February 27th, 2007
What happens when two pop culture junkies’ worlds collide? I give you the Quit Your Day Job and No Smoking in the Skull Cave Crossover!
What!?!?!
How does it work?
Becca and I have set ourselves the task of making up five rediculous movie title concepts each. For example lets say Alien Vs Predator… ummm ok what about Freddy Vs Jason… oh hang on. You get the idea anyway. We then exchange these lists and the other person has to write up a synopsis and is welcome to make up posters etc.
OMG I can’t wait!!
Well lucky for you! You won’t have to wait too long! This is all starting on March 5th. For five glorious days your senses will be blown apart by what promises to be some truely awful awful film ideas. Some of them you may hate and others you may just think “Oh man I wanna see that!”
So spread the word! We’ll have some banners and some little pics for you to display on your coming attractions sections and I hope you’ll celebrate the worst that pop culture has to offer!
Popularity: 5% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
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February 27th, 2007
Oh I know I’m flogging a dead horse here but I can’t resist. Here is the movie description for Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason which also managed to scrape itself a one star rating.
When we last we saw Renee Zellweger’s Bridget Jones, she was embracing Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy on a snowy London street. Shame it didn’t end there. There’s no story to tell, just time to kill and a formula to be repeated.
We think we want proofreading in professional newspaper?
On to a more positive note I’m throwing my hat into the ring for a new Zune.
Kelly at A Yoga Coffee Outlook is giving away a Zune MP3 Player.
I would like a Zune. It seems like the perfect arrangement LOL.
Go check out A Yoga Coffee Outlook!
Popularity: 6% [?]
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February 26th, 2007
My wife hides the TV Guide from me.
Not because she worries about the amount of television I watch… I don’t know about that actually she might worry about how much television I watch after all but that isn’t the reason she hides the Sunday Courier Mail TV Guide. I think she is possibly worried about some important thing popping in my brain as I read the movie reviews for the week.
I’m not sure how it works in other countries but here in Australia you get a little television magazine in your sunday paper telling you what’s on television and the occasional fluff story to promote whatever show is coming up and about a thousand advertisements. Actually the ads have gotten so ridiculous now that they have increased the size of some pages so they can print ads on the over run and fold it back into the magazine.
One part of this magazine is the movies ‘what not to miss’ section and this is the section that Tracey wishes I wouldn’t read. There was a time once when I praised the movies section (I’m going to start referring to it as the guide but just so you know I’m focusing on the movie bit). A time when I actually found one of their lacklustre reviews of a film entertaining.
Star Trek V - Kirk meets God and is unimpressed.
This I will grant them that it sums this film up nicely.
Writing these two sentence reviews seems like a fairly simple thing to do and I’m certain they used to put someone’s name in the by line but I notice on this weeks addition that there is no one responsible. It boggles my mind then when they are so frequently incorrect, unfair and remarkably uneven.
Now I get that it is no doubt hard to see every film in the list in order to review them and I suspect that a lot of them just get recycled. But just a little editorial intervention would be appreciated. One of the more horrid mistakes that springs to mind is for the film Changing Lanes in which the description lists the main actors as Ben Affleck and Danny Glover… mmmm that should have been Samuel L Jackson. Easy mistake to make considering they are both male actors.
So each week I go through the poorly written and often incorrect mini reviews and growl, shout and fume. This week however I’m beyond horrified at the lack of professionalism. This insipid little entry is for the film Donnie Darko.
Donnie Darko (one star)
A sleepwalking high school student is saved from a plummeting aircraft engine by a giant rabbit called Frank. Not surprisingly the kid becomes convinced the world is about to end. If it ever worked out what it wanted to be when it grew up, perhaps we could take this movie seriously.
Even now I’m trying not to pull my hair out in frustration. Where do these people get off writing the dumbest review I’ve ever encountered (oh hang on there’s a Matrix one that bugs me too) and not having the decency of attaching the reviewer’s name????
