I saw it, but I didn’t really see it, so I can’t honestly review it.  But I’ll review what I saw.

I only had about 4 hours sleep last night and then today was a relatively busy day.   By the time we reached Megabox for the 7:30 showing, I was dead tired.  I made it through the first 10 or 15 minutes of the movie and then slept for perhaps the next 45 minutes.    What does that say for the first 15 minutes?

So I woke up for the final 45 minutes or so.  Naturally it took me some time to figure out what was going on.  And from what I can figure out, I didn’t get it.  First of all, it’s not another take on the classic story.  It’s a sequel.  Alice went to Wonderland as a child, remembered it as a dream, and returns back there at the age of 20.  And, oh, by the way, it’s not Wonderland, it’s Under Land, she got it wrong the first time.

And the movie ends with Alice wearing a full suit of armor, wielding a sword, battling a dragon, while two armies face off on a battlefield, Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter engaged in a sword fight with Crispin Glover.  Oy vey ismir.   And so, the first question that I asked myself is, “Why?”  It all seemed so unnecessary and so violent.

The characters looked great and the photo-realistic animation of the animal characters was superb.  Yet this was the first time I’d been to a 3D IMAX film where I found the entire 3D thing a distraction, really.  I’ve read that it was shot in 2D and later converted to 3D and while the 3D “works” okay, it wasn’t adding an extra dimension to the film for me.

I’m left puzzling over the story, and since I didn’t see the entire thing, I’m not sure how to react or how to rate this.  The look of the film is great and some will also see it as a big plus that it’s a tale of female empowerment and liberation.  Alice doesn’t need a Prince Charming to ride in on a horse and rescue her; she’s more than capable on her own.

So my best advice is to tell you, approach with caution.  I can neither recommend this nor attempt to steer you away.  I’ll probably want to watch it again, all the way through, but from what I saw, I’m content to wait for the home video release.

Incidentally, the film opened freaking huge.  Its opening weekend in the US grossed US$116 million, a record for a March opening and a record for an IMAX opening.  And internationally, it pulled in another $200 million.   And yet, for a 7:30 PM screening, 4 days after it opened, on an IMAX 3D screen, it was not sold out – I’d say the theater was about 1/4 to 1/3 empty.   We had seats dead center in the theater and two seats next to us were open and so were many around us.

But given these huge numbers, I would guess that Disney may look to make another franchise out of this.  Believe it or not, the ending points the way towards Hong Kong so who knows what form a sequel might take.  Alice in Wanchai Land?  You never know …

I did a more informal version of this a month ago.  With the awards just a day away, once again my picks.

Oscars are awarded more often than not due to political reasons and as the result of multi-million dollar industry marketing campaigns.  It’s said that many people place their votes based on what they think will make the industry look good versus their actual favorites.  At any rate, here’s what I think will win.

Best Picture

Why did they move this from 5 nominees to 10?  This year, I’ve seen 8 of the 10 nominated films.  Awards given out earlier this year would seem to favor Hurt Locker and I loved that film.  But there’s been a bit of a backlash and one producer has been banned from the awards show due to some “mis-behavior.”  I don’t think this will go to Avatar; I don’t think Cameron is that well-liked in Hollywood despite making so much money.  I think Hurt Locker has a lock on this.

Best Actor

I’ve seen 4 of the 5 nominated performances.  Jeff Bridges is well liked in Hollywood and his terrific performances lifts an otherwise run of the mill film into the area of “must see.”  If that doesn’t merit an award, nothing does.

Supporting Actor

I’ve seen just 2 of the 5 nominated performances.   But it seems that there is no question that this is the year for Christoph Waltz.

Best Actress

I’ve seen just 2 of the 5 nominated performances.  I think Meryl Streep really brings Julia Child to life in an otherwise not very remarkable film.   And relative newcomer Carey Mulligan holds An Education together.  Everyone says that this is the year for Sandra Bullock – and I guess one could say that Hollywood would like to reward her for being a consistent box office draw despite being in one godawful film after another.

