Archive for December, 2009

My “New” Top 10 of Movies

Posted 1267 days ago · Tagged: amelie, american beauty, fight club, leon, pulp fiction, robocop, the sixth sense, trainspotting, twelve monkeys, unbreakable · 0 Comments

I’ve had a pretty good idea of what my favorite 10 movies are for a couple of years now. The movies usually shift place once in a while, but new movies are rarely added to the list, which can be seen in its current state on this page. However, I recently stumbled upon a website called Flickchart, which makes you choose the better of two randomly chosen movies. If you do this long enough, a pattern should appear with your favorite movies climbing towards the top of your Flickchart, and this is what I’ve done. At the moment, I’m actually pretty satisfied with my “new” top 10, and I thought I’d compare it to my old one here.

My top 10 according to Flickchart:

10. Unbreakable (New)

My old no. 10 was True Romance, which is now off the list completely. I’ve always liked Unbreakable, but I’ve really gotten a new-found admiration for the movie over the recent year.

To me it is one of the best super hero movies out there, and one of Shyamalan’s finest. I’ve also always liked True Romance, directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino, two of my favorite action-movie filmmakers (although Scott hasn’t made anything but seizure-inducing, Denzel Washington-attending crap fests the last couple of years). Still, I’m okay with it going off the list.

9. RoboCop (8)

RoboCop is one of my favorite sci-fi movies, and probably my favorite which takes place in a dystopian, mega-corporation future. RoboCop was one of those movies I always watched when I was sick as a kid, and rewatching it about a year ago I fell completely in love with it again. Of the amazing Paul Verhoeven trilogy (RoboCop, Starship Troopers, Total Recall) this is the only one which made this new (and old) list.

8. Twelve Monkeys (7)

Moving down from a 7th place on the old list, we have Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys. I have a weird love-hate relationship with Gilliam, I watched The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus yesterday and didn’t like it, but Twelve Monkeys and Monty Python and the Holy Grail are some of my favorite movies. In Twelve Monkeys Gilliam mixes his weird style with a crazy time-travel story, which is one of the few of those that makes kind of logical sense. Also, Brad Pitt’s role is one of the best of his career.

7. The Sixth Sense (New)

Another new-comer on the list, also from Mr. Shyamalan. I had not watched this movie since its premiere, but watched it about a month ago and really, really liked it. It is no surprise that Shyamalan was hailed as the new great filmmaker after experiencing the suspense and plot twists in this movie, which work very well even if you know the ending.

6. American Beauty (9)

Moving up from no. 9 is Sam Mendes’ masterpiece about the depressed suburban father who’s had enough of his mediocre existence. I’ve loved this movie since the first time I saw it, and it probably deserves this higher spot on the list.

5. Pulp Fiction (4)

Another long-time favorite of mine, Pulp Fiction was probably one of those movies that sparked my interest in film. Loved by many, Tarantino’s masterpiece heralded a new era of cinema. I recently saw Inglourious Basterds for the second time, and even though it doesn’t quite reach the quality of Pulp Fiction I’m very happy that Tarantino is still making high quality movies.

4. Trainspotting (5)

Danny Boyle is one of my favorite directors, the man almost seems to take on a new genre with every movie and still manages to make some very original (28 Days Later, The Beach, Sunshine). Trainspotting is still my favorite of his movies and at this place on the list the movies are almost interchangeable when it comes to deciding my favorite.

3. Fight Club (2)

Fincher’s Fight Club is also one of those movies which instantly became a favorite of mine. The visual style, use of CGI, the plot twists, the acting, it all comes together very, very well. The old list had One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which is now off the list completely. I’ve only seen that movie once and even though I loved it, it probably needs some rewatching before it gets back on the list.

2. Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (1)

I never expected this to leave its 1st place (and it will probably go back on top when I watch it again), but at the moment I madly love the new top of the list. Anyway, Amélie is one of those movies that just makes you incredibly happy after seeing it. There’s a lot of gloomy, harsh movies on this list, so I’m kind of happy that I love this movie so much.

