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In addition to being not so musically inclined on a production side of things, my exposure to new music is also as my wife puts it “rather stunted”. That is, I’m not very active in seeking out new music and often have no idea what’s going on especially in indie music circles.
So no I don’t know who Bright Eyes are and no I’d never heard this song before today. But I do love the look and feel of this music video and it has Terrence Stamp in it who was General Zod (as well as showing up in several thousand other genre films as a generally cool dude).
I just think there’s a lot in this video clip and I hope any of you who haven’t seen it might think so as well. It also doesn’t hurt we’ve been watching so much of Lost recently either ;).
Remember to let the rest of us know if you share a cool music video today on your own blog!
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Since I recently moved offices from one side of Brisbane CBD to another I’ve had to seek out a new coffee place. So I’ve been running a search pattern gradually expanding around the new building hunting for the coffee experience to replace my old haunt.
See it’s not just the actual cup of coffee that I’m looking for, I mean the coffee has to be good but I’m not really expecting the magical perfect cup of joe, that’d be nice but I’m a realist and I’ll take consistency over the occasional brilliant drop.
That’s where Starbucks completely got it right, even if you don’t think their coffee is the greatest generally you’ll get the same experience and the same cup every time and people really like that. Of course that can backfire if the experience isn’t really a good one.
Take for example the coffee chain Zarraffa’s Coffee, they have a really large cup of coffee called the Masai size, I was pretty excited because I like a big cup even though I probably should avoid them. So I figure this will be my new local coffee shop, but then the experience kept letting me down, the coffee was okay but the lids didn’t fit the cup properly so I wore coffee stains down my shirt and all over my desk. The guy serving behind the counter was generally unpleasant and would bitch and moan about ignorant customers to the regulars. It wasn’t very welcoming and frankly I don’t need that crap in the morning before my nerves have been settled with caffeine. I’ve been to plenty of Zarraffa’s Coffee shops too and they more often than not are really good too but I’m not walking for half an hour to go to one, if I were going to do that I’d go back to my old coffee cart whom I miss.
Other places around me are either too cool for themselves and their coffee does not match their own perceived coolness or way too generic, I’m way fussy but then coffee isn’t generally cheap in Brisbane so why shouldn’t I be?
So yesterday at the comic book shop they mentioned that there was a new coffee place down the laneway and I should check it and this morning I did.
I love the text that they have on their little postcard fliers which describes really well the uniqueness of their location:
Do you like your coffee down a laneway, under a boomgate, in a beat up old factory?
I’m happy to report that the coffee was pretty good. The location though is amazing, it’s a great friendly space. So if you are in Brisbane you should check out The Coffee Supplier.
It’s down that lane and then take a right!
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I’m not even sure as I write this if I want to go on record and recommend the film Kick-Ass to the general public because frankly I don’t know if this film is right for the general public.
Actually I’m sure the film is not right for the general population’s consumption. It certainly isn’t right for kids despite the flashy costumes and promise of humour, this is not a kid’s film by any stretch of the imagination.
This is an adult comic book fan’s movie.
But even then, even if you are an adult and a comic book fan you need to fall within more categories. You need to be able to:
- Accept that these characters are not real.
- Accept that the world in which these characters inhabit is not real.
- Deal with hard violence.
- Accept that the character who is possibly the most violent and uses the worst profanity is a very young girl.
If you are able to do these things then GO SEE KICK-ASS BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME.
If you can’t don’t feel bad, I don’t like torture porn films like Saw and Hostel. I wouldn’t go see then, however I don’t really mind if you do want to see them, that’s your business and I have very good friends who like those films. I’m just saying that there are very valid reasons why someone might detest this film but I’m not one of them, you know if you are or not and you should use common sense if you are considering seeing this.
Now the film itself had me reeling from the barrage of comic book references, the comic book series Runaways is prominently waved around, Mike Mignola and Hellboy adorn the walls and there are several scenes that pay excellent homage to various superhero movies such as Superman, Batman and Spider-Man.
