Climate change and reduction of emissions is the buzzword these days. With the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference slated to be held during December 6-18, 2009, there is an urgent need to ratify a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which runs out in 2012. At the conference, it is hoped that world leaders would meet for the last time at government level before the climate agreement is renewed.

Barack Obama and other leaders have confirmed what has been likely for some time – that there won’t be a legally binding deal at the end of the conference. The longer the world dallies on putting in place the aggressive emissions reductions needed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change , the more risk we are placing before our next generation. Global warming does far more damage to poor countries than it does to the climate. In a report in 2006, Lord Nicholas Stern calculated that a 2°C rise in global temperature cost about 1% of world GDP. But the World Bank in its new World Development Report says the cost to Africa will be like 4% of GDP and to India around 5%. Even if environmental costs were distributed equally to every person on earth, developing countries would still bear 80% of the burden because they account for 80% of world population.

Emissions From Developing Nations

The Pew Research Center released its latest poll of public attitudes on global warming which shows that popular belief that global warming is occurring had declined from 71 percent in April of 2008 to 56 percent in October — an astonishing drop in just 18 months. The belief that global warming is caused by human activities declined from 47 percent to 36 percent. This proves that three years after it seemed that An Inconvenient Truth had changed everything, it turns out that it hasn’t. The current Pew survey is the latest in a series of studies suggesting that Al Gore probably had a good deal more effect upon elite opinion than public opinion.

However with the need for use of cleaner and greener energy, the problem for more than half of the world’s population remains access to basic sanitation and safe drinking water. The biggest vulnerability is that the weather gravely affects developing countries’ main economic activities such as farming and tourism. In India the gains from the Green Revolution are already shrinking because of local pollution, global warming and waning resistance to pests and disease. A study for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also suggests that the yields of the main Indian crops would decline by a further 4.5-9% over the next 30 years because of climate change. A recent assessment based on a large number of studies of what might happen in the long run if carbon continues to be pumped into the atmosphere found that world farm production could fall by 16% by the 2080s, and possibly by as much as 21% in developing countries. There is not much doubt that climate change is undermining the gains from intensive farming in developing countries at the very time when population growth and greater wealth mean the world will need to double food production over the next three or four decades. By 2050 the world will have to feed 2 billion to 3 billion more people and cope with the changing diets of a richer population.

Poor countries want around $140 billion to keep global warming down to an increase of 2°C dwarfing the $8 billion a year now flowing to them for climate-change mitigation. Also, poor countries see a climate-change deal in fundamentally different terms as they believe that rich countries are responsible for two-thirds of the carbon put into the atmosphere since 1850. Therefore they think emissions per head and not absolute emissions should be the standard. Moreover, targets set at national level have little effect in poor countries where public administration works badly. So rich and poor also disagree about the conditions attached to any money for mitigating or adapting to climate change. The rich see this as a sort of aid designed for specific projects with measurable targets requiring strict conditions. Therefore there remains to be seen what kind of solution comes out of the meeting in Copenhagen. But whatever be the shape of the final agreement, it is time for developing countries to develop as keen an interest in mitigating the impact of climate change as rich ones. Climate-change policy is no longer a simple choice between growth and ecological well-being.

I propose that monday be dedicated to visual artists. Therefore, I christen today the first minimal words Monday. Now, to today’s pretty thing:

Miss Keima is a deviantartist I’ve been following for a very long time. I don’t know much about her, other than her real name, Mirva Lukkari, and that she’s Finnish. I’m going to make a wager and say she draws inspiration from Edward Gorey. If you don’t know Gorey, then perhaps you should brush up.

Here’s an excellent write-up by Kaitlin Allen.

Now that you’re brushed up on Ed Gorey, here’s a smattering of some of my favorite Miss Keima works.

Note the intensely crazy texture, and minimal use of color. I want to tape these all over my walls.

On Sunday afternoon in  a Fayetteville, North Carolina church, Manna Church, the world,family and friends said goodbye to Shaniya Davis. Shaniya had captured the heart of the world, after it was discovered that her own mother had sold her into bondage as a sex slave,to Mario McNeill, who brutally raped and murdered the little child.

More than 2000 people were inside the church to support Bradley Lockhart, Shaniyas dad, and the man who made the decision to send Shaniya back to her mother,after having raised the child for the full 5 years of her life,which directly led to her death.

