Live-Action Death Note: Transition to Big Screen Mostly a Success

In a special 2-night engagement, theaters across the country hosted special showings of the Japanese movie ‘Death Note’ based on the widely popular and successful Manga and Anime franchise. Now, some toon-to-movie adaptions, like ‘Transformers’, can have a pretty successful jump to the big screen. Others like ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ tend to only be grasping at nostalgia and nothing more. Death Note thankfully falls into the former category when it comes to entertainment.

For those unfamiliar with the story, ‘Death Note’ is a series about this notebook that when a name is written in it, the name of the person dies. However, there are rules to using the notebook. First off, you have to have the face of the person’s name you’re writing in your head, that way no one with the same name ends up getting killed. After the name is written, the person dies in exactly 40 seconds of a heart attack, but you also have 6 minutes and 40 seconds to write in circumstances of the person’s death.

In any case, enough with the rules, what about the story of this film? The series focuses on Light Yagami, a college student in Japan. In the film, after confronting the perpetrator of a child-killing who got acquitted, Yagami, frustrated with the lack of justice, him being a law student and the son of a prominent officer in the Japanese investigation unit, runs into an alleyway and finds a black notebook, with the words ‘Death Note’ on it. He takes it home and looks at the rules and immediately thinks its some kind of joke, so he writes the name of a criminal identified on the news, and lo and behold, he dies.

The next night, he finds himself stopped at a train crossing when he sees the same crook from that night in the bar, he pulls out the Note, writes his name, and he dies as well, in front of Yagami’s eyes, proving the notebook’s power. Emboldened by this, Yagami becomes a one-man judge, jury and executioner, killing criminals at an obscene pace which earns him the nickname ‘Kira’. This gets the worlds attention and soon an investigation starts. The head of this investigation is the enigmatic crime-solver known only as ‘L’.

It’s later shown in the film, that L is a very eccentric crime solver. In his hotel room, where the investigation moves to, there are sweets EVERYWHERE, all over the place. And he’s always seen ingesting copious amounts of high sugar foods. And the way L sits also adds to his eccentricness, up on a couch with his knees clenched to his body. But the guy is a genius no question.

Overall, the movie serves up a moral debate that will make you think about whose side you’re on. Are you on the side of ‘Kira’ raining justice through what you think is right or wrong, or are you on the side of ‘L’ making sure that criminals get their day to defend themselves, regardless of what they are accused of?

The version shown during this two-day engagement was dubbed into English using all of the same actors used for the show that airs on Adult Swim. Brad Swaile reprises his role as lead character Light Yagami and Alessandro Juliani of Battlestar Galatica fame steps in again to voice L both with positive results. However there is a certain level of awkwardness with seeing a live-action movie dubbed, but that goes away after awhile in this particular film.

There’s also the use of CG animation with the Shinigami, or death god, named Ryuk who looks like he stepped into a video game for this, but not in a bad way at all. His actions, especially when deprived of his ‘addiction’ in the movie, provides levity in spots that need it.

The movie releases on DVD in the US on September 16^th, and if the movie does well enough in this special engagement, we could very well see part 2 of this story ‘Death Note: The Last Name’ in a similar release in the future.

Tonight, I got a special award from my school’s athletic program. I got the ‘John Lockley’ coaches award, an award given to a student-athlete with a unanimous vote. As such, this award is not given out every spring. I was given the award by my basketball coach who I have had a great friendship with since he first came to our school system eight years ago. What was the biggest surprise was that everyone there, players, coaches and parents all gave me a standing ovation, the only one of the evening.
This was a perfect way to go out at high school, so I say this to athletes out there, reading this who may not have the best athletic skills, be supportive of everyone.

I realize I’m not breaking any new ground discussing this, but just what were the Houston Texans thinking of drafting Mario Williams over Reggie Bush? I’ve seen the clips of Reggie Bush playing at USC and every time I’ve seen him in action I’ve been mesmerized. He can move so quickly and change direction sharper than any other back I have ever seen that has come out of the NCAA.

Who’s to blame for this? My finger is pointed to the man who set the Washington Redskins back a few years when with two top five picks in two years, 1994 and 1995, drafted Heath Shuler and Michael Westbrook, Charley Casserly. This pick goes to prove even more that this guy cannot pick worth anything and should never be given another job in the NFL. This guy is not a good football person, who looks only for potential but not for what’s right in front of someone.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on the Texans’ front office, Williams might turn out to be the second coming of Reggie White, but I’m hesitant to say that when the last defensive end picked with the first overall pick was Penn State’s Courtney Brown in 2000, who is now having a decent career in Denver but was a complete flameout for Cleveland.

But on the other point, for a city that has not had much to cheer about the last eight months or so, I can’t be happier for the fans of the New Orleans Saints when Reggie Bush unexpectedly dropped into their lap. If I was in the Saints’ front office, I would not care how much I would have to spend to sign Bush; I would give him a $25 million bonus just for signing. So New Orleans, congratulations.

