DVD authoring software: Ulead DVD Workshop - Home 2:40 PM

DVD authoring software: Ulead DVD Workshop - Home
I've been looking for software for DVD menu creation, something I can make interesting looking and interactive and not just crapped out. This could be what I'm looking for.

Supervillians 2:53 PM

I should have a grace period after I watch a movie. If you ask me about a movie right as I walk out of the theater you'll usually get a bad review from me. This part wasn't right or the director didn't do his job or the acting missed the mark or something. If I don't like a movie it bounces around in my subconcious and I look at it bit by bit and consider it and sometimes I find enlightenment. Sure, it's just an understanding of a movie, and not something important like say the question of life, but I guess I'm too distracted by the motions of the day to figure out the big bits. Like the other day. I tuned in to TMC to watch BEN HUR. I've watched BEN HUR lots of times over the years, usually in pan and scan and with commercial breaks. This was the first time I'd seen it in widescreen and without the interruptions. That night I had a dream that everyone in the world was a supervillian. Everyone wore an outlandish costume, capes and masks and cauls were everywhere. And then Superman was there, but instead of beating the crap out of all of us he talked to us. About how it was our nature to be supervillians and how we should fight the good fight against our tendency to be supervillians and try to be superheros instead. Then Darksied showed up and claimed since he was the badest of the badguys that he ruled over all of us supervillians. Superman tells Darksied, "take my life instead." So Darksied straps Superman to a huge rock and hurls it into space. And out of the galaxy. But we were all still supervillians...

1a Originally uploaded by tohoscope.

Rain Rein 4:41 PM

Lousy saturday weather. Not feeling too good, either. Got a headache and my stomach isn't feeling so well. I may take another nap...

20030611a Originally uploaded by tohoscope.

Playroom Slot MachineFlash Game. Kinda fun in a ecchi way...

An Evening in Paris 2:21 PM

...Which sadly can't be purchased at Amazon.com. If you're interested in buying your own copy of AN EVENING IN PARIS you'll have to go to India Plaza.com...

The wait is over! 10:51 AM

The Netflix red envelopes showed up yesterday afternoon. Reviews of the rentals will be forthcoming. Although I haven't finished watching it yet the clear winner is AN EVENING IN PARIS with Shammi Kapoor. The movie feels like a wacked out Elvis movie from the 60's. With cute Indian girls and Shammi being as charming as he possibly can. I'm gonna have to buy my own copy of this one.

20021008a Originally uploaded by tohoscope.

Criticised! 11:57 AM

Is it me or does this look like Garbage Pail Kids version of the Gang of 4? Nightmare Fuel Propaganda style! 

Take your government holiday and ... 2:19 PM

Today is President's Day, which of course means no school, no bank services AND NO MAIL DELIVERY. Which means yet another day with no Netflix delivery. So, within a span of 8 days I get only ONE RED ENVELOPE. I'm really thinking that Netflix sucks at this point...

Ultraman Nexus Episode 9 Remixed 7:46 PM

Returned 1:20 PM

RETURNER came to the top of the Netflix queue. It was watched and returned.

I'm not sure why this film got an R rating, it's basicly a popcorn flick. From Japan. It's got alien invasion, time traveling lttle girls, a Yukuza gunsel as a hero and his frosted hair opposite stealing the movie. Fast, fun and dumb. It's almost Bruckheimersque in it's mainstream style. I'd recommend it if you're looking for something to waste a few hours on...

ON THE DOWNSIDE the mail came today and there were no Netflix red envelopes. So the total number of Netflix rentals this week? ONE. Yeah, I'm not really happy about that. In fact it kinda pisses me off. My queue sez that everything is available, "NOW", so why did I only get ONE SINGLE RED ENVELOPE from Monday through Saturday??? Is this the kind of service I should expect from now on? If that's the case I want out. Because that's pretty shitty turn around.

Ultraman Nexus Episode 9 2:21 PM

Video Stallout 9:30 AM

It's now thursday and no Netflix since saturday. Yeah, I mailed the last DVD back to 'em in their funky return envelope on sunday. So, here I am, 4 mailing days later with no video to watch. Really efficient turnaround that Netflix does. I guess I shoulda went with Blockbuster's deal, which is cheaper, but then I really hate Blockbuster...

20030429a Originally uploaded by tohoscope.

BRING ME THE HEAD OF CHARLIE BROWN 12:29 PM

AnimeHELL Clip of the Month: BRING ME THE HEAD OF CHARLIE BROWN

Thanks to Gavv. You roxxor, Gavv!

Promo Cartoon Take Two... 9:26 AM

Just like VAN HELSING:LONDON ASSIGNMENT, CRONICLES OF RIDDICK:DARK FURY is a half hour cartoon to promote the movie CRONICLES OF RIDDICK, a self contained adventure that fleshes out what happened after the moive PITCH BLACK. Neither of which have I seen. Yet, unlike VH:LA, this cartoon made me interested in viewing the other RIDDICK flicks.

CoR:DF is stylish and smart. Peter Chung directs and animates, and it's a nice bit of Sci-Fi action. The computer animated bits aren't as intrusive here as they are in VH:LA. The CGI just seems like part of the strange landscape that Chung has created for Riddick and his companions to move across. Oddly enough, the story reminded me of the short stories in the old science fiction monthlys. This whould fit right in to an old issue of Issac Asomov or Analogue or Fantasy and Science Fiction from the 60's or early 70's.

