:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Monday, February 03, 2003 ::

That's about as funny as IP can get!
"...many carriers can be used without significant interference with each other, outside of early spring. This is because of the 3D ether space available to the carriers, in contrast to the 1D ether used by IEEE802.3. The carriers have an intrinsic collision avoidance system, which increases availability."

Popcorn: Is that the best review you can do? I don’t think anyone is likely to decide to buy it on the strength of that!

Indecently, I saw When Immigrants Attack (a.k.a. Gangs of New York) on Friday. Didn’t match up with any of the reviews I heard before hand, which all said it was either “Scorsese’s best movies since Goodfellas” or “Utter Gash” (to paraphrase). I would actually sum it up as “very good in places, but generally pretty average”.

Just to clear up what was good about it first:
All of the acting was fantastic, Daniel Bay Lewis was every bit as good as everyone said he was, Leonardo DiCaprio stood up amazing well against him, Cameron “no where near as attractive as people make out” Diaz was far better than usual, and even Colm “Chief O’Brian” Meaney pulled out an unexpected convincing impression of an Irishman in what would obviously been a very challenging role for any actor who hadn’t made an entire career out of having an Irish accent.
Very good camera work (no surprise there) and some particularly stunning set pieces. (One in particular got me as tense as I think I’ve ever been sat watching a film, I could hear my pulse when Amsterdam was pinned to the table by Bill the Butcher.)
Very good editing, except for continuity problems.
Good script, and nice dialogue. Could easily have been too complex but nice use of subtle flashbacks explained everything nicely. (At this point I have to justify myself as not being so stupid as to not be able to follow simple plots but I have real trouble recognising peoples faces so this worked for me.)
Quite a lot of gore, although not as much as expected.

Now the negative points:
Seems to have been messed about with too much in post. I think reshoots stand out due to continuity errors – and no I’m not being really geeky about someone’s club being in the opposite hand every time it cuts to them, it’s far more glaring stuff like Ed Wood style lighting changes!
Hilarious “oh, what should we do??? I know, lets bomb everyone!” ending. Tck, Americans.
I don’t believe it. That’s the long and the short of it. Although some things like this may well have gone on around the time, I think its all been exaggerated to the point it’s just farcical. I mean, are we really suppose to believe that there were bars that took payment for drinks in severed human ears? Hardly a stable currency. When was the last time you heard something was worth its weight in ears? And what were they going to do with them afterwards... make Pinna Stew?

Now I know it’s not exactly a period drama, but surely some historical accuracy isn’t asking much? Maybe there were incidents like this... but in the context of the shear number of equally unbelievable things it’s easy to dismiss all of it.

:: Dan 3.2.03 [Arc]    ::
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