Monthly Archives: November 2010
TV Spotlight – The Big Bang Theory
“A fear of heights is irrational. Fear of falling however is prudent and evolutionaryâ€
Ok so when I was thinking about what I would want my first article on this site to be I thought, what is universally appreciated by geeks? It came to me almost straight away, The Big Bang Theory. This has been one of my favourite TV shows in the past few years just because it works on so many levels. I came across it by total fluke, flicking through the channels after my wife had gone to bed and I paused and thought….is that David from Roseanne?? I laughed to myself for a moment and thought wow I bet this is pants, after literally 30 seconds of watching I realised I could not have been more wrong. After getting really into the first season I decided not to get too attached as I thought not enough people would “get it†to justify a second season. Again wrong! Season Four recently out in the UK and the show picking up awards and nominations left, right and centre this is THE show for a geek of any level.
“Mrs Hudson took my skull.” – Enjoying BBC’s “Sherlock”
I’ve had several folks pipe up lately and ask for new television show recommendations and normally I can only suggest either ones they’ve seen or some that are older and not as well known (like Due South). Now I can suggest a new show that I think many folks will enjoy.
 
Sherlock is a BBC series that takes the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle and brings them to life in a modern setting. No, this isn’t anything like the Robert Downey Jr. movie so don’t panic. Instead, it brings in some amazing actors such as Martin Freeman as Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch (who I’d never heard of) as Sherlock Holmes to bring to life characters that many of us have loved since we were kids.
I admit that I was hesitant to watch the first episode of this show. Perhaps it was the hype. Perhaps it was the length (an hour and a half per episode is definitely not for casual watching). In any case, I finally finished watching the first full episode this week and I have to admit, I’m now hooked and want to watch the other two episodes that are currently out. The first episode “A Study in Pink†is loosely based on the first Sherlock Holmes novel “A Study in Scarletâ€. The first time we encounter Sherlock Holmes is through text messages and it sets the tone for his character and the show.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes
They take the character of Holmes and don’t even try to make him warm and fuzzy at all. Instead he maintains that curious detachment and connection from other people’s emotions while still displaying bursts of his own emotions at socially inappropriate times. Even Holmes remarks that he’s not a psychopath. He’s a highly functioning sociopath. Watson has been updated to modern times as well but still keeps the basic nature of the character: a doctor, recently wounded in a war, and sometimes completely thrown by Sherlock’s actions. The actors in the series, Cumberbatch and Freeman, are completely and utterly convincing as Holmes and Watson and I find myself now picturing them when I think of the characters from the novels.
The effects in the series are very few with only the wording of text messages overlaid on the screen or the discoveries brought up in text as Holmes brings out his powers of deduction. Even with the text reminding you that it’s very much a television show, it’s still easy to simply look past that and get lost in the mystery itself. By the end of the episode I was dying to know which was the right pill (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you watch it) and I actually gasped at Sherlock’s ruthlessness to get an answer from a particular man. And don’t think there’s only seriousness in this show, there’s plenty of moments where I couldn’t stop laughing. The dialogue and interactions between all of the characters is so well done that they can go from hilarious statement to serious pronouncement and you don’t mind at all!
If you were ever a fan of the original novels, if you enjoy an excellent murder mystery, or if you’re just looking for a new show to try out, I suggest you try “Sherlockâ€. Luckily the first season (all three episodes) was just released in the US on dvd. So put it on your queue and let me know what you think!
More music to make you feel epic – X-Men: The Movie
That’s right…I have more music suggestions that will make you feel as though your normal commute is much more exciting than it actually is!
A movie score that I feel gets overlooked too often is the score to the first X-Men movie. I’ve heard several people scoff at Michael Kamen’s compositions for this film (he’s probably best known for the scores to films such as “Robin Hood: Prince of Thievesâ€, “Highlanderâ€, “Mr. Holland’s Opus†and also for the orchestral side to the Metallica S&M concert) but even if you are one of those people, I urge you to listen to the score once again, this time without the distraction of the movie.