Supporting Actress

I’ve seen 3 out of 5 and I didn’t think any of the 3 were strong enough.  Everyone says Mo’Nique, I haven’t seen Precious but assuming they’re right on this.

Animated Feature Film

I’ve seen 3 of the 5.  Pixar seems to own this category and while I had some problems with parts of Up, I’ve got no problem if it wins.

Art Direction

I’ve seen just two of the five (Avatar and Sherlock Holmes) and I don’t think either of those two will win.  Hollywood hates Terry Gilliam and almost anything he touches.  Nine won’t win because the Weinsteins are in a downward spiral and Hollywood doesn’t want to see them rescued with even a minor award and will feel they did enough by voting for Christoph Waltz.  So Young Victoria is my guess.

Cinematography

One of the categories that is closest to my heart.  I’ve seen 4 out of 5.  I don’t think Avatar will win because I don’t think DPs see CGI as photography.  I think it’s between Hurt Locker and Inglourious and if it’s a Hurt Locker night, it’ll win here too.

Costume Design

I haven’t seen any of these so no guess!

Directing

This is Kathryn Bigelow’s year.  The winner of the DGA award almost always takes this home and this year should be no exception.

Documentary Feature

I’ve only seen Food Inc and thought it should have been much better.  Something else will win here.

Documentary Short

Haven’t seen any of these.

Film Editing

The pacing and tension in Hurt Locker? Editing.

Foreign Language Film

Haven’t seen any.

Make-Up

Only 3 nominees and I’ve only seen one – Star Trek, which coincidentally is the only American film nominated here.  The voters tend to vote American.

Original Score

Everyone loves the soundtrack for Up.

Original Song

2 more nominations for Randy Newman and he won’t win either.  The Academy loves T Bone Burnett and his songs are the other strong element in Crazy Heart.  While there has been a small kerfuffle over the late Stephen Bruton’s contributions, I think Burnett adds another trophy to his shelf.

Short Film (Animated)

Short Film (Live Action)

Haven’t seen any!

Sound Editing

Again, if everything is swinging Hurt Locker’s way, it could take this one.  Everyone else is picking Avatar and they could be right but I like Hurt Locker here too.

Sound Mixing

Avatar should have a lock on this one.

Visual Effects

Well, there’s Avatar and then there’s everything else.  Even people who hated the film admire the technical achievements.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

I’ve seen 4 of the 5.  The WGA liked Up in the Air and so do I.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

I’ve seen 4 of the 5.  I think A Serious Man is brilliant but I seem to be in a minority here – no worries, over time this will be seen as a classic.  Right now, people like Inglourious Basterds here and that will probably be the winner.

So there you have it.  By lunchtime Monday we’ll know how close I came or how many miles I missed by.

Found this piece on IFC.com via a tweet by Roger Ebert, a short piece with some very interesting thoughts and quotes.  Some excerpts:

And he was just getting started. As the panel caromed from subjects like the ever-depreciating value of movie reviews at major outlets to the viability of online journalism, Schickel was always ready with the most biting response. On why editors at major publications — i.e. “former beat reporters and city desk guys and rewrite men that managed to stay upright in their chairs before they were finally felled by drink” — are no longer interested in serious film criticism, Schickel remarked, “They’re going to spike your review because it’s insufficiently enthusiastic… It’s like the insufferable optimism of America.”

and

[John Powers] continued, “I remember talking to Paul Schrader once about how when he came into movies, he thought he entered what was the natural state of movies, which is you got to make ‘Taxi Driver.’ You got to make all these weird, interesting movies and Hollywood wanted you to do it and it was only when it began to stop he realized he was living in the historical aberration. And for a lot of film critics, we are living in the historical aberration probably in the history of the arts where you got to make a lot of money, write about an art form at its peak and actually not only have it at its peak, but the public in general was going to that art form for ways of understanding the world. It’s not that way now.”

