Can I take a moment for a vital public service announcement? I absolutely insist you all read the book in the title of this message. It is nominally what is called a “Young Adult” book, being as its hero is sixteen, but don’t let that put you off. I think Doctorow writes some great fictionContinue reading “Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow”
Tag Archives: film
The Piracy Threshold epilogue
Someone told me about MakeMKV, a free bit of software for ripping Blu-Rays. I used it and showed Rare Exports to my first class of Culture and Media students yesterday. We all liked the film and found its premise and execution very original. Better yet, I have started discussing comic book adaptations with my otherContinue reading “The Piracy Threshold epilogue”
The Piracy Threshold
On 17th February this year, Matt Gemmell posted an insightful and perspicacious article to his blog entitled The Piracy Threshold. In it, he describes how people basically want to be honest, but once the difficulty of being so reaches a certain level, when dishonesty is not only the easier option but also the one toContinue reading “The Piracy Threshold”
Review: Gremlins (1984)
This film still had a 15 certificate on DVD, so I was a little worried about watching it with my son, but really the rating is a little confusing. The only bad language in Gremlins217 is someone getting called an asshole, and the violence is nothing worse than Doctor Who and a lot less realistic.Continue reading “Review: Gremlins (1984)”
Review: Blast from the Past (1999)
Blast from the Past (219) is a sweet little film. The story revolves around Christopher Walken’s character Calvin and his pregnant wife Helen, played by Sissy Spacek. Calvin is a scientist who makes his own fallout shelter in the garden of his house because of growing nuclear tensions. There is a party in the house,Continue reading “Review: Blast from the Past (1999)”
Review: Donnie Darko (2001)
Not your average teenage film… Donnie Darko is like a piece of jazz, it plays all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. That doesn’t stop it from being an enjoyable experience by any means, but it does mean that when the film ends you will more than likely be nonplussed byContinue reading “Review: Donnie Darko (2001)”
Our films
We have 440 DVDs in our collection. I have a note of them all on my Palm and we have them arranged on bookcases around our living room. The ones in the portrait photo are in “Finn’s collection” and on the other shelves they are in ours. Since we have all these DVDs, and sinceContinue reading “Our films”
OMG why are Star Wars Eps. I and II sooo bad?
Crikey, What stopped me from noticing the first time around? Finn want to see the Star Wars movies again, so we watched The Phantom Menace (TPM)(222) yesterday and we’ve just finished watching Attack of the Clones (AotC)(221) this afternoon. What a terrible start to TPM, the text is scrolling up the screen and already I’mContinue reading “OMG why are Star Wars Eps. I and II sooo bad?”
Review: Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on The Cliff)
Just back from seeing the sublime “Gake no ue no Ponyo”, known in English as “Ponyo on The Cliff” and “Ponyo sur la Falaise” in French. It’s a hand-drawn animation that really shows up CG in the opening sequence with thousands of moving elements (shoals of fish swimming). In terms of intended audience age theContinue reading “Review: Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on The Cliff)”
Review: Monsters vs. Aliens
We’ve seen this film twice now, once in 2D once in stereoscopic. Before I proceed onto a potted review of the film itself, I just want to talk about the difference seeing it in 3D made – not much apart from a lighter wallet. Seeing it in stereoscopic added another 9€ to the costs ofContinue reading “Review: Monsters vs. Aliens”