I am currently downloading “Elephants Dream” (http://www.elephantsdream.org), which is an Open 3D movie made using only Open Source tools (Mainly Blender for 3D work). It is the result of about 1 year of work, coordinated by Blender Foundation, community-financed, and supported by Netherlands Media Art Institute. “Open Movie” means that is is licensed under an Open Content license, which is Creative Commons, which basically allows you to “freely reuse and distribute this content, also commercially, for as long you provide a proper attribution”.
What caught my eyes is that the director of the picture is a Syria-born Bassam Kurdali (Link1, Link2, Link3 (not working as I write this) ) who seems to be a seasoned animator. So I was double proud of the movie (first of using Open Source tools, and second for an Arab Director).
As I said, I am currently downloading the movie, and I invite you to do so, but I would like to ask you to download it using the torrent file instead of the direct download. All you have to do, is to download the small torrent file available in Elephants dream site, and use one of BitTorrent clients to open it, and it will start downloading, you can select any of the following torrent clients (BitTorrent, Azureus, BitTorando). When you download the movie using torrent, you help the project by saving them bandwidth, and you might as well get higher speeds there there are enough people “seeding” the file. You can as well buy the DVD to enjoy watching it, along with the special features, and support the project.
I will be reviewing the picture one I watch it, so stay tuned (as if I am a credible reviewer)
Movies & Entertainment, OSS & Linux
I just returned from watching the movie Stealth and it was average, although I had an argument with my friend if it worth the 5 JDs we payed for the Cinema. Following may contain spoilers for the movie. The thing that I find to be silly about the movie is that it is a Pure American Hero movie, didn’t bring anything new, and it seems they they did not even bother. They did all the old tricks that are known to work:
- Have a black guy who everyone like.
- Have that black guy to be first to die.
- have someone behind enemy lines.
- so some top gun acrobat with airplanes
- have a cool alien-like airplane (hint: Independence Day)
- and of course a love story that was never meant to be
For those who are not sick with the above combination, or would like to see some nice graphic and sound effects, go and enjoy yourselves. For me, I think I had enough.
About Me, Movies & Entertainment
Yesterday I had some sort of a hot argument with a co-worker about illegal copying, and piracy, and so. It seems that he didn’t consider illegal use and illegal copying of software stealing. And using my powers of argument, I convinced that he belongs to jail. (We all do)
Basically, in this part of the world, piracy is part of our daily lives. We listen to pirated music on a CD while going to work, use pirated software at work, then send and receive pirated software between our mobiles, and at the end of the day, we watch the latest movie that just hit the theaters in USA in DVD at our friend’s house. It is part of our daily lives I think.
In the last Jordan Planet meeting we shared our sources of pirated dvds to each other, some like to get it from the tunnel at Jordan University, others prefer Downtown, Waibdeh, or the Joora (The Hole). The Joora could be considered one of the major sources of CDs, mobile phones, DVDs, and so. Everything could be found there. Last time my uncle comes for a visit from USA, he spend a considerable amount of time at the Joora shopping for Arabic CDs, and latest movies that didn’t hit the shelves yet in USA. be basically walked out of the Joora with at least 1,000 USD worth of dvds and cds, bought at less than 20$.
Now do I condemn this, should I shout loudly against it, and incriminate all those who buy them ??! well I am not sure to be frank. Yesterday I bought a mobile I wanted to get for a loong time. And the first thing I did after getting it is looking for Warez for it.. I think that I am a criminal too.
Internet & Technology, Jordan, Movies & Entertainment
A couple of days ago I watched Der Untergang (Downfall), now I am not into German movies in general (maybe I only saw a couple, including Run Lola), but I really liked this one. The idea of having the last few days of the fall of Berlin as the set of this movie was interesting enough for me to watch it. I can’t tell if the movie was accurate or far from being accurate when it comes to history, because I am not into that really, but I hope that it didn’t give a disfigured image of those days. Read more…
Movies & Entertainment
Thanks to Lina who told us about the Jordan Short Film Fest., I alerted a couple of my friends, and went to see it tonight.. And it was good.. Read more…
Arts & So, Jordan, Movies & Entertainment
Few days ago someone shared a link to a short movie that was one of the winners of a contest that is related somehow to the EU. The movie is in Arabic, and some who are into the Jordan TV, and it’s way of reporting will find it funny. I know I did. The movie is by Bassem Nasir, a Jordanian/Palestinian who works at Intel, and the movie won on the contest that had the theme “Intercultural Dialogue”.
