The Gloom
I was watching Film Four on Saturday night, hoping for a great set of films from them (which is usually a little too much to hope for) yet this Saturday night they showed War Games, Happy Gilmore, and then Night Watch (Дневной Дозор).
The first film was a 1982 classic where you get to see some actual computer hacking taking place using real software and actual technology of the time. Recent films such as Swordfish and Hackers have been gross fabrications of the ideology of hacking (although, Hackers 2 made actual references to technology used) which generally do not appeal to audiences of the same expected literacy level. However, this 1983 film would have been a gem at the time of its release, thanks to the authenticity of the technology used.
Secondly, Happy Gilmore, the story of an ice hockey player-turned golfer who had a devotion to his grandma’s welfare, was impressively funny – perfect viewing for a Saturday evening. If you’ve not seen it, I recommend it!
The final flick was an imported vampire tale from Russia, shown with some very elaborate English subtitling, about how the Others of this world are born as mediocre vampires, special people who have particular powers and are able to slip in and out of the Gloom. I have no idea what this Gloom is supposed to be, but my interpretation was that it is a higher-level of existence that encapsulates all others, within which life cannot exist for long. In the film it shows mosquitoes and a torn wasteland whenever someone slipped into the Gloom, and in one scene it showed Anton, the lead character, being taken by the Gloom, and have to give it blood by slashing at his own forearm to prevent himself from being taken.
Each vampire, once exposed to their gifts, are asked to choose between the Light or the Dark (at the risk of sounding like something from Star Wars) and to which side they may become a member of the appropriate Watch, i.e for the good (Light) side, a vampire may choose the Night Watch whom must uphold the Truce and see to it that no member of the Dark or Light sides ever break it.
Once I had watched the first movie in the soon-to-be trilogy (in English!) I obtained the second film, Night Watch 2: Day Watch. I had some problems with the subtitles in this film, the first problem being that there were none, but I managed to get hold of some and SubMux them into the AVIs. I won’t spoil this particular film, it contains a lot of references back to the original and makes for a truly epic ending to the scenes that were built up in the first one.
If you can get hold of Night Watch, please watch it. It is possibly one of the best directed movies I’ve seen come out of Russia.
On another note, I got my rogue to exalted with the Stormpike Guard Alterac Valley faction this weekend – I got from 9k revered to 999 exalted in the space of Friday evening to Saturday midday. Mostly this was because the Alliance won 10 times in a row, even while killing Captain Galvanger before the Horde killed Balinda Stonehearth (doing so on a AV weekend ensures a 350 + 175 reputation bonus for the kill – the same reputation gained from a win). The problem is, the only thing I needed from it was Don Julio’s Band, which basically made the entire thing seem very irrelevant.
For anyone looking to do the same, play on a morning – you get the experienced players pulling their weight like they should do.
I’ve begun to realise the importance of travel at this time of my life – staying in every weekend is not what I want to do – I want to visit people and be able to go shopping! So I’m looking into buying a car, preferably a brand new one that comes with insurance since that will be the stinger. But first, I must achieve my Pass Plus qualification to get a bit of practice of driving in and make my insurance that little bit cheaper, so I’ll be looking into this during the upcoming week.
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