Tag Archives: Film

Here is chapter three of five, from episode 21, “The Destruction of The Loved Ones” of The Adventures of Mythical Super Hero Anne.

3.

            Matthewsan and Diannakiro were
sitting on the edge of the luxury futon sofa, looking at Malirra, who was not
moving, so deep in thought was she. 
Mythical Super Hero Anne, still disguised as Toshomiko, a mild mannered
fourteen year old Japanese girl, was pacing the floor, behind the futon.

            “Malirra,” said
Matthewsan, with urgency in his voice, “can you tell me where Mythical
Super Hero Anne can be found?”

            Malirra looked at Matthewsan, then
to Diannakiro.  They both looked so
worried.  Finally her gaze fixed upon
Toshomiko, who stopped pacing, eager to hear Malirra’s answer to Matthewsan’s
question.  “Malirra say, ‘Mythical
Super Hero Anne is very close to me. 
Both in my heart and in who I see.'”

            Toshomiko gasped, and began to pace
again.  Malirra knows my identity, thought Mythical Super Hero Anne.  Why
hasn’t she said anything before now?  She
truly is wise, for she must have kept silent knowing all would be lost if my
identity were to be publicized. 
Toshomiko looked at Malirra, who was still staring at her, and smiled.

            Matthewsan was confused.  “I do not understand,” he
said.  “What can that mean,
Diannakiro?”

            Diannakiro quickly looked at
Toshomiko, with a look that asked what she should do.  Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne shook her
head at Diannakiro, as if to say not to tell.

            “Diannakiro,” asked
Matthewsan, “do you know what the riddle means?”

            Diannakiro turned her attention to
Mattewsan and said, “I am afraid I am unable to help you with that riddle,
Matthewsan.”  She felt bad for being
misleading to an elder, but at least it wasn’t an out and out lie.  She really couldn’t tell Matthewsan what she
knew for his own good and safety.

            Matthewsan looked at Malirra.  “Is that the only clue you can give me,
Malirra?”

            “Malirra say, ‘Diannakiro says
she can’t help so, but maybe her friend does the answer know.'”

            Matthewsan looked puzzled
again.  He never was good at figuring out
Malirra’s puzzles.  But if ever there was
a time to put all his effort into solving one, it was now, for all of Tokyo was
depending on Mythical Super Hero Anne to save them from Gilzilla. To do so,
Mythical Super Hero Anne must be found.  Diannakiro says she can’t help so, but maybe
her friend does the answer know? “Well,” he mused, “who is
Diannakiro’s friend?”  Matthewsan
thought hard for a moment, and then looked up in surprise, a little angry at
himself for not seeing the obviousness of the riddle right away.  “Why it is Toshomiko!  She is the one!”

            At that moment, Mythical Super Hero
Anne thought her secret was out, that Matthewsan had figured out that she was
the super hero girl. “Toshomiko is Diannakiro’s friend,” said
Matthewsan.  “Toshomiko, do you know
what Malirra’s riddle means? ‘Mythical Super Hero Anne is very close to me,
both in my heart and in who I see’?”

            Toshomiko looked at Matthewsan.  He is
so kind to me, she thought, he really
should know, and he will likely figure it out anyway in a short while.  After all, Diannakiro knows, as does
Malirra.  So telling one more loved one
can’t hurt.  Toshomiko took in a deep
breath and said “It means that I am Mythical Super Hero Anne!”

            Matthewsan could not believe what he
was hearing.  “You?!” he
said.  “You, such a mild mannered
fourteen year old Japanese girl can make such a claim: that you are Mythical
Super Hero Anne, the mythical Japanese super hero?”

            “Yes.”

            “Toshomi– Mythical Super Hero
Anne, why did you tell him?” asked Diannakiro.

            “I told him because I knew he
would soon figure out adopted father-sister’s riddle.”  Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne walked to
behind Malirra and put her hands on the wise, old one’s shoulders.  “You see, according to Malirra’s riddle,
Mythical Super Hero Anne is someone who is both near and dear to her, both as a
loved one, and as a physical presence in this living-square.  The only two people in this living-square
whom Malirra loves so much are myself and Matthewsan.  And Matthewsan knows he is not Mythical Super
Hero Anne–“

            Matthewsan laughed, still in
shock.  “How could I be such a
hero?  I am but an old man.”

            “–therefore I am the
one,” continued the super hero, walking towards Matthewsan.  “I am very close to her, both
physically, and in her heart.  I am no
more than two metres from her physically, and in her heart I am loved as one of
her own offspring.”

            “You are Mythical Super Hero
Anne,” said Matthewsan, rising from the luxury futon sofa and touched the
girl’s shoulder.  “But why didn’t
you tell me sooner?”  He turned back
to the futon, and looked to where Diannakiro was sitting.  “And you knew this as well,
Diannakiro?”

            “Yes,” said Diannakiro,
proudly.  “I’ve known it since we
first met.”

            Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne
took Matthewsan’s hands in her own, and looked into his eyes.  “I could not tell you,” said
Toshomiko, “like I could not tell anyone. I was afraid, and still am, that
if you knew, you might let my secret out. 
But I weighed that danger against the danger of you finding out on your
own.  I feared it might break your heart
to know that I kept a secret from you. 
So I told you myself, even at the risk of putting your life in
danger.”

            “It is true,” said
Matthewsan.  “The sting of
discovering this truth was lessened by your telling me yourself.  If I had discovered the truth, for instance,
tonight, alone on my futon bed, the shock might have been too great for my old,
weak heart.  Toshomiko…”  Matthewsan again put his hand on the girl’s
shoulder, smiling with great pride, as he realized who he was speaking to.  “Mythical Super Hero Anne, by telling me this
secret, you may have put my life in jeopardy, but you also saved it at the same
time.  Thank you.”

            Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne
hugged Matthewsan tightly, surprising him with the grand gesture of physical
contact.  Then she looked at everyone in
the living square.  “It is vital
that no one but you three know my true identity.  It must be a secret to the public.”  She looked back at Matthewsan.  “Now that you know, you cannot tell
anyone, Matthewsan.”

            “Of course,” said
Matthewsan, standing proudly erect and at attention.  “It is an ancient Japanese tradition to
keep secrets forever.  And I am a man who
lives and dies by ancient Japanese traditions. 
I will not tell a soul.”

            Diannakiro took Toshomiko by the arm
and pulled her aside. “But what about Malirra?” she asked. “She
knows now.  Won’t she tell?”

            That was a worry to Mythical Super
Hero Anne.  While Malirra wasn’t known as
a gossip, she did have numerous friends and acquaintances in the community who
were very gossipy.  It was possible that
they could pull the secret out of Malirra’s brain.  Mythical Super Hero Anne was just about to
warn her, when Malirra spoke.

            “Malirra say, ‘I am much too
wise to tell this secret, but right now it is Gilzilla that Mythical Super Hero
Anne must get.”

            Matthewsan put his hand on
Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne’s shoulder. 
“Malirra is right,” he said. 
“Mythical Super Hero Anne, I am proud to have you as my adopted
daughter, but now you must destroy Gilzilla, the evil monster from the
sea.”

            “But before I destroy
him,” said Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne, reaching into her backpack
which was leaning against the front of the luxury futon, “I must first put
on my Mythical Super Hero Anne outfit.” 
She pulled out a straw hat that had bright orange braids hanging down
from both sides, and put it on her head. The transformation was immediate and
total. And at that moment, Diannakiro, Matthewsan and Malirra were the first
humans to witness the transformation of Toshomiko, from mild mannered, polite
female Japanese worker to all powerful Mythical Super Hero Anne.

            “And now I must find
Gilzilla,” said Mythical Super Hero Anne.

            At that moment, there was a
commotion in the hall outside Matthewsan’s apartment, and then the door crashed
open, splintering into a million shreds!

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
Edward R. Murrow

I’m looking forward to this movie.

This is great.
Click on this link to see a (quicktime) redux version of a trailer for The Shining.  A post-production house had a contest to see who could come up with the best alteration to existing movie trailers, to make them seem like different movies than they actually are.  This one won.

I’d love to see more of the submissions.  If anybody has a link, let me know.

via Screenhead, via Waxy, via Tattered Coat

Early Sunday morning last (and sorry for saying "Sunday morning past"), my son, who had been sleeping over at his friend Keaton’s house, called and asked if he and Keaton could make another movie on Sunday.  Reluctantly, I agreed.
So for the rest of the morning and half the afternoon they excitedly dreamed up scenario after scenario, creating an epic film full of action and intrigue.  Being the one who’d have to try and make sense out of it all, and do the actual tough work of editing it into a coherent and not-too-long movie, I nixed most of their ideas.
What they finally decided upon was that Cameron would play "The Black Ninja" and Keaton would play "The White Ninja".  They would also elicit the help of a third person, Matt, to play "The Wizard".  Their after-Rob-rejected-the-too-complicated-plotlines truncated story was:  The Wizard appears to the White Ninja and tells him to kill the Black Ninja.  The two ninjas fight, Black Ninja wins, end of movie.
I suggested: How about the wizard appears to white ninja, tells him that black ninja is bad and to kill him.  Then he appears to black ninja and tells him that white ninja is bad and must be killed.  He appears a couple more times to each, each time telling the one to kill the other.  When the ninjas finally meet, they discover the duplicitous intent of the wizard and end up killing him together.
They loved this idea, and so we all waited for the next hour and a half or so for my wife to get home with the car.
We needed a car, you see, because Keaton had a "great place in mind" to shoot the movie.  It involved a drive of a few minutes to park the car near the Trail and then a couple of minutes walk to to a path, down which there was a great place in mind for shooting.  It had a bridge and a stream and a lake and some wooded areas.  Sounded good so I agreed that would be the location.
Car arrives, I ask Karyn if she wanted to come with us.  She declined and off we went, me and The White Ninja, The Black Ninja and The Wizard.  Parked the car and began walking down the trail.
It took about 15 minutes to get to the path.  I was not anticipating a 15 minute walk (not that it’s long, but you know, I was told a minute or two), so once I got to the path, my desire to continue (or to begin, really) the production was evaporating.  Still, I trudged down the path for another 5 minutes or so.
And we get to the ‘great place in mind’ and I see right away that it’s not going to work.  Too small an area, the bridge was situated in such a way over the stream as to render it useless, the lake was a large green-algae puddle, and the wooded area looks like it’s been used by witches and wiccans, what with the cauldrons and fire pits and corpses (ok, there were no corpses).  And the mosquitoes were infuriatingly bad.
So, I was not a hampy camper.  Still, we went ahead with the setting up of the first shot, which would take place near the firepit.  As I was setting up, though, the mosquitoes literally attacked me and not-literally carried me away.  I declared the fire-pit area a non-shooting worthy location and moved production over to the bridge.  Just as we were about to shoot the first shot, the rain started.  It poured.  Hard
So I aborted the shoot.  We trudged the 5 minutes back up the path, getting soaked under the rain.  We trudged back along the trail. After about 5 more minutes of rain, it stopped, the sun came out and we were dry by the time we got back to the car.
We drove home and spoke no more of the most unfortunate attempt to shoot our latest movie.

