Agora: A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing freedom while also falling in love with his master, the famous female philosophy professor and atheist Hypatia of Alexandria. Starring Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom, Michael Lonsdale, Rupert Evans. I really like the look of this, but I’m a sucker for Egyptian/Greek/Roman history! Even then though, while I’m not yet completely convinced by the plot, the cinematography looks gorgeous. Release Date: unknown

Extract: Extract follows the personal and professional problems endured by the owner of a flower-extract plant, who’s dealing with workplace problems and a streak of bad luck, including his wife’s affair with a gigolo. Extract is written and directed by Mike Judge, the man behind “Beavis and Butt-Head”, “King of the Hill”, Office Space, and Idiocracy. Release Date: September 2009 (US)

The Men Who Stare At Goats: A reporter in Iraq (Ewan McGregor) might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army’s First Earth Battalion, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions. This looks like fun! I hadn’t heard anything about this before watching the trailer, but it just looks so quirky. Release Date: November 2009 (US), January 2010 (UK)

Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day: It continues writer and director Troy Duffy’s saga of fraternal twins, the MacManus brothers. The two have been in deep hiding in the quiet valleys of Ireland, far removed from their former lives or modern technologies. When word comes that a priest has been killed by sinister forces in the tough underworld of Boston, they return to mount a violent and bloody crusade to bring justice to those who must now suffer the consequences, with a new partner in crime (Clifton Collins) and a FBI operative (Julie Benz). Release Date: October 2009 (US)

Defendor: Reality intersects with delusion in the mind of Arthur Poppington, a regular man who adopts a superhero persona known as Defendor, and combs the streets at night in search of his arch-enemy, Captain Industry. Release Date: 12 September 2009 (Toronto Film Festival)

Episode 137: “Watchmen”

I came across this video a couple of weeks while researching the Watchmen graffiti on the Southbank. While that looked pretty cool, this video is just amazing:

[Watch on MissGeeky]

It seems a bit of a shame though that they cover each painting with black paint; such a waste of time and art!

I’m loving this series from deviantArt artist Jeffrey Thomas, featuring darker versions of the Disney Princesses. Here are my favourites:

I love the detail of the three fairies trapped in that thing hanging from her waist. In total there are 11 Twisted Princesses: Cinderella, Pocahontas, Aurora (the 3 pictured above), Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Jasmine, Jane, Nala, Mulan and Alice.

Via Film Experience

A month ago I got invited to a blogger/twitter screening of (500) Days of Summer, and I was gutted to discover it was on the same day as our Mozilla GeekDinner. Luckily for me though that wasn’t the only screening, and last Monday I was able to head down to Fox’s Soho screening room to finally see this movie.

(500) Days of Summer is about the relationship between Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), a girl who doesn’t believe in love, and Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a guy, who strongly believes in true love and The One.

“This is not a love story. This is a story about love” That’s the tag line of this movie, and it’s exactly what this film is about. It’s about 500 days of Summer’s and Tom’s relationship, including all the ups and downs. It’s one of the sweetest and most beautiful movies I’ve seen this year, and I know it will be one of my rainy day comfort movies for many years to come.

The writer of this movie deserves an Oscar, cause the way this was put together is remarkable. Instead of following a linear story line, the movie is presented in a non-chronological format, jumping back and forth between different points of the relationship. Each scene starts off with a {}, showing which of the 500 days it is. It’s a refreshing way of putting things in perspective; you don’t remember everything in a linear fashion, and sometimes initially you might only remember the good stuff.

There’s also a lot more quirky storytelling elements/cinematography in (500) Days of Summer, which I adored. I’m not really sure how to describe some of my favourite scenes here without giving too much away. To not spoil too much, one example is of an early scene where the narrator (oh, yeah, there’s also a narrator, it gives the movie almost a fairytale-like edge to it) tells you what type of girl Summer is, and it’s done in this black-and-white fifties education video style. There are more of these special type of sequences, which are just so amazing and give the movie a unique twist.

Both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are fantastic in these roles. Joseph Gordon-Levitt brings a great range of emotions to this role and you can help but empathize with him. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing much more of him in the future. Zooey Deschanel is adorable as Summer. I’ve always liked her, but I’ve never really liked any of the stuff she was in, until now. It’s great to see her in a role as wonderful as this.

One more thing I have to mention about this movie is the style. The music, the clothes, the hairstyles, I loved it all. While it may not be everybody’s cup of tea, I was so jealous of Summer’s look. Some of the (vintage?) dresses she wore were just gorgeous, and I love the bows and hairbands she had in her hair throughout the movie.

(500) Days of Summer is a great romantic comedy, but not in the traditional sense. As the tag line says, this is a story about love, not a love story. And yet, it is one of the best cinematic romances I’ve seen in a long time. This movie is quirky and cute, and one I’d definitely recommend to everyone.

(500) Days of Summer – Release Date: 2 September 2009 (UK)

I stumbled on an interesting website called Personas; it’s part of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, that’s currently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab. It uses natural language processing to create a data portrait of your online identity.

I like the idea, but it didn’t really give any good results. I tried it out a couple of times, and each time I got different results. I understand that I’d get different results for “Melinda Seckington” vs “Miss Geeky”, but I got several different results for “Melinda Seckington”, which just doesn’t make sense. I also don’t understand which websites it analyzes to get its data from. Here’s my results:

Little bit weird, right? I have no idea where terms like medicine, illegal, religion, committees come from; I don’t think I’ve ever written about stuff like that. And even things like politics, and music, I practically never write about that!

