Affiche américaine (RHI)

Dans une dimension lointaine et passablement farfelue, un monde se balade à dos de quatre éléphants, eux-mêmes juchés sur la carapace de la Grande Tortue… Oui, c’est le Disque-monde… Les habitants de la cité d’Ankh-Morpork croyaient avoir tout vu. Et Deuxfleurs avait l’air tellement inoffensif, bonhomme chétif, fidèlement escorté par un Bagage de bois magique déambulant sur une myriade de petites jambes. Tellement inoffensif que le Patricien avait chargé le calamiteux sorcier Rincevent de sa sécurité dans la cité quadrillée par la Guilde des Voleurs et celle des Assassins ; mission périlleuse et qui devait les conduire loin : dans une caverne de dragons ; peut-être jusqu’au Rebord du Disque. Car Deuxfleurs était d’une espèce plus redoutable qu’on ne l’imaginait : c’était un touriste…

The Color of Magic est une minisérie produite par RHI Entertainment et SkyOne (chaîne britannique), adaptée des romans de Terry Pratchett La huitième couleur et Le huitième sortilège, constituants les deux premières Annales du Disque-monde. Après Les contes du Disque-monde (Hogfather en V.O), Vadim Jean rempile pour adapter cette fois-ci les romans aux origines de la saga crée par Pratchett.

Il s’agit donc toujours de fantasy humoristique, mais cette minisérie vous dépaysera beaucoup plus que Les contes du Disque-monde. Vous en verrez littéralement de toutes les couleurs. L’humour anglais est présent, mais moins accentué qu’on aurait pu l’imaginer.

David Jason, déjà présent dans Les contes du Disque-monde (dans le rôle d’Albert), tient un rôle important dans l’adaptation des Annales à la télévision. En plus d’être un acteur récurrent, il en est le producteur exécutif. Pour The Color of Magic, il incarne Rincevent (Rincewind en V.O), et est trop souvent exaspérant dans ce rôle. On retrouve aussi Sean Astin (Le Seigneur des Anneaux) et Tim Curry (Cluedo, Le Titanic, Rendez-vous avec la mort, entre autres).

Ma note:

A noter: cette minisérie n’est pas encore sortie en France, sur aucune chaine. Elle ne possède donc pas de doublage français (ni de titre officiel).

Le prochain téléfilm adapté des Annales sera Timbré!.

]]> http://katieread.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/cirp-freshman-survey/ Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:07:14 +0000 Katie Read http://katieread.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/cirp-freshman-survey/

How ready are students for college? How do they choose colleges? What are students’ expectations about college? If you are curious about these areas, get to know CIRP, The Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute. Since 1966, CIRP has collected comprehensive data on over 13 million incoming first-year students at over 1900 institutions. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the Your First College Year Survey (YFCY) and the College Senior Survey (CSS) for longitudinal assessment.

In 2009, approximately 700 institutions of higher learning participated in a survey conducted from March through October. Over 400,000 students answer questions related to parental income and education, ethnicity, secondary school achievement and activities, educational and career plans, values, attitudes, beliefs, and self-concept.

Key sections include:

• Established behaviors in high school
• Academic preparedness
• Admissions decisions
• Expectations of college
• Interactions with peers and faculty
• Student values and goals
• Student demographic characteristics
• Concerns about financing college

Participating institutions receive a comprehensive report on their incoming class and national normative data for their type of institution. Information can be used in a variety of areas, including: admissions and recruitment, academic program development, retention, public relations, development, academic program development, and longitudinal research.

As the weather begins to warm up outside and more and more Bucknell flip-flops are on the feet of so many students on campus, you know that the home stretch is finally here. Rooms will be packed up, projects will be completed, and final papers will be turned in. As I begin this final paper, a thought continually enters my mind about all of those students wondering through the academic quad on a bright and sunny day; are these students the strong student leader’s that we need on campus? Or are they more of a liability to their organizations due to students over involvement? Do student’s today have the time to become strong student leader’s or are they over-committed?

