Mmmmmmmmm!

Closeup on the "M" of "CINEMAXX" sign at the
Penrith Plaza Hoyts' cinema complex.

Just back from seeing "District 9", a new science fiction movie! Apartheid meets "Alien Nation" meets "Cloverfield", minus the shaky-cam. Riveting performances and SPFX! Highly recommended!

Gort versus Gort

Klaatu - Barada - Nikto!

It's the battle of the Gorts and - because I enjoyed myself on Sunday (despite a very disturbed night's sleep earlier on) - I'm declaring a draw!

Yes, I went off to see the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Even though I already knew the basic storyline, for me this remake was an engrossing-enough movie. I guess the fact that I didn't fall asleep, even though I was quite tired, is a good sign.

I actually like Keanu Reeves in most of his films. The "Bill & Ted" movies were such a cack, and I enjoyed his unique contributions to "Parenthood" and the first "Matrix". (I've had the DVD of "The Lake House" for about a year, purchased on the strength of his appealing performance in the theatrical trailer, although I haven't found the time o watch it yet.) So, if he's known for his wooden acting, then it certainly helped him bring an alien quality to Klaatu, this film's featured character made famous by the always intriguing Michael Rennie in 1951. Big shoes to fill!

Kathy Bates was also excellent. I had no idea she'd even been cast. A nice surprise. Jennifer Connolly was a likable female lead, and the young actor playing her stepson was appealing and capable.

I'd deliberately avoided the newspaper and Internet critiques, but I guess I'm now not surprised that it's garnered some rather lacklustre reviews... I suppose the main stumbling block is: did they really need to remake this classic, when the original still holds up so well? (I do have a great DVD version of the original - with a fascinating commentary by Nicholas Meyer and the then quite elderly director, Robert Wise. Coincidentally both men directed for the "Star Trek" features, so it was fun to hear them working together.)

The new film combines new SPFX with plenty of nostalgic homages to the original. The new take on what makes up Gort was interesting from a SPFX angle, and the swarms of alien, self-replicating nanite creatures seemed innovative. I guess most people were expecting Gort to use brute strength. I was surprised this Klaatu had no traditional flying saucer, but the network of giant spheres, which seemed to provide transport, communication and ark-like retrieval pods (for Earth's non human fauna) seemed efficient, and very pretty to behold.

There are some other interesting changes. The new Gort is huge! In the original film, if I recall correctly, he was played by an extra, whose day job was working as a security guard (Lock Martin) at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Famously, the old costume was made in two versions - one with the zipper in the back, the other with the zipper in the front - so the "metal" suit would appear seamless. This time Gort's all CGI, I guess, and it's the US military who name him, not Klaatu. G.O.R.T. is now an acronym for "Genetically Organized Robotic Technology".

Probably the film's green messages were a bit heavy handed. But we haven't learned much by way of Michael Rennie's Klaatu's warnings in 1951, so will we also ignore Keanu's Klaatu as we approach 2009? Yep, I think we will..

Oh, and I also loved that the bridge in Central Park, under which the main characters shelter during the finale of the new "Te Day the Earth Stood Still" seems to be the same bridge used by the young heroes of "Cloverfield" in that film's finale. Next time I visit Central Park, that's a must-have holiday snapshot. Hopefully I won't pick a day of impromptu alien invasion.

Who sees JJ's Star Trek when?

Who sees JJ's Star Trek when?

The official 2009 release dates for the eleventh Star Trek movie have been revised/announced by Paramount Pictures! And it's great news for us Down Under, and on the best side of the International Date Line. As with the ST XI trailer that was attached to "Cloverfield", earlier this year, Australia is well-placed to see JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" ahead of most of the world!



