Archive for August, 2009

Reflections on The Hurt Locker

Monday, August 10th, 2009

aathe-hurt-locker

I finally saw The Hurt Locker after hesitating for a long time (intense pressure-cooker films give me high anxiety) and have officially decided it is one of the most significant, yet difficult-to-watch films out there. When I first saw Schindler’s List years ago I had the same reaction – I was glad I watched it and knew the story but felt sickened and saddened by the content.

The war in Iraq is something that can’t be fully understood unless you physically go there, in my opinion. Most Americans at this point know someone who has served our country overseas and fought in the war… but what do we really know about the culture differences our troops face or what they have to do everyday for work?

The film is a non-stop thriller. My heart was pounding throughout the whole thing, and the bomb-detonators featured in The Hurt Locker never catch a break, which I think does accurately represent what is going on over there.

It’s hard to watch but I think every American should see it. No matter what you think of the war and the politics surrounding it, our troops are the ones carrying us through it all.

See The Hurt Locker at a theater near you.

Stay Tuned for The Next Act

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Hey there, Indie Faithful.

You may have noticed a few things about our site. She’s not running as fast as she used to, her banner’s looking a little bit droopy, and when you search for something the results aren’t always what they once were. Don’t worry, it’s not you, it’s us. We know things are tough right now, but happier times are just around the corner, we promise. As you all know (or should know, if you’ve been reading our weekly WebBlast), a brand new, shiny site has been in the works for a while now, and it’ll be up and running any day.

Or at least, that’s what our tech crew keeps telling us. The truth is we’ve been hearing promises that our website will be up “by the end of the week” since the end of June, and it seems like the site’s still a ways away. Believe us, we probably spend a little bit more time on the site than you do, and we don’t like it any more than you.

Unfortunately, it seems like we’re just going to have to get used to it for now. But that’s the bad news. The good news is that the site is coming along, slowly but surely, and when it comes, it’ll be a real humdinger. Assuming, of course, that’s something all you readers would want.

They say good things come to those who wait, and this particular case is no exception. The gentlemen in the technology department (aka the Man Cave) have finally given a very early version of a pre-proto-beta site for the rest of us to try to break, and the improvement is significant. We’d be lying if we told you the new site is better than sliced bread, or that it brings you your slippers and the paper every morning, but we’re not lying when we say it does almost everything else.

The site is everything Web 2.0: it’s sleeker, simpler, more powerful and easier to use. For the aesthetes among you, we’ve overhauled our look, keeping the same core theme and wiping away all the unnecessary noise, while our more utility-minded friends will find the new layout far easier to navigate, search, and shop. But the most exciting part of the new site is what we can do for you filmmakers out there.

We know we’re not perfect; over the years we’ve accumulated a rather lengthy list of suggestions for how we could make the experience better for filmmakers. With the site, we’re hoping to address those issues, at least as much as possible. We’ve overhauled the process for filmmaker sign-up, meaning those of you who haven’t joined up with us yet will find it easier than ever before to do so, and those of you we’ve already been fortunate enough to have the pleasure of working with will find submitting films far simpler, and hopefully more enjoyable.

That’s all, folks. Hope you enjoyed the show. Stay tuned; we guarantee you won’t want to miss this next act.

-Team IndieFlix

The Lovely Bones Coming Soon!

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

After watching the trailer for The Lovely Bones and reading the book a couple of years ago, I think the trailer looks really good and I’m really excited to see the movie.  It’s definitely going to be different from the book, but the way the book was written would be really hard to create a movie from.  I was reading a post about the film and it talks about if the movie is too lovely, comparing to the book.

The question on the post from The Guardian asked if the afterlife seem to be too lovely since then teen in the movie was murdered in a trouble way. I think that people are reading too much into what happens in the afterlife, if there is even an afterlife.

For those people that don’t know what this film is about, it’s about a girl that was murdered and she is narrating the story from heaven trying to help her family and friends find out who killed her. I think that the book was a very well done book and I’m excited to check out the film when it comes out. Check out the trailer!!!

A still from Peter Jackson's upcoming film The Lovely Bones