack Black either…) and Mark Ruffalo are lovable scamps going around Norman Rockwell’s America, conning their way into Rachel Weisz’ pants.

And heart, and heart.

4. Coraline

Better than old men with balloons.

Before this film, I thought the closest thing to seeing a Neil Gaiman story done right was MirrorMask, a remarkable, yet decidedly low budget affair.

But somehow puppets in the hands of the guy that did The Nightmare Before Christmas (not Tim Burton, but the guy that REALLY did the movie, Henry Sellick) Gaiman stuff really sings, The 3D (the movie is the first claymation movie to be shot in 3D off the bat ) doesn’t feel gimmicky at all, and it serves the story beautifully.

Which again, seems to deal with Gaiman’s obsession with parallel realities and underage girls, octogenarian nudity, buttons for eyes, undead dogs and god-like cats.

3. (500) Days of Summer

Music references? I love music references!

In the hipster movie of the year, (or the first half of the year anyway) the screenwriter not only doesn’t try to avoid the cliches of every community college ex-girlfriend revenge screenplay, but decidedly plows through every single one of them, spanning an incomprehensible ramble of a project, that at once references The Smiths, and Bergman, begging for indie cred by having Regina Spektor in the soundtrack.

However, the self-hatred, the awkward referencing, and naive writing are EXACTLY why this movie is so good, the predictable-yet-unpredictable storyline is honest and unpretentious, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are amazing playing the karaoke singing, vintage apartment dwelling hipsters with bad jobs dealing with their own insecurities while running around IKEA.

2. District 9

This is the future, the year 2000

Borat’s stache-wearing brother is promoted to chief mover of a shantytown populated by members of the planet of the Zoidbergs, Neill Blomkamp’s exntension of his brilliant mockumentary Alive in Joburg is a strong statement about the nature of humanity, told with a kick ass action film in which humans explode like ham in a broken microwave.

I mean this movie has everything, a lovable, selfish and not very smart protagonist (probably a secondary character from a serbian romantic comedy); political intrigue, medical experimentations, Nigerian cat food schemes, ALIENS! AND MECHAS! with special effects that rival this summer’s rival blockbusters Transformers: Revenge of the Lame, and Terminator Saturation.

This movie needs to be seen, by you, right now.

1. Moon

shit, wrong pic...

Zoey Bowie made me a movie.

No seriously, it’s a character study, starring Sam Rockwell, in space.

What are you still doing reading this?, that should be enough for you to be cheering and crying at the same time, you want more? fine! Kevin Spacey plays a robot.

Seriously? more!? fine MATT BERRY IS IN IT.

Yes, this Matt Berry.

Go to the ends of the world to watch this film, it’s one of the best SciFi movies of the decade.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Up! The first twenty minutes of that film are the best and more heart felt twenty minutes of any Pixar film ever made. Perhaps of any animated movie ever made; Perhaps of any movie ever made.

Watchmen Zack Schneider recreates with painful detail every single panel of this graphic novel, including the annoying 80s coloring.

Star Trek. Best, Start Trek, Ever.

WORSTS

The Hurt Locker. I was expecting great things, found nothing but pain.

Terminator Salvation, and Wolverine. Loud, interminable, and dumb, and loud too.

Public Enemy. Amazing period drama, great direction, superb acting, seemingly shot by arthritic grandmother with a VHS-C camcorder.

Back from the Dead.

Sorry for the long hiatus guys, Many things remained unreviewed during these few months. But no more. We’re back!

-Fredo.

I’m sorry.

Today I received a letter from the Attorney General stating that our blog is under investigation. There’s an alleged Devins-For-Pay scheme going around and we became “Persons of Interest.”

We’ll let you know how things go down.

-Fredo

Live Concerts – only not live, and you’re not really there.

I get it. You’re the kind of person that gets invited to awesome concerts but you’re either too broke to go or you’d rather, you know, pay for bills and stuff. No worries. NPR has you covered.

Yeah NPR. You know? The station your hippie uncle listens to? The one your grandpappy listens to on Saturday nights with that boring guy and the bluegrass band? They have a program called All Songs Considered. Where they talk about awesome music in real life. The kind of stuff you’re likely to listen to.

Now, let’s say you’re too cool for NPR. No worries. They have a podcast. So you can listen to it in your awesome iPhone. If you do (have an iPhone that is) you should download the podcast Live Concerts from All Songs Considered. There you’ll get full lenght live recordings of your favorite bands. Like the ting tings, tom jones, radiohead, animal collective. And moar.

And it’s free! No catch.

You don’t HAVE to be a member. But if this is your gateway podcast and you end up addicted to NPR. You probably should consider it.

 

Four Devins!