For my final paper I have already discussed how I want to look at student organizations and if the students involved in them, feel that they define them or are defined by them. I am also interested to see if a student who is, or is not defined by an organization, is an asset to that organization or is a liability. Can a student who is over committed really make the time commitment that needs to be made in order for an organization to be successful?

Astin and Tinto have done extensive research on student involvement and this is data that I hope to include in my final paper. I want to examine how the structure of particular organizations affects the asset, liability factor. It is well known that Greek letter organizations have some of the most structured system on a college campus, where as a club that is just beginning may struggle to create that successful structure. I will use the information from the Davis and Scott text to show what is needed in order to have a successful organizational structure in a student organization.

I am looking to create multiple blog posts for this assignment, and in the final piece blog about what policies might need to be put in place to ensure student success as well as successful student organizations on a college campus.

Pg 191 – “…The very notion of identity means, as its Latin root idem betrays, being the same…”

~ I’ve wondered this for awhile…but what’s the same? Everyone’s identity is different.

Pg 191 – “Researchers today routinely use variation within such identity characteristics as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background to investigate differences in student experiences and outcomes, faculty careers, and administrative development.”

~ Just a few of the different things people have made developmental models about, too.

Pg 191 – “Identity research in higher education comprises research on groups of individuals assumed to share some characteristics based on their role in the system (i.e. students, faculty, administrators), on some cross-role (192) category (i.e. race, gender, sexual orientation), or on some combination  (i.e. African American students, lesbian faculty).”

~ Identity research is so broken down, one has to know so much just to help one person. I feel like there should be an easier way.

Pg 192 – “The arc of identity research in higher education began therefore in “what we do”, shifted to exploring “who we are”, and continues today by asking how what we do is informed by who we are and how who we are is constructed by what we do.”

~ This is interesting, I think my theory is on the “who we are” side of this.

Pg 192 – “Identity research holds a central place in the literature about college students and, increasingly, faculty and administrators. It is used to describe, explain, and predict experiences and outcomes of individuals and identity-based groups of individuals in higher education (see Evans, Forney and Guido-DiBrito, 1998, pp. 16-17).”

~ Why we do research on identity. Important!

Pg 194 – “Early applications of concepts of identity within higher education research and practice were based on psychological and sociological theories and sorted individuals according to their roles in higher education: students, faculty, or administrators.”

~ History of studies of identity.

Pg 194 – “According to role theory, one’s social identity is constructed largely on the basis of the expectations that others hold, thus role theory views actors as human “thermostats”, constantly adjusting behavior to maintain equilibrium (Biddle, 1986).”

~ I agree with the constantly adjusting behavior, that’s what the working self-concept does. This forms the social identity because the working self-concept is what is actively working during social interactions.

Pg 195 – “The student development movement among student affairs administrators called for the creation of theories that might predict some orderly pattern of intellectual, personal, and social growth among a student population that is/was largely homogenous by institution, even while growing more heterogeneous nationally…”

~ We want things in order and categorized because it’s easier for us to understand. It is easier to do this when everything is very similar than when things keep on constantly changing.

Pg 195 – “Erikson’s psychosocial theories of development formed the foundation of research on college students and identity in this first season. Erikson (1968, 1980) demarcated eight steps of identity development over an individual’s lifespan, positing that each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis to be resolved by the individual.”

~ I like Erickson’s theory, except that it’s so overarching that it misses many of the tiny steps people take and only focuses on the huge steps.

Pg 195 – Goes into detail about stages.

Pg 196 – “How an individual deals with exploration or crisis of values and goals and commitment to values and goals determines his or her ego identity status.”

~ So how one works through mental challenges determines how they will develop and how their identity will be affected. I agree.

Pg 196 – About Chickering…“Within each vector are developmental challenges, which prompt responses (or non-responses) from students. While the actual prompts might differ, the challenges as a whole are common for all students; though understanding those responses one could understand the growth or development of individuals.”

~ Challenges are what prompt development and developmental response. I do agree with Chickering on this.

198 – “Astin’s involvement theory (1984) is mainly concerned with the factors that facilitate development, including the development of identity. He defined involvement as “the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience” (Astin, 1984, p. 297).”