Perhaps if a movie is too over your head for you to string together an even vaguely valid or thought out criticism you should go generic like this one which funny enough appears on the Courier Mail’s parent website:
During the presidential election of 1988, teenaged Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night and sees a giant, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank who tells him the world will end in 28 days, six hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. He returns home the next morning to find that a jet engine has crashed through his bedroom. As Donnie tries to figure out why he survived, while dealing with the people in his town, Frank continues to turn up and causes him to commit acts of vandalism. Donnie Darko received 11 awards and eight nominations including the 2002 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film’s Special Award.
See they could have ripped that off their own website!?!?
In case you were wondering the actual movie of the week is the 1945 romance Brief Encounter and they consider The Phantom to be twice as good as Donnie Darko coming in with 2 stars?
Well I’ve done some digging and I think I’ve found the person who may be responsible for this but I don’t know if I’m quite angry enough to write in yet and offer my services because I worry about the 1000 monkeys they’ve got writing the articles and what they would do with them. However I’m watching now, and you’re watching too - we’ll see how it goes next week.
Show your support for Donnie Darko or at least your condemnation of badly done mini reviews of any films by leaving a comment and digging the story using the button below or finally giving this story the thumbs up in stumbleupon!
Popularity: 15% [?]
Categories: Television |
Tags: courier mail, donnie darko, matrix, Movies, Review, Star Trek, sunday paper, Television, the phantom, tv guide | 1 Comment
February 24th, 2007
Ghost Rider has been savaged by the critics.
No it’s not going to win any Oscars until the Academy Award starts handing out awards for kick ass flaming skull motorcycle movies. The critics were savaging this film before they even saw it. Nic Cage whom you either absolutely love or loath and a comic book franchise that isn’t one of the big six (I’ll do a post in the coming days on who I think are the comic book top six). How could this film even hope to get a break?
What really bugs me is that these films get roasted so viciously by the high and mighty critics. I don’t mind if you don’t like a film but I can’t get why it is required that if a comic book isn’t perfect then it is crucified. The Fantastic Four is another comic book movie that in my humble opinion reflects the general feel of the comic books but was savaged by a lot of critics (more so I even think than Ghost Rider).
Now 2 Fast 2 Furious currently has a rating of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes yet Ghost Rider has a 28% rating. So 10% more critics thought that 2 Fast 2 Furious is better than Ghost Rider?
Ghost Rider is what it is. It is a film about Johnny Blaze and his deal with the devil and a demon who has a flaming skull and flaming demon bike.
I thought the film captured the comic books well and the way they developed the look and mythology of the Ghost Rider into the movie was very well done. Adding the chains, then the spikes and finally the hellfire shotgun. Just great stuff.
Nic Cage does what Nic does best and you know what? I like him as an actor and you can say what you want about him but I think he’s entertaining. I had no problem with the CGI the Ghost Rider flows quite well and the hell chains are awesome. Oh and that bike!
At the end of the day it’s Marvel who has the last laugh with Ghost Rider doing great at the box office in it’s first weekend. I hope they do a sequel!
Popularity: 6% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
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February 24th, 2007
I was writing an email to promote the new Invisible Woman article on Pop Culture Heroines when the helpful spell and grammar checker felt that the sentence I was writing was out of place. Granted the sentence did need to be reworded slightly but it was the suggestion that made me look twice.
I don’t have Office Vista but is this the future for Microsoft products?
Popularity: 100% [?]
Categories: Stuff |
Tags: microsoft products, suggestion, yoda | 8 Comments
February 21st, 2007
God I hope that Qapla’ means victory or success cause the idea of an angry Klingon on my doorstep at four in the morning before I’ve had coffee is not what I’m hoping for.
Unless you are new to this blog (and if you are a big welcome! Leave a comment so we can all see who you are!) you probably know about the language poll that I was running that included Klingon as one of the choices. Problem was I was only joking about Klingon and put it in there for a laugh. Then you people started voting for it and I saw myself having to head off to the shops for conversational Klingon (nah who am I kidding I would’ve eBayed that!).