Nic Cage who I will nearly always defend despite scary hair and teeth is an absolute delight in this and it’s generally all due to Mr Adam West, the original television Batman whom Cage’s character chooses to emulate rather than go with the gravel voiced Bale incarnation. His choice of which Batman to impersonate says a lot about his character and I wonder who came up with that idea because it certainly isn’t hinted at in the comic book.
In fact the movie does deviate in storyline and at times tone from the comic book which it is based upon, I don’t mean it is “Wanted” different but there are enough changes in there to key events that the stories are different. I’m almost willing to say that the movie storyline is better or at least more satisfying than the book.
Whilst Cage’s West impersonation was a treasure for me it is the most controversial of the Kick-Ass characters that truly steals the show. Hit Girl played by the amazing Chloë Moretz just owns this film, I don’t exaggerate here she OWNS this film.
There is something disturbingly entertaining about watching her kill a bunch of bad guys with a samurai sword to a cover of The Banana Splits theme song. As an actress she manages to completely sell the role despite the absurdity of the idea of a 10 or 12 year old assassin (I’m not sure her actual age in the film but Moretz was 12 when she filmed it). Although in fairness people don’t seem too hung up on the 10 year old character of Robin from Batman comics, I hope it’s not because he’s a boy, I hope it’s the lack of homicide.
Moretz is definitely an actress to keep your eye on, she’s already been in 500 Days of Summer and a few horror films like The Amityville Horror (remake obviously), The Eye and Big Momma’s House 2 (I’ve been dying to make that joke) though I wonder if her next role as Abby, a young vampire in the American remake of the Swedish film, Let The Right One In is going to be any less controversial.
Kick-Ass is funny too, more often than not it’s dark humour but for me it is a lot funnier than its comic book source material. On the other hand too there is a surprising amount of heart to the film that makes you care about the heroes and what happens to them. I’m almost willing to stretch that there are a couple of quite powerful moments hidden amongst the action.
The end is particularly rousing and cheer inducing though it does lack a key moment from the comic that would have been really powerful.
Overall I really loved Kick-Ass, I’d easily go see it again and it will be an immediate addition to my Blu-rays. Go see it but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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I am very happy and excited to announce that my “The First Rule of Bear Fight Club is” has been accepted into Banner Year Press’ Bearfight book and is looking to be published sometime mid April. Of course those who follow me on Twitter will already know because I was very excited about it.
It’s a very cool concept and it has brought Banner Year Press to my attention and after I get my copy of Bearfight I might look to them for some of my other projects I’m slowly building.
I’ll give you the details on how to buy the book when they let me know.
Big congrats go out to Arkonbey and Anthony who are also artists included in the collection!
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a final episode of a television series that is potentially as insulting to the admittedly small fan base of a show than the last episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. It’s so badly received that most watchers of the show ignore it and consider the second last episode as the actual finale.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the powers that be felt like they were giving the fans a valentine (as they put it) but in reality they were just a bit out of touch with the audience which was a problem that had plagued them for years.
Now go back even further and during the dark days between Star Trek the original series being cancelled and the rebirth on the big screen in the form of Star Trek: The Motion Picture all that fans had to keep the Trek flaming burning were fanzines that would foster fan fiction and expand the story lines. Then the novels came out and unfortunately they aren’t considered canon like the Star Wars universe but they also expanded the universe and filled in the holes.
So it is no surprise to me that with the novel The Good That Men Do the authors set out to reconcile the worst Star Trek finale (yes even worse than Voyager’s) by expanding upon and filling in the blanks (forcing a couple of blanks in along the way). I can say that if you were a fan of the final season of Enterprise and hated that last episode then this is the book for you.
I know that this post now has an audience of about four people now :)
But the book is really good, it specifically sets out to deal with the worst aspect of the Enterprise finale which in my opinion was the particularly mishandled death of Commander Trip Tucker. It’s also ironic in the book’s delivery of this story in that it uses the same story convention that they used in “These are the voyages” (the title of the last episode). Replacing Troi and Riker with Nog and Jake from Deep Space Nine.
