Spoilers ahead.

Starting a new little project on this blog and going to try and watch every film released in 2011 (at least as listed on Wikipedia) and as luck would have it, I must begin with a Nicolas Cage film. Now normally I like to do a video review of Cage’s films but I’m having some technical issues in that department so I have to resort to something barbaric like typing out the words with my fingers rather than speaking them with my mouth parts. Enough of my problems, on to the review!

The film opens during the crusades which were apparently fought by quipping Americans who may or may not be trying to do English-esque accents. I honestly can’t tell if Nicolas Cage is trying speak with an English accent and just failing or if it’s just the way his voice goes when he’s trying to speak in somewhat faux Olde English. Ron Perlman, on the other hand, doesn’t even seem to bother and honestly, his performance is more enjoyable because of it. Anyway, the two Crusadery chums are hacking their way through battles, killing for God and drinking with wenches and just generally having as good a time as two knights can. After a while though, they come to the realisation that they aren’t just killing deserving infidel warriors but also women and children too. They decide that enough is enough and leave the Crusades and go on the run as deserters.

So they find themselves wandering around medieval Europe. What are they doing? Well, that’s never really explained. Probably going from village to village and righting wrongs where they can. That’s the ind of shit that righteous outlaws are always doing from Robin Hood to The A-Team. Anyway, they come across a kingdom blighted by the plague where they are recognised and arrested. However they are given a holy quest by a plague-ridden Christopher Lee (in one of the more bizarre cameo appearances in film history). The quest is to deliver an alleged witch to a monastery where a rite will be performed that will remove the curse of the plague. Cage is reticent to sign up and work for the church again but ultimately relents in exchange for a guarantee that the accused witch will receive a fair trial and that he and Perlman are given full pardons.

They are accompanied on their quest by a priest, the unfortunately named Debelzaq, a swindler/merchant named Hagamar, another knight whose own land has been ravaged by the plague, causing him to lose his daughter, named Ulrich and a young aspiring knight Kay. They set off and, honestly, not much actually happens on the way. There’s a few deaths and few things which are possibly meant to make you wonder if the girl actually has supernatural powers or not whilst actually makes it pretty fucking obvious that she has supernatural powers. What happens could best be described as dude gets stabbed, there’s a rickety bridge on which no one dies, some demon wolves and then bam. They’re at the monastery.

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After watching Nostalgia Chick's Top 10 Guilty Pleasures list, I felt the need to create one of my own.  Here are my list of movies that I know are awful yet I feel placid by watching them for one reason or another.

10.  Hackers (1995) - Johnny Lee Miller plays a young computer hacker on the run after being framed for creating a computer virus.  But more notably, this is one of the earliest appearances of Angelina Jolie.  Of course she looked a lot different back then than she does now.  In fact, in this movie she looks like a boy (or a Vulcan, take your pick).  Although the scene that stands out the most for me is a dream sequence by Miller’s character where he dreams Jolie comes into his bedroom, unzips her top and starts making out with him (typical teenage fantasy stuff).  But I think what I enjoy about this the most is the movie’s interpretation of computer hackers and the counterculture of the time.  I’ll catch it every now and then just to remind myself that Jolie was not the untouchable model we know her today, she was a kid just like the rest of us.

9.  Wing Commander (1999) - The plot may be cheesy and the visuals may be ridiculous and the cats may be bald, but the chemistry between the cast is so rich and vibrant that I can’t stay mad at it.  Freddy Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard work off of each other quite well and the side cast has a certain je no se quois to it.  Although this is a war movie, it shows it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom, there can be a happy ending too, which is quite refreshing.

8.  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - Okay, okay, I’m a sucker for Asian cinema.  There, I said it, hate me if you must but I loved the fight scenes and it certainly skated on the edge of fantasy without going completely over the edge.  Even though Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh are billed as the stars, their story feels more like a subplot to the starcrossed romance between the princess played by Zhang Ziyi (or Ziyi Zhang, nobody seems to be sure how to place her name) and the pirate played by Chen Chang.  It certainly gets rather morbid at the end, but the fight scenes and set pieces are definitely worth it and is actually considered one of Ang Lee’s better work.

7.  Stardust (2007) - The problem this movie had was that there was too much going on, too many ideas that don’t seem to fit.  A star falls to Earth as a beautiful woman (Clair Danes) and is found by a farmhand named Tristan (Charlie Cox) who tries to take her back to woo the woman he loves only to fall in love with the star girl.  Throw into the mix Michelle Pfeiffer as a vane witch, Robert DeNiro as a metrosexual pirate, a handful of ghosts with very unoriginal names, and Tristan’s mother who looks to be the same age as him.  It is fantasy, pure unadulterated fantasy.  And while having so many elements doesn’t work, they are elements I like as a fantasy fan.  A true modern fairy tail if there ever was one.

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I've heard a lot of people complaining about remakes these days, and this year especially with the reboot of Spider-Man. Personally, The Amazing Spider-Man is one of my most anticipated movies of this summer. My philosophy is that there's no such thing as a bad idea, only a bad movie. And maybe it will be a bad movie, but that's no reason to bash it for existing. Just don't give it money!

But I digress. With the new Spider-Man movie coming out, and having just watched and reviewed Scream 4, I've started to wonder what other recent movies could actually work with a slight update. So here's a list of the top five movies from around ten years ago that could use remakes, reboots or at least some resurfacing.

5. Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Fun Fact: This was a Joss Whedon project. Maybe that's why I don't like it, but I see the potential. With Disney trying bigger action movies like John Carter (okay, bad example), it'd be interesting to see them do a live-action remake of this film. But this time around maybe the villain's goal could be a little more understandable and less generic and mindless. You could still have some of the same characters in there, but it'd be nice to see what else they could come up with. Just make it a really cool family-friendly action-adventure with big special effects and a little bit more heart behind it.

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1. The Avengers 2012 film
2. Cabin in The Woods
3. Sherlock Holmes Shadow Games
4. Batman The Dark Knight
5. The Expendables
6. Paranormal Entity
7. Paranormal Activity 3
8. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows part 2
9. Transformers Dark Side of The Moon
10. Nightmare On Elm Street 2010 film

A lot of work was put into this list. All of these movies were an enjoyable watch and even exciting. I hope others enjoyed them as much as i did.

Hi! I'm Glenda and I'm 18 years old. I've been a fan of the site for about two years, but I've never really given into the fandom yet. 

So here's a few facts about me (I sincerely apologize in advance if I sound conceited) :

- Five Contributors I Like: That Guy with the Glasses, TeamNChick, Todd in the Shadows, Oancitizen, and Paw. 

- As cliche as this sounds, I cannot and will not live without music. My favorite bands/artists include the Dead Kennedys, Voltaire, The Doors, The Damned, Florence + the Machine, Patti Smith, Pogo, The Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix. 

- A few movies I like: Ghost World, A Clockwork Orange, Pulp Fiction, Psycho, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2, Mary Poppins, the Harry Potter series. 

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Today I will be reviewing the 1959, William Wyler film Ben-Hur.  Now I have never seen the movie the whole way through (which is no surprise since this movie is nearly four hours long) but I have seen bits and pieces of the movie, most notably the famous chariot race.  But seriously four hours?  Do you know what else you can do in four hours?  Watch a ballgame, fly from Chicago to Los Angels, cook a turkey, or watch Ben-Hur.

Now this movie is a great epic movie.  All sorts of big events thrown together for a great story but this movie is famous for one thing... the chariot race.
This scene is exciting and for the time must have been extremely hard to shoot.  I am not an expert on the subject so I will just give my ignorant non-founded facts and say that this scene had to shape action scenes for years to come.  The fact that it is still refereed to and referenced shows how impactful this scene was.  Also while watching this scene it really made me wish NASCAR was this entertaining.  One top of this scene this film also won 11 Oscars for ...no way that is to many to list, I will just say it won 11 Academy awards and nominated for one more.

The wide world of world wide web has the following ratings:
IMDB = 8.2 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 89%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 81%
Really high critic rating and a little lower on the audience meters but maybe 19% of people have better things to do then watch a four hour movie.

Now time for my extremely un-expert opinion on the movie.  The characters we overall I don't know... nonexistent.  Ben-Hur's sister and mom were in the movie... and I can not tell you one characteristic about them.  The same would go for the character of Ester, Arrian, and pretty much everone else in this movie.  All characters can be defined by are they a nice person or a mean eperson.  Only a few characters outside of Ben-Hur stood out to me.  First being Jesus (does this then count as a Christmas or Easter movie) because he is Jesus.  Next the Sheik who is just super entertaining.  I really wish there was more of him in this movie.  Lastly there was Messala who only really stands out due to his role in the story not due to great acting or being a stand out character.  Ben-Hur is a really enjoyable character and I found him really funny though I am not sure if I was supposed to.  The acting is fine I didn't feel that it was horrible but nothing special either.

Now that we are back from the intermission (get it because the movie is so frickin long?) lets look at the story.  The story is what makes this movie great.  As I mentioned before the characters are pretty flat but the plot is the main draw and focus of this story.  Ben-Hur goes through a lot on his journey and even though this movie starts with the birth of Christ (is this why all my mom's Christmas decorations have one black wise man?) and goes for years it never feels long while watching it.  There is always something going on.  Also, as always, I learned  thing or two from this film:
#1: The best way to prove yourself innocent is to kill someone
#2: Boats have four speeds: normal, battle, attack, and ramming
#3: Fire sticks are better than swords
#4: People don't want to hang out with leapers
#5: Leapers don''t want to have out with people

This movie is famous for its big chariot scene and I am not sure how much stunt and camera work had to go into that scene but I bet it was a lot.  That wasn't the only battle scene though:
Though this looks more like kids playing with fireworks and roman candles.  I am also curious why the blood is so red in this movie.  It is like ketchup.  Also for a movie with a lot of violence and blood I was surprised that it was rated G.  I guess back in the days their children weren't wusses (that right I'm looking at you six year olds).  Lastly this movie has decent music.  How do I know this you ask, well its because this film has a overture which lasts over six minutes at the begging of the film and another moment of music lasting for 4 minutes on the second disc of the DVD.  Boy oh boy its fun to watch a blank screen while music plays. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie, despite that my fiance continued to patronize me and explain everything that was happening in the movie.  The story is great and the action is fun.  Ben-Hur is a funny character who does awkward things at times and even though the movie is four hours it is never boring.  In conclusion I give this movie an A. 

Here's another Stooge Overload article from my Passing Thoughts blog.

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Technically speaking, anyway.

I remembered a few things about this movie, but I'd forgotten its one major flaw: that it's slow as hell for a Three Stooges movie.

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This is a crosspost from my Passing Thoughts blog that I thought might do well here, also.  What do you think, sirs?

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Well, with the Farrelly Brothers' Three Stooges movie out and me considering seeing it, why not talk a bit about other Stooges movies I've seen and like?

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Here's my review in a nutshell:  THIS MOVIE SUCKED!

And you know what scares the shit out of me?  I'M IN THE MINORITY ON THIS!

I guess in order to understand why I think this movie sucked, you need to understand what frame of mind I'm in.  So before I go into this review in detail, let me explain where I'm coming from.

I've been out of work for the better part of two years.  I've only been gainfully employed for the past month.  I have had no disposable income until this weekend.  So I obviously haven't been to the movies in awhile.  Also, I don't watch television (well, not on a TV, anyway), and I don't voluntarily watch movie trailers.  I just don't.  There are better things to waste my time with than commercials.

So if there was a hype machine for 21 Jump Street, I MISSED ALL OF IT.  All I knew about the movie was that 1) It was based on a TV show I happen to like, and 2) Johnny Depp would be reprising his role from said TV show.  And you know what?  That was enough to sell me.

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It's time for another top list. This time around, Timdiana looks at the never ending issue in the world:Sequels. Find out which films made it in Timdiana's Top 10 Sequels.

Follow the Link:

http://blip.tv/timdiana-the-reviews/timdiana-the-reviews-top-10-movie-sequels-6029675

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[Originally posted on http://obsessive-geek.blogspot.com]

Welcome once again to the series which I decide to give other people ideas and act like I know what I'm doing! For this Make It So, I've decided to focus on an Ultraman movie idea and hope that Tsuburaya Productions and any American movie studio they partner with will listen.

So, here's the story in bullet point form:

• Have the focus be an new Ultra who seems to have lost (name he comes up with: Ultraman Lost) contact with his brothers from the M78 galaxy  and ends up on Earth.
• Have this Ultra come into contact with a scientist who was injured saving a child from a monster attack. 
• Have the film divide focus between some large alien empire deciding to attack Earth and this Ultra trying to convince the  Planetary Defense Task Force (the always needed providers of super vehicle toys to sell) that he truly is here to help them. 

Yeah, I know that it's an extremely basic outline that has been utilized elsewhere in the franchise, but I'm sure with the proper script , great actors and impressive enough fight scenes it can be pulled off.

