Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily.

Conditions: Somewhat Warmer


The End Is Nigh

One more reason to hate smart phones, other than because they are stupid, and make people who use them stupid, and possibly maybe cause head cancer, and are slowly dividing the world into people-sized boxes, is that they're also going to destroy the internet as we know it.

The world will run out of internet IP addresses in less than a year because of the explosion in smart phones, experts have warned.

Inaction by internet providers could lead to broken applications and more expensive net connections.

IP addresses do not refer to website domain names, but the unique sequence of numbers used to identify each computer, website or other internet-connected device.

The protocol used by the majority of web users, known as IPv4, provides only about four billion IP addresses.

Currently there are only about 232 million IP addresses left which is enough for about 340 days only, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

- news.sky.com/

A new protocol has already been developed that will allow for everyone in the world to have four billion addresses each, which I judge should be about enough. Maybe. I mean, we may have to cut back on how many desklamps we want to have connected online, but yeah, cross that bridge when we download it. Anyway, the problem with a new protocol is that every single thing that connects to the web will need to be reconfigured. And that is one Great Big Giant Headache.

So thank you, smart phones, for causing so many, many problems, in the cause of allowing people to always be able to annoy each other.



Film Review: Knight And Day

Sometimes a film can really just sweep you away with a handful of charisma and some old fashioned fun. Knight And Day is basically a Comedic Action Movie with Cameron Diaz playing a classic car restorer who gets swept into a crazy chase with Tom Cruise who's playing a secret agent. Chemistry sparks, and before you know it we're off on a James-Bondian themed romp that revolves around a battery that never runs out of power. But what the film is really about is these two characters, June and Roy who both find themselves and each other, at about the same time.

There's definitely some cheesy moments, but Tom Cruise can be so damned charming that you simply ignore any potential hiccups and enjoy the ride. And I must say, having Cameron Diaz become more pro active as the film moved along was quite a good idea. These two do make a believable and fun couple, which is a vital part of why this film works as well as it does.

It's also well shot, with some great stunts and action sequences, and no shaky camera to be found. Kudos on that. Director James Mangold has found just the right kind of tone for this film. This is kind of an old fashioned tale full of charming people and fun stunts, and it's really nice to see that when this is done well, it can still work. Three and a half mags out of Five.




Film Review: Inception.

I've always felt that you could look at movies as a collective dream shared by the audience. So movies that in themselves are about dreams are always a little bit more special, and perhaps a bit more complicated, than more regular films. Inception takes this idea right to the very edge by offering up a world where industrial espionage takes place inside people's dreams, where an operative can find out sensitive information by invading the mind of a C.E.O while he's asleep. The twist is that this movie isn't actually about stealing ideas, it's about being able to plant one.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, a veteran of this kind of thing who is trying to do the "one final job" that will allow him to go home. His problem is that his guilt-infused projection of his deceased wide keeps showing up in his dream scape, which means he's become a danger to the other members of the team. And it's that aspect to this film that elevates it to a whole new level. Dreams within dreams, time dilation and questioning of reality are big big themes in this film, and it's such a pleasure to have a film address big ideas in a very complex and adult fashion. There is no pandering here, the ideas are fired straight at you, and it's up to audience to try and keep up. This is something Director Christopher Nolan does with his films, and I have to say I like it. I like a movie that challenges it's audience, far too many of them coddle and over-simplify in fear of leaving someone behind. This film doesn't care if you get left behind or not, it's has a story to tell, so you better keep up.

The technology being used is both complicated, simple, and essentially left to the audience to figure out. A briefcase-sized device is used to jack in to a sleeping person, via a series of cables the "intruders" attach to their wrists. What's refreshing here is that the actual technology is essentially ignored. Nolan realizes what's important, and focuses completely on that: It's the characters that completely drive this film, not the technology, and that's a great choice. And as the film reaches it's finale, you realize that amid all the gunfire and car chases, that what is actually driving this film to a conclusion is not an action sequence, or even a series of interlinked action sequences, but the emotional catharsis of the lead character.

This is an amazing achievement, truly a brilliant film made by a daring filmmaker fully at the top of his game, shot and scored with absolute skill, and acted out by a bunch of brilliant actors who are perfectly cast. And the greatest gift this film gives is its final few moments that will resonate and allow you to question everything. Superb. Five kicks out of five.


- Peace out

Can't Go Home Again

Conditions: Bloody Freezing

Plugging the Leak

In the wake of the latest news from the Gulf of Mexico is an announcement that another kind of leak has also been plugged. This time on Wall street, home of the really big disasters.