“Don’t let God’s words and don’t let his actions get you down,” Lockhart told the packed congregation. “He did this for a reason.”

Shaniya Davis funeral was open to the public and was standing room only.Lockhart urged the 1,500 crowded into Manna Church and another 500 watching the service from an adjacent building to help the community’s needy, according to press reports.

As mourners filled the church, a photo display of Shaniya Davis was streamed on the overhead projector. Never before released photos of Shaniya were displayed. These photos showed Shaniya with her father, Bradley Lockhart and her siblings.

Lockhart said, “Shaniya, Daddy love you honey. And I know you’re gonna’ be waiting for me … I’ll see you when I get there.”

White doves were released at her graveside as the little child Shaniya was laid to her eternal resting place.

Click on the link below to view a comprehensive sideshow of pictures covering the Shaniya Davis funeral…

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/01/crimesider/entry5356401.shtml

Mortal Kombat is no stranger to controversy surrounding its gory content but let’s face it, the original game came out in a time where the original Doom was considered to be the most terrifying and graphic experience known to man. Makes you wonder what would happen if you could take a copy of Gears of War 2 back in time somehow and show the censors just how graphic games would become. They’d most likely shit themselves.

But did you ever wonder how far the Mortal Kombat development team pushed the boundaries of bad taste? What sickening, mind bending ideas were deemed too gruesome that they couldn’t make the final release? Thanks to this hilarious series of videos created by Daneboe at Gagfilms.com you can see what fatalities had to be removed from the game before it was deemed fit for sale.

Check them out below, but beware, some of these are terrifying. You have been warned!

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

]]> http://noworldsystem.com/2009/11/21/al-gore-photoshops-hurricanes-into-new-books-cover/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:30:49 +0000 infolution http://noworldsystem.com/2009/11/21/al-gore-photoshops-hurricanes-into-new-books-cover/

Al Gore Photoshops Hurricanes Into New Book’s Cover
The King of cap and trade simply airbrushes them in to his new book to create a more scary earth

Read Full Article Here

Rush Limbaugh Mentions Prison Planet Article About Al Gore

Al Gore plagiarizes clip from Hollywood movie

Hacked e-mails reveal global-warming fraud?
Top climate scientists discuss hiding contrary data, marginalizing dissenters

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Officials at a key global warming research center in the United Kingdom have authenticated a series of e-mails and other documents apparently taken from their computer system by a hacker, but they cannot explain what scientists in internal exchanges meant by references to a “trick” that would “hide the decline” of global temperatures nor by instructions to delete contrary data.

Author James Delingpole writes in a London Telegraph column the most damaging revelations indicate climate-change scientists may have “manipulated or suppressed evidence in order to support their cause.”

According to the Australian Investigate magazine, the 62 megabyte Zip file with documents, e-mail exchanges and other information from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit apparently was posted by an unidentified hacker on a Russian web server.

One e-mail said: “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd (sic) from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.”

Another expressed internal doubts: “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.”

Further, an e-mail exchange suggested the suppression of information: “Can you delete any e-mails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis.”

“And, perhaps most reprehensibly,” Delingpole writes, “a long series of communications discussing how best to squeeze dissenting scientists out of the peer review process. How, in other words, to create a scientific climate in which anyone who disagrees with AGW can be written off as a crank, whose views do not have a scrap of authority.”

He cites an e-mail: “This was the danger of always criticizing the skeptics for not publishing in the ‘peer-reviewed literature.’ Obviously, they found a solution to that – take over a journal! So what do we do about this? I think we have to stop considering ‘Climate Research’ as a legitimate peer-reviewed journal. Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers in, this journal. We would also need to consider what we tell or request of our more reasonable colleagues who currently sit on the editorial board …What do others think?”

Myron Ebell, of the GlobalWarming.org website where “cooler heads prevail,” said the e-mails are “shocking.”

“Its kind of interesting to learn that petty politics seems to be more prevalent in the scientific community than in the political community,” he said.

The documents, he said, “raise a huge number of questions about the integrity of a lot of people in the alarmist community.

“What I’ve seen there is a very strong effort to manage the issue by scientists and not as a scientific issues. It’s very improper,” he said. ” One of the criticisms is that we need scientists to be scientist, and policy can be handled in public debate.”

