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Okay, this is way overdue. I was tagged by Arnold a couple of weeks ago. Without further ado, here it is:

Total Number of Films I Own on DVD And Video
I’ve been waiting to come home to tally them up: I’ve got a paltry 60. I’m not looking to build a DVD library. There are really only a few DVDs that I find I want to watch over and over (most of these are the ones I watch with the children often). I’d also buy a DVD if I know it’s hard to find. If I’d like to watch a really good movie again all I have to do is rent it.

The Last Film I Bought
Constantine. This DVD was heavily advertised in video stores in Manila. I bit. I hadn’t seen the movie, and at the local price, it was cheaper buying it than renting it in the States. My mistake: I forgot about the regional coding. Aaarghh. I’d have to wait until I get my hands on a region-free DVD player in order to watch it. I’ll probably just give in and rent it anyway. (To add insult to injury, the movie was one of the in-flight movies on the JAL plane I was on the other day but with all of the distractions, I never got to watch it in its entirety.)

Five Films Which I Watch a Lot / Mean a Lot to Me
Bladerunner - groundbreaking sci-fi film.
Fifth Element - Euro sci-fi so derivative, yet so strangely unique (Chris Tucker gotta go though).
LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring - the delicate way Jackson handled the opening Shire scene let me know that the rest of the movie, and the trilogy, was going to be special.
The Prince of Egypt - the burning bush scene gets me everytime.
Okay, this one’s a guilty pleasure: The Sound of Music *cringe* - I actually force my kids to watch it in order for me to hum along to “The Lonely Goatherd.”

(Three) People I’m Passing the Baton to
It took a while for me to answer this I’m hesitant to pass it on (Is this how memes die out?). The lukewarm potato goes to Mark, Ariel and Sunny (his movie quizzes are so good, I’d like to take a peek into his collection).

Asimov’s daughter, Robyn, reviews the movie adaptation of I, Robot.

Charlize ‘Monster’ Theron may play the assassin in the film adaptation of the MTV cartoon series Aeon Flux. Hmmm, I don’t know. Just Shoot Me’s Wendie Malick resembles the character more closely I think. But I don’t really see Wendie jumping off towers and doing triple somersaults onto moving trains. (Hey, is Angelina Jolie available for the role?)

I always thought the Natasha role in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle should’ve gone to Ms. Malick instead of Rene Russo.

Just saw the Animatrix on DVD. All I can say is “whoa!” Keanu-style. It’s some of the most amazing animation I’ve seen since, well, hmmm…Spirited Away. It contains 9 anime shorts by various directors done in varied styles, all centering around the Matrix mythos.

Animatrix opens with Final Flight of the Osiris by the folks who did Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within. Because it’s done in realistic 3D style, it could have easily been incorporated into the Matrix movies (but come to think of it, the 3D generated people incorporated into Matrix Reloaded lent it an unbelievable, wooden feel. Bah.).

The Wachowskis have a penchant of taking not entirely new themes and using them in their films. The Second Renaissance (parts I & II), the second set of shorts, is no different. It tells of the pre-history of the Matrix movies. Seeing how the Matrix came to be gives you the familiar feeling you’ve seen all this before. The way the machines take over the world is so derivative that movies like Terminator and A.I could fit nicely into the Matrix universe. In all fairness, all these movies are, to a certain degree, probably based on Asimov’s Laws of Robotics (or what goes wrong when these laws are broken).

Kid’s Story and Detective Story are wildly experimental shorts done by Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe. The high school building in Kid’s Story is modeled after local Alameda High School. The kinetic, hand-drawn style is the most un-anime technique I’ve seen from a Japanese animator. Detective Story is a nice black and white noir piece that only further extends parallelisms between the magnificent Dark City and the Matrix. This time, we’ve also got investigators going crazy after finding out “the truth.”

Program is the most traditional anime short of the bunch. It’s beautifully drawn by the animator behind cutting-edge Neo Tokyo and Wicked City. It’s like watching Samurai Jack meets the Matrix.

The young animator behind World Record is clearly influenced by Peter Chung, director of Matriculation and the now-classic Aeon Flux. But he definitely brings something new and raw to the world of anime. Expect him to do the next Nike commercial or a future KRS-One video.

Beyond is perhaps the first anime where “rotoscoping” is used, a traditional Disney or Bakshi technique where live actors are used as reference or directly drawn over to give characters life-like movements.

Finally, Matriculation by American-born Peter Chung, who gave us Aeon Flux, weaves an “anti-Matrix” tale - inviting robots into the human mind. I’m glad to see Chung further honing his skills and improving his craft. This story is like a Heavy Metal strip come to life. It reminds me of parts of “The Incal” by Moebius and Jodorowski on which “The Fifth Element” is loosely based.

Chung probably needed a break from animating the Rugrats.

“The Matrix” has come full circle. When it first came out it was said to be an homage to the craft of fine Japanese animation. Now the Wachowski brothers have given the masters of anime an opportunity to tell the Matrix story with their own paintbrush.

Saw the eagerly-awaited Matrix sequel today on opening day. Surprisingly, lines weren’t long at all. Well I suppose it helped that we watched the 12:35 p.m. matinee show. Yes, I took the day off. I’ll have to make my hours up on Saturday.

[next: spoilers, possibly]

I’m not going to do a full movie review but I’ll just say that I wholeheartedly agree with this one here. The reviewer’s observation that some scenes look like a computer game is one I share (see also my Hulk post). The freeway scene was amazing, however, and was shot in nearby Alameda/Oakland. The concept of “programs” as figures in the Matrix intrigued me but I soon realized that Tron already made use of this concept a couple of decades ago. Isn’t underground Zion something we’ve seen before? Doesn’t it remind you of the mutant underground society in Beneath the Planet of the Apes? Or was it the regressed society in The Time Machine? Anyway, the Zion council meeting looked like a Haight-Ashbury neighborhood meeting, didn’t it? Multi-cultural Zion is refreshing although the “rave” scene has got to go. Seemed pointless. In the first movie the allegorical rise of a messianic figure had clear biblical reference. Eastern philosophy, also present in the first movie, is given more consideration in the sequel and indeed, pagan imagery, more prominence. Which is okay, for this shift serves to distance Neo’s reluctant messiah role from any true biblical analogy. All in all, an enjoyable movie.