For No One

These days, I’ve been using Automator more and more to run AppleScripts (especially since Mountain Lion came out and disallowed Calendar, née iCal, from triggering AppleScripts directly: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/59257/ical-no-longer-runs-scripts).

I began copying and pasting scripts into my workflows, which is a messy solution. I kept the scripts around, because it’s easier to write and debug them in AppleScript Editor, and especially since I converted them to plaintext scripts and uploaded them to GitHub, it’s very useful to be able to easily diff them, as well.

But there’s a better way. A much better way, in fact. AppleScripts can call other AppleScripts, and this works from within the Run AppleScript workflow action, as well. The full solution looks like this:

on run {input, parameters}
    
    run script file "Macintosh HD:Some Directory On Disk:a cool script.applescript"
    
end run

Doing it that way, the Automator is a simple wrapper – you can set it and forget it. I’ve even confirmed that this works with scripts in the plain text .applescript format and compiled AppleScripts (.scpt).

Update

You can also pass the input and parameters arguments into your scripts from Automator as well. Just use the same on run handler that the Run AppleScript action defaults to (as shown above) in your script file, and pass the arguments from Automator like so:

run script file "path to script like above" with parameters {input, parameters}

A relative recently asked me whether he should get an iPhone 4 as his first iPhone, two models behind the iPhone 5, released roughly 6 months ago. I imagine the advice I gave will probably apply to the same question around this time next year, substituting model numbers.

No one knows when the next iPhone will be coming out, but odds are in favor of August or later. I would definitely recommend against the iPhone 4 at this point in time - I had it for 2 years, and it was great when it was new, and is still decent now, but starting to show its age. And when you buy a phone, you’re committing to 2 years of using it. Disregarding the points situation¹, an iPhone 4 is free (or maybe $1) when you sign up for a 2-year contract. The iPhone 5 is only $199, which is nothing compared to how much you’re going to be spending on a service plan over the life of the contract.

I’ve owned the 1st-gen iPhone, the 4, and now the 5, always buying them at launch, and have been relieved to upgrade both times. After a couple of years, the older phones start to feel slower. Apps run slower, you start to get constrained by the memory, and you’ll lose support for the latest OS sooner. I would strongly recommend the iPhone 5 if it’s at all possible - the 4G/LTE alone justifies the price difference, not to mention the larger screen, and thinner/lighter design.

I might add, depending on the person, to wait for the next model. If I were ready for a new phone, that’s what I would be doing. I had to wait 2.5 years between iPhone 4 and iPhone 5, because of the change in release cycle they began with the 4S. If I were impatient (or didn’t care about obsolescence), I would have gotten a 4S when my 4’s contract was up.

My upgrade strategy for Apple devices though, is to wait for the next model when I’m ready to upgrade. You guarantee yourself the longest period between product releases you could possibly anticipate. Of course, that doesn’t apply if your phone/computer breaks and you need a new one, but if you’re in a position to do so, I would recommend it. Also, you may be someone who doesn’t care about having the latest and greatest, and every model of iPhone has been great, so you have to make your own decision.

1. He has reward points from a credit card which can help him get a phone at a discount. ↩

This is an important update for anyone who… actually uses the thing. I haven’t been blogging for a while, so I don’t know how long ago Tumblr ditched the separate post editing page, but that and other changes left the extension bruised and battered.

I stepped in today to patch it up, and learned a whole lot about a web framework I didn’t know existed before tonight. The update should roll out to everyone automatically.

I was refreshing myself on Markdown syntax¹ (specifically for headers) on John Gruber’s authoritative Markdown Basics page, when I realized I had made a minor mistake in Tumblr+. “Footnote-style” is not the preferred nomenclature, as Gruber himself refers to them as “reference-style”. I have pushed out an update to the extension to address this oversight.

1. I was writing the My Stuff page at the time. Check it out! ↩

Today I released version 1.1 of Tumblr+, which added two features:

1. Markdown has now blossomed into its own menu item, encompassing three actions: the existing (renamed) “Define unresolved footnote links”, and two new ones allowing you to convert between footnote-style and inline links ([text](http://link.com) vs [text][link-name]...[link-name]:http://link.com). This corresponds to Issue #2 on the GitHub page for this project

2. I added a “Help” menu item, which makes it easier to get a hold of me (and to see the current version you’re running, which could help with troubleshooting

You can update from your Extensions preferences in Safari, or if you have automatic updates turned on, expect it soon.

When I first published Tumblr+, I decided to use GitHub’s “Downloads” feature, used for distributing binaries of projects. You upload a file to them, and people can download it. I got it free with the free GitHub account, and they provide unlimited downloads, and also a count of how many downloads each file gets (presently over 3600 - many thanks to those who have tried it out). Everything was running splendidly. And then, GitHub decided to pull the plug on the Downloads feature.

After thinking about what to do, where to move my hosting to, I decided on Amazon S3. Luckily, this change has been non-disruptive. The manifest file (which tells Safari when there are updates and the place from which to download them) was part of my checked-in source code, so I was able to push out an update to that. Everybody reading this who has updated their extension has already downloaded it from S3. Hooray for small victories. However, Apple’s link still points to GitHub. I submitted an updated listing to Apple, but until they accept it, new users will come through GitHub and then be updated to S3. I hope Apple updates my listing before GitHub pulls the plug completely.

In addition, Amazon S3 doesn’t give you download stats (at least not in an easily digestible form), so I signed up for S3stat, which promises to offer that service. I’ll submit a post once I’ve used that service long enough to report on it. Hopefully, the files are small enough (and still relatively obscure enough) that I can coast by on the free S3 plan for the next year, and maybe sign up for S3stat’s hilariously named Cheap Bastard Plan, but this ultimately means the extension will start to cost me money at some point in the future, which sucks.

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve added a small new link to my sidebar, which happens to make it fairly easy to donate money to support me and my work. If you use anything I’ve put out there, between my extension, and the various AppleScripts I’ve posted, you can give a token donation to show your appreciation and help keep the lights on. Also, every link I’ve ever posted to an item on Amazon.com has an affiliate link attached, so that way we could each get something.

