I’ve just finished watching Koyaanisqatsi by Godfrey Reggio. It is still brilliant. It has been quite a few years since I last saw it and it hasn’t lost any of its impact. It is a fantastic meld of imagery and music. There was also a great interview with Reggio and Philip Glass on the DVD that I’d not seen before.
Thanks to Ali for lending me his DVD. I would like my own copy, in fact with my birthday coming soon, I’ve added it to my Amazon wishlist. Hint hint!

I hadn’t realised that Naqoyqatsi by Godfrey Reggio had been made and released last year! I must get to see it as soon as I can. I loved the other two films in the Qatsi trilogy. In fact I brought the soundtrack CD to both Koyannisqatsi and Powaqqatsi home with me to listen to this weekend.

Story from slashdot

“IGN.com is reporting that Warner Bros. is releasing a 2-disc special edition DVD of The Matrix (loaded with extras) on April 29th and The Animatrix (An Anime series set in the world of the Matrix) DVD on June 3rd.”

Unfortunatley, the IGN site is slashdotted (unavailable because of massive numbers of slashdot readers). One slashdotter managed to snaffle the text from the story:

Warner Home Video will be repackaging The Matrix as a 2-disc set. The new edition will essentially contain the current film and The Matrix Revisited discs. Revisited will be padded out with new promotional features like “Preload: On the Set of Reloaded,” episodes 1&2 of The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance, a preview of The Animatrix, “What Is the Game?” trailer for the new Infograme “Enter The Matrix” videogame , a sample of music from Reloaded, and a Marilyn Manson “Rock Is Dead” music video. The set will also include a free ticket offer to The Matrix Reloaded. The Matrix: Special Edition is due on April 29 and will retail $27.95. Oh, and the packaging will be “foil-wrapped” (insert eye-rolling).

Speaking of The Animatrix, this more ambitious project will be released on June 3rd. This disc will include nine short films conceived by the Wachowski brothers, delving into the world of the Matrix and its characters. The collection of shorts, ranging from traditional anime to full-blown CGI, will come from world-renowned anime directors Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Koji Morimoto, Mahiro Maeda, Takeshi Koike, Peter Chung and Andy Jones.” Episode include “The Final Flight of the Osiris,” “The Second Renaissance Parts 1 & 2,” “Kid’s Story,” “Program,” “World Record,” “Beyond,” “Detective Story,” and “Matriculated.” The Animatrix will retail $24.98. As for the two actual sequels, the Reloaded and Revolutions DVDs are already in production and are being promised as “breakthrough discs”.

I may have to buy this one; I’ve held off buying the DVD since I already have the VHS video, but this may be too tempting. 🙂

I’ve just finished watching Minority Report. What a great movie! I really enjoyed it. I liked pretty much everything about this movie. There wasn’t anything I could really complain about. Thanks to Andy Don for lending me the DVD.
One thing though, here in the UK, the DVD was rated ’12’ meaning not suitable for children under 12. Or rather, as this BBFC rating is restrictive, no-one under the age of 12 is allowed to see it. I personally would not allow a twelve year old to see this movie. I think the murders in it are too graphic (though they are not glorified) for that age group. I’ll leave the rest of my thoughts on this subject to a later rant.

I watched Evolution tonight. Yeah I know it’s a bit late! I quite enjoyed it. I didn’t know it was a comedy (Duh!), so it was quite a surprise. Recommended.

E! Online have this story suggesting that Michael Gambon my be the new Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies after Richard Harris’ death last year.

Woo hoo! I just saw the Lord Of The Rings : The Two Towers today. It is absolutely brilliant! It’s as good, if not better, than the first. There are a lot more battle scenes in it for you action fans. But the best for me was Gollum. The effects were fantastic. As a main character for quite a few scenes throughout the film, you don’t even notice the CGI work. I’m not sure whether Andy Serkis just did the voice or acted as Gollum in some scenes, but I was totally impressed.
I thought the Ents were too thin, but otherwise excellent, their slow deliberate ways were understandably glossed over in the film, in fact quite a section of the book concerning the Ents was missing.
The story about Eowyn of Rohan (played by Miranda Otto) was almost completely missing too.

All in all this is a must see film. Recommended!

Actor Richard Harris has died from Hodgkin’s disease. He most recently played Professor Albus Dumbledore in the first and second Harry Potter films. But also played leading roles in dozens of other great films.

The BBC has the story.