The book was a very satisfying read and it is the way I would like to remember the series end. Like in the show most of the secondary crew characters don’t get anything to do which is a real shame as I enjoyed these characters and having them superseded by Shran or even the Romulans is a waste. The writing is on par with any of the Star Trek or Star Wars paperbacks, it serves the story well but never really raises itself above good.
I don’t recall if I wrote about the final episode on version 1.0 of this blog but Screen Rant sums up the feelings pretty well if you are interested.
You can buy a copy of the book either at Amazon or at Fishpond (and help out QYDJ at the same time!)
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The fact that in reality no one can tell one Storm Trooper from another works very much in favour of our heroes later on.
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I don’t want to start off with that whole “man, I can’t believe how quickly the weeks are flying by this year” but you know man, the weeks seem to be really flying past this year!
Tip your waiter I’ll be here all week.
So this week I managed to watch a couple of movies, I’m thinking of ripping off… ahem I mean following in SamuraiFrog’s footsteps and starting up a this week in movies post where I talk about the movies I watched over the previous week instead of trying to focus a whole post on one. I really like his movie posts because I can get across his take on a bunch of films pretty quickly and whilst I don’t always agree I do always enjoy reading them. Now I also feel worse stealing his idea as he was very kind enough to award me the now ironically titled “Creative Blogger Award“, fine I’ll change the name of the post ;)
It was the Academy Awards last Sunday so Dan and I talked about the Oscars, from 20 years ago (I kept saying it was only ten… fine I’m old and my mind is going!) on the Midnight Movie Club. Dan also gave us a preview of what to expect if you call his house over on his other blog.
I managed to see a couple of the Academy films this week (technically in the last couple of weeks) with The Hurt Locker which I loved but cheapened in my mind because I wanted a video game version and I talked about last week anyway. The surprise for me was how much I really enjoyed The Blind Side. Completely sucked into the film, love Sandra Bullock and think she earned the award. I was talking to Greg today about her win and I’m reasonably sure that this is the first time that the winner of the Academy Award also won a Razzie although for different films.
I also finally watched New Moon. I hated it. Worse than the first. It’s a story that relies on the power and drama of a reveal that everyone in the world already knows. In case you have no idea what I’m talking about and don’t wish the film spoilt turn away now: Jacob is a werewolf, and creepy, and slightly stalker’ish.
MC broke the news that 24 may not be returning for another season, well okay maybe he didn’t break the news but his was the first blog that I was reading this week to address the fact. I think it’s probably not a bad idea as I mentioned in my comment I’m invested enough in the Jack Bauer character to follow him to film and to leave the ‘real-time’ format behind. MC also mentioned the potential Space Invaders movie coming up. I’m hoping for E.R. “Operation” with Noah Wyle in the potential spin-off/tie-in.
That reminds me I’m listening to segments finally this week for MC’s grand first appearance on the Midnight Movie Club.
Yesterday I tried to get a little music video sharing going and Arjan has reciprocated posting a music video for everyone to marvel at! It’s very clever, like the ultimate Mouse Trap game.
Oh I almost forgot I saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D last week too! It was a great movie but not so great 3D, I want to see it in 2D to enjoy the detail now but the 3D seemed forced upon it. It makes me want to revisit all Tim Burton’s films!
Jeff has also been talking movies and he sizes up what he must or hopefully will see for the rest of the year, I was going to just steal his post because as always I tend to agree completely with him, though I demand he get more excited over Iron Man 2.
Over at Mashing Buttons Greg has been creeping through Bioshock and preparing for God of War 3. Whilst I have been celebrating my 9000 point win over Fat Bottomed Girls (if this sounds odd you need to head on over for clarification) and discovering that not everything I ever needed to know about ice hockey was contained within The Mighty Ducks.
In TV land Tracey and I have caught up to the rest of the world in Lost, and it is fantastically great television. We also started watching this season’s Survivor which we also enjoying even if it is a little frustrating that the heroes are idiots.
