Welcome to the Land of Copycats

Let's say that there's this hypothetical country where most of the people are always in need of entertainment however shallow or unoriginal it may be. Let's further assume that you got hold of a script, a leading man, and several supporting actresses. You also got a budget that's just enough for everything. So you went on to shoot the movie and finished after two weeks of shooting ('cos if it takes longer than that, you'd have to cut back on the editing guys, thus postponing your long awaited vacation to Europe). 

Now all you need is a poster to promote the movie. You've thought of hiring some moderately creative graphic designers, but nah, those guys are always overrated. Thanks to the undemanding and lenient nature of the hypothetical people, that really isn't a big deal. Using all of your wits and creativity, you managed to Google a perfect Hollywood movie poster that's not that widely used. So you decided to steal inspire yourself and copy adopt it as your own. You don't really feel bad about it, as you've done this before for as long as you can remember. 'Cos in this accommodating hypothetical society, you're allowed to do it as long as you want.

Touchstone Pictures, give 'em hell!

Here's Another Reason Why You Should Love Dogs

Thanks so much, TokyoMango for reminding everyone why they should love dogs.

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Ever wonder what Richard Gere has been up to? I don't, but I am looking forward to seeing his newest film. It's about Hachiko, the famous Akita dog whose spirit resides in Shibuya Station since the 1930s. He was a smart, loyal doggie who lost his owner at the age of 2. The owner died of a heart attack while he was at work, so the dog never knew of his death. So every day for the rest of his life, he sat in front of Shibuya Station in the late afternoon to early evening, waiting for the owner's return. Other commuters soon caught on to what was happening and started feeding the dog and paying him lots of attention.

Hachiko died of heartworm at the age 11 and the ward erected a statue in his honor. Now it's the most popular meeting spot in Tokyo.

After Hachiko died, they found a whole bunch of yakitori sticks inside his tummy. His stuffed body is now on display at a museum in Ueno.

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Marley and Me Goes to the Big Screen

I read the book earlier this year. It's simple and effortless to read (think murakami... now invert it). But that simplicity is also the book's strong point. Then again, no books about dogs ever require a great deal of literary prowess. I liked the book though, partly I guess because I'm a dog lover. So when I saw this trailer, I was beaming. There's a great quote in the movie that sums up why I like dogs: "A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, give him your heart, and he'll give you his." Plain simple, unlike humans.

Wall-E

Way in the future, Earth was covered with trash and was impossible to live in. Mankind had to evacuate but someone forgot to turn off the last remaining robot. Introducing WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class). He's the last surviving robot on earth whose only purpose is to clean up trash. 700 years of collecting knick-knacks and trying on bras (see picture) WALL-E stumbled upon EVE, a sleek new robot send to earth to check on things. She found out that the key to the planet's future lies in the hand of WALL-E and she raced back to space to report her findings to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL-E followed her all over the galaxy because 700 years of seclusion was more than enough for a robot to acquire feelings.

In theaters 06.27.08. Can't wait!

WE'RE SORRY

I was watching Die Hard 4.0 (Live Free or Die Hard, state side) with Ms. B yesterday when the screen went blank halfway through the movie. Apparently, people do a lot of amusing stuff when these things happen. So it kinda went like this:

John Mclane kicking some ass
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Blank screen
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Audience applauded
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One guy yelled, "Hey, the movie's out!"
Yes, we know, retard.
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Some kids are running around the studio (Uh-huh, underage kids in an R rated movie. America isn't the land of the free. Indonesia is.)
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Some other guy poses in front of the screen as his friend took a picture.
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After 5 minutes, the screen went back on and gradually shows this:


This reminds me of Microsoft's notorious blue screen of death. Albeit a bit inelegant, at least the studio's kind enough to say they're sorry. Fortunately after a couple of minutes of the red screen of death, John McClane kicks back into action and the body count moves faster than you can say yipikayay.

After several disappointing movie sequels that heavily depended on CGIs, it's damn fun to watch a good old kick ass action movie. Move over Spiderman, John McClane's cleaning the town.