On another note, I was pretty disappointed that my Hero Director's Cut DVD hasn't arrived yet but all that disappointment was washed away when I started reading reviews for it.

Some points:

• Horrible picture quality (some colours oversaturated, contrast is weak)
• Sound is just again decent (I read in many reviews that the Japanese version blows all others away)
• The extra 10 minutes of film are just alternate takes, more fight footage, and one all-new scene.
• The beginning and ending text are not subtitled in English at all (the Japanese version is subtitled).
• The packaging is just plain awful (I heard that it looks like a condom).
• The company logo keeps on popping up in the upper left hand side to prevent piracy (BOO!).

That's why Wency and I splurged $51 to buy the infinitely superior Japanese version (now, I can't wait for that one).

My car has died. It's like a member of the family died. The car was 13 years old and now it's dead. It can't even fucking start and now I don't even have a fucking car to drive. Wency and I were bored to fucking death last night because of no car. We wanted to watch The Village and try to predict its ending (i think that there are no monsters at all, wency thinks that it is actually present day and the people are just isolating themselves).

I'm pretty excited to go to school because my major would be filmmaking. That's pretty awesome and what's more awesome is that my scores for the reading, writing, and math were 98, 98, 99 so that I'm in all advanced classes (fuck yeah baby).

I'm pretty excited to live in Oak Park during my time in Columbia. It's also pretty cool that I have a semestral break during January and February (break is about a month or so). I'm thinking of going to the Philippines then but anything is possible.

The Bourne Supremacy
Director: Paul Greengrass
Starring:  Matt Damon, Brian Cox, Joan Allen, Franka Potente, Karl Urban, and Julia Stiles.

The Bourne Identity was a surprising hit in 2002, fusing intelligence, action, and drama all in one film.  The Bourne Supremacy is a continuation to this but fails to live up to its predecessor in a few major areas.  Both films have great acting from the leads and great action but Supremacy misses two things: great cinematography and editing.  Director Paul Greengrass has learned from the school of Michael Bay that fast editing is cool and zooming in on fights is even cooler.  This is a huge mistake for the film.  In a fight sequence between Bourne and his ex-compatriot (Marton Csokas), the editing is so poorly done that I felt dizzy and confused after it was finished.  The first film had a steady camera during the fights but here its like the Bourne Witch Project.  This aspect took me out of the film almost as a whole.  Despite this, the final car chase sequence is incredible and the script is intelligent and greatly more complex than the first.  After the film ended, I still liked the first film much more because of its better pace, editing, and cinematography.

Grade: B-

OH. MY. GOD.
 
HERO DIRECTOR'S CUT!!!!!

I'm concentrating right now on what I should type on this blog for today. I haven't typed anything for two weeks. I may be modest but usually not this much. Not much has happened to me in the past two weeks. Nothing. Other than watching movies and being jobless, there's nothing that has happened to me. I have been spending my money like crazy. Spending on additional RAM for my laptop (now my laptop's running pretty smooth), buying the hilarious Simpsons 4th season on DVD, and fast food.

I'll just stop typing now and go back watching Homer laugh at his own jokes.

"You talk better than you fool." - Homer

[scratches head thinking what to write]

My opinion.

Why the Filipino film industry is dying.

I don't watch that many Filipino films and when I do they are mostly utter pieces of crap. From the shot selection, the framing, use of lenses, picture quality, it's really pretty shitty. For example, a film titled Milan (released in 2003) looked like shit on my DVD player. The colors were faded, a lot of scratches, nicks, cigarette burns on the print, it looked like a film made in the 70s. On top of that, the dubbing wasn't that great, the voice would follow the lip movements a millisecond after. On another movie, Agimat: Anting Anting Ni Lolo, the picture quality was great for a Filipino movie but the sound was downright pathetic. I thought this was the first movie in Dolby Digital? I had problems listening to the film in 5.1 sound. Sure, the acting was pathetic but the picture was great. I think the overall problem with Filipino films is that they are trying to copy the American style of filmmaking which is just remaking other films. Cliche after cliche, most American films are just remakes, adaptations, or sequels. There are a few exceptions (Spider-Man 2 being one of them) but still the Filipino shouldn't be trying to copy the American way but rather make their own. Some solutions for the Filipino film industry:

1. BUY SOME HIGH DEFINITION CAMERAS!!!!! Sure, they may be expensive now but in the long run they pay off BIG TIME! Directors and companies save a lot of time and money with these cameras. Editing is much easier and transferring the movie to DVD is a breeze.

2. Take some time with the pre-production of the film. Great films like the Lord of the Rings took Peter Jackson 10 years of his life and he's now an Oscar-winner!

3. Hire some great authors to write the screenplays of your films. These people are untapped resources for writing great drama in films.

4. Don't take just seven days or two weeks to shoot the film. This speedy schedule can bog down a film if its going too fast. A film production should be patient. A great film is always slow cooked never flash fried.

5. Don't just take any pretty face and put her in the picture. See if they can handle the shit before you make the movie! Just imagine if Stuart Townsend was Aragorn in Lord of the Rings......we would have a weak looking Aragorn. And always get actors or actresses who are unknown because it gives more authenticity to the film. If a film is starring Ben Affleck, all you'll think is Ben Affleck and not his character.

6. Have preview screenings of your films. Preview screenings can make or break a movie but most of the time, they make the movie MUCH BETTER! For example, the first Blade had one of the shittiest endings ever, so after the test screening they reshot the ending that you see today!

7. Many Filipino directors follow too many rules in the film book. The rules are meant to be broken. Tarantino did this to perfection in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Scorsese did this in Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and especially Raging Bull.

8. The last thing is that people should have fun making a movie. A movie is being made for entertainment so the people making the movie should have fun making it as well. Boring crew = Boring SHITTY ASS MOVIE! Most films in the Philippines are just being made just for the sake of it.

Now bring on Mano Po IV: Electric Boogaloo!