~ Good definition of involvement. Involvement opens people up to more and new social experiences that foster change because the person is in a situation that they do not have a lot of personal history to draw from so their working self-concept must work harder to find information to use, and thus the change is greater than those doing things more closely related to things they have done before.

Pg 198 – “Astin focused on what students do, postulating that what students become (or develop into) will follow from their behaviors; a foundational idea in identity research, involvement theory attempts to explain the processes rather than the outcome of the development.”

~ I think I’m doing this, too. I’m describing how development occurs (at least right now I am) and not really what happens after development (I’ll add a yet to this).

Pg 204 – “The first season’s crop of identity theory is marked by its emphasis on describing and explaining commonalities within the role groups of students, faculty, and administrators.”

~ What’s in the first section of this chapter.

Pg 205 – “Demographic changes, including racial and gender diversity in higher education, as well as political movements of African American women, gay men and lesbians, and people with disabilities, drew…to differences in experiences and outcomes for college students…not the white men from college-going families on whom Chickering and Perry had based their theories…”

~ Chickering and Perry’s theories are great, but based on white males, and thus, not really applicable to everyone that we work with.

Pg 206 – “Research involving college students and their identities falls into two categories: (1) the psychosocial development of various facets of identity and  (2) the ways in which those identities are studied in terms of inputs, experiences, and outcomes.”

~ I think I’m type one, because I’m looking into the psychosocial pieces of identity that work with student development.

Pg 210 – “Current work on racial and ethnic identity development in college students is built on the concept that race is socially constructed and examines the ways in which students construct racial and ethnic identity. Although social constructionism, the notion that interactions between people produce and reproduce social actions and identities, is relatively new to the study of student identity development, scholars in other fields have been discussing this idea of some time (see Berger and Luckmann, 1966; Gergen, 1991, 1994). Social constrcutionist research on racial identity begins with the fact that there is no biological basis to the concept of race (see Lewontine, Rose, and Kamin, 1984); on campus, race and ethnicity are culturally (re)constructed through racialized encounters among students, faculty, and staff and through institutional organizations and structures that maintain a racialized environment.”

~ Good defintion of social constructionism. I think this is kind of the direction that I am beginning to take.

Pg 213 – “D’Augelli (1994a, 1994b) presented a lifespan model of lesbian, gay, and bisexual identity development based on his social constructionist view of sexual orientation.”

~ Social constructionism sounds interesting, there seem to be a lot of studies that use this perspective.

Pg 215 – Talks about students self-identifying as deaf

Pg 216 – “Her work mapped how self-expression and activity by the students concerning issues related to identity created conflicts on campus and within the student, fostering an activist identity.”

~ Self-expression creates conflict…I wonder what the rest of the study showed. Based on what I’ve read, I would assume that the reason that the activist students felt internal conflict was because they internalized the social environment in which they partake (the campus) and since the campus was in turmoil, so were they.

Pg 217 – “Root’s (1990) work on biracial…development formed the foundation for Reynolds and Pope’s…Multidimensional Identity Model (MIM). The MIM comprises two dimensions of identity development: (1) whether an individual choose to identify with more than one aspect of her or his identity, and (2) whether…individual actively or passively takes on one or more identities…(1995) explored the concept further, and McEwen (1996)…emerging model for multiple dimensions of identity development. Together Jones and McEwen (2000) proposed a fluid and dynamic…of multiple dimensions of identity to account for an individual’s…(personal attributes, personal characteristics, personal identity…well asw her or his context (family background, sociocultural…current experiences, career decisions and life planning) and social…(roles, such as student, and membership categories, such as…”

~ I like the fluid and dynamic dimensions for the identity development. I should look into this more…I might have notes about it somewhere.

Pg 220 – “Gender has often been used as a lens through which to study the history of higher education and the ways in which institutions shape and are shaped by students’ gender identities.”

~ Gender is used because it’s an easy way to divide things basically in half, since more women joined the ranks of the college-educated before other minorities.