The US Senate passed the biggest overhaul of financial-industry regulation since the Great Depression, sending a bill inspired by the 2008 credit crisis to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature.

Senators voted 60-39 yesterday in favour of the top-to-bottom rewrite of rules governing Wall St firms, ending a year of partisan wrangling over protections for consumers and investors.
[...]

The bill will create a mechanism for liquidating failing financial firms whose collapse could roil markets, a council of regulators to police firms for threats to the economic system and a consumer bureau at the Federal Reserve to monitor banks for credit-card and mortgage lending abuses.

So is this really going to work? Will this prevent another blow out? Well let's see what the opposition says:

Most Senate Republicans voted against the measure, saying it doesn't go far enough to prevent future taxpayer-funded bailouts of Wall St firms and creates an unnecessary new bureaucracy in the consumer bureau.

Measured against Wall St excesses that nearly toppled the global financial system two years ago, some analysts saw the bill as tinkering at the edges of banking practices rather than forcing fundamental changes to the industry.

- nzherald.co.nz/

Hmmm, so the overall vibe seems to be that, while a cap has been put in place, we don';t yet really know how strong it is, and how it will standup under pressure. They better keep working on that relief-well then, or what ever the metaphorical equivalent to that is.



Fim Review: Shrek Forever After.

After the surprise hit of the first Shrek, the filmakers responded with a slew of sequels, naturally. What was unnatural, however, was that those sequels were quite different in nature to the first film, which was a fairytale adventure. Despite this, people kept buying tickets, which is how we've ended up with four of them. The latest film is something of a step back in the right direction as it tries to address the problem with this franchise: Shrek being tied down with a family. He wishes for a day when he could go back to being a lone ogre again, and gets his wish by the evil Rumpelstiltskin, who's something of a fast-talking con man and sets up an alternate reality where essentially the first three films didn't happen.

This gives us a plot where the Ogres of the forest are under attack from King Rumpelstiltskin's army, and are being led by fierce warrior-ogre Fiona. Shrek has one night to get Fiona to kiss him or he'll be wiped from existence. Can he do so whist in the middle of a revolution? Well what do you think? You know, probably the most surprising aspect of this film is how short it is. I think it comes out at like 70 minutes or so. And the film feels it, always in a rush to move the plot forward.

There's some laughs, there's some exciting bits, a dance sequence or two, and there's even a bit of the old magic between the old castmates, plus a somewhat interesting plot to follow. Everyone is doing their best. It's no Shrek 1, but then again, what is. Two and a half snappy tunes out of five.




Film Review: Predators

And so after two terrible Alien versus Predator movies, the franchise is rebooted again with Robert Rodriguez overseeing a little-known director named Nimrod Atal to do what is effectively Predator 3. This one is set on another planet, with a group of tough individuals thrown together with a variety of weapons in order to be hunted by a team of three predators. Leading the cast is Adrien Brody, which is the biggest surprise of the entire film, except perhaps for the point that he actually manages to come across fairly well as a mercenary bad ass. This not so merry band of soldiers, convicts, and a "doctor" explore their jungle, and eventually get whittled down by the invisible hunters. But this really is a film that is so busy paying homage to it's predecessors, that it seems to not be able to do anything for itself.

Now, I'm an enormous fan of the first film. In fact, I firmly believe that decades from now it will rightly take it's place alongside Casablanca and Citizen Kane as one of the best films ever made. But a sequel to anything really needs to try and stand on it's own, no matter how daunting the task may be. Predators just doesn't really have enough in it to do that. And the most surprising thing it lacks, is a plot. Sure, you have this idea of a Predator Game Reserve, but that's basically it. The first film had a plot, as did the second. Hell even AvP had a plot. Why they gave up on this one is a bit of a mystery, especially since the film isn't actually that bad.

It's properly R-rated, it's got a reasonably good cast, the effects are pretty good, and of course you have one of the most iconic movie bad guys ever. It's even shot pretty well, no awful shaky cam or bad moments. It's just that at the end of the film, it all kind of falls away. The reason most films work is because you have characters that are trying to do things, and you end up caring for them. In this case, because these characters don't even have names let alone personalities or any kind of drive (other than "want to go home"), you don't really care about them. Or their deaths. Throw in some character decisions that don't make any sense and you end up with a pizza consisting of some good cheese, but no base. Three dots out of five.


- Peace Out