[Movies] Noises Off (1992)

I love how every now and then, my partner and I stumble across a movie that we both enjoyed a lot even though we assumed that no one else liked it. With so many movies out there in existence (and that's a LOT), there's a very large number of possible films that seem like things that no one else have has ever seen and thus they become sort of guilty pleasures. And then you go on for years never expecting someone to like this one movie that you really liked.

And then one day you stumble across that one movie that you share an interest with someone else. And lucky for me, there appear to be a larger than average number of relatively obscure movies that my partner and I share as interests. And they don't have to be great movies or award-winning movies. Many times they're relatively bad movies or even total flops at the box office. You can't even call them cult classics unless this cult only involves me and my partner. That's a pretty small cult.

This movie combines a lot of things that I like including the theater, witty comedy, the whole play within a play dynamic and Christopher Reeve. Oh come on, you just have to appreciate some Christopher Reeve being an idiot sort of action, right?

[TV] The Office US: Season 1

For whatever reasons they may have, US network television studios love to "borrow" ideas from other countries. One can trace this pretty far back to shows like Three's Company with more recent examples being the SyFy adaptation of Being Human and the AMC adaptation of The Killing. It does make business sense I suppose - why invest in coming up with new and original ideas when you can just pay for the licensing rights for an existing idea that has done well with other audiences. It just becomes a question of how well the show becomes adapted to US culture and if the core ideas that given the show its identity continue to make sense in the new version.

I'm not saying that I fully condone or support this practice - TV and movies should be about original ideas and not just "sure bets" from a business / investing perspective. But I'm just a consumer of their entertainment products after all - what do I know?

This show is somewhat notable given it ushered a new wave of adaptations of other British TV shows. I'm not claiming it's the first, but given the longevity of the program, it does deserve certain notice. And at the end of the day, I was surprised at how the show really started to grow on me.

And yeah, this is yet another program introduced to me by my partner. Go figure.

[Games] Patapon (PSP)

We recently bought a PSP as a sort of anniversary present to share between my partner and I. We got the turquoise green one since we often joke about how I come from a more or less "Blue" family in terms of our school colors and he comes from the "Green" side - traditional rivals in the local sphere. It's not as if we care about these petty school rivalries that no one can explain what they're all about anymore. So having a PSP that is shaded with the mix of both colors is a sort of inside joke for us.

Now this is not the first time that I've laid my hands on a PSP. My brother owns one and a good friend also allowed me to play a few games on it here and there when I used to hang out with him and his partner. While it's a shame that I don't get to seem them as much as I used to, the memories of the old game certainly live strongly in my mind and that's sort of influences our early game purchases for this new handheld console that has joined our little geeky family.

As much as it's frustrating how game developers like to torture gamers like us by making certain games exclusive to certain consoles. And as much as I fell in love with this game the first time that I got to play it, the fact that I had to get a PSP to be able to play it for myself was amazingly annoying. But after years of waiting, I've finally given in to those urges deep inside of all of us - the ones that demand that we engage in rhythm battles using tiny little tribesmen to who seem to swearing in Filipino.

Oh yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

[Books] A Hat Full of Sky

For any of you that have read my other reviews of Discworld novels, you'd already know that I'm a major fan of the Lancre Witches and their related stories more than anything else in the series. Sure, the stories involving The Watch are pretty fun in their own way and I'll never really come to appreciate the Rincewind novels but the Witches have always been worlds apart from the rest of them. At least that's my take on things.

But we really haven't officially seen the Lancre featured in a major Discworld novel since Carpe Jugulum, which is pretty sad when you think about it. The only glimpses that we get of these crafty little old ladies happens to be in the ongoing Tiffany Aching stories marketed for younger audiences (although not necessarily children - there's a difference).

While initially I ventured into the series since (1) I'll read almost anything with Granny Weatherwax in it, (2) I'm a bit of an OCD completist when it comes to my collections - especially with my books and (3) I still didn't feel like reading the rest of the Rincewind books. However after reading The Wee Free Men, I've found myself falling in love with the young and feisty Tiffany, even if she's constantly surrounded by those darn Nac Mac Feegle.

