ALT: Joel Kinnaman as Tak Kovacs in a dark, strange world, wearing a blue coat and shirt; he's looking around in wonder. Oh god, I didn't know whether I could get past the first episode: I love dystopian futures, but this seemed hackneyed... Altered Carbon has the feel of sometimes The Hunger Games , sometimes Harry Potter , often Repo! The Genetic Opera or Gotham City or Narcopolis .There's martial arts, comic booky treatments, digital effects and story content. Some of it is dumb, and the names for things in the future are lazy: The Array is the internet, a sleeve is a host, ONIs are basically smartphones, Poe is like TNG's Data, Meths are the 1%, and paying my chip-implanted fingers is technology that's already here. The "strong, independent woman cop" is the lamest character attempt/trope out there, and the actress is terrible. The producers seem to be trying to appease audiences on every front rather than trying to make a solid, consistent produ
Ok, for all you early Christmas shoppers like me, it's never too early to think about this, but it is really directed at the more typical Christmas shopper. This documentary--half comedy, half tragedy--is about the madness of consumerism. I first read about this guy in Geez (magazine highlighted here previously) and learned that Rev. Billy is a satirist, a political lobbyist with a creative way of trying to get us to Stop Shopping. This film is not for the religiously conservative (although Christianity Today had some good things to say about it) but it does give one a kick in the pants about reducing xmas (and year long) insanity. I have brought up this topic in previous posts (See The Story of Stuff and Buy Less/Nothing Christmas), and I am going to use this film's and the Adbsuters' media awareness curricula in my classes this year. This is an excellent film. Try and see it whereever you can. (The site says Blockbuster carries it but it doesn't in Canada; I had to order it online from Amazon.ca). Produced by Morgan Spurlock of Supersize Me fame, the main theme is the Shopocalypse. That should give you an idea of where the film is going. 100% recommended! Check out the trailer here.
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