Tickets go on sale today for the Hong Kong International Film Festival.  There are many films listed that I’m not familiar with and need to research further.  From those I know or know of, some recommendations:

• A Better Tomorrow – essential film from John Woo starring Chow Yun-fat
• A Serious Man – The Coen Brothers’ brilliant musings about understanding the un-understandable
• Bright Star – from director Jane Campion
• Double Take – the premise is fascinating – using existing footage of Hitchcock to cast him as the lead in a new spy thriller
• Enter the Dragon, Fist of Fury, The Big Boss, The Game of Death, The Kid, The Way of the Dragon – Bruce Lee.  Even if you have these on DVD, you might want to see them on a big screen.  (Bruce was just 10 years old when he did The Kid.)
• Enter the Void – From the director of Irreversible, this looks to be equally shocking
• Metropolis – the seminal science fiction film, newly restored in 2008.
• Micmacs – latest film from the director of Amelie
• Tetro – recent film from Francis Ford Coppola said to mark a return to his early indie style of filmmaking
• The Dust of Time – Bruno Ganz, Willem Dafoe and Michel Piccoli in the same film?  How could it not be interesting?
• The Ghost Writer – Roman Polanski’s latest film, already a critically acclaimed festival winner
• The Killer Inside Me – director Michael Winterbottom and actor Casey Affleck should make an interesting team
• The Red Shoes – The greatest film about dance ever made.  One of the greatest films ever made.  Newly restored.
• Yatterman – the latest from Miike Takashi

There are so many films from so many countries.  Most I haven’t heard of but the descriptions make many of them tempting.  It’s a shame that most of these will only screen in Hong Kong just once, that DVDs will not be easily obtainable, and that we don’t have a repertory cinema dedicated to showing this sort of stuff year round.

Which ones do you recommend?  Which ones are you planning to see?

First published in a book by Laurence J. Peter in 1969, the Peter Principle states, “In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence.”  And it’s just as true today.

But it doesn’t only occur in corporations.  I just finished watching Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, and many of my thoughts following that form the basis of my next column in BC.   Here’s one bit that’s not related to the column.  Current U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is presented as someone who was a failure at every job he ever held.  So the question is asked, how did he get this job then?  The answer?

People who will give you the wrong answer but the answer you want are invaluable and they often get promoted precisely because they’re willing to say and do absurd things.

One of many things I learned from watching the film is that major U.S. corporations take out life insurance policies on their employees – not just executives but also lower level staff.  The staff are not informed and the corporations themselves are the beneficiaries of these policies.  And these policies are called, seriously, Dead Peasant Insurance.   And many of these companies then include the expected rate of employee death and expected benefits from these policies in their financial forecasts – which can prove to be wrong if employees don’t die as soon as expected or commit suicide. (The film depicts a family bankrupted by the medical bills following the death of a family member while the employer received more than a million in insurance benefits from that death.)

You can see a list of many companies known to engage in this practice here.  My previous employer’s not on the list. Companies that are on the list include AT&T, Bank of America, Citibank, Coca Cola, Hershey, Marriott, Procter & Gamble, Walt Disney.  If you work for an American company, you might want to see if they’re on the list.

The BAFTAs, the UK equivalent of the US’s Oscars, were announced last night.  Some see this as a barometer of how the Oscars themselves will go.  Hurt Locker was the big winner with six awards.

Best Picture – Hurt Locker

Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow – Hurt Locker

Best Actor – Colin Firth – A Single Man

Best Actress Carey Mulligan – An Education

Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress – Mo’Nique – Precious

Best Original Screenplay – Hurt Locker

Best Adapted Screenplay – Up in the Air

Best British Film – Fish Tank

Best Foreign Language Film – A Prophet

Best Animated Film – Up

Sorry, my fingers are too cold to hunt down links tonight!

We ventured out of the house around 8 PM,  got in the car and the car told me it was just 7.5 degrees.  In Hong Kong, that’s cold! Nevertheless, Sai Kung town was serious busy, with cars parked in places that you never see cars parked and the police out in force writing parking tickets. (Which, frankly, I don’t understand.  None of these cars were blocking traffic, it’s a freaking holiday, no one was parked in a double yellow, so what? Make people miserable on a holiday because you’re forced to work and it’s a good revenue generator?)(Hong Kong’s on-street parking laws make little sense anyway.  You get a ticket for parking in a place “not designated as a parking place, even though that’s about 75% of the streets and why shouldn’t you be able to park there after 7 or 8 PM if you’re not in a double yellow, not blocking traffic or a cross walk?)

