Here are some films I have seen recently:

The Social Network
The main thing I took away from this is that everyone that goes to Harvard is a jerk. Everyone male, at least. The women don't get enough screen time to call it. This actually helps make Zuckerberg a marginally sympathetic character, because he is at least the smartest jerk, and also the most sarcastic. Although I agree in part with Zadie Smith's analysis (which is worth reading, because it's Zadie Smith) that the "impressing girls" part of the character is played up a bit , I think that although Sorkin gives some hints, he thankfully doesn't go to the trouble of spelling out Zuckerberg's motivations. On the other hand, it is also true that you could boil down the motivations of almost everyone depicted here to a massive sense of entitlement.

The Master of The Flying Guillotine (vs The One-armed Boxer)
Is apparently Tarantino's favourite kung-fu flick. It contains a cast of characters that were later ripped off by any number of films and beat-em-up video games (including a stretchy yoga guy!). A tournament quickly introduces them all, and then things get serious (organised fights to the death? pfah! That's hardly serious). The film also wastes little time in establishing that foreigners are evil, a common theme in Hong Kong martial arts cinema of the 70s. The main baddie is Chinese, but his henchmen are Indian, Thai, and of course Japanese (I don't think there was a Japanese good guy in chinese martial arts cinema right up until Jet Li's Fearless in 2006, which had the advantage of the English as the colonial enemy). I would only recommend it if you are really into the genre.

Monsters
Giant monsters + love story + played straight.
I am first of all impressed that this was made for half a million dollars. It did not, in fact, have the obligatory THE REAL MONSTERS ARE US ending, even though it is strongly hinted at. The aliens remain alien, different enough that you never really understand them, or how intelligent they are.

Pontypool
A Zombie outbreak film that is actually clever. Set in a small town radio station, so you hear the world fall apart instead of seeing it. Which is much creepier.

Some other stuff.

In an effort to be more productive, I am trying out the leech-block plugin for firefox, which lets you block certain sites at certain times of the day.

This would probably be working quite well, if not for the fact that valve's Orange Box was recently on special for $5, so I have been working my way through Half-Life 2, which was the next big thing in first person shooters as of about 5 years ago. Here are my thoughts so far, so I feel better for having wasted all that time:

*AAA games are really long. I've spent so long playing only wacky little indie productions that I forgot that big studios do more than just make their point and finish up. This thing goes forever. I started playing at 9 today because I figured I was right near the end so I could do it and then get on with the rest of the day. I gave up at 1 pm, still no end in sight. Valve does lots to keep it interesting, with aesthetically interesting levels, and constant new vehicles, weapons and situations.

*So. Damn. Linear. You can approach problems in lots of different ways, but for the whole game there is really no choice in where to go. I feel for the designers, they spent lots of time designing those set pieces, so they want you to get the benefit, but jeeze. It's a pity, because so many of the elements, like the physics system and the gravity gun, could have enabled a lot more creativity from the player if the game design allowed it (I guess that's how Garry's Mod happened). And playing the troublemaker in a police state would be a great idea for a more open world game.



*Plot wise, it's okay. Most of the characters are passable, and more importantly, none of them are annoying. I like the villain, your old lab supervisor, who is now dictator of earth (proxying for the malign alien force who is really in charge). His belief that collaboration is humanity's only chance for survival seems touchingly genuine. Can't wait to shoot him in the head.