- The movie Philadelphia was on the other night. I’d never seen it, but I remember a lot of people talking about what a great movie it was at the time. The performances were good and all, but the cinematography just killed me. They constantly went for 1st person camera shots and a lot of really silly choices for what shots were actually seen. The result is taking you completely out of the movie. I can understand the desire to show things from a character’s point of view, but what happens is you just notice the camerawork. The best camera work is when you forget it is a camera; when you completely lose yourself in it.

Example: Christopher Nolan. Nolan is really well known for the depth of his movies and the intricacies of the plot. And I love all that stuff. But his choices of camera angles and the way he puts it all together is why he’s one of my favorite directors. You just lose yourself in his movies. You never think “that’s an interesting camera angle,” because you never consider the camera. You think “that’s an interesting visual.” It’s a subtle thing, but it goes a long way in my enjoyment of a film.

- We rented Fast Food Nation tonight. The movie was developed with the author of the book of the same name, though the movie doesn’t follow the book at all, it just explores the same themes. It’s an interesting look at the fast food industry and all the people involved in turning a cow (or various parts of 1,000 cows) into a Big Mac. I was with them the whole way, and even Fez from That 70’s Show put in a pretty good performance. However, Avril Lavigne shows up as a pseudo-hippie activist type towards the end, and I just didn’t buy it. She’s not very convincing. Ashley Johnson (best known from Growing Pains, and being Mel Gibson’s daughter in What Women Want), however, turned in a really good performance.

- Actually, that warrants a short rant of its own, while we’re on the topic of movies. I hate it when a movie has a gimmick like that, but it just hasn’t been thought through. Mel Gibson can hear women’s thoughts. This appears to function in a way where the volume of said thoughts is based on his proximity to the women (as based on the scene where he gets overwhelmed by their thoughts in a crowded shopping mall). If that’s the way it works, than the scenes where he’s reading women’s minds over the phone make absolutely no sense. I hate things like that, because with minimal effort, these issues could be resolved, but the writers just don’t give a shit. Like that god awful Signs movie. SPOILERS- The aliens weakness is water. They would die the moment they entered our atmosphere. Somewhere, M. Night Shamalalalanianiola’s high school science teacher is ashamed of himself. - END SPOILERS

- This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in years.

- Hulk Hogan continues to act like a complete prick. First, he talked about how he and Eric Bischoff were going to start their own wrestling promotion to compete with McMahon This turned out to just be a pitch for a reality show where celebrities train to be wrestlers, not a full-on promotion as he implied. Then he started talking about how Wrestlemania needed him to provide a “real main event,” and offered to work with Ric Flair in his last match (making it evident that all his talk about starting his own promotion was just for better bargaining leverage with McMahon).

Hogan’s egotism is rampant here. Hulk Hogan would just take away from Wrestlemania. There’s two main events with 5 of the most over performers they have involved. Not only that, but in 30 minutes, they sold 40,000 of the 70,000 available tickets. Despite what Hulk Hogan may tell you, Wrestlemania doesn’t need Hulk Hogan. They’ve done huge business without him. As for Ric Flair, his last match had better damn well be against someone who can make it memorable. Hogan does not fill that position. If I want to watch Hulk Hogan make Ric Flair look like shit, I’ll watch WCW stuff from 1994, thank you very much. Shawn Michaels, who is most likely going to be Flair’s opponent, will put on a great match with him. Personally, I’d perfer someone younger who would really benefit from being “the man who retired Ric Flair,” but I’ll take the great match as a consolation prize.

Here’s an interesting related piece of news. Bobby Lashley (or Black Lesnar, as I call him) was released from WWE recently. He claimed on his myspace or something that he was unhappy for a number of reasons, including his pay off from Wrestlemania last year. Lashley was involved in that whole Donald Trump fiasco last year, and was reportedly paid in the neighborhood of $250,000 for his 20 minute match. Think about that. At my most recent salary, I would have to work 10 years to make that much money. He made that in 20 minutes and he’s pissed off? After only being in the business for about 4 years? Good riddance, Lashley, you unimaginable spoiled brat.

- A Shadowrun novel I won on eBay came in recently. I really enjoyed those novels as a teen. If you’ve never heard of it, Shadowrun started as a pen-and-paper role playing game (like Dungeons and Dragons). Later, it was adapted into video games for the Genesis and Snes (my first exposure to it), and then a series of novels. I never played the original game, I don’t really have any interest in it. But I love the world that the game exists in. Basically, it’s Lord of the Rings meets Blade Runner. Magic and creatures of magic (Elves, Orcs, Trolls, Vampires, Werewolves, etc…) return to the world and start to stake out a place in the new high-tech societies of 2050.  In this future, megacorporations hire Shadowrunners to carry out corporate espionage, assassinations, or any other dirty business they need accomplished. It’s a great combination of imagery. Powerful corporations can be run by a dragon. High-powered firearms clash with vicious magic. I can’t believe there’s never been a movie based on Shadowrun. The subject matter and the context are so rich and filled with the potential for really awesome visuals. Maybe I’ll try my hand at writing a script and pitch it someday.

- Speaking of video games, I spent an incredible amount of my time in the last two weeks playing Harvest Moon for the Snes. It’s a simple farming game, if you’ve never heard of it, but it’s really addictive. Right now, my days (each day lasts about 5-6 minutes in game time) are filled with watering/planting/harvesting any crops I have, feeding/milking/brushing/talking to my cows, feeding my chickens and shipping their eggs. It sounds mundane, but it’s engrossing.

This is a cake in the shape of Majora’s Mask, and by far one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Anyone planning on throwing me a birthday party next year, take note.

I’m going to give it up for a while soon, though. I’ve got too many old games that I have to finish. First and foremost is Majora’s Mask. It’s my favorite Zelda game, but I still have yet to complete it. I’m really close. I’ve got all my masks, and I’m in the last palace before I can challenge the Skull Kid and fight Majora’s Mask itself. Next up after that is Metroid Prime, which I got for Christmas last year, and started to get really into over the summer, but when I got my Wii, it fell by the wayside to all the Wii games I started playing. Then, it’s off to Super Paper Mario, which is a fantastic game, but I got distracted from it by other games. Then after that, I suppose, I should focus on being a completionist with Mario Galaxy, as I’ve beaten Bowser in the last level, but I need to collect the last 40 or so stars to unlock Luigi as a playable character.

Chances are, I’ll get on to some new game (or maybe an old one) before all that and never get around to any of this. But eventually, i will finish them all.