Walking around in Sai Kung town.  I thought this might be the night that we’d finally try Saigon Flavour, a small shop in town that fits the definition of cheap ‘n cheerful, but they were closed.  Walking through the back alley, almost every place was closed.   One that was open, a Thai place, was doing overflow business.  Paisano’s was very busy and we weren’t in the mood for take-away.  We walked into new spot Aqua Plus but were not impressed with the menu.  Lynn’s Cafe was empty, never a good sign.  Steamers?  “That would be my last choice,” I said.   Walked past the now-Michelin-one-starred Anthony’s Kitchen and it of course was overflowing.

So over to AJ’s Sri Lankan Cuisine and I’d say we were 95% happy with our dinner.  Started off with their fish cutlets, small round deep fried balls of fish and herbs that kind of reminds me of gefilte fish for some reason, served with freshly made pineapple chutney. (I think they said pineapple.)  Then a chicken curry, devilled prawns and Sri Lankan roti.  The owner stopped by our table to give us a plate of eggplant on the house and my gosh that was seriously tasty too.

Back home after dinner, I put on Crazy Heart, the Jeff Bridges film that has him in the front runner position for the Best Actor Oscar.  I thought I was gonna love it when the first line out of Bridges’ mouth was, “Not another fucking bowling alley!”  (Dude!) but really, the movie isn’t much.  The story of a once-famous alcoholic country singer on the road has been done many times before and at best this story was TV movie of the week quality, something for the Lifetime Channel.  The only thing that raises it above the ordinary is a truly great performance by Bridges and some good original songs by Stephen Bruton and T-Bone Burnett.  Maggie Gyllenhall is quite okay, Robert Duvall could have done his role in his sleep and Colin Farrell as a country singing star?  Really?  (Actually he’s not bad but still …)

So see it for Bridges’ 5 star performance but the rest of the movie rates just 2 or 3 stars as far as I’m concerned.  (And yet this scores a 100% rating among “top critics” on Rotten Tomatoes. I guess they saw something in it that I didn’t.)

Tomorrow morning my gf gets on a plane to Manila and it will be 32 degrees there when she arrives.  I’m jealous.

Just watched An Education, a film with a 95% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a film that stands to be fondly remembered for several reasons.  First there is the engaging performance by newcomer Carey Mulligan, whom everyone is comparing to Audrey Hepburn after this, and she’s been nominated for an Oscar as best actress for her performance here.  And a terrific performance from Peter Sarsgaard, who does a very good job of walking the tightrope that his role demands.   The film is based on a brief memoir by British reporter Lynn Barber – you can read the original story here – and marks Nick Hornsby’s first adapted screenplay.  Director Lone Scherfig is a “graduate” of the Dogme 95 movement but she has clearly moved beyond that.

Here’s what casual viewers of the film might miss.  First, that it takes part in a very different era, an era before women’s liberation, an era where the glass ceiling for women was a lot lower than it was today and an era where “class” meant more than it does today.  It’s 1961 and a woman’s place is in the home and though Jenny is hoping to go to Oxford, her father sees that merely as a way for her to meet and marry a man of means.  It’s an era where it’s okay to publicly announce that one hates Jews and where one Jew takes advantage of overt racism to get rich.  So it functions as a time piece, a bit of bittersweet nostalgia, almost a Mad Man-ish look back at a time and attitudes that we’d like to think we’ve left behind (even if we really haven’t).

And perhaps more uncomfortably, it’s an era in which no one blinks at the notion of a thirty-something year old man dating a 16 year old schoolgirl – the parents perceive the man as worldly, sophisticated and rich and don’t protest even when he asks to take her away for a weekend because he represents another step, even a shortcut,  in the upward mobility they’re seeking for their daughter.   You know where this film is going, even if you don’t know the story, but it’s the way in which it gets there – the steady pacing and rhythm, the way in which it gradually unfolds and opens up like a flower or a puzzle box.  We see a 16 year old girl become an 18 year old older-but-wiser woman, her lesson about life and what really matters, and the final line, which I won’t give away here, that in just a few short words brilliantly sums up what she’s learned.