I’m not begging, nor do I plan to, but now if you feel the unavoidable urge to show your support, I’ve given you a means of doing so. Also, I’m starting to use GitHub’s issue tracker, so if you have suggestions for Tumblr+, that’s the best place to post them.

I download a lot of videos on the web, and most of the time, they don’t come wrapped up as an iTunes-friendly m4v file. Even when they do, they may not necessarily be encoded in a way that plays nicely with all of my iOS devices (AppleTV, iPhone, iPad, etc.). So, for a long time, my download process has gone like this before loading into iTunes:

1. Download
2. Transcode
3. Tag

The tools I use for the first and third steps have not changed for a long time, but there has been a lot of movement in the Mac video transcoding space. What do I mean by transcoding? I take video that arrives in a particular format (let’s say Ogg Theora) and convert it into a format my devices accept (typically some flavor of MPEG-4 my Apple devices).

For years, I used an awesome tool named VisualHub, and it did everything I wanted. I dragged in a list of files, told it which device I wanted to play them on, and let it rip. It even made use of OS X’s Xgrid infrastructure to encode multiple files simultaneously, distributed among my Mac Pro’s 8 cores, as well as any other networked machines I cared to use. But VisualHub died (so to speak).

It was reborn as an open source project named (poorly, in my opinion) FilmRedux. I tried using it, and found it lacking in various regards. Another project forked the code base and went in its own direction, calling itself VideoMonkey. I used it for a while, dealing with its superficial bugs and slow rate of development, simply because I couldn’t find another tool that would (usually) work the way I desired.

Of course, this all applies to lists of files. If I had a single file to transcode, I used HandBrake as soon as it began accepting arbitrary files for input (it originated as a tool for ripping DVDs, for which it still excels). I love HandBrake, and would use it for all my transcoding needs, if only I could use it for a list of files. The interface has been written with ripping DVDs in mind, however, and so you can only select one file at a time. So I set out to fix that, with my tool of choice: automation!

I wanted a way to give HandBrake a list of files, and have it transcode all of them to a particular folder, using a particular settings preset. I realized this seems to be an idea ready-made for an OS X Service, and luckily, Automator (bundled with the OS) allows you to easily make Services. But, HandBrake doesn’t support AppleScript and doesn’t export any Automator Actions, so I needed to figure out another way to automate it. Luckily, HandBrake provides a CLI (command line interface) executable for the Mac.

First, you need to install the Satimage AppleScript extension. Follow the link, download the Satimage___.pkg installer, and run it. If you’re on Mountain Lion (with default Gatekeeper settings), you will need to right-click the file and click Open¹, since it hasn’t been signed by the developer, but other than that, it works 100% in Mountain Lion. The installer is very basic, only copying the Satimage.osax extension into your /Library/ScriptingAdditions/ folder.

To create your own service, follow these steps:

1. Launch Automator.app

   

2. Click File > New (Cmd+N)

3. Select Service

   

4. Click the Choose button

5. Set the following two dropdowns at the top of the service’s definition: Service receives selected files or folders in Finder

   

6. Drag in the Action named Run AppleScript (you can search to find it quickly)

   

7. Copy and paste the script below as the script’s text

8. Click the Compile button to make sure the AppleScript pasted is valid

   

9. Click File > Save (Cmd+S), and enter a name (I chose “Encode With HandBrake”), which will show up in the Services menu

on run {input, parameters}
    set handbrakeCli to "/Applications/HandBrakeCLI"
    set defaultPreset to 7
    
    -- Make sure HandBrakeCLI is installed
    set handbrakeInstalled to false
    tell application "Finder" to if exists handbrakeCli as POSIX file then set handbrakeInstalled to true
    if not handbrakeInstalled then
        display alert "Install HandBrake CLI" message "Please install HandBrakeCLI into the /Applications directory

The HandBrake CLI can be downloaded at http://handbrake.fr/downloads2.php" as critical
        return
    end if
    
    set the destination to POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt "Select the conversion destination")
    
    set the presetList to do shell script handbrakeCli & " -z"
    
    set eachPreset to every paragraph of presetList
    
    set groupEx to re_compile "<[ ]*(.+)"
    set presetEx to re_compile "[ ]*\\+[ ]*([^:]*):"
    
    set displayNames to {}
    set presetNames to {}
    
    set group to ""
    
    repeat with preset in eachPreset
        if length of preset > 0 then
            if preset starts with "<" then
                -- Pull out the group's name
                set group to find text groupEx in preset using "\\1" with regexp and string result
            else if preset contains "+" then
                set presetName to find text presetEx in preset using "\\1" with regexp and string result
                copy presetName to end of presetNames
                copy group & " > " & presetName to end of displayNames
            end if
        end if
    end repeat
    
    set chosenDisplayPreset to choose from list displayNames with title "HandBrake preset" with prompt "Choose a HandBrake preset" default items {item defaultPreset of displayNames}
    
    if chosenDisplayPreset = false then
        return
    end if
    
    set chosenDisplayPreset to chosenDisplayPreset as text
    
    set presetIndex to 1
    repeat with i from 1 to (count of items in displayNames)
        if item i of displayNames is equal to chosenDisplayPreset then
            set presetIndex to i
            exit repeat
        end if
    end repeat
    
    set chosenPreset to item presetIndex of presetNames
    
    repeat with inputFile in input
        -- Get original file's name
        
        set thePath to POSIX path of inputFile
        set prevTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
        -- Get the file name
        set inputFileName to (item -1 of (every text item of thePath)) as text
        
        -- Get the file name without an extension
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "."
        set inputFileNoExtension to items 1 through -2 of (every text item of inputFileName)
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to prevTIDs
        
        -- Put back together if file name included periods
        set outputFileName to ""
        repeat with fileNamePart in inputFileNoExtension
            set outputFileName to outputFileName & fileNamePart & "."
        end repeat
        