As for actors I would suggest the following:

 Try to get Chiwetel Ejiofor as the Ultra's human form. (Call him Dr. Daniel Drake)....

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Oh yes, it's MY week this week! Yes guys, I made these 2 watch Chicago. It was...an interesting watch for all of us so...enjoy our reviews :)

Romances are very complex and often difficult to write. It's easy to write a romance, don't get me wrong. But writing a good romance? That can be near impossible, especially in these days when the majority's views on 'romance' differ so strongly from any previous ideals. In modern day, when Twilight is considered the epitome of romance to hordes of teenage girls who are soon to be women, I have to wonder how thatbecame the new ideal. I have made it quite clear in earlier works of mine that I detest Twilight. I don't use the word detest with any hyperbole; I honestly find myself sickened and concerned with my own age group when I think about the Twilight series. The 'romantic' element is the main reason for this.

Perhaps I'm too young to even give my viewpoint on this. I'm not even out of my teens yet, in fact. However, when I look at the way the media panders to my age group, it feels sometimes like I'm the only one who goes 'This is bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit.' 

Remember how I said in my last Twilight rant that I was finished with complaining about it? Yeah, I lied. I'm going to have to use it as an example of how not to write a romance because it's the greatest example I can get from modern literature that is both popular and that I have actually read. With that little addendum out of the way, I shall begin. I'm writing this in list form since a) it's easier, and b) I read Cracked articles far too much.

How Not to Write a Great Romance

1.) Your characters are unlikable or boring.

Well, duh. Your characters have to be likable (or at least relatable) for your audience to latch onto your work. Characters who do nothing or value, say nothing of value, or are nothing but self-centered pricks who walk around with blinders on are rarely liked. Sadly, in recent years that type of character seems to have taken off. I blame it on the Mary Sue complex. Story-telling is fascinating because of the way audiences react to works. We all long to see ourselves reflected in the images we see presented before us. We long for it so much that we excuse a work for having a character who is, essentially, nothing but a blank slate to press ourselves onto. 

It seems that authors these days are afraid to give their romantic leads any kind of flaws, for fear that the intended audience of the work won't be able to connect to those characters. Here's my view - if a character doesn't have any flaws (at least intentional ones) then I feel a complete disconnect from them. I'm a flawed person. You're a flawed person. We've all got issues. Why do the heroines or heroes we're supposed to connect with have absolutely nothing we can relate to on a personal level? Why would we pay money for an overly long self-insert fanfic when we could always read one of those online for free? 

I'm not just talking about the biggest self-insert fic of them all, Twilight. I'm talking about the movies that are made to pander to a certain kind of audience. See any Meg Ryan romantic comedy, excluding When Harry Met Sally, and try and figure out why she is the lead when she is the dullest part of the story in nearly every case. Sure, her frumpy and neurotic demeanor may be relatable to some women, but her personality is usually lacking any kind of flair. She's the self-insert fic to the middle-aged bracket whereas Twilight is the self-insert fic to teenage girls. 

Since this section is getting to be long, I should probably wrap it up with an example of some positive romantic leads in books and/or movies. Read any Nick Hornby novel. Yes, any Nick Hornby novel, especially High Fidelity. His characters are deeply flawed and sometimes hard to sympathize with, but watching them develop as the story progresses is one of the best parts of reading his works. They'll never wind up as 'perfect' characters, but they don't need to be. They are themselves - fascinating, selfish, stubborn, mercurial, and always growing. 

2.) The romance completely overrides any semblance of plot.

Also known as a Romantic Plot Tumor. Writing romance as the main plot of your story can often end in disaster. This is related to the point I made at the start. Anyone can write a romance, but very few can write a good romance. If the romance between your leads is all your story has going for it, then it's going to be a very dull story. Not to say a romance can't be interesting. It's just that more events need to happen to really make your story take shape. If all the story will do is show us all the various ways the leads love one another, or why they can't be together, or all the angst they have because they can't be together - well, that's going to get old very fast. Stuffing a 400+ novel with only that will be downright torturous. The same goes for movies. Unless there's a real action and conflict to push the story forward, then the entire work will be stuck in a rut.

Some examples of this include: Grease, wherein the 'will they, or won't they' romance was the only plot that made any sense and stayed consistent, so it has to be considered the main story-line; and Twilight, obviously. There's no point in elaborating by this point on what a snore-fest of romantic self-gratification those books and films are.

If the romance is going to be the main focus of your story, then try to spice it up a little. Have the romance be a chance to look deeply into the psychology of the characters. Have them question themselves and look into their pasts. Even if the current plot of the story is nothing but a romance, their recollections might be something thrilling and can add greatly to character development. 

A good example of a romance-centered story is The Dreamers. Okay, okay. I know it's a French art film, but hear me out. The characters are not only complex and interesting, but the dialogue is quick and provokes thought, there is action interspersed with everyday life and romantic/sexual encounters, and it makes the audience question morality and society in general. Even if you're turned off by what the film shows you, you can't deny that it's hard to look away and even harder not to think about. The thought-provoking questions the main romance invokes in its audience is what makes this film so memorable. 

3.) The 'will they, or won't they' element doesn't make sense.

So you have two characters who are truly, madly, deeply in love with one another. They would cross miles, sail seas, and fight armies to be with their one true love. Therefore, having an obstacle in their way would make perfect sense and make the story more interesting, right?

Well, in most cases, yes. Having two lovers torn from each other by the cruelties of circumstance makes for an interesting plot, most of the time. However, you have to make certain that the 'will they, or won't they' principle actually works within your story. Considering that every romantic comedy ever made ever has used this principle, it's become rather difficult to discern when it works and when it doesn't. From my point of view, this sort of conflict needs to be hinged on something of worth; animosity between characters should not be the main reason they are torn apart/are denying their feelings, a la You've Got Mail. 

This sort of conflict should really come from a much more complex reason, such as race issues, religious differences, cultural differences, feuding families/nations, or some sort of supernatural/beyond their control barrier keeping them apart. Psychological reasons for keeping characters apart can also be fascinating, as it's an inward instead of outward struggle and adds more weight to the plot; you wouldn't only be rooting for the romance to work, you would be rooting for one or both characters to find a healthier way to live and overcome their issues.   

Sometimes 'will they, or won't they' works if the question isn't 'Will they get together?', but instead 'Will they have a happy ending?' Think Aimee and Jaguar, which has elements of both, and is also a deeply moving story without needing the romance to add further heartache. 

4.) The romance is tacked on at the last minute.

Ginny Weasley, much? Okay, okay! Don't kill me. Let's be honest here, the Ginny/Harry subplot came right the fuck out of nowhere, at least in the movies. Since I haven't actually read all the books (shame, shame) I can only go by what I saw on film. One moment, Harry is crushing on a gorgeous Chinese-Scottish babe (who wouldn't?), and then the next moment Ginny is in the picture and Harry is macking on her like the last love interest never existed. And I'm left sitting there going, "Wait, what? What did I miss? Is my DVD broken? Who broke my DVD?! WAS IT THE RUSSIANS?!" 

This usually doesn't happen in works intended to be romances. In most cases, this happens in a broader story, but the romance is still supposed to be an important factor. Now, I do enjoy Harry Potter, at least the movies; but I was so taken aback by the sudden romance that I lost a little love for the movies then and there. I understand the longing to inject romance into a story. People like romance, unless they're cynical (or pretending to be cynical so they don't have to admit they cried at Titanic. Twice). 

Still, throwing in a romance nugget when the rest of the story was finely developed seems a little...lazy. If a story has a romance, it should be as well-rounded as the rest of the plot, or close enough that it doesn't stand out, even if the romance doesn't get as much attention or time to develop. I understand it's hard juggling various plotlines when you have a large number of characters you need to focus on. But keep in mind - if it's your main character and his/her romance seems out of the blue, your audience will notice. 

5.) You don't follow through, or tease the audience.

Sex and romance often go hand in hand, wouldn't you say? Of course, there are always exceptions. I would actually love to see a love story between two asexual people, but that's probably too much to ask for. My point is, sexual compatibility is an important part of love and relationships. If you're not sexually compatible with your partner, there will always be a rut in the relationship. The same goes for characters. If there's no chemistry between them, no longing for each other that's tension-building and even sensual, then watching their 'romance' play out will be downright boring.

That's not to say a story needs sex. If the characters are young, I would suggest very strongly that you keep sexual tension down to a minimum (I'm looking at you, James Patterson). But sex is a natural part of any love story and shouldn't be shied away from, unless for some moral fears you have. Or unless you want your book or movie to be 'more widely marketable.' 

I've seen a story that really should have a meaningful sex scene between characters completely glance over it. Sometimes a book will build up the sexual tension so much that I'm dying for the moment when the characters finally give in and let their desires take over; then, for no reason I can think of, it fades to black. I was lied to. I was teased! All that time I was hoping for a good resolution to the sexual tension built between the love interests, and all I get is a lousy "next morning scene." If your story already has profanity, drug use, and other adult themes...then why shy away from sexuality? It's nothing but a cop-out on the part of the writer and can be infuriating in some cases.

On the other hand...

6.) Porn, porn, porn...where'd my plot go?

Romance is not all about sex. Trust me, I like a good roll in the hay as much as the next hot-blooded individual, but I like cuddling just as well. Affection is not always shown in big, physical gestures. Sometimes a simple act of holding your partner at the right moment can bring an overwhelming feeling of love to your heart or his/hers. Characters need small moments like this to ground them in reality and make them sympathetic. If all they do is sleep with everything that moves, they become far less relatable. Smut is fine, of course. I've written some myself. However, pure smut makes for a poor novel. Don't base everything around sex, unless you want to alienate a large portion of your audience. 

7.) Love triangles: the plight of the disposable love interest.

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie where the lead character has a love interest whose only role in the story is to be a small hurdle for the lead character to prevent he or she from getting together with his or her real true love?

Did your mind just flash with about a hundred different examples of this? That's because the character of the disposable love interest is so common in media that it's become cliche. Normally, the disposable love interest is a nice enough person; flawed, yes, but no more so than the protagonist. However, they just aren't perfect enough for the protagonist, who has apparently been gifted with a very high set of standards. A common trend these days is for the disposable love interest to let the protagonist be with his/her 'true love' because they only want happiness for the protagonist. This happens a lot in romantic comedies, such as You've Got Mail (though that was resolved a tiny bit better, if not lazily), Sleepless in Seattle (two disposable love interests in that case), and Sweet Home Alabama (I have yet to grasp why she would choose the other guy). 

Then there's the direct opposite of the above, wherein the disposable love interest is a complete dickbag whom you know is going to get the boot by the end so the hero can 'rescue' his/her love interest from the disposable love interest's horrible grasp. This tends to happen in more male-driven sex comedies, such as Wedding Crashers, Revenge of the Nerds (which I liked, by the way), and Old School. It's the 'knight in shining armor' idea. The protagonist is anything but knightly, but his competition is such a bastard that the protagonist looks chivalrous in comparison. 

I love when movies go against this cliche or put a spin on it. Check out movies like Wet Hot American Summer, The Road to El Dorado, or The Princess Bride. They have their own interesting way of twisting the expected, in some cases going against social norms to do this. Don't be afraid to do something new with a love triangle. Yes, sometimes you are presented with more than one option when it comes to love, but that doesn't mean it has to be a struggle like it is in the movies. And hey, I approve of menage a trois. Wouldn't that be a fun way to end a romantic comedy? 

8.) Characters are together. Now what?

So you've finally wrapped up your big romance plot-line. Your characters are together, smooching it up big time and planning a wedding/party/orgy/whatever. The question is: what now? Clearly, if your entire story has been focused only on their romance, then a good ending can be hard to come by. Sometimes romance novels or movies peter out in an anti-climactic way because the writer(s) have no idea how to finish up the last bits of the story. Loose ends in the plot are left hanging. Questions are never answered. Your main goal was completed, so why should you bother with the rest of the plot?

Well, because your audience will be annoyed if you think story-telling is over just because everybody's getting laid (or getting paired up, however you want to look at it). Big, romantic endings tend to work considerably better in film because it's such a visual medium; a film audience will be far less likely to go "Wait, that's it?" if a film ends with the two leads kissing and it fading to black than if a novel tried to do the same. 

It can be difficult to come up with a great ending once you have those romantic loose ends tied up. The two most common forms of ending a romance novel I've seen are with an epilogue, showing where the characters are now and how the romance has developed, or with dialogue between the romantic leads (sometimes with more characters involved). Both these ways can work quite well and can even be a heartwarming note to end the story on. In fact, I prefer these methods over one that has become more painfully common: the self-centered inner monologue of the hero or heroine. 

Usually these inner monologues will be something along the lines of "I finally know what I want", "I won at the end", or "he/she is mine." I find this highly irritating, as it makes the love interest of the story into nothing more than a prize to be won, instead of a character in their own right. It makes the romance seem unequal and selfish on the part of the character speaking. Which brings me to my next point...

9.) The romance is unequal/selfish.