I’m putting up here, for a very limited time, the lates MacDonald Family Film Production.  It’s called Go Fish.  It’s a study of the corruptive power of greed and its consequences.

It’s a fair sized download, about 40MBs, but this film contains some of the best acting and dialogue I’ve ever seen.  The tension that builds throughout is palpable and by the end of the movie, I dare say everyone who watches it will be on the edge of their seat, wondering what will happen.  And then, when you see how it concludes, well, it will blow you away.

Seriously though, this is a fun film.  My favourite, of the 3 or 4 that I made with my son and his friend Keaton.

Click on this link to download, if you like.
It will only be around for a little while, because it eats away at my monthly bandwidth allotment.

(I have removed the link.  It was pushing me over my limit.)

I like movies, but I don’t go to a lot of movies (I also don’t go to a lot of anythings).  There are many reasons why I don’t go to more movies, none of them really very good reasons, but I suppose, taken as a whole, they add up to me not going to movies.
One reason I don’t like going to movies (and to theatre, too) is the potential (no matter how small) that it’ll be sold out, or I’ll be late, or some sort of minor inconvenince will occur before hand that will keep me from sitting in a seat in a smart, timely manner.  Yes, I realise I’m rather Rain Man in that regard.
So, last night, almost at the last minute, we (the family) decide to go see Batman Begins.  I check online to see when the movie starts and I see 6:45…  It’s 6:25 as I check, and we’re about a 5 minute drive away.  Good, let’s go.
We get to the theatre and the marquee says Batman Begins  6:30.  It’s 6:30 as we see this.  Stanidng outside in the rain (man) I have a small little breakdown and we (I) decide not to bother.  Yes, there are probably 15 minutes of previews, yes we’d likely get in before the actual movie started and really so what if we missed a few minutes… but… there was a heck of a long lineup for tickets (yes I could have used the robot-tellers in the foyer but there were lines for them too), we had to get some munchies because we were forgoing supper because of this last-minute decision to go and the lineups for food were likely long too.
So we didn’t go to the movie.  I am turning into an autistic.  But where is my savantism?

Another free Movie Idea for you.  All you have to do is write it:

Two versions on the same theme:

1) Will Farrell plays a kind of happy, contented everyman. Or, is he?  Married, kids, good job, yet he somehow is missing something?  He comes in contatct with some guy who, in some public situation, off-handedly makes fun of his name.  The new nickname catches on, and through a series of misadventures, causes Will to lose everything.  The rest of the movie revolves around him finding out what is really important.

2)  Joan Cusack is a woman who is stuck with a terrible name.  Really ridiculous.  It’s caused her to be a social misfit and consumes her to the point where she will only date men whose last name will make her name more bearable.  We see a series of these awful dates and see her fall to more and more desperate situations.  Of course, she has a male friend who is obviously in love with her, and she him, but, alas, his last name makes her name even worse, so she ignores her feelings for him.  In the end, though, she finds out what is really important:  love.

There you go, Hollywood.  Write ’em up!

Here’s a fun little quicktime link all about Robin’s Big Date.

Entertaining, and has Zaphod Beeblebrox as Bat-Man.

Here’s my Oscar picks for 2006:

Best Picture:
I imagine they’ll revert back to their nonsensical judication process,
sooo… Harry Potter 4 or War of the worlds.

Best Actor:
This will go to the black actor in a non-comedy role, like Martin
Lawrence in Big Momma’s house 3.

Best Female:
Definatly one of the greats that I used to like when I was younger,
until they became obscure. I can see Bette Middler, or Liza for their
stellar performance in the remake of Gone with the wind.

Best Director:
Let’s see… They might give a sympathy one to Lucas, but I doubt it.
I’ll go with… Eastwood again. People like him.

Best Sound design:
My personal favourite category will be swept again by Scott Millan and
Greg Orloff.

At any rate I’ll give away more annekenstein goodies if any of my
predictions actually come true.