        -- Put on the preferred extension
        set outputFileName to outputFileName & "m4v"
        
        set handbrakeCommand to "nice " & handbrakeCli & " -i " & quoted form of (POSIX path of inputFile) & " -o " & quoted form of (destination & outputFileName) & " --preset='" & chosenPreset & "'"
        --return handbrakeCommand
        do shell script handbrakeCommand
    end repeat
    return input
end run

To use the service:

1. Select the files you wish to convert in Finder
2. Right click (or Control-click) on the selection
3. Click Services > Encode With HandBrake (or whatever you named your Service in Step 10 above)
4. The Service will prompt you for an output folder for the conversion. Select the folder you want your converted files to land in
5. The Service will also prompt you for a HandBrake preset to encode with². Select the one you wish to use. Unfortunately, the CLI doesn’t support custom presets defined in the GUI app
6. A spinning gear icon will show up on the Menu Bar at the top of your screen until the job finishes

This script has worked solidly for me for a long time, and I hope you enjoy it. As always, you can let me know if you have any problems or feature requests.

Update

I’ve gotten feedback that the re_compile command is not working for some (all?) of you. D’oh! I forgot to mention you need to install the Satimage.osax AppleScript extension. I’ve had it for a while and forgot that this script uses Regular Expressions. I’ve updated the post to include those instructions.

1. This is described on the Gatekeeper support page, under the “How to open an app from a unidentified developer and exempt it from Gatekeeper” heading ↩

2. I have it defaulting to the Apple > AppleTV 2 preset, which you can change in the following line of AppleScript: set defaultPreset to 7 ↩

Rating: ★★★★★☆

This is my first time going on the public record about The Twilight Saga. I read the books, and after the release of Breaking Dawn Part 2, I have now seen all the movies. What do I think of the series as a whole? Let me give you my perspective.

I’m not averse to romance, done well (many of my favorite comedies happen to be romantic comedies). The Twilight series teeters on the border of overdoing it a little bit. However, even at its schmaltziest, there are still other things going on with these stories: specifically, vampires and werewolves.

I’ve been a fan of vampire stories for a long time, but unlike many offering their opinions on Twilight, I’m not a purist. I’ve never said “vampires don’t sparkle”. No two vampire canons agree on 100% of the dogma. The most successful stories often bend and extend their genre conventions.

And Twilight’s changes have not been written on Stephenie Meyer’s whims; they serve the story. Obviously, if the vampires in Twilight couldn’t leave the dark, there would be no story. They wouldn’t be able to blend in with society at all, attend high school, etc. Ultimately, this is one author’s take on a non-existant creature, and it’s her prerogative to write her own rules. That doesn’t bother me.

I didn’t love the books, and disagreed with criticism calling them poorly written. Shakespearean? Certainly not. Will people be reading them hundreds of years later? Not likely, but I enjoyed them all the same. I enjoyed the movies about as much, possibly more, as the three principal characters carried on well and the effects are pretty impressive.

It’s a little strange, though, writing a blog post about just the second movie in this two-part story. That’s ultimately a problem with the double-dip conclusion favored by Harry Potter and Twilight, and I hope this movie ends that trend. I’d prefer it to be a good three-hour movie (or even four with an intermission), but I digress.

Overall, I thought this conclusion sent the series off on a high note. The climax was captivating, and the film’s reveals were well-played. Also, this film ends with what reminds me most closely of a curtain call. The end credits give each principal character a few seconds of screen time, and a full-screen title card. That makes sense when concluding a series that has spanned five films over 4 years, and whose final entry didn’t include many of the characters instrumental in the earlier chapters. It was a nice touch.

One thing caused me to cringe repeatedly throughout the movie, however: Renesmee. The hybrid offspring of a vampire and human, she ages very rapidly. Unfortunately, this movie takes the Benjamin Button/TRON: Legacy direction, and to bad effect. Renesmee looks creepy. They should have used a real baby when she was first born (and for the brief moment we see her as an adult), and used more traditional practical effects as she grew to the actress’s actual age.

You don’t need me to recommend this movie or not. If you’ve never seen a Twilight movie, I would recommend watching the first two before you come to any sort of conclusion. If, after seeing the werewolves and battles in New Moon you don’t feel like seeing the rest, don’t. If you liked all previous entries, there’s no reason you wouldn’t watch this concluding chapter.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

Rating: ★★★★☆☆

The Crush puts a new spin on the femme-fatale formula, by blending in some jail bait. This was the feature film debut performance of Alicia Silverstone, who rose to superstardom as a consequence.

She carries the film well, deftly walking the line between innocent child and twisted psychopath. Cary Elwes came across as somewhat sympathetic, but with questionable judgment.

I also got some serious laughs at seeing the computer equipment en vogue circa 1993, and how high-tech it must have seemed back then. It’s funny how far we’ve come in my lifetime alone, from beige DOS boxes to the iPhone.

I would recommend The Crush if you get the chance to see it, but not strongly, though. It stands as a decent thriller, but doesn’t push the form forward much. If you see it on your TV guide, though (as we did), there are worse ways to spend your time.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

Rating: ★★★☆☆☆

I laughed at, and enjoyed parts of Tower Heist, but it failed to make a lasting impression. The idea was novel, and the plot had some interesting twists. But seriously, what ever happened to Eddie Murphy’s career? He doesn’t contribute much to this movie.

He used to be so funny, in Saturday Night Live and many of his early movies (and even a couple of his 90’s titles), but when I saw his name appear in the opening credits, I remember asking aloud when I last saw him in a new movie. I couldn’t remember the answer, but of course, I was forgetting the Shrek movies, which I began to tune out after the second one.

The rest of the cast (a long list of recognizable names) also didn’t pull its weight, leaving the movie unsatisfying. You could do worse with your time than to watch Tower Heist, but it ultimately doesn’t offer much. I should have just watched Zoolander again.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

Rating: ★★★★☆☆

127 Hours, similar to Cast Away and other movies in the survival genre, hinged on James Franco’s performance, and he did not disappoint. In the movie’s earlier scenes we get a sense of his character. He’s a nice guy, loves the outdoors, and laughs in the face of danger (so to speak).

