Movie
Review
Tom
Cruise, The Last Samurai
Released
December 5, 2003
It's
the Civil War era. Japanese emperor is trying to copy the west and
the move toward modernisation is seen by the Americans as a profitable
opportunity. Remmington arms are sold, troops fight each other and
lots o f heads roll.
Into this medley comes Tom Cruise as a shabby Civil War veteran. Cruise
plays Nathan Algren, a war hero who drinks too much because the horrors
of war, which include the slaughtering of Native Americans, have left
Algren without much left to live for. His new job consists of him
going to Japan to train the emperor's soldiers in the art of war by
American standards, which includes arterially and strategy. The emperor
is facing a samurai rebellion and wants soldiers to help him move
into the modern world.
Proud
samurai leader Katsumoto played by Ken Watanabe is a former tutor
of the emperor and leads a small army of the old guard who are intent
on resisting modernity. They refuse to employ guns and cannon. He
is the type who would out of loyalty to the tradition the emperor
represents, sacrifice his life in an instant if the emperor requested
it.
Algren
finds the american advisors have done a poor job of training the modernized
Japanese army to fight the old army. Leading his untried troops into
battle, he is captured and faces death -- but is spared by a word
from Katsumoto, who returns him as a prisoner to the village of his
son. The unlikely friendship between Katsumoto and Algren develops,
and the American Captain begins to find his identity within the peaceful
and compassionate culture.
"The
Last Samurai" is about two warriors from two different cultures.
It's a bit of a buddy cop movie set in ancient Japan. It has everything
an epic film should have, such as intense battle sequences, stylish
sword fights, heroism, love, and honor. The battle scenes are stirring,
elegant and beautifully designed. The story is a lot about dying in
battle. In fact that happens to be the main theme that a warrior should
die in battle. The storyline is excellent and stands out as an epic
with the only problem being an ending that doesn't clarify what the
film is really about.
Probably
one of the most amazing parts of this film is the attention to detail
that was paid in carving out the rural "samurai" village
and crowded 18th Century Tokyo streets. The tiniest little detail
is paid in each frame of the film.
After
the capture Katsumoto, who conveniently speaks English, explains he
has kept Algren alive because he wants to know his enemy. Algren at
first refuses to speak, but gradually, during a long, rainy winter
of captivity, he begins to have philosophical conversations with the
other man about the ethics of war and warriors.
The
film's final battle scene has Katsumoto leading his men into what
appears to be certain death. It raises a question whether it is worth
dying for or because of what you believe in. in the end it's a terrific
movie.
PS:
This is the movie Cruise almost lost his head over, literally. A bad
timing during the training sessions for the swordfight sequences almost
cost him his neck. And yes, they DO use real swords.
Review
By Gokhra
Outlandish
Outlandish
formed in Denmark in 1997. The group, Isam Bachiri, Lenny Martinez
and Waqas Qadri, grew up in Brondby Strand, a multicultural suburb
of Copenhagen. Their family roots, however stretch from three continents;
Isam from Morocco, Waqas from Pakistan and Lenny from Honduras. They
have known each other from their early teens "It's grown into
a family business", says Waqas. "It's not enough to say
we're friends. We're brothers."
They
got to know each other playing football in the same courtyard, but
soon football took a back seat as their interest shifted towards hip
hop and break dance. Like most kids of their generation from the UK
to South Africa, from Denmark to the USA the whole culture of hip-hop
took hold of their lives.
They became fascinated with rap music and its way
of expressing what the international youth of their generation felt
deep down inside while at the same time soaking up with a fury everything
from their own multi-cultural backgrounds.
As time passed it became clear that they could create
their own personal and unique soundtrack to their own lives built
on a foundation of a hip-hop flavour. This "stew" where
the basic elements were indeed of American origin, but where the spices
could be beats, sound bites and fragments of everything else around
them, whether that be Arabic pop, Indian soundtracks and Latin American
rhythms. With lyrics in English, Spanish, Urdu and Arabic you really
don't get more multicultural than this.
Released in 2000, Outlandish's debut album, Outland's
Official, propelled the band to star status in Denmark. The group
were lauded with critical acclaim and were nominated in six categories
at the Danish Music Awards (Denmark's equivalent of The Grammys) and
won the Best Hip Hop Award. In true musician/award fashion the Hip
Hop Award did the 'rounds of the family homes and ended up being dressed
in a skirt as Waqas' mother thought it was a little underdressed (a
figurine of a naked angel).
But where the focus of the first album was inspired
by the bands experiences of growing up in Denmark, the new album Bread
& Barrels Of Water marks a musical arrival at the international
platform.