[Movies] The Other Guys (2010)

I'm not much of a Will Ferrell fan, quite frankly. As much as I love Saturday Night Live and I appreciate their unique brand of humor, it doesn't necessarily mean that I automatically love every single actor who has been a part of the cast. And Will Ferrell's humor always felt more slapstick that witty for me, and that never works for me. The movie that he was in that I actually liked was Stranger Than Fiction, and that's because it was more of a drama than a comedy. Go figure.

On a similar vein, I've never been too big a fan of buddy cop movies either. It's not that I don't like them or anything like that - they're just not quite the kind of movies that I naturally gravitate towards. Sure, I've seen the Lethal Weapon series of films, but mainly because I watched them together with my family and not out of individual interest.

So why did I watch this movie despite the presence of both elements plus Mark Wahlberg? It's hard to explain, really. I guess I thought the concept behind it was novel enough but naturally the execution was disappointing as expected. I really ought to stick to smarter comedic fare in the future.

[Technicolor Musings] How I Met The Man I Love

Today is an interesting day given its placement on the calendar. You see, yesterday was my second anniversary with my partner, Tobie Abad, and tomorrow is his birthday. So yeah, it's a pretty special day for many, many reasons.




So I thought it would be nice to share with all of you how I came to meet the love of my life, who is the same man who makes me happy every single day.

But where do you begin telling this kind of a story?

[Movies] 13 Going on 30 (2004)

When my partner and I merged our respective video collections, the resulting monstrosity was a weird mix of our respective interests. I generally like science fiction movies, fantasy pieces and the odd drama here and there. He likes horror movies, romantic comedies and a heck of a lot of anime. Of course we have a lot of common interests and so the merging was actually a lot of fun, but then there are those exploratory ventures when one tries to watch the movies of the other. I've made him watch all movie adaptations of Frank Herbert's Dune. He's made me watch really scary shit like The Descent. Good grief.

So this was another of those movies that I watched simply because it was amongst our DVDs and I wasn't in the mood for attacking anything heavier or requiring significant brain activity. It's hard to watch overly serious stuff after a long day at the office, after all. It's probably why I managed to watch so much of $#*! My Dad Says despite its lackluster humor.

Anyway, this movie's only really remarkable feature were its stars. And I don't say this because I particularly liked them - they were just familiar to me and it's always nice to see a familiar face, right? It did answer my need for light post-work shift entertainment. Nothing too spectacular, but nothing too stupid either.

[TV] The Cape: Season 1

Superhero shows rarely seem to do well on network television in the US for some reason. While one can argue that some shows managed to survive fairly long such as Smallville and Heroes, the quality of said shows is arguable at best with more hardcore comic book fans unable to stomach the often cliched approaches of their television counterparts. I suppose such challenges are unavoidable given how TV executives prefer more generic, "safe" storylines that appeal to a wider audience demographic rather than some of the more specialized angles often addressed in the comic book world.

And I can also appreciate the challenges with the genre. What works on the comic book page doesn't always work well when depicted in a live-action format. The best example of this is how a costume can look pretty amazing in print but will end up looking pretty silly or sad (or both) when you actually see a guy wearing the darn thing. You have to admit, comics feature mostly ideal representations of the human body and their costume hug them in highly flattering ways with reality-defying abilities factor into how they manage to position themselves in a manner that flatters the look of the hero.

But at the same time, the Hollywood folks can't help but feel that superhero stories are bound to be good money, and thus we see repeated attempts by various creators to bring a new story to the small screen in the hopes of it catching one. This was one of the weirder attempts that obviously did not do well.

[Games] Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)

The Metal Gear game franchise has been around since 1987 although most gamers probably best remember the game from its original PlayStation debut in the game Metal Gear Solid (The Twin Snakes). And yes, I have to admit that I'm part of that group since I certainly never got my hands on the NES version nor did I ever have an MSX2 console unit, which is understandable since this was never really sold outside of Japan.

The franchise is best known for its mix of realistic military-style combat with a greater emphasis stealth and infiltration tactics. Many attribute the beginning of the entire stealth game genre to this franchise and it's understandable why the game has remained popular over the years and has triggered multiple sequels.

