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Transformers: Dark of the Moon [spoiler-FREE, duh]

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon. EPIC. The biggest blockbuster and the best 3D you’ll see; an action packed, technical marvel!

Let me just set some expectations up front, and get the bad over with. No one’s winning an Oscar here for acting of the script. Women in Transformers are objects for Bay to impregnate with his camera. For what it’s worth, I’ve seen a lot of hate around Megan Fox 2.0, and I have to say, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was more than bearable; not sure what all the raging is about. Oh, and of course, there’s that small matter of how hot she is…

The stupidity, corny lines and moments are still there, but greatly reduced, and rather surprisingly, at the expense of Hollywood actors I’d never expect to see in a Bay film. And there’s about 30 [maybe more] minutes from the middle of the film that could’ve been cut. 

Right, if you’re still with me, read on for the good.

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Google+. Initial thoughts from a non-Facebooker.

I’m probably the one person you know [or don’t know] that doesn’t use Facebook. I never saw a need to use it, and coupled with their terrible stance on privacy and general doucheness by Zuckerberg, wouldn’t be caught dead using it. Then Twitter came along and created—shortly filling thereafter—a need to consume a constant stream of technology, movie, and cat-related information, amongst other things, and the ability to share all this easily.

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My Sydney Film Festival 2011. 15 seen. Senna takes the checkered flag.

It would be an understatement to say I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s Sydney Film Festival. A wonderful selection of films, a real sense of community through the #sydfilmfest Twitter hashtag [I’m still following it on TweetDeck!], and an increased love of film that has got me thinking in a lot of random tangents.

I saw 15, and really, I had a pretty darn good strikerate! I honestly don’t know how some nutters out there get through 30+, because I felt like I needed another weekend after weekends were lined with 3 films a day, leaving me emotionally drained and physically tired. For someone requiring constant distraction, it was a fine test of concentration.

For all the filmmaking mastery of Malick’s The Tree of Life, the quiet, simple—almost antithesis in some regards—genius of Le Quattro Volte, the perfect drama of A Separation and the psychological powerhouse that was Take Shelter, I found myself unexpectedly, but wholeheartedly gravitating towards the beautifully put together story of Ayrton Senna.

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Why did Tumblr remove the importing of RSS feeds? To conserve resources, apparently…

So Tumblr removed its RSS feed import functionality a week or so ago, and decided not to tell anyone. 

I noticed this a week ago too, when I was frustrated with the lack of data portability with my Flixster ratings, but realised I can pull them into an RSS feed, and thought, hey, I’ll just start pulling them all into a Tumblr blog on the side, and every now and then, use my main Posterous blog for a longer review.

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Senna [spoilers, duh]

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Senna. Thrilling. Tragic. The most emotionally resounding story of the year.

I tried to recollect what I knew about Ayrton Senna the morning I watched the film, and all that came to mind were two things; he raced in Formula 1, and more faintly than that, he died while racing.

I now know that he was a family man, a man of Brasil, not one bit interested in the politics that ruined racing, unbelievably determined, and most importantly, a man of God. I say most importantly a man of God in a selfish way, as a viewer of this film, because hearing Senna talk repeatedly about what God had given him broke my heart little by little, knowing what would eventually happen. 

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The Tree of Life [spoilers, duh]

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What have you done to my fragile little mind, Mr. Malick?! Life, The Universe, and Everything, in just over two hours of the most beautiful cinema I have ever seen, and all I’m wondering is when I can see it again.

I was nervous for tonight. For all the chatter and buzz I’d heard, I only read through one review [a preview, really] in its entirety, from The Guardian’s David Thomson, and that last paragraph has remained burned in my mind…

What can one say about The Tree of Life? Just that for nearly 40 years it has been apparent that Malick might make a movie that could alter our understanding of what cinema should be. This may be it.

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From Albania to Iran. Day 6 of the Sydney Film Festival 2011.

Today was my favourite Sydney Film Festival 2011 day to date, taking me from Northern Albania to Iran, focusing on family, and the consequences and fallout the actions of adults in conjunction with the culture surrounding them can have on their children.

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Super 8 [spoilers, duh]

Super 8. A fantastic throwback to those kids movies from the 80s we all loved, with the best ensemble cast of the year.

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Maybe I’ve just seen a lot of films lately, but I can’t last remember when I’ve so genuinely cared for a bunch of characters, and all credit to Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, the rest of the ragtag bunch, and J.J. Abrams, for so expertly bringing out the emotion in these kids with his writing and direction. If it’s been a long time since I’ve cared so much for a cast, it’s been even longer since the ensemble cast has largely been kids, and no, I can’t call it unique, but it’s something that has been sorely missing from cinema as of late.

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