Whenever I think “3D”, I still have visions of an episode of SCTV, when comedian John Candy, during a sketch involving a Monster Chiller Horror Theatre movie, stares at the camera asking the audience, if they want any … Pancakes?!? He then proceeds to move a stack of pancakes back and forth with eerie music to match. It’s still one my favourite moments of that show, mainly because even after all the years that 3D has existed, it’s still a great way to explain how gimmicky and useless the technology is.
I am a member of an amateur texas hold’em poker league. They play at random bars and restaurants across Canada and the United States. There’s no cash involved, but every win gets points, and more points gets you qualified for games that can get you seats in other games, including the Nationals in Vegas. Winner of this tournament wins a $10,000 seat in an actual tournament with the World Poker Tour. Back in June of 2011, I won a seat into a the Nationals in Las Vegas, which was to be held the first week of April 2012. I was pretty stoked about winning that seat.
When a popular book is being filmed into a movie, the hype machine revs up and preps for a massive ad campaign that’s hard to dodge. When this particular book came out, by the time the first person came to me and recommended the book, I heard that The Hunger Games is becoming a movie. So I decided to hold off from hearing about anything about the book, including story, trailers, commercials and online teasers. And frankly it was the hardest task I could think of. But, I’ve seen it now, so here’s my opinion on the movie. And there might be spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen it and want to be surprised, then why are you reading a review before seeing a movie?
There are four different kinds of trying in movies. The worst being the “phone-in”, when you can see the actor, director or editor really not care, giving a zero-filled performance and might as well not have shown up, and just called in his work. There’s the “on par”, where it feels like they are present and ready to do this, but not all the incentive and perks in the world could motivate the person to put in that extra percent. There’s the “performance” where they give the right amount to give a performance that is believable and thought-driven, and powerful. This is the level you want actors to be in, because then you know that they are giving it all.
When it comes to Denzel Washington, ever since he won his second Acadamy award for acting for the 2001 movie Training Day, he’s been playing a similar way, which is when he eats up the screen and overshadows everybody he is working with. It’s slowing becoming the Denzel movie starring Denzel and a bunch of other people.