The film has received three Oscar nominations – best picture, best actress and best adapted screenplay and while it probably won’t win in any of those categories, the nominations are well-deserved.

Yesterday, as I mentioned, we watched Bodyguards and Assassins, the first half-way decent Hong Kong film not directed by Johnny To that I’ve seen in a few years.  Directed by Teddy Chan and produced by Peter Chan, this film stars almost everyone in Hong Kong cinema – Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Tony Leung (Ka-fai), Nicholas Tse, Eric Tsang, Fan Bingbing, Jacky Cheung, Michelle Reis – but to a certain extent is stolen by mainland actor Wang Xueqi.   At any rate, it’s a halfway decent film because the first half is all history and family drama while the second half is a rolling series of kick-ass battles.

One problem is the story – it’s 1906 and Sun Yat-sen is making a visit to Hong Kong to plot the Chinese revolution.  The Empress Dowager sends a general to Hong Kong to plot Sun’s assassination.  Hong Kong people rally to protect Sun and eight heroes will give their lives to the cause.  The problem is that this story is 100% fiction!

On the other hand, one has to admire the producers.  They have made a film that has all the good guys pleading for democracy and has lead characters advocating violent revolution – and been able to get China financing and get the film on mainland screens – did the Chinese censors really not see the metaphor?   In the first half, I enjoyed the CGI effects to present views of Hong Kong as it may have looked 100 years ago.  In the second half, I enjoyed the expertly staged action scenes.   But like too many Hong Kong films, the direction is weak on exposition and overly strong on sentimentality and I had a hard time staying awake during the first half of the film.

So basically, if you like this kind of thing, then this is the kind of thing you’ll like.

Last night I was up until 4 AM working and that meant that I woke up a tad late this morning.  So I quickly get dressed and run out of the house, stopping to give my gf a kiss and tell her I had to go to Causeway Bay.  So OF COURSE this afternoon she’s not talking to me because I didn’t tell her further in advance that I had a lunch meeting, I didn’t tell her who it was with or the purpose, I didn’t give her enough advance notice so that she could get dressed and get a ride to the MTR and probably a host of other sins that I unwittingly committed.   Hey, we’ve been living together now for 19 months and if by now she doesn’t know that I’m pretty damned far from perfect but that when I do stuff she doesn’t like, it’s not on purpose and not aimed at her, when will she realize it?  (And hey, it ain’t like she’s perfect either, even if on the overall scale she’s a far better person than I am.)   And then she wanted to sort it out by SMS, which I won’t do, thank you very much.

Anyway, my lunchtime meeting was with the guy assigned to me by the outplacement service that my former company is paying for.  And that’s okay because he’s a genuinely nice and smart guy and while he can’t seem to help me much on the job front, I enjoy talking with him a lot.  Today I met him at his office to give him a crash course in LinkedIn and a bit of Facebook and Twitter and blogging and a review of his web site.  Not that I’m the world’s greatest expert on this stuff but I guess I know a little about a lot of different things.  In return, he took me to lunch – we went to Sorabol, my favorite Korean restaurant in town and a place I haven’t been to in more than a year.  Did you know they do $55 set lunches?  Or for $88 you can get a barbecue set that comes complete with all the usual side dishes and your choice of other sides including bibimbap (did I spell that right?) or soup.  And they still serve some damned tasty food there.

Then a few other errands and a bit of shopping and then finally back home.  Finish off this post and zombie out with some TV for a little while.  But first, a few bits ‘n pieces from the past couple of days.

Roast Pork Sliced From a Rusty Cleaver (what a great blog name!) has the full list of this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards nominations.  “Bodyguards and Assassins” is now the most nominated film in HKFA history with 19 nods – probably a good thing then that I picked up the Blu-Ray yesterday.

The Hughes Brothers are talking to Warner Bros about doing two live action films based on the Akira manga.  I really enjoyed their “From Hell” and think they could actually do a decent job with this material.