Delingpole observes the world “is currently cooling; electorates are increasingly reluctant to support eco-policies leading to more oppressive regulation, higher taxes and higher utility bills; the tide is turning against Al Gore’s Anthropogenic Global Warming theory. The so-called ’skeptical’ view is now also the majority view.”

Phil Jones, head of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, confirmed to Investigate magazine the documents appeared authentic.

“It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and e-mails,” he said.

“It’s completely illegal for somebody to hack into our system,” he told the magazine

But Jones denied there was any attempt to mislead or conceal.

“They’re talking about proxy data going further back in time, a thousand years, and it’s just about how you add on the last few years, because when you get proxy data you sample things like tree rings and ice cores, and they don’t always have the last few years,” he said.

Jones said he could not recall what he meant when he wrote about a plan to “hide the decline.”

In the e-mail, dated 10 years ago, Jones wrote: “Once Tim’s got a diagram here we’ll send that either later today or first thing tomorrow. I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd [sic] from1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline. Mike’s series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998. Thanks for the comments, Ray. Cheers, Phil Prof. Phil Jones Climatic Research Unit.”

The documents also included a message dated last month from Kevin Trenberth to Michal Mann about the “U-turn on climate” by Britain’s BBC News.

“Well I have my own article on where the heck is global warming? We are asking that here in Boulder where we have broken records the past two days for the coldest days on record. We had 4 inches of snow. The high the last 2 days was below 30F and the normal is 69F, and it smashed the previous records for these days by 10F. The low was about 18F and also a record low, well below the previous record low. This is January weather (see the Rockies baseball playoff game was canceled on saturday and then played last night in below freezing weather).”

Despite the advocacy of a financially vested former vice president, Al Gore, and others, public opinion about whether mankind is causing an ultimately catastrophic rise in global temperatures is shifting.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has urged members of Congress to consider the joint opinion of nearly 32,000 scientists, including more than 9,000 Ph.D.s, who believe humans likely have little or nothing to do with any “global warming.”

The Petition Project, launched some 10 years ago when the first few thousand signatures were gathered, has steadily grown without any special effort or campaign.

But in the last few years, and especially because of the release of Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” the campaign has been reinvigorated.

“Mr. Gore’s movie, asserting a ‘consensus’ and ’settled science’ in agreement about human-caused global warming, conveyed the claims about human-caused global warming to ordinary movie goers and to public school children, to whom the film was widely distributed. Unfortunately, Mr. Gore’s movie contains many very serious incorrect claims which no informed, honest scientist could endorse,” project spokesman and founder Art Robinson has told WND.

Robinson, a research professor of chemistry, co-founded the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine with Linus Pauling in 1973, and later co-founded the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.

Paul cited the petition results in his statement to Congress.

“Our energy policies must be based upon scientific truth – not fictional movies or self-interested international agendas,” Paul said. “They should be based upon the accomplishments of technological free enterprise that have provided our modern civilization, including our energy industries. That free enterprise must not be hindered by bogus claims about imaginary disasters.”

The petition states: “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”

Robinson has warned of serious political and economic consequencesof assuming “global warming” results from mankind’s actions.

“The campaign to severely ration hydrocarbon energy technology has now been markedly expanded,” he said. “In the course of this campaign, many scientifically invalid claims about impending climate emergencies are being made. Simultaneously, proposed political actions to severely reduce hydrocarbon use now threaten the prosperity of Americans and the very existence of hundreds of millions of people in poorer countries,” he told WND.

Warned Paul, “Above all, we must never forget our contract with the American people – the Constitution that provides the sole source of legitimacy of our government. That Constitution requires that we preserve the basic human rights of our people – including the right to freely manufacture, use, and sell energy produced by any means they devise – including nuclear, hydrocarbon, solar, wind, or even bicycle generators.

“While it is evident that the human right to produce and use energy does not extend to activities that actually endanger the climate of the Earth upon which we all depend, bogus claims about climate dangers should not be used as a justification to further limit the American people’s freedom,” Paul said.

