Jorge Quinteros

» Cameron’s Avatar ★ ★ ★ ★★

With all the well-deserved success and admiration that Avatar has attracted since it’s release, I can’t think of anything else that hasn’t been said about the film other than it’s the one movie I think we’ve all dreamt about seeing and which has a world we’ve all wished about visiting.

It’s by far James Cameron’s finest pieces of work and although I’ll be one of the many to grab a Blu-Ray copy, seeing it in theatre is an experience you should not miss out on regardless of how big your Hi-Def TV is. Even the 3D-glasses supplied were a considerable upgrade from the tradition paper and plastic ones so I kept them as a souvenir.

The most exhausting part of the movie is trying to make sense of what’s consider “effects” because the technology is so deeply ingrained that I had no idea where the discipline began or ended. It’s just sheer brilliance that has set a new bar in the industry.

One of the criticisms I’ve been reading about the film has to do with it’s plot. While it may come across as simplistic and familiar, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a story that you’ve been acquainted with because the difference will be in that one was well told and that’s the case with Avatar. It doesn’t just grab you visually but emotionally as well.

Zoe Saldana was the complete and absolute star for me. Her interpretation of Neytiri was fantastic, profounding and I’ll go as far to say that her Zoe’s attractiveness was very well translated to her character. Beautiful green eyes, great facial structure and lips but apparently there’s others that think much more highly of her which makes my statement seem less weird.

January 18, 2010 |   Tags: article films review

» The Blogging in Julie & Julia

Reverse back 7 years ago and people would have characterized you as either a loner or just completely weird if they found out that you kept a blog. The concept was new and generally viewed as a self-indulgent effort executed by people with too much time on their hands but I like to think that perception about the craft has changed now and even more so when I saw that there was a movie made around that very concept.

My wife and I watched the other night the film Julie & Julia with Meryl Streep. In case you’re not too familiar with the plot, it’s based a woman (Julie Powell) who idolizes Julia Childs cooking and takes on the challenge of working her way through her cookbook during the course of a single year while blogging about her progress.

Julie’s modest setup of a laptop, a small table and a lot of thoughts.

The story was beautifully told and well structured in recounting how Julia Child first began and eventually introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream. Without going into a typical movie review rant, I wanted to talk more on what piqued my interest the most which was the “blogging” aspect.

If you’ve read up to this point I’m assuming it’s because you’re not interested in the cooking portion and instead you run a blog of your own and have spotted a closeness with Julie (blogger). I’ll be honest in saying it’s difficult not to if you’re an active participant already in the cultural phenomenon that blogging has become.

In fact, it’s a must see for any blogger because the film clearly lays out all those thoughts you first had when you began blogging: is someone really going to read this, I wonder if people will comment, how will my family react if they came across it, will people like what I’m writing and will I be able to remain consistent with my postings.

I admire how the film shows how blogging can present up a whole new range of possibilities to anyone who has the desire to be heard and in return hearing from extraordinary people who have something to say.

Julie herself says in the movie, “I can write a blog. I have thoughts!”, which is true and it’s all about setting time to sit down and write about it.

With so many successful stories about people who blog for a living or people that have made a name for themselves doing it, it would be great to see this film push blogging even further to the point where people who see it will get inspired to create their own and write what’s on their minds.

Eventually Julie Powell published her accounts in a book and later got made into the film I’m talking to you about but whether there’s gold at the end of the rainbow or not, in return the whole “blogging thing” has made me a better writer, a more selective reader, a more perceptive person and more willing to meet people who equally enjoy the process and avoid those who don’t understand it.

I’ll leave you with some friendly blogging tips from Julie Powell herself.

January 5, 2010 |   Tags: article blogging films

» Flash of Genius

Throughout history, inventors have rarely had an easygoing life. They’ve seldom had any capitol needed to develop their ideas, few saw their ideas be part of common use in their lifetime and regrettably those who did often had them stolen.

Like many inventors, Robert Kearns was a dreamer.

The other night we watched this fantastic inspiring true story (Flash of Genius) film starring Greg Kinnear about a college professor in Detroit (Robert Kearns) who invented and fought for years against major automaker Ford for infringing upon his intermittent windshield wiper system that you now see in every car in the world.