Rol has been making me jealous that I’m yet to have seen Crazy Heart (something I plan on fixing this week) which is a film I’m really looking forward to because, well frankly because it has The Dude and he is just great. Rol hasn’t flogged his comic book in a couple of days so I figure I should pick up the slack! Go buy PJANG now because it’s a great indie comic and I’ve been slack and not bought the last two (something I’ll fix this week).
Finally I’ve started work on a set of artist sketch cards which I’ve been commissioned for. It features the original SG1 team so I’ve been going around doing some test sketches just getting used to the characters, mainly Teal’c because I’ve never drawn an African American character before and want to get it right.
So that’s me pretty much caught up, how you guys going?
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As I continue to play SingStar every Friday night I’m being reminded more and more of some truly awesome music videos which of course I want to share with you guys, my blog peeps. I don’t tend to talk about music that much here because frankly I’ve never been very musically minded, I can direct you to at least three blogs who’s opinions on music I more than respect and are frequently impressed by and could never hope to match.
Also I’m a horrible, tone deaf singer.
But I still appreciate music, but being more visual I think I really appreciate an awesome music video. Therefore I give you The Darkness:
Now I have a hard time working out what I love the most about this video! Is it:
- the way the guitar drops from the hole in the ceiling?
- the lightning bolts coming out of the guitars when fighting the giant space squid?
- the wall of amps?
- or the mind blowingly awesome thumbs up at the end?
Obviously the video would appeal to a guy who drew this:
So who digs this music video?!?
We should start a thing where we share an awesome music video each Saturday! You know what? Just did! If you do post a music video on your blog to share drop a link in the comments!! Remember the song doesn’t have to be great but the video has to be awesome!!
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For a film that’s not coming out until the end of the year they are sure letting us take a good look at it in this trailer! I guess why wouldn’t you when it looks as good as Tron: Legacy does!?
I still think it’s a shame though that they aren’t using the Tron 2.0 name, of course that was the name of the video game that came out a couple of years ago but in my opinion it’s the cleverest title.
So straight off the bat we have Bruce Boxleitner back again as Alan Bradley and generally hinting at what his role will be in the film, I’m curious to see if it’s just a cameo or if they have a bigger part for him. Actually the more I think about it the more I wonder if we’ll actually see Tron himself? It’s interesting because I guess kids today won’t have generally seen Tron or know of the characters, even big kids like Dan hadn’t seen Tron until our semi recent Midnight Movie Club showing.
Right, blatant plug for podcast done, where were we again?
Oh yeah Tron: Legacy.
That trailer rocks!! It does everything that a trailer should, I want to compare it to the Star Trek and Iron Man trailers both of which revealed a fair bit of the look and feel but only because they knew it would blow people’s minds. And this is exactly what this trailer does, we get to see the light bikes and those giant things from the first film (recognizers) with better graphics and of course Jeff Bridges who is going to be a huge draw card for any fans of the original movie.
I was very excited to see the old arcade as it appears in the original film. In fact I was very impressed seeing the old laser from the original film, we all know where that thing leads.
Also something that was obviously lacking from the first film was an exploration into what the characters did in their own living rooms, you know hanging around on the couch…
I haven’t included a picture but there does also appear to be a person air guitar’ing with what appears to be a glow in the dark sink pipe? Take another look at that trailer and confirm that for me!
Finally for some reason the guys who come menacingly into the room really remind me of the Cobra Kai dude from The Karate Kid which could be just me or the wackiest cross-over ever!
Air guitar, karate clans and lounging around on the couch aside, from what I can tell from the trailers so far it looks like they have really tried to pay homage to the original film and simply show a higher resolution expansion of that universe. Which is 100% the way to go, I’m really excited for this film but I wonder if I can maintain that excitement considering how far away this film actually is?
So lets have it, what does everyone think of the Tron: Legacy trailer?
I can’t believe they brought out this trailer pretty much the same day as Iron Man 2 – so much geek goodness in so little time!