"We've reached a stage in our lives, - whereas
we had all the time in the world to make the first album and all the
experiences of being young and in between cultures was still clear
in our minds, - that's not our focus anymore. We'd rather touch on
subjects like our families and spirituality.
The world's bigger than our egos and we're all pieces
in a greater puzzle. That's why themes like love, trust, hate, friendship,
family and God are far more important to us."
But don't see Outlandish as yet another 'agit' political
act confronting the ills of the world head on. Creatively the album
has been inspired by the group's search for simplicity, intimacy and
compassion in their lives.
It features a beguiling mix of dialects and languages
and of moods. At times as reminiscent of the party vibe of Les Negres
Vertes or that of Arrested Development. From the Spanish tinged vibe
of "Walou" to the hip-hop ballad "Aicha", from
the genre transcending "Guantanamo" to the rolling flamenco-infused
"Gritty", Bread & Barrels Of Water is an album that
crosses cultures and continents seamlessly. The uniqueness of Outlandish
is the special mix of different cultures and impressions blended into
a good song not limited by narrow genres, but playfully surfing over
several and doing it with ease.
The title Bread & Barrels Of Water materialised
itself almost immediately and became an important beacon for an album
that seems more complete, self assured and impeccable than the band's
debut.
"We've grown more confident in regards to creating
our own genre within hip hop. We've learnt to trust our intuition
and tackle things in our own stride. We've developed into ourselves."
Back in the 70's Madeline Bell (Blue Mink) sang of
her "Melting Pot…. big enough for the world and all it's got".
Outlandish have taken Ms Bell at her word and collectively they have
created their own melting pot of contemporary music of the highest
order.
Bread
& Barrels Of Water is released through BMG May 2003.
PC Game Review
Chrome
Genre:
Action. Release Date: 10/28/2003 . Requirements: 256 MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM,
32 MB VRAM, 1700 MB disk space, DirectX v8.1
Chrome
takes place in the 22nd century. You play as Bolt Logan, a mercenary
in an outer space dominated by a few large corporations looking to
mine "chrome." You never really find out what chrome is,
what it's used for, and why it's so valuable. You never even really
find out anything about the world you live in, either. Who governs
the system? Where are these corporations based? You only get a little
background about Logan in the manual. Still, you can easily follow
the game's story because none of these questions are terribly important,
and the plot of the game is actually quite good. The game begins with
Logan and his partner, who are on a mission. Logan is promptly betrayed
and framed by his fellow mercenary, thus setting the stage for a perfect
revenge story. Or so you would think. Logan isn't a superhero or someone
who has a lot of connections. He's an average joe and does the most
sensible thing when caught in a life-threatening situation: he flees.
This is what truly sets the stage. Chrome is a game with somewhat
believable characters and environments.
Logan begins a
new partnership with a woman named Carrie, whom he meets in the first
mission, and begins accepting new missions from a small mining company
called SPACON. Your first few missions will have you performing simple
tasks, like recovering stolen equipment and rescuing hostages. Logan
is a businessman who accepts missions after payment is discussed and
never lets emotions get in his way. After you save a colony from bandits,
things get messy for Logan, however. The two major corporations, CoreTech
and Zetrox, will throw Logan into several plot twists before the game's
ending. Your character changes disposition, as well, when he crosses
paths with his former colleague and lets revenge cloud his judgment.
The story is pretty
good, though you may be able to see some of the plot twists coming.
Cutscenes progress the story before and after each mission, and the
voice work is done quite well. You don't have control of which missions
you pick or how your character develops, but, rest assured, the game
doesn't make you go from being a mercenary to a goody-two-shoes savior.
Ultimately, you get to make such a choice.
However,
in Chrome you aren't going to get anywhere with just words, and what
kind of mercenary wouldn't be adept at using weapons? Chrome has a
fair selection of weapons to choose from. There are pistols, submachine
guns, heavy rifles, and even a rocket launcher. As mentioned, Logan
isn't a superhero, so he can only carry a limited number of weapons,
dictated by his inventory space. You can carry a pistol, a shotgun,
and a submachine gun quite easily, but there's no way you'll be able
to take more than a pistol and rocket launcher. That's because your
accessories take up inventory space, too, so you'll be limited in
the amount of ammo, the number of health kits, and the number of various
other items you can carry.
Part of what makes
the game relatively easy is the fact that enemies carry so much stuff.
