I never really worried that we'd get it all done. I just wondered if we'd still be standing at the end of it all.

Over the holiday weekend I sat down and watched all the special features on the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition. Like the same features on the Fellowship DVD I was absolutely blown away by the scale of the production that went into these movies.

When we think about all the work that goes into movies we tend to think of the actors, and the writers, and the directors, and occasionally even the lighting and set guys. But these movies stretch it to another level. Unlike some filmmakers (aka George Lucas) Peter Jackson tries to do as much as possible in the real world. They build sets on location, they use miniatures (some aren't so small at 30+ feet tall.) And most importantly they build a ton of props and sets with more detail then I can imagine. I marvel when I hear the designers talking about how they delve into each individual culture and select themes that they follow throughout their weapons, armor, clothing, art, and architecture. It's remarkable.

Then to see similar attention to detail in the sound, music, foley, editing, cgi work, armorsmiths, makeup, swordsmiths, and more. Not to mention the two guys that spent three years putting chain mail together. By the end of that they had worn off their fingerprints.

Perhaps my favorite thing about these features is they include more aspects of the production then you're used to seeing. There are a lot of unsung hero's that go into a masterpiece film like Lord of the Rings, and I'm sure these DVD's don't cover lots of them. But they cover more then we're used to seeing, and it gives me an appreciation for the vast amount of work that goes into a major film. What amazes me msot is all those talented people come together, work extremely hard, and somehow the whole thing fits together spectacularly in the end.

The Return of the King is just a few weeks away and I am anxiously looking forward to it...

We'd really like to thank the Barenaked Ladies for opening the show tonight. Those guys are great. You know if were were in Canada we'd be opening for them.

On Sunday night I went to see the Barenaked Ladies in concert. This was wonderful, as they are my favorite band and incredible in concert. They played in the new Opera house here in Seattle, which was a good place to see a show, except you have to stay in your seat. They were the only band and played two 70(!) minute sets. The quote above is when they came back from intermission and started the second set. They joked all night about how they were both the opener and the headlining band. They did something a little different this tour and played their new albumn in it's entirety. This was fine with me, as I like their new albumn, but I also like much of their older work lots more. It's ok though, they put on a great show, and I'm not one to complain about it. I'd go see it again tomorrow if given the chance.

I don't have time for this right now. So give me every home team in the national and every away team in the american for the $1000 max on each game.

Owning Mahowny is a terrifying look into addictive behavior. We watch Mahowny's life take a dramatic downward spiral. The whole time he knows he shouldn't be doing what he's doing - but he just can't stop. It's compulsive for him. My favorite part about this story is his vice doesn't extend into the other traditional vices. It's just gambling for him: drugs, alchohol and sex need not apply. But when he gambles he does it up. He works as an assistant bank manager in Toronto where he makes $22,000 a year, Canadian. But then he goes to Atlantic City with hundreds of thousands of dollars for quick gambling trips. He is of course stealing all this money from the bank, which adds an extra level of tension to the story and shows how he really is ruining his life in the long run - because those are the kinds of mistakes that don't just go away.

Mahowny is stupendously acted by Philip Seymour Hoffman. We can see the struggles he has and when he decides, screw it all, I'm doing it. But what most struck me was that I kept looking at his girlfriend thinking: I know her, but can't place the actress. It turns out it was Minnie Driver! An actress I absolutely should have recognized. Maybe it was the blonde hair, but I think it's much more likely it was just an excellent acting job.

This is not a fun movie to watch. But I found it captivating.

This is a dream.
Then it is a good dream

You know, I give a lot of movies a break. I'm easy to please. If I find something I like or really intruiges me in a movie and the rest of it doesn't fall flat on it's face then I'm happy, I had a good time. But then I go and watch really good movies and feel like a bit of a chump.

I watched the special extended edition of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers tonight. I remember it being good, but seriously, this puts things like the matrix movies and star wars prequels to shame. Granted, Peter Jackson gets to work with an amazing piece of fiction. But his big screen translation is spectacular. After watching this I am fully intending to watch the extended editions of Fellowship and Two Towers during their one week runs at the Cinerama. And I can't wait to see Return of the King in just less then a month.

I also watched Whale Rider on Sunday which lived up to its billing as a wonderful family story. There's a great story in there, and I like seeing movies that encourage girls to break stereotypes and feel like they're at least equal (if not superior) to their boy counterparts.

Love actually is all around you.

It's rare that a movie has a thesis statement. But there it is, in the first opening voiceover of Love Actually. And it really follows through, keeping this as the effective theme of the film. It follows a whole lot of people (at least 10 main characters, I lost track) through a few weeks of being in love or looking for love. There are some stories where bad things happen, and some stories where good things happen. But even when the bad things are going on the characters pull out of it by their love for eachother (not neccesarily love for their partner, sometimes love for other supporting characters.)

The movie is too complex and a bit jumbled. But it was also a joy to watch. There's reality in there that you don't always see in a romantic comedy, but there's plenty of unreal moments too - most notably the side trip to Wisconsin. In the end it's acted well, and there are lots of funny moments. These things help it get over the feeling that someone took a bunch of short stories and mixed them all up and called it a movie.

I never saw Hulk when it was in the theater. Given my positive feelings towards superhero movies this was a bit suprising. But everyone said it sucked, and I've heard a lot of that over the last few months. So I guess my expectations had been lowered quite a bit. That said I had a great time watching it on DVD yesterday. It's not really your typical superhero movie, maybe that's what threw everyone off. But the cinematography and visual design was amazing. The music was gripping and well themed, the acting was all solid, and the story was good. I think the problem may be that director Ang Lee focused a whole lot on the characters as real people with real problems and real lives. Lets just say that's not exactly standard fare in comic book movies and the crowd that often enjoys them didn't react too well.

I'm not saying it's a great film or anything. But it's been getting an unfair rap among the peope I've talked to who saw it. Although I am more forgiving of the poor parts of a film as long as there's good other stuff in it. And I was continually impressed with the visual style in this one.

Like what I've done with the place?

Like many, many others I watched The Matrix Revolutions yesterday. The super short version is I had fun watching it, which means I liked it. But I have many more thoughts. Unfortunately I've tried to flush them out and I'm at 1200 words right now - and only half done.

I'm thinking that's not a post that belongs here, and it's something I should put some editing work into. So I'll be posting a stand alone page with Matrix thoughts soon enough.

If you're wondering if you should go see Revolutions the answer really lies in whether you enjoyed Reloaded. The two are really one big long movie. Reloaded doesn't really end and Revolutions doesn't really begin. That said I liked Revolutions more then Reloaded, even if it doesn't have a scene that can stand up to the freeway chase. And beware, there is some camp (why, oh why, did they include the "kid" character...)

If you're looking for more analysis of the matrix movies then you ever wanted, look no further then this page. Many of the things there are off the wall and really reaching, but there's lots of interesting stuff too. And more importantly it gives me some religious story background that I just don't know.

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