Pg 222 – “MacLeod’s (1995) study of urban youth, for example, suggests that socioeconomic class structures the way that students perceive the benefits of education and understand their academic abilities; it also influences their ability to persist in school.”

~ This is so SIUC. I wish we used this study in housing.

Pg 224 – “Historically, the dominance of men in higher education created a culture that reflected socially accepted male behaviors. For example, researchers were supposed to be disinterested observers, an expectation grounded in “feminine” versus “masculine” characteristics. Thus the university researcher was rational, unemotional, objective, unbiased, and detached, rather than passionate (Bordo, 1987; Harding, 1991).”

~ Ugh, so true, but it still is true.

Pg 224 – “Another masculinized trait of faculty identity was individualism, which became the operational paradigm in the academy.”

~ This basically becomes an “every man for himself” sort of idea that kills working together and learning together.

Pg 225 – “Individualism and objectivity underlay the achievement…integral to academic identity.”

~ I think that individualism and objectivity kill academic integrity because they section everyone off so much that no one gets done what ought to be done.

Pg 225 – “Objectivity…that all were treated equally, and if some groups did not…place in academe, it merely reflected their inability to compe…competition (Wilson, 1942, pp. 205-206).”

~ The harsh side of objectivity, it has no compassion for people and doesn’t look towards the macro- and exosystems, but only towards the microsystems and things that are in the now and understandable in the now.

Idea of tree model

Pg 239 – Need last paragraph in section before “Blurring Genres.” It did not copy well, but looks to be informative about technology and identity.

Pg 242-243 – Good history of identity theories.

“Talents” like Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and others can drop a sex tape on-line and become household names overnight. Do these people deserve less credit than the talents of old?

Does not deserve your admiration.

Does not deserve your attention.

 In the old days, celebrities became famous for a variety of reasons – more often than not celebrities were inbreeds. Tori Spelling (the ugly girl on 90210) became famous because her father was the producer of 90210. Nicolas Cage’s actual name is Nicolas Coppola and is Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew (don’t forget about Sophia). Jake Gyllenhaal’s parents were producer/writer Naomi Foner and director Stephen Gyllenhaal. Conan O’Brien is related to Dennis Leary. Sean Astin (the Goonies and The Lord of the Rings) is Mackenzie Astin’s (The Facts of Life) brother and John Astin (Gomez on The Addams Family) and Patty Duke are their parents. Jennifer Aniston is John Aniston’s daughter (Days of our Lives). Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty are brother and sister. Melanie Griffith is Tippi Hedren’s daughter. Oliver Platt, Princess Diana, and Orson Welles are all related. It seems as though everyone in Hollywood is family – if they are not related to someone directly in entertainment, they are connected somehow. Believe it or not, Tom Hanks is related to Abraham Lincoln – no joke. Still don’t believe it? How about this test: I say the last names Fonda, Bridges, and Sutherland. Who is being addressed here? There are too many to choose from and yes, they are all related! Most people believe that the actors on the silver screen are the best actors around. That is simply not the case. The folks on the silver screen are merely the best entertainers that are related somehow to other entertainers.

Intro for eventuelle nye lesere:

Som i fjor kommer jeg til å avholde min egen lille julekalender her på bloggen for enhver som gidder å lese. Som i fjor er konseptet at jeg teller ned de 24 beste filmene jeg har sett på kino i løpet av året. Som i fjor kan dere tippe hvilke filmer jeg setter på de 4 øverste plassene.

Foreløpig deltakere:

dabju: Cloverfield, Wanted, The Dark Knight, (tom plass)

Ottar Karsten Hostesaft: The Dark Knight, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Burn After Reading

Stein Galen: The Dark Knight, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, WALL-E

Lars Østhus: Quantum of Solace, The Dark Knight, Hot Rod, (tom plass)

Men nå er vi klare, så sett deg ned, sleng beina i været og les et innlegg om en film jeg synes er bra!

17. Quantum of Solace

Regi: Marc Forster

Manus: Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis og Robert Wade

Med: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton og Jeffrey Wright.

