There is quite a few gaffes in this movie, the plot is nonexistent, the action drags on forever in places, and the acting oscillates between solid and silly. Still, this is one of the finest martial arts movies ever made. Lee’s technique is amazing, and the surroundings and characters are just done well enough not […]
Expecting a filmed version of Harrer’s memoir, lending visuals and speed to the somewhat sluggish pace and skeletal outlines of the book, I was annoyed to see many changes in plot and a focus on the superficial events rather than their meaning. I also didn’t like the fact that in a movie about foreign places […]
This was supposed to be the heartwarming, quirky and funny, yet profound story of a mentally handicapped prodigy icefisher, who has the fish themselves tell him from under the ice how to catch them, but somehow it didn’t come together. Neither the characters nor the acting can convince, and the plot is so thoroughly overconstructed […]
The more I learn about Japanese history, the more I wonder how it is possible that the European captains found anybody alive there at all when they arrived. They should have disembarked, a fearful expression on their faces, and waded in blood, among the guts and remains of the honorable dead, who slashed themselves open […]
I guess I first have to say how touching this film is, nor how necessary it is to provide an, albeit small, window into a hidden world of hopelessness and despair, and the inspiring quality not only of the movie, but also of the photographers heartfelt need to do something to help save the futures, […]
This book has won both the Hugo and the Nebula, and while I don’t fully agree with quite so much formalized praise, its central character, a geostationary tower 40.000 kilometers high, rising from the slightly shifted island of Sri Lanka, is a fascinating and awe inspiring invention. It’s story, intertwined with that of it’s engineer, […]
When I realized three minutes into the movie, that the script had swapped Ged/Sparrowhawk’s true and public names, I suspected impending doom. It’s a minor detail, but it betrays all the reckless disrespect and cluelessness, as well as the love affair with superficial deepness (Sparrowhawk! Doesn’t it just sound more magical!) that makes this one […]
A neat new study done right here at UC Berkeley finds that when the colours of a target has a different name from that of distractors, the left hemisphere is faster at finding the target than the right, while this advantage disappears for colours without a naming difference. The left hemisphere’s edge also disappeared when […]
Hell Yeah, he’s done it again. Though that might refer to Neil Diamond himself, whose work I’ve always liked a lot, and who has outdone himself on this new collection, the person I’m referring to is Rick Rubin, whose list of productions reads like a good part of my most favorite list. Johnny Cash, Slayer, […]
This is Lee’s posthumously published founding document for his own brand of kickass, Jeet Kune Do, that brought him both fame and severe criticism for boldly breaking with tradition and fusing different styles, taking what he would from each. The book, while roughly structured into chapters, reads more like a collection of small pieces than […]