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I try not to put too much World of Warcraft content on this blog because, well, frankly, not a lot of you play it. However, there was a video I found the other day that I just really really loved and I thought it was worthy of viewing even if you don’t know the lore behind it.

What I think the animator did, was take the WoW models (characters and environments) and use a rigging and animating system (possibly 3DStudio? I’m not really following current animation tools) and combine them to great effect.

There’s actually an in-game video simlar to this in Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard should bring this chap on board and create more of these, because when employed properly, they add a lot of depth to the story.

(I suggest moving your mouse over the embed and clicking on the HD link to watch at higher resolution)

The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

As another year comes to a close, I just was thinking of how few movies have really stuck out in my mind as real “winners” this year. There were a lot of good movies, but very few omgwtfbbqsauceawesome movies.

And so, I present, My Favorite Movies of 2008 (so far).

In no particular order…

Let The Right One In - My last blog post was unadulterated love for this film, and I still feel this way. I cannot wait to get a retail copy of this, hopefully with some English language extras. I will also be getting the book upon which is based shortly.

Gran Torino - Watched this film last night. Great piece of film. I love watching Clint Eastwood on screen, he’s just such a badass in all his films with such great scathing humour. I found the story to be very “by the numbers” but that didn’t detract from the movie at all. Great acting and wonderful characters.

Wall-E - If I had to pick a Best of the Year, Wall-E would probably be it (The Dark Knight and Let The Right One In coming in close behind). If you haven’t seen it, you’re doing yourself a disservice. If you haven’t seen it on a big screen, you’re doing yourself a larger disservice. Wall-E will be, without question, the first BluRay film I purchase when I get a PS3.

Iron Man - One of three excellent comic book adaptations this year, Iron Man’s strongest points are the direction of Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. This film realizes what it is and turns the superhero archetype on its head. Loved it, especially the Mark I armor.

The Dark Knight - Without question, the best comic book film to date. Everyone involved with this franchise has done a fantastic job on these films (yes, I even commend Katie Holmes from Batman Begins). Heath Ledger’s turn as the Joker was so perfect, it hurts every time I watch it knowing that we will see no more from him. Even if you are not a comic book fan, this is a fantastic piece of film.

Red Belt - From the earlier part of the year, this David Mamet film is an interesting and unique take on the competitive fighting circuit. I really enjoyed the acting and the dialogue throughout. David Mamet is one of my favorite dialogue writers, up there with Kevin Smith (are those really dialogues? I guess they’re just monologues really…) and Aaron Sorkin.

Hancock (the first half) - The first half of this film is a very unique and interesting take on superheroes. Just the premise alone of “what if superman was the only superhero what if he was a drunk bum?” is friggin cool. The second half falls apart completely, but the first half was excellent.

Wanted - Is it a good movie? No. Hell no. Is it fun? Hell yes. This is basically Harry Potter for kids of the NRA. The outlandish stunts and situations in this are totally cool if you can just turn your brain off for a couple of hours. Angelina Jolie needs to eat more though.

The Incredible Hulk - I really really enjoyed this. I think it’s a great “reboot” of the franchise and I HOPE that it is continued. The integration of Iron Man at the end of this gives me great hope for the future Marvel films, specifically “The Avengers”. I think Edward Norton did a fine job, however it feels that there was a lot cut from this film. Perhaps one day we will see a director’s cut.

Cloverfield - I hate camcorder films. I walked out of Blair Witch. This film blew me away, though. Basically looking at a Godzilla film and saying “What if one of those Japanese guys running away had a camera? What story would he tell?” makes this my winner for most unique premise of the year. I’m curious to see what they do with the “sequel”. I would imagine it will be a parallel film telling another story that happens that night.

Forbidden Kingdom - Jet Li vs Jackie Chan. Seriously? Do we need anything else? Full of win.

