string can phone

Perhaps you have been unfortunate enough to see the new, micro-miniaturized version of Death Race a micro-miniaturized film (a “remake” of the 1975 version of Death Race 2000), wherein all salient characters plot devices, twists, denouements, etc. are reveal’d in the space of 2 and one-half minutes.

While the original movie seems to have spawned an early video-game adaptation, the new movie script seems to have been drawn from the game.

Sadly, the remake of the video game will probably inspire yet another sequel.

Our Friends at Retro Thing have pointed us towards the colorful Muplet Super-8 cine-film projector, a tiny (and, formerly, cheap) battery-and-hand-crank powered device for projecting, ahem, Super-8 films.

Now, if one could only replace the battery-powered lamp with a candle, Your Correspondent would be much happier.

Steamboy has a mono-wheel.

And SCP apologies for the gratuitously misleading title. Mr. Boy is not an Oni. But some things we cannot resist. To clarify, the eponymous character in the new animated Japanese film Steamboy is shown riding a mono-wheel, at one point, in the trailer linked-to above.

A Mr. Brad Slager of the impetuous periodical Film Threat unfairly savages Robert Longo’s film adaptation of Johnny Mnemonic, the William Gibson novel. We say unfairly becuase saying this film is bad is reminiscent of pointing out that foreigners come from other countries.

Additionally, Mr. Slager has the temerity to assert the following:

One additional limitation to William Gibson’s version of contemporary fiction is that it quickly becomes outdated. The type technology that he chooses to involve himself with evolves at a quick pace, with hardware and software becoming outmoded in scant few years, so that Gibson’s tales are as relevant today as a Commodore-64.

SCP respectfully (and a bit dismissively, if we must be candid) begs to differ. And a good day to you, sir.

The venerable New York Times reviews the new ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ and deems that it is really a silent comedy with spoken subtitles:

What distinguishes this rendition from the nearly three-hour 1956 version, which won the Oscar for best picture, is the presence of that coiled human whirlwind, Jackie Chan, [a]s Passepartout, the loyal valet to the fanatical British inventor Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan). […] The whiz-bang set pieces, in which Mr. Chan fends off teams of assailants in exotic locales, are the movie’s dizzying high points. Mr. Chan’s movies have always included a high quotient of physical comedy. And here he sheds the last superficial trappings of action-adventure heroism to become a poker-faced clown and Harold Lloyd-like escape artist who is repeatedly roughed up but remains unruffled.

Gadgetry from the fanatical British inventor is also of note:

The movie’s witty Rube Goldberg-worthy contraptions remind us that until today’s high-tech environment, machines used to be funny. It’s refreshing and perhaps even useful to see a movie that shows how susceptible to breakdown they really are. The most wonderfully far-fetched gadget is the airplane Fogg improvises from plans handed him by the Wright Brothers (Luke and Owen Wilson) and builds out of a dismantled ship. The device, which swoops uncertainly through the sky, suggests a bicycle borne aloft on giant butterfly wings.

Although SCP has a high quotient of scepticism—having seen the trailers for this comédie spectaculaire and having a prudish disdain for humorous ornithopters—we are fans of Mr. Jackie Chan. We shall perhaps go see this film, enjoy Mr. Chan’s antics, and bemoan the lack of Todd-AO. :::sigh:::

Widescreen Museum Lobby - Select Cinerama, CinemaScope, VistaVision, Todd-AO, Technirama, or Ultra Panavision

Well, that about sums it up. Except this lavishly-illustrated site is well worth an extended visit. My favorite is Todd-AO, which was NOT used for Logan’s Run, as you’ll discover on page 12. Todd-AO, by the way, is a combination of Mr. Michael Todd’s name and that of American Optics his partners in developing the process.

Good post by Cory Doctorow over on BoingBoing on reanimating old sequential drawings and photographs, including Galileo’s sunspot drawings (1613) and an 1882 transit of Venus. Mr. Doctorow–an author of scientifiction romances (termed by some “speculative fiction”)–muses on the possibilities of future use of today’s plethora of imagery.