Category: movies

Steve Yegge live

After yesterday’s best read of the month here comes the best show of the day. Which is Steve Yegge, live, talking about branding during 2007 OSCON. Without any slides. 25 minutes.

He also reveals that in his opinion Javascript2 will be the Next Big Language (NBL). I was kind of suspecting this would be it. Coincidently, lately I’ve discovered (what a big word) jQuery. And let me tell you, I’ve never seen any other piece of code, which is so concise and does so many things with so much style. Prototype, dojoToolkit and all other js libraries simply look pale in comparison. I’m hooked on jQuery and use it for every new project, while trying to implement it in my old ones too.

Top 10 movies of 2007

Just like for 2006 and 2005 here are ten movies I’ve seen in 2007 that completely blew my mind:

  1. Children of Men (2006)
  2. Mr. Brooks (2007)
  3. The Prestige (2006)
  4. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
  5. Stella che non c’è, La (2006)
  6. Zwartboek (2006)
  7. Ostrov (2006)
  8. Reign Over Me (2007)
  9. I Am Legend (2007)
  10. The Namesake (2006)

As usual, Hollywood movies occupy most of the list. 6 out of 10 places to be exact. Nothing changes.

Will Smith man of the year? Surely, he’s already a legend.

32nd Polish Film Festival Gdynia ‘2007

32. Polish Film Festival. 5 days of screenings. 18 movies seen. I had the chance to experience some of the best Polish cinema ever. I’m a big movie fan and as I’m from Poland I try to watch every possible Polish movie I can (and no, I’m not that patriotic, I was thinking about emigration many times…). Each year it’s different. There were better years, there were worse years. But this year the festival has surpassed my expectations by a very large margin. Most movies were outstanding. This was one of the best if not the best Polish Film Festival ever. Every Polish movie I have seen was either very good or great. There was only one bad movie in the whole main competition, namely Braciszek, so there is no usual Top 5 of the worst festival movies. Here are the best ones:

The best movies of the festival (TOP 5):

  1. Katyń (2007)
  2. Korowód (2007)
  3. Sztuczki (2007)
  4. Aleja gówniarzy (2007)
  5. Pora umierać (2007)

I miss those festival days so much…

During the festival I was also a photographer (or rather a photo reporter). Here are the links to my work:

And since I could not decide which pictures to put up here, I’m presenting you the best three of the many I took:

Agnieszka Warchulska

Agnieszka Warchulska

Julia Pietrucha

Julia Pietrucha

Damian Ul

Damian Ul

The three pictures above are Copyright © 2007 Onet.pl

7th International Film Festival Era New Horizons ‘2007

It’s been over a week since the 7th Era New Horizons Film Festival has ended. Same as last year, I’ve spent 11 days in the cinema. As always, the time has passed quicker that I could imagine. And as always, it was worth every second of it! Although I must say that the movies selection was not as good as that in 2006.

I’ve watched 51 movies. It was as much as one could watch as there were 10 regular festival days with 5 screenings a day plus the opening day with only one screening. I’ve spent about 1150 zł (circa 420$) on the whole festival (accreditation, accommodation, meals, etc.).

The best movies of the festival (TOP 10):

  1. Ostrov (2006)
  2. Gwoemul (2006)
  3. Niwemang (2006)
  4. Beneath Clouds (2002)
  5. Persepolis (2007)
  6. Sutra ujutru (2006)
  7. Look Both Ways (2005)
  8. Nuovomondo (2006)
  9. Walking on Water (2002)
  10. Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále (2006)

The worst movies of the festival (TOP 5):

  1. Nue propriété (2006)
  2. Kurz davor ist es passiert (2006)
  3. Hamlet (2007/III)
  4. Hei yan quan (2006)
  5. Extranjera (2007)

See you next year? Oh, and say no to French cinema! ;)

A real celebrity using my movie ratings plugin!

First I’ve received a standard support question concerning my WP Movie Ratings plugin (Help! Your plugin is not working!) from someone called Joshua J. Greene. He has a company that has something to do with the movies. I haven’t paid much attention to his website at first, but at some point I’ve decided to look him up on imdb and that’s when the surprise came. He actually had something to do with the Hoodwinked movie! He is an actor, producer, editor, cinematographer, composer and director (all in one). So I can be proudly say now that even celebrities use my plugin!

Reference: Joshua J. Greene movie ratings page.

Top 10 movies of 2006

Continuing from Top 25 music of 2006 and doing exactly the same for movies. Just like before. Here are the pictures that moved me deeply in 2006. They’ve shattered my mind, they’ve crushed my heart, they’ve made me laugh and they’ve made me cry my eyes out. They are all more than highly recommended.

