The Hunt for Gollum

If you like Lord of the Rings, maybe you’ll like The Hunt for Gollum. It’s a fan movie about Aragorn’s, well, hunt for gollum. They made this in their free time and with a very low budget (£3000), but it’s turned out rather well. Here’s the trailer:

You can watch the full version (40 minutes) on their official site, completely for free. They also have an IMDB profile. If you like it, also check out Born of Hope, a similar project.

Impression of a day at my school

Here’s a video I recently made for my job at buro302. It’s an impression of a day at my school. Credits also to my colleague Sander who co-worked with me on this.

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iCheckMovies

If you like movies (who doesn’t?) you should check out the new site iCheckMovies. It works a bit like Last.FM. You tell the site which movies you have seen (you “Check” them) and it will calculate a list of movies that you would probably like. This is me, and this too:

New Half-Blood Prince Trailer

The Dark Knight

Stop reading, go see it! If that doesn’t convince you, maybe this will.
Note: At the time of first posting this entry, The Dark Knight was IMDB #1.

The Man of Steel

Who? What? Superman? No….Irrron Maaan!

Yes, Iron Man, the movie which I didn’t expect would be this good. I went to see it last week and was pleasantly surprised. From the trailer I saw I figured it’d be much too dark and Iron Man would just be a lumpy piece of scrap, not the slick superhero he turned out to be.

The film tells the tale of Tony Stark, a widely known, infinitely rich, very excentric, military designer. When he gets captured by terrorists and is forced to make a special missile, instead he secretly constructs a full body armour with weapons and rockets, which he uses to escape. Back home, he decided to change his life, and use his skills to fight crime, instead of feeding war.

If you liked Batman Begins, you’ll really like Iron Man. You really get to understand the reason behind the creation of the superhero, and to see the process of that transformation. I personally generally really like these kind of “origin movies”. The fact that Iron Man, like Batman, uses technology instead of superhuman powers is a nice difference for a change. Add to that the wonderful special effects, great music, good comedy and spectacular action, and you have a movie of steel.

Venice 07 – Day 2

Here it is, day 2 of Venice 07.

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Venice 07 – Day 1

Finished earlier this week, released today: the first episode of “Venice 07″ (in Dutch, but the dialogue isn’t very prominent).

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6 jan 2008: fixed embedded youtube video

Beowulf and Golden Compass

Last week I saw Beowulf in the theatre. It’s a new 3D animation film based on the classic poem Beowulf, which tells the story of a man named Beowulf who travels to a land in the north, to rid it of a monster that has been attacking it’s halls. This story is pretty simple and that can be seen in the film. I didn’t expect to go to Beowulf for a great story though, but for stunning visuals, realistic animations and intense actions. That I got, along with some good music. All in all it’s not a film to watch many times, but good for entertaining you and your friends for 1,5 hours.

Yesterday I went to see the Golden Compass, the first film in the upcoming His Dark Materials trilogy. In contrast with Beowulf, I really did expect a good story here, since the book that this film is based on is told to be “the best since Tolkien” by some.

It tells the story of a girl named Lyra, who goes on a quest to kidnap her friend who have been captured by “the authority”. This authority, the magisterium, seeks to control the world and if they can, all other worlds as well, by raising the new generation to accept them without doubt and let the knowledge of many things fade away from history. If you think that sounds a lot like the church, you’re right. In the original book it actually is the church, but for the film version they’ve toned that down a bit. Some reviewers see that as a downside, but personally I don’t think it really affects the story either way.

Anyway, Lyra sets out to save her friends, and in doing so we meet a lot of stylish characters, beatiful worlds and thrilling action. The first half of the film is a bit slow, but fortunately the pace picks up later and it gets more interesting. The special effects are great as always, and the casting has been done well. With one exception, that is, because while Ian McKellen does great voice work and everything, his voice just doesn’t suit the armoured polar bear he portrays very well. Casting him feels like a trick to make this film “LotR-ish” to me.

To sum it up, the Golden Compass is a good film, which you must see if you’re into the genre, but don’t expect another Lord of the Rings.

Venice 07 Teaser Trailer

Yes, here it is: the teaser trailer of my trip to Venice with Cre-Aid. Download the high quality version here (compressed with XviD), or watch the crappy YouTube version below.