The Enemy & Penny Lane

It's movie time… again! I know, I know: I'm not very original; but just bear with me, okay?
Even though I had seen (and liked) Jerry Maguire and Elizabethtown (not great, but I confess I did like it), I had never seen one of Cameron Crowe's most emblematic and popular movies: 2000's Almost Famous. And it was about time. I therefore went to Blockbuster -one of those few and far-between visits- and got it, along with The Pursuit of Happyness (good) and Running with Scissors (not so good, to put it mildly).

I'm pretty sure everybody's seen the movie, so I'm not going to discuss the plot at length. Suffice it to say that a high schooler, William, gets the opportunity of a lifetime and gets to travel with Stillwater, a band on the rise, in order to write an article about them for Rolling Stone magazine. Then, things happen.

It turns out everybody was right: Almost Famous is a great movie. And this is coming from a guy who couldn't care less about band movies or music movies. I guess I liked it because, even though it's about a band and it's about music, it's really not about a band or music. The story is about the boy, William, who is chasing his dream of writing for a music magazine, and how he has to fight to keep his integrity and defend his view of the world. Of course I was bound to love a movie like that. Chasing your dreams? Living according to your values? Doing the right thing? What's there not to like? So if you are one of the few people who still haven't seen this film, do yourself a favor and go get it. Now.

Cuenta lo que fuimos

Meses y meses después del estreno, por fin he podido ver Alatriste, la película que adapta las novelas de Arturo Pérez Reverte. Iba preparado para el desencanto más brutal, dado las no muy positivas críticas que había escuchado hacer a ilustres personajes como Jorge, Nash (creo), Hal (creo también) o el Discípulo de Bender (que a ver si deja el rockanrollismo y se pone a leernos). Así que la puse y me dispuse a verla. Y qué queréis que os diga: la verdad es que me gustó.
Excepto por el hecho de que es demasiado larga y al final cansa un poco, todo lo demás me pareció estupendo. Lo que más se le había criticado era que la peli era algo inconexa debido a que se mezclan tramas de distintos libros de la serie. O más que mezclarse, se presentan primero una, luego otra, y luego otra más. Sin embargo, y tal vez sea porque he leído todas las novelas publicadas hasta la fecha, a mí no me parece mal que se haya hecho así. Las novelas de Alatriste son una lección de historia en volúmenes, y el autor ya dijo en su día que cada libro se centraba en un tema: la Inquisición en Limpieza de sangre, el teatro en El caballero del jubón amarillo, o la vida en galeras en Corsarios de Levante, por poner tres ejemplos. Por tanto, la serie no es sino la historia de la España de la época vista a través de los ojos del Capitán Alatriste desde que lo conocemos en la homónima novela, hasta su muerte en Rocroi que aún no se ha escrito. Y eso es lo que la versión cinematográfica presenta: años y años de la historia de España, con los sucesos más relevantes en los que Alatriste se ve inmerso. En otras palabras: que esto no es el protagonista se hace soldado, conoce a dos amigos, uno lo traiciona, y al final vence al malvado y se queda con la chica. Y aun así, algunos elementos de las novelas se alargan y entretejen para dar más unidad al todo, algo que se puede apreciar sobre todo en los personajes femeninos (no digo más para no destripar nada).
También tenía curiosidad por ver a Viggo Mortensen actuar en español, pues si bien lo había visto y oído hablar en varias entrevistas y especiales con motivo de la película, no lo había visto metido en el papel, actuando. Y la verdad es que te también me satisfizo. Es evidente que no es nativohablante, pero hace un trabajo excepcional que de ninguna manera puede criticarse.
Los únicos dos peros que le pongo a la película son la excesiva duración, y que me hubiera gustado que el Conde-Duque de Olivares hubiera tenido algo más de protagonismo. Y me quedé con las ganas de que Quevedo dijera lo de "No queda sino batirnos". Pero, en general, la película me sorprendió gratamente. Eso sí: lo que todos deberíais hacer es leer los libros. ¿Qué otra cosa esperabais que dijera?

Españoles... Fary Ha Muerto

Jose Luis Cantero "El Fary" nos ha dejado esta misma mañana. Tras meses luchando contra un cáncer de pulmón que amenazaba su vida, su corazón ha dejado finalmente de latir.

Los mitos mueren, y el resto nos hacemos viejos. Ya se nos fueron Lola Flores, Torrebruno y Pepe Carroll. El Fary era uno de los pocos grandes iconos de la cultura popular española que quedaban en pie, aunque por su estatura pareciera más bien que vivió siempre arrodillado. Falacias. Nada más lejos de la realidad.

Adiós, Fary, te recordaremos por tus canciones, y por aquellas incursiones que hiciste en el mundo de la TV y el cine. Todos nos acordamos de Menudo es mi Padre (de más que previsible próxima aparición en DVD) y de aquella gran escena en la que un tío de casi dos metros te dijo algo así como "¡Eh, enano!" y tú te revolviste y le respondiste "Enano no, recortaíto" y le metiste un guantazo que lo dejaste tieso.