The first track on the album, “Death Camp†sets the tone for the rest of the music, and you can feel the build and tension in the music leading up to the sudden quiet. The music from the opening credits, however, is found later on the album in the track called “Cerebroâ€. I’m personally a huge fan of that particular track with its sweeping strings that make me want to fly down the freeway in a manner reminiscent of the film’s opening credit sequence.
Other tracks such as “Ambush†and “Museum Fight†help to provide that feeling of action and excitement without feeling as cliché as other movie scores. These tracks maintain a slightly different feel that only heightens the experience of watching a superhero movie. Not to mention, cleaning house and listening to these track make you feel like you’ll actually win the battle against your dust bunnies.
There is one track on the album that is easily my favorite and I can listen to on repeat endlessly. “Logan and Rogue†is the final track on the score and from the moment I first heard the melody in the theater (the scene where Logan finally gets to Rogue and lifts up her limp form) I was captivated. Easily the most memorable piece of music from the movie, it’s replayed in its entirety during the end credits of the film. Every time I hear this piece I feel like I want to cry and soar at the same time. Don’t ask me how it manages to produce that feeling, but listen to it with your eyes closed and see what you think. Even those who turn up their noses and call Kamen’s score to X-Men campy and terrible often have nothing but good things to say about this particular track.
From the melodic and sad tones of the strings in the track “Logan and Rogue” to the forceful use of the same instruments in ” Ambush”, Michael Kamen shows off his ability to create an epic movie score without crossing the line into “too cheesy”. HIs score makes you feel as though it could still be applied to your own life’s soundtrack. Which is what makes it so wonderful in my opinion.
For this Elf, out of all 4 X-Men films, the score to the first is easily the most memorable. My second favorite is the score to the third movie but Kamen’s work on the music for the first film is brilliant. When the movie came out in theaters I happened to be working at one during the film’s run and would often sneak into the theater at the end of the movie just to close my eyes and listen to the music from the “Logan and Rogue†moment through the end of the credits.
Even if you think that Kamen’s work is cheesy or not epic enough for X-Men, give it a listen without the film. Let me know what you think!
Kinect Video Review
Here is the video review that I promised on Twitter. More coming soon.
A Creature of Style – The Joker
Bolland Joker
Time to spark some controversy and debate.
In the realm of the DC Universe I admit that I’m definitely in the Batman camp. And yet, within that camp my favorite character is…
I’m sure you’ve guessed it.
The Joker.
That’s right. While I have a terrible fear of clowns in general, I can’t get enough of the Joker. Maybe it’s because he openly flaunts being a psychopathic clown. Maybe it’s the snappy purple suits. Who knows? But I adore him. I’m a particular fan of the Brian Bolland version of him in comics with his shape perfectly lean and pointy. With Batman: The Animated Series we added in the voice of Mark Hamill and for me, that’s become THE VOICE I hear even when I read the comics. (If you’ve never seen any of the special features showing Mark Hamill doing THE VOICE, look them up on youtube and prepare to be amazed.) Jack Nicholson in the first Batman movie, while somewhat cheesy maintained the image. (For the sake of this post I won’t go into the abomination of the Monkey!Joker with barefeet and dreadlocks on “The Batman†cartoon)
And that image they all maintained was of style.
Rarely did you see the Joker looking disheveled. Those purple suits, often done as tailcoats, the neatly shined wingtips, the vest and tie. Even his hair was always neatly arranged. When he was locked in Arkham that man could make prison garb look stylish. But everything about him was neat. Heck, there’s many a woman (and man for that matter) who found him drop dead sexy, myself included.
So when Heath Ledger was first announced to play the Joker in “The Dark Knight†many of us pre-DK Joker fans were somewhat offended. Suddenly there were hoards of new fangirls claiming “Finally, the Joker is sexy!â€
Pardon? Finally?!
