June 28th, 2007
The exclamation mark is far more energy than I actually have. Tomorrow is the last day of the contract I’ve been working and we’ve been working around the clock to try and get this Intranet launched. I don’t usually mind working long hours but this has been a sustained series of long days - worked about 100 hours in the past two weeks.
So I’m kind of walking around like a zombie and haven’t had the chance to start Becca’s Sin City and Aquaman drawings, but I’m picking up some supplies and will do that this weekend! I am really excited about our scifi movie list! So much so that I’m opening it up to everyone to have multiple suggestions because so far the recommendations everyone is making are awesome! The reasons too are really cool so spread the word and keep nominating your favourite scifi films that you just plain enjoy!
Hey feel free to use the above banner to promote the list! Everyone who does nominate a movie will get a little link love too!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
No Comments
June 26th, 2007
Last post we had a very light look at the top 15 greatest films of all time as presented by the AFI and a while back Electronic Cerebrectomy (who was not in my blogroll for some reason even though I visit there once a day - sorry SF!) did a piece on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 25 best scifi movies and television shows in the past 25 years.
Well I thought we might bring the movie lists back to the people… well the blogging people… well the blogging people who read this blog… well the blogging people who read this blog and can be arsed to leave a comment (this could go on for another couple of layers but we may run out of space).
I am opening up the nominations for the QYDJ greatest scifi movies that you enjoy list!
How is this any different from any other list of greatest films, well I’m glad you asked because this list is not the best made or most moving films, these are the films you just enjoy. If the acting is bad but the fx are great then the film can be nominated, if the fx are bad and the acting is good once again it can be in the list, if the plot is flimsy and full of holes but you still love it then it can go on the list.
Leave a comment here to nominate your favorite scifi film - I do however want an explanation, I don’t care if it is one scene in the whole movie that makes it work for you - say Spaceballs when the alien pops out of his chest and does a dance number - that makes Spaceballs for me. But you have to give a reason. We’ll collate the nominations and present a master list of either the top 5 (if no one bothers!) top 25 (if we get enough) top 100 (that’d be cool).
Please please please let other people know on your blogs to come over and nominate their scifi films! Make sure you stamp your scifi authority on the list!
Popularity: 4% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
32 Comments
June 25th, 2007
The AFI recently released its revised list of the 100 greatest films of all time which was long overdue as they had overlooked Big Trouble in Little China and I’m sure they have fretted over this error. Rather than go into exhaustive examination of each of the films I thought I’d… nah lets go exhaustive, but then I got bored and will only comment on the top 15 - at this stage anyway.
AFI’s 100 Greatest Movies of All Time–2007
1. “Citizen Kane” (1941)
It’s number one for a reason, I can’t quite put my finger on the reason but there is something enigmatic about this film that whilst you watch it you get a sense of greatness. Widely agreed upon this isn’t a controversial choice by any stretch of the imagination. I simply loved the film and as I said I probably can’t tell you why, just accept that Big Trouble in Little China is not number one.
2. “The Godfather” (1972)
A lot of people argue that the sequel is better than the original, I’m not one of those people. The sequel is brilliant of course but the first one in my mind is still the best and Brando’s greatest role (no I’m not willing to debate that with you - I don’t care enough to). The whole trilogy, even the third one is an amazing experience and I am envious of people who have yet to see these films because they are in for a treat!
3. “Casablanca” (1942)
I would have ranked this higher than the Godfather and I probably would have to really think about it to declare a winner between this and Kane. Bogart at his best, simply an iconic brilliant picture that should never be in colour. Some amazing dialog including the often misquoted Sam line. “You played it for her, you can play it for me!”
4. “Raging Bull” (1980)
Haven’t seen it, what are you going do!? Could it be better than Big Trouble in Little China? It’s hard to say just by looking at the DVD cover.
5. “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952)
I’m not a huge fan of musicals at the best of times so really it’s hard for me to give much of an opinion on this one. It’s iconic and people love it so I have no problem it being in the list but is it better Rocky Horror mmmmmm. (more…)
Popularity: 3% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
2 Comments
June 25th, 2007
If you’ve been over to the Skullcave you would’ve seen Becca’s awesome sketches and occasionally the odd sketch will make its way here on the little robot blog. So after a brief discussion we thought it would be great to challenge each other to draw some characters as chosen by the other person. We generally kept it to genre characters and I can’t wait to see what Becca comes up with! So there’s no time frame on this but the characters we will be drawing are:
Lee - A Sin City character (I’m still deciding which character would be best - probably going to do two characters in the one drawing)
Becca - Chiana from Farscape
Both of us - Aquaman
The challenge is just to extend ourself in our drawing and I imagine we may exchange the actual artwork. So keep checking back and I’ll give you some insight to the whole process (I’m going to take my time with these!).
Popularity: 3% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
No Comments
June 24th, 2007
This is the question that everyone has been asking since the next Indiana Jones film was announced as a green light. Is Harrison Ford to old to play Indiana Jones credibly? Well of course he could but the character has to match his age and well from the look of the first official photo I don’t know if that’s the case.
Apparently the film will be set in the 50’s which means that despite the fact that 17 years have actually passed they are going to claim that about only half of those years have past.
The other thing though is that Indy just looks old to me, and I really don’t have any problem with an older Indy but he hasn’t even changed his costume!!!!
Once again I’ll hold off judgement till I see the movie and I WILL definitely see it.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Categories: QYDJ |
Tags: harrison ford, Indiana Jones | 6 Comments
June 22nd, 2007
Wanderer said I wouldn’t be disappointed with the Dr Who episode ‘Blink’ and Wanderer was right. Because I’ve got all these episodes sitting on my iPod I’ve been watching them pretty much one after the other (so I’m only a little of the way in to Utopia - hence my favorite line from the episode (so far!) as the title) and thought that it would be very hard to top the Doctor’s performance from the previous episodes.
