Sunday, February 3, 2008
Breakfast at home with Patrick: veggie egg scramble, mini sausages, hash browns. Saw Cloverfield (2007) at Century 20 Daly City, which is now owned by Cinemark and plays film commercials before the movie. They weren't the worst film commercials ever, but I thought that nowadays people paid money to get rid of commercials rather than be forced to watch them, and this Daly City theatre used to be one of the few places you could go to watch a film without seeing film commercials before the trailers and I do not like this change. This is the first time I've been since the changeover and it makes me want to not come back. 1 medium popcorn cost $5.25, and 1 medium Coke cost $4.00. Matinee tickets were $17.50 for 2 via Fandango ($7.75 each + $1 Fandango fee each). I really liked Cloverfield because it told an old story from a new viewpoint. The shaky camera work did not bother me at all, but Patrick said it took him about 40 minutes to get used to it. For me, seeing the story from this particular perspective brings a kind of realism that you can't get with a steadycam, dolly, or crane. You wouldn't guess this was a Hollywood film if it weren't for 4 things: the excellent and seamlessly integrated special effects, the obviousness of a story being told, the occasionally cheesy dialogue, and the occasionally laughable implausibility of the plot. The film is part Blair Witch Project (1999), part Signs (2002), and part War of the Worlds (2005). In the evening, we had dinner with Chris and Nate: apples, grapes, crackers, and cheeses; Julia Child's beef stew. Dessert: Rubicon tiramisu, which Patrick and I picked up at Mollie Stone's. Afterwards we talked about the needs (or lack thereof) of humanists in virtual environments and about questions regarding the creative process and what would it mean for a machine to have the ability to create an original or derivative work that is indistinguishable from one created by a human.