As stated above, I hate when a love interest is seen as nothing more than a prize to be won. This is why unexpected romances tend to warm my heart a little more because it's less about one or the other person trying to 'win' the other, but about how you can't really help who you fall for. There are so many examples of love interests treated as objects that listing them all would add a thousand more words to this already lengthy document. I point my finger of shame at Twilight, especially; I'm still amazed at how utterly selfish and possessive both leads come off as, though maybe that means they really are 'meant for each other.' 

If a character has to beg for love, then what the hell kind of romance is that? The answer is that it isn't romance at all, it's a childish obsession. It's possessiveness taken to such an extreme that it's scary to witness. When you're past the sociopath age of nine, this sort of behavior really isn't acceptable. A character should not, under any circumstances, feel that stalking, pressuring, barraging with phone calls, letters, chocolates, anything is a good idea. Forcing themselves onto another person is not romantic or spontaneous, it's sexual assault. 

The love interest of your story must be developed, or it will come off as if he or she truly is nothing but a prize. The story might as well be about winning a race or a spelling bee if that's the case. A romance should be created for the chance to meld two interesting, creative minds together to see what comes from it. A love interest who does nothing but stand there and look pretty won't capture anyone's heart. Or they shouldn't, anyway. 

Some good examples of balanced romance: When Harry Met Sally, Two Weeks Notice, Sideways, Brokeback Mountain, Once Upon a Marigold, and The Importance of Being Earnest (yes, the characters are all quite shallow, but they're all equally entertaining and share amazing chemistry). 

10.) Tragedy: It was all for nothing?

I despise tacked-on characters deaths. You know when I really despise them? When it's at the end of a romance novel or romantic movie. You spent the entire story with these characters and might be rooting for their romance to work out, then you get to the end and one of them dies. And all you can think is, "Why did I watch this? What was the point?" 

My personal view is that unless the novel is intended to be a tragedy, a la Aimee and Jaguar, Bent, or Wuthering Heights, then you shouldn't kill off the love interest. Stuffing the love interest in a fridge serves no purpose, if it's done at the end of the story. If your story is meant to be a prologue for a tale of revenge, well fine. But that's not really a romance, is it? That's a complete tease that should never be labeled as a romance. 

Spending an entire novel reading about two characters overcoming the odds and finally get together feels pretty futile when you discover one of them has an incurable disease and doesn't have much longer to live. Is this supposed to show the fleeting nature of life? Because most romances aren't that deep. Nor should they try to tack on a deeper meaning when they clearly aren't that profound. I'm looking at you, City of Angels. 

Basically, if you feel that a character death is necessary, make sure there's a damn good reason for it in your otherwise innocuous romance. Killing someone off purely to make people cry is, in my opinion, reprehensible from a literary standpoint - not to mention completely lacking in creativity. Why end your romance on a downer if the only point is to wrench tears from your audience? Every death should have a meaning, just as every character you give life should have meaning. Never, ever take your characters for granted by sacrificing them for nothing. They deserve much better.

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I've gone on for far too long now. Perhaps I've angered some, or made others think hard about the nature of romantic stories. I hope for the most part I've done the latter, though I would be fine as long as I've done both. I made this list mostly for myself, as I'm trying to write a romance of my own. Will I succeed? I don't really know. However, maybe if I follow my own rules and remember the lessons I've learned from writers greater than myself, I can at least come up with something to be proud of.

Remember the line from "Nature Boy"? Say it with me now: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." 

For more episodes, please visit The Nykk Show

The Contrarians Podcast

Welcome to the home of The Contrarians Podcast. Want gaming, movies, entertainment, and social opinions outside of the box? You've come to the right place. We are not industry insiders/professionals, we aren't part of any official company, we are simply two guys who feel aren't being represented by the rest of the media out there, for the most part.

Some may think we're conservative blowhards, some may think we're insensitive pricks, hey we're American and you can think what you want, FREEDOM BABY! Our views are just that, our views. We don't agree with each other 100% of the time, and don't expect others to agree with us either. Our goal is to have people listen, share, and spark conversation. And it never hurts to get a few cunts mad at you every now and then.

The Contrarians Podcast Episode 1: The Phantom Man-Ass

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                So just to introduce myself to start off with, I am The Lapsed Geek Once a geek always a geek, even if you do not have the time and money to be one. I will be reviewing anything that catches my fancy, as well as anything suggested to me, as long as I can get a hold of it. My plan is to be doing about 2 or 3 different “shows” in the long run but right now I will hold to newly seen stuff and a blog I would like to call “Netflix Fodder.” Anywho on to the review….

                To start off I would like you to imagine a balloon filled to bursting, now what is it filled with you may ask? Cornball comedy and exposition I would tell you. And what is that balloon made of you may ask, why that balloon is made of wonderful action scenes and crazy Nicholas Cage that are stretched so thin the balloon could burst any minute I would say. Now I would say this analogy is getting stretched so thin that I should just get to the brass tacks of the issue. So was the movie good?..... Well yes and no.

                What was good about it? Well a lot of things were good (but I feel a few of them are only good to me.) For one this is a movie where it could be easily said that Nicholas Cage was having fun in the role, and it is known for a fact that Nicholas Cage is at his best when he is enjoying a role. There were some wonderful manic scenes played by him. There was also some great action scenes, I can say that during every action scene my eyes were glues to the screen. They bring back “The Rider’s” ability to change anything he rides, which makes for some awesome visuals. Now for something that I truly enjoyed, however others may think that it was a little much in this movie, cornball humor! Given that this is a comic book movie, even though it falls under the Marvel Knights production logo, It actually takes some great little joke breaks. There are certain ones that have already flooded internet so I will say about one of my favorite, Ghost Rider pisses fire like a freaking flamethrower.

                Now for the bad, sometimes the comedy feels a little out of place in a such a dark and grittier type of story, funny as they may be. I will not cover a lot of the comedic problem considering I actually enjoyed that bit of the movie. The reason I bring it up though is because I feel that I was the only one in the theater actually laughing. Now for one I feel is a legitimate gripe about the movie, the arduous and yawn inducing exposition. The placement of the exposition in this movie for the most part was just so long and drawn out that I nearly fell asleep multiple times. Given that could definitely be due to it being my nephews birthday and dealing with a lot of 10-11 boys running around like monkeys on crack, but even though that is happening it shouldn’t make me nod off. Now I do not want to hear the excuse “It’s a sequel and they need to explain the origin story for the people who did not see the first movie.” Because that argument is invalid, they hardly explained the first movie in fact they take 2 minutes to explain the origin in the beginning and talk about it again in at least two other parts of the movie.

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Welcome to the pilot episode of a new podcast by me (CircleGuy), ChrisX104 and Dogbert! Pants: Optional is a manly podcast made by men for men (and some women). Today we talk about what makes a manly movie, why Chris shouldn’t be on the internet and much more! Keep in mind that this is a pilot episode: this is the first time we’ve tried this, so it may be a bit rough in places. If you have any suggestions or feedback, you can comment here or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Welcome to my new Blog Segment: "Modern Contemplation" where I talk about my thoughts on modern things in general.

3D. 

Those two simple words can easily spark a debate. On whether you enjoy 3D, or (like me) HATE IT. I HATE 3D. It NEEDS TO GO AWAY! ForEVER! STOP IT! STOOOOP IIIIIITTT! But I digress. 

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Journalism, medicine, humor... Today are not unusual cases of labor intrusion. We see them as if they were normal and sometimes even supported.

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I have always heard from my parents and my brother how great this movie was so I was looking forward to watching it, I mean it could be like The Sting but a western.  Today I will be reviewing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Robert Redford and Paul "The Dressing" Newman

star in this 1969 film written by William Goldman and Directed by George Roy Hill.  Now as I mentioned my mom likes this movie, but apparently "like" is not a strong enough word.  My mom had Butch and Sundance posters all over her room as a teen, some of which she even burned the edges of to make them look more western.  How embarrassing....

This film is not as groundbreaking as some of the other movies on the AFI Top 100 but it still is a very well beloved American classic and has been referenced in multiple shows and movies like Shanghai Noon, The Simpsons, Futurama, and even The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!  This film also did win a few Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (more on that later), and Best Writing.  It was even nominated for three other Academy Awards including Best Picture. 

The internet says:
IMDB = 8.2 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 89%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 90%
These scores are not very high compared to many of the movies on the Top 100 list but it is still above average.

Now how did I like this movie you ask, well I will tell you.  There was not much of the way in characters in this film.  It really only followed around Redford and Newman and many other characters didn't have more then a few lines, many of which didn't even have names, though there are some surprising people like Cloris Leachman playing these character.  Despite this one of these very minor characters was one of my favorite things of the movie:
He is so colorful.  Next we have the "love" interest of the film played by Katharine Ross.  She was pointless, I am not sure why she was in this film.  She just seemed shoehorned in so that there was a female character in this film.  Now we have our two main men.  Robert Redford was pretty funny in this film and the character was great.  My only problem with him was his mustache.  Why did mustaches used to be cool and acceptable?  Now mustaches are just a joke or creepy.  I just think it is so interesting that today's facial hair style can be tomorrow's molester.  Anyways Paul Newman was extremely funny in this movie.  Butch was my favorite character despite the fact that he could be a little weird at times.  The two of them played of each other so well and were so funny that it really helped make the movie more enjoyable. 

There was not to much to this story really.  I realized after watching almost and hour and a half of this movie that all I was watching was people do things.  Also this is not your typical western, or at least it is a lot different then the westerns that I have seen.  I have to mention the good script given that the dialogue between or two main characters was hilarious.This western has comedy and modern music and a certain scene which just struck me as odd.  Sometimes the vibe of the movie made me feel the train time-machine from Back to the Future 3 could be making an appearance.  Once again I did learn some important life lessons from this movie:
#1: All Mexico has is sweat
#2: There are no rules in a knife fight
#3: Butch would fail Spanish class
#4: Time in Bolivia makes you colorful

Now here we get to some interesting things.  First off it felt like the first ten minutes of this movie was in sepia tone for some reason (so if you watch this there is nothing wring with your TV), then we have some bike stunts (why?), and lastly the music is so weird.  I think it is funny that the song won an Oscar.  The song is not bad at all but it just seemed so out of place in a western
So did Paul Newman start the planking trend?

In conclusion, I really liked this movie though I wish there was more of a story. The comedy was great and the film was very enjoyable despite the parts of the movie (mainly the scene above) which really took me out of it.  I give this movie a B. 

The Movie Explorer presents the fifth review in the Fairy Tale Matinée series: the 1977 East German production The Devil's Three Golden Hairs. Loser kid Jakob has one task to complete in order to marry a princess, go down to hell and steal the three golden hairs from the devil. Based on a lesser-known tale by the Brothers Grimm.

Blip.tv link

Youtube link

Hey folks, welcome back to the New Year of Movies 360. Due to the holidays and other issues that arose, this episode was delayed because of this so for this I do apologise, but nonetheless me, LC & Mikal 5 all hope you enjoy our reviews of this particular movie and the rest we have planned for 2012. So, please sit back, relax, and enjoy our No Reservations episode :)

Heh heh 69..... Anyways today I will be reviewing Tootsie.  Tootsie is a 1982 comedy starring Dustin Hoffman who dresses up as a women to get a role on a soap opera.  I was nervous about this movie for two reasons.First, this movie is about a man who dresses up as a women to get a job.  Sounds like it be okay but then I saw this:

If the movie was going to be anything like this I was going to hate it.  Secondly, not all comedies from the 70s and early 80s are that funny to me.  My parents would rave about how funny Fast Times at Ridgemont High was, then I watched it.... not so funny.  So these two factors made me nervous to see the film but I knew it had to be done, so we gathered together to watch a movie about a cross-dresser.

I was really surprised to learn that this film wasn't one of the first movies to have a lead male character dress as a women for comedy.  I guess I just assumed that it wasn't done that often because old things are conservative and lame (hey so are my parents).  This was one of the few movies I have seen staring a male who dresses up as a female, I have seen Ladybugs (great/weird soccer comedy) and Mrs Doubtfire. Going into this movie I was comparing everything to Mrs. Doubtfire.  Its struck me as I was doing this that even though Tootsie came out first and may even inspired Mrs. Doubtfire I still in my life see Mrs. Doubtifre as the movie to compare and contrast to.  I guess it is all about perspective.... does that mean kids to day will watch The Empire Strikes Back and compare it to The Phantom Menace? Anyways back on track, Tootsie received 9 Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture, and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, Jessica Lange.

The internet, who know all that is right, fells the movie should receive rating like this:
IMDB = 7.4 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 88%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 75%
Overall, I feel these scores are a little low for a movie on the AFI Top 100.  Maybe the internet hates cross-dressers.