How stupid are record company executives?  Very, apparently.  They’ve only just figured out that by raising their prices on iTunes, the amount of legal downloads and revenue would decrease.  Warner Bros. Records’ chief Bronfman says that, oh, maybe it wasn’t a great idea to increase prices by 30% in the midst of the worst recession in decades.  Hello!

Stephen Colbert called Sarah Palin “a fucking retard.”  But it’s satire!  See it here.

Sigh, the line-ups for summer music festivals are being announced.  Here’s just a partial list of who’ll be at this year’s Bonnaroo.

* Dave Matthews Band
* Kings of Leon
* Stevie Wonder
* Jay-Z
* Tenacious D
* Weezer
* The Flaming Lips with Stardeath and White Dwarfs perform “Dark Side of the Moon”
* The Dead Weather
* Norah Jones
* John Fogerty
* Regina Spektor
* Jimmy Cliff
* LCD Soundsystem
* Thievery Corporation
* Tori Amos
* John Prine
* The Black Keys
* Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers
* Jeff Beck
* She & Him
* Daryl Hall & Chromeo
* Kris Kristofferson
* Medeski Martin & Wood
* Tinariwen
* The Gaslight Anthem
* The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
* They Might Be Giants
* Miranda Lambert
* Calexico
* Japandroids

HK$2,000 would get you all the above goodness and more.  If you’re in Tennessee.

A quick overview of Google Buzz.

A 5 minute video of photographer/author Rick Sammon’s “top ten digital photography tips.”  Useful stuff worth remembering.

And that’s about it for now.  Big Bang Theory beckons.

So what’s on my mind on this foggy crappy Tuesday?

First and foremost – a US based global company looking for a regional CIO for the Asia Pacific region.  Their definition of the region includes Australia/New Zealand, Japan, India.  But they won’t consider any candidates for the job who don’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese.  How will Mandarin help in India or Australia?  How does Cantonese help in Japan – or Shanghai for that matter?

Next, I love Taschen books.  They do some of the most creative packages around and my personal collection includes two of their expensive editions:  The Stanley Kubrick Archives, a sold out limited edition that weighs in at 8-1/2 pounds; and JazzLife, a huge book filled with rare photographs (the special edition is currently selling on Amazon for US$1,500).  They’ve got a new book out on Magic, covering graphics and posters from the 1400s up through the present day – it weighs over 16 pounds!  And Amazon in the US is currently selling it for around 35% off, which makes it very tempting.

Taschen also does these insane limited editions.  Norman Mailer’s Moonfire is limited to just 12 copies, unfolds into a table and includes a genuine moon rock – for the bargain price of 68,275 pounds sterling.  I’ll take two, please.  Whoops, they’re sold out.

Along those lines, I missed the announcement of a new limited edition book last year, Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made.  10 separate books inside of a huge book-shaped box and exclusive access to an online database of 17,000 images, it was selling for US$1,000.  But it’s sold out and I see someone’s selling one on the US Amazon site for $5,000.   I actually have a personal connection to this since I worked for Robert Gaffney, the producer of the never-completed epic, for four years (which is how I came to do some work on The Shining).  I don’t suppose that any of my readers are among the 1,000 people who bought this but if you are and you want to share the login and password to that online database with me, I’d be very grateful.

Nikon product announcements yesterday.  Two new lenses.  No new replacement for the D700 yet.  Drat.  I’m figuring a D700s with the same extreme low light sensor of the D3s and video capabilities (even if not HD) would be a must-buy for me.  Oh Nikon, how long are you going to make me wait?

Finally, for now, Media Wonk analyzes Sony Pictures’ recent lay-off announcements.  Similar to my previous employer, following a record year they are letting go of hundreds of loyal staff.  The excuse is a predicted downturn in future home video sales due to forces “outside of their control.”  The Wonk makes the point that most of these forces were not outside of their control but arose due to bad strategic decisions.  The people who made those bad decisions all retained their jobs while those who executed the crappy strategies lost theirs.   Who ever said that life was supposed to be fair?