You hardly ever have to worry about ammo supplies because you can
pick up more from enemies you've killed. You especially never have
to worry about running out of health kits because you'll find a lot
of them. The health kits work slowly by replenishing your health instead
of giving you an instant boost. The health increase occurs for quite
a while, allowing you to continue healing damage should you get hurt
again after your health has reached maximum capacity. You can also
use a few health packs at once because the healing rate increases
with multiple health packs. So a viable strategy is to use a couple
of health packs before a fight and engage multiple enemies at point-blank
range, if you know there are more health packs nearby.
The enemies aren't
too challenging, either. They respond to sights and sounds just fine.
In fact, sneaking up behind some guards and capping them in the back
of the head is quite fun. The problem is that the enemies aren't too
smart. A select few will dodge your fire and seek cover, but the AI
could have been better overall. The enemy AI doesn't get too much
better if you bump up the difficulty level.
Chrome
certainly looks very good and runs fine on midrange machines. It is
able to render beautiful environments and detailed models.
Waltzing the Web
By
Synergie
December
is a month that's filled with a lot of hustle and bustle. The reasons
are obvious. It brings forth a drastic change in the weather and with
it all preparations for a 'full of beans' winter vacation. It also
hosts the opening of numerous wedding ceremonies (yummy!). Moreover
it's a special month for us because we have lost a lot (Intellectual
Martyr's day) and also gained a lot (our Victory day) in this sacred
array of 31 days. And I haven't even mentioned Christmas and New Years
yet!
Well, hope you all are enjoying this
month to the fullest. I have a couple of friends who are going on
an expedition to Mount Tazingh Dong, the greatest mountain range in
Bangladesh. Another group has decided to join the grand 'Surja Utsab'
arranged by the BAA. So many things to do, so many places to see-
don't be left out.
And then again, you can decide to
spend this vacation in front of that square-faced mechanical bozo
sitting on your desktop. Computers essentially weren't invented only
for browsing the net and visiting chat rooms. They serve other creative
purposes too. And our friend Arnab Siddiqui is probably at it:
"Hello Mr. Synergie,
In your next Waltzing the Web article
could you please write about some free downloadable Web-Designing
and Graphics software, along with their sites?"
Not a bad call for. Let's see what
the gratis world has to offer on Web Designing and Graphics.
www.freegraphics.com
Here a few of the products that you
can get for free from this site:
Behemot Graphics Editor: Behemot Graphics
Editor is a graphics program which allows to model and render 3D objects
and scenes. It runs on Windows 3.1 (win Win32s Extension) Windows95/NT
and Linux; it can create and modify graphically b-rep, blob, NURBS
models; object can be logically intersected or subtracted; text can
be converted into solid objects using True Type fonts; polyline and
NURBS curve can be edited and used to build rotation and sweep solids;
objects can be linked using skeleton to easily move them.
HTML Effects and Rainbow Text: Auto-creates
interesting effects for your web page -- HTML colored text in rainbow
hues (or random) and random sizes... don't understand what I'm talking
about? Visit the site -- it's simple once you see it.
Gif/JPEG Cruncher: Optimize your JPEGs
and GIFs to shrink file size, make your web site faster, save disk
space, and generally relieve an overcrowded world.
Reptile (tileable backgrounds): Limited
only by your creativity, Reptile allows you to easily produce any
combination of wavy, bubbly, organic, big, small, wide, narrow, rough
or smooth textures. And besides generating a vast range of shapes
and surfaces the program also features a great way to color the textures
to suit the look and feel you require. (Win95)
Picture Dicer: PictureDicer is a Freeware
tool that chops any image file into several smaller images, suitable
for creating mouseover effects and pseudo-imagemaps on Web pages.
It also generates the HTML for a table to contain the partial images
and display them so they appear as the original uncut image. (Win95/NT)
www.members.boogiejack.com
On this site you'll find a trial edition of a book called 'Web Site
Design Made Easy' which you can download for free. It's a very popular
book and it has some tips that can really help you get started.
www.skyscraper.fortunecity.com/solarcity/674/htmltutor.exe
This site hosts a free HTML tutorial software called 'Html Tutor pro'.
It's an ideal HTML learning guide for beginners. This tutorial is
designed to guide you through the basics of designing and creating
your very own Web presence and make learning a lot easier.
www.freewarefiles.com
Here's what this site offers: HTML Editors, JavaScipt Tools, Meta
Tag Tools, Graphics Editors, Graphics Viewers and much much more.
Start off with what I've mentioned
(which is actually, not too petite) and there will be much more following.
Check out the next issue. Until then, enjoy an expedition, but watch
out for Puma's!