The comedic acting in this movie was really good.  There were lots of really funny characters with good delivery, at the same time though there were a lot of pointless characters.  Hoffman's agent played by Sydney Pollack had some great scenes and great lines.  George Gaynes, or Commandant Eric Lassard as I know him,  was hilarious.  He might have been one of my favorite characters in this movie and he had one of my favorite lines "Does Jeff know?".  Bill Murry was awesome.  He is always so funny and this movie is no exception.  He has great delivery and made me wish he was in it more.  Now I need to insert a clip of Bill Murry being hilarious.
Now as I mentioned there were a lot of characters which just felt pointless, including Teri Garr.  It is weird she was nominated for this movie because I felt her role was pointless and unnecessary.  Also, Geena Davis was in this movie for about thirty seconds.  Though this movie was a comedy there was also a lot of dramatic elements and actors like Charles Durning did a great job.  Now Jessica Lange won for this movie and I think she did a decent job but what I found the most interesting thing about her is that she used to look like this and now looks like this.  Dustin Hoffman, as the lead, was great.  He was funny when it was time to be funny, great in the dramatic roles, and had great chemistry with the cast.  His interactions with Bill Murry were fantastic and though Hoffman wasn't the funniest character in the movie he was still great.

The story was actually real good.  In this day and age it is great to see comedies that not only are funny but have a good story and heart as well.  This film really looked at not only what it means to be an actor:
but also shared a message on gender roles, and how to stand up for yourself.  The movie was also very funny, my fiancee was laughing the whole time.  The situations and lines were just great and it was relatively a clean comedy as well.  Now as always I learned a few things from this movie:
#1: Women have a much easier time getting jobs then men
#2: If you are get caught naked in a friend of the opposite sex's place just have sex with them.

The makeup in this movie is really good.  It is actually sorta hard to tell that Dustin Hoffman is playing a woman, meaning it is better then Jack and Jill.  Though this can lead to an interesting question:
Ewww. Gross.  Also the music in this movie got nominated but I cannot help but this the music is really corny.  It feels more like a sitcom beat the a movie soundtrack:

In conclusion I think this movie is really good.  It is very funny and totally went above and beyond my low expectations.  It is a great comedy with a real dramatic story at its core.  I give this movie a B. 

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Hi, I'm KalKratos. I admit something. When it comes to Mark Millar, I like the movies based on his work instead of the source material. Wanted and Kick-Ass are some of my favorite movies. The reason is because Mark Millar's original works can get too graphic. I don't mind graphic content, but there is a limit to what I can handle. That is why I like the movies better than the comics of Mark Millar.

Now I know that there are a lot of differences between Millar's comics and the adaptations. Wanted was changed from being a fraternity of supervillains to a fraternity of super assassins. And like I said before the graphic content was toned down to a tolerable point. I didn't mind the change from supervillains to assassins. It makes sense that they did that. The idea of supervillains that killed off the superheroes and now control the world secretly is a very "comic book" idea. The super assassin angle worked better. It connected Wesley better to their world by having him be genetically born to become one. Whereas in the comics, Wesley just inherited his father's role. In the film, they recruit people who have the same abilities as they do. It just makes more sense. Also making them assassins for the greater good makes them more sympathetic to audiences. I'm not opposed to the idea of villain protagonists, but I did like what they did in Wanted. Also the last line in the comics is an incredible unpleasant line to read. Whereas the last line in the movie is inspiring.

Now in Kick-Ass, it stays more true to the comic book. But they did make a lot of changes. They changed the name of the bad guy. The near elimination of racist slurs. Big Daddy's back-story. Kick-Ass and Big Daddy's torture scene. The resolution of Dave pretending to be gay to be around Katie. But you know what, all of those things work better in the movie. The biggest change has to be that last one. In the comics, she calls him a pervert for pretending to be gay and then later sends him a picture of her giving her boyfriend a blowjob. That's a pretty crappy ending to a romantic sideplot. Now I realize it is meant to be realistic, but if I wanted a story to end that way, I would just go live my life. I entertain myself with these types of stories to escape. And the ending to the romantic sideplot in the movie works much better. We're happy that he got the girl, and gives us hope that we too can get the girl.

So how does Mark Millar feel about the movies based on his work? Well, he loves them. He has openly said that he is happy with what they have done. And even works with filmmakers to develop the sequels to those two movies. Which is much better than Alan Moore, who despises the films based on his work, even if they were good but not faithful.

So that is how I feel about movies based on Mark Millar's original work compared to his original work. Now what about the movies based on Alan Moore's work. I haven't seen From Hell. I didn't like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I loved V For Vendetta and Watchmen. I hoped you enjoyed my blog. Comment below. And you can also find this blog at my website mentioned below.

I didn't even know if was interested in seeing this movie or dreading it, today I am reviewing Modern Times.  You see I have never seen a silent movies (I prefer talkies) so I had no idea what to expect.  I know my girlfriend did not want to see this at all, but my mother was looking forward to it (I think its because she is old).

Charlie Chaplin is a very popular, maybe the most popular, silent movie star.  He not only was loved world wide but I have heard how his comedic styling has been an influence to many people.  On the other side of things he always seemed to be in political controversy by doing things such as not joining the army during WWI and had some socialist and communist friends.  Well Charlie I have some friends too:

This film is also received some criticism for being a silent movie even though the technology for talkies had been around for a while and it received no recognition from the Academy Awards, despite it being one of Charlie's most well known films.

The internet lied!  They are a bunch of liars!!! Oh, wait let me first say I was not a huge fan of this movie, anyways here are the internet's ratings: 
IMDB = 8.5 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 95%

I am not sure how to even talk about the characters in this film.  There were so so so many minor characters.  Some were weird, some were funny.  There were no personalities or story arcs for these characters instead they were more silly, cartoon-like characters.  The female lead in this movie was really cool, I liked her a lot though I am not sure why, once again not like there is a lot of character to like.  FUN FACT #1: Charlie Chaplin had many marriages in his life, many of them very young girls, the lead in this movie was one of the older girls he married.  Charlie Chaplin was fun but I wasn't really impressed.  I think that there may have been too much hype about him that I built unachievable standards or maybe he just isn't all that awesome.  You do get to hear Charlie Chaplin sing in this movie, and I believe it is the first movie where he does so, so that's a pretty big deal.  Also, is his mustache real?

Not really much of a story to talk about either (seeing the trend? there isn't much to this movie).  There really isn't one story but rather a bunch of shorts stringed together by a loose plot line.  The movie did have social commentary about life during the depression but I don't know history that well or am that deep.  The story was so boring I had to keep shaking my girlfriend to stay awake and then she eventually had to narrate everything that was happening to keep focused.  Some of the jokes were pretty racy.  There were boob jokes and cocaine jokes.  I guess I just thought they were more conservative back then.  My mom thought it was hilarious though so I guess she liked it.  Once again I did learn things from it:
#1: Hitler mustaches were cool
#2: If you are buff and work in a factory you don't need to wear a shirt
#3: Factories are dangerous

The music for this movie was written by Charlie which is cool I guess.  I also thought some of the "stunts" were really cool, actually just when Charlie was skating around:
I am not sure if he really did this or there is some painted backdrop this going on but I still thought it was cool.

So I learned that I do not like silent movies.  I know some people will say we need to appreciate the art and history of it and look at where movies come from.  To them I say when is the last time you decided not to drive your car and take a horse and carriage somewhere?  Just imagine if one of your favorite movies was a silent movie:
Not that cool is it?  I do not know why there are so many silent movies on the AFI Top 100, I just know I won't like them and I didn't like this movie.  I gave Modern Times a D+ 

Finally a movie I have seen that my girlfriend has not, it is about time we came around to watching Blade Runner.  First off Blade Runner is not about running with scissors (hahahahahahahaha I am so funny), it is a sci-fi, or should I say sy-fy, thriller and I am a nerd and love sci-fi and fantasy movies and books.  Any ways lets get on with the review.

Blade Runner did not see success at the box office but it has since become a cult classic.  I am not really sure what makes something a cult classic though, I assume it is a fringe movie that is very popular for its genre or a movie that bombed but then sees later success, but I am not sure.  I have always been a little foggy on the definition but here is a video of other cult classics takes from different lists found on the internet:

I am still confused how movies like this can do so bad while in theaters and then years later make a huge comeback and become culturally relevant.  It has even helped shape modern sci-fi with sources saying the creator of the new run of "Battlestar Galactica".  This movie did not win any Oscars but was nominated for Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Visual Effects.

The all-knowing internet has these rating for the film:
IMDB = 8.3 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 92%
Audience Rating (Audience Rating) = 89%
These scores are a little low but that can really be all summed up by the fact that this movie is a cult classic.  It was not adored nationally or critically acclaimed.

There were so many characters in this movie that I will not touch on all of them but just the ones that stood out to me.  First off we have Edward James Olmos playing a character who I found to be extremely interesting.  I wish we knew more about him, but then again if we did the mystery would be gone.  It was also weird to see EJO so young and skinny.  Next we have Sebastian a character who is so likeable, awkward, and meek.  This character was well acted and because of that I was very sympathetic towards this character.  Now we have Pris, played by Daryl Hannah.  I don't really like Daryl Hannah or the character, I don't know why but I just don't.  With that said she is one of the images that stands out to me from this movie.  The character of Rachel was another character I just didn't connect to.  She was a good character and the acting was there but something about her just didn't interest me.  The bad guy of this film, Roy, is fantastic.  The acting is superb and the character makes you challenge the idea of is he really a bad guy.  Should we arrest him or sympathize with him?  Fantastic!  Then we have Harrison Ford being a BAMF but he always is.  I love Harrison Ford in nearly everything he is in.  The character is awesome and Harrison Ford is awesome.  For me this is another stand out movie of Ford's and a character I will always remember... though there are some weird parts:

The movie started with a text prologue, which all good sci-fi movies need I guess, and we are introduced to the future, which is only five years from now.  I love when you watch old movies to see what they think the future would be like and then as we get closer to it you know it won't be like that.  Anyways the movie itself moves at a very slow pace and this slow pace easily could have lead to it not be popular when it was first released.  The slow pace does however allow for the environment and atmosphere of 2019 develop and this is my favorite part of the movie.  I actually feel the movie is more beloved for art direction then the story itself, which I personally do not think is anything special.  I could be wrong and the nerds of the internet may get angry but the story doesn't do much for me.  It is not bad but it isn't fantastic either.  That does not mean that there is nothing to learn from it though:
#1: I want to make my own midget friends
#2: Asians will rule the world
#3: Product placement will be all the rage in the future
#4: Retire=death
#5: In the future its night time a lot
#6: Replicants be crazy
#7: Daryl Hannah should be an Olympic gymnast

Now the thing I love most about this movie is the environment.  I mentioned earlier about how the movie was slowly paced, I feel that this slow place allowed the film to showcase the new world it has created for this story to take place in.  I love it!  The buildings are awesome, the atmosphere the set up is great, the mix of new and old is fantastic.  I love it all.  From the huge building with all the lights to the technology the use like the photo enhancer:

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Uncertainty (2009)

Need to do things a little differently this time, as this movie is not one that can be reviewed in the style my previous ones have been. That said, I'm not quite sure how to review this, so for the most part, I'm just gonna wing it and hope for the best.

Let me say one thing first- Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of my favorite actors; Brick, 500 Days of Summer, Inception, all great flicks- hell even his turn as Cobra Commander in GI Joe was entertaining, and I'm looking forward to his role in The Dark Knight Rises. I'm not quite certain how I found today's movie, but more then likely I was skimming JGL's imdb page and saw it was coming out, then watched the trailer. The film looked interesting, but still took me some time to actual find a copy and watch it. Going in, I'm not sure what I was expecting, and now that it's over, I'm not sure what I think of it.

The plot is pretty inventive I'll give it that. A couple, Bobby, played by Levitt, and Kate, played by Lynn Collins, stand on the Brooklyn bridge and discuss what to do- about what, we are not sure just yet, and frankly neither are they it seems. They decided to flip a coin, and though no stakes are given nor is the outcome shown, they both seem to know what they are going to do and proceed to run in different directions off the bridge. This leads to the film's selling point- both possibilities for the day's events are played out. One leads to the two going to Brooklyn to spend The Fourth of July with Kate's family, the other takes them to Manhattan and the discovery of a lost phone being sought by dangerous people.

I think my biggest issues with the film is with this idea- not that I don't like it, far from it, I like the idea of two diverging paths stemming from a single decision. What bugs me is that to do this the film needs to sacrifice portions of both stories. The family BBQ story, a drama, tends to have more development; we learn that Bobby is Canadian, that Kate's family has issues with their relationship and with one another- an uncle with Alzheimer's, a deceased brother, a sister looking to leave school, and a nosy mother are all present, but don't move much from those basic character tropes. We also learn that Kate is pregnant and she and Bobby are unsure of what to do about it- another decision they were discussing on the bridge. The family dynamic is interesting, as is the decision to tell them of Kate's pregnancy, but it doesn't go anywhere .The couple even find a lost dog on the way and take it in, but we never learn why it was lost or who it's owners are. The Manhattan storyline on the other, being a more action thriller styled piece, lacks much development and sticks to the basic formula- someone finds something important, two others seek it out, are willing to kill for it, finder must figure out what to do to survive. Well Kate's pregnancy is mentioned slightly, it doesn't matter and doesn't stop her and Bobby from running through the city avoiding the people looking for the phone. Both stories have potential, and likely could have made decent films on their own with more time and development, but trying to put them together leaves both lacking.

