⇒ more jones-y-ing

More things which hurt Indy 4: Expectations (about 18 years worth).
Here are some opinions I've come across which I wholly or partially agree with:

• Lucas is some kind of cancer to his own creations - it was like the film took the occasional pause for Lucas to yank his pants down and take a steaming dump on everyone with obvious cute toy endorsements (CGI gophers, CGI monkeys, CGI ants, etc etc etc) and then Speilberg had to work overtime to catch up. Had some of the obvious compromise between Speilberg's "old" methods and Lucas' desire to CGI the whole thing up a zillion notches been left to simply just Speilberg's approach, it might have worked... but it just seems like Lucas is more interested in advertising merch and what graphics LucasFilm can do for your film
• It did entertain and had some of the old Indy magic in places, which I think is 100% Steven and 0% George
• LUCAS is a giant douchebag with awful ideas, in regards to story & character development.... His contributions to the advancement of film special effects are admirable enough, yet everything he's put his name on over the past 20 years has been unwatchabe garbage....
• I agree - this was a LONG time to wait for a very mediocre movie. Lucas ruined the Star Wars franchise for the sake of impressing us with the CGI technology and it's happened again. The effects were good, but for the most part VERY improbable. With the boy being an instant expert on vine swinging (able to move faster than racing cars!) to immediately having monkeys fight with him, my son and I were laughing out loud by the time of the third waterfall.
• He (Lucas) rapes his old movies for as much money he can get out of them. Re-releasing films with minor changes so that his fanboys will buy yet another set of Star Wars.
• Indiana Jones just didn't live up to what it was supposed to have been, or even what it could have been. If this was the best that they could do, then I think that they need to quit while they're at it.
• Basically the films not that good and although some effects are quite good but some are poor, B movie poor. I was disappointed I thought that this would be the best film of the year but, in my opinion it’s only a 5 / 10
• "It's brilliant to blame Lucas for this. He spends a total of 2 weeks on this film." He can destroy an entire movie in a single afternoon if he makes executive level "creative decisions."
• Its not awful; it is watchable.
• Harrison Ford's performance was okay, but unfortunately he had an awful script to work with. It seems as if Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have lost the touch that made them great film makers. It's just a shame that like Star Wars, they had to go back and ruin an exellent series of films.
• left me wondering who i was and where the hell i had been for the last 2 hours...LOL not really but I was wondering why the hell i just spent money on a film that had gained respect and , in so doing used that as a fan base and cash cow for this film, only to dissapoint and sell out to kids and teenyboppers with cooky ice age giggle factor tactics...ill stick with the first three, this one may take a while to digest.
whatever happened to Indy shooting a guy, or having a girl get caught in a basket, or whatever for comic relief? Again the movie-makers getting lazy.
• swinging? Again, wondering what they CAN do and not thinking if they SHOULD do. CG or not, the idea was stupid
• I think the Crystal Skull was a bad artifact? They should probably shoot for something more interesting. The entire movie I didn't care about this Crystal skull, and I never really understood exactly what the Commies would do with it anyway. They could have tried something more recognizable I think, Noahs Ark, the Bermuda Triangle, the tower of babel etc
• they should have just kept to their original methods and the original Indy feel
• Worst Indy movie ever.So freaking disappointing... I'm so mad that it SUCKED HARD CORE. I love Indiana Jones and Usually Lucas... but this is pushing it... he's begging for millions of angry hate letters and a Punch in the junk if he thinks he can get away with Star Wars 1 & 2 and then Indy 4
• This was basically The Mummy...only worse, if you can image more overacting, forgotten plot points, Character accents going in and out... I was So hoping and thinking I was going to enjoy it... Pissed me off.
• even given temple of doom's parachuting rubber raft, the waterfall sequence was just over the top. and the tarzan bit. and the monkey's. and the mutt/spalko sword fight (with a couple exceptions, the duels and chases in the previous 3 came off as though, with some luck and determination on the parts of those involved, they could actually take place in the "real world"; no so much in indy 4) and, yes, even the refrigerator.
• the whole thing was just a bit flat

Additionally:
CG animals...bad...so bad...they were of such inferior quality in comparison to Jurassic Park, which came out 15 years ago!

Cate Blanchett, while talented, has yet to nail a 'character', in that she hasn't really made a villain vile or detestable enough for me happily see her get comeuppance. I simply didn't care anymore. She's more of an annoyance/slight hindrance than anything else.

Seriously, I think George Lucas is 20-30 years long-gone. The only reasons the new Star Wars films were bankable were because of Nostalgia, lightsabers, special effects+low attention spans, and marketing/merchandise.

for the record, I like Temple of Doom. The squirmish-ness (banquet anyone?) and squeamish-ness (bugs) were fun for me.

Now I'm gonna go watch that South Park episode parodying Raiders...clear up my frustration with Indy 4

One more thing:

wait, wha?

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⇒ food intake

recently:
about 10 serves of Thai in 2 weeks (too much! But still good?!?)
Crepe (French Delight--chicken mornay, cheese, mushrooms, shallots)
Kimchi fried rice
Cheese platter (featuring amazing truffle cheese)
More Thai.

Not gymming today or tomorrow...Give my legs the break they've been needing. Plus I was sick during the week. Need to expel the mucus from my lungs.

French open starting soon...