  1. Bezmiar sprawiedliwosci (2006)
  2. Renaissance (2006)
  3. Plac Zbawiciela (2006)
  4. Syriana (2005)
  5. V for Vendetta (2005)
  6. Leben der Anderen, Das (2006)
  7. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
  8. Brick (2005)
  9. Inside Man (2006)
  10. United 93 (2006)

While I do highly enjoy watching foreign movies (see the TOP 3 aka the cream), my top 10 list consist of 6 USA-made productions. It’s just something that makes Hollywood movies so damn good. Is it money? Maybe the craftsmanship? Who knows. Point is they make them like no one other. And they are usually the best. Period. Although you are free to disagree :-)

WP Movie Ratings v1.4 released!

It’s been very long long since the latest release (1.3) of my precious WP Movie Ratings plugin. In fact, it was way too long. But it had also its bright sides, for example, I had lots of time to test it out thoroughly. Some of you bugged me via email to place your hands on the newest version before its official release and I was very happy to send it to you as it made for a great beta testing pool (thanks!). Lots of bugs were squished. Lots of code changed. I think that this is the point when my plugin reaches some kind of maturity. In its current form, that is, as there are some very heavy changes planned for 2.0.

But getting back to the just released v1.4, here are some notable changes:

  • new features: pagination when in page mode, default sorting options for page mode, option to highlight top rated movies, ability to edit imdb links for already rated movies.
  • movies are now grouped together by month when sorting by view date in page mode.
  • added a new database field with optional link that is used instead of imdb.
  • if no imdb link is given, the plugin will not look for the movie’s title on imdb.
  • fixed lots of rendering problems, character encoding issues and bugs.

You will find the detailed list of changes in the changelog file. And here’s the direct download link. Enjoy!

So what is the “rabbit’s foot” anyway?

  • It was the briefcase from Pulp Fiction.
  • ye lol, but i heard that the briefcase in pulp fiction is actually the dvels soul
  • it was Ving Rhames soul in pulp fiction.. and thats why he helped get it in this film
  • It is also the Maltese Falcon, the Continuum Transfunctioner, and the weird glow in the trunk of the car in “Repo Man”.
  • a mcdonalds mcmuffin
  • A toaster strudle… Davian gets hungry too.
  • Its the episode when the coyote catch and eat the roadrunner…
  • Its Paris Hiltons latest sex tape.
  • it s the script for the final ever episode of Lost. thus why JJ Abrams wanted Cruise to get it back.
  • Obviously, the Rabbit’s foot is Larry Wachowsky’s penis.
  • It’s Suri Cruise’s bronzed poop.
  • It’s the key to getting laid.
  • Its the one ring to rule them all.
  • It was Ethan Hunt’s Good Luck gift.
  • It’s the weapons of mass destruction the US never found in Iraq
  • it s deux ex machina.
  • If you look very closely you can see a little white furry paw in that glass thingy
  • The script for MI4

God, I love imdb boards. And MI-3 was a fantastic movie!

31st Polish Film Festival ‘2006

It’s been a while now since the 31st Polish Film Festival has ended and I was kind of too busy to write anything besides the movie reviews from the festival but now the right time has come and here is my private summary of this event. It doesn’t matter that it’s been almost a month now since it has ended as it’s a purely personal entry.

6 days, 2 cinemas, 8 simultaneous screenings. I’ve seen only 22 movies, which makes an average of 3,66 movies per day. Not much, you might say, especially comparing it with the accomplishment at 6th Era Nowe Horyzonty Film Festival this year’s summer. This time, unfortunately, besides having a great time watching the movies I was also working. Both as a reporter and a photographer.

Here are my daily reports from the festival (in Polish):

and here are my pictures:

Now as for the festival, it is no surprise that I love Polish cinema. Even its less acclaimed works. That’s why there won’t be a list of TOP 5 worst movies. Not because I don’t want to write one, but because in my opinion none of the movies qualify to be there! Year after year movie critics all over Poland say that Polish cinema is at its knees and nothing good comes out. This is, of course, entirely not true as every year there are small masterpieces to watch. And here are this year’s best movies (according to my taste, of course):

The best movies of the festival (TOP 5):

  1. Bezmiar sprawiedliwości (2006)
  2. Z odzysku (2006)
  3. Przybyli ułani (2006)
  4. Jasminum (2006)
  5. Statyści (2006)

Outside of the competition is Leben der Anderen, Das (2006), which had a special screening at the festival. It would be my number two on this list as it’s a truly remarkable piece of work. But as the above list is Polish-only it’s not there.

And btw: I really do love Polish cinema very, very much!

Damn, I love imdb

I’ve just finished watching Silent Hill and I could swore I’ve almost understood it. Almost makes a difference, though. First thing I did was opening the imdb board for this movie. Surprise, surprise at the very top of the list is the post called Complete Guide to Understanding Silent Hill. After reading it (don’t do that if you haven’t watched the movie!) I’ve bumped the rating from 9 to 10 as this is truly an excellent work (and everything makes so much sense!). Not to mention that I was a little bit off from the true meaning of the story. At moments like this I really do love imdb.