30/May/2010

And so ends the episode coverage of Cadillacs And Dinosaurs. It's been an entertaining run, and I'm glad to have given a bit of attention to a cartoon I actually like and not just something I covered solely because it's a video game adaptation (it was nice to have an opportunity to riff on their general sloppiness, but summarising both House of the Dead movies was a bit of a slog). There'll be the usual intro and character pages soon enough, but I'll also be making a page comparing it to the original comic and the changes made in its transition to television, which should be pretty fun!

Also today's episode has an image of Hannah's ass, so you know I'm looking out for you, Wes. =P

Y'know, when people in the workplace were saying Ronnie James Dio was dead, I assumed that was just part of their frequent jabs at the dude's age, but then I find out today he really is dead. Man! I'm only really familiar with him because Quadboy of the long-gone Rants of a Madman would frequently harp on about the rocker's prowess; the only song of his I've heard is Holy Diver, and even then my brother chastises for listening to it rather than the Killswitch Engage cover (which for the longest time I thought was called Kill, Switch 'n' Gage, like some bizarre rocker parody of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch, who are a band I also thought were named differently, though I just thought Dave and Dee were two different people). The dude's dead! Man.

And now I am informed that two other people I am mildly familiar with but none the less respect have passed on unexpectedly - Dennis Hopper and Gary Coleman! I'm sad to say I don't even properly know Gary Coleman, I'm only aware of him through that one Christmas Simpsons episode and the poor guy being a cheap internet meme. Dennis Hopper, well... the Super Mario Bros. movie. I was almost certain he was in Silence of the Lambs, but apparently I'm wrong. Shit, what a way to go - die before some half-wit from Northern Ireland sees your more highly acclaimed media appearances. I've a feeling this Summer will be like a repeat of last year. So long as Bob Hoskins doesn't suddenly snuff it I think I should get through it just fine.

27/May/2010

Like Withnail & I, it's been suggested to me a million times and I've turned it down continuously in favour of something else, and now I've finally decided to watch Unleashed, also known by the rather silly-if-contextually-appropriate Danny The Dog in some regions. I was very, very impressed.

Danny is a young man who's been trained into becoming what is essentially a gangster's attack dog, becoming a ruthless fighter once his collar is removed. However, he has minimal life experience and his mannerisms come off as like that of a shy child, and his limited understanding of instructions and the world around him get into trouble with his "master." He finds a friend in a blind piano tuner who takes him in to his home and gives him a fresh start on life, though his troubled past continues to haunt him.

I admit I was a little reluctant to watch this not only because Unleashed is one hell of a generic title (it makes sense in context!), but also how I had just watched a martial arts movie last night, though, jeez, the contrast between them is phenomenal. Showdown in Little Tokyo was light on story, high on sleaze, and had a lot of emphasis on people carrying huge fuck-off guns everywhere they went. Unleashed, meanwhile, has a dark yet emotional storyline that had me truly captivated, and sprinkles doses of high-octane, bone-breaking, gladiator-style fight scenes throughout. It's like comparing The Wizard of Oz to The Lord Of The Rings.

What really captivated me about Unleashed was Danny, the main character. When we first see him, his life literally revolves around fighting - he's carted around by his gangster collection agency as a threat, and then told to beat the stuffing out of anyone who doesn't pay up. When he isn't fighting, he can barely speak, has no education, and is left in a cage with only a baby's book of words and a teddy bear. He doesn't know a thing about the world around him and he's stuck in the ugliest side of it, so when he's taken in by kindly old Morgan Freeman, he's adorably shy and hides himself away in his room with a keyboard to play. His new caretaker shows him how to live his new life, the technique of sampling fruit and how to cook, as well as expanding his vocabulary, and he expresses a beautiful child-like innocence about him. His way of repeating words he's been told results in a cute scene where he reveals he's late home because he stopped for ice cream, and reminds me of myself when I was but a tyke. Obviously the implication is that he's child-like, but to me it was reminiscent of something along the lines of autism.