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I’m not a huge fan of mowing the grass.
Especially my yard after monsoon season has come through preventing any mowing for weeks while the grass grows at a ridiculous pace. Mind you I dislike relying on mowing guys who don’t show up when they say they are, even though you took time off work to be there and want to give them perfectly good money to perform the service… that’s a different story though.
I’ve been using the weather though as an excuse (to some degree) to put off mowing. Just because our lawn is the longest in the street I’m sure they’re not all watching me with their beady little accusing eyes because it’s been raining, they know that. Except for that crazy guy who will mow his lawn in the hail just to keep it at the regulation length… oh how I hate his perfect perfect lawn… okay another story again. Actually whilst wandering off into other stories there’s another guy in my street who waters his lawn even when it’s raining?!? Honestly my street is like “The ‘Burbs” except for the killings and complete lack of Tom Hanks.
Where was I?
Oh yeah I really dislike mowing. Yup, now I’m talking about mowing the lawn. That’s new level of excitement for Quit Your Day Job.
I don’t even really mind the long grass, I feel bad for Baxter though who not being quite so tall as the people of the house tends to get stranded on the concrete too scared to go out into the thick scary grass. Frankly I don’t blame him although he does muster enough courage to hide tennis balls amongst it all for me to hit with the mower.
If it was just me I’d let the lawn grow out and rent the backyard out to Avatar cosplay nuts.
Fortunately it’s not up to me.
Fortunate for my neighbours too I suppose.
I did have to add to my arsenal of manly lawn care tools and bough a line cutter, a cordless one with a shit hot lithium-ion battery that hold twice the charge and can be used in other manly tools such as cordless drills and sanders and ummm, you know, tools and stuff.
It looks cool anyway.
I also bought some protective sunglasses, you know to protect my eyes and stuff, conversation went like this in the store:
Me: Should I buy these sunglasses things or some clear safety glasses/goggles things for half the price?
Tracey: Don’t you wear your glasses?
Me: Normally but these are safety glasses?
Tracey: (looking at ugly safety sunglasses) you should just wear the 3D glasses we got from the cinema.
Me: No.
Oh and there was a reason why I mentioned Dr Doom, it’s one of the things I do whilst mowing the lawn, I curse out fictional characters that don’t have to mow their lawns and Dr Doom is a regular. I don’t know why I single him out in my thoughts but I mean he’s evil and still doesn’t have to clean up his backyard. It just makes me cranky.’
Dr Doom sitting on his arse not mowing the lawn
So what chore around the house that you have to do that Dr Doom doesn’t that pisses you off?
Vent in the comments!!
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If you haven’t seen the second trailer for Iron Man 2 take a quick look at it above and then come right back down here so we can all chat Iron Man 2 or as I now like to call it “the one film I HAVE to see this year”.
I didn’t really have any doubts or concerns about the Iron Man sequel, “essentially” the same cast and creative team that did such a great job on the first one and with Marvel’s now watchful eye looking on I guessed that they’d do fine and we’d have a pretty good sequel which like Spider-Man 2 would surpass the first.
In fairness too, I was basing this on very little other than my own gut feeling. But with every still released by the studio showing the cast as they came together my confidence bolstered up a little more. Then the teaser trailer was released and I suddenly felt a whole lot more comfortable that IM2 is going to be awesome.
Then they released that video above.
I am so excited about this film and I have complete and utter faith that it is going to be great based purely off that trailer. I can see where they are going with it and some of the characters now make a little more sense in how they fit into the overall film. Especially Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) whom I kept waiting to see a finished/complete costume of but now realise that it’s more than possible that we won’t.
The best thing about that trailer and therefore ultimately the movie is that they have already managed to convince me of the suitcase armour. For those who don’t read the comic book series the suitcase armour was a solution to the problem of having Tony Stark out and about, get caught up in something and still be able to save the day.
It was a stretch of the imagination, the suit folded up neatly like fabric into a briefcase and then when removed it would straighten out into the proper armour. Huge suspension of disbelief required, personally I just pretended not to notice.
