Went to see The Adjustment Bureau. Surprisingly enjoyed it after hearing so many people say they hated iot. A few holes in the story line but overall pretty good.

How's Matt Damon?

Dan in Real Life has to be Steve Carell's best movie

Too real means too creepy in new Disney animation
Ryan Nakashima
April 5, 2011 - 8:50AM

Computer animation has a problem: when it gets too realistic, it starts creeping people out.

Most recently, moviegoers complained about the near-realistic depiction of humans in Disney's 3D flick Mars Needs Moms.

A theory called the "uncanny valley" says we tend to feel attracted to inanimate objects with human traits, the way a teddy bear or a rag doll seems cute. Our affection grows as an object looks more human. But if it looks too human, we suddenly become repulsed.

Instead of seeing what's similar, we notice the flaws - and the motionless eyes or awkward movements suddenly make us uncomfortable.

Mars may have plunged to the bottom of this valley of fear.

"People always comment on things feeling strangely dead around the eyes," said Chuck Sheetz, an animation director of The Simpsons and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "If it gets too literal, it starts to feel false or has a strange effect."

Skin texture that is slightly off can especially leave people feeling unsettled, said Patrick Markey, a psychologist and director of Villanova University's Interpersonal Research Laboratory.

The near-realistic animation style championed by producer Robert Zemeckis uses motion-capture technology, where actors are covered with dots and skin suits and have their performances captured on computer. The dots provide the frame, and the rest is filled in with computerised graphics.

Mars creates humans that are more realistic and detailed than Zemeckis' earlier attempts in such movies as Beowulf and The Polar Express - which were also criticised for inviting this discomfort. The greater detail might have made things worse.

Doug McGoldrick, who took his two daughters to see the movie, said the faces of the main characters "were just wrong". Their foreheads were lifeless and plastic-looking, "like they used way too much botox or something", said the 41-year-old photographer in the Chicago suburb of River Forest, Ill.

Marc Kelley, a 32-year-old pastor in Allegan, Michigan, who went with his two young children, said he found the renditions of characters "all annoying in their own way".

Indeed, when the mother of the main character Milo mentioned the word "zombies" at the start of the movie, it conjures up a feeling that the characters themselves are undead.

Animation experts say the key to success is to be only authentic enough to tug at our heart strings.

The best example of this was Avatar, the 2009 blockbuster that made $US2.8 billion in theatres worldwide. The humanoid, but blue-bodied Na'vi were alien enough not to trigger our inner rejection mechanism.

"My own personal opinion is try to stay away from photo-real with a human," said Greg Philyaw, the business development director at Giant Studios, which captured the performance of human actors for their digital re-creation in Avatar. "Subconsciously you know what you're looking at isn't quite right."

The Walt Disney Company, by its actions, has already voted against the super-real animation format.

Last March, it said it would shut down the Zemeckis-run company ImageMovers Digital, which made Mars, to cut costs. Several months ago, Disney also nixed a plan to fund and distribute Zemeckis' Yellow Submarine, a half-finished work he is now free to shop to other studios.

Disney declined to comment for this story, and Zemeckis declined interview requests through an agent.

Mars had an estimated $US150 million production budget, but has brought in just $US34 million globally since its March 11 opening.

To be fair, there were other problems besides being visually unnerving.

For one, it appeared to be marketed at young boys who are interested in science fiction but also are closely attached to their mothers. That is a small group to begin with and neglects dads and daughters. Some young children also got scared about the plot involving mummy abduction.

Mars also came just a week after Paramount's 2D animated movie, Rango, starring Johnny Depp. Instead of appealing to fans because of the increasingly popular 3D format, Mars may have annoyed theatergoers faced with higher 3D ticket prices.

"If a movie's unappealing and you're trying to charge a higher ticket price for it, it makes it even less appealing," said Brandon Gray, president of tracking company Box Office Mojo. He noted that Mars had the lowest opening weekend for a wide-release 3D movie ever.

Maija Burnett, associate director of character animation at California Institute of the Arts, took a broader view, even though the school teaches about the pitfalls of the "uncanny valley" in class.

"There's a continuing attempt to explore what the boundaries are within [computer generated] animation," she said. "Every film that uses this is one important step along the way."

In the "uncanny valley" theory, the valley isn't bottomless. As things grow more realistically human, our affection starts increasing again, climbing out of the valley on the other side. In other words, increasingly sophisticated animation might stop creeping us out and start fooling us.

The Men Who Stare At Goats is a great movie. Really recommend it, 4 fucking brilliant actors all starring as well

Great movie, shit ending.

Great movie, shit ending.

Bill and Ted's return: too bodacious?

As Keanu Reeves reveals plot snippets for his forthcoming reunion with Alex Winter, does the prospect of a 40-something Wyld Stallyns reunion leave you yearning for a phone booth?


There have been a slew of belated sequels at cinemas lately. Some, like Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, arrived for reasons of historical opportunism. Others turned up for reasons no one could really fathom: Tron Legacy arrived last year as a weirdly grandiose afterglow to a sweet little lo-fi 1980s offering.

For me, the forthcoming Bill and Ted "threequel" most definitely falls into the latter category. But back in September when this story first broke, it was remarkable to see quite how much readers of this site were champing at the bit for the return of the Wyld Stallyns and their bemusingly basic 80s rocker worldview.


Big-hair metal fans will no doubt be turning their amps up to 11 again as Keanu Reeves has revealed a few snippets of the plot for the new movie, which is currently being written. Reeves, 46, (yes, 46) says it will focus on Bill and Ted's efforts to live up to predictions of greatness made for them in 1991 sequel Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey – you know, the one in which the Death guy from Bergman's The Seventh Seal turns up and challenges the duo to a game for their souls.


"When we last got together, part of it was that Bill and Ted were supposed to have written the song that saved the world, and it hasn't happened," said Reeves. "So they've now become kind of possessed by trying to do that. Then there's an element of time and they have to go back." He added: "I believe the writers are six weeks away from a draft."


So there you have it. Alex Winter, aka Bill, who hasn't been seen much on a big screen in the last decade, is also on board for this one, so it's not all some terrible dream that can be banished by trying really, really hard to wake up. There really is going to be a 40-something Bill and Ted movie in cinemas sometime soon. Can this be a good thing?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/apr/05/bill-and-ted-3-keanu-reeves

Don't know whether to go watch Limitless or the Lincoln Lawyer tomorrow.

Which did you end up seeing?

Apparently she's going out with Andy Roddick - lucky bastard!!!!!

Edited by heineken: 8/4/2011 07:46:53 PM

Pretty sure they are married.

Have any of you seen the trailers for Paul? What say you?