The people behind it know that it doesn’t give good results though, and see it as a way to make people think about online identities:

In a world where fortunes are sought through data-mining vast information repositories, the computer is our indispensable but far from infallible assistant. Personas demonstrates the computer’s uncanny insights and its inadvertent errors, such as the mischaracterizations caused by the inability to separate data from multiple owners of the same name. It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world, where digital histories are as important if not more important than oral histories, and computational methods of condensing our digital traces are opaque and socially ignorant.

It is an interesting idea, and I understand the concept behind it. Still, I’m wondering if there is a site out there that truly analyzes our online identities. I’d love to see something that takes tags and favourites from my Delicious, YouTube, Flickr, etc, adds an analyzation of my blog, Twitter and whatever other websites I’m on, to finally create a nice visualization of my online presence. Does something like that exist already?

Yay, the latest release of Mac OS X is out: Snow Leopard! It’s basically an upgrade of Leopard, with some great interface changes and a major speed boost. If you’re using Leopard it’s only £25/$29/€29 for a single user license, and £39/$49/€49 for a family pack (multiple machine installs within one family allowed). If you’re still using an earlier version, a full Box Set costs £129.

Check out the Apple Store to buy your Snow Leopard!

Interesting links for August 23rd through August 27th:

• Anagram Map – Lovely map of the London Tube, but with anagrams of the station/line names. Without looking can you tell me which tube stops the following anagrams are: Chronic Grass, Crux For Disco, Concerning Torments and Blood Rending.
• How much harm does a bad book cover do? – Marketing classics to the Twilight generation.
• The Measure of a Robot – Cute chart of robots: “where they fall on a scale of good to evil, and a scale of being humanoid-shaped to being AIs-in-a-box”.

The Wolfman: Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman, is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Upon his return and after being reunited with his estranged father, Talbot is bitten and cursed by a werewolf. Ooh, this looks like fun! You know how much I love my vampire/werewolf/etc movies, so a definite TO-BE-WATCHED. Release Date: 10 February 2010 (UK, US)

Youth In Revolt: About Nick Twisp, who does everything he can to win the heart of (and lose his virginity to) his dream girl. Hmm, not sure about this. It looks a bit boring until the introduction of Francois Dillinger, but I don’t think even that looked worth watching. Release Date: 30 October 2009 (US)

Capitalism: A Love Story: A comical look at the global financial crisis and the current troubles with the U.S. economy during the transition between the incoming Obama Administration and the outgoing Bush Administration. Release Date: 23 September 2009 (US)

War of The Worlds: Goliath: In 1900, the Earth was attacked by ruthless invaders from the planet Mars. The Martian’s 80 ft tall, heat-ray spewing, Tripod battle machines laid waste to the planet, but the invaders ultimately fell prey to Earth’s tiny bacteria. Fourteen years later, Man has rebuilt his shattered world, in large part by utilizing captured Martian technology. Equipped with giant, steam-powered Tripod battle machines, the international rapid reaction force, A.R.E.S., is Mankind’s first line of defense against the return of the rapacious Martian invaders. Release Date: On DVD February 2010

The Tournament: Every seven years in an unsuspecting town, The Tournament takes place. A battle royale between 30 of the world’s deadliest assassins. The last man standing wins the $10 million cash prize and the title of Worlds No. 1 Assassin, which carries the legendary million dollar per bullet price tag. Release Date: unknown

Mother (Madeo): Directed by Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, this movies is about a mother who desperately searches for the killer that framed her son for their horrific murder. Release Date: unknown

Armored: A crew of officers at an armored transport security firm risk their lives when they embark on the ultimate heist….against their own company. Armed with a seemingly fool-proof plan, the men plan on making off with a fortune with harm to none. But when an unexpected witness interferes, the plan quickly unravels and all bets are off. Release Date: 4 December 2009 (US), 5 February 2010 (UK)

I kind of like the campaign for the new Ford Ka: it’s all about letting people find and explore the hidden gems out there, everything from cool funky fashion boutiques to the best music venues. The latest TV advert for the Ka doesn’t even feature the actual car until the last moment, but has hundreds of Ka silhouettes hidden in the decor:

Besides that their website Go Find It has all sots of cool “gems” featured for tons of cities. It’s great to find some cool and interesting new spots to visit.

I’ve got a cool competition for you all. One of my readers here will win the invite to an exclusive real life treasure hunt/private shopping session next Thursday (3rd of September) at the Bankside London JoY store, together with me and several other bloggers (and their readers). During the course of the evening you’ll get the chance to find silver Ka miniatures which will be hidden in the store, and redeem them against £60 worth of JoY vouchers.

All you have to do to have a chance to take part in this exclusive event is to find the Ford Ka hidden on this blog. To help you along I’ll tell you this: it’s within a post from 2009, and “butterflies”. Once you’ve found the Ka, leave a comment behind on that post answering this question: “Tell us about your hidden gem in London“.

The top three most amazing/funniest/brilliant responses will be chosen by the people at We Are Social (who set up this event) and I will then select a finalist. The competition ends on Tuesday, September 1st 17:00.

Episode 136: “I would like you for my own”

I got to see (500) Days of Summer last Monday, and I think it’s amazing. A real review will be coming soon (I promise), but in short it’s one of the sweetest and most beautiful movies I’ve seen.

This video kind of serves as a promo for the movie, because it stars both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, and is directed by Marc Webb (the director of 500 Days). In reality though it’s the music video for “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”, by Zooey Deschanel’s band She & Him. It’s a bit slow at the start, but is stay with cause it gets pretty cool:

[Watch on MissGeeky]

Besides that, there’s a clip from the movie where Summer and Tom talk about being Sid and Nancy. If you haven’t seen it, check it out:

I love the clip, but the cool thing of that is that for Cinemash (swedes but then semi-professional) they played Sid and Nancy.

Via Firstshowing.net