Bättre sent än aldrig, och glimrande bra var den till på köpet. Nazister är ändå alltid nazister. Här blir de skjutna, halshuggna, ihjälklubbade, knivstuckna, innebrända, och inte minst skalperade. You name it, liksom. Brad Pitt är hysteriskt rolig i vissa scener, som exempel kan nämnas hans urusla imitation av en italiensk demonregissör på den stora nazistiska galapremiären i Paris(?). Jag skrattade järnet. Tarantinos hyllningsorgie till tider (filmer) som flytt fortsätter, och så länge det är så här underhållande är inte jag den som tänker spotta i stånkan. This machine kills fascists!

+ IMDb
+ Hemsida
+ Trailer

Betyg: 4/5

Child sodomizer and killer McNeill and Antoinette...Shaniyas' rapist and mom pimp...Lets hope they die soon.

This is a story that is truly disturbing for me to report, but it has to happen.

The animal that killed Shaniya Davis must be put to death, the sooner the better is my preferance.I have no mercy for this person, Mario McNeil,or her terrible mother,and the people who supported them to be able to live this long.

I hope they all burn in hell for what they did to little Shaniya.

The AP reports that the 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant.

Mario McNeill is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child in the warrant, which was issued after police said they collected hair and fibers, clothes, and a straw from his 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. He was initially charged only with kidnapping.

McNeill seemed nervous as he appeared in court Friday for a brief hearing on the latest charges. He nodded his head slightly to the judge’s questions but did not enter a plea. His lawyer, Allen Rogers, left the courtroom with his client and didn’t speak to reporters. He also didn’t return messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

The girl’s mother, Antoinette Davis, is charged with filing a false police report, trafficking her daughter and child abuse involving prostitution.

Her mother does not believe that her daughter harmed her child….so I say that they all should be thrown in jail with the general population.

She had to have known that her daughter is a pig, and was a danger to her defenseless little grand-daughter while she laid back and allowed it to happen.

She should be ashamed to support her vile and viscous daughter, and I suspect that she was a child abuser and molester, and she more than likely taught her daughter how to be one as well.

I hope they all die by the hands of the justice system.

Meanwhile, Shaniya’s father, Bradley Lockhart, appeared on Friday’s “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where Winfrey asked him if he had anything to say to Davis. He told The Associated Press earlier that he had cared for Shaniya for several years but decided to give Davis a chance to raise her because she seemed to be getting her life together.

“Right now I just think it’s best that we let the justice system take its course,” Lockhart said on the show. “I try to keep my heart as pure as possible, and I’m sure one day I will be able to sit down and talk to her, try and understand what was going through her mind.”

All I can say is that I wish I could be a juror on that trial, because I would not hesitate to vote the death penalty for these cowards…

Write in and comment on my blog here, and let me know what type of punishment this child rapist Mario McNeill deserves, and what kind of death should her mother Antoinette Davis, that sold her for sex to settle a drug debt, should get, because she absolutely deserves the death penalty…in all 50 states.

The details of this case just make me sick, as it should all civilized human beings.

It is hard for me to look at this idiot, but here is a news report from You tube, courtesy of the AP…

Let me know how you would put him to death….let me know.

Innocent Shaniya patiently waiting to be raped and murdered by the animal Mario McNeill

Let’s pray for his swift and violent death…he has earned all of our hatred.

Este 2009 está siendo un año repleto de zombis y parodias, y en ese plan, como los americanos siempre lo quieren hacer todo a lo grande, inventaron Zombieland. Está dirigida por Ruben Fleischer, y protagonizada por Woody Harrelson con Jesse Eisenberg. Y es una peli que del chorreo de avances que salieron, uno se queda con dos elementos siempre interesantes: tripa y risas.

Bien, todos esos cebos en forma de carteles, anuncios y trailers que de estos últimos eran conducidos por una voz en off invitando al escacharre y desenfreno, con un montón de ataques y gore a cámara lenta con Van Halen de fondo, son lo que después de ver la peli me gusta denominar como ‘una estafa de puta madre’.
El argumento es una plaga zombi que supuestamente está asolando el mundo, mezclado con el intento de aguantar por un pequeño grupo, cuyos caminos confluyen, y con sus más y sus menos (tampoco voy a contarlo todo), tiran hacía un parque de atracciones; porque se supone que es el único sitio seguro de la tierra. Me vale.