By the time he enters the film’s main conflict, we root for him. He carries the film well, but ultimately, that only goes so far. Danny Boyle, of whom I consider myself a fan, employs some interesting techniques to keep the tension up (and to fill out the movie’s runtime), but ultimately it didn’t feel as satisfying as it should have.

I enjoyed it, and would even recommend it, but not strongly. I probably won’t bother seeing it again.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

Rating: ★★★★★★

Where do I begin to talk about such a phenomenal movie? For one thing, few comedies stand up so well to repeat viewings. I don’t even know how many times I’ve seen Sixteen Candles, but the humor doesn’t grow stale.

John Hughes hit on some pretty universal themes with this movie, and the humor doesn’t resort to traditional jokes, gags, or setups. The humor arises out of situations and characters, all ringing true to the high school experience.

As long as teenagers go to high school, Sixteen Candles should stand the test of time. Few movies have as many memorable characters, dialogue, and situations that never grow old. This is one of my all-time favorites.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

I’d like to take a moment to thank the more than 2000 people who have downloaded Tumblr+. I hope it’s working well for you, and if you have any questions/comments/suggestions/snide remarks, feel free to contact me.

As I improve and build the extension out, I’ll post status updates to the Safari Extension tag, so you can follow me on Tumblr or that tag’s RSS feed to stay up to date.

Rating: ★★★★★☆

I didn’t realize that Tony Scott directed Unstoppable until I started writing this post, and with his recent passing, this movie will stand as his last directorial effort. How does it stack up? It’s quite different than my two favorite Tony Scott films, Top Gun and True Romance, but I really enjoyed it.

Based on a true story, Unstoppable follows the events of one particular day when the trains, to put it mildly, didn’t run on time. With an interesting and well-played mix of characters, all behaving rationally and yet at cross-purposes, the drama seems very believable as it unfolds. That’s important for a story which could potentially strain credulity.

I haven’t seen many other movies that stack up the tension so high and keep it going throughout an entire movie. Speed is the only one coming to mind, but is certainly handled in way more over-the-top manor. The events of Speed have never happened to anybody, and probably never would, but those of Unstoppable did and easily could. That helps you to invest in the characters. What if that train were headed to my town? What if something happened at my job requiring such a huge effort to save so many lives?

Fargo notwithstanding¹, the “based on true events” label can make for great storytelling. If you’re interested in the actual events Unstoppable depicts (after seeing it! Don’t spoil the movie for yourself, I beg you!), you can get started reading about them on Unstoppable’s Wikipedia page, which links to the dedicated article about the event.

It’s a good movie, a story of real-life heroes. See it sometime, if you’re in the mood for sitting on the edge of your seat.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

1. Fargo claimed to be based on a true story, but was not ↩

Rating: ★★★★★★

I love James Bond. I watched the entire series, along with John Gruber and Dan Benjamin when they went through all of them on a prior incarnation of The Talk Show, gaining a perspective on the entire series in the process. Growing up, Pierce Brosnan was my Bond, the first I had seen in a theater or on video (and video games, as the Goldeneye N64 game was pretty popular. By the time Casino Royale came out, I had stopped following the series. I watched it and Quantum of Solace for the first time during the aforementioned 5 By Bond marathon.

I came to understand one important thing watching the entire series: the movie makes the actor, not so much the other way around. Roger Moore, the least favorite Bond of many people, was in some pretty good movies, and some pretty bad ones. George Lazenby may or may not have ultimately been a good Bond, but was placed in an impossible position taking over for Sean Connery (widely held as the primo Bond), and a less-than-stellar screenplay.

When it comes to Daniel Craig, I feel that he’s a good Bond. Separately, I feel the three movies he has starred in are among the best Bond films. What’s more, Craig has played the Bond of these movies very well. He starts out as what “M”¹ referred to as a “blunt instrument” in Casino Royale, and by Skyfall, has become Britain’s top agent. He still possesses the raw physical skills his missions require, and has developed his intellectual side further.

While Casino Royale broke with the classic Bond conventions in most ways, Skyfall brings most of them back. This bothered some people, but I admire the approach. They stripped the character and narrative down to its most basic elements, removing any hint of cockamamie or camp, because they needed to. The Brosnan movies had veered so far into mediocrity, the series required a severe and definite course correction to regain credibility. Over the following two films, they built us back up to the Bond we’ve always known, and have shown some restraint in doing so. All the standard elements (gadgets, cars, women, villains, theme songs, etc.) are back, but all are done well, with the levels dialed down to levels acceptable for modern audiences.

Skyfall ultimately concludes the telling of Bond’s origin story, 3 films in the making. When you’re remaking a character who has lasted through 20 prior movies, it makes sense to take your time rebooting him, rather than doing so in one swift step. So, while you could complain that elements of Skyfall have been ripped from prior entries, it makes sense when you consider that the series has now certainly been rebooted. The story of the villain reminds you of GoldenEye’s villain, or the opening scene’s climax happened in You Only Live Twice? Those are some interesting concepts from the earlier series, ready to be recycled. Are Dr. Octopus, The Green Goblin, and Venom off-limits for the newly started Spider-Man series? I think not, since it’s going by the rules of a reboot. Just use them better than before, or don’t bother.

So, how do you judge Skyfall? As a Bond movie, it’s certainly one of the better ones. As an action movie, for a viewer who has never seen a previous Bond entry? I feel this would be an ideal starting point. From the opening and title sequence² through to the surprises revealed in the denouement, the final pre-credits statement “James Bond Will Return” nails my sentiment – he certainly has.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

1. Should it now be “Em”? If you’ve seen Skyfall, you’ll understand the question. ↩

2. Awesome choice of Adele. The title song certainly resides in the top five Bond songs ↩

Rating: ★★☆☆☆☆

I enjoyed the original Wall Street, though I don’t remember it in great detail. I remember, in vague terms, that it had a lot of things the sequel lacked: fresh, compelling characters, high stakes (and the accompanying consequences), and a story that moved fluidly from beginning to end.