To go on a barely related tangent, autism fascinates me. It's a diverse spectrum, and the people I've met diagnosed with it haven't all been winners, but the sheer variety of attitudes and mindsets held together by several distinguishing features just intrigues me. Danny's timid and eccentric mannerisms couldn't help but remind me of it slightly, and despite the fact the film's meant to be a martial arts flick, I couldn't help but feel if it had been intended as a film about an autistic guy being shown a new way of life, it would've worked fantastically. I watched Rain Man a few weeks ago, and by god, I couldn't sit through to the halfway marker. Yes, I'm aware that is how some autistic individuals are like, and I am very much aware how obnoxious those mannerisms can be, but when with such people you can, if you're feeling like a nice kind of asshole, politely excuse yourself and say you have business to attend to elsewhere and slip away. The movie is focused entirely on that one man and you're never given the chance to hang out with somebody a little more interesting. I've heard it gets a little more interesting once they reach the casino, but if I were feeling in the mood for mild exaggeration, I would say that not a single second of the movie was interesting to me. Obviously that's a mild exaggeration, but that's not far from the truth!

So, uh, yes, we were talking about Jet Li, weren't we?

I would dare say that Unleashed is a beautiful film. I came for the martial arts but stayed for the beautiful, emotional story. I would also say that it's the first movie I've seen Bob Hoskins in where I'm not always thinking "what's Mario doing with a British accent?" I will say, however, that one part of the story bugged me - at the end Hoskins and all his multi-cultural gangster buddies are chasing after Danny in the apartment building; there's at least four other guys in the building and it's implied there's a mob of them outside, as it's shown he can't hop out the window 'cause there's dudes packing heat down there. However, for the entire duration of the final showdown between Hoskins and Danny, those gangsters just... vanish. They're never seen again, and given the humongous crowd Hoskins ordered in to track down Danny you'd hardly expect them to just slink away after Bob is hit over the head with a flower pot. Even just adding a scene with sirens blaring in the background and prompting the gangsters to get their asses out of there, that would've solved everything. Still, beautiful movie. I love it.

I also watched the first two episodes of Nurse Witch Komugi.

I had to stop in the middle of the second one and just ask myself, "what am I watching?"

I'm serious.

There's some anime I pick up because the whole thing genuinely intrigues me (such as Alien Nine); some because there's a certain buzz or style that looks appealing (Nurse Witch being today's example); and then there's something I try out simply because it's short, so, hey, how painful could it be? I still won't forgive Ninja Cadets for the thirty minutes of my life I wasted watching it. Nurse Witch Komugi just has a quirky style of visuals and characters to it judging only from the opening intro and I was interested to see what it was like.

I'm really not sure what it is. It's not quite action, it's definitely not slice of life, and I would be hard-pressed to personally label it as a comedy. Twenty five minutes go by and I'm really not sure what I've witnessed. It's just there. I'm one hundred percent aware that that's probably the worst judgment I've ever made on anything, but it really did not leave much of an impact at all. The humour was no different from anything else I'd watched, the action was on par with the first few episodes of The Real Ghostbusters (and that's not a compliment), and the characters most certainly were not endearing. Busty, yes, but endearing, no.

On the bright side, this means that's one anime I can purge from my bloated collection, alongside King of Bandit Jing. Man, was that a totally generic disappointment! ADV Films sure did a great job of making it look interesting.

26/May/2010

Lazy daaaays. Sometimes they're violently depressing, sometimes they're crazy awesome. Sometimes they're just right. Today was of the third flavour! Mind you it's not quite a lazy day since I was at work, but the fact I've done bog-all since getting home definitely gives it the vibe of one.

I watched Showdown in Little Tokyo. I was apparently on a Dolph Lundgren kick several months ago and got myself a bunch of his movies, including Dark Star and Masters of the Universe, though I haven't got around to watching them yet. This one's just been sitting around for quite some time so I thought why not check it out? I had no expectations whatsoever besides it having Dolph Lundgren, and it could hardly botch that up, could it?

Agent Kenner is a cowboy cop who doesn't play by the rules but gets results! The Yakuza are taking over Los Angeles' Japan Town and are selling drugs! One of them also killed Kenner's parents! Armed with enough guns to blow up New Zealand plus, and I quote, "the biggest dick I've ever seen," he beats the hell out of every Japanese guy he sees. Brandon Lee and the Asian girlfriend from Wayne's World co-star, but they can hardly steal the spotlight from Dolph Lundgren and his giant penis.