With almost ten games in the entire franchise, it's only natural that the developers attempted to sort of tie things up rather neatly in order to resolve the many different plot threads over the years. It's interesting to note that the game has managed to remain in a single story universe all this time and thus the universe of Metal Gear is definitely a very rich and fully-developed one. This game was designed to be the closing chapter to the entire franchise, although I expect they'll continue to develop new games set in-between the others should financial needs push them strongly enough.

[Books] Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

The noble adventure that is writing is different for every author. Some find their voices writing poetry in various forms in order to convey a message. Others immediately find themselves writing lengthier novels in order to capture the many thoughts racing in their heads. And in the middle somewhere is the realm of the short story, which I've always found to be a rather challenging medium.

In my college years, the very question of defining what constitutes a short story was a challenge in itself. How long can a short story be before it becomes a novella? When is a short story "too short" or is that even possible? What differentiates a longer poem written in free verse from a relatively short tale with a prose-like tone? There are a lot of questions when it comes to trying to figure out what short stories are and why they work, but in the end they just do. Like a lot of other writing, they're very slippery fish with mutable forms. Their length can only be truly determined by the writer and it will be just as long as it needs to be.

Not all novelists are short story writers and of course vice-versa. But thankfully one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami, is delightfully both - and his short fiction work is just as engaging and fulfilling as his lengthier writing efforts. This collection was certainly an interesting read and one that belongs on any Murakami fan's shelf.

[Movies] Red: Werewolf Hunter (2010)

I love Felicia Day. As a geek, it's hard not to admire this darling of the social media age. Between her participation in the highly successful Whedon project Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and her own home-grown geek web series The Guild, it's hard for the geek world not to know who she is by now.

And it's taken a while for Hollywood to figure this out as well, but they're certainly warming up to the idea. In their efforts to up their geek cred since that has somehow become "cool" in the entertainment industry, you can see various movie studies and pay-TV outfits trying to figure out how to respond to these kinds of trends and new celebrities of the modern age.

I have to admit I had some fairly high hopes for this movie. The premise alone seemed to have potential given the combination of hardcore supernatural elements paired with a classic tale that most of us learned as children seemed to be a great foundation for things. Then add in Felica Day and you'd think that you'd have had a winning formula right here.

So it wasn't quite that.

[Technicolor Musings] This or That Questions

While this is mainly a reviews blog, I still try to keep things relatively personal by inserting little anecdotes about my life, make mentions of my partner, Tobie Abad or even occasionally link to my personal blog, I have to acknowledge how I don't really talk about myself at length. Sure, I had that post about relationship tips that I live by, which featured a lot of stories about me and Tobie and a lot of our photos as well. But that's not quite really talking about myself, now is it?




And while I like to keep my personal life musings over on LiveJournal, I still want to make sure that the Geeky Guide still has a lot of "me" in it, to keep things personal and relevant. After all, that's one of the main things that makes this blog distinct in its own right. What is the Geeky Guide without its Geek after all?

So I thought it might be fun to try and conduct a little party game style Q&A today for our Technicolor Musings discussion for today. It's a chance to get to know a bit more about me not just in terms of my geekiness, but more around my queer side. I remain and our and proud gay geek for sure, although I'll admit that I'll always be more geek that gay.

Anyway.

[Movies] The Girl Who Leapt Through Time / Toki o Kakeru Shōjo (2006)

It's hard to be a geek in these modern times. It's especially hard to be a geek who doesn't specialize just a single aspect of geek culture since every genre includes it's own core essentials that you need to get into, or at least that's how it seems.

A true Transformers fan must have seen the original G1 cartoon series
and the original 1986 movie. A Star Trek fan must have watched the entire run of their favorite franchise (and I won't wade into which one is "essential"). Each fandom has their unwritten rules and regulations about what is canon and what isn't and sometimes it gets a tad overwhelming.

My forays into the world of Japanese anime usually involve my parter or some friend being all shocked that I had not see this movie or that one. As much as I love the genre, I have to admit that I haven't devoted a lot of energies to it. Hence the reason why I watched my very first Ghibli movie only back in 2009.