I recall criticism upon the initial announcement of Money Never Sleeps that the original needed no sequel, but I held out hope. After all, Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone both returned, and neither’s career had tanked so badly as to require a desperate last-ditch sequel. And yet, somehow, that’s how this came off.

The basic premise, of Gordon Gekko’s return from prison into a much-changed world, could have been good. Shia LaBeouf’s character was somewhat interesting, but not developed well enough.

My biggest gripe was the ending (with the stilted plot close behind). It might be a little bit of a spoiler, so don’t read the rest of this paragraph if you care about such things, but the ending soured any chance for satisfaction. What did the denouement ultimately tell me? Bad guys don’t really change, and con-men will always con, even their own family. Why do I need to watch a movie to tell me that?

If done right, this movie could have paved the way for a subsequent series, but the stilted execution of this entry guaranteed I won’t be seeing any further entries. This time around, greed was bad.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

Rating: ★★★★★★

Though it’s about as old as I am, I managed not to see Short Circuit until now. That’s a shame, because I can only imagine how much my childhood self would have loved this movie, which is certainly not to say I didn’t enjoy it as an adult.

It succeeds on many levels, but I’ll focus on what I appreciated most. I enjoyed this movie primarily as a comedy, especially since its sci-fi aspects have aged less gracefully. But strictly as a comedy, it had me laughing harder than many other movies have in recent years.

Fisher Stevens’s character, Ben, with his severely botched pop culture phraseology, entertains as a human so completely out of touch with his own language, while the star, “Number 5”, does so because he’s a machine who is so human. I laughed so hard at both of them, I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite. Each of them alone in a movie would have been enjoyable, but the two of them together, each presenting a counterpoint to the other, makes this a comedy to study.

And then there’s Stephanie, Ally Sheedy’s character. She provided a grounded point of view on the movie’s events, and provided somewhat more mild humor. At least they developed her character pretty well, to the point she became a real character, more than just a hollow love interest. And Steve Guttenberg, a slacker geek in this movie, was alright, but I don’t expect much more from him – his character had some interesting moments, but not any great ones. His best scenes were toward the end, as he’s testing and probing Number 5’s capabilities.

Obviously, anyone who has seen Wall•E might think Short Circuit looks similar¹. It is, in somewhat unimportant ways. Wall•E’s character looks similar, they’re both intelligent robots, and they both have comedic and serious elements to them. They each also share similar moments in their third acts, which I will not spoil here. But most importantly, they both have robots as main characters, who through clever writing, acting, and production, make you care about them every bit as much as, or possibly more than, their human co-stars.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes sci-fi and/or comedy, and for some reason it’s been residing in bargain bins at Best Buy and Amazon – dig through the trash around it, and get a copy.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

1. If, like me, you saw Wall•E first, and go to see Short Circuit, you might be surprised at Number 5’s size. He’s a big boy. ↩

A couple big things have happened since my last post. The first of them caused the over-one-month gap of content. I crashed my motorcycle.

It was my first time out on the road on a bike. I planned out a short route close to home, but since I still don’t know the roads perfectly, I hit an unexpected road condition (stop sign and three-way intersection with little warning), and my mind overanalyzed the situation. I made a half-assed attempt at turning without slowing down at all, and broke my clavicle in three places as I hit the ground:

But, I got up, got the bike back upright (and put together, as the seat had flown off) with the help of some friendly passers by, rode home, and after several weeks, I’m mostly healed. I’ll have a lump on my shoulder where the fracture is healing, but should otherwise regain all use of my shoulder. I’d say I’m over 90% of the way there already. And worry not, the bike fared way better than I did, suffering only a bent tail light bracket and some dirt. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to wait for spring to go out again and work on my skills more (in the parking lot again).

And then, during my recovery, I got some great news: Apple accepted my Tumblr+ extension into the Safari Extensions Gallery. You can find me under the Social Networking category (they don’t make it easy/possible to provide a direct link there). As always, you can download Tumblr+ from its GitHub page directly.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆☆

I like Brad Pitt quite a bit, and scanning through his IMDb page to confirm it, I’ve never seen him in a movie I didn’t like – and beyond that, he’s in some of my all-time favorites. Say what you want about the man’s appearance or talent, but he can pick a script (or his agent can, whichever).

So how the hell did he choose this pretentious artsy-fartsy meandering aimless in-cohesive mess? I was going along with the movie, waiting to see where it was all leading. And then we were watching dinosaurs for half an hour¹, and I knew exactly what kind of movie it is.

Have you seen Adaptation before? I love that movie. There’s a part where he contemplates starting his movie at the beginning of the universe, and builds from there to the birth of the main character. But it took only a few minutes, and it was hilarious – it was lampooning pretentious ivory-tower-screenwriter movies like Tree of Life (which obviously came almost a decade later).

I don’t mind watching a movie with a complex narrative structure, or one that asks you to synthesize your own experience from the material given. I liked Melancholia and Mulholland Drive, and loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Vanilla Sky, all movies with a non-linear plot which, at least to some degree, ask you to put together a lot of the story in your head. But Terrence Malick took that dial and cranked it to 11 with this one.

He doesn’t set expectations for what’s going to happen in the movie, so you have no framework for piecing together the fractured story that follows. All we find out in the beginning is that one of their kids died. So I then watched the rest of the movie trying to answer a few questions. Which kid is it who grows up to be Sean Penn²? Which kid dies and how? What happens to the third brother? I still don’t know the answers, and wasn’t given enough to even draw my own conclusions, or care one way or another about it.

I could have enjoyed the movie, even its artsy-fartsy aspects (the poetic surreal imagery, dinosaurs, etc.), if the first 20 minutes had set my expectations properly. Perhaps Malick assumed that viewers have read press surrounding the movie, and know what to expect. I did not. As expressed in other movie posts, I go into most movies knowing as little as possible. In this case, all I knew was it was supposed to be a great movie. So if you haven’t seen it, but after reading this still somehow want to, let me help you have more of a chance to enjoy it than I did.