Rambo - I really liked Rambo. Some people didn’t. I think that First Blood is truly one of the great “guy” films of all time and the character of John Rambo is really intriguing to me. The only thing that really pissed me off was the fact that when I went to see this, the moronic couple in front of me decided to bring their toddler… this is a movie that opens with bodies being dismembered by the corrupt Burma government.

Speed Racer - It was a hell of a lot of fun. It was like watching a video game on a giant screen and that wasn’t a bad thing.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Could it have been better? Yes. Should George Lucas have only co-written the story and handed off the script to another writer? Probably. But it was Henry Jones Jr. back on the big screen. And you know what? Aside from the horrible (horrible horrible) Tarzan sequence, Shia Lebeuf was just fine.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army - This is the guy that’s going to be making The Hobbit movies (yes, they’re making 2) and I don’t think they could have picked a better chap. Hellboy 2 was visually beautiful and I thought the characters were very complex and well motivated.

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan - This one made me laugh, a lot.

I Am Legend (except the ending) - Another Will Smith film that I loved, for the most part. The ending that they released wasn’t at all what I would have liked (not to mention they really painted themselves into a corner with sequel possibility on that one…) but the first half of this movie was phenomenal and the second half was strong too. I really like Will Smith.

Still Anticipating

Below are the movies that I’m still anticipating for 2008. Some have been out for a while, but I just haven’t had time or access to see them.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Valkyrie
Repo! The Genetic Opera!
Quantum of Solace (yes, I saw it, but I was in the third row, I have no idea what I was watching… could have been Sex in the City)
In Bruges
Definitely, Maybe
Che
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Anything I missed?

“I’m 12 years old. I’ve been 12 years old for a very long time.”

I haven’t written many movie reviews lately on the site. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Firstly, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to watch movies in the last little while. Studying is driving me bananas and I’m having a hell of a time remembering things I read moments before, so I’m spending a disproportionate amount of time reading and re-reading economics texts (exciting!).

Second, there hasn’t been a whole lot of good movies out lately; at least not on the domestic front. I saw James Bond with my family, and aside from sitting in the third row, there was nothing really memorable about it. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as Casino Royale. Two movies I was looking forward to, Transporter 3 and Punisher, have gotten such terrible reviews that I doubt I will see them even when they are released on DVD, let alone in the theater (well that’s not true, I’ll see Transporter just to see that trippy BMZ bike sequence that is showing up in all the reviews). Twilight is on my radar, but only as a low rental. And I can’t think of anything else that’s been notworthy in the past months.

Third, it’s damn cold.

But, today, after studying and watching a so-so documentary called Fog of War: Eleven Lessong from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (not a bad documentary, just… disjointed), I loaded up a Swedish film I had downloaded a while ago called Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In).

Holy crap.

This film is amazing. It is instantly in my top 3 movies for the year up there with The Dark Knight and Wall-E. And to be honest, as far as originality and absolutely captivating me, I would even say it was above those two.

The copy I watched wasn’t a great rip, but it was definitely watchable on my 52″. It’s films like these that I use for justification of piracy of films. This is one of those titles that a company like Miramax would buy, hold on to for 2 years, then release a trimmed down, “tamer” version on DVD. But as this film is clearly not a massive budget special effects bonanza, I honestly didn’t noticed the blurred out serial number after the first 10 minutes.

Briefly, this is the story of Oskar, a 12 year old boy being bullied at school and the young girl who moves in next door to him named Eli. Eli is a lot more than she seems to be, but what she is is made pretty clear very early on (at least as far as the viewer is concerned).

This film takes everything I love about the vampire genre and either turns it on its head or plays it up dramatically.

If you’ve ever seen Interview with the Vampire, imagine Kirsten Dunst’s character in that film, displaced into the late 20th century and without Louie or Lestat to watch over her.

The two young actors playing Oskar and Eli are phenominal. The makeup is top notch. The effects are subtle when they need to be and impactful at the same time. The characters are diverse and well developed. In short, it’s a great great movie.

With a 12 year old vampire!