Also, how in the name of heaven did Matt Leinart fall to the tenth overall selection to the Arizona Cardinals? Only Aaron Rodgers’ fall from grace last year is more inexplicable than this. However, like the Saints, the Cardinals have a lot to cheer about, with their new stadium and getting the players they’ve gotten in free agency this will be a team to watch come September.

But like it always is, the NFL Draft is a roll of the dice. For every Peyton Manning or Ben Roethlisberger, there is a Ryan Leaf or Heath Shuler. Keep that in mind for this coming season.

Start Spreading the News

This past weekend, I took my first trip to the Big Apple, New York City. We arrived at Central Park around 2 p.m. after our bus arrived at our school one hour late before we got underway. We got to explore a small portion of the park from the zoo to the band shell. Very nice and interesting but I wish I could have seen more of it. I did like seeing many of the street performers there. But as visiting San Francisco, I would have like to see more

After that we went to our hotel in Englewood, NJ and got changed to go out to Mars 2112 that night. Let me just preface that by saying, OUR DRIVERS WERE TERRIBLE, we got lost multiple time and had only about an hour to eat and get to the theater for our show. The food was below average, our bun seemed cold and stale and the burger was lukewarm, the fries were okay, but the whole meal got a C-minus

So then we went to the Imperial Theater on Broadway to see ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ and let me tell you, if you have never seen a show on Broadway before, this is one to start on, it was HI-LAR-I-OUS. Basically the story is two con men on the French Riviera make a bet to con a woman out of $50,000. Whoever loses has to leave town. If you have seen the movie, you know how it ends up. If you haven’t, the two actors who play the main characters do a fantastic job.

After that we’re outside the theater and we see a huge crowd across the street, waiting for none other than Julia Roberts, and I mean the Julia Roberts. I’m not even sure that I caught a glimpse of her, but I did somewhat see her.

We didn’t get back until about 1 A.M. and we had to get up at 6:30 the next day for our performance (we were on a band trip if I forgot to mention). After the performance we took a ferry to Ellis Island to see the museum, when I saw the listing of the names of the people who passed through the Island, I found about 25-30 people that had my last name. I was amazed to say the least.

Then, we went to Times Square. And let me tell you that if you haven’t seen the square you haven’t seen NYC. We went to that huge Toys’R’Us across from the ABC studios where shows like Good Morning America and ESPN’s NBA Shootaround are shot (I actually saw the studios where the shows are taped). After a few minutes of shopping, where I acquired ‘God of War’ for $20, we went to have pizza at a brick oven pizza place, buffet style. Being lent, and me being Catholic I was restricted to just cheese pizza but it was still very filling.

We then went to Rockefeller Center, still with the Ice Rink out, and we toured the ‘Top of the Rock’ and saw the entire city, so gorgeous.

So we then got on the bus, got lost again and got back to hotel at 1:30 in the morning.

After sleeping we had a meal at a ‘Medieval Times’ show and let me say, the meal fills you up! Chicken, a rib, it just fills you up. And the show was okay but after Scoundrels, this paled in comparison.

Then after we got a guided tour of the city and saw Ground Zero, Chinatown and Little Italy, we left to go back home to Virginia.

Great Trip!

George Mason in the final four.

Seems so impossible that a commuter school in Fairfax, VA just about 30 minutes away from Washington, DC, is now on college basketball's biggest stage. I do not think it has fully sunk in that it's George Mason, a team that I have seen and rooted for for years. The same George Mason that before Larranaga took over, was a team that scored often but never played defense. The same George Mason that had lost three times in the NCAA Tournament before this season.

This team I knew from the beginning of the season could be a team that could surprise in the NCAA tournament, they graduated no seniors last year, but never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would topple Michigan State, North Carolina, and Conneticut and reach the Final Four. In my brackets I had them winning against Michigan State and then losing to Carolina in the second round. My bracket was already shot with Duke losing in LSU but I now couldn't care less about my bracket.

I met Larranaga briefly last year. I was a manager for our schools varsity basketball team and we were playing our crosstown rivals. One of the players on this team had signed with GMU (the big white kid Chris Fleming) but had been hampered by injuries throughout the season. So with any amount of luck, Larranaga attended our game. After the game ended with our opponents winning on a last second shot, I got to meet with Larranaga and say I've always been a fan of the Mason basketball team. Of course my feelings at the time were a little mixed, I was upset we had lost but grateful that I got to meet Jim. The coach at our school played for Mason in the mid 1980s and actually played under current Texas coach Rick Barnes who was a GMU assistant when he played.

I can't wait for Saturday they have as good a chance as any other team in this final four. If they win, this will be awesome for college basketball.

Welcome to 'A Little Bit of Everything.'

My name is Tim and if you've discovered this blog let me know your thoughts at ohstalon06@yahoo.com

The title of my blog is a reflection of myself, I will write about almost anything. Anything from news, sports, video games, anime, or other forms of entertainment

Thank you for your time and have a nice day!