Anders Bergstrom's blog on Words, Films, and Music

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Oh wow! Anton! Aren! Everyone! I've been wanting to see this for ages and now here it is. Any Star Wars fans should make sure they watch this! YouTube can be an amazing power for good!

Presenting, the Biggs-Luke Anchorhead scene that many claim was in the film with some prints in the original 1977 release of Star Wars.





(Thanks to Peter Chattaway for noticing this first.)

Saturday, May 13, 2006

The Oilers won! What a fantastic game. I was ecstatic. Being down 3-1 in the middle of the third and then coming back to win 6-3 is a wild game. A great performance by all the Oilers. Be sure to check out the highlight reel to see Samsonov's crazy goal coming out of the penalty box, picking up a huge bounce and stealing it away from Toskala to tuck it into the empty net.

Of course one of the great things about living on the west coast here is that games finish up relatively early, allowing one to do other things with one's evening. I was in the mood to celebrate, but everyone was either out of town or not doing anything. What does that mean I'm likely to do? Hey, it's summer movie season! I'm going to the theatre.

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When you watch a movie and a character has to hold their breath underwater, do you ever catch yourself holding your breath along with them? Well, then Poseidon might not be the best movie for you.

Based on the novel and the 1972 disaster flick The Poseidon Adventure, starring Gene Hackmen and Shelley Winters, Wolfgang Peterson's new film is a solid summer film. The cast performs admirably for what is expected of them, but there is the slight case of knowing who is going to live at the end and who will die (Hint: Lucky Larry may not be so lucky).

But overall, while it's nothing profound, Poseidon is better than the original film and doesn't outstay its welcome. Peterson spends less than 20 minutes setting up the characters and situation before we are plunged (pun intended) into non-stop thrills and suspense, as our group of heroes attempt to find their way out of the doomed ocean liner that has been flipped on its back (as Dreyfus's character Nelson points out, "these ships aren't built to stay afloat upside down"). The movie's runtime is a brisk 99 min: short for this genre. But it's just enough to enjoy the heroics and special effects, which are impressive given that the Poseidon was created entirely in CGI. Everything is convincing and suitably impressive.

Sure the film falls into cliches at times (one particular sequence I like to call "the Armageddon moment" could be seen a mile away, and of course the loner gambler (Josh Lucas) is going to fall for the single mom and her precocious son). And really, some people in the audience may not be interested in seeing such large scale destruction for mere entertainment. But if you're looking for a good suspense action movie that's something different from superheroes or spies this summer, Poseidon isn't a bad choice.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

One last post for today. HALO 3 TRAILER!!!


It's no secret that I love dogs. Dog stories are one of those things that can make me all sentimental (ok, I guess I can be a sentimental person over a lot of things...).

Anyway, you all need to check out this crazy story about "Faith, the bipedal dog" who walks about on her two hind legs because she doesn't have front legs. It's amazing. I didn't believe it until I saw this video (care of YouTube and Montel Williams). Wow. Amazing what a creature can do when it's necessary for survival.


Guess who's on the TIME 100 list this year? The man who had the guts to do his bit right infront of the President. The guy who gives us not the facts, but truthiness. That's right: Stephen Colbert.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

As they say in Star Wars land, "This will be a day long rememebered." Basically all the old school Star Wars fans can just shut up with the complaints and allegations that Lucas has been trying to bury the original Star Wars films and replace them with his what-they-see-as-inferior versions. Well, we can all cheer and celebrate the love, as the Ewoks once sang and will sing once again! The Original Theatrical versions of the Star Wars Trilogy are coming out on DVD this September!


Oh, and what would an Anders blog post be without a couple of movie trailer links.

The new Superman Returns trailer is up. It makes me more curious than the last ones, but I still have reservations. But who am I kidding? I'll still be seeing it.

And even more exciting is the trailer for Casino Royale, and it looks like Bond is going to kick some serious ass in his twenty-first film. Sure Daniel Craig is no Connery, but I think he'll pull this one off nicely. And speaking of nicely, that's how Eva Green is going to do as Bond girl Vesper Lynd. Very nicely.