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⇒ mixed reviews

movies released this year that should have been awesome but ultimately ended up mediocre:
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Forbidden Kingdom should have been a HK production directed by the likes of Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo Ping, Corey Yuen or Tsui Hark. It should have been wall to wall Jackie/Jet double teaming/battling. The end battle should have been more difficult/epic. It should have had Jackie's insane stuntwork, and been made over 10 years ago, while both were still in/close to their prime. And it should have been planned, filmed, completed and done in a ridiculously short time-frame, like the rest of Jackie and Jet's great movies. I felt that getting peed on was extremely disrespectful to Jackie. Almost as much as having a white, no-kung fu chump babysit two grandmasters of asian kung-fu cinema.

For the record, I do like Jackie more than Jet (not that I don't like Jet). It's because Jackie is creatively superior--he choreographs, directs and stars. He's come up with insane/unbelievable and physically real moves no one's even dreamed of attempting. He invented Kung Fu comedy. And he made Armor of God, Million Dollar Heiress, Police Story, Dragons Forever, Young Master, Drunken Master, etc. Jackie is the Man!

another rivalry I called:
Michelle Williams def. Katie Holmes (began with Dawson's Creek, concluded with Williams' Oscar nod)

about Indiana 4--someone said it first, and said it best:
I tried to like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, really, I did. But in the end, I just couldn’t do it - my nostalgia was no match for George Lucas and his stupid sci-fi storyline. You won’t get any spoilers from me if you haven’t seen the movie yet, but even though Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford tried to give you everything an Indiana Jones fan could want some 20 odd years later, they ultimately missed the mark.

Sure, there were moments when Harrison’s easy charm made you forget all about the alien mumbo-jumbo (seriously, half my problems with the movie would’ve been solved by taking this crap out), and a few scenes that would have definitely given my 10-year-old self nightmares (hey, I scared easily). But after it was over, I just wanted to go home and watch the original trilogy again to wash the bad taste out of my mouth. Because when a simple adventure with all our old pals would’ve done the trick, the Big Three tried to do too much, and ended up giving us too little instead. What a shame.
source:http://tunaflix.com/?p=1819

main things I disliked about Indy 4:

• CGI animals. WTF?!?!? Monkeys? Gophers? Ants? Aliens? Don't gimme that sh!t about not being able to do it practically...Spielberg would have found a way!
• Tarzan mode...you'll know what I mean. So what, is this a Spider-man film? How'd he keep up with the car?!?!
• Somewhat weak script/dialogue.
• time period. The 50s ain't the 30s. The result is movie that is similar, but just not right.
• Lame villains. It's not the same without a Nazi scum throwdown.
• No Jones senior or Marcus Brody. Had the filme been made in the early 90s, this would have been possible, and likely.
• Not enough whip cracking.
• Sci-fi over mysticism. I personally feel that the Holy Grail and The Ark of the Covenant trump the Crystal Skull. Come on, these were gifts from God!

Not enough trademark Indy grouchiness/fallibility

A lot of these problems feel like a (George) Lucasian decision (same guy who wrote all that 'memorable' dialogue in the Star Wars prequels).
Mutt Williams. Pair a dog-name with a generic white name. Real clever. How about Rover Jennings? Fido Smith? Sparky Hayes?

Things I did like:

• really felt like the final journey for the man in the hat. And he got a happy ending.
• Some of the humor is still there
• It's Harrison Ford

For me, the true (spiritual) sequel to Indiana Jones and the Last crusade? The Mummy, with Brendan Fraser. I knew it in 1999, I know it now.

It should also be noted that Jackie's character in Armor of God was very Indiana Jones like (purposefully so?)

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⇒ dean's list

wednesday recap:
recovering from yesterday's cold/flu
work
ate that enjoyo beef strog...not bad!
left work early
uni ceremony (amateur-like, poorly organised)
received that award (dean's list for academic excellence)
free food and beverages
thai-riffic in newtown
home

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⇒ new look

implementation of new style 50% complete.

It's taken me almost 2 years to be bothered enough to edit the style sheet. I wonder how long it'll take to finish the other 50%?

NB: other 50% = background images, inverting b&w CSS, creating style tags for video media, debugging, etc.

R E D A C T E D

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⇒ week in review

sun-mon: rough developments at home leave mixed feelings all around...i hate this forced sentimental sh!t...why can't we just be honest and compromise a little?

tues-thurs: not much happening

fri: good day at work...got my business card! Thai for dinner (Pad See Ew Pork--okay, but it ain't Pad Thai!)

sat: Pad Thai for Lunch (that's what I'm talkin' about!)...skipped gym for many reasons, chiefly because I didn't feel up for it and the weather was threatening (honest)
saw Iron Man: not bad...Downey, Jr really carried the movie, the suit/production design/effects work was seamless/beautiful/excellent but was a little spoiled by frigid Gwyneth (even in the 'warm' and 'tender' moments), lack of outright villainy, and garish, trashy rock soundtrack...EVERYONE and their dog has used Back in Black at some point by now...grow some class and put a decent composer on the project.
Followed up with dinner: Chat Thai. Criticisms: small-ish portions, inedible chilli (too spicy!), inedible pork (too tough!), bone-y chicken (too much bone) and forced to share when I can't eat/enjoy the majority of it = spoiled night. wtf?!?!?

sun: haircut, then gym today. Cut the duration, not intensity (cf. Agassi). Still did 5km in 39' (pretty good, my average 5km times are gradually lowering), benched about 80 reps and bike for 15'.
Totals: 370KCALs (run), 105KCALs (bike)

That is all

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