Back then, car wipers were either on or off; they couldn’t be metered to swipe periodically.

There’s a scene in court where Kearns represents himself and he’s being criticized for not inventing anything because technically all the parts he used to create this system already existed and could be found in any catalog. There is some validity in what was being said against Kearns but his rebuttal is what stood out for me.

His son hands him a book by Charles Dickens (Tale of Two Cities), he reads the first couple of lines and asked the witness if he thinks that Dickens invented any of the words he recited. The witness reluctantly responds “No”.

Kearns says -

“I haven’t checked but I’m pretty sure there’s not a single word in this book that is new and they can all be found in a dictionary. All Dickens did was arrange them into a pattern. He created something new by using words, perhaps the only tools that were available to him just as almost all inventors have had to do in history.”

Kearn’s analogy was nothing different from what he had accomplished. He took basic electrical components, arranged them into a specific pattern and achieved an ambition that every car company in the world was struggling to invent but Kearns was not being given credit for it.

The outcome I’ll leave for you to explore on your own but this scene got me thinking that what we become as individuals or company depends fundamentally not just on our ideas but on our ability to achieve them and execute them amazingly well and they’re rarely found by thinking but by doing.

You don’t have to be part of a major corporation for your ideas to be heard. Any group of passionate, ambitious people could technically put a company out of business with a brilliant idea or strike it rich by selling it to them.

September 27, 2009 |   Tags: inspiration review films

» Inglourious Basterds ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Last night we saw Quentin Tarantino’s newest creation Inglourious Basterds. The film was outrageous. It completely rewrites history in this incredible freaky vision of how so many wished things had happen in WWII. It’s very difficult to admit that the bloodshed and cruelty against the Nazis was unusually amusing but the cheering and rooting of the audience took away any guiltiness I had.

I loved every single minute of the film. The considerable degree of detail was gorgeous that you couldn’t resist looking pass the acting at times and just admire the pieces that garnished a scene. Even the carefully crafted camera movements was as vital and noticeable. I’m generally not an admirer of subtitles but you get so captivated by the story that you find it remorseful not to follow along, so you’ll get over that.

Some performances were great but one that stood above the rest for me was the most menacing character represented by Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa aka “The Jew Hunter” who I’m sure will pick up a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

The most obvious answers to the question of what makes a great film star is talent and even that sounds somewhat vague because it’s not the only variable to consider. I’m not a cinema critic but from my perspective, the best form to judge a performance is to analyze if the actor convinced you that the part they portrayed was meant for them and absolutely no one else.

Christoph did just that and his stunning ability to wipe out his own identity and exchange it for the one given was remarkable. His acting was very reminiscent of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. It was that good.

Both were highly observant of human behavior with deep understanding of it and could recreate it in front of any audience. You grow to hate them both but still hold respect for their characters because of their dedication to their work regardless of how inhuman it may have been. Stop reading now and getting discouraged by what critics say and go see the movie.

September 3, 2009 |   Tags: films review

» District 9 ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Generally when studios release very cryptic trailers to an upcoming film, a spectatorship amounts in trying to interpret the vague parts to something that we know little about but seems jaw-dropping enough to consider despite a prevalent plot. We all love alien films.

Alien invasion motif is nothing new but District 9 fully changed my perspective of what one typically expect from such films and it brought it down to a more understanding level. Rather than humans being the overpowered victims, it’s quite the opposite where the aliens are the non-aggresive refugees and they are being marginalized in Johannesburg, South Africa.

I love that the film doesn’t bore you with the conventional first encounter or arrival of aliens to earth but instead picks up on that “what if” thought that I’ve had in knowing what cultural impact aliens would have if they lived here.

The apartheid metaphor is more than obvious and in the middle of all the guns and explosions, there’s quite some sentimental moments that have you rooting for the other species. Twenty years the aliens have been on earth and what’s interesting is in how humans have already adapted to their complex language, culture and now just look to exploit their weapon technology.

The pseudo documentary style that characterized Cloverfield makes the film so authentic in combination with news footage and security cameras that blend in quite nicely. I really enjoyed District 9 and I anticipate in seeing more of this form of mockumentary in Hollywood.

August 17, 2009 |   Tags: films review