But now thanks to that trailer I totally buy into the slimmed down portable armour wrapped up as a suitcase. I mean I know it’s not possible but I’m willing to give it a free pass because it looks cool and at least goes halfway towards plausibility.
And no mention of Iron Man 2 is complete without saying how absolutely badass the War Machine armour looks.
So everyone, what do we think of the trailer? Does this make you mad excited for the Iron Man sequel or does Scarlett Johansson (The Black Widow) make you cringe too much?*
Any concerns?
*I personally think she looks great in this and perfectly fits the character but I know she’s not everyone’s cup of tea…
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Quite a while back now I installed the Disqus comment management system in an attempt to build upon the community that was already forming on Quit Your Day Job and hopefully encourage everyone to chat amongst yourselves and really grow some conversation.
At first there was some trepidation from a few of you who really didn’t like the system, and I totally got that, but the system worked really well for me especially managing the comments and you know, it’s my house so whatever makes my life easier then cool.
But I did say that I would revisit the experiment down the track and see how it was faring. Well, we’re down the track and I’m curious about what everyone still thinks about it.
See I know that I’m still getting the traffic come through the site but that my comments have been dropping. This of course could be for any number of reasons:
- Everyone hates the comments system
- The comments system doesn’t always work
- The content of the blog has changed
- The blog just isn’t floating anyone’s boat any more
- Posts aren’t regular enough, too many, not enough
- I’m not engaging everyone as well
- I’m not commenting on enough of everyone else’s blogs
- It’s all fine and frankly who has time to comment now days anyway!
Obviously there are a couple there that I don’t subscribe to but I’m generally open to it all.
You see one of the big things I always wanted out of Quit Your Day Job was to invite you guys* to join a community around here, to come over to my place and hang out (virtually), talk stuff, encourage each other to do that stuff in our lives that make the daily grind worthwhile.
One of the biggest components I see as part of that community is the comments. By the way this is not in any way shape or form a criticism of any of you. I don’t want anyone to feel they have to comment, the fact is I need to make it so you want to comment. The best way I can see of going about this is getting your input, I’m not going to do anything that i don’t want to but I’m also open to accommodating what’s needed to get everyone talking. This isn’t going to be an overnight process but I want to get things rolling.
So first thing’s first:
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.If you do feel strongly enough to chose to keep it or get rid of it then please expand on why you feel that way in the comments (which would kind of be ironic for some feedback at least) or by my contact form, or if you know it you can always just email me.
Actually if you do have any suggestions, I’m opening myself up to them and you should feel free to drop me a line. Of course personal attacks and purely unhelpful stuff really isn’t welcome.
Thanks a lot everyone!!
* I do want to mention when I say guys I don’t mean it in a gender term, I mean all you people, just clarifying.
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I’m usually pretty slack with these things but I got really excited about this Bear Fight book competition thing and actually filled out the form and have submitted the final piece.
So here is the actual image that has been submitted, they required it in grey-scale which was my intention in the first place however I ended up using some ‘warm greys’ which changed the tone a little.
I like the colour version slightly more but there is a lot to be said for how it comes up in grey-scale.
I also think they’d make a pretty cool iPhone wallpaper, let me know if anyone does that because it would be neat to hear!
Which one do you guys prefer?
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Thoughts of a Storm Trooper now with 20% more popular culture references.
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The Academy Awards really kind of sneaked on me this year, although in fairness I generally don’t get too caught up in the whole affair most years anyhow as sometimes the films are yet to be released in Australia and more often than not I groan at the idea of something being Oscar worthy.
But this year I’ve seen some of the films and I’m actually really impressed with the expanded Best Picture category list and thought I might make my predictions and give my thoughts on the films I’ve seen and the for the others based off their trailers.
I’ll start with the film I predict will win best picture:
The Hurt Locker
I love this film, I loved it as soon as I saw it but it took some thinking time afterwards to really appreciate it. I felt bad during the film that as I watched I imagined what a brilliant video game it would make, mainly due to my playing Modern Warfare 1 so much in the last couple of weeks.