And for those of you who weigh very heavily the ending of a film in your verdict of how much you like it, I don’t think you will be dissapointed.

I can’t stop gushing over this film. It’s amazing. I’m probably hyping it up too much and you’ll all be dissapointed when you see it, but I really truly loved it. It will definitely be a “must buy” when it comes out on DVD.

If you can see this film, I would strongly recommend it. There are some things in here that I have no idea how they would get passed the MPAA in the states. But nothing is gratuitous or glorified.

This is a brutal, sweet, awesome film.

The environmental movement pisses me off.

Not because I don’t think it’s a noble cause, but because the majority of those leading the charge are under-informed lackeys who have unwittingly put themselves into championing political causes rather than the one they think they are, environmental.

If you take a closer look at a few of the main points that they tend to cling too in the majority, many of them are either mountains out of mole-hills or complete fabrications.

Recycling (for the most part) is complete and utter bullshit. The majority of the items you dump into that massive curbside recycling container end up in landfill regardless. The only material that has a fairly decent recycling probability is aluminum. Plastics end up in asphalt and paper ends up as packing material or just put straight in the dump.

One of my friends brought up an interesting point about the motto we’re all bombarded with in elementary school, Reduce Reuse Recycle; there is a reason that it is in that order. Recycling should be the last bastion of the desperate when it comes to environmentalism. I don’t care how diligently you separate your paper from plastic, if you’re putting out massive amounts to be “recycled” each week you’re going down the wrong road.

The root cause of environmental damage, without question, is consumerism and the economic based society. We consume at an INSANE rate as a populace as we are indoctrinated to always “need” more stuff. All that stuff has an environmental toll associated with it. Then you turn around and throw it out. This is due to both perceived and planned obsolescence (basically something either breaks after a planned life period or is out of date or the media tells you that what you have is no longer cool so you have to buy a new one).

There are, of course, some justifiable amenities that do require upgrading and replacement from time to time; technology is one of these things. Problem is that it’s progressing so fast, that disposing of the waste is becoming a problem.

Another point that environmentalists tend to cling to is global warming. Let me put this out there… global warming is NOT… repeat NOOOOOOOOOOOT… caused by man. Could I be wrong about that? Sure. It’s possible. Look, up in the sky, see that massive nuclear reactor up there that we call the sun? We can’t compete with that. That giant ball of fire is causing global warming (and global cooling). It’s a cycle, it gets warmer and it gets colder. There’s this great thing called the fossil record that shows us this. Go look it up.

There is no way that human emission of CO2 would impact to any degree the temperature of the planet.

Does this mean I don’t care about emissions? Hell no. I think air quality is terrible and to my mind, it, along with waterway pollution, should be our paramount concern when it comes to the planet. I don’t want to be breathing all that toxic crap that we put out.

So don’t fight emission pollution because you think it is what is causing global warming, it’s simply not true. Fight it because it’s damaging to plants and animals (that includes us) and is quite frankly, gross. Fight for zero and low emission vehicles, and also for stricter regulations on production pollution both at home and abroad.

Now it may seem that I’ve gone off track here and indeed I do care about the environment, but let me re-iterate my initial statement; the environmental MOVEMENT pisses me off. These people are out there because they feel a need to be a part of something I guess. But they are doing more damage than help.

If you want to be environmentally conscious, forget about the yahoo’s harping about the ills of nuclear energy, global warming and recycling, you need to start looking at what YOU contribute as an individual to mankinds refuse.

Use less. (Reduce)

Get stuff that you can use more than once (i.e. buy better made products that will last and not need replacing as quickly). (Reuse)

When you are finished with something, don’t toss it in the garbage or in the recycling bin; give it to someone who will use it, or find a cause that will do that job for you. (Recycle)

Learn! Don’t take something at face value, no matter who tells it to you (including me!). Do your own research and come to your own conclusions; following the herd helps no one. And be open to being wrong! Science and the environment are good bedfellows and to be of any use, you have to be willing to change what you know.