My continuous references to his genitilia are entirely superfluous, as there is no male nudity in the film. There is plenty of female nudity, people being shot, a few limbs being chopped off (okay, two at the most) and, of course, lots of ridiculously cheesy dialogue. The movie's pretty light-hearted - undeniable sleazy, but there's something silly and amusing about it. The action is decent but not incredible, the acting is mediocre but not bad, and the story is just passable. Despite that, there's a certain element to it that simply makes it an enjoyable watch, and I might have to say it is just the ridiculous dialogue. You can't beat snappy comments like "Roughly translated, out of the frying pan and boned up the ass with a red-hot poker."

I also finally got around to watching episode 1x11 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, about an invisible maniac girl. It's not bad, but given the competition it's relatively lacklustre, and it's a little disappointing that the final scene is the easily the most interesting part in it.

25/May/2010

Today's observation: I liked the weather more when it made people miserable.

22/May/2010

Further adventures in hating the internet:

Most online messages boards don't just call user profiles "profiles" but title them "public profiles." With capital letters, even!

And then you are told this when you click them. The online society is destroying the basic definitions of the English language.

21/May/2010

Survival is today's Cadillacs And Dinosaurs episode. We're getting ever so close to the conclusion!

I watched Planet Terror last night. I was actually quite happy to just sit down and watch Theodore Rex, but padre suggested this one and I could hardly accept anything else once the decision was made. It's Planet freakin' Terror!

You know, I had no idea the film was technically a zombie movie. You could argue that the definition of zombie movie has fallen from "the dead rise to perform social commentary while eating flesh" to "a bunch of people who look funny explode into ludicrous gibs with the slightest provocation", but the same basic vibe is there. A toxic gas is released into Texas that causes people to turn into freaks with a rabid killing drive, tearing as many people apart as they can before they kinda fall apart themselves. Naturally, there's a number of people who are immune to this gas and they've got to go out and take care of these mutated sons of bitches before they infect the world. And, of course, one of them is an amputee who eventually gets a gun for a leg - a gun that seems to house every brand of ammunition known to man.

We're also treated to a scene where Quentin Tarentino's balls fall off.

I think that sentence is enough of a demonstration that it's a pretty sleazy movie. Entire limbs practically explode at the smallest inconvenience, the heroine's go-go dancer antics are ultimately what help save the day, and the casual deaths of everyone but the main characters are played for laughs. It totally revels in the gross-out factor, and if that happens to be your cup of tea, then you better believe it's worth checking out.

What totally sold it for me, however, was the gritty retro vibe of old-timey cinemas. I sadly didn't exist in the era when those style of trailers were around, but by god, I certainly wish I was. The cheap and corny looking "prevue" screen, the fake trailer that repeats the movie's title about forty times, the scratchy look to the film... it's beautiful work. It sadly doesn't work quite as well when the main feature is explicitly filmed like a modern movie with all our fancy techniques, where only a few minor elements still continue throughout, but it's still a totally awesome way to present a movie. I would give the movie five stars alone just for the Machete trailer. Fuck yes will I be seeing that in theatres when it comes out.

Afterwards I was watching Tiny Toon Adventures, not on a TV, but in a completely empty cinema. Completely empty except for Orson Welles sitting next to me, commenting on every action and gag in a condescending manner. He was pretty drunk and smelled like uncooked ham, so it was pretty uncomfortable. Like, I wanted to watch the show and I also wanted to hang out with Orson Welles, but I could hardly do both when he was being a noisy bugger. Plus, it would be pretty disrespectful to get up in a completely empty cinema and move down a few seats just to get away from his stench. I could do that with any old Bob, Dick or Harry, but you cannot do that to Orson Welles, my friend.

20/May/2010

I went fox watching last night. My uncle is always talking about the seemingly millions upon billions of foxes he sees practically everywhere, from just outside his house to driving home from Ballymena, to even the leisure centre car park near his neighbourhood; the guy's freakin' tripping over foxes from the sounds of it. So he phoned me and told me about a group of them he'd seen consistently every night this week in the leisure centre car park, and would I be interested in tagging along? So I was like, yeah, cool!

