Fun
Currently Listening To: Political Science from the album "The Best Of Randy Newman" by Randy Newman
I finished the second chapter of my novel. It was a long slog (over a week) because I had put it off alot. What's more I need to write an article for kebeol.net. I also have templated all the cards at my disposal for Alchevien Struggle which is on the very brink of completion. Of course the coolest thing about this is that soon we'll be able to playtest and indeed - play the game :)
Pirates of the Caribbean is perhaps the best damn movie of the whole year. I haven't seen Finding Nemo yet, despite being a big ol' Pixar fanboy but Pirates is bloody excellent. Its a brilliant romp and the characters such as the bohemian and wickedly funny captain Jack Sparrow (brought to life by the exquisite Jonny Depp) really make the film superb. I also enjoyed the many british actor cameos - such as the dude who plays Steve from Coupling playing the naval commodore and the blond haired guy from The Office playing one of the pirates. It was a film which wasn't just very funny but was also damn entertaining.
What's more; Keira Nightly.... Rrrrrrrr ;)
However I have more to say about American Pie 3. I didn't like a few things about it.
First of all the cinematography really failed to capture what I loved about the other films. There wasn't any of the 'coming of age' atmosphere of the first film which was achieved using wider angles to accentuate the size of the outside world. Stiffler was often given moments where he was left totally alone in shot. The whole appeal of the 2nd film was watching him bounce of fthe other characters and if you watch the films you will see that 20% of the shots are reaction shots (well acted no less) of the group of guys whilst others are talking or stiffler is cracking a joke. It was the way the cinematography played on the group dynamic which made the 2nd film so great and it is sorely lacking in the 3rd film.
Also it took itself too seriously. I don't know how that's possible with a film featuring what appeared to be rampant dog/human sex, but it did. I didn't want to have Stiffler put into situations in which he couldn't be the Stiffmiester. Do you know how many parties there were in that film? None. Zippo. The theme of the film seemed to be that the adult world was there just to put restraints on the fun had by the guys. Admittedly it was a wedding but I really didn't want to watch a film about a bunch of 20 something year olds being 30 year olds. American pie is about a load of guys dealing with issues relevant to their age group. The 3rd film clumsily grappled with the issue of young marraige and Steven's relative immaturity leaving a thin venir of comedy material with which to develop the classic gags that made the American Pie series so side-splittingly funny. It was almost as if the film producers felt they needed to "Move the film along a bit", but they did so at the expense of the whole experience. Ultimately if Sean William Scott wasn't so gosh darned great that film might well have sucked.
I also reserve a parting note: Script Writers - Paul Finch is the most annoying pompous psuedo intellectual character ever devised. If you include him of a reasonable facsimile of his character in your script he is to be ridiculed and must come out on the bottom of the heap in the end. What an arrogant prick. His character pulled the film down considerably by being put in an environment where he had power. American Pie 3 is a poor shadow of American Pie 1 not to mention 2.
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at August 12, 2003 10:36 AM