Y, por supuesto, todos nos acordaremos siempre de los temas que te hicieron famoso. Como el Carabirubí o la inigualable canción El Toro Guapo. Sigue estos links ( 1 & 2), Fary, si quieres ver los videos homenaje que han hecho tus fans. ¡Ése Fary ahí, grande!

Lost in the Storm of Wolves

Michael Stackpole's official site hadn't been updated since October 15th 2005. But after a year and a half of absolutely nothing, the site's completely redesigned layout was revealed in late May. It's pretty much the same it was before, but prettier and with updates, most of them related to podcasting. One of the new features, for instance, is the Fortress Draconis podcast the author is doing, that I still haven't downloaded but that I'll be getting soon.
The other thing that called my attention was the new Stormwolf logo. And I noticed it because it's truly horrible. I don't know who drew/designed it, but it is beyond ugly. So here I was, thinking how I could do it much better, what a shame whoever drew it was chosen to do so, and so on and so forth. And then I thought hey, if I'm so sure about my superior skills, maybe I should draw one. So I decided to give it a try. I had a few ideas, but the one I like best is the image accompanying this post. There is an alternate version here that I also like, but I like them both better than what he has on his site (or maybe I'm just preposterously arrogant). Perhaps I should submit them to Stackpole, see what he thinks about my pretentiousness. Let me know what you guys think!

Rise of the Hapless Creatures

I was at Target checking out videogames (I would buy a PlayStation 2 just so I could play the uberamazing God of War II, and an Xbox 360 so I could play Gears of War) when, all of a sudden, I came across Lemmings Revolution. This brought back memories from actually playing the first game in the series, back in 1991. And this game is just the same, but with 3D environments. A fun game for the casual gamer who doesn't want to get too involved with an adventure game in which you need to remember two hundred keys and commands. It's fun, but it's also quite basic and there are some things that could have been improved, such as the clunky zooming system. Also, some more variety wouldn't hurt. I still like the game, but keep in mind I had only played the original one before this game. I have a feeling I would be tremendously disappointed if I was a hardcore Lemmings fan; but then again, I doubt there's any of those out there.

Rise of the Silver Sequel

I went to the midnight showing (first ever!) of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Thursday night. Well, I guess it was Friday morning, because the movie started at 12:01, but you know what I mean. I went there expecting something like the first movie... and that is pretty much what I got, only slightly better.

ROTSS is a fun movie, packed with action and humor. However, the action is not all that spectacular, and the humor is not that funny. I laughed, cause it was certainly funnier than Pirates 3, but some of the jokes were kind of silly. Then again, this is a movie for the whole family, and that shows. It's not dark, there's no gravitas, nothing questionable or objectionable. It's a lighthearted romp that you watch with a smile in your face, and then you move on to do other things.

The effects were good, except for the club scene: there they looked really, really awful. But the Most Awful Thing in the Film award goes to Jessica Alba's unspeakably fake-looking blonde hair (and fake blue eyes). You would think that the moviemakers would be able to either find a believable wig, or dye Jessica's hair with some level of skill. But no, my friends: this is like Halle Berry's hair playing Storm in the first X-Men. Not the color, but the laughability factor. And it's a shame, because she finally has a lot of screen time, but she just doesn't look real. A friend was also pointing out she's gotten thinner and her cheekbones are too noticeable while the rest of her face looks too small. I don't know if this is the case, but she does look weird. (Except when she's wearing glasses: then she looks damn sexy.)

Good ole Norrin Radd looks great, though: much better than I thought he would. I've never been into the character, because I always thought he looked kind of silly (not as ludicrous as Galactus, though), but they did a good job in the movie, even if Laurence Fishburne might not have been the best choice to voice him. And the Human Torch is very cool, both when he's all lit up and when he's just being a smartass. I think my favorite thing in the first movie was him, and that may very well be the case in this sequel too.

To sum it up, the movie is okay, but don't go see it with high expectations, or you'll be disappointed.

Born to be Kings (of Anime)

Hoy tenemos una noticia que no sé si hará las delicias de nuestro querido Nash, o si por el contrario le causará noches de insomnio por culpa de las pesadillas inducidas. De cualquier modo, ahí va: acaba de salir a la venta la nueva película de Highlander, conocida en España como Los inmortales. El film se llama Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, y cuenta con una curiosa innovación: es anime.
La peli cuenta la historia de Colin MacLeod, un celta dedicado a defender su tierra de los largos y codiciosos apéndices del Imperio Romano. Y dado que el general romano que lidera el ejército, de nombre Marcus, resulta ser también alérgico a diñarla, el conflicto se alarga y se alarga a través de los siglos hasta llegar al típico futuro postapocalíptico -sin Christopher Lambert- en el que Marcus domina lo que queda de New York, núcleo de lo que él espera sea un nuevo imperio modelado a imagen y semejanza del de las togas.
Podéis ver la ficha técnica aquí, y una crítica en Newsarama aquí. ¿Estará bien la película? ¿Será peor que las de imagen real? (Algo difícil, por otro lado, excepto por la primera, que sí es buena.) A ver si la alquilo y os lo digo.