This another of those movies that everyone said I just HAD to watch...and after doing so I can understand why. I'm glad that I took the time to see it and hopefully this review will do the movie justice.

[Theater] Shakespeare in Hollywood (Repertory Philippines)

Whether we realize it or not, Shakespeare is everywhere in terms of popular fiction and entertainment. In one way or another, the tales of Shakespeare have provided a template for many stories, and this is probably because his tales tap into many fundamentals of how people interact. By writing about such common and yet nonetheless significant aspects of life, he's managed to insert himself in almost every story around these days.

Of course there are the more deliberate adaptations. Beyond literal translations like the Romeo and Juliet movie with Leo DiCaprio, there have also been a number of movies that have crossed the sands of time to bring new life to classic tales. 10 Things I Hate About you, for example, is really The Taming of the Shrew in disguise.

Of all stories, I'm pretty sure that A Midsummer Night's Dream ranks way up there in terms of most adapted Shakespearian plays. In one form or another, the whole "play within a play" motif has become quite the common one and the influence of this one creative work can be felt in almost every form of entertainment ranging from comic books to feature films.

But of course the world of the stage play loves returning here the most, and such was the nature of this particular play.

[Games] Eternal Sonata (PS3)

Like most other console geeks, I have a more than healthy respect for the RPG genre of titles. While not necessarily for everyone, RPGs continue to provide a fun marriage between gaming and classic storytelling in a nicely dynamic way. They are major time sucks of course, but what good game is't that way, right?

One of the bigger challenges with RPGs is the fact that they're single-player games that certainly strain shared console time for multi-user homes. In our case, we tend to favor local cooperative play games since it means both my partner and I get to play instead of the typical RPG scenario where either one ends up watching the other or each person plays the game independently. The second solution rarely works - more often than not one runs into spoilers because of the use of a single console and that ultimately ruins the game for one or more of the users.

So when we found out that this game offered a limited multiplayer option despite being an RPG, my partner and I couldn't quite resist satisfying our curiosity about the game. But beyond this little novelty to the game system, the whole experience turned out to be a lot more enjoyable that we expected.

[Books] The Full Cupboard of Life (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Book 5)

So I'm already five books into this series and I don't see myself giving up on it any time soon. I'm still surprised at how much I'm enjoying these books - admittedly they make for light, easy reading that remains delightfully witty in just the right doses. Sure, they're not very heavy on actual mysteries, but as the series has progressed it's been made clear to us readers that it isn't all about the "glamorous" side of private investigation.

While each book in this series remains pretty short by paperback standards (about 200 or so per book), a lot goes on in each new volume, thus further enriching the stories of our beloved characters in their little corner of Botswana. And that was really what turned this series into something else entirely - give it enough time and you'll find yourself falling in love with them and no longer just focusing on whether or not there's an overly complicated mystery to follow.

In that sense, these books are more about these living, vibrant human characters and it just so happens to involve the occasional mystery on the side. Instead of sleuthing and complicated technologies we get a lot of common sense - something which isn't quite as common these days when you really think about it.

[Movies] Source Code (2011)

In these modern money-driven Hollywood times that we live in, it's rather disappointing how the science fiction genre has become predominantly linked to the action genre in terms of movies. Then again, these kinds of movies are more likely to make money across a wider range of audience demographics without overly alienating the majority of the population.

I suppose we can't overly blame them for fearing the more serious side of science fiction - strictly dramatic efforts for movies like The Box make me question if we still have good directors who understand pre-Michael Bay science fiction anymore.

Then you get the occasional dark horse who takes us all for surprise with delightfully thoughtful films like Moon. Now that was a pretty great movie with a startling and brilliant story as brought to life by a pretty impressive actor. This film really put Duncan Jones on the map, at least for me. So naturally I was keen to see what his next big production would be - and I certainly wasn't disappointed with this one.

[TV] Will & Grace: Season 5

It's tricky to review a show season by season, especially for the ones that run of significant number of years. Of course this is nothing compared to actually writing for a successful TV show like this one, but I just thought it might be worth the time to mention this to start of this review. After reviewing four other seasons, you'd think that I would have run out of things to say by now.