Land: England/USA

Spilletid: 106 min

Jeg regner meg selv som en ganske stor Bond-entusiast, og ble egentlig litt skeptisk på forhånd av denne, mest pga regissør Marc Forster, som har laget noen veldig gode filmer, for all del (Stranger Than Fiction, Finding Neverland), men ikke akkurat i Bond-stil. I tillegg stod han også bak den kritisk anerkjente og dørgende kjedelige Monster’s Ball, så jeg så litt mørkt på det. I tillegg likte jeg til å begynne med ikke konseptet om Alicia Keys som en del av Bond-sangen, selv om det var sammen med Jack White.

I Quantum of Solace følger vi for første gang James Bond (Craig) i en direkte oppfølger, fra Casino Royale. Han er ute etter hevn over sin døde kjæreste, Vesper. Han klarer etter hvert å lete seg fram til et stort nettverk av kriminelle, en organisasjon som tvang Vesper til å stjele pengene i forrige film. Men organisasjonen er på vei til mye større ting. På Haiti treffer Bond Camille (Kurylenko), en dame ute på sitt eget hevntokt, og hun leder ham til Dominic Greene (Amarlac), en av de største kreftene innen organisasjonen. Spørsmålet er bare om Bond klarer å holde styr på personlige hevntanker og hva som er best for verden.

Selv om jeg åpenbart liker denne veldig godt, er det et stort steg ned fra Casino Royale. CR hadde poker, og var rett og slett en av de 3 beste Bond-filmene noensinne. For å ta kritikken først, så sliter Quantum of Solace litt på noen områder. Skurken er dessverre ikke så veldig truende. Jeg følte egentlig aldri at han ville ha noen sjanse mot Bond, og at de tvinger fram fare der det ikke nødvendigvis var det. I tillegg blir kanskje planer og historien noe rotete til tider.

Et annet problem er at det virker som en plan fra filmskapernes side å ta vekk så mye “Bond” som mulig nå som de har begynt på ny. I forrige film kuttet de for første gang ut replikken om “Martini. Shaken, not stirred.”, mens de i QoS for første gang ikke har med “Bond, James Bond.” Sånne ting som det syns jeg bare er litt unødvendige. Ikke det at filmen absolutt må ha det, men jeg kan umulig se for meg at det er et særlig stort problem å få satt det inn en plass heller. Det er liksom litt av følelsen med en Bond-film det gjelder. Har også litt problemer med at de har tatt vekk litt av den originale stilen, playboy-mentaliteten om du vil.

Det som er best her, er nok actionsekvensene. Det kunne jeg se allerede i trailerene, at her skulle vi få litt god gammeldags Bond-action inn igjen. Det er både biljakt og båtjakt, masse action gjennom hele filmen. Det er veldig gøy, og de har valgt å gjøre det i samme stil som vi har blitt kjent med gjennom Bourne-filmene de siste årene. Altså håndholdte kamera, veldig “levende” filming. Det fungerer godt.

Det er bra skuespill, spesielt Daniel Craig overbeviser igjen. Manuset er også godt. Heldigvis så viste det seg jo at regissørfrykten min var helt ubegrunnet, han klarte fint å lage god actionfilm. Heller trengte jeg ikke å være bekymret for sangen. Jack White skrev og produserte, og duetterte (det burde iallfall være et ord) veldig fint med Alicia Keys. Bare litt synd at selve åpningstekstene var litt så som så. Hadde samme problem med Casino Royale. God sang til litt halvgode åpningstekster. Her er åpningstekstene til Quantum of Solace:

Kort sagt en god Bond-film, som leverer action og en ganske god og realistisk historie. La oss bare håpe at den gamle Bond-stilen får lov å være litt mer med i neste film.

Dom:

DHF: 8/10

IMDb: 7.1/10 (47 598 stemmer)

VG: Terningkast 4

Dagbladet: Terningkast 3 (Tar opp mye av det samme som meg, gamle Bond, osv. Men legger mye mer vekt på det, tydeligvis.)

Det er bare å beklage, Lars, men der røk håpet ditt om å få 4 av 4 i toppen. Du har jo forresten en plass igjen å fylle. Du og dabju. Get to it, guys!