De lo primero que te das cuenta en Zombieland es que no hay muchos zombis, luego de que es bastante coñazo, pero de lo primero sobretodo es que básicamente no abundan los podridos. Se centran más en explotar la mordacidad, en forma de situaciones que nacen de la pose de sus protagonistas. Dicho así puede sonar a que me esperaba un desparrame de la virgen, luego me dieron una ración de diálogos, yo me cerré en banda porque solo me gusta la metralla, luego la gente hablará, dirá que no me entero, que estoy desperdiciando el talento de alguien por algún sitio… grrr. No. No me parece chungo este enfoque, de hecho al margen de que la acción o las bromas vayan mejor o peor, la relación entre la gente me parece lo más importante a la hora de exponer una situación de supervivencia. Ahora, independientemente de la seriedad del proyecto hay que hacerlo bien.

Quizá me dejase influir demasiado por el envoltorio que le dieron durante la campaña de promoción y me esperase otra cosa, no voy a decir que no, pero bueno… si de 80 minutos, 60 son la historia de cuatro personajes que te importan una mierda: un redneck tarado, dos hermanas pelmas y un lechón que vive solo en un piso más grande que el de Fraiser, mal vamos. Lo que va a pasar entre la pareja protagonista de la misma edad es bastante evidente… del resto, en los dos ataques zombi que tiene a penas sucede nada destacable, y lo poco que sucede es una pedazo de chorrada… así que supongo que con esta peli me pasa un poco como con los Morancos, los dos tienen mucho maquillaje y un montón de medios pero un sentido del humor que no comprendo.

Supongo que el hecho del notable acabado técnico junto al gancho ‘argumental’, es lo suficientemente goloso como para que mucha gente se acerque a Zombieland. Y la verdad es que no es demasiado irritante en general, como la cantidad de basura zombi que se puede encontrar por ahi… lo malo es que no me puedo quitar la sensación de chasco, de haber visto los cuatro sketchs que tiene la peli, quedarme como estaba, y pensar que hubiese sido mucho mejor hacer un videoclip de 5 minutos con la canción de Van Halen entera en vez de esto.

Título Original: Zombieland
Fecha de estreno: 2009
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Guión: Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese
Música: David Sardy
Reparto: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin
Productora: Columbia Pictures / Relativity Media / Pariah

I’ve had a pretty steady “love-love” relationship with the filmmakers, Larry and Andy Wachowski. Their first major stab at writing/directing, BOUND, was a magnificent thriller/noir movie that just happened to feature women as both the anti-hero(ine) and the femme fatale. With a great performance from both women (Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, respectively), and the main villain of the piece, Caesar (played by the irascible Joe Pantoliono, who I have followed and loved through his career, in the similar role of the pimp in RISKY BUSINESS, to the sidekick of Tommy Lee Jones’ Federal Marshall in the THE FUGITIVE movies, and finally to his appearance in the Wachowski’s THE MATRIX.), the movie is stylish, sleek and most of all gave us the introduction to these movie-makers that I don’t know if their previous screen-writing venture did, in ASSASSINS.

Of course, then THE MATRIX, and it’s sequels, came along and changed everything. It changed the state of science fiction movies, the way action was done – either earnestly or as satire, and most of all these two men, sparked another filmic universe; that has really been equalled in my eyes by Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino and Alfred Hitchcock. (I’m sure there’s more, but those are the main ones I could think of.) You can tell a movie made by the Wachowski Brothers, from the way certain things are shot, from dialogue (in the Wachowski’s case, there always tends to be the quasi-zen, bullshit philosophy), and a repeating of certain actors. Whether it’s Pantoliono, Hugo Weaving (MATRIX and V FOR VENDETTA), Randall Duk Kim (MATRIX SEQUELS) and now the Korean pop star Rain, who was featured in SPEED RACER and now is the lead in the Wachowski Brothers’ produced, James McTeigue directed (same setup as V FOR VENDETTA, only the Wachowski’s didn’t write this screenplay) NINJA ASSASSIN.