And while the initial inrritation was over his “sexiness” or lack thereof, it led to more discussion about the character in general and why people like him. Now, don’t get me wrong. I was highly impressed with the now popular Ledger!Joker. I left the midnight opening show thinking he was wonderful and fit in extremely well with the universe that Nolan had created for Batman. And yet…he’s definitely not my favorite Joker. Why is that, you ask?
Because he’s not neat. Gone is the pressed suit with a tail coat and shiny wingtips. Gone is the very careful way he was vain about his appearance. Gone is the paper white skin and permanently green hair. It was replaced with a Joker that instead works for Nolan’s universe but lacks the many things that I found to be appealing about the character himself.
Gone is the style.
So while I can appreciate the Ledger!Joker as an incarnation, and indeed he was great with the acting, the laughter and the wonderful lines, I just can’t find it in me to name him in my favorite Jokers. To me, the Joker was as much a creature of style as he was a murdering psychopathic clown. To take away one takes away part of what makes that character so wonderful, in my opinion.
Now that I’ve opened this can of worms I’d love to hear your thoughts. Are you one of the fans that only came to like the Joker after the Dark Knight? Are you a staunch lover of the original character? Do you like both? Do you hate me for my quick dismissal of Monkey!Joker? Go ahead…let me have it!
“We either live happily ever after or we get killed by horrible curses.” – A quick glimpse of “The 10th Kingdom”
Mushrooms, swamp water, Wolf, and “A Whiter Shade of Pale†are some of the things that come to mind first whenever someone mentions “The 10th Kingdomâ€.
I’m not sure how I missed it when this miniseries first aired on television but I only ran into a couple of years ago on the recommendation of a friend. I put it on my Netflix queue, all three discs, and when the first one arrived I sat down expecting something rather cheesy. And for the first hour I have to admit that I found the plot, the acting and everything kinda corny. It wasn’t until after that first hour (out of nine) that I realized I was hooked on the story. I devoured the rest of the series and by the end I was wishing there was more to it!
The basic premise is that of two worlds: one is our own, normal as ever with Virginia who works as a waitress near central park and lives with her father (her mother left them when she was young) who is the “handyman†for their apartment building. She’s the type that feels like nothing exciting will happen in their lives and have resigned themselves to that.
Then we have the world of the Nine Kingdoms. These are divided up and based on what we call fairy tales but were about real people in that world. The focus is on Prince Wendell, who is soon to take the throne as king of the Fourth Kingdom, he is the grandson of Snow White and has to make a stop to overhear his evil stepmother’s parole request when things go terribly wrong.
From the beginning the two world collide and characters hop from one to the other and back again, dragging Virginia and her father, Tony, with them into danger and adventure while all they want is to find a way home. With characters such as the Troll King, his three children and the rather dashing and rakish Wolf, it’s hard to resist smiling and laughing as the action continues to draw you in.
At least, it drew me in. There were actually parts in the series where I found myself heartbroken and other moments where I was in tears. Toward the end I was biting my nails, unsure of what would actually happen. Believe me, I was surprised that a series that had started out so cheesy could suck me in so completely. Let’s top that off by saying that any time I hear “A Whiter Shade of Pale†I suddenly think of mushrooms. Singing mushrooms.
Watch it and you’ll see why.
Yes, it seems girly and cheesy and made for kids but trust me, there are many bits in it that are probably only understood by adults. And while I agree that it was hard for me to sit through the first bit, after that I didn’t want to press the stop button. Now when I rewatch it the beginning seems sweet and cute, not nearly as cheesy as I thought on that first watching.
If you need more to convince you, how about an amazing cast? Ed O’Neill as the Troll King (he’s hilarious!), Rutger Hauer as the Huntsman, Warwick Davis as Acorn the Dwarf, Dianne Wiest as the Evil Stepmother/Evil Queen, Scott Cohen as Wolf (if you’re female you’ll probably love him in this), and even John Larroquette as Tony, Virginia’s father. There are so many more amazing actors in it but those alone should be enough to convince you to put this on your Netflix queue and give it a try.