Now I understand the idea the movie is presenting is that one choice can change everything, and thus we need to see the bits of both stories to understand the different paths, and this is an interesting and novel approach to take. However, in my opinion, for a movie to work there has to be a conflict or something at stake, and while the latter story has this, it is rushed and the conclusion seems tagged on to coincide with the ending of the former story, which while the conflict seems to be whether Kate will tell her family or not, this is brushed aside as nothing by the end, making it seems pointless.

There are some positives to the film however- Levitt and Collins have great chemistry, and in both stories you do believe they are a real couple trying to deal with their situations as best they can. I'd say the realism they possess is one of the films biggest strengths, because simply by being there they make the situations they are in seem real by association. The Manhattan story, while plausible, is a cliched plot that only really has any weight because those involved are real enough to draw the viewer in. Likewise, the Brooklyn story allows this realism to shine further, as the interactions between the couple and the family members seems very much like a real family get together, little is forced.

One reason for this I believe, comes from the fact that script was written without dialogue. According to imdb, the actors developed the dialogue during rehearsals with the help of the directors, which I believe is the core reason that the interactions seem so organic- these aren't people reading some writers words, they are reading from a script they themselves helped create. Outside of the interactions, there are some good throwaway lines, such as when the couple compare stories of where babies come from they heard as children; Kate tells Bobby her father told her babies grow on trees, whereas Bobby's father told him that he came from his balls. It's a chuckle worthy line but sounds like something a real person would say.

So let me summarize just a bit- the cast is good, the acting is good, the dialogue is good, and the idea is a good one in theory. However, the execution of the idea is lacking and because of that the film as a whole suffers from a script that pushes an original approach over fully developed stories. That said, it was still a decent film, though I doubt it will be joining my DVD collection anytime soon. Still, if you like the concept or like me are a JGL fan, give it a shot, might be more your cup of tea then it was mine.

2.5 Different Timelines out of 5

Until next time, I'm the Drew, and I'm certain I Be Awesome.

Notice how I say least favorite not worst. It does, after all, boil down to opinions, not ot mention, I didn't see a lot of the particularily bad ones. So I say right now, I never watched Jack & Jill or Twilight, so neither of these are on here, for example.Also, don't have too much time, so I won't go into too much detail. Why top 11? Couldn't decide which of these to take off the list, so couldn't go with ten.

11. Red Riding Hood: Just generic on every level, with terrbile performances and direction. Directed by the director of the first Twilight, it seems almost all of the cast are just rejected auditioners for the roles in that film. Amanda Seyfried gives her worst performance, and even Gary Oldman isn't trying. The costume design and some of the sets were really good, and there was a lot of potential here, but terrible execution.

10. The Rite: I tend to enjoy exorcism movies, but found myself not enjoyign this one at all. Hopkins looked bored, and the only redeeming scenes are the incredibly hilarious scenes of Hopkins being possessed, but those are so terrible they are funny. Big disappointment.

9. Sanctum: It had decent 3D in it. The only positive I will give this film. Boring as hell, with incredibly annoying and poorly acted characters. But thankfully, hardly anyone saw this.

8. Season of the Witch: I wanted to like this movie. I expected a bad, popcorn Nic Cage flick, but this was just terrible. The trailers made it look semi decent, but this is probably one of the worst movies Cage has done, which is saying a lot. And the CGI at the end was atrocious.

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Drew On Movies

Brain Damage (1988)

There are certain directors out there that can make dozens, even hundreds of films, and only a select few are worth the time and money put into them. There are others who can make only a few films and have almost every one of them be entertaining. Frank Henenlotter is one of the latter. Not counting sequels, he has made four movies, three of which I have seen; Basket Case, Frankenhooker, Brain Damage and Bad Biology- this one being the one I have yet to watch. But the three I have, I have enjoyed to varying degrees. Basket Case is a bizarre film that while not amazing, was worth watching if for not other reason then it's effects. Frankenhooker on the other hand, is hilarious, and in my opinion a film any b-movie lover should not only see but own.

What makes Henenlotter's films different then others is simply heart and effort- you know he does not just toss out a film, there is a lot of energy put into these films to make them enjoyable- the use of practical effects, you know, what we had in movies before CGI took over, is some of the best- watch Basket Case and remind yourself that the titular creature isn't real. Henenlotter really seems to care about his craft- sure he knows he's not making Oscar contenders but that allows for greater freedom I think- not everyone will see these movies but the real fans will, and they are the ones that matter.

The last of the three films and today's entry stands outside the other two as the film with a message- that's right, a low budget horror comedy with a moral, is 1988's Brain Damage. This was actually the first Henenlotter film I heard of, if memory serves it was mentioned in an article on one of my movie sites and I then tracked down the trailer. Still, I decided to leave it for last, not only due to it being called the director's best, but also because I wasn't sure I was ready to watch it. Until today, and I'm glad I waited, because it was worth it.

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To follow up last week's blog on The Godfather I figured that I might as well as review the sequel right afterwards, so today's review is The Godfather Part 2.  Like I mentioned last week I have never seen these movies so all I knew about this one is that it is always on "the best sequels of all time" lists.  Oh, and I also know according to almost everyone the third one is stupid.  Anyways, lets get on with the review.

As I mentioned before the first Godfather has had a huge influence on culture and I think the same can be said for this movie.  These two movies work so well together that I think it would be difficult to separate the impact of each movie. The one thing this movie has offered us though it one of the best sequels in film history.  Now not all sequels are great in fact most aren't:

I know some of you might not agree with my list and to you I say, my opinion is more important so keep your comments in your pocket.  This film not only is one of the best sequels ever but also cleaned up at the Academy awards.  It won six Oscars for: Best Writing, Best Picture, Best Music, Best Director, Best Art Direction, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (De Niro); as well as being nominated for five other awards. 

Now it is time for everyone's favorite part.... the internet ratings!!!!!
IMDB = 9 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 98%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 96%
So despite many people feeling this sequel surpasses the first movie the internet rating are all slightly lower.  I wish the internet could make up its mind.

Now it is time for my favorite part.... my own review!!!!  Acting once again was fantastic.  Though I was sad that characters like Tom were in it a lot less.  I really enjoyed his character in the first one and just would have liked to see this character built upon more.  Diane Keaton returned as Kay and though her acting was good, man do I hate her character, but I feel that the character is supposed to stir up emotions in us, it is one of those characters that, depending on how you view the morals of other characters, is either likeable or you hate her.  The bad guy in this film was fine but the character was not anything spectacular.  There is also a character named Frankie, the actor was nominated for an award and when I saw that I didn't even know who the character was.  You see, I am really bad with names when there are a lot of characters so some of the names slip through the cracks of my brain.  Anyways, he did a good job and his character was good as well.  Now for the Corleone Family we have Talia Shire, playing Connie, who is not only annoying but barely in this movie.  Yet, she was nominated for an Oscar!  How?  How does this happen?  She was only in it for ten minutes total yet it was Oscar worthy: 

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Movies that were released in US in theaters/DVD this year that I saw.  One note is that I haven't seen X-Men First Class yet but I want to.  Some on this are not going to be agreeable to others.

10.  Green Lantern.  I didn't hate this movie a lot of people do.  I think they got a lot of characters right but story wasn't to great.  Well they tried to combine two villains into one and didn't work.  Probably would have been better if they had made Sinsetro the villain but still enjoyable to me.

9. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.  I didn't hate it as some did.  You get what expect and if expecting anything else well you are going to be greatly dispointed.

8. Priest (At least uncut version on the dvd)  I heard this movie was bad and then watched the dvd.  It's really good but maybe dvd version is better cut then the one that was released in theaters.

7. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.  After the mess of season 2 and endless 8 Haruhi gets back to being what should be.  Fun.  Yes it goes a little to long but it is interesting story and it's fun.

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Drew on Movies

To Be or Not To Be (1983)

Oh Mel Brooks, you crazy Jew you. I've been a fan of Brook's work since I was a kid, when my dad first showed my brother and I what was at the time, Brook's latest film, 1993's Robin Hood Men in Tights. Not long after, while home sick, I watched the film on television, followed by 1987's Spaceballs. From there it was a matter of time before I started going through the rest of Brook's comedies, usually with the help of my dad. Was a few years later when he taped Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein for us to watched, and that pretty much cemented it- Brooks was a comedic genius.

However, for a time, these four pretty much remained the only Brook's films I watched. I knew of a few others, but rarely had the chance to watch them. After watching the musical remake of The Producers, which I enjoyed, I found a copy of the original which was also really good. Still, it was while watching trailers on the DVD for Men in Tights that I learned of three other films that I would begin to track down: High Anxiety, Silent Movie, and To Be Or Not To Be. The first I happened to catch on television, and soon after bought on DVD. The second was harder to find but worth it, although the DVD I purchased, while new, skips during one scene- and of course, I no longer had the receipt.

That left me with today's movie, which took even longer to find then Silent Movie. 1983's To Be Or Not To Be, like the Maltese Falcon before it, is a remake of an earlier film. However just the same, I will allow it on the grounds that- it's Mel Brooks, do I need another reason?.

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We are independent filmmakers in college. Here is our reel of our production from 2011 if you're interested. Check us our at

https://www.youtube.com/CQVFilms

Best of 2011

Theme Song by Brian Setzer and owned by Walt Disney Records

2011 was a very interesting year for media. It brought 3 superheroes to the big screen, resurrected 4 beloved franchises, brought an end to a phenomenon that began when an 11 year old boy received a letter from an owl, gave us the Chinatown of our generation, gave us a god awful installment to another beloved franchise and gave us the best reviewed, praised, and awesome super hero game ever created. This is the best and even the worst of 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

MOVIES

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Drew on Movies

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Right off the bat- I love me a good Film Noir. There is just something about a story filled with hard-boiled private detectives, seductive femme fatales, and enough twists to make M. Night Shyamalan cream in his pants that makes me all warm inside. Hell, my main pieces of writing have all been heavily influenced by the conventions of the Film Noir, but even with that said, I've only been able to watch a few in my life, as most are older and thus harder to find flicks.

This is not the case for today's movie, as it is a classic and classics, regardless of age, tend to stick around. I knew of this movie in name only, only learnt of it's Noir plot thanks to a friend of my brothers, and only got a real taste for it after watching it parodied in Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective. Still, only when digging through my back logs of movies to watch and seeing it did I think to give it a shot, and I'm glad I did.

The movie is of course, 1941's The Maltese Falcon, based on the novel by Dahiell Hammet, and a remake of a 1931 film also based on the novel. Normally I avoid remakes of any sort, but seeing as this is the version most people are familiar with and it came from a time when remakes were not just pointless cash grabs, I can let it slide.. That and it's got Humphrey Bogart in it, and the original does not, so that counts as a point in its favor.

The Plot

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The Movie Explorer tackles an Asian B-movie favourite: Wolf Devil Woman, another insane Taiwanese kung-fu/wuxia fantasy action flick, made in 1982. A young woman raised by wolves is destined to liberate the land from the ice-powered, inexplicably Southern-accented Red Devil. Directed and written by actress/star “Pearl” Chang Ling, apparently using sets on loan from Sid & Marty Krofft and costumes left over from the previous Halloween. The review contains an overdose of references to botany and 1960s pop culture, for some reason.

Blip.tv: http://blip.tv/themovieexplorer/the-movie-explorer-wolf-devil-woman-1982-5851963

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M91EcE1dHEg

Drew on Movies #1

Leon: The Professional (1994)

Howdy folks, this is my attempt at an actual movie review, not just some quick tidbit on Flixster or something, but an actual review. I have a long list of movies I've meant to watch and now have the time to do so, and while doing so I figure why not try my hand at this. I'm going to be ripping a little off the style used by The Blockbuster Buster for his Honest Reviews, because I like the structure he has and it seems workable.

To start, a movie that I almost watched once before, back when there was still a Superclub Videotron near my house. Alas when I decided to rent it, it turned out that the disc had been stolen years before and they had not replaced it (and they wonder why that location shut down), so it remained on my To Watch list until recently. Might be for the best, as I don't know which version of the movie the store had, while I do know the copy I watched today is in fact the full cut of the film, which is a plus.

The movie is 1994's Leon, or The Professional, or Leon: The Professional, depending on what source you check. Honestly I don't quite remember how I learnt of this movie or what originally convinced me to put it on my list, but I can say that whatever reason was justified. This is a pretty good movie, but we'll get to that, but first.

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So it is the Christmas season and instead of putting on a fire and snuggling up to watch some Christmas movie we decided to watch The Godfather.  Now if you are like my families and friends you might find it weird that I have never seen this movie, if you don't think it's weird then I like you more then them. But, I do know certain things about the movie (referential pop culture things) as well as know that this is a very well liked movie so I was really looking forward to watching it, almost as excited as you are to read this review.