But clearly I haven't or I wouldn't even bother trying to publish this review. If anything, this show has managed to present something new as the years progressed in its original lifespan and the fact that episodes remain as hilarious as ever even with repeat viewing is a bit of a testament to the quality of this show overall.

If anything, the biggest challenge is trying to figure out a fair rating for each individual season since all of them have their great moments amidst just "okay" episodes here and there. But by today's standards, even the okay episodes of this show remain far better than some of the sitcoms that we see on TV these days, at least from my perspective. And this season certainly stood out compared to some of the prior ones for a number of reasons.

[Movies] Paprika (2006)

By some strange irony, I have yet to read any of Philip K. Dick's stories despite all the high praise he's gotten and the significant impact he's had on popular fiction and entertainment, especially among science fiction circles. I have no excuses for this - it's just one of those that seems to have happened (or in this case NOT happened) and I've yet to take any immediate steps to rectify this. It's not an easy task to address given the ridiculously long queue of books that I still plan to read, which naturally continues to grow with every new published book.

I find this more and more ironic given my appreciation for the kinds of themes often explored in his works. I've had more than my fair share of authoritarian governments, metaphysical explorations and other such concepts in my various books, movies and TV shows of interest. At times it even seems as if I'm unintentionally following in his footsteps from a rather oblique perspective given a lot of the writers and movie makers that I follow end up being people who often cite him as a major influence of their work.

Strange coincidences indeed.

This movie is right up his alley and remains one of the last works of Japanese writer-director-animator Satoshi Kon, who is yet another individual who has often cited Philip K. Dick as one of the inspirations of his works. And given the head-trip that this movie turns out to be, I'm not at all surprised by this fact.

[Theater] The 39 Steps (Repertory Philippines)

When you come to appreciate the madcap humor of Monty Python, that comes with a very specific meaning to other people. Monty Python humor is an odd mix of the witty and sometimes intellectual mashed up with slapstick silliness and a healthy amount of lewd toilet humor. It's undeniably British and it's the kind of humor that still makes your brain work just enough to keep things interesting but not too much to the point that it gets tiring. At least that's how I view it - it's not exactly to capture all that is Monty Python in just so many words, quite frankly.

So when I first read the synopsis for this play and how it was being billed as a play "with a dash of Monty Python", I have to admit that I was sincerely interested. Even just a touch of that kind of comedy should translate pretty well on the stage - after all Spamalot has been a rather smashing success on Broadway. While I wasn't expecting something on that level, I was hoping it would at least be funny from a general perspective. Is that asking too much?

Instead, well, I suppose it could have been worse. But more importantly, it could have been a heck of a lot better, too. While originally this post was supposed to appear a lot earlier in my blogging pipeline, the quality of the play had me opting to post reviews of other plays that were significantly more entertaining with an undeniable level of quality in their creation.

[Games] Heavy Rain (PS3)

With the steady advance of video game technology in terms of capabilities, graphics and the kinds of experiences they're able to create. We've seen how the ability to create more and more realistic CGI has lead to similar improvements in movies and thus the march of CGI-animated pieces left and right (and the inevitable spread of 3D movies as well.

It has been often discussed how technology may reach point where we can create movies completely with "fake" or artificial characters. It's somewhat frightening how this is becoming more and more true and we've recently seen movies with younger versions of characters present like the recent Tron: Legacy movie. And we've seen better and better CGI movies like the interestingly realistic Beowulf and the naturally beautiful Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within. The wonders of technology indeed.

But at the same time, gaming technology has advanced to the point when the line between movies and games continues to blur more and more. The main difference beyond the similarity in terms of story, animation and voice acting is the element of interaction and involvement. And that's the kind of experience that games like this one now provide - and quite effectively too.

[Books] The Kalahari Typing School For Men (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Book 4)

I can't imagine how writers manage to conceptualize the continuing development of an on-going book series. I can sort of get the trilogy concept - that just requires a pretty big story concept, the discipline to break it down into three main segments or major story arcs then you just work on filling in the gaps in-between to come up with the details. But at least a trilogy has a clear start, beginning and end and that helps things along most certainly.