Let me know what you think if you watch it after reading this post. And if you’ve already seen it, did you like it at all? What were you favorite or least favorite parts? (I loved anything with Wolf in it. I just adore him!!)
Mass Effect 2: PS3 details, so far…
“You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.” – Inception [spoiler alert!]
I finally had the chance to watch “Inception†last week at the theater…long after nearly everyone else I knew had seen it. Luckily now they can all talk about it around me finally. Thanks to a lack of television I’d managed to avoid any hints at what the movie was about so I went into it only knowing the actors involved. If you’ve yet to see it, I’d recommend skipping this particular post of mine. I’d hate to spoil the movie for you. I’m not sure if I’d have enjoyed it as much knowing any of the plot ahead of time.
And now…on to my thoughts on the film.
Let’s start with the actors themselves. I’m not the biggest Leonardo DiCaprio fan but I have to admit that I was rather impressed with him in this movie. His character, Cobb, was an excellent fit for his acting and I’m in the process of revising my opinion of him as an actor. Cillian Murphy was the big draw for me as I’ve been a fan of his for years. He was wonderful in this film as the unknowing victim of the inception attempt.
Two other actors that I’m growing to love more and more are Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. They play a “forger†and “point-man†respectively and the interactions between the two make me understand exactly why there’s so much slash fanfiction involving the two of them. Their characters are wonderfully fleshed out even to the point where the levels that are their own dream match their personalities so well.
The actor that was a surprise to me was Ken Watanabe. I had no idea he was in the movie and as such I had no idea that he would not only be the instigator of the inception job but was a part of the team as well.
From the start of the movie I was hooked into the action, always wondering what would happen next and even agreeing with certain things, such as how time moves much differently in our dreams. One part that still makes me go “wow†is the moment of the first “kick†with the van going over the side of the bridge. From that moment the characters know what has happened and on each level they realize how long they have until the next kicks have to happen. All of the kicks need to happen at the same time in order for them to wake up from each level.
Another scene that is visually amazing is the part where the van is thrown into a roll down an embankment. In the next dream level, Arthur’s dream, the hotel corridor is suddenly thrown into a spin while he is fighting one of the projections in the dream. They literally fight as the corridor spins and it looks like something that Spiderman only wishes he could do. Reading about how that scene was done I have some serious respect for Joseph Gordon-Levitt for actually being in that physically spinning set.
The climax of the movie hits all at once and I found myself holding my breath, wondering if everyone would make it out in time, if Fischer would see the false dream-version of his father and accept the idea that was being planted, if Cobb and Ariadne would make it out of limbo or not and so on. I admit to being somewhat teary during the suspense when Fischer pulled the pinwheel out of the safe. Even though I knew it was false, the emotion on Fischer’s face was heartwrenching.
And the end of the movie…how can I let that pass by? The happiness of seeing Cobb make his way through customs. The amusement at seeing Fischer’s confused face when Cobb walks past him. And then the tense moment when he sets the top to spinning, wanting to know if he’s still dreaming or not. Cobb walks away from it before he knows, unable to resist his children’s calls for their father. We see the top spin, spin, spin, almost wobble and then it cuts to black. In the theater when I saw it nearly everyone in the audience made a loud noise of protest. Apparently that’s the usual reaction.
With the completely ambiguous ending, the tense climax, the twisting dream sequences and so on the movie “Inception†can make you forget how long it really is…at least until you try to stand and walk after it’s over. I’ve only seen it once but I already want to see it again and I plan to pre-order the dvd as soon as I can. The more I sit and think about it, the more I realize I enjoy it.
I’m curious to know what you all thought about it. What was your take on the ending? Is he still in limbo? Is it real? Does it matter? Let me know!
