Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Watching Stuff, and Liking Stuff
Lately, I notice Wen and Ricky have been recommending tv shows to us to watch (Firefly, BSG, Lost). I used to do the recommending of anime and whatnot, but I’ve slowed down on that. It seems to be that Wen and Ricky know what they’re talking about when it comes to shows that are good.
So, as I said in my last entry, I started watching Lost. So far, I like it.
But then again, I like a lot of stuff. CSI, Firefly, BSG, Lost… Elfen Lied, Gankutsuou, Bobobo, Initial D… Memento, Fight Club, Zoolander, Kill Bill… PGR, Ninja Gaiden, Fusion Frenzy… in short, I’d like to think of myself as eclectic. You can throw almost anything at me and I can like it, unless I find it really boring, or possibly really crude without any sense of fulfillment. (Well, it’s not as true for video games, but the point still stands.)
Just look at my list of top 5 movies! I think my list looks something like this:
Top Movies
1. The Rock – one of the most actionest movies I know. Lots of action and fighting – guns, hand to hand, missiles, explosions, and probably the best car chase I know – The Rock has it all. Of course, it can’t stay at #1 with just action. The pacing, camera angles, acting, vibe, and music keep it up there. Cage, Connery and Harris are wonderful characters. Also, this is the only action movie that I’ve shown to David that gets a semi-seal of approval, so there’s something there other than just action.
2. Zoolander – sneaking in at #2, comes Zoolander, a stark contrast to the actionest movie ever. First time I saw the movie, I didn’t like it, but it just grew to become my favourite. I’ve probably listened to this movie at least 30 times. At first, I would classify this movie as a “stupid” comedy, but it’s not really. And while this movie was heading into my top movies list, I didn’t know much about the cast, but apparently it fits into the “funny” group of movies. That is, if a movie has at least two of Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn, then it’s in the funny group, and movies in the funny group tend to be really funny. Duh.
So Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Will Ferrell star in Zoolander, alongside Jerry Stiller (George’s dad on Seinfeld), and rounding out the cast come real people, like John Voigt and David Duchovny. Such good humour, smart, stupid, and funny, altogether put Zoolander in at #2.
3. Fight Club.
4. Snatch.
5. Memento – rounding out my top #5 comes Memento, a mystery sorta kinda film with a very unique way of telling the story. Not actiony like #1, not very funny like #2, and very unique.
So, that’s my top 5, and… yeah, I’m quite eclectic, I think. (In case you’re wondering, my top 5 anime are FMA, Initial D, Gankutsuou, Azumanga, and… something else.) Anyway, on to the shows.
Back to the Shows
So, so far every real life show that people have recommended to me, I think I liked… except maybe reGenesis, because I didn’t feel it in the first episode. But I digress. So, when I say I like Lost, it doesn’t really mean too much. So I can say that the characters and the plot and setting are mysterious and intriguing, and show has good pacing, some good slowness that allows it to spend a bunch of episodes before you find stuff out, yet isn’t boring… etc etc, it’s all good.
In terms of anime… it’s a bit different. There’s lots of crap out there, with drawings not so good, or boring “been-there, done-that” type animes, etc… however one anime that I didn’t like so much, within the few episodes I saw, was Neon Genesis Evangelion. So, in an effort to like it or to form the full opinion, I restarted watching it and now I’m on episode 9.
And it’s really quite different than I remember it! Maybe it was the time when we saw it (time, date, mood, etc, all play important factors). Maybe there’s stuff you can get from a show or media piece, that you can only get when watching alone, and likewise, for some things, only get when watched in a group.
I think last time I saw it, all I saw was mechs and some weird little kid. Now I notice the kid much more, and the relationship with the people around him, and Rei, and now that I’m on episode 8, Asuka too. It’s much better this time around.
Lost
Anyway, back to Lost. I was thinking I could leisurely watch it, slowly, while Alan and Jason would leisurely watch BSG. Turns out they beasted through it, and watched the 33 episodes I gave them in 4 days. It’s like when Ricky watched 40 episodes of FMA in 2 days. Oh well. It’s not a race, so I’ll continue this leisurely, paced watching.
Unfortunately for Jason and Alan, now they have to wait until October for all the season 3’s. In the meantime, maybe they can borrow some CSI’s or Trigun’s* or GTO’s or whatever. GTO’s 43 episodes, and Duy hasn’t finished it yet, so maybe they can beast through that in 6 days or so too. Me, I’m pacing my Lost, BSG, and I’m also watching NGE. In case I finish NGE, I have Karekano and Samurai Champloo in my queue. (Anyone wanna beast through some show together?)
Anyway, Lost is pretty good. Lost has a pretty interesting episode style, but I think I’ve seen somewhere before. Every episode, they of course continue the story, but as individual characters become important, you’ll see their flashback about their lives.
First episode, you see a bit of flashback from Jack, but not a major one until episode 5 – I think episode 2 or 3, the featured character was Kate – and as the characters got to know her better in the present situation, we got to know her better through her flashbacks, and we found some surprising stuff. The most surprising flashback (so far) was John Locke’s flashback in episode 4, and that was good.
