Chinatown

The other day I finally watched the movie Chinatown. After watching it I now understand why it's considered to be one of the best movies ever made. Directed by Roman Polanski and starring Jack Nicholson, every aspect of the movie is executed pretty much flawlessly; the acting, directing, pacing, just everything makes this movie fit together perfectly.

The movie centers around J.J Gittes who is played by Jack Nicholson. He is a private eye who is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (played by Faye Dunaway) to find out if her husband is cheating on her. However as Gittes discovers more and more we very quickly discover that things are not at all what they seem. There are twists at every corner and the movie constantly keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. It's a very enjoyable ride.

As I mentioned earlier everything about this film is executed so so well. A very special mention goes to the acting in it. Nicholson absolutely nails the private eye character who slowly ends up realizing just what he's getting in to. Faye Dunaway is great as the damsel in distress female character. Even director Roman Polanski has a cameo which he's great at.

I could keep talking about this movie but it would only keep you from watching it. It's on Netflix instant watch so there's really no excuse to not watch it. You won't regret it.

Lost Update

Last week I had started lost. This week, I am on season 3...you could say that it has been consuming a fair amount of my time recently. Anyways, some of my likes and dislikes of the show have changed since posting last week. I had said that I really liked all of the backstories that they go into for each character and how well developed they were. That is still the case, but I think during season 2 they go into a little too much detail and too much backstory. Some of the episodes began to bore me because half of the episode was a flashback all to get one simple detail out if it.

I think they wasted a lot of time by doing that and they could have put minutes of some episodes to much better use going into more detail on the island because there are plenty of things that are still left unexplained there. One thing I have heard from friends is to not get my hopes up because even by the end of the show, many things are still unexplained and it seemed like the writers were writing as they went along and just ran out of ideas and just ended it and left it hanging. That's just what I have been told though, I will have to keep watching and find out for myself.

real life in animation

That was a look in to the choreography of Samurai Jack. I’m a fan of cartoons and I really like action cartoons. Samurai jack is a great cartoon show for many reasons but what sticks out for me are the fights. What I love about Samurai Jack is how thought out the fight scenes are and how it’s not like the artists just throw in a bunch of cool looking moves, ever thing that is done by a charter is a real Kung Fu move and isn’t just a montage of punches.

For a while I didn’t know how much animation depended on real life for references to how people move and dress. I was watching the special features on the season one dvd of Archer and found out that they even dressed people in the clothing the characters would wear and made them move around just to get a feel for how the fabric and clothing would look from different angles.

This video really shows what goes into make a good cartoon. Good fight scenes use the real world to stay grounded. Unlike some Japanese shows that have characters punching each other really fast for 2 minutes choreography in fights really involves the audience and make a better viewing experience