1. Léon (6)

The rank of this movie kind of surprised my (and actually made me make this post), but after rewatching it on Blu-ray a couple of months ago I had a hard time hiding how much I love this movie. It’s also one of those films that I’ve seen a bunch of times as a kid and come to appreciate with the years. The relationship between Léon and Mathilda (Natalie Portman’s debut role) is probably my favorite on film, especially because of Portman’s incredible acting. Apparently the relationship was supposed to have been much more erotic, as in Lolita, but that part of the script was discarded. I don’t know if I would’ve preferred that version, the relationship in the final movie is quite well-balanced, sometimes making you cringe, but not enough to make you dislike Léon (which the early draft might’ve done). Also, Gary Oldman plays Stansfield, one of the most terrifying villains I’ve seen. Anyway, incredible movie.

Closing Thoughts

I think I’ll use this list as my new top 10, and then use Flickchart to see if anything changes along the line. When writing this post I also realized (to my satisfaction) that I really love movies with Bruce Willis (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys). As a bonus, my favorite 11-20 movies, according to Flickchart, are: Oldboy, Magnolia, Seven, True Romance, The Terminator, Die Hard, The Big Lebowski, Battle Royale, Children of Men, and No Country for Old Men. However, these are probably not very accurate yet.

Moff’s Law

Posted 1270 days ago · 0 Comments

I had to post this amazing rant about the ridiculous “just enjoy the movie” comment you often see in movie discussions. It is called “Moff’s Law” since the author’s user name is Moff.

Of all the varieties of irritating comment out there, the absolute most annoying has to be “Why can’t you just watch the movie for what it is??? Why can’t you just enjoy it? Why do you have to analyze it???”

If you have posted such a comment, or if you are about to post such a comment, here or anywhere else, let me just advise you: Shut up. Shut the fuck up. Shut your goddamn fucking mouth. SHUT. UP.

First of all, when we analyze art, when we look for deeper meaning in it, we are enjoying it for what it is. Because that is one of the things about art, be it highbrow, lowbrow, mainstream, or avant-garde: Some sort of thought went into its making — even if the thought was, “I’m going to do this as thoughtlessly as possible”! — and as a result, some sort of thought can be gotten from its reception. That is why, among other things, artists (including, for instance, James Cameron) really like to talk about their work.

Now, that doesn’t mean you have to think about a work of art. I don’t know anyone who thinks every work they encounter ought to only be enjoyed through conscious, active analysis — or if I do, they’re pretty annoying themselves. And I know many people who prefer not to think about much of what they consume, and with them I have no argument. I also have no argument with people who disagree with another person’s thoughts about a work of art. That should go without saying. Finally, this should also go without saying, but since it apparently doesn’t: Believe me, the person who is annoying you so much by thinking about the art? They have already considered your revolutionary “just enjoy it” strategy, because it is not actually revolutionary at all. It is the default state for most of humanity.

So when you go out of your way to suggest that people should be thinking less — that not using one’s capacity for reason is an admirable position to take, and one that should be actively advocated — you are not saying anything particularly intelligent. And unless you live on a parallel version of Earth where too many people are thinking too deeply and critically about the world around them and what’s going on in their own heads, you’re not helping anything; on the contrary, you’re acting as an advocate for entropy.

And most annoyingly of all, you’re contributing to the fucking conversation yourselves when you make your stupid, stupid comments. You are basically saying, “I think people shouldn’t think so much and share their thoughts, that’s my thought that I have to share.” If you really think people should just enjoy the movie without thinking about it, then why the fuck did you (1) click on the post in the first place, and (2) bother to leave a comment? If it bugs you so much, GO WATCH A GODDAMN FUNNY CAT VIDEO.

Right Vision: Utilizing Optical Flow to Prevent Right Turn Accidents

Posted 1280 days ago · 0 Comments

Oh boy, this is going to get geeky. Today, me and my group finished our 3rd semester project after three months of very hard work. The semester theme was Human Senses – Digital Perception, and was mainly focused on using computer vision. We ended up creating a cyclist protection system, which can detect a cyclist in a right turn situation and warn the driver. The system is implemented in C++ using Intel’s computer vision library, OpenCV, for various image processing functions. Basically, the system, called Right Vision, estimates what is called optical flow (the apparent motion of objects, surfaces and edges) and performs segmentation based on objects’ and the background’s vanishing points to detect a cyclist from a dynamic video feed mounted on a moving car.

Estimating right-to-left movements.

This semester at Medialogy was the first in which I really felt that I learned something useful. I have always wanted to learn C++ and learning how to implement various image processing techniques such as thresholding, edge detection and compound operations at the same time was very effective.

The entire project ended with a 97 page report, which can be downloaded here.