Category: Reviews

Months ago, word on the street that Star Wars: In Concert was coming to town.  For some reason, Claude and I weren’t too interested in going, and Benoit had never written back.  So we forgot about it.  Then all of a sudden, Benoit realizes it’s coming to town which proves he just doesn’t read emails from me, and promptly convinces us to go.  It didn’t take TOO much convincing.  I did opt for the cheapest tickets.  The $32 ones which turned out to be $46 after all the great Capital Tickets surcharges.

After having a bite to eat at Benoit’s (while trying out the new Super Mario Bros. game…excellent!), we drove out to the Scotiabank Place where there was NO traffic.  Benoit was scared that it got cancelled.  In the end, there was no cancellation, it just wasn’t that popular.  😉

We arrived and spied the merchandise.  A $50 t-shirt of a Stormtrooper looks awesome enough, but it’s a little too pricey for this guy.  Claude arrived and we headed to check out the film props that were scattered around the arena.

Let’s be honest here, people know I am a Star Wars fan.  I would even admit to being more than a fan.  So it is with little surprise that as soon as we started walking around the place, I got excited.  Like, school girl screaming excited.  Ewok outfits!  C-3PO!  Jedi knight costumes!  Blasters!

The holy grail was Han Solo in carbonite.  I got a picture next to it and I hope it turned out alright.  The one on my camera wasn’t the best, but Claude said his came out fine.  Benoit and Claude also got a sweet picture next to a statue of Yoda.

Turns out that there weren’t a whole lot of tickets sold to the event so our tickets to the 300L were not valid.  In turn, they gave us free upgraded seats to section 120!  Hot dog, this was awesome!  We found our seats (where Claude and I realized we sat for the Pearl Jam concert in 2005) and the electricity was in the air.  Ahead of us was the largest video screen known to man, and we knew Star Wars would be shown on it.  Heck yeah!

An announcer came on letting us know that the lights would be dimming soon enough and that we should all find our seats.  Lights go down, BAM, Star Wars starts playing!  It’s the actual orchestra playing it while images of the films are playing for us!  It’s a great moment!  We are cheering, we are looking at each other amazed that we are part of this experience…I think all of us teared up five minutes into it with the realization that we are actually here and it’s affecting us way more than we thought it would.

The orchestra stops after a few tunes and Anthony Daniels, the actor who played C-3PO, takes the stage and narrates us through the rest of the show.  The concept of the show was interesting…essentially they boiled down the pieces of music into themes and there was pieces of the six films edited together to fit the themes.  For example, on the Luke and Leia theme, they showed all sorts of footage of them together.

Claude got to hear his Duel of the Fates, Benoit got to hear his tune which takes place in Dagobah, and I got to hear my all-time favourite, the one where the asteroid chase in Empire Strikes Back occurs.  It was a great moment for all of us.

All in all, we really enjoyed the show.  Our only complaint (a minor one) is that we would have rather seen more of the orchestra playing the music.  For the most part, it was us watching bits of the film while the music played.  The thing about orchestral music is that it is note-for-note perfect.  So I felt sometimes that we were simply listening to a recorded soundtrack and not witnessing the orchestra playing it in front of us!  So when they had the cameras filming the orchestra, that is when it really hit home and I appreciated it more than when I was watching bits of the film.

Fast fact: Did you know that Luke Skywalker had a bit of a mustache growing in during Return of the Jedi when he saves Leia from the Sail Barge?  Never noticed it until seeing it in hi-def!

If you have the chance to see this show, you may as well as it was entertaining to revisit a bit of childhood (alright…adulthood) in this manner.

Last night, Vero and I went to see Paranormal Activity at the SilverCity along with Krista, Melissa, some girl I don’t know, Karilee and Tommy. We got to the theater just in time to catch a few previews and then it started.

Paranormal Activity will always be compared to The Blair Witch Project. It has the same cinematics (aka, handheld cameras being used) and hinges on the suspense of ‘what will happen the next night?’ scenarios.

It follows the lives of Micah and Katie who believe their house is haunted. Actually, Katie believes that a ghost is haunting HER and has been for most of her life. A hilarious conversation occurs when Micah says “You could have warned me about this BEFORE moving in together!”. So Micah buys a video camera that he touts around the house in hopes to document any paranormal activity.

So the basic plotline is this:
Footage of the Day – Talking about the ghost.
(Loop)
Footage at Night – Their bedroom where ghostly things may or may not happen.
Footage of the Day – Talk about what happened the night before and what they can do to get this ghost outta there!
(Endloop)

All in all, I enjoyed when the night scenes would happen as you never knew what would happen next (if anything happened at all!). However, the rest of the scenes during the day just explained a few things and wasn’t too enthralling.

Attention nauseous people, there are a few scenes which are heavy on the camera moving really fast. Both Vero and I felt a little nauseous at various parts.

So…as a horror/suspense fan, what do I think of the film? I enjoyed the suspenseful scenes at night because you never knew what would happen. But as for the movie as a whole, I can’t say there was much to it in terms of plot. But let’s be honest, that’s not what these films are made for! They are made to scare the bejeezus out of you sometimes!

I recently acquired the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection – a set of 14 Hitchcockian tales of suspense for us to gorge on.

Last night I popped in the first film of the set…Saboteur. 1942, starring Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings and Norman Lloyd. It follows the story of an aircraft factory that was sabotaged and the blame is put upon an innocent man and he takes off in search of the real saboteur. His travels across the country have him encounter a motley crew of characters, including a blind man who helps him along his way, as well as some circus performers.

