The Graphic Novels aren't much better. They have this habit of being really pointless to follow since any character can die at any time for any reason. Season 2 might be saved by The Prison/Governor saga.
It still baffles me how people can go and fish in weather like that.
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Ah, we are high school boys,
the miserable high school boys.
If we were girls, we could get popular by doing anything:
rock band, jazz band,
karate, kendo, mahjong, cyborg, synchronized swimming...
On the other hand, high school boys are
useless outside battle and sports anime.
But they're recklessly trying to make a slice-of-life anime about us.
Ah, we are high school boys,
the miserable high school boys.
I started watching the show Weeds. I think it's pretty good, although I'm not far enough into the series yet to give proper judgement. So far, it's just pretty good.
watched Cross Of Iron. watch it. yeah, it's a bit dated now, but watch it anyway. it's fucking brilliant. honest, raw and, even now, a little horrifying. it's about the Germans fighting on the Russian front during WW2. i watched this over a week ago, and i'm still thinking about it. it isn't a blood and guts fest that leaves your mind the moment it ends, you think about it for a while afterwards trying to work out why they did certain things as all is not obvious.
just fucking watch it. i know you won't, though. bastards.
Me, Jordan and Stephanie (newest acquisition to our crew) went and saw Arthur Christmas. Is that not ringing any jingle bells? Let me refresh your memory with its stagnant, deplorable and utterly despicable ad-campaign.
You can stop cringing now. The hill begins going upwards rather drastically.
So first of all, with all due respect to Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman, and that shithead who voices over all of these damnable trailers: Fuck that commercial. It's the most plebian, misleading and generally infuriating thing I've ever seen. Multiplied by several trillion after seeing the movie itself.
I'm cynical about Christmas. I like the time with my Family, gettin' stuff, givin' things, Egg Nog (LOVE me some Egg Nog)...really, the day itself is fine. But the detestable period between November 1st and December 24th is what we can call my 'Grinch Period'. Any ad I see for a toy, a store, a show, and of course, a movie just sends me into a frowntastic little spat of jaded, miserable hatred for Corporate X-Mas. It's disgusting.
But this movie...
This movie...
Changed that. At least for 2 hours. It's a wonderfully put together story that tells us that you can't attribute Christmas to any singular negative or positive, that you can't both love and hate Christmas. All those bullshitty ads? I'm wrong to think they're 'Christmas ads'. It's not an anti-corporate, pro Christmas-luddism epic, a central part of the story is that in this day and age Christmas really can't be without a bit of a crutch from technology, good organization and a delicate sprinkling of massive corporate salesmanship. It's hard to say it's got any message in particular.
What matters is that it was excellently written, had gorgeous 3D animation (Also saw it with 3D glasses, it wasn't in your face but it was there) and had a very likeable cast of Characters, all of whom were inexplicably British. That just added to the charm. Also, Canada! There was an entire scene that took place in Toronto. The SAS elves were neat, but not overwhelming, the whole 'BADASS SPACESHIP CHRISTMAS 4000!' was essentially the opening scene, without which the vast majority of the film wouldn't make sense. It was really great. The only shortcoming was the soundtrack, which wasn't very memorable. It wasn't bad, it was just clear most of the money went into the writing staffs brainholes and the rest went into making the various beards and sweaters seen throughout the film look amazing.
See it with your friends or with some children if you can catch some. Just top notch.
I didn't mind the trailer, but I did mind the implication that there's only one child in the world who isn't getting any Christmas presents. Also Arthur's voice.
You should have seen the ad campaign over here. They went into a sponsorship deal with Discount Furniture Stores.
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a very likeable cast of Characters, all of whom were inexplicably British.
Aardman is a British company. They may have suffered from 'Oh yeah, we forgot about the rest of the world' syndrome.
Also England is the most pagan i.e. yuletide country that doesn't require the American audience to learn a language with no vowels.
I think this is the fourth time I'll watch it now but, Snatch! If for nothing more than watching Tyrone trying to get out of his car and Mickey's pikey speak.
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Oh yeah, fair point. Maybe he was just tortured until he lost consciousness.
Watched Tintin in 3D. It was awesome. I recommend checking out the 90s Tintin episodes too. I also saw The Book of Eli, Taken and How to Train your Dragon. Watch them all if possible!
I didn't mind the trailer, but I did mind the implication that there's only one child in the world who isn't getting any Christmas presents.
I just realized they kind of addressed this. At no point is it explicitly stated that 7 Billion Children received presents. Rather, I think it's stated at some point that 2 Billion was the victory mark for the year. It may have been a technicality, but it was cool.
Let me refresh your memory with its stagnant, deplorable and utterly despicable ad-campaign.
You can stop cringing now. The hill begins going upwards rather drastically.
It's the most plebian, misleading and generally infuriating thing I've ever seen.
I actually thought that was a good trailer, bar the using of the Kill Bill music. Can we please just ban that from trailers from now on? The Team America parody was amusing but now it's getting a bit old. I'm not really one for "christmas movies", so I'll probably wait to see it on TV. But it does seem pretty good and audiences will lap it up.
"Did she say, ELF?" - "No, she said HALF!" (referring to that sofa commercial mentioned by MeechMunchie)
When the trailer for Tintin came up before Arthur Christmas some lady behind us, that is an adult woman who brought her children, loudly tried to work the title through her sweaty brain and erupted 'The Avalanche of Titan' out of her despicable mouth.
Fucking right they were. The first 8 seasons are among the greatest television I've ever watched. Check out seasons 4-7 for some of the best shit you'll ever watch.
Season 6 has some of the best episodes ever produced, so it's definitely worth your purchase. Doesn't get much better than Homer the Great or Bart of Darkess.
The recent episode The Book Job (Series 23, Episode 6) of The Simpsons actually made me laugh. I was actually shocked.
I mean, it has no grounding in reality and they do that thing that always irritates me where a character who has otherwise shown nothing but greed rips up a million dollar cheque for some quazi-moral reason... but the ending was hilarious. Also, it has Neil Gaiman in it.
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Spending as long as I do here, it's easy to forget that Oddworld has actual fans.
I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I thought it was pretty great. Jim Carrey's performance was spectacular. I didn't think he could pull of a serious role, but he did.
I saw the new Sherlock Holmes with Downey Jr. I thought it was mostly boring with certain points entertaining me above the rest. It might of felt boring since I was tired, but one of my friends agreed with me about it afterwards. If you liked the first and movie tickets aren't too expensive near you, give it a chance. The best thing I can say about it is the cinematography, which is excellent.
Got a question for all you movie lovers. I've started a new blog recently which covers 3 main subjects; technology, games and movies. I'm looking for anyone who is interested in writing one or more movie reviews. It can be any movie you want (with the exception of pure porn, adult movies with an actual decent story line, as scarce as they may be, are allowed) and it doesn't always have to be a positive review.
If you're interested in writing about games or technology you're also welcome to do that, but I'm mainly looking for movie reviews at the moment because that category is looking kind of empty right now and I want it filled up asap. Unfortunately I don't have time to watch a lot of movies lately, so yeah.
Your review will be posted under your own (nick)name and you are allowed to link back to your own site if you have one. For more info check http://digital-directive.com/submit-article/.