INFERNAL AFFAIRS showed up on saturday. It's a great HK Film Noir movie. Tony Leung plays a police mole in the Triad gangs while Andy Lau is a Triad mole moving up the police ranks. When the Triad and the police discover there's a mole in their organizations they order the characters to ferret out the other mole. And the chase is on. And it's a good chase. While there's a few plot stumbles here, it's still better then most action movies that come out of Hollywood these days. Well worth the rental.

House of Wax, no 3-D 12:20 PM

I find out they're remaking HOUSE OF WAX:"In House of Wax, a remake of the 1953 horror starring Vincent Price, a group of friends fall prey to a sinister plot while passing through a small town on their way to a college football game. The feature directorial debut for Jaume Collet-Serra, House of Wax stars Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton and more!" Um...that's not the plot of THE HOUSE OF WAX with Vincent Price. Honest. Does anybody know how to make Horror movies anymore? Besides the Japanese?

l_2434524 Originally uploaded by tohoscope.

Let's all go to the lobby... 9:04 AM

Two more Netflix showed up yesterday, here's my reviews:


VAN HELSING:THE LONDON ASSIGNMENT is a half hour cartoon made to promote the live action movie. Which I've not seen. And after this I've not sure I want to see it. The whole plot seems lifted from Alan Moore's LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Robert Louis Stevenson's Mr. Hyde is apparently also Jack the Ripper, who goes around Whitechapel stealing the essence of souls and sealing them in little glass vials. Dr. Jekyl takes the souls and injects them into QUEEN VICTORIA turning her into a young lady with no memory of being the Queen of Britan.

The problem with this is that it's not presented as a horror story. Instead it's an over the top action set piece with barely two dimensional characters.

There's a documentary of the making of VAN HELSING also on the DVD, which runs longer then the cartoon. Somewhere in it the director comments that, "If the people who made the original movies could (refering to Universal's DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN and WOLFMAN) they'd make them this way." Gee, I don't know. They were making HORROR movies and you're making an action movie. There's a difference.

ZATOICHI: THE BLIND SWORDSMAN is good, really good. I'm rather fond of the ZATOICHI movies that play on IFC's Samurai Saturday. But Takeshi Kitano's take on the blind massuse is rather, well, fun.

This is an action movie. The violence is exaggerated. When using his sword Zatoichi becomes superhuman. But it's the spaces between the action that are filled with quirky bits of humanity and charm. Shintaro Katsu's Zatoichi was a machismo figure, while Takeshi's Zatoichi is awkward and existential.

People have commented about the cgi bloodletting. Yeah, it's noticeable. But if you've seen older samurai sword operas with jetting blood spraying everywhere, you've got an idea of what they were trying to accomplish.

The final reel is possibly the best dance festival in any samurai flick, ever....

Another Chris Hart How NOT to... 10:32 AM

As Amid Amidi puts it:"a book that's wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to begin complaining. The atrocious cover should be the first clue that Christopher Hart hasn't the wildest clue about how to draw "retro-styled" characters. Then again, when has Hart ever done a book that's actually taught anybody how to draw anything correctly. Should make a good gag gift for your designer friends."

SPDope 10:23 AM

You may not follow these things, that's cool with me. But I like me some sentai. The universal appeal of a kiddy show with dayglow kung fu rubbersuit monsters fighting implasibly transforming giant robots can not be denied. But it can be screwed with.

Disney has been hyping POWER RANGERS SPD for about a month now. Which is pretty much a toy commercial for Bandai's DEKARANGER line of merchendise. Before SPD premiered on superbowl weekend they were already filling the air with Bandai's ads. Make your market, make a demand. The show is almost an after thought.

Dekaranger Japan
You really can't compare SPD to DEKARANGER. Like all Power Ranger series they've pretty much built a whole new show around the Bandai Toyline. So, I can enjoy the original DEKARANGER show and enjoy SPD too.

Yeah, I liked SPD. I wish they'd find actors that could act, and learn how to do decent slap stick. And maybe better dialogue. But, I guess this is what you get these days. It's better then the Power Ranger shows from a decade ago....

The Stewardesses 3-D 2:04 PM

Welcome .:. The Stewardesses 3-D
Stewardesses in 3-D, what could be better?

Mister Bungle?

Netflixed 1:24 PM

Joined Netflix and got my first batch of 3:

JU-ON (THE GRUDGE) was very good, very fun and very creepy. I highly recommend it. Bonus points for extended scenes of Japanese schoolgirls in uniform...

ICHI THE KILLER was interesting, but I really couldn't get into it. Maybe I need to watch it again...

VERSUS was one of those movies that sets up the plot in the first reel and then runs headlong into the final reel. Lots of guns, lots of samurai slashing, lots of blood.

Final score, I may go out and buy JU-ON and I'm thinking about renting the American remake: THE GRUDGE...

nin-ja-remix 12:16 PM

A new illo I did for a theme meme on flickr. It was kinda fun. I need to get back to the boards and inkpots...

nin-ja-remix Originally uploaded by tohoscope.

Ultraman Goddamn 1:11 PM

Both UNCLE GODDAMN and ULTRAMAN TIGA came in today. UG will be salted into the OtakuHELL library, of course. I am looking forward to Tiga, I've got both of the Region One releases of the Tiga movies, and I enjoyed them enough to want to pick up the 4Kids release. But I want to watch this first collection before I order any more volumes. As it is, 13 episodes over 2 disks ain't a bad deal...