* - when you watch Trigun, watch episode 13 first, which is one of my favourite episodes. If you like it, start from the beginning and try to beast through the first 7 episodes. I don’t remember the first 7 being all that good, 8-12 are fine, but all the good stuff happens in the 2nd half of the series. Ya know what? Maybe I’ll watch it again, now that I think of it…
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Lately, I notice Wen and Ricky have been recommending tv shows to us to watch (Firefly, BSG, Lost). I used to do the recommending of anime and whatnot, but I’ve slowed down on that. It seems to be that Wen and Ricky know what they’re talking about when it comes to shows that are good. So, as I said in my last entry, I started watching Lost. So far, I like it. But then again, I like a lot of stuff. CSI, Firefly, BSG, Lost… Elfen Lied, Gankutsuou, Bobobo, Initial D… Memento, Fight Club, Zoolander, Kill Bill… PGR, Ninja Gaiden, Fusion Frenzy… in short, I’d like to think of myself as eclectic. You can throw almost anything at me and I can like it, unless I find it really boring, or possibly really crude without any sense of fulfillment. (Well, it’s not as true for video games, but the point still stands.) Just look at my list of top 5 movies! I think my list looks something like this: Top Movies 1. The Rock – one of the most actionest movies I know. Lots of action and fighting – guns, hand to hand, missiles, explosions, and probably the best car chase I know – The Rock has it all. Of course, it can’t stay at #1 with just action. The pacing, camera angles, acting, vibe, and music keep it up there. Cage, Connery and Harris are wonderful characters. Also, this is the only action movie that I’ve shown to David that gets a semi-seal of approval, so there’s something there other than just action. 2. Zoolander – sneaking in at #2, comes Zoolander, a stark contrast to the actionest movie ever. First time I saw the movie, I didn’t like it, but it just grew to become my favourite. I’ve probably listened to this movie at least 30 times. At first, I would classify this movie as a “stupid” comedy, but it’s not really. And while this movie was heading into my top movies list, I didn’t know much about the cast, but apparently it fits into the “funny” group of movies. That is, if a movie has at least two of Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn, then it’s in the funny group, and movies in the funny group tend to be really funny. Duh. So Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Will Ferrell star in Zoolander, alongside Jerry Stiller (George’s dad on Seinfeld), and rounding out the cast come real people, like John Voigt and David Duchovny. Such good humour, smart, stupid, and funny, altogether put Zoolander in at #2. 3. Fight Club. 4. Snatch. 5. Memento – rounding out my top #5 comes Memento, a mystery sorta kinda film with a very unique way of telling the story. Not actiony like #1, not very funny like #2, and very unique. So, that’s my top 5, and… yeah, I’m quite eclectic, I think. (In case you’re wondering, my top 5 anime are FMA, Initial D, Gankutsuou, Azumanga, and… something else.) Anyway, on to the shows. Back to the Shows So, so far every real life show that people have recommended to me, I think I liked… except maybe reGenesis, because I didn’t feel it in the first episode. But I digress. So, when I say I like Lost, it doesn’t really mean too much. So I can say that the characters and the plot and setting are mysterious and intriguing, and show has good pacing, some good slowness that allows it to spend a bunch of episodes before you find stuff out, yet isn’t boring… etc etc, it’s all good. In terms of anime… it’s a bit different. There’s lots of crap out there, with drawings not so good, or boring “been-there, done-that” type animes, etc… however one anime that I didn’t like so much, within the few episodes I saw, was Neon Genesis Evangelion. So, in an effort to like it or to form the full opinion, I restarted watching it and now I’m on episode 9. And it’s really quite different than I remember it! Maybe it was the time when we saw it (time, date, mood, etc, all play important factors). Maybe there’s stuff you can get from a show or media piece, that you can only get when watching alone, and likewise, for some things, only get when watched in a group. I think last time I saw it, all I saw was mechs and some weird little kid. Now I notice the kid much more, and the relationship with the people around him, and Rei, and now that I’m on episode 8, Asuka too. It’s much better this time around. Lost Anyway, back to Lost. I was thinking I could leisurely watch it, slowly, while Alan and Jason would leisurely watch BSG. Turns out they beasted through it, and watched the 33 episodes I gave them in 4 days. It’s like when Ricky watched 40 episodes of FMA in 2 days. Oh well. It’s not a race, so I’ll continue this leisurely, paced watching. Unfortunately for Jason and Alan, now they have to wait until October for all the season 3’s. In the meantime, maybe they can borrow some CSI’s or Trigun’s* or GTO’s or whatever. GTO’s 43 episodes, and Duy hasn’t finished it yet, so maybe they can beast through that in 6 days or so too. Me, I’m pacing my Lost, BSG, and I’m also watching NGE. In case I finish NGE, I have Karekano and Samurai Champloo in my queue. (Anyone wanna beast through some show together?) Anyway, Lost is pretty good. Lost has a pretty interesting episode style, but I think I’ve seen somewhere before. Every episode, they of course continue the story, but as individual characters become important, you’ll see their flashback about their lives. First episode, you see a bit of flashback from Jack, but not a major one until episode 5 – I think episode 2 or 3, the featured character was Kate – and as the characters got to know her better in the present situation, we got to know her better through her flashbacks, and we found some surprising stuff. The most surprising flashback (so far) was John Locke’s flashback in episode 4, and that was good. * - when you watch Trigun, watch episode 13 first, which is one of my favourite episodes. If you like it, start from the beginning and try to beast through the first 7 episodes. I don’t remember the first 7 being all that good, 8-12 are fine, but all the good stuff happens in the 2nd half of the series. Ya know what? Maybe I’ll watch it again, now that I think of it… |