Monday, July 20, 2009
Smart Man, Smart Words
My friend Ed always has quotes up on his blog, and I'm going to take a page out of his book and put one up here. It just really caught my eye as being truly insightful and I felt like sharing it with others.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Technological mistakes can be costly
I was reading the headlines over at CNN and came across this story ($23 quadrillion charge) which I thought was pretty comical.
It appears that this poor guy (no pun intended) was just checking his balance, nothing out of the ordinary, until he noticed this ridiculous, astronomical charge. However, what I think is most comical is that, instead of assuming it was a mistake, the guy actually believed he somehow spent such an absurd amount of money in one go (at a petrol station no less). Then again, CNN may be trying to make this story out to be funnier that it truly is. Either way, the story is worth a chuckle or two.
-Manuel
It appears that this poor guy (no pun intended) was just checking his balance, nothing out of the ordinary, until he noticed this ridiculous, astronomical charge. However, what I think is most comical is that, instead of assuming it was a mistake, the guy actually believed he somehow spent such an absurd amount of money in one go (at a petrol station no less). Then again, CNN may be trying to make this story out to be funnier that it truly is. Either way, the story is worth a chuckle or two.
-Manuel
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Film Review: Rudo y Cursi (2008)
Following on from the theme of having no theme, my next post is a film review. I suppose it's important to note that I love movies; watching them, making them, discussing them....you get the idea. As such, I've been looking forwards to writing a review for a while but have been waiting for a really good film to get the ball rolling (the last film I saw before 'Rudo y Cursi' was 'Transformers 2'....don't even get me started on where that one went wrong).
First off, if you've seen 'Y Tu Mamá También' you'll be familiar with the cast (Diego Luna from 'Milk' and Gael García Bernal from 'The Motorcycle Diaries') and it really has to be said, these two are brilliant opposite each other. Here they play brothers from a random small village in Mexico. Turns out they're both amazing at football and both end up playing professionally...on different teams. The lads are totally convincing as brothers who have their fair share of luggage and manage to bring the audience to laughter, joy, anger and even despair without missing a beat.
The direction was a bit obvious but still without flaw. Carlos Cuarón follows in the footsteps of his big brother Alfonso ('Y Tu Mamá También', 'Children of Men'). His solid choice of shots can be equated to a comedian delivering the punch line and just the right time: it makes a decent scene into a great one. I won't get to technical into all the nitty gritty of good directing but suffices to say that, as his first directorial outing 'Rudo y Cursi', while not a masterpiece, certainly makes me want to watch out for his next film.
It would be wrong to say that there aren't some major flaws with the film though. It changes in tone very drastically from comedy to drama to comedy to drama etc. Possibly just a problem that we could attribute to the directors lack of actual experience, but a problem none the less. Does it ruin the movie? Absolutely not, but something that Cuarón will have to watch out for in future. As a Spanish speaker, the dialogue makes a lot of sense to me, and as I've often seen with subtitles, I'm sure a lot of the subtleties and local sayings get lost in translation.
Worth a watch for football fans and avid cinema goers alike.
**** Four out of Five.
Manuel
First off, if you've seen 'Y Tu Mamá También' you'll be familiar with the cast (Diego Luna from 'Milk' and Gael García Bernal from 'The Motorcycle Diaries') and it really has to be said, these two are brilliant opposite each other. Here they play brothers from a random small village in Mexico. Turns out they're both amazing at football and both end up playing professionally...on different teams. The lads are totally convincing as brothers who have their fair share of luggage and manage to bring the audience to laughter, joy, anger and even despair without missing a beat.
The direction was a bit obvious but still without flaw. Carlos Cuarón follows in the footsteps of his big brother Alfonso ('Y Tu Mamá También', 'Children of Men'). His solid choice of shots can be equated to a comedian delivering the punch line and just the right time: it makes a decent scene into a great one. I won't get to technical into all the nitty gritty of good directing but suffices to say that, as his first directorial outing 'Rudo y Cursi', while not a masterpiece, certainly makes me want to watch out for his next film.
It would be wrong to say that there aren't some major flaws with the film though. It changes in tone very drastically from comedy to drama to comedy to drama etc. Possibly just a problem that we could attribute to the directors lack of actual experience, but a problem none the less. Does it ruin the movie? Absolutely not, but something that Cuarón will have to watch out for in future. As a Spanish speaker, the dialogue makes a lot of sense to me, and as I've often seen with subtitles, I'm sure a lot of the subtleties and local sayings get lost in translation.
Worth a watch for football fans and avid cinema goers alike.
**** Four out of Five.
Manuel
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