For a continuing series, how far should you map out your plans? Do you bank on your books to continue to do well in the market or should you not care about that and just write? Do you start to factor in fan feedback or do you feel you should only consult with colleagues in the field? Does character growth have to involve dramatic changes or events in their fictional lives or should you just take a day-to-day approach, as if you were live-blogging the life of your creations? There are just so many questions like these that come in my head when I write lengthy stories, which is probably why I have such a hard time trying to finish.

In that regard, this is one of the many reasons I've fallen in love with Alexander McCall Smith's books. He's manage to combine the appeal of the serial mystery (to some extent) while still managing the continuing development of the personal stories of his characters. And with this fourth book, he continues to deliver in many ways.

[Movies] Sucker Punch (2011)

Professional movie critics, as far as I'm concerned, seem obliged to view movies from a certain perspective that's different from the general population. This isn't a bad thing - it's along the same lines of how educational institutions decide that a certain book has enough merit or value hence why they become part of the curriculum while others are scoffed at as being amateur or something like that. Movie criticism can work on many levels and the world of the critics' seems to be one that relies on pretty stringent standards, the need for the movie to have some sort of relevance or impact on us as a people or generally need to provide something for the advancement of human culture.

While I do try to take an intelligent perspective when I review movies, I also factor in a lot about, well, something I can only call as commonplace value (which sounds horrid). It's more along the lines of whether or not the average person may or may not enjoy a particular movie, book or whatever. Sure, my opinions remains from my unique geeky perspective of the world and this may or may not be important to most people. However for those that do take the time to ask me what I think or read this blog, then you'll find that I'm pretty generous in my reading of creative works since each movie has a goal of its own which may or may not be aligned with the goals required by critics at large.

Hence we get a lot of movies that are totally panned by the critics but still enjoyed by a decent number of people. It doesn't mean that box office performance alone can replace intelligent criticism, but it does mean that it helps to try and see things from a more general perspective and not just the intellectual ivory tower point of view.

[Technicolor Musings] Resolving Post Break-up Social Entanglements

The topic for this particular entry has been bouncing around my head for some time now, which seems ironic since April is the month I made the big decision to end things with my previous boyfriend. As much as I'd like to think the two events aren't directly connected to one another, I probably can't totally disregard that possibility.

Regardless of reasons, I wanted to spend some time "thinking aloud" about one of the weirder complications of any break-up - how to handle your friends. For those who have been in this unfortunate situation, the you know exactly what I mean. For those who haven't, well, I sincerely hope that you never have to go through this sort of thing.

And to state the obvious, the images within the post are those sourced through Creative Commons are more illustrative of friendships in general and not indicative of my actual friends.




Ron, Gordon and Fausto hanging out by Fausto Fernos / feastoffun.com via Flickr

Friends are always important in our lives, regardless of gender. Cue references to quotes like "no man is an island" and the whole discussion on how humans are social creatures. And this is probably more true among gay circles since our decision to come out (or at least accept who we are) inevitably alienates some friends, thus making your gay-friendly friends all the more important, moreso your core gay friends that make up your primary support structure in your gay life.

When you decide to get involved with someone, the two of you start to share your social circles, thus blurring the lines and creating a new larger social structure. On the other hand, there's no actual way to define how to resolve these larger social constructs once the two of you decide to move on in different directions. And there lies the pickle.

[Movies] The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)

I am neither for nor against period films, but I do seem to have a knack for avoiding them. And to be specific, I seem to generally avoid period pieces located in the US and the UK for some reason, although I have enjoyed watching an number of them. I guess I rarely wake up with the feeling of "I want to watch a period movie today" or something like that. But when I do, the results can be pretty entertaining at times.

Or sometimes they're just sadly droll, but more on the side of being weird and dull that strictly being humorous. It's a weird feeling and one that I can't quite put into words very accurately. Maybe I'll figure it out in time.

So I can't state clearly why I chose to watch this movie the other day to any specific detail. The urge just came up as I was browsing through our movie collection and then before I knew it, my partner and I were watching. Go figure.

At least it was a comedy - had this somehow been warped into a drama (which a greater challenge than turning it into a movie, when you really think about it), well, then I doubt I wouldn't have enjoyed myself as much.