Appreciate each scene on its own. Don’t expect any explanations or tidy conclusions. The point of the movie, as far as I could tell, is to explore childhood and its end, through the lens of one particular family. Maybe you can enjoy it, but I sure as hell didn’t. I just didn’t get it.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

1. I realize it may not have been a full half-hour, but it certainly felt like it, and was probably close. ↩

2. How did his name get top billing? He’s on screen for 5 minutes, with no significant dialogue. It’s a cameo. ↩

On the latest episode of The Talk Show, The iPhone 5 Episode, John Gruber and MG Siegler discussed barcodes on an iPhone screen not scanning properly, and speculated that Passbook (a new feature of iOS 6) might require a special type of scanner. They’re partially right, as explained in the wwdc videos about Passbook¹.

Passbook authors can choose between three styles of barcode:

• PDF417
• Aztec
• QR

Those three styles all have something in common: they’re 2D barcodes, as contrasted from the old-school 1D barcodes, as seen in most stores.² The presenter in the WWDC videos explains their choice to only support 2D barcode formats.

Scanners for 1D barcodes typically use lasers to read them, and those do not work (at least not well) with iPhone screens, as I’ve experienced in the past with scanned-in rewards cards. The 2D formats can only be read by optical scanners (taking photos of the target), which work fine with iPhone screens. Passbook cranks up the brightness on the phone’s screen all the way when it’s displaying a barcode to make a successful scan even more likely.

Not all barcode scanners will properly read an iPhone’s screen, but Apple chose barcode formats for Passbook which require scanners that will work.

1. The links require an Apple Developer account, but not a paid one. The free accounts have access to the WWDC session videos. I think (and hope) these are no longer under NDA, since iOS 6 has been publicly released. ↩

2. The Wikipedia barcode article gives examples of many popular 1D and 2D barcode formats ↩

Rating: ★★★★☆☆

I’m not “into” baseball. I played it in elementary and middle school, but dropped it (along with most other sports) from high school onward. I understand it, I enjoy going to a game every now and then, I have my favorite teams, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a fan. I am, however, a fan of Brad Pitt, and I heard Moneyball was pretty good, so I gave it a shot.

As it turns out, it was up my alley, with a good sense of humor, and a plot about managing a team based on science and analysis, which I can relate to. I enjoyed following the Oakland A’s 2002 season¹, and thought the story unfolded very well. Also, for once, I actually enjoyed Jonah Hill in something, so thank God for small favors. The character drama around Pitt’s characters family added a little bit to the story, but felt a little like filler.

If you like baseball at all, and have any interest in the management side of things, you should check out Moneyball. It’s not an all-time great masterpiece of cinema, but I’m glad I saw it.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

1. I actually saw the A’s play the Yankees in Oakland during the following season while I was in a high school conference, but didn’t follow baseball enough to know who Billy Beane was or anything ↩

Rating: ★★★☆☆☆

Time after time, I’ve seen the movies Clint Eastwood has directed, and every time I’ve been amazed for one reason or another. Well, almost every time. I approached J. Edgar almost expecting to love it, as I had Million Dollar Baby, Changeling, or Gran Torino. Perhaps it’s unfair to have such expectations, but I feel the same way about Pixar. Once you make that number of hits, I start to expect more hits.

J. Edgar missed that mark for me. That’s not to say it’s a total turd; there were certainly things I liked about it. Quite a few of them, actually. Leonardo DiCaprio gave a great performance, his makeup looked fairly realistic, and I felt like I did learn quite a bit about Hoover (I didn’t know much at all before).

So, what didn’t sit right with me? The movie felt like a montage of scenes from Hoover’s life, rather than forming a cohesive narrative. The whole point of his life was building up the FBI into the organization we know today, but Eastwood doesn’t show that organization as it now stands. Instead, the conclusion focused on his secret files, which had far less consequence.

While watching J. Edgar, I kept thinking of another movie, and not just because it shares a star: The Aviator. It’s also a biopic of a great man with a tremendous impact on history, who had some severe mental and character flaws. And while I learned a lot about Howard Hughes watching The Aviator, the story had much more to it. We hoped Hughes would find happiness, that the Spruce Goose would be a success, that he could pull him self out of seclusion. J. Edgar lacked that conflict in the narrative, and it made his character far less interesting.

I have to imagine enough happened in Hoover’s life to make a better movie than this, but if that’s not the case, then maybe the movie shouldn’t have been made in the first place. Maybe Eastwood should have gone the documentary route, rather than biopic. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend this movie. If you want to learn about Hoover, you would probably learn a lot more from a book or documentary on the topic.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

Rating: ★★★★☆☆

I had no idea what to expect, and nonetheless this movie surprised me. I knew to expect a long runtime, and thanks to the descriptive text iFlicks added, I knew I was watching the director’s cut. I couldn’t even start to guess how they got this movie down to a 139 minute cut from the incredible 229 minute version I saw.

What surprised me most was how dirty the movie was. It wasn’t a problem, but I didn’t expect it, given the historical setting, and the ages of the characters involved. Speaking of which, I thought Sergio Leone did a good job balancing the screen time of the characters as adults and children, though I definitely enjoyed their childhood more than the rest of the movie. Leone also effectively linked the characters’ adult and child actors with editing and character work, leaving no doubt which actors played each character at both ages. In the otherwise fantastic Sleepers, I couldn’t tell who was who as an adult, my biggest gripe with that movie.

It’s kind of tough to get past that runtime, though. The movie still holds your attention the whole time, but I almost feel it’s irresponsible of a director and/or screenwriter¹ to write that much into a single story. There’s almost always a better way. For this movie, they could have easily split it into two parts, one focusing on the children, one on the adults, each flashing back/forward where necessary.

