Chappie . Want . Sub . Titles

I was one of those who got in line today to see the new film “Chappie”, and I was very impressed with the visual trickery that’s yet another jump above what director Neill (not a typo) Blomkamp (also not a typo) did on his excellent previous film “District 9”, with perfect CGI effects everywhere.

Psst, it’s also a misunderstood love story

As for the audio, ummm…. not so much. In fact it must have been a toss up as to leave room for subtitles or  get clean understandable sound, and the winner was, ummm…. some other movie. Recommendation for you? Bring a friend with you that can read lips (or who managed to find a copy of the script on the ‘net).

Good luck reading my lips….

All things considered, I think I’d rather read Chappie’s lines than listen to what sounds like the winner of the Jar Jar Binks happy voice award competition.

Not the subtitles I was looking for.

There’s one Mad Max Mutant looking bad guy that got subtitles even though he was speaking nearly English, and because it was understandable for the most part and I was able to follow his dialogue, he stands out for that in this film more than for his evil looks.

Yes, a walking waterbed, but not exactly the mutant I was thinking of

I read in a review that the very talented Sharlto Copley was the actor who played the robot cop Chappie, which means that he was the one that did the green suit motion capture work to give the CGI folks an example of the mannerisms, excellent ones that I could also imagine Roberto Benigni doing, physical humor that’s seldom done this well.

Back in his District 9 Pre-Chappie days.

Now, I’ll just need to find a theater that will screen this film in another language and then provide some back to English subtitles so I can follow the (not too complex, actually) plot.

N.B., The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and / or quotes above (including those of my own) belong to the material’s creator(s). Credit is given when it’s known, but as we’ve found, success will have a million parents and failure will be an orphan.
Feel free to ignore any ads that are shown below this advisory, I don’t get to choose them and even more sadly, I don’t make a penny off any of them, so in the holy name of capitalism I rebuke and don’t endorse or support any of them, unless of course they’re made of funny stuff…..
P.S., check back for occasional updates and rewrites….
FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. I AM MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN MY EFFORT TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. I BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A ‘FAIR USE’ OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML.  IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND ‘FAIR USE’, YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.

Twenty-Twelve, it just rolls off the tongue

I’m still doing a post-viewing rehash in my head, trying to remember when, or even if, in recent years I’ve watched a more enjoyable film than 2012.

District 9 comes to mind, it’s at least that good but hard to call it better.

Great script. For a change you can watch a complete story well told in the old school mode, having a beginning, a middle, and then (surprise!) an end. Quite unlike so much of the crap around these days. Maybe it’s a Mayan concept and the green lighters still don’t get it yet?

Great director. Roland Emmerich has extracted fine performances all around, and managed to keep a cohesive plot covered (see above) and show it all on the screen. I believe that if this wasn’t a Sony release, this time the computer  would have been a nice but slightly used MacBook Pro (updated from the beautiful black 5300 Powerbook Jeff Goldblum used to save the world inIndependence Day), not a steaming pile of VAIO. Ah, but I digress…..

Great acting. John Cusack, in my opinion, can be considered a serious contender to jump past Tom Hanks and become the Henry Fonda sort of “everyman” of our time.

Cusack’s become like you and me (or at least me) in that way.

The hard to beat original

And by the way, as you may have heard, there are at least a few interesting special effects shots on the screen in this film, and they’re all done very nicely.

How many times can you say “How the fuck did they do that” ?

Pair-of-Normal Active Stupid People

As much as I raved about “District 9” a post or two ago, I have have no choice but to take a different stance with “Paranormal Activity“, a film that’s shot in such a spastic style that it could even make Lars von Trier get seasick.

The true shocker would have been to have a hidden camera when I saw this in the Star Theater when the lights unexpectedly came up, one that would have captured the horror in the faces of the audience to find out that they paid $10.00 to sit through this train wreck, the latest in a long line of recent films that were unable to come up with an ending. Larry the janitor strikes again, I guess.

The major bragging rights for this overhyped video so far have been that it was produced for only $15,000. After watching it I have to assume that most, if not all of that amount was spent on a good caterer that kept the director and two actors (who also seemed to have been working as the co-directors of photography and / or co-camera operators) very well fed.

Especially one of them, but not that there’s anything wrong with that. And that’s a big “butt”.

It seems that there could have been a makeup or wardrobe person involved, but that person should have been able to phone it in, same for the sound and grip and electric department folks, if they existed.

Again, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

And The Winner Is… WTF, Who’s Sharito Copley?

In case you missed it, a new (sorta) Sci-Fi film opened this last week here in Movieville.  District 9 is an outstanding creation from Neill Blomkamp, a somewhat new feature film director who comes to us from the world of music videos. This film is one that at first glance you’d think might be just another “Independence Day” or “Alien Mine” kind of diversion, but be aware, D9 is no K9.

That first glance would be so wrong, not that there’s anything wrong with the former or anything right to emulate with the latter. And when I say “sorta” Sci-Fi, it’s meant to be in high praise because this one goes so much more deeply into the dissection of humanity (no pun intended here) than any of  your basic ET/UFO/Dinosaur driven cinema.

The first standout differences you’ll notice are that, with absolutely no offense meant to Mr. Copley who plays an MNU (Multi National Unit, sort of the equivalent of the “Blackwater” group in South Africa) field operative named Wikus van der Merwe, there’s not one actor in this film that you’ve likely ever seen before on any screen, at least not in North America. Nor does it seem that there is any sort of limit to, even after all of these years of years of CGI and Green screen improvements, exactly how many times you’ll say “how the fuck did they do that” in one sitting.

Don’t panic Earthlings, we’re not from the NSA

And don’t be so quick to chug that Diabetes friendly mega serving of soda because you can count on sitting through the whole thing, not one person in attendance got up during the nearly two hours including time spent watching the credits roll by looking for even one recognizable name other than executive producer Peter Jackson’s.

Therefore, count on there being a long line at the restroom when the last credits do fade out. In that credit roll, the list of the visual effect crew alone runs almost 6 screens on my Macbook, people that certainly earned their can of cat food (inside joke that you’ll get when you see the film).

I don’t need your damned anal probe, I’m the good guy!

In an award winning way, the above mentioned Mr. Copley at first brings to the screen an early John Cleese, circa Fawlty towers. He manages to morph that comical performance persona into one that Henry Fonda would have been proud of.

Yeah, I suppose that it’s a long stretch to imagine a person being able to go through that range in one film, but then I’ve seen it and have no problem with thinking of him that way, just one very long and smooth transformation.

See it and make a comment with your own “How the fuck did they do that?” count, including that very bizarre eye effect (take another, closer look at that photo above).

Me? I’m waiting for that richly deserved envelope to be handed to Mr Copley.

N.B., The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and/ or quotes above (including those of my own) belong to the material’s creator(s). Credit is given when it’s known, but as always, success usually has a million parents and failure is an orphan.
Feel free to ignore any ads that are shown below this advisory, I don’t get to choose them and even more sadly, I don’t make a penny off any of them, so in the holy name of capitalism I rebuke and don’t endorse or support any of them, unless of course they’re made of funny stuff…..
P.S., check back for occasional updates and rewrites….
FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. I AM MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN MY EFFORT TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. I BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A ‘FAIR USE’ OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML.  IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND ‘FAIR USE’, YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.