Tonight we saw The Science of Sleep. Written and directed by the visually creative, Michel Gondry.
It’s a love story presented in a visually entertaining way.  The main character, is a bizarre artist who works for a calendar company and he falls in love with a woman in the apartment across from his.  The main character is a dreamer (literally) and has trouble separating his dreams from reality.  Because of this blurring of reality we get to see the *effects* of his dreams brought to every day life.  We also get to see a Being John Malkovich *inside the mind/brain* look at how things work in his dreams.

If you are a fan of Gondry’s style of visual effects (more conventional/traditional-non CGI) which have been used in many music videos (the cooler beck, foo fighters, white stripes, daft punk, bjork… videos) then you’ll definitely enjoy them in this film.  The film also has a good sense of humor and you’ll laugh quite a few times.  Compared to his last film (Eternal Sunshine…) this is much easier to follow and a lot less confusing but just as interesting if not more.
I enjoy a good love story but they often feel the same… The Science of Sleep presents the *same old love story* in a super unique way that is both highly intriguing and entertaining.

Trailer Breakdown:

Infamous: OK What the Hell… I already sat through PSH (wasting his talent) doing Truman Capote’s crappy voice for an entire movie… now we have the same movie again with a different set of actors? I don’t get it!! Needless to say… I’m not going to see it!
For Your Consideration: The next Christopher Guest film!! I was so happy to finally see a trailer for this (come on Apple catch up!!) He’s finally departing from his normal mock-umentary format but still using all the same actors so it should be a laugh fest… Bring it on, we’ll be there!
Running With Scissors: Alcoholic Husband and Bizarre Wife having issues go to see a therapist and end up giving up their son to the therapist and his bizarre family. Looked interesting, we’ll may go see it

I grew tired of the loud noise this game makes everytime I load my page so I moved it to the Pieces of Eight section.
Click Here to Play Prison Break

Last night Richard and I went to see Beck play at the Element Club in Hollywood. The tickets for the show went on sale Monday at noon and the show was last night and I guess it was a *secret* show because I couldn’t find info anywhere (besides Ticketmaster of course). The club was relativley small I called down and talked to the booking agent he estimated about a 500 - 600 person capacity (I’d estimate it was towards the higher end because it was packed there).

We took a walk to Hollywood and Highland to get some food and see “Weird Al” signing his new CD at the Virgin. We arrived back at the club around 8:45 during the last song (“drop your panties”) of the horrid opening band, Wounded Cougar. Beck came on at 9 and played until 10:45 (including 1 encore). They played mostly stuff from Sea Change, Guerro (obviously the crowd’s favorite) and The Information (the new album). He only dipped back to play Diamond Ballocks (the bonus track from Mutations, that got me PUMPED!) He ended with a “Hell Yes” mashup done to tune of “Fame” and “Another One Bites the Dust”
Overall, I would’ve enjoyed a few more tracks off Mutations (my favorite album) but it was a fun experience to see Beck play in a small club in Hollywood and the Tickets were cheap ($25)!

Beck @ Element Club Hollywood 9/26/2006 Setlist:
1. The Information
2. E-Pro
3. Black Tambourine
4. Clap Hands
5. Think I’m In Love
6. Cell Phone’s Dead
7. Motorcade
8. Landslide
9. No Expectations
10. Emergency Exit
11. No Complaints
12. Elevator Music
13. Diamond Bollocks
14. Soldier Jane
15. Paper Tiger
16. Lost Cause
17. End of the Day
18. The Golden Age
19. Movie Theme
20. Scarecrow
21. Girl
22. Nausea
23. Hell Yes / Fame / Another One Bites the Dust / Rock Your Body Medley

Finished watching the first episode and I quite liked it! This is the new show (on ABC) produced by J.J. Abrams. It’s based on the *six degrees of separation* concept. There are quite a characters to follow and (somehow) they all relate to each other during the episode and often cross paths. It’s an interesting show (hey not another reality show or crime drama so that’s a BONUS) and I hope they can keep the story moving (and it doesn’t get canceled). It’s on ABC Thursday nights at 10PM.

Be prepared to laugh!

update: The worlds longest midget toss was 11 feet 5 inches… something to think about

Lori and I saw this movie last night and we enjoyed it much! I don’t want to give away much about the movie but here are a few quick thoughts on the film.

The movie is able to effectively portray the suspense and excitement of Houdini type illusionists (the non-Amazing Jonathan / TV Magicians types). Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti (the two biggest reasons why I wanted to see the movie) are two amazingly strong character actors who perform their characters so well you can easily immerse yourself in them. Ed Norton’s character is so mysterious and interesting!

The look of the film was enhanced greatly by the use of good period costumes, props and sets, great art direction and cinematography and finally though the use of subtle special effects.

The film is a bit long (almost 2 hours) and can be considered slow moving but really I didn’t notice these two points until after the movie was over so that’s a good thing!

Overall, it’s an interesting and mysterious movie which was able to convey the look and mood extremely well. I think it’s worth seeing in a decent theater with working SOUND, as it’s mostly dialogue!.

I Watched a movie last night called: Serenity. It’s like a mash up of Star Wars, The Fifth Element, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and FPS: Doom/Quake. Serenity is a Sci-Fi movie so it has some flying around in space, cool special effects and other planets to discover. All the living beings in the movie are human based so you don’t get any wacky *beings* which makes it easier to watch. There are also some cool fight scenes (Think of Leelo in Fifth Element), explosions and other loud noises! I also enjoyed the camera work in the film; featuring a more free moving camera that could move anywhere it wanted and display cool angles. Really the only negatives about the movie were how each character had their role clearly defined and stuck to it (ie: overly heroic main character, though most character roles were tongue in cheek at times), the (traditional) cheesy dialogue that accompanies most Sci-Fi films and the plot of the movie was a bit shoehorned in.

Overall, I think I enjoyed the film because it’s a simple Sci-Fi (not overly complicated/technical like Star Trek), doesn’t take itself too seriously and is fun to watch. I probably could watch it again in 6 months to a year.