It’s necessary to mention the V FOR VENDETTA setup, because this gives us our second – or third if you count the apparent refilming of the Nicole Kidman movie THE INVASION, which is a remake of  the tried and true idea of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS – look at the directing chops of McTeigue. V FOR VENDETTA also stands out as the Wachowski’s foray into literal adaptation – as their no arguing that their previous movie were “inspired by” other’s works before, V FOR VENDETTA was based off the great graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The action moved away from the patented Wachowski-inspired look of bullet time, and instead gave us blade lines. A tradition stooped in comic book art, but something that took what had become played out, and added another level to it. V FOR VENDETTA has become my favorite movie of these filmmakers; despite it’s going astray of the comic book’s intentions; and being more vital than their own work in THE MATRIX universe. (It might be said that the sequels lessened the impact or tainted the work of the original, but I just think that VENDETTA is more about trying to create a new world, and THE MATRIX is more about destroying an old one. And there is a fine line, and possibly a non-sensical viewpoint in that opinion.)

Written from an original story by Matthew Sand, and then gone over again by screen-comic book-television writer J. Michael Straczynski, NINJA ASSASSIN sadly lacks some of the finer points that we’ve gotten in the past from the creative minds behind this movie (and oddly, that even includes Strazcynski’s previous Oscar contender, CHANGELING). There’s certainly the action, the stylized violence – that most closely resembles V FOR VENDETTA – and there’s a little of the dialogue that I’ve come to expect (something about how a tattoo reveals not who the man is, but what kind of man he is…Not completely sure), but the storytelling is off. Even without it being a movie with the creative pedigree it has, there’s a fine action movie here, but there’s just something in the incorporation of the woman government agent out of her depth, the needless training montage of our hero in his apartment alone flinging around throwing stars and blades on chains, and even some of the hackneyed plot devices, that makes the movie less than the sum of it’s parts.

The movie only really works in it’s basest form. The action, and fight scenes between good ninja and bad ninja, ninja against military forces, and the numerous training flashbacks showing us this secret clan that kidnaps children turning them into deadly assassins. The opening five minutes of the movie really are kind of the peak of the piece. The top of a man’s head is chopped off, leaving us to see his lower jaw and tongue flopping, before he falls down dead and a flurry of super-speed throwing stars come through and eviscerate an entire gang of incessant, wannabe gangsters. I thought that this was a setup for a movie that would continue to raise the stakes, and take us even further into the world of, well, ninja assassins. Instead we cut from that to two government agents talking about ninjas; played by the ever watchable – both for talent and for looks – Naomie Harris (who you might not recognize from the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movies and Michael Mann’s MIAMI VICE retread) and Ben Miles, who was the television secretary for the government, Dascomb, in V FOR VENDETTA. From there we cut to a scene of Raizo (Rain), doing laundry and a vague fight, that we only see a few moments of and then the vague outcome. Then it’s back to the Europol agents, talking. Then Raizo again, in his apartment, training. Needless to say, I understand that the movie can’t be wall-to-wall ninja mayhem, but this really kind of killed the flow of the movie.

Luckily, we then get the insight into where Raizo came from, the harsh conditions he was trained in – and this movie spares no children the brunt of physical violence – and then finally, it seems the inevitable meeting between Harris’ agent, Mika, and Raizo. When we do get our first glimpses of the ninja, momentarily in the opening scene, and then in the attack on Mika; there’s some awesome cinematic and special effects tricks used to show the stealthiness of how the ninjas move and blend into shadows. There’s a touch of fantasy in the way they turn into blurs and seem to move faster than the camera – or eye – can see; how they can materialize out of shadows that shouldn’t be able to contain a human form, and of course the mass amounts of mayhem.

One thing that came to mind as I watched masses of both ninja and military forced being dismembered and shredded to pieces either by bullets or bladed weapons, was the difference in how I felt about the violence; especially in contrast to say 2012, where we’re basically treated to the obliteration of the human (and I’d dare say all life’s) population. In that movie it was really disconcerting to see all this destruction on a screen (rated PG-13, nonetheless), and the main point of view we followed was the near hijinks of a few – argumentatively undeserving – souls, outrunning earthquakes, falling skyscrapers and big wave surfing aircraft carriers. In NINJA ASSASSIN, we see every person that dies, on-screen, or we see the results of this violence in the form of (barely) survivors being carried away from the battlefield.  It was a strange feeling, and I’m not entirely sure what, or how I feel about it.

But, NINJA ASSASSIN is worth seeing if you love ninjas, oceans of blood and body parts; but if you’re looking for a real story – even one as ham-handed as the Wachowskis can be – probably better to pop in that V FOR VENDETTA dvd again, instead. It’s a far more rewarding experience.