It is just a riveting film, with great performances, interesting direction and I think there is enough buzz around it to get it across the line.
If this doesn’t get the nod then I suspect the film will be:
Avatar
Huge budget science fiction extravaganza, I have no problems with this winning Best Picture if only for the cinematic experience that it provides when you see it in 3D at the cinema. Nothing is even remotely like it and frankly for all the belly aching and carry on regarding the weakness in the script and the dialogue I say go back and take a good long sober look at Star Wars A New Hope.
District 9
Wow! How awesome is that!?!? A really smart and clever science fiction film has been nominated for Best Picture and it really deserves it! It’s only a shame that it isn’t going up against Moon which should also have been nominated (should have had a decent release too but hey we’re talking about District 9). District 9 is really well put together, the performances are excellent and surprising, it’s such a shame it is such a tight field this year because this could have won in other years easily.
The Blind Side
I haven’t seen this film so I went and had a quick look at the trailer and remembered that I had heard about it. I’d actually be interested in seeing it, especially surprised from the trailer that it made the Academy list. The things I heard were mixed for sure, I think it depends on how cynical you go into it.
An Education
Another film I haven’t seen but I usually really like Nick Hornby. The trailer threw me out a little as I couldn’t quite work out the lead character’s age and when she was picked up by a much older guy I thought the film was going down a different path. Alfred Molina always impresses me so I don’t see how this will be any different.
Inglourious Basterds
Has Tarantino been nominated since Pulp Fiction? Another film that I really loved last year and am impressed to see make its way onto the Best Picture nomination list. I would give this a nomination simply for the opening sequence and how deliciously well paced out it is.
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
And the award for longest name in the nominations list…
Actually this looks like a very powerful film, it’s probably one that I’ll watch on DVD eventually I am impressed by Mariah Carey in what I have seen, which is of course something I didn’t expect to be writing on this blog anytime soon. Gabourey Sidibe looks like she gives a very honest and powerful performance.
A Serious Man
It’s a Coen brothers movie so I’m sure to love it, they have yet to misfire for me yet. The only strange thing about their films is that I rarely get excited enough about the prospect of one to rush out and see it in the cinema. It’s just one of those odd things I guess.
Up
This is one of Pixar’s best films, right from the beginning when it has some of the most heart-wrenching scenes seen in animation right up to the end and the wonderful message it provides. It’s simply a great film and it’s nice to see an animated film nominated.
Up In The Air
I’ve already written about my love of this film and that hasn’t changed, if I had to pick a third runner up for best picture I would easily pick this. In fact if it actually won I would only be mildly surprised and would be very happy for it.
Because they’ll show the Academy Awards here during the day (if they do live that is) I’ll have the results spoilt by university students and unemployed people on Twitter.
If you do want to ‘hear’ more thoughts on movies you should check out the Midnight Movie Club!
Leave your own predictions in the comments for bragging rights!!!
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I got a really cool email the other day (you know I honestly am beginning to think that my inbox will one day start rejecting emails that aren’t “notifications” because I get real mail so rarely) from QYDJ friend Arkonbey telling me about this art submission thing that I totally have to get in on but only have a couple of days in which to do it.
Now when Arkonbey talks about something like this I listen, if you don’t check out his work then you really should.
So I went over and checked it all out and got super excited.
The brief is an illustration depicting a bear fight, literally. So here are the pencils for my bear fight illustration which I’ll be inking up later today and hopefully submitting tonight.
I know it’s been quiet again round here but it’s been crazy busy at home, so much so that the house is a shambles that I’m thinking of torching and running away with the sweet sweet insurance money* and it hasn’t left a LOT of time to get around to everyone’s blogs and post here etc.
Did manage to get over the 9000 line on Fat Bottomed Girls in SingStar and Dan and I had a chat about So I Married an Axe Murderer.
Check out Arkonbey’s submission to Bear Fight!