- Fredo

(from tehfreeworld.wordpress.com)

HORI Fight Stick 3 – Arcade Night is a go!

 

12-year-old arcade bully not included.

I played the F5 game all week to get this puppy, I couldn’t wait to get back home when the tracking page told me it was delivered. At the front of the house it lay there, a cardboard box, and inside it, this gem.

this is what Mexican coin-ops ate in 1990

The length of the USB cord that plugs into the PS3 is just the right length to the couch. I turned on the console, fired SFIITHDR, and an unusual rush of emotions came to me. I was suddenly transported to the dingy arcade, with the 12 year-old bully that used to hog the SFII machine. I remembered how I had to play World Heroes Perfect, and Samurai Showdown even as I pined to get a piece of SFII. But that bastard kid could play for an entire day on a $500 peso coin.

When I came to, the dog was on top of me, asking to go outside. After I walked her around the block I placed myself back on the couch, with the HORI stick on my lap. ready to take on the Shadaloo organization.

But Ryu wouldn’t do what I asked of him, the stick would stick in weird corners when I tried to do the quarter circle motions, the buttons felt unnaturally close and weirdly angled, I remapped the buttons to a more natural position but it was not what I hoped for, It was not the arcade from 1992. it was just a 1080p port of one of my favorite games, played with a decidedly higher quality controller than the dingy third world crap box that they used to call an arcade, with no foul smell coming from the liquor store next door, or the seedy bar that I suspected was a strip club next to it. It had no bully playing the game, and I didn’t have to pay my entire spending money to get it. 

The stick is solid, if slightly awkward, that being said, I will probably hack the crap out of this stick, change the restrictor plate to a circular one, replace the buttons with the higher quality Sanwa parts. And change the artwork to something more of my liking. But if you can get used to the japanese standard square restrictor on the stick, it’s a sweet option, and my guess is than even if you don’t you’ll get used to the little awkwardness in no time. It beats the SIXAXIS in every possible way. I was satisfied enough to order a second stick to play fighting games the way they’re meant to be played, with friends, and beer, possibly pizza.

They say whomever thinks the best times are in the past usually has really bad memory. In this case, trying to recover the good feelings from the past led me to the realization that what I remembered to be good wasn’t, and what I have right now is more than I could have every dreamed of when I was a kid.

 

Four Devins!

-Fredo

Street Fighter IV – Hello again, old friend.

Cammy is in this game thanks to overwhelming customer feedback. Sickos.

When I saw the trailers for the new Street Fighter, I got excited, the art direction took the lovable series into a different direction, It didn’t look like the LAME-O EX series with the stupid polygons yet the models are in 3D, and it doesn’t look like anime, like the AWESOME Alpha series either.  The game dances between both looks achieving some great balance. It also has the effect of black ink on rough paper. And the intros and endings are HD anime (on the PS3) overall the whole package is beautiful.

The game plays awkward. like any other six button masher, when controlled by the SIXAXIS, I’m hoping the HORI fighting stick 3 will make a difference. The pacing is familiar, yet refreshing.

Some hidden characters are easy enough to get, just finish the game in 15 minutes in EASIEST with C. Viper to get Cammy, Ryu to get Sakura, Sakura to get Dan; Bison to get Rose, Chun Li to get Gen, someone else Fei Long when finishing with Abel; and pretty much everyone to get Akuma, Gouken and Seth. with a million perfects and supercombo finish. 

I like this game, mostly because I’m a sucker for fighting games. Loading times are a pain, but you can download the game into the hard drive which accounts to about 2 gigs. with that capacity it could have been a hefty download, but it would have been worth it. Also I’m not sure it’s worth the $60 bucks new games demand these days. But then again few games do. 

 

Three Devins

-Fredo

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale

Mmm... yummy

Man, do I love a good beer. Especially when that good beer can be paired with a tasty murder burger. I have had the pleasure of enjoying Brooklyn Brewery’s beers before (pick up the variety pack if you see it, you won’t regret it), but this one remains as my favorite. I’m not gonna talk about the color or head content because whatever, I’m no douchefag, but this IPA is hoppy enough to my liking. Goes really well with meat burgers and I’m pretty sure it’d be tasty with fake burgers also. This beer gets four out of five Devins because it’s not the best IPA I’ve ever had, but if I’m at a bar and they have it, it’s a safe option.

Four Devins!

- Kamil

ziemniak mówi, on jest bardzo bardzo wielki i wysoki Kamil!

He is as tall as this post is brief, he plays videogames, his cats are ghey for each other, he takes awesome photos, he is my friend.