Så er vi kommet fram til siste innlegg i dene serien på 26. Jeg har presentert alle filmene som jeg kaller mine favoritter. Nå har det seg sånn at jeg har måttet jukse litt med tallene, for det er rett og slett ikke så lett for meg å skille mellom kvaliteten på disse filmene. Det fører til at dette siste innlegget inneholder tre filmer. Det er selvfølgelig snakk om

The Lord of the Rings:

The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/

The Two Towers (2002)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167261/

The Return of the King

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/

Regi: Peter Jackson

Manus: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh og Philippa Boyens, basert på en bok av J. R. R. Tolkien.

Med: Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Liv Tyler, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Sean Bean, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Bernard Hill, Brad Dourif, David Wenham, Miranda Otto, John Noble og Karl Urban.

Spilletid: 558 min (9 t og 18 min)

Det er ingen overdrivelse i det hele tatt å si at disse tre filmene helt alene har gjort Peter Jackson til en regissør som nå får lage akkurat hva han vil. Tidligere var han kjent for skrekkfilmer med lavt budsjett og mye blod og gørr, som Braindead og Bad Taste, den falske dokumentaren Forgotten Silver og den Oscarnominerte Heavenly Creatures. Etter megasuksessen med The Lord of the Rings har han laget sitt eget ønskeprosjekt, en ny versjon av King Kong, i tillegg til at et slags thrillerdrama kalt The Lovely Bones er på vei i 2009.

Castet til trilogien inneholder en mengde av talentfulle skuespillere, både nye stjerneskudd som Orlando Bloom og Elijah Wood, mer erfarne folk som Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler og Sean Bean og kan til og med slå i bordet med å ha hele tre sir’er med, Ian McKellen, Ian Holm og Christopher Lee.

Det er vanskelig å oppsummere alle historielinjene fra tre filmer i et avsnitt, men hovedsaklig dreier The Lord of the Rings seg om ferden den lille hobbiten Frodo (Wood) må ut på for å ødelegge en ring så mektig at den vil snu hele Middle Earth over til ondskapen om den ikke blir ødelagt. På veien får han hjelp av trollmannen Gandalf (McKellen), den rettmessige kongen over menneskene, Aragorn (Mortensen), alven Legolas (Bloom), dvergen Gimli (Rhys-Davies), kongssønn Boromir (Bean) og hobbitene Sam (Astin), Merry (Monaghan) og Pippin (Boyd). De blir delt opp på veien, og hver blit involvert i det siste og avgjørende sammenstøtet mellom godt og ondt på sin egen måte.

Jeg leste boken av Tolkien før filmene kom, på barneskolen en gang. Jeg var automatisk storfan, og når jeg hørte den skulle filmatiseres, syntes jeg det var en av de beste ideer jeg noensinne hadde hørt. Jeg hadde billett til premieren på den første, 17. desember 2001, klokken 17.00 eller rundt deromkring. Premieren gikk samtidig over hele verden på den første, på de to neste ble den vist fra midnatt i hver tidssone. Jeg vet ikke hva jeg forventet av filmen, men når jeg gikk ut var jeg helt lamslått over hvor genialt det jeg hadde sett var. Litt mindre enn et år senere fikk jeg frysninger på et helt nytt nivå når jeg fikk se traileren for The Two Towers for første gang, og et år etter det igjen hadde jeg det fullstendig storveis på første rad i kinosalen i Kopervik i det jeg fikk se den mest overlegne trilogien noensinne bli avsluttet akkurat sånn den burde.

Historien er jo et klassisk eventyr, men den finner jo også mye styrke i subplotene, Aragorns kjærlighetshistorie og ikke minst stoltheten og håpløsheten som finnes i Gondors kongehus, der både kongen Denethor og sønnene hans Boromir og Faramir er av de klart mest interessante karakterene i filmene. Den verdenen Tolkien har skapt, er og blir den ultimate arbeidstegningen for fantasy, og de fleste andre låner kraftig fra hans arbeid.