*Just so you know the insurance money would not be that sweet and we are not planning to burn our house down, knowing my luck the bloody house would burn down now and I’ll get accused of ‘torching’ the place…
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I’m currently swamped.
Almost literally since it appears to be monsoon season around here and my yard has bog monsters roaming around and flooding downstairs.
So I have not had the time to devote to my current sketch card set featuring everyone’s favourite Firefly crew.
But since I’ve got a couple of seconds before bed I thought I might sneak you a peek at the first of the stand alone cards.
Jayne with one of his favourite things.
I’ll try and ink this one tonight after we get home from the big Vein Wear store launch party that Tracey got us invited to.
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I have an eclectic taste in movies, I certainly have my preferences that I lean towards but I’ll watch a range of films and really enjoy them. So it never really surprised me when I see a trailer and I think to myself despite the lack of ray guns and robots I wouldn’t mind seeing that. There are actors too who I’ll see in a trailer, I’ll groan, then think “you know what? I wouldn’t mind seeing that”, then I hate myself a little.
This is one of those times and I hate myself doubly because it was two trailers.
So the first problem I have is Ashton Kutcher. I used to think he was quite watchable but then I just had my fill or something because then I just got sick of hearing his name. Of course right now I’m having trouble thinking of the last film he was even in so maybe I’m being a little unfair. But it’s nice to see Tom Selleck and the mo back on the big screen and I think that this film could be quite funny especially if Katherine Heigl’s delivery is as good as it is in this trailer.
So no maybe I’m not hating myself too much on that film, but this film…
I’m sure that no one needs me to point to the potential drawback in this film, but damn it all to hell if I wouldn’t mind seeing this. Do I care what Tom Cruise does in his private life? Not really. Do I think he can be a good actor? Yes. Do I think this film might be a fun popcorn film? Certainly. Am I going to stop asking myself questions and then proceeding to answer them immediately? For now.
I also hate Burbanked Movie Blog for bringing both of these movies to my attention, okay, so I don’t hate them but they did draw attention to the films both of which I hadn’t heard of (in fairness they are much harsher than I in their critique).
Fine, there’s very little hate going on now.
Pfft.
Whatever.
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I’m a big fan of of Max Brooks’ World War Z and I think I’ve managed to get copies of it in front of quite a few people, none of whom have been disappointed by it because it is very clever and very well researched. I also enjoyed The Zombie Survival Guide but probably to a lessor degree which is why I took my time to finally pick up and read Recorded Attacks which is a graphic novel detailing zombie events throughout history.
That’s kind of a neat idea.
Romans fighting zombies, ninjas fighting zombies, cavemen fighting zombies, cossacks fighting zombies… ummm you probably get the idea.
And the idea really does work in places but overall the book seems to just be a collection of really neat ideas and doesn’t actually form any overall narrative, which is fine unless you are looking for World War Z. Fortunately I wasn’t really expecting that and I enjoyed each of the short stories as a cool diversion, each one self contained and generally military in nature.
I’ve always figured that a ninja sword is pretty much the best weapon to fight zombies with so it was nice to see them in here (although the zombies apocalypse series The Walking Dead does feature a character with 2 ninja swords) and the part I found the most interesting was the slaver ship that gets infected and all of the slaves chained to each basically have some idea of what’s coming. It is a very powerful sequence in my mind.
The art is great, not as gory as I was expecting and have read from other that said it was. I’ve read much gorier stuff so if you are only a little squeamish you should still be fine in this, or maybe I’m just desensitised completely now. It’s a shame the artist doesn’t get more of a plug on the front cover (no mention at all actually) because it is such solid work.
Max Brooks does address this (very thoughtfully I think) though on his website and the artist Ibraim Roberson is listed on the back cover:
http://maxbrooks.com/news/2009/09/21/ibraim-roberson-the-artist-of-recorded-attacks/
If you like zombie books then you’ll like this book a lot as it does not disappoint, of course if you haven’t read World War Z then you need to get on that first!
You can buy The Zombie Survival Guide Recorded Attacks from Fishpond.com.au
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