Welcome to TD&FR!

trailer trash – Echelon Conspiracy

With Watchmen come and gone I have currently been in search of my next cinematic pining. So off I searched through the mounds of movie trailers and cinephile blogs. As per usual I come across a fair handful of movies I have no prior knowledge of. It was this that got me wondering; what can be construed about a movie by solely watching the trailer and avoiding all synopsize. Are these trailers an accurate depiction of the movie’s intended plot or are they only a montage of the visual best and completely fallacious in regards to the narrative. What can best be construded in regards to the story line by focusing on visual clues alone.

Before undertaking this not so perilous gauntlet I decided to set up a set of rules for myself. I figured that this would allow me some consistency and also takes into consideration the general viewing habits of the movie going public. The rules where: 1) I can only watch the trailer once and must make my summary based solely on the initial viewing. This way it mimics what someone might encounter during the previews at a movie theater. 2) I can have no prior knowledge of the movies before viewing them. This way my summary is based solely on my own speculation and not on other people’s interpretations or the actual plot. 3) Decisions on which trailers to watch will solely be based on impulsive interest in the movie posters featured on the apple trailers page.

With that all out of the way…LETS GET READY TO RUMMMMMMBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLEEEE.

• First on the list is Echelon Conspiracy.

In Echelon Conspiracy; Tom Sawyer, now sporting some more modern attire and weaponry, receives a pimped out iPhone in the mail. It soon becomes apparent that this ain’t no ordinary iPhone. Instead it has some sweet new features. (Must be a beta version of 4.0) First, it’s got a text to speech converter that makes your most boring texts sound like that one hot sounding chick who kept calling people in that movie Eagle Eye. Second, it’s really good at travel alerts keeping you int the know and on time, probably a lot better then those damn Travelocity texts that tell you what gate your plane ‘might’ be at. Third, it’s has a great gambling app for the next time you find that you have accidentally stumbled into Reno. I think I heard about something like that being sold on the iTunes store for a while. Apparently they’ve got an update that’s expanded from just blackjack to slot machines. Sounds pretty awesome right, well, it does have a few bugs. For one lots of things blow up around it, I’m thinking it’s a battery issues that will be resolved later down the line . Second, it’s such a hot phone all sorts of people are gonna be running around asking you where you got it and when the apple store is gonna start selling it. Finally, the She-Hal text to speech chick is a little clingy. She’s all awesome and ‘advanced’ but, like any crazed girlfriend you forget what she told you and she tries running you over with a car.

We’ll from what I can make out this movie looks pretty sweet. I mean it seems like it’s gonna be one really long mac commercial but at least it doesn’t have Justin Long. That’s why I’m giving this movie trailer 3 Devins.

That’s all for today, you can see Echelon Conspiracy in theaters now and keep an eye out for my upcoming reviews on Battle for Terra and Babysitter Wanted.

-Ally

Happy 35th Birthday!!!

In 1974, some guy invented a digital means of copying sections of text and inserting them into other portions of documents. I had the guy’s name up in wiki a minute ago, but this here portable device that I’m writing with won’t allow me to quickly reference the article, as I may only have one application open at a time.
I’m not a big copy paster when it comes to my phone, nor am I a big MMSer or horizontal keyboarder, etc. But I have to wonder; had I been given that option to begin with, would I be?
On the eve of the iPhone OS 3.0 “preview” I find myself excited about what’s to come. Exited for background applications, push notifications and copy paste. Things that are currently present in most mobile OSs, were promised since September and have been an expected standard feature for the last 35 years, respecively. A company by any other name could never survive on this business model and yet, I find myself with millions of other iPhone users, grateful for this new bounty they are to bestow upon me.
Today I read an article (I’d include a link, but well… Yeah.) stating that 3rd party manufacurers will need to pay licensing fees to apple to include three little buttons on their headphone cables. This licensing will permit these manufacturers to use the special little chip that allows for these buttons to function with the new iPod shuffle. Anyone with minimal electrical engineering knowledge knows that it isn’t all that involved to solder a wire to a button. That special little chip is basically the means by which the headphones tell the shuffle that the manufacturer paid their dues. And by manufacturer, I mean consumer, seeing as how Bose, shure, belkin, and many others are not likely to eat this fee all on their own. As iPods and iPhones rely more heavily on this functionality (which they will) a new era of reduced fuctionality for every other non apple mp3 player/smart phone will rise. Look what the dock connector did for speaker docks. I emplore you to easily find one that doesn’t primarily use that goddamned dock connector.

In summation, Apple is like the girl in high school that everyone is in love with simply because she’s flat out gorgeous, overlooking the glaring fact that she’s a total twat.
And tomorrow at noon, she’s finally going to realize -after 35 years- that the sun isn’t made of cheese.

NO DEVINS!!

EDIT 03.17.09: OMG COPY PASTE LOOKS SO NICE!!! I’m sorry Apple! thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!!!!!!1!!!  TEN DEVINS!!!