I’ve moved back to VT. For the holidays, but also for the foreseeable future. It’s vacation, then working, saving up, and if all goes as planned, film school starting in the Fall. I’ve taken a two-year detour from what was really my dream, and I’m back on track. So that’s good.

Before I left, I got to check out a MAKE IT! fair and was pretty impressed. I’d wanted to go last year in Vancouver but looked up the vendors that had websites and was pretty turned off. This year I just took the plunge and am sure glad I did. From Cocoa Nymph (awesome chocolates) to Thyrza Segal’s Plantscapes to Daughters of Bastards Warrior Wear (awesome chain mail jewelry, no website, sorry) there was plenty of awesome stuff to check out and to gawk at. Catalyst Reaction had some cool leather stuff and I picked up some great Christmas cards from Hug + Kiss Designs.

Other than that, not much else to report. T-day in Seattle with the bro, a week in NYC with an old friend, then getting settled in here, ready for Christmas, watching the last of my funds slip away.

Moved onto Season 2 of Fringe and giving Leverage a second chance. Finished Dexter Season 4 last night. I’m still traumatized. Fantastic show…they don’t pull any punches. Hoping to start in on Supernatural Season 2 soon. Being Human was a no-go for me; the emo vampire dude was waaay over the top annoying, I couldn’t even look at him. Watched Slither and Gremlins recently. Both were awesome. Definitely to-purchase. Great fun. Excited about Chuck’s Season 3 and Burn Notice’s continuation in January too. Workin’ away at my to-watch lists…

I’ve been on a pretty major Star Wars kick lately. Partly nostalgia (I found my first screenplay – a Star Wars fanfilm, almost 70 pages!), partly reading Death Troopers (fun!) and partly finally getting around to watching Star Wars Clone Wars from Cartoon Network. Pretty awesome series, I’m having a blast. You know it’s good when it gets you excited about watching the prequels. Yea. That’s serious.

Listening to lots of industrial and gothic, generally dark stuff lately…Rammstein mostly but Imperative Reaction, Assemblage 23, Zombie Girl a bit, I:Scintilla, Heimataerde, Icon of Coil and Birthday Massacre. Got Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play on in the background right now. Never a baddie :P. Awesome album.

Hope all’s well with everybody reading. And everybody not reading. And no I didn’t get you presents. Have great holidays! :)

Official release date is November 25, so head out to the theaters then and git yer butt in gear for some fun!

EDIT: Eh, it’s fun. Nevermind some of the iffy effects and the not-new hero story. Decent fun.

The visual effects were very well done, but what else would you really expect from a place like ILM, especially when shops like Digital Domain, Lola and Svengali FX are backing them up.

My only complaint is the fact that there is at least one lens flare in virtually every single shot of the entire movie. Even the lights inside the Enterprise cause the lens to sparkle up, and on top of all those, there are these weird light/color reflection patterns that shimmer across the lens whenever the camera moves inside the ship. Cool idea, yea; cool look, yea; practical, hell no. When you start to think the plastic/glass of your spectacles (what, you don’t call them spectacles?) is malfunctioning, something’s gone wrong.

Apart from that, the film is a good watch, good fun, with plenty of eye-candy for basically everyone. Worth the watch this weekend when you get the chance.

Alive In Joburg – Neill Blomkamp from Spy Films on Vimeo.

Link to the official trailer: io9.

The film stars Emily Mortimer, who I’d only seen previously in Match Point as a supporting character, so it was cool to see her successfully pull off a lead role; and of course Ben Kingsley couldn’t hurt a film if he tried, and he pulled off his unsettling Russian mobster role nicely.

Appearances are made by Kate Mara (Stone of Destiny), Eduardo Noriega (Che Guevara), and Thomas Kretschmann (Wanted, King Kong, Resident Evil: Apocalypse). And last but surely not least is the possibly best of all performance by Woody Harrelson as the clueless church-going missionary type husband to Mortimer’s character who, despite her obvious mental decline stands by her innocently – naively – through the whole film.

A decent watch for about two hours, good cast, good performances, and though a few times my rommate and I questioned the logic of the plot points, we didn’t turn it off. Worth the watch if you’re curious, open and not a film snob :P.

Rating: 3/5

YouTube via io9

Definitely a knock-off of the original Terminator, but the space part near the end reminded me of Phantom Menace or Firefly. Really just because of the space stations. But space stations are cool. And cheesy effects and acting are funny. It’s already on my to-watch list.

Via I Watch Stuff

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2773469669682076759&hl=en]

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