Two hours and we didn't see a single fox.

We didn't even see any bats.

We did see a cat, though.

In yet another example of my inappropriate optimism, I would still say it was a night well spent, and not just because we decided to nab some ice cream up in Carrick. I always love seeing the local surroundings at night, and the leisure centre grounds simply becomes a lot more interesting once you smother it in darkness. A few years ago I would semi-frequently (as in, once every two weeks, and I gave up the practise after five) go for a walk around the neighbourhood at midnight, and it was simply a lot more enjoyable than in the afternoon. Could be because there weren't any cyclists, children or cars out and about, but the otherwise mundane surroundings just become a lot more captivating when lit only by the amber eyes dangling from the sky. From a photography nerd point of view, yes, I would declare it an enjoyable expedition. From a dude-who-just-wants-to-see-some-foxes point of view, probably not so much.

13/May/2010

Mind Over Matter is up on Random Action Hour.

Thursday night is movie night, and I decided to watch Elektra. I didn't really put much thought into the decision.

Elektra's some kind of ultra deadly assassin who everyone knows about and there's all kinds of legends about her... and then that angle is dropped after the first fifteen minutes so she can start protecting a family she was ordered to kill, as apparently they're the target of the Hand, a gang of evil demon ninjas, or something. Apparently the girl of the family is some kind of super prodigy who's the answer to a war between good and evil that's been raging for a long time, or something, but nothing's ever explained well and the movie's so slow-paced that I'm surprised I actually remembered that much.

The movie is slow. It's not long, running up at only an hour and a half long, but gahd, to say it is slow and meandering would be an insult to slow and meandering things. The 2003 Hulk movie was slow, but it at least kept action going for a fair pace just to jolt a bit of life in it once every five hours (at least, that's what I remember. It's been a long time since I watched it!). Elektra is just slooooow. It tries to create the heroine as a tragic figure whose life is made miserable by her days of being a contracted assassin, but is turned around by her almost maternal relationship with the prodigy girl, but personally, it was just boring. There's lots of moments where it looks like it's trying to show just cute this relationship is, but for at least three quarters of the film I was bored out of my wits. Maybe if the film had just been about a generic spy/assassin lady and not a licensed superhero film this sort of glacial pacing would've been a little more acceptable, but I chose the movie under the misguided belief that it would be like Daredevil 2 - same basic style, same basic pacing, same basic entertainment. It's more or less the exact opposite.

It's a shame, because it has a guy whose animal tattoos come alive.

Seriously! Elektra herself has no personality and her costume is ridiculous (I was really hoping she would just stick with casual wear for the final battle, but sadly not), the plucky teenage sidekick is a royal bore, and the plot is dawdling and uninteresting. And then halfway through we're introduced to the villains of the show, a group of mystical dudes with gimmick powers and they are pretty freakin' badass, man. Tattoo has tattoos that come alive! Stone is a guy made of stone! Typhoid makes-- well, they're all pretty self-explanatory. The point is, while the story is as interesting as a brick wall, the villains are cool and would steal the show if they actually had more than twenty minutes of combined screen time. I chose to watch this movie solely because, while skipping through it, I saw the scene where two spirit wolves burst out of Tattoo's chest. The movie should've just been about him. In fact, why hasn't anyone made Tattoo Assassins into a movie yet? That would be badass.

Daredevil worked because while the protagonist wasn't exactly portrayed terribly consistently (see the January 14th 2010 blog entry!), there was lots of entertaining character interaction, decent action and an overall engaging atmosphere. Elektra isn't bad, but I won't deny it was a slog to sit through. It's got the makings of a decent film, but it places all its emphasis on drama and has a serious lack of action, which is what one generally expects from a superhero flick. My dad believes if it threw in twenty more minutes of action then it would've left a better impression, but I don't know. Some of the fight scenes were nice, the highlight being the forest scene with Stone, Tattoo and that acrobatic guy, but others, most notably the final showdown, just seemed... wasteful. Like Batman Begins, they made it so you just couldn't really keep track of anything, both because of rapid-fire camera cuts and how the main villain can freakin' teleport around the place.

