Author: jkordy

AR.Drone by Parrot

This is freakin’ amazing. Maybe a little scary too? The AR.Drone is an iPhone (or iPod Touch) controlled “toy” helicopter. It connects via Wi-Fi and uses either device’s accelerometer and touchscreen as controls. The freaky part is that it also has an on-board camera so that you can see what’s going on while piloting it with your iPhone. Add on to that, it also has an augmented reality video game mode that mixes real world flying skills with on-screen game action, like robots and missiles.

On it’s own it sounds awesome, but can you imagine hundreds of these? Each one flying around the streets and invading your privacy? They make me think of the annoying City scanners from Half Life 2.

more info on the AR.Drone

A filmmaker, a queen and some dudes.

Broken Embraces

almodovar_broken_embraces
Not as good as I expected, but as I read somewhere, even on his worst day Almodovar is better than 90% of what’s out there. I don’t think you will ever be able to fully anticipate how an Almodovar film will unfold, he is such a great story maker. And it was nice to see Penelope Cruz in her element.

The Young Victoria

the_young_victoria
Better than expected. I only went to fulfill my husbandly duties, but I was pleasantly surprised. I learned a lot of history, and even though at heart this movie is a romantic love story of the most severe kind, I still enjoyed myself and it even made want to go see more historical dramas. Note: not a lot of violence in this one. If you’re into a lot of beheadings and accurate battle scenes, you should skip this one.

The Hangover

the_hangover
Kind of terrible. It fulfilled what I dread about movies, in that almost all of the funny scenes I had already seen while watching the 30 second preview. A smidge more highbrow fratboy humor with a tinge of hipster thrown in? I dunno, just skip it.

notes to self:

  1. Sadly the Hangover not even as bad as Four Christmases. I saw it? Don’t ask.
  2. Curious to see what that guy they now refer to in previews for other movies as “that guy from the hangover” comes up with next. (?) he was the movie’s only saving grace. (galifianakis)

Invisible – Paul Auster

paul_auster_invisible

All I know is that it was over before I knew it, and I wasn’t really sure what happened. It’s pleasant enough, except for the transgressive stuff which is riveting also in a traffic accident kind of way.

It’s not at all postmodern in the way The New York Trilogy claims to be, there are simply some extra literary devices thrown in that make the story what it is. Without this additional twist, not sure if the story would carry it’s own weight, but perhaps as some have suggested, the narrative itself is the character.