Hvis det er noen filmer som skal konkurrere med Star Wars-filmene i detaljrikdom, så er det disse. Og LOTR vinner også den kampen lett. Har du sett noe særlig av ekstramateriale på dvd’ene så kan du ikke være uenig med meg. Alle kostymer og våpen er lagd til filmen, med inskripsjoner og utskjæringer til minste detalj. Det er også gjort en fantastisk jobb med prostetisk sminke, der orkene er av de beste eksemplene. Stort sett alle “skurkene” ser jo helt fantastiske ut. Nedenfor en video fra åpningen av den første filmen, der vi ser litt av dette.

Her ser vi jo også litt av de utrolig gode visuelle effektene de bruker. LOTR gjorde nyvinninger på området, og brukte en ny programvare for å simulere store mengder vesener under slag. I tillegg perfeksjonerte de “motion capture”-teknologi for å skape karakteren Gollum, som spilles av Andy Serkis, mens selve kroppen på filmen kun er dataskapte bilder laget etter Serkis faktiske bevegelser. I tillegg brukte de også smarte løsninger for å få rikitg størrelsesforhold mellom mennesker og hobbiter, ved å lure oss perspektivmessig, eller faktisk lage to like set, med forskjellig størrelse.

Skuespillet er veldig bra etter min mening. Jeg vil trekke fram Ian McKellen, som gjør det spesielt bra som Gandalf, ellers syns jeg Sean Bean er en veldig bra Boromir. Men generelt sett er det veldig bra skuespill over hele linja, ingenting som jeg reagerer på eller syns er dårlig.

Det mange klager på er vel muligens hvor lange filmene er. Jeg er kanskje ikke den rette å spørre, siden jeg koser meg i verdenen, og bare vil tilbringe mest mulig tid der (liker veldig godt de utvidede versjonene av filmene på dvd). Men jeg kan være enig med at det blir litt lang tid sammen med entene i The Two Towers. Såklart har det sammenheng med at de konstant kutter vekk fra det utrolig spennende slaget i Helm’s Deep, men egentlig trengs det jo for å forklare ting framover i historien, og det gir også et lett drag av komedie. Ellers får jo slutten(e) på The Return of the King mye kritikk, folk mener at det er altfor mange slutter etter hverandre. Jeg er uenig, og ser egentlig ikke noen annen måte å gjøre det på enn det er blitt gjort. Det er altfor mange historier vi vil vite hvordan ender til at vi kan kutte ut noen av de scenene.

Musikken er jo også noe av det bedre som er blitt laget til storslåtte filmer de siste årene, den fungerer veldig godt sammen med lyddesignet, som resten av filmen er det veldig profesjonelt og detaljert gjort. Dette får en også eksempler på på dvdene, der du kan se scener med alle lydlagene individuelt.

Kort sagt en trilogi med filmer som jeg er utrolig glad i, og har sett et utall ganger. Av de mange favorittscenene mine, så kan jeg nevne Boromirs dødsscene. Eller, egentlig først den scenen der Boromir prøver å ta ringen fra Frodo, og så satt sammen med den faktiske dødskampen, som du kan se nedenfor. Legg forresten merke til den vanvittig stilige kamerabevegelsen ned gjennom hele skogen ganske i begynnelsen her.

Den andre jeg vil vise er fra The Return of the King, og er helt fantastisk klippet. Jeg vil applaudere den som kom på å sette sammen de to scenene på den måten, det kunne ikke fungert bedre.

Kritikerne gav for det meste LOTR den skryten de fortjener, og det haglet seksere på terningen. Oscarmessig gikk det også ganske så bra, der The Fellowship of the Ring vant for Beste kinematografi, Beste visuelle effekter, Beste sminke og Beste musikk (også nominert til 9 andre Oscar), The Two Towers vant for Beste lydredigering og Beste visuelle effekter (nominert til 4 andre) og The Return of the King tok fullstendig kaka med Beste lydmiksing, Beste setdekorasjon, Beste kostymer, Beste sminke, Beste musikk, Beste originalsang, Beste klipp, Beste visuelle effekter, Beste manus basert på annet materiale, Beste regissør OG Beste film (11 totalt). Det kan vel kanskje argumenteres for at The Return of the King fikk litt betalt for hele trilogien på en måte, men i såfall syns jeg det er helt på sin plass. Vel fortjent.