I don’t know if I would recommend it, on the whole, for that reason. I would only recommend it for those who have the time, and really like their gangster movies. It’s not a masterpiece of the genre, but it’s pretty good.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

1. In this case, the movie had 6 screenwriters, which itself might be the problem, and is never a good sign. ↩

Rating: ★★★★☆☆

I enjoy animation, but more specifically, I would say I enjoy the animation of Disney and Pixar. It’s tough for me to enjoy anything else, because they have set the bar so high. Particularly since the spread of computer animation, there have started to be many many animated features which pander to children. You’ll never get me to watch Happy Feet or Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs Evil (and I won’t even link to them). Every now and then I hear some buzz that a non-Pixar non-Disney animation might not be too bad, and I give it a try.

Despicable Me has a lot going for it. Steve Carell turned in a pretty good performance (though not award winning by any stretch), the minion characters are pretty amusing (and I imagine kids would go crazy over them), and the 3 girls are pretty cute (especially the youngest). The writers also came up with some good gags about what a supervillain’s life might be like when he’s not in the middle of a crime, something other stories usually don’t focus on.

There are a lot of little laughs, a couple big ones, and a passable story. I had a tough time assessing how much I liked the movie overall. I have gone back and forth between 4 and 5 stars several times, but settled on 4. It’s a good animation, but I don’t feel like I would have to see it again. When I have kids, I’m not sure if Despicable Me will make the approved-viewing list between Cars and Finding Nemo.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

Rating: ★★★★★☆

Ever since the first Expendables came out, I’ve been anticipating the second one. If ever there was a movie that was begging for a followup, this was it. As more news leaked out about the sequel, I started to get pretty excited. It was bringing back most of the original cast, and adding in a few people who were notably absent, or in very reduced roles, the first time around¹.

I walked out of the theater with a somewhat mixed reaction, though. Jean-Claude Van Damme provided a worthy (and perhaps even superior) choice over Eric Roberts from the first chapter as the villain. His character took Roberts and Steve Austin and rolled them into one character, and their fight was much better. Who wouldn’t want to see Stallone vs. JCVD? The other various action pieces worked well, though there seemed to be fewer martial arts sequences, which were the best parts of the original.

Liam Hemsworth made a significant contribution to the movie. He’s likable, and through him, we learn why a guy would decide to become a mercenary like the rest of the team. His reason doesn’t speak for everyone else, but it lends another touch of humanity to the other characters (in addition to his own).

I realize an action movie like this doesn’t warrant much discussion about plot, but seriously, why does Stallone’s character need a romantic interest in each movie? It worked well enough the first time around, but this time it seemed entirely unnecessary.

Only one other thing that bothered me in any major way: the multiple deus ex machinas employed. They become semi-explained at the end, but it felt a little lazy, especially after the first one.

As I mentioned about The Expendables, these movies only need to deliver one thing to be successful: bad-asses kicking ass. The Expendables 2 delivers, but it seemed to be missing a little something from the first time around.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

1. I missed Mickey Rourke. It felt weird they didn’t explain away his absence in any way, or even better, work in a short cameo. Since they didn’t kill him offscreen or something, they could bring him back in another sequel, and I hope they do.
   
   And while we’re on the topic, Sly, if you’re listening, please include Clint Eastwood in as major a role as possible the next time around. Please. With his hits the last decade, he’s turned into such an old bad-ass, he would fit in great. I would love to see that.  ↩

Rating: ★★★★★★

After 4 years, we get the followup to The Dark Knight, and this time around, the press seemed divided. After I declared the previous entry to be amongst the greatest movies of all time, how does the (alleged) conclusion to this trilogy stack up?

I like that the first act of the movie has a Dark Knight Returns kind of vibe. You see Batman old and out of shape, and wonder if he’ll put back on the cape and cowl. And his foe, Bane? I love Tom Hardy, and have yet to see him in a movie I didn’t like. But there is absolutely no way he could top Heath Ledger’s Joker performance. Those are clown-sized shoes to fill, so I could hardly fault him for that.

Bane presents a formidable opposition to Batman in this entry. He takes him all the way past the brink of ruin, and comes closer to success than any villain I remember seeing in a movie. Where The Joker was Batman’s intellectual peer, Bane matches Batman’s wits and exceeds his physical capabilities. Though Christopher Nolan deviated substantially from traditional portrayals of Bane (comics, cartoons, Batman Forever), he does so to good effect.

And then he gives us Catwoman, played capably by Anne Hathaway. She also gives Batman a run for his money, and continues Nolan’s grounded approach to the Batman mythology. We have all the hallmarks of Catwoman’s character (the felonious tendency, the love/hate attraction between her and Batman), without her becoming a cartoon (as in Batman Returns, and probably in Catwoman, not that I chose to see it).

Nolan made some interesting choices with this entry. We have, as always, a billionaire hero, but who forms his opposition in this entry? It’s practically the Occupy Wall Street movement. Bane, like so many politicians today, easily exploits class resentment to cause civil unrest and further his ends. Under his reign anyone with any money instantly becomes a target. Of course, the movie was probably already in post-production by the time that “movement” sprang up in September of last year, just as no one could have known the co-founder of a Bane homophone hedge fund would be running for president, so I don’t imply any causation there. But the correlation stands.

And oh boy, does Nolan bring the story home with the ending. Multiple reveals, executed flawlessly, fall into place and draw the whole (alleged) trilogy full circle. Nolan raised the bar so very high in The Dark Knight that it was unlikely any sequel could top it, and I would say that overall, it beats The Dark Knight Rises, owing largely to Heath Ledger. This movie rocks hard though, and comes very close to equalling its predecessor.

In the next section I want to discuss a topic which will spoil the ending if you haven’t seen the movie, so fair warning:

Spoiler Territory

I discussed in my thoughts on Batman Begins about how so far, the entry of Robin into a Batman series almost inevitably brings with him a fairly high level of camp. Nolan knocked me for a loop with the reveal that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character basically is Robin. And as with Catwoman and Bane, he grounds him by removing some of the typical lore.

Rather than the product of circus training, and not orphaned by the direct actions of a super villain, he’s just a plain orphan who’s had a hard life. He chooses Batman as a role model, and becomes a cop, choosing to work within the system. He becomes what Jim Gordon ceased to be: an idealist willing to stand up to corruption at any cost.