Also I'd just like to say that the manner in which the villain is defeated was a hell of a letdown. I was expecting a letdown, but the letdown I got was of catastrophic proportions.

I guess I'm glad I saw it, just so I can finally see why everyone's so negative about it and also to make Daredevil seem so much better by comparison, but I also feel I could've made better use of those ninety minutes. I still haven't watched Theodore Rex!

P.S. Elektra is meant to be Greek? Jeez, you'd hardly tell. I just thought the Greek lettering for the title and credits was just the director being unnecessarily stylish.

12/May/2010

I went to see Hot Tub Time Machine last night. My dad offered to see the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, but quite frankly, that doesn't interest me. He's intrigued mostly because he wants to see at least one instalment on a cinema screen, but if I were given the choice I'd rather watch the original film or Part 3. Given the fact modern cinemas do not perform wish fulfilment, I opted for Hot Tub instead, which was the only one that caught my fancy. The trailer was stupidly enticing!

Well, if you can read the title and know the modern trend of movie making these days, you can probably imagine the film is a raunchy comedy rife with sex, drugs, rock and roll and bad language, with the establishing motif of it being four guys from 2010 being sent back to 1986, giving the movie a free license to offer all kinds of nostalgia-based pop culture references. It is the very antithesis of highbrow entertainment and I loved every minute of it.

In another example of my increasingly crappy ability to review movies, I will not be talking about the film itself. Instead, RQ87 posed an interesting question - was it better than Iron Man 2?

That's a tough one.

I mean, Iron Man 2 was freakin' Iron Man 2. I'd almost say that the build-up to the film's release left a bigger impact on me than the movie itself, though it certainly made for a decent watch. It may not have lived up to the original, but it was a more filling movie to watch than, say, Vampire Bats. And I thought Vampire Bats wasn't bad! Iron Man 2 supplied a moderate dose of action, heaps of fanservice and an entertaining plot with some very amusing character interaction. You could argue that if it weren't a sequel to a stupendously fantastic film that I am forever biased towards I probably wouldn't be so ehhh about it, but my brain has totally collapsed into itself lately and I would not be able to provide a valid debate without dribbling all over myself and getting angry at a light bulb.

Hot Tub Time Machine, meanwhile... I had no expectations from it aside from the raunchy humour the trailer promised, and that's what I got. I also got a cameo from Crispin Glover playing a one-armed bellboy. It's one of those films that when watched in the company of others becomes the source of all manner of laughter, especially at the stupidest of gags, and unpleasant peer pressure situations like having to perform oral copulation on your best friend's pork sword as a result of a bet somehow become hilarious (instead of reasons to declare that humanity has sunk forever into a bubbling, spewing cesspool of metaphoric turmoil). You know, one of those movies. Seriously, I enjoyed it, and I couldn't help but love just the way it was made - the pace is never slack, it always bounces itself to new areas and events just to keep the ball rolling, and the film doesn't even need more than ten minutes to provide a sufficient look into each of the main characters' lives and their personalities. I'd like to say it's just good writing and punchy editing, though you could argue, again, that it's just because they're flat characters. It's probably not wise for a review to argue with its own thoughts. It's probably not healthy for me, either.

But which of the two movies is better? When I left the cinema I will admit, for five minutes at most, I was almost leaning towards finding Hot Tub to be the more enjoyable film overall, but now I'm not too sure! I mean, it may have someone puking on a squirrel, but Iron Man 2 simply has Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, who is such a marvel to watch that even during court scenes he's a star. I am a horribly wishy-washy person and that flaw will no doubt doom me to a miserable demise at some point in my life, but for now, I'll just say they're both pretty good. But I mean it's a bit dumb comparing them in the first place, one's a lads comedy and the other is a superhero flick. It's like apples and bowling balls, man.

08/May/2010

Random Action Hour is updated with another Cadillacs & Dinosaurs episode, Wildfire. It's not a bad watch, but recapping it is a bit of a slog because the plot is literally just "they move - there's an obstacle - Hammer is an idiot - repeat" for about twenty minutes.

On Thursday night I decided to watch the first Iron Man again with someone who'd never seen it before. Reanalysis time!