NORTH AMERICA
United States 08 May 09

Canada 08 May 09

LATIN AMERICA
Argentina 07 May 09

Brazil 08 May 09

Chile 07 May 09

Colombia 08 May 09

Mexico 08 May 09

Panama 08 May 09

Peru 07 May 09

Venezuela 08 May 09

MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA
Egypt 13 May 09

Israel 07 May 09

Lebanon 07 May 09

South Africa 07 May 09

ASIA PACIFIC
Australia 07 May 09 (Yay!)

Hong Kong 28 May 09

India 26 May 09

Indonesia 08 May 09

Japan 06 Jun 09

Korea 11 Jun 09

Singapore 08 May 09

Malaysia 08 May 09

New Zealand 07 May 09 (The place to be?)

Philippines 08 May 09

Taiwan 25 Jul 09

Thailand 07 May 09

EUROPE
Austria 08 May 09

Belgium 06 May 09 (lucky Belgium, eh?)

Croatia 07 May 09

Cyprus 08 May 09

Czech/Slovakia 07 May 09

Denmark 08 May 09

Finland 08 May 09

France 06 May 09 (ditto France!)

Germany 07 May 09

Greece 07 May 09

Hungary 08 May 09

Iceland 08 May 09

Italy 08 May 09

Netherlands 07 May 09

Norway 08 May 09

Poland 29 May 09

Portugal 07 May 09

Romania 08 May 09

Russia 07 May 09

Serbia & Montenegro 07 May 09

Slovenia 07 May 09

Spain 08 May 09

Sweden 08 May 09

Switzerland - F 06 May 09

Switzerland - G 07 May 09

Turkey 08 May 09

Ukraine 07 May 09

United Kingdom 08 May 09.

The latest posters!

The drawing power of Star Trek

My weekly Site Meter results just popped in. There's something to be said about the drawing power of a new "Star Trek" teaser trailer!

This blog usually attracts about 50 visitors per day, dropping down to about 30 when I've been slack about posting (or go on vacation), and rising to about 80 if I talk about something controversial/current.

Today, my "average per day" visitor count is 114, and half of those are looking at more than one entry while they are here! Onya "Star Trek", "Cloverfield" and JJ Abrams!

Since the teaser trailer was released, the Trek online bulletin boards have been buzzing with fans dissecting the trailer into its component parts, and reading all manner of rumour, innuendo and wacky speculation into every bit. Makes me glad that JJ Abrams is making this movie for the general public, and not attempting to appease "the fans", since they are going to be polarized by anything and everything!

Sunday's magic number: 92.4 - Another slip. (I think. The scales were totally weird last week, so if I believe the first reading of last Sunday, I did lose this week.) I do know I've been a bit carefree this week, so I guess I need to get serious again. The next ten kilograms are gonna be the hard ones. A whole Jack Russell to go!

Star Trek... "Under construction"

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As the Paramount/Bad Robot Productions' "Cloverfield" opened here today, Thursday 17th - and Australia's a day ahead of USA (which doesn't get the film until Friday 18th) - I've now already seen...

... the JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" teaser trailer!

A group of four friends and I went off to see the 7.20pm screening of "Cloverfield", partly because the movie sounded rather cool, but also because we hoped that Australia would be getting the Star Trek XI teaser trailer attached to the front.

There were several other trailers first, interspersed with local cinema advertisements but then... on came the latest, flashy Paramount logo, plus Bad Robot's logo screen. (This is it, this is it, this is it...)

Then a familiar, old NASA countdown: "30 seconds and counting."

We see a man in safety goggles, welding something, sparks flying in the dark. The googles are removed and the camera glides back to slowly start revealing his location.

Then we hear a line from an archival President Kennedy speech: "... the eyes of the world now look to space...", and another NASA voice ("God speed, John Glenn!"), as more tiny people are shown walking carefully around a huge, partially-revealed, section of metal saucer.

Another familiar voiceover: "The Eagle has landed."

Now we see more of the scaffolding, and more of the saucer. A title reads, "The future begins".

Astronaut Neil Armstrong's voice adds, "... one small step for (a) man..." and we see revealed... even more saucer.