På IMDb gjør de det også bra. The Two Towers har 8.6/10 med 259 107 stemmer, og ligger på 31. plass på top 250. The Fellowship of the Ring ligger litt høyere, på 20. plass. Ratingen er 8.7/10 med 311 448 stemmer. Aller høyest av trilogien ligger The Return of the King, med 8.8/10 etter 282 349 stemmer, noe som setter den på 14. plass. Forresten litt spesielt at den tredje filmen har flere stemmer enn den andre, noe som kanskje kan komme av at The Return of the King lå veldig høyt oppe tidligere, og folk som ikke har sett den stemmer 1/10 for å få den lenger ned på listen uten å ha sett den. Det er jo en uheldig bivirkning av IMDb-systemet. Nedenfor har jeg som vanlig funnet fram trailere for filmene.

(digger den musikken fra Requiem for a Dream, selv om den er overbrukt etterhvert.)

Om du har sett denne trilogien, de beste filmene jeg har sett, så legg igjen en kommentar! Jeg avslutter med Theoden, kongen av Rohan, sine ord når alt ser mørkt og håpløst ut i møte med de overveldende styrkene til Saruman:

Where is the horse and the rider?
Where is the horn that was blowing?
They have passed like rain on the mountains.
Like wind in the meadow.
The days have gone down in the west.
Behind the hills, into shadow.
How did it come to this?

Affiche française

Astoria est une modeste et paisible cité portuaire de la Côte Ouest. Trop paisible au gré de ses jeunes habitants… “Il ne se passe jamais rien ici”, soupira un jour l’un d’eux, mélancolique. Mickey Walsh, treize ans, venait de prononcer une de ces phrases fatidiques qui annoncent parfois les aventures les plus étranges, les plus folles et les plus amusantes.

Les Goonies est un film produit par Steven Spielberg via sa société Amblin Entertainment, à l’heure où Dreamworks n’existait pas.

Ce film est LE film d’aventures.

A voir absolument.

Ma note:

I was thinking astin made the Bad play but the more I think about it I was the one who misplayed my hand.
My thoughts are that I didn’t raise enough preflop.

anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, The Mookie – Slowrollin’ Dooosh, 600/1,200 Blinds, 150 Ante, 8 Players

LegoPoker Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): 20,133

UTG+1: 20,600

MP1: 36,660

MP2: 33,771

CO: 15,183

BTN: 15,191

SB: 11,972

BB: 21,456

Pre-Flop: (3,000) J J dealt to Hero (UTG)

Hero raises to 3,600, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls 3,600, MP2 folds, CO folds

Flop: (10,200) 4 Q 2 (2 Players)

Hero bets 16,383 and is All-In, MP1 calls 16,383

Turn: (42,966) T (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

River: (42,966) 8 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: 42,966 Pot

Hero showed J J (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-20,133 NET)

MP1 showed K Q (a pair of Queens) and WON 42,966 (+22,833 NET)

I was thinking astin made the Bad play but the more I think about it I was the one who misplayed my hand.
My thoughts are that I didn’t raise enough preflop.

anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, The Mookie – Slowrollin’ Dooosh, 600/1,200 Blinds, 150 Ante, 8 Players

LegoPoker Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): 20,133

UTG+1: 20,600

MP1: 36,660

MP2: 33,771

CO: 15,183

BTN: 15,191

SB: 11,972

BB: 21,456

Pre-Flop: (3,000) J J dealt to Hero (UTG)

Hero raises to 3,600, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls 3,600, MP2 folds, CO folds

Flop: (10,200) 4 Q 2 (2 Players)

Hero bets 16,383 and is All-In, MP1 calls 16,383

Turn: (42,966) T (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

River: (42,966) 8 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: 42,966 Pot

Hero showed J J (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-20,133 NET)

MP1 showed K Q (a pair of Queens) and WON 42,966 (+22,833 NET)