Are you ready for Freddy? – Thoughts on the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street
One..two..Freddy’s coming for you…
Three…four…better lock your door…
Ah, “A Nightmare on Elm Streetâ€. A classic horror film made in 1984. It gave us one of our most memorable and beloved horror icons, Freddy Kreuger and caused us to laugh and cry in the sequels that were made.
I’ve been a huge Freddy fan since the first time a friend showed the original movie back in 2000. True, I got into the fandom late but I made up for it with obsession. I devoured the rest of the series that was out (which meant 2-New Nightmare) and quickly decided on my favorites (1 and 3) and the one I hated the most (2). Fanfiction writing immediately followed and I knew that I was now a fangirl of Freddy for life. Even “Freddy Vs. Jason†was brought in as one of my top three favorites.
Then I got wind of a remake of the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie.
Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled. I saw no reason to remake a classic that was already wonderful. Still, as Hollywood never listens to my opinions, they went ahead with the movie.
As it was released I caught wind of a few plot points that immediately caused me to hate the film with a passion though I had never seen it. I finally broke down and put it on my netflix, because it’s hard to truly bash a movie until you’ve at least watched it.
Less than a week ago I sat down and watched it, biting my tongue to keep from uttering any scathing remarks (that didn’t work as well as I had hoped). After it was over I realized that I had several things to say about it (Beware of spoilers!!):
First, Jackie Earl Haley does a really good Freddy. He’s no Robert Englund and as such I can’t ever think of him as Freddy, but he has the right build and movements for it. I wasn’t thrilled with his makeup though. It looked too….Voldemort-ish. I would have been happier with a look that was more of the 1984 version.
Second, they added back in the discarded plot idea of Fred Krueger being a child molester. This is something I hated. You see, I loved the original storyline where he was a child-killer instead and so this did not sit well with me at all. Combined with this is the flashback to Freddy’s memory of being chased and then burned alive. I cannot, for the life of me, ever see Fred Krueger cowering and swearing that he didn’t do what they were accusing him of. Instead I still picture him as the smarmy bastard who was proud of it and didn’t care if the townspeople knew.
Third, they used several of Freddy’s more amusing quips from the various movies in the series and combined them into this one remake. While that was a nice homage to the previous movies I think they should have stuck with Freddy being more visually morbid and frightening. In the 1984 version he didn’t speak much at all but instead displayed a sick sense of humor with stretching arms, cutting off his own fingers and even waggling his tongue. That version was much more frightening.
Related to that point is that there was a severe lack of tongue waggling and pelvic thrusting in this movie. And definitely not enough of the creepy “knives on metal†scraping noise that is such a part of the series.
There were a few good things about the movie, though. I liked the opening credit sequence. Done with cuts of children, chalk lettering and sidewalk drawings, it was extremely creepy and set the nightmareish tone for the rest of the movie. Also, kudos to the composer for remembering to bring in the original theme from the Nightmare movies in the right places. Without that they would have made the same mistake that Terminator Salvation made and left out one of the most important things that makes the movies identifiable.
And there is that first moment when we see Freddy’s glove. There’s something about the sight of just the right leg and then the glove opening with that familiar *snik* sound followed by each one of the fingers moving and clicking in turn that makes you shiver. That was very Freddy-like.
And let’s not forget…at least this one wasn’t done by Rob Zombie. Whew!!Â
Overall….I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would but I still don’t like it at all. I felt there were too many changes made to the backstory and plot of the movie and thanks to that it lost it’s “Nightmare†feel. I’d still suggest watching it, however, even if you are ambivalent as I was.
Did you really enjoy the remake? Really hate it? Care to counter with your own arguments? Drop me a line!
Gamers, get off the controller crutch
In light of the recent motion gaming releases such as the Sony Playstation’s Move and Microsofts Xbox Kinect the internets have been se
t a-blaze in regards to whether or not these pieces of technology are the next  push forward in interactive gaming. As Geeks, and its culture alike you would think we would want a more innovative step towards total immersion, yeah…. not so much.
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