In a nutshell, I totally prefer the first one. The second one's good, but despite all the action, the fanservice and the drama regarding Tony only having a few days left to live, it doesn't didn't quite engage me the same way the first one does. I was actually slightly surprised at how gritty the first movie was at times; the entire beginning segment with his stint as a prisoner in Afghanistan is really rather disturbing, and it provides a great contrast to the rather whimsical superhero antics he pulls when he returns to dispose of his industry's weapons. Given how we see Tony mature from a frivolous billionaire to a man shaken and concerned about his country's safety, the film definitely has a more personal touch to it, and it's still as satisfying as it was two years ago.

Iron Man 2 lacks a lot of those elements, I felt. Lots of action, no denying, but there wasn't as much personal investment in it. While Obadiah Stanes was Tony's partner for a fair number of years before he tried to kill him by various means, Whiplash isn't even a guy Tony really knows, he's just the son of a guy who worked with Stark's father. Simple things like that can really dilute a final showdown, as while the fight with Stanes really shows how batshit and adamant he is regarding his ideals, Whiplash's appearance at the end isn't so much "holy shit, I'm fighting a guy who was once my closest business partner but is now my enemy!" but rather "oh, look, it's that guy with the whips except he's got a suit now". The first one almost makes you think Stanes is done for after the icing incident, but the fight still goes on. I was shocked (and not in a positive way) about how the laser trick was all it took to take Whiplash down. Oh well. Still, they're both decent films, but I feel the first one is a lot more memorable and a lot more satisfying.

07/May/2010

I saw Iron Man 2. There's been a hell of a lot of hype and, naturally, every fanboy worth his rainbow suspenders is proclaiming how great it's going to be. I went to a showing with several friends, had quite a merry laugh amidst the fun and excitement, and ended it with a trip to Bar 12, a pleasant little place where we rounded off the evening with lots of nerdy, nerdy debate. It was a very entertaining night.
I'm a little bit ehhh about the movie, though.

I won't deny I enjoyed it. What's not to enjoy? It's the same old Iron Man antics as last time - Robert Downey Jr. is still fabulous as the ever manic Tony Stark, we finally get some War Machine team-up action, there's a lot more enemies to fight, and it's still a fun and entertaining film.

I'm just torn on whether or not it's better than the first one.

My chums all agreed that it was better than the first one, but I was the only left feeling unsure. Yeah, decent movie, but even though I haven't seen the original one since I saw it in the cinema, it's still reasonably fresh in my mind, at least when it comes to the vivid imagery and sensations of Iron Man flying through the sky. As you might remember from my rather love gushing review of the first film (see 28/May/2008!), the movie really grabbed me in just the right way with just the right vibes. It had action, it had heart, and there was a tremendous feeling of whimsy about it, both in what Tony had gone through before making the suit, and then all the fancy abilities and wonders he could achieve with it. I could just be incredibly biased because I haven't seen it at all since then, but it left a big impression on me and it's still there.

Iron Man 2 doesn't really have that. It's gotten past the mandatory origin story and now it's more about the ramifications of the Iron Man suit, such as the military wanting their hands on it, other countries making their own knockoffs, and a rival millionaire hiring a Russian villain man to help him build his own suits (which he makes into killer robots, no less). It's an entertaining story, but I don't think a lot of the movie really grabbed me the same way the first one did. I saw a review recently by a very jaded internet individual who said that the action "just happens," there's no real sense of danger or excitement to it. Having not seen the film when I read it I was a little miffed; what, how can Iron Man action not be good? It's freakin' Iron Man! But, yeah, I kinda have to agree with the cynical bastard. It's moderately decent action, but in all honesty, if you've seen the trailer then there's not much else you're missing out on. The climatic fight with Iron Man and War Machine versus Whiplash... didn't really have any true involvement, I felt. There was little to no emotional connection between the heroes and villain, and it seemed to finish way quicker than I was expecting. I've certainly seen worse action and by all means it's not bad, but it didn't grab me the same way, y'know?

