Eurotrip or Bust

Very soon some friends of my from around the world are congregating in England, and some of them are going on to tour some of Europe. I would be there, but complications prevent me. :(

So, in lieu of, I watched other people touring Europe. First of all... yes, this movie is funny. Okay, yes, there are stereotypes of various foreigners, but the best stereotypes presented are of the Americans going around the countries and seeing things through American eyes. And part of me can easily believe that there are Americans that view this as a documentary...

The basic concept is Scotty breaks up with old girlfriend, has a chance to hook up with a new girlfriend over in Germany, so heads on out. Only it's not that simple, and he and his friends end up travelling over various places in Europe and having... not adventures, more like... stupid encounters.

Definitely not a movie that takes anything seriously, featuring names that, at the time, weren't really well known (aside from Michelle Trachtenberg) and various cameos by big names. And although this was 2004, it does hold up well.

Surprisingly, I recommend this movie for a funny time.

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Watch the Death 2

We make it to the planet of Aurum without further difficulty (or death). We descend to the planet, and start the walk to the city. While on the path up the cliff-face, my fellow Blood Angel brother upsets one of the native beasts of burden, causing a stampede. Parnassius gets trampled heavily, while I fail to control my jet pack to scare them off. We do protect some of the native Aurum, but otherwise don't really make too good a name for ourselves...

In the city itself, we start towards the Cael's resident, first encountering the Word of Faith, the missionary of the Imperium in the city. Father Murphy tells us of Sister Rachael's death, while my Wolven brethren sniffs and detects the presence of an Aurum (who are not known of entering here) and of something industrial (beyond the stone age technology of the rest of the city). Something strange is going on here. We also find a stone temple with a frieze that indicates the Primarchs had been here...

In the Cael's place, we meet the Cael and, in order to gain further access in the Cael's court, we agree to a trial. Before then, we continue out the day in the city. Investigating the temple and talking with the Father, we find that the local religion has many similarities with our own. Hmm... and visiting the local barracks, we see that the Aurum are no mean fighters in their own right.

The next morning, we get to find out about their weapons ourselves. Our trial are us going out with only our clothes and their weapons, and bringing something back from the Duadon...

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Battle: .. Whereever...

The basic premise of this movie is "what if we had to have Americans fight on their home soil?" From there, the rest of the movie is an exercise in excusing this. You can imagine the conversation at the production level:
"Can we have the Nazis invade?"
"No-one takes them seriously any more since Inglorious Bastards. And besides, we want to be modern day."
"So, Iranian invasion? Canadian?"
"Really? Given America's over the top reaction to anyone who looks at them cross-eyed, you'd think anyone would take any earthly threat seriously?"
"In that case... let's go with aliens!"
"Oooh... be careful, we need to make sure there's no danger of portraying the aliens in any way that could be construed as sympathetic, or even slightly human. We don't want anyone to question that we should be mercilessly slaughtering them, while at the same time showing us to be extremely compassionate to our fellow Americans (and we can score bonus points if the people who are actually in danger and we are compassionate to are not actually Americans but are, say... Mexican)."
"Good point. And we need to make sure we can get a video game out of this."
"Already ready to ship..."

Yeah, let's not pretend. This isn't science fiction. (Although I bet the producers are glad of the opportunity to get cash from those that think it is.) Russians, Arabs, Aliens, just a different enemy, but this is pure jingoism from start to finish. "America is great, gawddammit, and I'll shoot you in the face if you disagree."

There's the usual collection of characters, the disgruntled veteran, the guy about to get married, the token women soldier (played by Michelle Rodriguez, surprise, surprise), the kids to protect... you name it, they've got it.

And the storyline is... well, let's face it, you could not be paying the slightest bit of attention and still know what is going on.

Only worth seeing if you think District 9 or Skyline didn't have enough shooting in it...

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El Bulli: Cooking in Progress

El Bulli is a restaurant over in Spain. Open for half the year, they spend the other half coming up with new recipes. Hey, I've seen something like that with various Heston Blumenthal shows, that'll be interesting!

Well, you'd think that. But Cooking in Progress is one of those documentaries that is just filming what's going on in front of the camera with no comment... I have to say, I think in this case, it would have benefited immensely from having a commentator. Someone to help give context to the choices their making, to give structure to what's going on...

There are some moments of amusement where the head chef, Ferran Adria, doesn't react with full positivity to the other chefs' efforts, but these are occasional moment amidst the general bustlings and goings-on of the restaurant activities. And yes, there are some strange dishes that it would be great to learn more about, but we only see brief moments, nothing's really explained, and there is just this lack of connection between the cooks and the audience the movie doesn't care enough to bridge.

So... yes... interesting documentary, but nothing compared to what it should be.

(Note: the video below isn't for this documentary... it's from a far more interesting sounding one relating to Ferran Adria.)

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I M Pei - Building China Modern

This is an episode of an American series American Masters. We know this, because an intro tells us so, as well as reciting various people who have contributed money. And repeated as an outro as well. And also includes thanks to "Viewers like you" for giving money to PBS... hey, wait a minute. You mean this was shown for free to Americans and now I'm paying (a fair bit) to go see it in the theatre?

That said, this is about I M Pei, a Chinese architect who has designed a few major buildings, coming back to his home town of Suzhou to design a museum. It has to fit the design of the town, although Pei isn't known for exactly fitting in, so there's controversy there... although not to much. This was going to happen either way, with old buildings being torn down, which isn't as focused on as in other movies.

Anyway, we get to see a bit of Pei's life, some of his buildings, and... he's a nice guy! This is as much a celebration of Pei as it is about the building. Enjoyable wee documentary, not sure it was worth the price...


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Rrrrrrango!

Okay, let's get one thing out of the way: the plot has absolutely nothing original to it. The hero makes out he's the next big thing, and needs to find out if he is or not. Yep. Been there, seen that.

In this case, he's a lizard. It's an animated feature, so of course they can get away with talking animals and the like. And it is very well made from the computer generated side. Even the water is believable. On the other hand, there have been so many animated movies, they'd better be getting it right by now!

But we have our hero, and the obligatory collection of wacky characters, including the love interest. Voiced by a range of stars, such as Johnny Depp (in the lead role), Ned Beatty, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy... everyone puts in a decent effort.

It's an enjoyable movie for what it is. Just try not to hard to think about the plot (because you'll guess it all), sit back, relax and just go with the flow.

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It's Eeeevil!

On a lighter note, have you checked out the latest episode of Reincarnation "A Taste of Evil"? In particular, once you've won (takes about 30 clicks), did you look at the credits? At the rolling list of names?

See any names you recognise....?

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