Sunshine

After some friends have been raving about this movie, I decided to check it out. Gripping. Absolutely gripping. High stakes. High concept. The movie has some impressive visual effects for the seething orb, the multi-paned reflective sun shields, and a virtual-reality cure chamber during Act 1. 

But the plot really picks up when the crew detects a faint signal from the original Icarus and has to decide whether to check it out. It's the first of several decisions that are dealt with in a practical, scientific way; later ones, involving sacrifice for the greater good, come down to a sheer numbers game that generates its own drama when applied to human lives.

Then, when Trey bungles the course adjustment, a series of events are set in motion that have escalating consequences. Capa and Kaneda exit the ship to repair sun shields -- a great scene which had a good balance between f/x and the human drama. Ditto the later boarding of the Icarus -- a dust-covered ghost ship that may hold a secret -- and the nail-biting transfer back to Icarus II.

Casting was not only multi-cultural but multi-continental. Almost half the crew is of Asian descent, including Captain Kaneda (Japan's Hiroyuki Sanada, "The Twilight Samurai"), biologist Corazon (Malaysia's Michelle Yeoh) and navigator Trey (British-Chinese thesp Benedict Wong). As the story opens, Trey is cooking stir-fried noodles in the kitchen and everyone is eating with chopsticks. On the occidental side, apart from Capa, there's pilot Cassie (Aussie actress Rose Byrne), medical officer Searle (Kiwi Cliff Curtis) and two Yanks, communications officer Harvey (Troy Garity) and engineer Mace (Chris Evans). While this may be aspirational to envision a future in which many races share in the responsibility to save the world, it also helped with sales in international territories. Domestic box grossed $3.7 million on just 461 screens while international grossed $28.3 theatrically. 

It's a shame that it was opened on a particularly crowded release schedule. That weekend alone, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Hairspray, but it also didn't help that there were continued strong performance from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Transformers, Ratatouille, Live Free or Die Hard as well as License to Wed, Evan Almighty, Knocked Up and Ocean's 13 rounding up the top 10 at the box office.

It really is a shame. It would have been impressive to see on the 33 x 89 foot silver screen of the Cinerama Dome. 

Punchlines

You know screenwriting is a lot like boxing...

...blood, sweat, tears... and very little actual writing.

Original moment

It's been some time since I've watched Garden State, but I listen to Frou Frou and the soundtrack pretty much all the time. So I'm reminded of the message of this movie about a guy who basically wakes up from the stupor to experience love and life. One of the most striking scenes from it, is when Sam (Natalie Portman) has an original moment and she goads Andrew (Zach Braff) to trying it as well. 

Take it literally or metaphorically, but either way it's not a bad thing to do, really, given the monotonous and often cliched world that we live in. But don't just squirm like a worm or baaa like a sheep, but doodle, sketch, write, compose, or create! You might find you'll surprise not just the world, but yourself.  

Punchlines

May I introduce myself? My card is...

...slightly out of date. It should say NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Two-ton block of cheese

I'm making my way through Season 1 of The West Wing, which I do every so often. To me, it is unadulterated joy to experience this TV series over and over again. The episodes can range from thundering well-articulated debate to light-hearted banter, and through it all, I feel an emotional connection to these characters. 

Following the pilot, the series delved into heady issues about the appropriate military response to an attack on US citizens and an uncertain President who had never served on the line of duty, who became vengeful when he discovered his personal physician had been killed. The three-episode arc was a prime example of drama at its best. 

As a sort of palette cleanser, the fifth episode entitled "The Crackpots and These Women" really took a break from the heavy dramatics and changed the pacing and tone of the series, demonstrating the diverse range Aaron Sorkin has available to him. 

Plot

The staff participates in "Big Block of Cheese Day," a fictional workday on which White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry encourages his staff to meet with fringe special interest groups that normally would not get attention from the White House. Big Block of Cheese Day also is mentioned in "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail."

The rationale for the day, as recounted by McGarry, is that America's seventh president, Andrew Jackson, had a two-ton block of cheese in the White House foyer from which everyone was welcome to eat. This symbolized the openness of the White House to the American people. White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler derisively refers to the day as "Throw Open Our Office Doors To People Who Want To Discuss Things That We Could [sic] Care Less About Day", and Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman refers to it as "Total Crackpot Day".

White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg meets with a group about building a highway for wolves, while Sam Seaborn meets with a citizen, played by Sam Lloyd, concerned about UFOs.

Josh is given a card from the NSC with information about where he is to go in the event of a nuclear attack and becomes riddled with guilt after realizing that nobody else on the staff was given one. He visits his therapist and reveals that his older sister died in a house fire while babysitting for him, and that he survived by running out of the house.

Later, at a reception in the Residence, the President and the men on his staff marvel at the extraordinary strength and integrity of the women in their lives. During the party, Josh returns his NSC card to the President, explaining that he just wants to be with his friends through everything and to be able to look them in the eye in the meantime.

By the way, the Big Block of Cheese Day occurs once more in the series in Season 2 as well during Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail. Once again, C.J. is asked to meet with a group who wouldn't otherwise be able to take a meeting with someone in the White House. She meets with "The Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality," which would like legislation to support a specific map projection, namely the "Peters projection" which corrects the exaggerated representation of North America and Western Europe found in the standard Mercator projection. Believing that placing the Northern Hemisphere on top suggests dominance by the countries there, the cartographers actually advocate rotating the projection by 180 degrees to place the Southern Hemisphere on top.

Incidentally, in this episode Toby Ziegler meets with a group of protestors and the exterior shots happened to be of my office building. How cool is that?

Punchlines

So what's the point of close-circuit cameras when the footage quality always blows chunks?

Especially when the night vision lenses are on the blink! Everybody starts looking like pixelated aliens vaguely resembling Shotgun.