Leonard Nimoy (as the voice of... Spock!) says: “Space... the final frontier..." and now we hear the very familiar opening strains of the "Star Trek" 60s television theme music.

The shot now reveals the presence of large black lettering on the top of the saucer: "U.S.S. Enterprise", the now-famous delta shield, and then another title card, "Under construction".

Wow! Roll on Christmas 2008!


Under construction

Oh, and "Cloverfield" was fun, too. If you survived shaky cam on "The Blair Witch Project", and are happy to spend the first ten minutes or so of the movie getting used to the annoying movement long enough to get intrigued by the film's appealing young characters and their interrelationships... it's a great (and scary) film!

I think what made it particularly spooky was that many of the landmarks of Manhattan used in the movie were places I'd actually been to, such as the Statue of Liberty, and the quaint stone bridge in Central Park - not to mention that several scenes of destruction were (purposely) way too reminiscent of 9/11, and the fate that befell the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Highly recommended, although it definitely helps if you've already seen my brother Brian's first attempts at using a video camera during his vacation in Perth, circa 1992.

To procrastinate, or not to procrastinate? That is the question!

If we blog so we can procrastinate about housework, career and taxes, what is it called when we procrastinate about blogging?

Actually, I haven't really been procrastinating about my blog, although I've only managed weekly posts so far in 2008. I've been very busy behind the scenes.

You see, the Sydney Webloggers Meetups seem to have gone defunct, since last July - assistant organiser Sara has been unwell and she even invited me to help organise a Meetup for her last August/October - but that was when I was galavanting off to Brisbane Trek conventions and a visit to Perth. Since then, the old site has been unresponsive and, with no one moderating its message board, there was no way to tell everyone that we should have another meeting.

So, I withdrew my leadership of the dismally-underpopulated "Lost" Meetup Group, struggling to find any members for the past year, and now I find myself running three Meetups groups: the successful Star Trek one; a fledgling, but growing, Art Modelling one (for artists and models of western Sydney to get together and collaborate on interesting art projects - we hope); and the all-new Bloggers of Sydney.

It's a big month! The Star Trek crew are next meeting up, like we did a year ago, in Darling Harbour for Australia Day; there's hopefully a life drawing session for the Art Modellers the next day; and - by then - the Bloggers will have already met on the preceding Thursday night for their inaugural gathering. As a result of forming the new Bloggers group, I was contacted yesterday by Aussie Bloggers, a new website officially launching on January 21st. It looks very interesting and should be a cohesive way of linking up with other Aussies with blogging in common.

And next week, the new JJ Abrams' movie, "Cloverfield" premieres. Hopefully Australia is getting the teaser trailer for JJ Abrams' currently-lensing "Star Trek" movie, similar to the plan for the USA cinemas! I can't wait, and "Cloverfield" sounds like fun, too. A monster movie - something terrifying ransacking Manhattan - and filmed in documentary, shaky cam-style, rather like the effects for "The Blair Witch Project". And by the man behind "Lost", "Mission: Impossible 3" and the new "Star Trek" movie!

Meanwhile, I am also working on a new book idea. And procrastinating about it.

Sunday's magic number: 91.5 - Well, I'm not really sure. The scales are being wacky today - maybe it's the hot, humid weather. It was my housemate's landmark birthday yesterday, so there was: a scrummy, but sensible, breakfast at the wonderful Mash cafe in Glenbrook in the lower Blue Mountains; a scrummy, but sensible, lunch in the Penrith Domayne centre; and a huge family barbeque last night. I did weigh myself yesterday afternoon, to see what damage the BBQ, alcoholic punch and birthday cake might cause, and the scales said 89.9, so I was thrilled! This morning, the numbers claimed I was 92.5 - several times - but eventually settled on 91.5. I knew I hadn't eaten that much! But maybe these scales are... unreliable. Yeah, blame the scales!