Saturday, March 20, 2010 : 9:17pm

Kricfalusi Kommissions

As a huge fan of both Ren & Stimpy and George Liquor, I was jazzed to find out that he's started taking commissions. Knowing he's a huge Hanna-Barbera fan, I had him tackle the Flintstones.

But I'm also a huge Spider-man collector, so I had to have him do something with the films. Needless to say, I was very happy with my commissions.

Thursday, March 18, 2010 : 11:30pm

Tron Viral Package

March? Last week I messed around on the Tron viral game. Today I received the reward for cracking the first puzzle.

This Encom employee badge gains me access to the Encom intranet.

Checked my Encom interoffice memos. Most of it was rubbish, but there was this possible clue:

Sunday, March 7, 2010 : 10:00pm

Top Ten Movies of 2009

March? I say better late than never.

I actually compiled this list in late December, but life got in the way of posting it. Again, not necessarily a "best of" but more of a list my personal favorites from 2009. With a couple of months to reconsider, I've decided to leave my picks as is.

10. Watchmen - Zak Snyder
Uneven. Long. Painfully faithful to the material. Snyder succeeded where Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass failed. Every comic book fan's dream: a decent adaptation of Watchmen. I even liked the end device better.

9. Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
If you're a longtime reader of this blog, you know very well my serious issues with Tarantino. Yet, here is is at number nine. He could have been much, much higher. Half of this movie is a masterpiece. the first twenty minutes are astounding. Then once the Basterds show up, its just a total crapfest. For a moment, I believed Tarantino transcended himself; like P.T. Anderson with There Will Be Blood. Then he just turned it into a B-movie, which I suppose was his intention, but a letdown nonetheless.

8. Star Trek - JJ Abrams
Abrams managed to make a Trek film for newbies and fans alike. All the old characters and mannerisms were here, but felt entirely fresh. Good time at the movies, lens flares notwithstanding.

7. An Education- Lone Scherfig
Sigh... Carey Mulligan.

6. Ponyo on the Cliff- Hayao Miyazaki
I can't believe this was ignored by the Academy this year. Beautiful movie, in any language.

5. District 9 - Neil Blomkamp
Social story melded with sci-fi. The full-length feature lives up to the short subject Alive in Joburg. Moving and a rollercoaster ride at the same time.

4. Up - Pete Docter
One of the most beautiful opening ten minutes of any movie this year. Without that sequence, this doesn't get that Oscar nod.

3. Up In The Air - Jason Reitman
There was some backlash towards the end of the year, but the moods captured by Reitman got me anyway. Clooney is great, but Anna Kendrick steals the show.

2. Hurt Locker - Katheryn Bigelow
The rest of the world catches up to Bigelow. Suspenseful, emotional and thrilling. It was a tough call for me for the top film. This one almost took it.

1. Avatar - James Cameron
Why so high? Because it dazzled me. It made me feel like movies could be magic again. I don't care that it was because of the 3-D. I saw this three times in IMAX. Some may slam this film as an example of SFX driving a film. Agreed. Cameron pushed the art of film forward. The industry is once again following his lead, promoting a slate of new 3-D films. Theaters can't install 3-D or IMAX fast enough.

BTW, congrats to tonight's Oscar winners.

OLDER >

Keywords: Ron Lim, creative director, associate creative director, art director, ATTIK, Spider-man, original art