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Movie Reviews, iPhone App Reviews, and Tech Commentary by Jason Kaneshiro

iPhone App: Paper TossToday

= 4 stars

Toss paper balls (crumpled up sheets of 8 1/2 x 11) into a wastebasket with varying distances and wind conditions.

The Good

• Super simple game play: just swipe toward the waste basket from the bottom of the screen to launch the paper ball toward its target. The complicating matter is a fan sitting to either side that blows at a different speed during each toss. The wind direction and strength is given to you beneath the waste basket, but that doesn’t make things easy. Points are scored through consecutive baskets - one miss and your score resets to zero.
• Tiny details make the game: most satisfying is a “rim shot” where the ball bounces off the wastebasket rim. occasionally saving a close throw. Other details are subtly subversive: the background depicts a cu

Movie Notes: AliceToday

= 3 stars

Starring Mia Farrow, William Hurt, Joe Mantegna
Directed by Woody Allen

Synopsis

Alice Tate (Mia Farrow), a wealthy but bored Manhattan housewife, contemplates leaving her husband (William Hurt) after some mysterious treatments by an acupuncturist.

The Good

• Farrow shines as the central character, showing a wide range of emotions and juggling practically evey looney idea Allen throws her way.
• First appearance of an occult, otherworldly experience that the main character encounters which changes their perception of the world. This “occult” theme pops up again in Curse Of The Jade Scorpion and Scoop for example. The setup results in a few funny situations, namely the invisibility herb, and a misused love potion.
• Begins with Allen’s typical “let’s have an affair” situation, but ends in a different - and better - place. Some good thoughts on the illogical nature of romance, and finding a life’s purpose beyond materialism and marriage.

The Bad

• A bit overl

Movie Notes: Crimes And MisdemeanorsYesterday

= 5 stars

Starring Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, Alan Alda
Directed by Woody Allen

Synopsis

Judah (Martin Landau) unsuccessfully tries to end an affair with stewardess Dolores (Anjelica Huston), who is increasingly getting out of hand and threatening to expose everything to his wife. Meanwhile, Cliff (Woody Allen) is filming a documentary starring his successful brother in law Lester (Alan Alda), and finding it to be extremely stressful.

The Good

• I’ve watched this movie many times with a few years’ between each viewing, and this time it flew by. The drama gets going after the first scene when Judah finds a letter written by his lover, Dolores. When he throws it into a fireplace, we know his initial instinct is to avoid the situation through whatever means possible. The rest of the movie documents how far he’s willing to go.
• Solid cast: Martin Landau, who sells Judah’s inner conflict and increasing worry, lending the film tension. Even when he does what we wouldn’t dare, we believe his character would because of Landau’s performance. Huston is equally compelling as the “other woman” - her passion and naiveté makes it clear why Judah was initially attracted to her, yet why she becomes a problem. On the comic side, Alan Alda is pitch perfect as Lester, an obnoxious entertainment guy that is the antitheses of Cliff (Woody Allen). Lester gets some of the film’s funniest wrong-headed lines, including “if it bends, it’s funny. If it breaks, it’s not funny,” and “comedy is tragedy plus time,” both met by Cliff’s eye-rolling.
• In both the dramatic and comic plots, Allen tackles the issue of religion, more specifically, is there a God, and in the absence of God, can morality exist? On the humorous side, Cliff is working on a documentary by an uncharacteristically optimistic philosophy professor. Meanwhile, on the dramatic side, Judah contemplates having Dolores bumped off, hiring his shady brother in law Jack, causing Judah to feel extremely guilty and paranoid, sending him on a soul-searching journey back to his religious upbringing. Judah also seeks solace from a patient who is a Rabbi (Sam Waterston) who is slowly going blind (symbolism duly noted). The other overarching question is if someone were able to commit a crime and get away with it, could they continue to live life, or would the guilt weigh on them until their own demise?
• A few amazingly directed scenes that still send chills down my spine: Dolores threatening to expose Judah’s financial embezzlement while her head is hidden behind a black object, a camera panning down to a face on the floor set to Schubert’s String Quartet #15 in G, and Judah answering a phone call in the middle of the night - only to hear no-one on the other end.
• A pretty dark conclusion, in an amazing scene, commenting on reality vs. tragedy and the fantasy of movies vs. reality.

The Bad

N/A.

Conclusion

Crimes And Misdemeanors was the first movie that really got me interested in Woody Allen. Here, he really perfected a balance between comedy and drama, and also managed some maturity through contemplation of morality and religion, within the simple framework of a man deciding to commit a murder and having us wonder if he’ll get away with it. The chill of a tense Judah answering that one phone call still disturbs me to this day.

If you liked Match Point, give this one a spin because it’s a similar story, arguably told in a more entertaining way. Another one of my favorite Allen films.

Next Woody Allen Movie: Alice
Previous Woody Allen Movie: Another Woman

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 Ads: Not Much To Offer, So Confuse ‘EmJuly 2

After hearing someone vomited, I checked out some of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 ads. While the cheap PC ads do have a point, these IE 8 ads make the Seinfeld ones look really good. Which is bad.

My overall feeling while viewing these ads was confusion. They’re surreal, with bizarre, hard-to-remember acronyms and visual nonsense, none of which has anything to do with computers, let alone a web browser. In this one, the “expert” is holding a rubber band ball. Why? No reason whatsoever as far as I can tell.

Then we have the vomiting ad, which is so crass that all I’ll remember is the vomiting. So my brand association is: Microsoft = vomit. And Microsoft must know they screwed up, since the ad has been pulled.

Movie Notes: Another WomanJuly 2

= 2 stars

Starring Geena Rowlands, Ian Holm, Mia Farrow
Directed by Woody Allen

Synopsis

Graduate school administrator Marion (Gena Rowlands) is writing a book, when she starts hearing the private confessions of patients in the neighboring psychiatrist’s office. She begins contemplating her marriage to Ken (Ian Holm) and former love, Larry (Gene Hackman).

The Good

• A worthy point: intellectual pursuits can lead to a life lacking in passion.

The Bad

• Dull: the main character takes stock of her life and realizes where things probably went awry. But ultimately, her course of action, while internally logical and realistic, is nothing special.

Conclusion

Ultimately I found the movie a bit too somber for my tastes. Although Allen, again, excises himself from the film almost completely and tries to do a straight drama as with Interiors and Septemeber, this outing is missing heart and therefore entertainment. Ultimately, it’s a