Catching up

Ok, watched Evil Dead over the weekend. And first let me say, "Holy Cow! Bruce Campbell is really, really young!" It's not too bad for a first time horror flick from a bunch of kids no one had heard of then. But you probably recognize their names now - Sam Raimi, Bruce, The Coen brothers... I've seen both sequels, but only just got around to watching this, the original inspiration. There are some really nice camera shots and the story, while presented in an earnest fashion, is still pretty campy. It's easy to see why the sequels went the route they did - Over the Top Ash works much better than Horrifyingly Distraught Ash. But still, fun to see where things came from.

Also watched Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Such a pretty, pretty movie. The plot is pretty standard fare for the GitS universe. And if you've read any reviews for the show, you've no doubt heard how the movie is chock full of philosophical quotes that tend to drive home the points being made. It's certainly true, but it's not as bad as it sounds. Well, that or my tolerance for philosophical mumbo jumbo is pretty high. It's a pretty mellow movie - the first one had more action and was a little more visceral physically as well as philosphically. But the questions pondered here still carry some weight and there are a few really nice moments. I think I preferred the music in the original a little better, but there are a couple scenes towards the end where the soundtrack makes a really nice, powerful counterpoint to what's happening. All in all certainly worth watching and if you've enjoyed any of the works based on Shirow's stories, you'll feel right at home here. And it's really pretty. Really. Oh, and the subtitle/closed caption thing isn't nearly as annoying as I was afraid it would be. There are only a couple of instances where I felt it was bordering on intrusive - the rest of the time it was pretty reasonable.

Managed to polish off the second Shooting Stars graphic novel. I don't really have anything to say about it in hindsight. It's been a couple days and for the most part it's pleasantly forgettable. I enjoyed reading it and it was an interesting glimpse into an alternate Bebop universe, but it didn't grab me the way the series did. I think it's at least partially due to the compressed form. The stories weren't really given the room to grow the way they did in the tv show. And while there were certainly plenty of short "filler" episodes in the anime, you knew parts of them were driven by the very real back story. Here the back story isn't as visible and so everything gets relegated to filler. Even the Scorpion arc - which is as close to what makes up continuity and back story in this series as you get - still felt pretty light and rushed.

I may not make it through what would have been book 3. I'm trying to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and it's just not clicking. I wanted to like this book. And there are flashes of something very nice, but it's not really grabbing me. I really like some of Susanna Clark's short fiction, so it's a little surprising to me that I'm not enjoying the book more. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

Managed to make a small video of Graeme smiling for the grandparents. Lovely digital camera. And lovely iMac. It's terribly fun to poke around with iMovie and iDVD and whatnot.