What happens next, after he strolls into the Batcave? I see one of two possibilities. Either he becomes the next Batman, replacing Bruce Wayne (because, as Wayne pointed out in Batman Begins, Batman is a symbol who can not be destroyed), or perhaps he takes his technology, adapts the costume, and becomes Nightwing (the persona Dick Grayson takes on once he grows up and no longer wishes to Batman’s permanent sidekick). I don’t see him wearing read and the eyes-only mask, and taking on the Robin persona. I may be wrong, but I don’t find that likely.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

Rating: ★★★★★★

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, Nolan came back and topped Batman Begins in every way. The Dark Knight came out amidst such overwhelming praise, I left the theater underwhelmed. No movie could have lived up to the hype surrounding The Dark Knight. Leaving the theater, I wasn’t sure what to think, as it seemed much of the hype sprung from Heath Ledger’s tragic death.

I certainly enjoyed the movie, but even watching the Blu-ray release months later, I still failed to understand how the movie had received such enormous praise. I let the movie completely vacate my mind. And then the hype for The Dark Knight Rises began to a similar tune as the last time. To prepare for its release, I rewatched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight again. And finally, I had gotten enough distance from it. I experienced the full impact of this movie, and came away surprised at how accurate those early reviews were.

If this summer’s The Avengers is Goodfellas of Superhero movies, a popular take on an existing genre with flawless structure that fires on all cylinders, The Dark Knight is certainly The Godfather: a masterpiece to be shown in film schools for decades to come. The Avengers, like so many other Marvel movies, like Iron Man or this summer’s Amazing Spider-Man, create a fun experience, with plenty of laughs and action. Batman Begins had a hint of that, but The Dark Knight eradicated it completely, replacing it with a dark, cynical humor The Joker brings to the table.

But in addition to bring back the cool factor Batman Begins, this entry knocks your socks off with drastically increased stakes, one of the best film performances of all time (seriously, Heath Ledger was that good as The Joker), tons of new gadgetry, nail-biting suspense, major tragedy and loss. As high as Batman Begins raised the bar, The Dark Knight vaulted over it with The Tumbler (which sadly served a greatly diminished role in this movie). I don’t have much to add. Just see this movie. Now. Go. Watch Batman Begins first, but do it. Seriously. You won’t regret it.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD

Rating: ★★★★★★

I find it difficult to begin this post. I have so many things on my mind about Batman as a character, his history, his films, and this Christopher Nolan-helmed series specifically, it’s tough to sort it all out. I’ll take the Siracusian route to my writeup, and begin with an abbreviated history of Batman on film.

It all started with the Batman serials. While they aspired to depict a gritty crime story, and it does succeed in parts, it can’t help but depict Batman and Robin as happy go-lucky chums. Robin entered the comics surprisingly early in Batman’s history (less than a year after Batman’s debut), so this isn’t surprising. But Robin ends up causing one of Batman’s conundrums: can Batman be presented in a serious manner with Robin tagging along?

More than 20 years after the serials, we got the Batman TV series and movie, featuring Adam West. A pop culture phenomenon which saved the Batman comics from the brink of financial ruin, it stayed pretty close to the tone of the comics of the time. In a word, they were “campy”. This successful adaptation didn’t attempt to create a “dark tone” in the least, and created the longest-running image of Batman’s character in the public consciousness.

Nearly 20 years after that series’s conclusion, Batman’s turn toward the darker version we know today began in the comics, thanks to brilliant writers and artists like Frank Miller and Alan Moore. These 80’s comics raised the stakes in Batman’s conflicts with his foes, and treated the character with the utmost seriousness. If you haven’t read Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, or The Killing Joke, go pick them up immediately. If you like Batman at all, you must read them.

Tim Burton updated the pop perception of Batman’s character to reflect the contemporary comics with 1989’s Batman, and turned it even darker with the sequel Batman Returns. Burton kicked off what is still the longest-running series of Batman features, but something happened after Burton’s first two entries. The movies turned goofy, and guess who showed up? Yes, Robin. With Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, the series went from dark and serious to goofy and campy. With the series brought to an unceremonious end as the iceman cometh, fans like myself wondered where they would take Batman.

Warner Brothers decided on a path which seems obvious now, but broke new ground back in 2005. They rebooted the series with Christopher Nolan in the director’s chair. What makes it a “reboot”? Certainly, Tim Burton’s take was even more different from the prior series. To me, it’s considered a reboot, because everyone at the time still considered the 90’s Batman movies to be current. Batman & Robin had come out only 8 years earlier. Prior reboots had been separated from the earlier series by at least 20 years. So to me, it’s a reboot, because it’s released during the time frame in which you would expect a sequel rather than a new story. This is common now, but broke new ground then.

Going into Batman Begins that summer, I didn’t know what to expect. Would it be the same Batman, would it still be good? As goofy as the 90’s movies got, those were the Batman movies I grew up watching and anticipating.

What we got in Batman Begins was a complete rethinking of Batman, incorporating a completely new vision of him. No longer campy, I would call this movie “grounded”. Everything about this movie attempts to depict what would “really happen”, so to speak. If Bruce Wayne were real, and decided to fight crime, how would he go about it? By bringing in characters from the comics who had never been seen in a movie (Scarecrow, Ra’as al Ghul, Lucius Fox, Carmine Falconi, and others), he created a well-rounded world for Batman to inhabit. Realistic motivations and character traits drive the story forward, and characters fall into serious peril with dire consequences.

Inspired by the same 80’s comics as Burton, Nolan ended up creating what was the best superhero movie to date. With top-notch acting, great action sequences, and more than anything else, and a high degree of the intangible “cool factor”, Batman Begins changed the game when it comes to superhero movies. Where could Nolan possibly go from there? A teaser in the last seconds of the movie tantalized audiences, who would have to wait 3 years for the next installment to arrive.

Links: IMDb | Blu-ray | DVD