I’m a big Star Trek fan but I don’t know if I’m convinced on all this Klingon stuff. And why isn’t it Klingonese like my man Kirk refers to it as?
Anyway I thought I’d be clever and tried to insult those who voted for Klingonese (yeah you read that right what are you going to do about it?) in Klingonese! This backfired as the site I went to obviously let me down. A gentleman (I’m assuming gentleman - my humblest apologies if I’ve assumed incorrectly) named Qov left a comment correcting me on the Klingon faux pas.
Now I’m thinking to myself who is this Qov person to tell me what’s what!? Why should I go with Qov over this other website?
Well I visited Qov’s site and I’m a believer! I must admit I hadn’t actually encountered a Klingon language site until Qov’s and let me say I was confused LOL! Qov either knows his stuff or he’s putting himself out there for a visit from a grumpy Klingon in the morning! I have a feeling he knows his stuff!
Anyone want to do some more reading:
Popularity: 6% [?]
Categories: QYDJ |
6 Comments
February 21st, 2007
Straight away I knew I was in trouble when I realised that all my source files for Quiet Paws were locked up safely in our storage facility with our boxes and my iPod.
So I only had the existing template files to work with and they were just not going to do as they aren’t the right size - too small for the new layout I’m working on.
Now the two dogs that you see in the current banner image are based on our actual dogs and since that banner was originally designed they’ve both grown. So the hunt was on to find suitable replacements for Memphis and Baxter.
Why not just use the actual dogs?
Well along with the backup disc and my iPod all our photos of the puppies are currently in storage. Anyone who has ever spent half their day trying to get dogs or cats to pose for a certain angle or shot will understand my reluctance in pursuing that.
So two dogs that approximate the shapes of our (non pure bred) dogs were in order. Finally I found some drawings and after some rather drastic cosmetic surgery on them had my new Memphis and Baxter.
The next stop in this delightful journey and it should be noted I haven’t even really touched the template yet is the tree that the boys are sitting next to. There is enough of the mountains for me to reuse so I can leave them alone. The tree that I went after was a little more weathered than the previous one.
Now I’m about five hours in and wading knee deep in the CSS trying to convince it that it would like to have different sized paws for different sized h2 tags and polishing off the remaining widgets to take over from the embedded plugins on the existing template. The font for the heading will probably change too.
I’m pretty happy with the transfer. It’s updated but retains the original look and feel. Tracey’s first comment when she sees it this afternoon?
“Memphis is too fat.”
Right.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
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February 21st, 2007
Is updating Quiet Paws to a widget friendly template. The site’s been online for a while now and Tracey is staring at this template and asking why Quiet Paws hasn’t been given any love!
So it’s head down, cups of coffee and no watching Battlestar Galactica until I’m done… oh man I’ve already watched BG today so maybe I’ll withhold SG1 (I have no idea why but I’m really hooked on this last season - I’m blaming Luckysnap and her SG1 post).
Thank god Atlantis is on break.
Oh and Tracey got me a cool paint your own plaster dinosaur that I have to set aside whilst I work.
Popularity: 5% [?]
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February 20th, 2007
I am quickly becoming a fan of the Empire Online site as I really like the magazine and the website is proving to be a good central place for movie news now that cinescape online has turned into that mania thing. So right now for my genre news and gossip I’m going to three places (four if you count trekweb…):
Now there was a reason I went down that tangent so early on… Oh yes that’s right the Poll!!!
They have the greatest poll running over at Empire right now that I have reworded but stolen none the less. If you were in a terrorist situation who would you want working the case? Jack from 24 or John from Die Hard?
If you vote and want to back up your opinion then just comment it to this post. I’m really torn by this myself but I’m going to have to go with the Bauer Hour of Power mainly because it’s his job all the time where for McClane it’s really just a Christmas gig for him.