In yet another vaguely defined criticism, I personally felt the film lacked the "punch" of the original. For instance, a few of the brief comedy scenes still stick out in my mind, such as Tony addressing a meeting while sitting on the floor eating some Burger King or Rhodey going ahead with the "training mission gone wrong" excuse (or whatever it was, excuse me for having a bad memory!), and the two really seemed to have a good bonding. Due to the whole military-vs-Tony theme, there's barely any time for Stark and Rhodes to spend much time together and not arguing, and I've a feeling it might also have to do with the new actor. He's not a bad guy, but he seemed out of place until he actually got into the War Machine suit; my dad commented that without the suit he looked like a bit of a wimp, whereas Terrence Howard looked a bit more imposing. There's plenty of "punch" in the opening half hour or so, what with Tony's many, many meetings at the expo, in court and the race, but after those scenes that brand of humour kinda fell by the wayside, I felt.

Still, I'm glad I saw it, and given the stupendous amounts of hype the trailers worked up I would be surprised if I didn't have anything to nag about. It was still a fun two hours and the conversation value alone was definitely worth the ticket price.

01/May/2010

Welcome to the new blog!

It only took me about nearly a year of loitering around, procrastinating and pestering from Wes before I finally went ahead with it, and the final result is this - the Random Hoo Haas blog is on WordPress! Yes, it uses a frighteningly ugly default template and I've barely got testing it properly, but that can probably be sorted out in due time. The important thing is that people can comment on my sad, sad ramblings, and that's what makes all the difference. Expect no more than four entries for the rest of this month, then!

So, what've I been up to lately? Well, living my life and breathing enough oxygen to get me through each day, of course, but I've also been looking at a few things. I finished reading a very enjoyable book called Hominids just a week or two ago, by Robert J. Sawyer. It's hard to summarise without making it sound hilarious, as it's about a Neanderthal who has been transported into our world, not through time travel but through a dimensional warp. The Neanderthal comes from an Earth where the homo sapien died out and the homo erectus became dominant, and thus created an entirely different society with great measures for public safety and justice, not to mention all manner of amazing scientific achievements, although they have not ventured into space or other such feats.

Naturally I can't say all I would like to since it's been a fair while since I finished it, but it was a thoroughly entertaining book with just the right elements to interest me. Culture clash is one of those things that always intrigues me (I still haven't got around to reviewing Cranes At Dusk!), and a moderate dose of sci-fi mixed with a modern day realistic perception of such a far-out event made it a truly engaging read. I don't think a book has grabbed me as much since I read The Silence of the Lambs. I've been meaning to get started on the next book in the series, Humans, as the two-chapter preview at the end is very enticing.

I watched another episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Nightmares. I wasn't expecting a whole lot from it at the start: ooh, spontaneous spider appearance, spooky! And a creepy child! The rather unexpected beatdown of a teenager by a dude with a club for a hand was certainly eye-catching, and the whole "your nightmares become reality" stuff did make things... quirky, let's call it that. Not a tremendous episode, but it was entertaining. Also worth watching just for this amusing exchange:
"So why is this happening?"
"Billy."
"Well, that explanation was shorter than usual. It's Billy!"

Of all things, I decided to watch Muppets Tonight. I've had Muppets on the mind since April for some reason, and it's only now I've decided to act upon it. I only ever saw, like, four or five episodes back when it first aired, so it's strangely amusing to go back to it and see what I missed and what I saw. It's a lot dumber than I remember, which is both good and bad. Like everything, there's ups and downs and some episodes just aren't that great; the Billy Crystal episode, for instance, just didn't seem as tight as it could've been, and the Michelle Pfeiffer episode was rather unremarkable. The Cindy Crawford episode is still just as hilarious to me as it was years ago and definitely the highlight of the series so far, especially with the Johnny Fiama subplot. I never thought much about the character when I first saw the show, but now I'd probably consider him one of my favourites. There's something about a guy who has a monkey as his bodyguard.

If you managed to wade through this much nonsense, I guess that implies you'll give the new blog a chance! I'm still a bit iffy about it, but I'll probably get used to it in time. It's also effectively the first means of public communication since the, eh, ill-fated forum of three years ago, which will certainly be interesting. Let's see how this goes!
And just a heads up, the next Cadillacs & Dinosaurs episode will probably be a while. I wanted to have a routine of a new episode every four days, but it's been a taxing week. Cut me some slack, mang.