Like I mentioned earlier The Godfather is referenced multiple times in media, some of which I didn't even know because it was from my childhood:

Okay, okay, okay, I know Fat Tony might not be a normal "Godfather" reference but in my naive youth I thought all Italian gangsters were references to The Godfather.  This movie though next to maybe Goodfellas is probably the most referenced mafia movie in pop culture.  This film also broke new ground by being a movie told from the side of the mafia.  Most mafia or gangster movies at this time were more focused on the police trying to stop the mafia.  All sorts of movies and TV shows now take a look from the side of the mafia, one of the most recent ones being The Sopranos (though the mob dressed better back in the day then they do now).  This film won three Academy Awards for Best Writing, Best Picture, and Marlon Brando for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Now lets see what the always positive people of the internet have to say about this film:
IMDB = 9.2
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 97%
Holy cow these are some high ratings, I guess not everyone on the internet is negative.

Now before I start my own personal review I want to talk about how weird it is for me to watch older movies and see how young some of the actors look.  I feel it is very similar to how when you see pictures of your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. as kids and teenagers and you think to yourself, "you were young once?"  Well the same thing happened to me while watching this movie:

Before I talk about the individual characters I just want to say that all the actors were great.  I really thought that this was a very well acted movie.  This movie had so many characters so there is no way I will be able to talk about them all so I will just talk about the ones I had either positive or negative opinions on.  First of the character of Clemenza was awesome.  I cannot explain why I liked him so much but I just thought he was awesome.  Not sure if you ever like characters like this, you know, the ones that aren't that important, or even in the film much, but for some reason you really like them.  That is what Clemenza is for me.  Now the family has some great characters and some not so great characters.  Fredo and Connie were both pointless and annoying.  I have no idea why these characters even exist.  They were so pointless and underused that they might have well not even been in it.  Kay played by Diane Keaton was another character that did not really add much to the overall movie.  Honestly the most i can say about her is that Diane Keaton looks better now then she did then (holy big forehead Batman).  Then we have Vito, the character we all know, played by Marlon Brando.  It is really hard to me to judge this character and this acting since, I CAN"T UNDERSTAND HIM:

So I will have to go with what other people say and just say he was great and the character is great too.  Now we will get to my three favorite characters of the movie, Tom (Robert Duvall), Sonny (James Caan), and Michael (Al Pacino).  All these characters were not only interesting but were awesome characters.  I would watch a "Sopranos" like series if it followed these three characters.  I really really liked them.

The story was very good and for a three hour movie there were not many times I was bored.  It was great to see the character development.  At times the pacing may seem slow and the movie does take some time getting to the main plot line it feels but I think it is worth it if it adds to the movie.  The characters were well developed and the feeling of the movie was established.  I really wish more movies would do this.  I don't want to ruin the main story for you because I really enjoyed it and I want you to have the same experience.  The script was fantastic.  My only question is why do they always use Mario references.  Now I also, as always, learned something from this movie.  Here are just a few things:
#1: Horse heads are not as nice to cuddle with as teddy bears
#2: My Italian stereotypes aren't really stereotypes
#3: Cops suck (seems to be a trend)
#4: Italy is boring
#5: Women are more dangerous then shotguns and have lightning powers
#6: Babies crying are REALLY annoying
#7: Al did not age well

The music was really great in this film (one of the songs in is the Now and Then video).  Though it was not something that really stood out all the time, when I did notice it I really enjoyed it.  The effects, stunts, etc. were nothing to write home about (which is weird since I live at home) but they were not distractingly horrible either.

In conclusion, I really thought this was a good movie.  It was well made and I really enjoyed watching it.  Now I don't think it will become a movie I watch over and over again, but I did like it.  Why do some great movies never become a movie that I can watch multiple times yet some lesser movie like Ocean's 11 can become a movie I watch almost every time it is on?  Whatever, my grade for this film is an A. 

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Well we have come to another James (Jimmy) Stewart movie, today's review is no other then Rear Window.  I was looking forward to this movie because, one my mom and girlfriend talked about how good it was, and two, I liked Disturbia.  Also this is Alfred Hitchcock and to my knowledge I have never seen a Hitchcock movie all the way through.  All this to say I was in good positive spirits going into this review. 

Rear Window is based off a short story and directed by Hitchcock.  Some even say it is one of Hitchcock's best works.  This film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Director.  While the film making aspect of this film is not ground breaking the story itself is one that has been referenced and redone many times:

One of the most recent adaptations slash remakes is Disturbia starring Shilabuff (sp?).  Funny story about this though is that Distubia got sued for plagiarizing the book.  I guess they didn't ask for permission of something.  I was going to look more into it but I got bored.

The internet tells me that Rear Window should be critiqued like this:
IMDB = 8.7 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 95%
These ratings are very, very, very, very, very high.  Seems like the internet really likes this movie.

Now lets see what I think, because that's the opinion I trust most.  The characters in this film were decent.  The women both Stella the Nurse and Grace Kelly's character were both very amusing.  Stella at moments was down right hilarious and Grace Kelly was fun but mainly she was there to be pretty.  The cop friend of our main character was a flat character as was the mysterious man they were watching.  Nothing were super special about either of these character but both were played well and important to the story.  Now our main star James (Jimmy) Stewart was the same old James (Jimmy) Stewart he has always been.  I still feel that he is the same person in everything and all that changes is his occupation and motive, but I don't care I think he is still awesome.

The story was very interesting and suspenseful.  The tension of spying on someone and not really knowing for sure what is happening is a great idea though I am curious if this is where the Patriot Act came from.  Anyways, this movie was great from beginning to end, but for some reason during the climax I kept thinking of this song:

The script was well written and there are some saying the use back then that I wish we used today.  Phrases like "hows your stomach?" "empty as a football".  I want to use this in the near future and see how people react.  As always there were lots of things an audience member could learn from this movie.  Things like:
#1: Don't count on cops
#2: Girls dance around in their underwear
#3: Women pretend to have dinner parties
#4: People eat fish heads and rice
#5: People don't use blinds or curtains often
#6: Dog don't use elevators they use baskets
Wow!  What a wealth of knowledge I just laid on you.  Also what the frick is a rear window?  This didn't take place in a car.  Do people call the windows in the back of their house a rear window?  I need to know because this whole time I just call them windows.  I want to make sure I use the proper name.

The cinematography in this movie was great.  Combined with the silence used in some scenes I really felt like I was spying on these different people outside of the window.  It really helped in building up the suspense and drama in this film.  While cinematography and sound may be a strength to this movie special effect well...... look for your self:

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If you didn't get enough of a biased fanboy review in my Lord of the Rings review then you are in luck because today we are reviewing Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I love this movie!!!  I love Indiana Jones!!!I feel like everyone loves this movie (except for one friend I had who never saw it because she thought it was a "boy" movie).  I love the ride at Disneyland.  I was so happy that I got to watch a movie like this and it made me realize that I wish a lot more of the AFI Top 100 movies were movies that I liked.  Frick, I just wish more movies were like Raiders.  Anyways enough of my gushing love for this film lets get on with the review.

Now once again I may be biased in my view here but I feel Indian Jones is one of the most iconic American film characters of all time.  I mean if he wasn't such a huge icon why would the South Park kids feel like this:

So if everyone is this upset about the fourth movie then Indy must be a pretty important character.  Also I think he might have inspired Devo to write a certain song:

In all seriousness though, when this film was released it received high critical ratings and one four Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Effects, Best Editing, and Best Sound.  It also received a Special Achievement Award for sound effects editing and was nominated for four other Academy Awards including Best Picture.  The film also was included in the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry as having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." 

Now we will take a look at how the nerds of the internet have to say:
IMDB = 8.7 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 94%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 93%
I guess these rating are okay, but if the internet was really smart they would all be one-hundred percent.

Now get ready for me to start my biased portion of the review (if it wasn't biased already).  The acting in this movie is fantastic.  The baddies to be honest are not the greatest in movie history.  Rene is a decent main bad guy but never seemed to be a real threat.  Then we have the Nazis who... well they are Nazis so yeah.... But then we have Arnold Thot, played by Ronald Lacey, who is one of the most memorable villains from my childhood and I believe has one of the most memorable scene in this movie.  Now lets move on to the good guys.  First we have Sallah.  I love Sallah, he is such a great side kick character.  He is loyal, knowledgeable, helpful, and just they guy you want with you when you are hunting for ancient artifacts.  Sadly, Sallah doesn't have a love interest in this movie, but Sallah can explain why:

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I didn't exactly forget this when I did the article on the main show. I just couldn't quite figure out how to fit it in.

See, Red Green's Duct Tape Forever was a telefilm based on the Red Green Show. The plot was that the Canadian environmental protection service had fined the lodge again, this time for all the crap they'd wound up putting in the lake over the years, amongst other such shenanigans. The total fee was something like $7000 that had to be paid by the end of the month.

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Merry Christ....oh wait it's not quite the most wonderful time of the year, but what better way to kick off the festive season than with the Movies 360 team discussing a great classic Christmas movie. As usual, please leave your comments, thoughts, etc and...ENJOY! :)

Before I start my review I need to complain a little first.  I hate it when people talk during a movie that I am really trying to watch.  I also hate it when people get a phone call and answer the phone but don't leave the room.  Now, with both of these little pet peeves, I was about to yell at my dad when I was watching this weeks movie, The Wild Bunch, and he was on the phone and decided to sit down and watch the movie while still on the phone.  Really dad, really!?  Anywho... I knew next to nothing about this film before I watched it other then previews made for movies in the 60s are very different then previews now.  I did know that no matter what that this movie had to be better then The Philadelphia Story (and yes I will keep using this as the standard of bad movies until I watch a worse AFI movie) so I was excited for that.

Now this movie really helped change the landscape of film making.  For its time it used revolutionary techniques such as multi-angle editing and using normal and slow motion.  This was interesting to learn since for me techniques like those have always been part of the action movies I watch, so to think of how audiences must have felt when they saw these techniques must have been awesome (why doesn't awful mean to be full of awe?).  Also this movie was controversial for being graphically violent.  Meaning this movie let us have this:

The graphic violence in The Wild Bunch is nothing compared to movies like Kill Bill or Saving Private Ryan, but to be that movie to really push the graphic violence envelope I can see how this movie earned its way to being a big part of American cinema history.  This film was nominated for two academy awards for Best Original Score and Best Screenplay.

According to the internet we can see that The Wild Bunch got the following reviews:
IMDB= 8.1 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 97%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 89%
We can see here that this movie seems to vary in its ratings.  We have one rating which gives it a vary high 97% while another rating gives it almost a 7 out of 10 (for those who don't know math that would be a score in the 70-79% range). 

Now its the time you have all been waiting for, my opinion.  This movie seems to have lots of characters all sort of forming different sides in this crazy Western.  First we have the Mexicans, who were hard to understand, mainly cause all they did was speak Spanish.  What ever happened to making everyone no matter their nationality speak English so the audience can understand?  Anyways, the Mexicans were just a big pile of racial stereotypes.  They sorta reminded me of drunk versions of this:

Then we have the bad guys?  Okay I have been curious about this issue for a while now.  When the main characters in a movie are outlaws are they still the good guys?  For example in Ocean's 11 are they good guys?  If they are the good guys does that make the people who are out to stop them the bad guys?  If so this means its possible to have our good guys to be criminals and our bad guys to be cops.  I guess we will chalk it up to perspective.  So in this movie (according to our perspective) the bad guys are funny.  There weren't much a point to a few of the characters other then to be obstacles for the "good guys" but I was entertained by them.  The main bad guy was an interesting character but I did have a hard time telling him apart from the main good guy in some scenes.  I guess I have to admit a weakness of mine... in old movies I have a hard telling main characters apart from one another because I feel that they all sort of look a like. So, now lets talk about the "good guys".  Fist up we have an old crazy drunk man who is awesome, though it does seem that every Western needs an old crazy drunk guys who just looks gross and laughs the whole time.  Next we have Angel the token Mexican "good guy".  He isn't a walking stereotypes like the other Mexicans in this film but that's all I can say about him.  I don't really like him or dislike him:

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It’s a musical. Made in 1984. Starring multiple Razzie award winner Pia Zadora. Scared yet? You should be! It’s called Voyage of the Rock Aliens and it also features Allison La Placa, Ruth Gordon and Michael “Pluto” Berryman earning their paychecks.

Blip.tv: http://blip.tv/themovieexplorer/the-movie-explorer-voyage-of-the-rock-aliens-1984-5731866

Youtube: http://youtu.be/-OtPlZ_L47w

Welcome one and all to another hilarious episode of Movies 360. As ever, if you have any feedback, comments etc for us, please feel free to leave them. And above all else...ENJOY! :)

I know, I know, there's still a month and a half left before the year actually ends, but really, what new movies are going to come out before then?