I really liked the way it interacted with the viewer through the News bar below, and the predictability of the Interviewer putting in mind that he is doing it the Jordanian way :)
Tell me what you think about it..
Jordan, Movies & Entertainment, News & Politics
I just came from the cinema after watching Alexander. As you may have guessed from the title of my post I didn’t like it much. There are lots of things that are wrong in the movie, to start with, why did Alexander’s army, and many of his friends speak English with an Irish or Scotch accent ?! does it my any chance have to do with Braveheart ?! or Macedonians and Greek at that time talked in an Irish or Scotch way !? I wonder.. And what’s it with Angelina Jolie’s accent ? Olympias (Alexander’s mother) was from Epirus, northern of Greece .. and not from Northern Russia ! what is it about ? why did she talk in this fake way !
Now, Beside the stupid choice of accent different characters performed in, the movie was far from being Epic, not even close.. The way the wars were shot was as if they avoid showing the war in a big picture .. war shots were close-ups, avoiding showing large scale war scenes.. Now to the part I hated most.. According to the movie, Alexander was after opening Persia to “Free” them .. even more, Alexander used the word “Freedom” in his war speech to soldiers at “Battle of Gaugamela” and used it after it during one of his gay conversations with “Hephaestion” .. Now everyone knows that Alexander was never after “Freeing” people, and “Freedom” .. he was after Glory, and it was what he was remembered for .. using terms such as “Freedom” and “freeing” and so for Babylon and Persia (that is Iraq and Iran those days) reflects the current American media speech, and the same terminology used after the war in Iraq, when they found out that there are no weapons of mass destruction they started the “Freedom” talk.. Oh Come On ! Alexander had tens of slaves, what freedom are you talking about in 330 BC !!
Now beside that, there are historical errors as well in the movie .. Alexander saw 2 of his sons in his live .. Roxana, which in the movie was still pregnant at his death, did have Alexander IV, in the same year he died .. and Alexander had a 4 years old son from a mistress when he died…
I am not sure what was the point of this movie .. Was it entertainment ? or is it historical documentation ? either way I found it to be insulting for my inelegance..
Movies & Entertainment, News & Politics
I just watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. And it is the first time that I watch a movie for Jim Carrey that doesn’t have his same old jokes, body language and facial expresions. My Friend Anan hates Jim Carrey, and he thinks that he is like 3am `3afel. Now “3am `3afel” for those who doesn’t know him is a stupid comedy character for a Jordanian actor. Beside the fact that the character is far from being funny, it had been repeated over and over again in a number of TV series and commercial and theaters. That most can’t really stand hearing his name, his sound, or the way he looks. Jim Carrey managed to do that by repeating himself over and over again. he had some nice movies, no doubt about that.. but I think that he fell in the trap of repeating himself in different movies. Read more…
Movies & Entertainment
I just watched the movie “The Terminal“, a really nice Spielberg/Hanks piece.. At some point in the movie I remembered “Al Hodood” (The Borders) for Duraid Laham.. Of course one can’t compare those 2 movies, as they are in totally different places, with different plot and goals..
It never occur to me that one can have a life in transit, it doesn’t have to be in a terminal building, but it is a state of mind. I think that during 2003 I was in transit, almost the whole year. I waited for some promises that never got fulfilled, and I had dreams that was hanging and waiting for me to go for.. anyhow, I am glad that I am out of the transit stage now ..
About Me, Movies & Entertainment
Well, since I returned to Amman, I wanted to go to the cinema, and watch some nice movie.. any nice movie. But since I came here, there was nothing that worth seeing in the theaters in Amman, so, as a last option, I went with my friend Wazzan today to see “I, Robot”. Read more…
Movies & Entertainment
It is around 4:30 am now, I have work tomorrow, but I don’t even feel sleepy. My brain can’t stop thinking, I wish there is an off-button.
Today I looked around for a Keyboard-Mouse combo for Digitalui. I found some Wireless stuff, but then I discovered that he is looking for Wired things. I will look around tomorrow, hoping to find that he is looking for.
Insomnia is the name of a DVD store in Amman, that is for a friend of mine. I was asking around today in Khobar if there is a DVD Rental store, that have Original DVDs for rental. After looking around, and asking around, I discovered that it is better not to look for Original ones. It seems that for censorship reasons they re-record some DVDs in Dubai (Re-Master) to cut some parts. of it. And the bad thing is that mostly, the movie looses sound and picture quality in that process. So the original DVDs around here are not something to look up to it seems.
About Me, Movies & Entertainment