In the end, he discovers that the saboteur is part of a larger organization who are sabotaging various targets across the country and it ends in a spectacular showdown between the original saboteur and the framed man.

All in all, it was a pretty good film. In watching an older film like this, it’s interesting to think about how they filmed certain sequences or created certain effects. I found it entertaining that the entire film leads up to this spectacular showdown on top of the torch of the Statue of Liberty. I can only imagine how that conversation must have went…”Alright, you see, we have our characters interact with each other on a manhunt throughout the entire movie…but we need the big pay-off…something no one has seen before.” “How about a fight on top of the Statue of Liberty?” “Great Scott, that’s it!”

So even though it was a cool scene, I felt it was out of place with the rest of the film. But maybe I’ll watch more films of this era and realize that they all have spectacular end sequences.

First Hitchcock film is a hit!

The reviews of the Metallica show in Ottawa are ridiculous.

First off, in the Ottawa Sun, they call him Rick Hammett (it’s Kirk! You know…guitar player extraordinaire?) AND they say they played Die, Die Die My Darling last night (not true!).

So then I have higher hopes for the Ottawa Citizen. While it isn’t a bad review, this piece made me cringe:

“That made me feel good!” exclaimed Hetfield after a rousing rendition of the hyper-kinetic Battery, a song all the young dudes want to air-guitar slay. Enter Sandman, full of post-grunge bravado, sent the Bank into a frenzy of equal parts nostalgia and fist pumping. The pyro during closer Motorbreath warmed the cheeks and compelled the six-foot Trujillo to wildly swing his axe with abandon as Hetfield & Co. riffed out into the sunset.

POST-GRUNGE BRAVADO? WHAT THE HECK IS THAT ALL ABOUT? Do these writers not realize that this is metal at it’s finest…what the heck is post-grunge anyhow? Everything that came out after the grunge scene died? If anything, the year was 1991 and Enter Sandman came out DURING the grunge period and secondly, it shouldn’t even be related to grunge in any way! Argh…I will admit that it’s hard to find adjectives for a show…but come on!  Shawn Jam Hill from the Ottawa Citizen…come on.  I admit the rest of the article is a well written piece and this was a mere slip-up…but come on.

But at least it wasn’t as bad as Denis Armstrong calling Kirk Hammett -> Rick.

Yesterday after work, Eric, Michael, Juan and I went to see Saw VI at the World Exchange Plaza. A new found combo deal had me smiling…a student combo for $10 which included admission to the film as well as some popcorn and a drink. Sweet!

Before I review Saw VI, I should review Saw V which Vero and I watched last week. By the way, it’s quite handy to watch a film like Saw right before watching the next part as the story is quite complex.

Ahem. My review of Saw V:

It sucked!

Yes, it was the first time the Saw films really let me down in terms of everything that is good with the series. The traps were lame, the chase after the killer was lame…everything was lame.

I went into Saw VI with sub-par hopes. It wasn’t doing that well in general box office ratings (which don’t really tell much considering I don’t believe the Saw series ever does that well) but I must admit there was a glimmer of hope when Mitchell had mentioned that he read somewhere that it was the best one since the first film. That’s a high claim!

We settled into our seats and got ready for the ride. The verdict?

Success! What a great Saw film! It is definitely high up there on my list. Being the sixth in the series, it seems to tie up a lot of loose ends and paves the way for some very big changes in the future of the series. They had brilliant traps, brilliant people in the traps and I enjoyed the suspense of having the killer being hunted down.

Two thumbs up for the latest Saw installment! If you are a fan of the series, this is a faithful chapter.

Vero and I went to see Tarantino’s latest epic, Inglourious Basterds at the World Exchange last Tuesday.  At 4:30.  Which was amazing.  I was surprised that Vero beat me there considering she had to drive all the way from work.  But we saunter in at 4:25, pay $5 each to see a film and have the theater (practically) to ourselves.  Why doesn’t everyone do this?  4:30 is where it’s at!  You get out in time to go home and have some dinner.

Minor gripe concerning general common sense of ‘combo’ buying.  We order a small popcorn and a soft drink.  It comes out to $10.15.  I then notice that Combo #1 has the same thing we ordered, but with a chocolate bar for $9.99.  I ask if we can get that instead.  Sure enough, we get it, and the total comes out to $6. Must be some stellar deal they have on Tuesdays.  So, is this a case of the kid behind the counter just not wanting to point out that we fell for the oldest trick in the book….don’t order items separately?  Does this happen everywhere?  I have a sneaking suspicion that if you order a burger and drink at McDonald’s, it’s the same freaking price if you get the fries in the combo.

Anyhow, Inglorious Basterds deals with the Nazis in WWII times (wait, are the Nazis prevalent in any other time?) and follows various story lines that converge in the final act.  Of particular hilarity is the group of Inglorious Basterds…a group of Jews who go into the war a-fighting and ready to kick some Nazi ass!  Led by Brad Pitt (who is by far the most hilarious character of the entire film), they go ahead and scalp as many Nazis as they can.  Throughout the film, you are introduced to other factions such as a girl whose family was killed by the Nazis, but escapes to France, as well as Hitler himself in some hilarious scenes.

All in all, Tarantino does what does best.  Crafts some great characters and puts them into situations that don’t need to be action packed to be interesting.  It’s all about the dialogue.  Two thumbs up for the film.