How do you avoid that?
Simple. You don’t feature the Doctor and you focus on a really great guest cast and a brilliant script. It was funny when I described the episode to Tracey. “It’s about time travel and weeping angels” I hadn’t given it that much thought before but for a show that has time travel at its very core it very rarely focuses on time travel itself. Probably best because time travel enthusiasts love to argue about film based time travel (an academic discussion on Bill & Ted!) and often will allow those ‘problems’ to overshadow the content. The ball of timey whimey stuff is the best answer one should wish for! Mmmmm maybe I should post about Bill & Ted and temporal theory later?
The whole time travel thing was covered really well from the Back to the Future 3 letter delivery to the writing on the wall and the encounter with the older Billy. I’m pretty sure that is my favorite scene, when he says that he has until the rain stops was heartbreaking.
The angels were really great too, what brilliant villains and a great concept too. When Larry looks away and you see the evil expression on the statue when he looks back was very well done.
I did really like the tie in at the end with Sally gives the Doctor her notes and stuff and completes the circle even though the doctor hasn’t even begun his end of the circle… or is it two circles intertwining… Nevermind. The episode owes a lot to the actress playing Sally though because the wrong person and the show would’ve fallen to pieces pretty quickly, she was a delight to watch and I’m not generally partial to episodes of television series that use the whole main characters not appearing kind of plot. But this one worked completely!
I’m actually not looking forward to being all caught up, knowing I have to wait for a week for each of these brilliant episodes may prove torture and I may just have to turn to Pain Killer Jane of which I have a ton of episodes to watch. I’m not quite as hopeful in regards to their quality!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
5 Comments
June 21st, 2007
It is so odd! Ever since I saw the first Candyman movie (I may have read the story first I can’t remember this is quite a while ago!) I’ve given a lot of thought to superstitions and rituals that myself and others follow through our lives. A lot of this stems of course from your childhood. I remember my Father getting quite angry at me for putting my new shoes down on the coffee table because it was very bad luck to do so. Even today I think twice whenever I’m about to place my shoes onto the table, even for just a second. I’m wired now not to even contemplate it and to be honest I can’t think of any occasion that I’ve ever done it. I mean of course this is good sense, dirty shoes on a table equals mess and disease etc but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it.
Which brings me back to the Candyman film, the lore goes that if you repeat his name five times in the mirror then he will come for you and kill you (I don’t remember the time frame). So I have found myself in front of the odd mirror since I first saw the film and contemplated saying the chant just to question my sense of superstitions.
I haven’t done it.
Candyman
Candyman
Candyman
Candyman
Can….
Doh!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
2 Comments
June 20th, 2007
I’m a big fan of the Firefox browser, it’s not that I’m anti Internet Explorer. Well not entirely anyway. I just prefer Firefox and feel that it’s a more intuitive browser, I’m under the impression it isn’t as resource hungry either but I could be very wrong about that.
At any rate I thought I’d take the whole Mozilla thing a little further and just downloaded and installed Thunderbird, the Mozilla email client. My first impressions are generally positive, it’s certainly different but I think that it could be a lot more flexible to use and I’m interested in exploring some of its features. I don’t know maybe it’s stupid to try an alternative mail program when I already own a copy of Outlook. Is there anyone out there who has experience with Thunderbird at all, I’d love to find out about your experiences!
***update*** I just posted more of my thoughts about this over at Blog About your Blog - go check it out there!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
3 Comments
June 20th, 2007
If you’ve left a comment here through the last week you may have noticed that I’m using a new system with how I reply. I’ve installed and was testing the Comment Email Responder plugin and I’m really happy with it so far. What it does is it will email the response directly to the person who wrote the comment I’m responding to as well as post it on the blog.
A couple of people have emailed me directly in response which has been great and I think it’s nice that a reader can see that their comment was responded to, because some people forget to go back in and check (I know I do!). I guess it also in a way makes me think a little harder about the response I’m making too because the person will definitely see the response which also can only be a good thing in the long run!
It’s an easy plugin to install into wordpress and I’m really happy with it, of course if you are a regular commenter and you would prefer not to be notified by email then just let me know and I won’t directly address any of the responses!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
4 Comments
June 20th, 2007
Well if Dr Who is not the exception to the rule then the answer is yes because the episodes ‘Human Nature’ and ‘The Family of Blood’ are two such season making episodes.
So far in the latest season of Dr Who I’ve enjoyed all the episodes but really haven’t had the occasion to rave about an episode until now (and now I’ve got two!). I’ve really loved certain elements such as Martha, whom I think is brilliant and I’m going to put myself into the minority and state that I prefer her over Rose (shock and horror I know!). Even the Dalek episodes left me a little empty. Oh they were entertaining enough to keep me watching but didn’t match the previous appearances.
With ‘Human Nature’ (based on a Dr Who novel) though the production went to a whole new level with some standout performances from the Doctor himself and the guest stars. I love the references to the Doctor’s history especially the sketch of the various incarnations of the Doctor in his journal.
But the one reference that wasn’t so obvious at least to someone who hasn’t grown up with Dr who was the cricket ball sequence which was very reminiscent of the fifth doctor (who I claimed to prefer for some reason for a couple of years).
It’s hard to cover off all the individual elements that make these two episodes so good, the self torture of John Smith, the references to WW1, the ending was brilliant at the war memorial and what the Doctor did to the family, I liked the voice over wondering if the Doctor was being compassionate in fleeing them. All round both these episodes were very well done and I don’t envy the writer of the following episode, because they are tough acts to follow!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Categories: Uncategorized |
6 Comments