**And as much as one of my favorite moments in the trailer is the ninja being run over by the car, at the end, that whole scene is just ridiculous to think that ninjas wouldn’t think of a better way of catching their prey, than by running through the streets of a major city. Just seemed silly.

Interview with the Vampire (1994)
★★★★ / ★★★★

After being caught up with the “True Blood” craze, I decided to visit some of my favorite vampire movies. “Interview with the Vampire,” directed by Neil Jordan, was one of those movies I saw in early high school that I loved but forgot the details as years went on. I’m surprised this one strongly held up against other horror pictures, especially vampire movies. It’s something I didn’t quite expect because the movies I used to think were scary when I was younger turned out to be silly and vapid in storytelling. Tom Cruise stars as Lestat, a vampire who was as equally hungry for blood as he was with power. He one day decided to make Louis (Brad Pitt) into a vampire because, at least according to him, he wanted to give Louis a choice to relieve his pain of losing his wife and child. Despite turning into the undead, Louis still managed to hang onto his humanity by refusing to feed on humans. This bothered Lestat and thought that Louis’ loneliness would be eliminated by giving Louis a companion–in a form of a vampire child played by Kirsten Dunst. But this all happened in the past as the details which covered centuries were revealed by Louis to an enthusiastic reporter (Christian Slater). Although I did read the novels by Anne Rice, I only could remember three things: Louis, Lestat and the passion (both good and bad) between the two. What made me really engaged about this film was not because it was scary in content. I was actually more into Louis’ humanity, his efforts to abstain from human blood, and his eventual search for those who were like him. That romanticism was reflected into the elegant designs of each room in the 18th century to the dark corners of the catacombs. Another thing that was interesting was Kirsten Dunst. As an adult actress, she bores me to death because every emotion she wants to portray on screen feels the same. But in this film, she had range: she was quite magical, menacing, fascinating all rolled into one. For me, “Interview with the Vampire” is a great vampire film because it makes the argument that vampires have the capacity to choose to be good instead of just being one-dimensional fiends who crave blood and live for centuries. Although necessary to paint the nature of vampire, the gore, the violence, and the evil were secondary. It was consistent, thrilling, and very interesting.

Through bizarre circumstance I ended up watching Saw I through V in about 6 days last week. I didn’t write reviews of them because I considered them to be pretty much irrellevant. Then I realized that Saw VI is out in theaters, however, so I went to see it last weekend and seeing as this one is actually current (don’t mistake that for timely or relevant, just saying it’s actually out in theaters so writing a review seems appropriate) I thought I’d write up something.

The Saw series is a bloody mess, in every sense of the word(s). The first one started out with a relatively intriguing premise, but never really managed to make anything of it beyond unnecessary gore for the sake of unnecessary gore, which is a bit of a shame because I believe there is a level of intelligence (or at least could have been) underlying the premise: Trap people in life-threatening situations and observe just how far they are willing to go to save their life (usually survival requires going through extremely strenuous mental or physical torture, i.e. being required to saw your own foot off to escape.

One might think this premise opened for, if not any sort of humane treatment of the issue, at least an interesting perspective on the human survival instinct. Or perhaps some weird sense of reformation treatment that Jigsaw (the man behind it all) seems to be aiming for. Alas, none of this is had in any of the films, VI included, as it all boils down to gore and nothing else. Jigsaw’s motivation for choosing people is completely arbitrary, the extent of the task they are required to perform to survive is completely arbitrary, and the actual way in which they die is equally so, some being tortured to death and others dying, presumably, in an instant. If any social commentary was meant to be made it was more or less completely idiotic before the words were ever uttered. The uncivilized manner that the apparently civilized Jigsaw executes his whole plan is pretty much bat-shit insane from beginning to end. Everyone seems to have the sloppiest definition I’ve ever heard of what murder is and moral questions are treated about as delicately as if someone witohut fingers wearing huge boxing gloves is trying to thread a tiny thread of logic through an equally tiny needle hoop of moral questions.

I could go on at length about how truly ridiculous, inconsistent, gratuitous and blatantly hypocritical the entire Saw series and every character within it is. That said, while Saw I started on a pretty average note and the series has regressed steeply and consistently into awful from there, a fall ending with the absolutely uncomprehensible Saw IV and the slightly less awful but still migrane-inducing Saw V. I could not expect Saw VI to be any better. However, it is.