Just in closing, to illustrate just how moronic the environmental movement can make people…

/facepalm

Yes, it’s CGI.

Yes, it’s an ad.

Yes, it’s still friggin awesome!

(I promise I’ll try to get a real post up today or tomorrow)

I just wanted to write a quick note to thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday.

A couple of special thanks to Jonathan, Katherine and Eric for a great dinner at Grazzi, totally awesome. Thanks guys.

And to my family and Aunt Pat for a wonderful gathering the next night with a great dinner and awesome deserts.

Thanks to all.

I love tacos. Liked em since mom introduced me to me when I was a little thing. Much to my parents dismay, I’m sure; they were requested very VERY often for dinners.

We usually had the hard-shelled kind, with occasional forays into soft-shelled tortilla territory. There were problems with both of these packing solutions though; the tortilla shells would always rip with the food falling out the bottom (even with the clever envelope folds) and the hard-shells, well, as soon as you bite into them, they explode with excessive shrapnel, but more importantly, you couldn’t fill the damn things. They would fall over and spill out while awaiting consumption.

That’s why Old El Paso Stand ‘n Stuff Taco Shells get a mention here; they’re awesome.

I’m not really gonna explain how they work, because you’d have to be dumber than a bag of rocks to not understand that, but I will ask, why did it take so long for someone to come up with this product?! They work beautifully.

Anyways, lame post, but I just thought I’d comment on how great these are.

Back to my Tacos now.

I StumbleUpon’d this guy today and he’s absolutely histerical. Really worth watching and I’ve added his book to my Amazon must-must have wish list.

Name: Mort Subite Framboise

Brewery: Brouwerij De Keersmaeker

Country: Belgium

Style: Lambic - Fruit

Alcohol By Volume: 4.5%

I hate drinking crap beer, so I will spend more money on the premiums trying to find a diamond in the rough. When I find something I like, I tend to get it frequently and keep a stock at my house.

I discovered this beer at the Festival of Beer 2008 in Toronto; in my opinion, the only good thing to come out of this years over-publicized, under-performing festival.

The beer itself can be purchased at the LCBO; I know the location at Kennedy Commons carries it and I’m told that the Bayview Village one also carries it. You can check store stock at http://www.LCBO.ca

It comes in a very manly pink labled bottle with a champagne cork, and damn if I don’t like popping a cork on a beer; makes me feel all sofistimacated and stuff.

It pours a deep amber colour, as you can see, not unlike Rickard’s or Keith’s or pretty much any “Red” tap beer. It’s a very smooth taste that leaves raspberry as the primary flavour followed by a bit of honey and that easily recognized Belgian yeast beer taste.

It get’s a fairly decent rating on http://beeradvocate.com (Mort Subite - Framboise) and personally, I love it.

A great beer.

Name: Nightwish

Genre: Symphonic Power Metal

Nationality: Finish

Favorite Songs: End of All Hope, Bless the Child, The Poet and the Pendulum, Sleeping Sun (Personal favorite)

My friend Abe introduced me to Nightwish by being a good little pirate and sending me a number of their albums. I listened to a few songs when he did and thought they were “ok”. Recently, I dumped them on to my iPhone and they pop up on shuffle play a lot because there’s 4 albums of theirs on there right now and I’m REALLY enjoying them.

If you like modern musicals the likes of any of the Webber stuff, We Will Rock You or even Mamma Mia! you would probably enjoy Nightwish. They are very simlilar (in my mind) to Evanescence and have a very “grand” sound similar to large scale movie scores.

Honestly, I prefer the previous vocal sound of Tarja Turunen who was dismissed from the band in 2005, but Anette Olzon is a fine replacement. The reason I prefer Tarja is her clearly operatic sound that I found to be a better compliment to the orchestrations.

The only times I find Nightwish somewhat weak is when the male vocalist is singing; it becomes nothing more than a shouting metal band at that point, at least to me.

Anyways, Nightwish. Thumbs up.