New poll? NEW POLL? I hear those of you who have been paying attention. Yes it’s a new poll so that means we have a winner on the old poll. The language that I’ll be giving a stab at this year (to at least learn a couple of phrases) is Spanish. Oddly enough it trailed the entire time until we found ourselves with a three way tie and someone this morning dropped the vote to take it over the line! I still can’t believe some of you voted for Klingon.
tlhIH ghIj jIHyoj which translates to ‘I fear your judgement’
In other news Tracey has just delivered her latest piece on Pop Culture Heroines. A great article on Kirsten Cohen of the OC. It’s very well written and is quite relevant right now considering that these week marks the end of the OC. I hear some of you cheering to which I say unclench suits!
Ahhh that brings me to my next round of snobbery all the critics hate Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider is number one at the US box office BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Critics are actually wondering why a movie about a bikie with a flaming skull for a head and a mad flame for wheels tires on his motorbike is doing well? I think I just summed it up right there for you! I’ve heard other cry over the lack of intelligence in film goers. Oh man give me a break! Unclench for a second and enjoy the ride. It’s bloody Ghost Rider!
Got a couple of the Marvel Figure Factory boxes and I’m so cranky I didn’t throw down my money earlier and make sure I got the Iron Man one because I just got the Reed Richards and Dr Doom ones and they are awesome! (Got them for $6 each - BARGAIN)
Now when I made them my wife of eternal patience and I had this conversation:
Me: Man this Dr Doom figurine is awesome.
T’Lady: You say that about all of your figurines.
Me: That’s not true.
T’Lady: Mmmmm
Me: What?!?!
T’Lady: Mmmm
Me: That’s rubbish. I just don’t say anything about the ones I don’t like.
T’Lady: Like all the ones I get you?
Me: What!?!?!
Me: Don’t be silly. I’m always raving about the figurines you get me…
T’Lady: Mmmmm
So in order to make a point I got a Superman figurine from the supermarket that I’d had my eye on ever since it fell into the bargain bin.
I hate it.
It’s stupid.
His arms are badly jointed together and he has some handle thing sticking out of his back. It is a good figurine from a distance only.
Still haven’t heard from any Nightcrawler fans out there. I don’t expect to either. Navilyn pointed out that he doesn’t mind Nightcrawler. Being a Nightcrawler fan and not throwing up when you happen to see him are two entirely different things - I fall in the latter category in case you were wondering.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
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February 17th, 2007
I can’t say that I have a number one favourite comic book character. Often it depends on my mood and I sway from Hellboy to Iron Man to Batman to a number of characters.
At one of our local shopping centres there is a vending machine that offers a set of 8 figurines from Marvel comics that I discovered when we were moving.
Now when I first discovered the toys I was overtired, exhausted and generally miserable. So to lighten up my day I thought I’ll treat myself. The nature of the machine is that it is all random and you don’t know what you’ll get.
Looking over the selection I decided the two I really wanted were Iron Man and the Punisher. The two I really didn’t want were Mystique and Nightcrawler.
Honestly who wants Nightcrawler? Surely there’s no market for Nightcrawler? If you are picking the X-Men why not Wolverine? Or Cyclops?
So my question for all you pop culture junkies and comic book fans is there anyone out there who is an actual Nightcrawler fan? I don’t mean fan in that you don’t mind him or he’s part of the X-Men. You have to prefer Nightcrawler over all over characters. I want to hear from you!
As you can imagine from my rant here I got a Nightcrawler. On the up side I got the Punisher too. Today we went back and I got another bloody Nightcrawler and Dr Octopus.
So if you can convince me that you are a Nightcrawler fan I have a spare Nightcrawler that I’m putting on the table. What will convince me? Photo of you with your Nightcrawler comic book collection. Photo of you dressed as Nightcrawler (unpublished online previously). This will run until I’m convinced so go crazy and get creative!
Popularity: 12% [?]
Categories: Comics |
Tags: Nightcrawler, toys, X-Men | 16 Comments