The series has been attempting to have a plot outside the traps since day one (which I have consistently maintained is a huge mistake, as I have not cared about any of the plots at all as they all involve completely generic cop characters doing completely generic cop things and reaching no end whatsoever) and it does so here as well. Magically, unbelievably, this time I cared. Weirder still, the plot involves the same characters as IV and V (although a lot of these die in their respective films, including Jigsaw himself who surely died 3 films ago yet still lingers on through the magic of the flashback) and follows those plots, and still I cared. It’s hard to say what did it. The plot is not genius, it is not impressive in any way, but it is completely followable and pretty much devoid of logical inconsistencies and characters whose motivations are at best hypocritical and at worst completely arbitrary. Saw VI is, to put it simply, completely acceptable which considering how horrible the last few films have been is a bit of an achievement.

The traps are also pretty clever, relying more on psychological terror than gratuitous gore and following one character in a pretty logical manner most of the time. A lot of the issues are still there, incompetent editing, incredibly seizure-inducing camerawork and pretty much every thing one could mention is probably further away from perfect than it is from terrible. It is not a particularly enjoyable film, but I am willing to say that it is probably the first Saw film to actually make a shred of sense. If only they had managed to do this with the first film, where the premise was original and fresh and not worn down by years of rehashes of the same plot points, they might have had a memorable horror film on their hands. As it stands, it is pretty much just watchable.

2/5

Un detalle interesante va a pasar en la siguiente película de “Underworld4″. Se dice que el escritor de “The Shield”, John Hlavin va a ser el encargado de hacer el guión. ¿Suena bien no?.

El escritor no ha querido dar detalles de como va a estar la siguiente película pero afirmó de que no será “ninguna precuela”.

“Va a satisfacer a los fans con antigüedad así como emocionar al publico nuevo, lo que significa que no vamos a hacer las tres primeras películas, así que mantendremos lo que los fan adoran pero al mismo tiempo introduciremos nuevos elementos”.

El director Len Wiseman (el de la primera) sigue siendo un productor, pero por el momento la cinta no tiene al que será el mandamás de esta pelea entre vampiros y lobos. Tampoco se ha asegurado de que Kate Beckinsale ni Rhona Mitra estén dentro de esta nueva cinta.

En cuanto tengamos más información con mucho gusto la postearemos.

Desde el oriente llega esta joya del cine bizarro, esta basada en un manga ultraviolento del mismo nombre, y como es de esperar por el genero la película respeta( y mucho) esa ultraviolencia, dirigida por Simon Nam (Ngai Kai Lam). La película combina las artes marciales con el gore.

En el año 2001, los países capitalistas han privatizado todas las organizaciones gubernamentales. Las cárceles, como aparcamientos, se han convertido en un negocio…

Tras este texto comienza la película con la llegada de un autobús de presos a la prisión donde transcurre la historia, uno de esos presos es el protagonista, Ricky-Oh (Siu-Wong Fan). Acusado de homicidio sin premeditación y agresión, Ricky deberá pasar los próximos diez años de su vida tras las rejas.

Pero al poco de entrar ya encuentra problemas al enfrentarse a una banda que (aliada con el alcalde y su ayudante) controlan la prisión. Los presos, muchos de ellos condenados sin motivo y de manera exagerada, son explotados como mano de obra barata además de obligarlos a cultivar opio en la prisión. Esto mueve al protagonista, debido a su ideal de defender a los débiles y a su pasado (el cual se va mostrando a lo largo de la película mediante flashbacks), a luchar contra los ejecutores de tales injusticias convirtiendose en el libertador de los oprimidos.

Es ahi cuando llega nuestro heroe salvador rompe huesos a poner orden y hacer justicia en ese enfermo lugar. Ricky no le teme a perder sus tripas, de hecho puede amarrarse los tendones del brazo con un simple nudo, atravesar muros y reventar cabezas.

Si te gusta el cine de explotacion(trash cinema), no te pierdas esta mega-gore y deleitate con una de las mejores peliculas de artes marciales carniceras.

Romance, drama, artes marciales, patadas y gore! Son la base de esta pelicula…

Cuando uno piensa que ya ha visto todo, nuestros amigos orientales son capaces de desconcertarnos totalmente y darnos un cubetazo de agua fría.