It's been a couple years since I've seen enough memorable movies to do something like this. Basically, what I'm going to do here is do a quick list of the movies I saw this year and say a few brief words about them. They'll be roughly in the order I saw them and will be providing links to reviews where applicable. Let's begin, shall we?

1. The Green Hornet: As I said in my review back in January, The Green Hornet gave me good reason to think that 2011 would be a good year for movies, and I was not let down. This movie gave us the origin story of the Green Hornet, which was actually a team comprised of a bumbling face man named Britt Reed and his partner Kato, who is a more likely hero. While the ending did imply that there was a possibility of further movies, it didn't directly imply that there would be more.

   ...

I love Christmas.  It is my favorite holiday and every year I start to watch my favorite specials, movies, etc around thanksgiving.  Here is a list of some of my really favorite ones especially the ones I watch every year.  I start before thanksgiving and that is why I am posting this.
30. South Park and Robot Chicken christmas episodes.
29. Prancer
28. Animanicas: Helloooo Holidays
27. Ren and Stimpy: Have Yourself A Stinky Little Christmas
26. WWE Tribute To Troops.  What wwe does every year for the troops is amazing especially during the holiday seasons.  In previous years they actually would go over in perform in Iraqi or Afghanistan.  Now they are paying tribute to those station here in the US too.  Wrestling may not always be great but showing some love for the troops during the holidays is.
25. Ranma 1/2 Christmas TV and OVA episodes.  Anime rarely have christmas episodes or specials but Ranma has a good time with it.
24. Live Action How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  I know people are going to hate this but I love Jim Carrey as the grinch.  I love this movie and how it fleshed out the character.
23. Jingle All The Way.  I love this movie despite what NCritic said about it.  It's funny and Arnold is just dad looking to get the gift for his son.  That something all parents can relate with.
22. Micky's Christmas Carol.  Fun retelling of the classic with Disney characters.
21. Justice League Christmas Episode
20. Xena Christmas Episode.  Yeah it wacky origin of Santa but fun and well xena was wacky as it was.  It knew it was and embraced it.  Nice little bit at the end with the donkey and who they give it too.
19. Shrek the Halls.  This is nice little christmas special about shrek dealing with having family and celebrating christmas.  He never celebrated and shows dealing with changes in his life.  It's nice and funny.  All the cast from shrek movies are here too.
18. Powerpuff Girls Fight Before Christmas
17. Love Hina Christmas Special
16. Power Rangers: I'm Dreaming Of A White Ranger.  I am a big power rangers fan and well I can't but help love this special.  It's goofy but got rangers helping santa claus against Lord Zed and Rita.
15. Alf's Christmas Special.  Another sort of forgotten special but touching and sad.  Family go to old cabin for christmas Alf ends being mistaken for a toy.  He is given to sick girl at a hospital and what happens and just brings me tears.  Heart warming and is funny.  Alf was great show and this great special.
14. Ziggy's Christmas Special.  Sort of forgotten christmas special but very heart warming.  It is dvd so I say track it down if you can.  Ziggy tries to raise money for charity but ends up in a scheme that wasn't for kids.  How it gets out of it and how un selfish he is truly a great thing.  There isn't much dialogue wise but there didn't need to be.
13. Miracle on 34th Street (1994).  Yes I do like the remake better then original.  I just love the cast and this such a great story.
12. Garfield christmas special.  I love garfield and this one awesome special.  From wacky opening to really touching moments with awesome grandmother.
11. He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special.  I love this special as a fan of this show.  I don't care anyone says if goofy but fun.  Yes virgina there is a GI Joe christmas episode.
10. Frosty the Snowman
9. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
8. Any Muppet christmas special.  Muppets are always fun but even if it's  Christmas Special (guest starring Fraggle Rock, Seaseme Street, and cameo from Hensen himself) or Muppet Christmas Carol you can't talk about christmas without mentioning them.
7. Scrooged.  Billy Murray is one of my favorite actors and this movie shows why.  He funny and plays a great scrooge in modern times.
6. Ernest Saves Christmas.  I love Ernest movies and this movie is goofy and funny.  I know Critic hated it but I loved it.  Just a great way to laugh and enjoy the holidays.
5. A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I love Peanuts and this is true Christmas classic that holds up years later.
4. Home Alone 1/2.  Yeah after two this series goes down but first two are funny and just enjoyable to watch.
3. Santa Clause Movies.  Yes the squeals are no where as good as original but still the original is really and well squeals have there own charm.
2. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  I am a big fan of comedy and this movie is really funny.  Chevy Chase is hilarious and so is the rest of the cast.  Any time you think your family has problems then turn this movie on.
1. A Christmas Story.  Okay I know this is a beloved christmas movie and for every reason.  It's a classic and I enjoy to watch even if its on dvd or on tv during 24 hour the maarathon.  Who couldn't sympathize with a kid that really wants something for christmas but told he can't have it.

Honorable mentions: Elf, Doctor Who: The Other Doctor, Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol, Sonic's Christmas Blast, GI Joe Christmas Episode, Die Hard 1/2, Lethal Weapon 1.

OMG!  This is the greatest movie I have ever seen in my life!  Well, not really, but I did think so when this movie first came out.  This week I am reviewing The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.  Unlike all the other movies I have watched from the AFI Top 100 to date, this one I was extremely excited to watch.  I love this movie.  I would say I am a fanboy but then I have seen people who go to Comic-Con so I guess I'll just say I am a fan.  Just to give you some background on how much I love these movies and stories here are some of the things I have done:

See this movie in theaters either five or six times

Read the whole trilogy of books every year before each movie came out

Watch the cartoon (which did have some awesome songs)

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Hello, everyone!

My name is Master Graveheart. I'm a bit of a hodge podge nerd whose been coming to thatguywiththeglasses.com for a couple years now. At least since the Team Brawl was first aired. I won't claim to watch everyone, mostly because I just can't, but I try to stay familiar with what just about everybody does. I have my favorite reviewers, of course, but that's another blog.

The point of this blog will primarily be my own reviews... primarily because, well, I'm a writer, but I'm no film student. I have ideas, but no acting appeal. Plus, have you heard my voice?! Oh, right, you haven't... good for you! :)

But, in all seriousness, I think for me, for now at least, I'd like to stick to text reviews. Eventually, I'll throw in images to make it nice and purdy, but for the most part, they'll just be my own thoughts. One thing I won't do is bring something down for not being like another. I'm going to do my darndest to judge it on it's own merits. Now, if there was something that worked better elsewhere that was tried with what I'm reviewing, I'll bring it up, but I won't expect it to be something else.

Also, I'll try to keep my blogs as "safe for work" as possible, primarily because I keep my language pretty clean in my personal life too. I won't guarantee that I won't swear at all, but it won't be unnecessary. Translation: If you don't have a problem with Linkara's videos in terms of language, we won't have an issue either. ^_^;

...

Oh boy, we’re opening up a can of worms with this one.

Let's just get to the point!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! MP3  Link Dump -------------- This is Halloween  Cupcakes  MrCreepyPasta CreepyPasta Clan of the Grey Wolf's 16 Bit Gems: Zombies ate my Neighbors Cland of the Grey Wolf's 16 Bit Gems: Clock Tower Happy Video Game Nerd: Sweet Home Marble Hornets

Yes folks, this edition of Movies 360 is our Halloween special where we divulge to you our Top 10 Frightening Characters in cinema. ENJOY!

This week's weeks review is High Noon.  Now I actually was looking forward to watching this movie but that may be due to last week's movie (I mean anything compared to that will be better).  I do not have much experience with Westerns, but that most likely stems from the fact that Westerns aren't as popular as they used to be and I hate old things, speaking of, despite this being made in 1952 it is still in black and white (ugh).  Anyways given this wasn't The Philadelphia Story it was a lot easier to cowboy up and watch the film this week.

High Noon was one a the first movies to be set in real time.  Meaning that movie time and real time move at the same rate.  This caused me to think of this every time they looked at a clock:

 Except instead of Jack Bauer kicking ass it is a sheriff.  This film was also selected from preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".  I have no idea what this really means but it makes this movie seem really important.  Also feel free to look up what this means for me, I'm to lazy.  Also John Wayne hated this movie because it was an allegory for blacklisting......Anyways!  This film is also referenced in Die Hard:

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Well well well, welcome friends to another exciting episode of The Blockbuster Chick. When we last met my arch nemesis Walrusano decided to take a looooong vacation so I went on to my alternative job - Judge Blockbuster Chick. See the results of what happens when I mess with the law! Enjoy :)

I have just finished watching what may be the worst film I have ever seen. And that really is saying something. I’ve seen ‘The Room’, ‘Troll 2’, ‘Birdemic’, ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’ and ‘Battlefield Earth’ but at least they had some redeeming features. They were all, in some way enjoyable. They fall into the category of film that can be described as being so bad that they are good. It is fun to watch them just because they are so bowel-shatteringly awful and the important thing to remember is that each film takes themselves completely and utterly seriously. Cheerleader Autopsy doesn’t fall into this category. It falls into the so bad, it’s bad category and one of the reasons for this is because it’s intentionally trying to be funny and as far as horror comedies go, it makes yesterday’s entry, ‘Horny House of Horror’ look like Shaun of the Dead.

So what makes Cheerleader Autopsy so painfully unfunny? Is it the crude, incredibly lowbrow humour that includes a close up of someone hacking of their own penis (is every film I review this week going to involve some form of genital mutilation?), pressing down just above a dead girls corpse to make a jet of water shoot from her vagina and a hillbilly mistakenly shooting himself in the head when he thinks there is something wrong with his gun? No, I generally consider myself to be quite immature but these jokes just weren’t hitting home. I think what it may have been was the constant stream of immature and gross out humour. I think back to the films that I love which have quite a high level of what could be considered juvenile humour, such as the films of Kevin Smith, and the reason I’ve enjoyed them is because whilst they do have that level of immaturity, they are well written and always have something else going on in them as well, something substantial that raises the level of the film as a whole. Cheerleader Autopsy is poorly written, cramming as many stupid jokes in as it can within it’s short (but seemingly excruciatingly long) 73 minute run time and it has nothing of substance to fall back on.

So what is the plot of Cheerleader Autopsy? Well, that’s kind of like asking what is the meaning of life. There could be many interpretations but the question itself is practically unanswerable. There’s a cheerleader team called the Stinkwater Beavers (oh, the hilarity!), they get killed, there is a mental mortician who also happens to be the sheriff of the town and his nephew who works as his assistant. The mortician has another assistant who’s a bit socially retarded because he has a small penis (he’s the guy who chops off his own in order to attach a larger member from a body that’s brought in) and now that I think about it, I think there’s only one actual autopsy… although I suppose the film isn‘t called Cheerleader Autopsies so far enough. Oh and there’s jokes and hints about necrophilia and eating the brains of foetuses littered throughout. Now that I think about it, maybe it is the crude humour that makes this suck. I mean, eating the brains of foetuses? I’m a man who regularly makes jokes about paedophilia and even I think that’s going a bit too far.

Of course, the humour can’t be completely held responsible here. There’s also the terrible acting, terrible editing, terrible sound, terrible camera work, terrible picture quality and terrible everything. If you’ve seen Birdemic, imagine all of these things being a fraction better than that and yet Birdemic still remains the far more enjoyable film. Look, I’m really sick of thinking about this film and I’ve got a pub quiz to get ready for. Time to get completely drunk. To sum up just imagine you had a really stupid friend with a camcorder and a worrying level of access to a number of Real Dolls. The result would be something like this film. To further sum up, just watch the damn trailer. 0 pints out of five. Laterz.

This week I watched The Philadelphia Story.  When I first put this in my Netflix queue list I thought it was a movie about AIDs and homosexuals... I was wrong.  Just so you don't make the same mistake as me.  This is Philadelphia, this is The Philadelphia Story.  Now, as I have mentioned before, I do not like old movies, especially black and white movies, so I really did not want to watch this.  I was trying to convince my girlfriend to watch a different movie but she didn't want to.  So like I said, this week I watched The Philadelphia Story.

The Philadelphia Story is based off of a Broadway play of the same name and was also Kathrine Hepburn's first major role after a series of flops and even used the help of Howard "The Aviator" Hughes to get the rights to the play so she could star in the movie.  Why don't actors do this more often?  maybe the do, but I feel that it would be cool to buy the rights to a movie just so you could act and look awesome in it.  The Philadelphia Story was nominated for six Academy Awards and won two: Jimmy Stewart (also why did I grow up my whole life calling him Jimmy when in the credits his name is James?) for Best Actor and Daniel Ogden Stewart for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Now lets take a look how the interwebs has critiqued this film:
IMDB= 8.1 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 92%
So looking at these score I feel like this movie has to be one of the greatest movies of all time.  Though critics gave it fantastic reviews audiences seem to give the movie around a B+.  These rating gave me some hope as I watched the movie.  The internet can't be wrong, can it?

Now its time for my personal look at the movie, starting with the characters.  We will start with Mother Lord and Father Lord.  They are fine and do not really have big enough roles.  Honestly I felt at times as if these characters were not really needed.  Uncle Willie is... well he is creepy (more on that later).  Dinah is a great character and very funny.  My only negative thing to say about this character is that I wish she was in it more and did funnier stuff.  Now one of the other funny characters is Elizabeth Imbrie played by Ruth Hussey.  She has a real quick wit and just great comedic timing.  Her character was very enjoyable and I wish she had more opportunities to show her comedic skills.  John Howard as George Kittredge was important as far as plot goes but as a character was boring, bland, and not very likeable, though that may be the point of the character.  Now we will get to the three stars of the film, Cary Grant, Kathrine Hepburn, and James (Jimmy) Stewart.  Cary Grant plays Dexter Haven and my girlfriend loves him, I don't know why.  My thing with this character is that I am not sure if I am supposed to like this guy and root for him or not like him at all.  I have a hard time being neutral on characters and I want to but Dexter into one category or the other and by the end of the film I wasn't sure how the audience was supposed to feel about him.  James (Jimmy) Stewart plays Macaulay Connor.  While watching this movie I realized James (Jimmy) Stewart plays the same character in everything he is in (Note: I have only now seen him in this and It's a Wonderful Life).
Here he is in It's a Wonderful Life:

And here he is in The Philadelphia Story:

Now just because he seems to act the same in his movies doesn't make him unenjoyable.  Actors like Michael Cera, Jennifer Aniston, and Ryan Reynolds seem to play the same characters all the time and I still like them.  Finally we will talk about Kathrine Hepburn.  First off I need to ask if you guys think she has annoying voice.  After the movie my mom and girlfriend were discussing Hepburn and her voice and how it wasn't as annoying in this movie as it is in other movies.  I didn't notice anything wrong with her voice and felt out of the loop so maybe you guys can help me out.  Ok moving on, I didn't feel like she was anything special in this movie, especially given that this was a break out role for her of sorts.  She did play off the male characters well though.

Now the story is really what made this film not workout for me.  I don't want to spoil the movie so I won't go into details.  The premise that I thought the movie was originally going to go for when James (Jimmy) Stewart's character showed up would have been great but it seemed that idea lasted about 30 seconds.  Then the story went into this messy love triangle story where I wasn't sure which character I was supposed to want to get the girl in the end.  This "romantic" movie's ending really got me confused but I don't want to spoil it here.  Also I learned two things from this movie:
#1: Domestic abuse is fine and even funny?
#2: Sexual harassment is funny, especially if it comes from a family member
I am not a hardcore feminist or anything but wow did this movie seem to show that females are men's toys to play with.

Now lets talk about a few other things that go into making a movie starting with the lighting.  There were many times that the lighting was so bright or something it seemed that Hepburn was glowing, like she was some kind of angel or something.  I don't know if this was just the style back then or something that just happened more often in black and white movies or what.  I am not a film student or anything I just know it was weird.  Another weird thing was the costumes.  There was at one point where Kathrine Hepburn looked as if she was wearing a night cap.  I don't know if this was all the rage back then but it looked silly.

Overall this movie was okay.  It did have funny moments, even if I didn't understand some of the sayings, and the acting was good.  The think that really ruined this movie for me was the plot.  I can not get over how this movie views domestic abuse.    Also I do not understand why this movie is in the AFI top 100.  Maybe later I will feel different about this movie but for now I give this movie a D+ 

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                                                                   So the big news on the internet right now is that Seth MacFarlane has decided to end his hit TV show, Family Guy. All his fans are grieving over this and are bitching about it in blogs, their facebooks, and twitters. I should say right now that I love this show. It has smart comedic timing, witty one-liners that everyone knows even if they can't remember what episode they can from and unique characters that everyone either relates to or knows a person like them in real life. I love how the show isn't afraid to make fun of our social norms and pop-culture with a few political jokes sprinkled here and there. I have seen every episode and can quote a lot of the popular comedic dialogue. That being said, I think I know what I'm talking about when I say that I agree with Seth MacFarlane. The show has been dragged on for far too long and no longer has the same entertaining affect.

Besides the interview Apollo was kind enough to hang out with us during the recording of Episode 7. We are sorry for any audio issues but we did our best to make sure you could understand what everyone was saying.

So this week on The PutzCast we hit up topics we never thought we'd discuss and some may well wish we never did...Why don't you love me daddy?!

MP3
 Link Dump This Episode's theme song is Imagine by Brunch which you can find Here! Reviewtopia  The Emperor's New Groove Puppet Porn conversation Dead Trailer Get's a Movie  World War Z Movie Mortal Kombat Movie Green Lighted The RoosterTeeth Drunk Tank 101 The Spoony Experiment Hellbinders  I am pretty sure this is the video Apollo was talking about Run Like Hell: When Giant Robots Attack  Hayden Christensen's Ghost Fanboys  Comic Book: The Movie  I got the title wrong, I'm an idiot. Sorry! Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Under the Red Hood  Bruce is Terry's Father (Batman Beyond) Assasssin's Creed Bob from Tekken 6 South Park Studios What's Up tiger Lily The Jerk Sean Connery SNL Celebrity Jeopardy Super (Phoenix Jones) Hero Arrested Tower Heist The Avengers Thoroughly Manly Musicals Joss Whedon Mark Ruffalo 3 Musketeers Thanos The Avengers Game Green Lantern X-Men First Class In Time Muppet's on YouTube  Muppet's From Space  Nappa has Terrible Taste (Sometimes)Digimon Pokemon The Expendables 3 Musketeers (Disney) The Great Mouse Detective Blade Ang Lee's Hulk Gladiator Star Ship Troopers RoboCop  Steel Magnolias Banger Sisters Legend  Top Gun Days of Thunder An Officer and a Gentlemen  Murder in the First In the Name of the King  Atlantis Reviews Marzgurl Il Neige  Apollo Z. Hack's Free Jack Review ThatSciFiGuy RobotJox Review Saban's Masked Ryder Big Bad BeetleBorgs  Jay Leno Elvis Ghost (Flabber) Don't Google search flabber, it does bring up porn Disaster Movies of Roland Emmerich Part 1 Disaster Movies of Roland Emmerich Part 2  Podcasts Talkin' Shit RoosterTeeth Podcast  Transmission Awesome  Save it for the Podcast  Reviewers Unknown Apollo Z. Hack Links Blip, Twitter, Facebook and Reviewtopia

When you think of internet reviewers a few names come to mind.

• The Nostalgia Critic 
• The Angry Video Game Nerd 
• Apollo Z. Hack 

And when you think of films makers other names come up like.

• Quentin Tarantino 
• George A. Romero 
• Matt Burkett 

But 2 of these people are one and the same. The Mastermind behind "The Reviewaverse Saga" and I do mean mastermind. But more recently there was a bit of controversy about the mysterious leaving of Apollo from TGWTG.com. And so far his reasons for leaving have remained a mystery. There were rumors but there is always more to rumors than are apparent.

So here to give the full story on why he left is Matt "Apollo Z. Hack" Burkett.

MP3
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Also Apollo said that this will be the last time he ever talks about this so for all who want to know direct them here. Also do you want us to interview anyone else? Apollo has extended the offer to get in contact with other reviewers and critics, so if you want us to then let us know!

Greetings once again loyal viewers to another exciting episode of Movies 360...well, this'll be an interesting episode, let's just leave it at that ;). So sit back, relax and enjoy!

Nappa's first review is in the works and for all those anticipating his first will be the hilariously strange game. Comic Jumper! But the less said the better it will be!

And to tide you over for both his review as well as the next PutzCast I present to you the second Movie-Faction.

I do hope you are enjoying these and I love that the first one was rather terrible while this one is way more in depth about the actual movie.

So Please enjoy the reviews and the podcasts! And have a great time on the newly acquired theputzcast.com!

Transformer 1 was ok, Transformers 2 was the worst cinematic abortion I had seen in years, then we came to this point.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Transformers 3 in 5 seconds!

This is all I heard in this movie! So yeah easy to say I hate this movie.

Welcome back friends to the 3rd episode of the latest podcast - Movies 360. On today's episode, we review the next movie in our list that is connected to last episode's movie "Halloween". No clues as to what it is...you have to watch the episode to find out. So, sit back, relax and....ENJOY! :)

Alright today we will be looking at our first movie... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  Now I was not excited at all to watch this movie.  Like I have mentioned before (and will continue to mention) I hate old things.  There are only a handful of movies/tv/music that I like that was made before 1980 and given that this movie was made in 1937 I was complaining to my mom (yes I am lame and still live at home) and my girlfriend on how I didn't want to watch this, but a man has to do what a man has to do.

Now Snow White was the first ever animated full-length featured film.  This means this film laid the foundation for animated movies to become a norm.  It is extremely hard for me to think of a childhood without animated movies.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs paved the way for so many films like these:

So as you can see they aren't all that good but I guess you have to take the good with the bad.   Also this helped make Disney the awesome empire they are today.  Now I am an unapologetic Disney lover.  I go to Disneyland all the time, I love their movies, I pretty much worship Walt (not really just saying this for dramatic effect), and I own mouse ears (this is true.... I'm a dork) and this movie helped start their movie dominance.  They now have had movies nominated for best pictures and many rides at their theme parks based on their rides.  So despite my feeling towards old things, I love animated movies and Disney so I have to pay some respect to his film.

Next we will do a quick rundown on how this movie rates according to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB:
IMDB= 7.8 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 97%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 72%
So looking at these scores it seems that critically this movie still means a lot and is a great piece of work for its time but it seems some people out there think like me and rate older things a little lower :)

Now for my person critique.  Lets start with the characters.  We have the huntsman, who is pointless and also his voice acting is miserable. Many of the characters in this movie have bad voice acting and I guess one can say its due to the time it was made in and to that I say I don't care.  The prince, who is in this movie for a whole 3 minutes is pointless and stupid.  Now lets move on to more important characters first we have the queen.  She is awesome!  But before I go on I have always always always always wondered what she is wearing.  What is it?  A hood?  Is she bald?  Gone gray and embarrassed? I mean if she was bald or losing hair it would explain why she isn't the fairest in the land  I hope someone out there can tell me.  Anyways she is one of my favorite characters from this movie she is evil, for who knows what reason, scary when she turns into that hag, and she is sorta hot... I mean umm..... So she is so scary my girlfriend won't go on the Snow White ride at Disneyland.  Next we have the seven dwarfs.  These guys take up so much time in the movie it should be called The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White.  There is so much time of them  just being funny and doing their thing.  I love these guys and without them this film would be really boring.  Now on a side note I always heard the dwarfs are representative of different stages of drug use or something like that (I have never done drugs so I may sound ignorant) like using cocaine or I dunno.  Now some of them make sense but the one I still don't understand is Bashful.  Does taking drugs make you shy?  I don't get it.  While we are on this side note when ever Sneezy was about to sneeze they would put their finger under his nose like this:

I just don't get it.  Oh well.  Now lets take a look at Snow White... well she is boring.  Her personality can be summed up as being nice.  Also he singing voice is one of the worst things I have ever heard, but we will talk about that later.

Now The story of Snow White is fairly simple yet it is entertaining enough with the help of some good characters.  The movies moves quickly and yet slowly is parts as well.  Now I don't want to spoil any of the plot since I hope by reading this blog you want to see some of these films I will just sum up the things I learned:
#1: Being pretty is important
#2: Women should clean to earn their keep
#3: Ugly = Scary/evil
#4: You don't need a good personality just good looks
#5: Don't talk to strangers
#6: Kisses fixes everything
I hope you take all of these to heart and apply them to your life today.  Seriously though the story is ok for a kids movie.

Now lets do a quick look over on the animation and music.  The animation is decent for a movie that old and when I was a kid I didn't think it looked that bad but compared with animation today it looks sub par.  I don't care if it was awesome in its day, cause its my day now and I think its is just ok.  The music is both great and horrible.  Some songs are good and really make me remember my childhood, also the score is good as well.  But then Snow White sings

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Stay on top, or remain from the underground...

Where a bit spoiled for choice, now, aren't we? I mean, us nerds. Used to be a time when no one thought X-Men franchise was going to exist in live action. That is, until the first X-Men movie: 1996 TV movie pilot Generation X. Finally, we could overlook and ignore the idea for 4 more years!

This weird, forgotten little nugget starts with a dictionary description of what mutation is, as well as the illegal status of having the X-Gene. You're not gonna get no Senate hearings, here, no siree. Just pure mutant hunting! Sentinels, Soldiers...

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Good day revieweverse, and welcome to the 2nd episode of the latest podcast to hit the airwaves: Movies 360. In this episode, we start off the 6 degrees line with the iconic John Carpenter horror flick - Halloween. So, please sit back, and enjoy! PLEASE NOTE: The opinions expressed in this podcast are only our opinions and do not reflect anybody else :)

After a couple of reviews Blank and Twitch decide it's about time to introduce themselves properly.