I saw the X-men movie recently and I have to say I was more disappointed going in than I expected to be. This is knowing that the director/writer of the first two left after the project to do the new Superman movie. Now, as your average action movie this movie is ok I guess. but since it is the third of the series it has something to live up to. I felt that the first movie was ok, and that the second movie really improved. Anyways, the plot is fairly ambitious and there are loads of characters both old and new. Unfortunately both are drag the movie down. The script is poorly written in my opinion and Halle Barrie has been plaguing the movies with her portrayal of Storm since the beginning. Also, they turned Wolverine into a massive emotional wussbot. Many new characters get the kind of intro that makes you eager to see more of them in the movie, but they just turn up for a minute or two later in the movie. This is in contrast to the second movie where they introduced the Nightcrawler character quite well (he isn't in this one at all.) So avoid it and save your dollars for the sure-fire critical success, Snakes on a Plane. I leave you with a picture of some guy being Wolverine.

Click here to read all about it!

Or if you are lazy I will just summarize the juicy bits.

The headline reads as,

Sac attacker was AWOL from mental hospital

Two exerpts from it are,

-That night, Monica Randolph sneaked up on her husband as he slept and grabbed his groin, ripping into his gonads with her fingernails and ending her attack only after he fled the house and locked her inside.

and

-"The only time I ever hit my wife was the other day to get her to let go of my balls," he said.

Drive Safe

I recently read 'High Fidelity' and 'About a Boy' by Nick Hornby. Both have been made into movies a while ago. I have always admired the movies, About a Boy has a nice soundtrack done by Badly Drawn Boy and have wanted to read the books, High Fidelity especially, but the books were always too expensive when I looked around. I recently borrowed both from the library, and they were the best reads I have had in a while. First of all they are pretty effortless to read. They are hilarious. The movies are pretty faithful to the books in dialogue and plot etc, but there is just something about the books that made me enjoy it a little more. So check them out sometime.

I have also read his book Fever Pitch which is about soccer fanatacism. It was ok, but unless you are a soccer nut I wouldn't really recommend it. Somehow they based the mediocre Fever Pitch movie starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon (about baseball!) I have experienced both and honestly don't see the linkage in any way other than the name. I also have read How to be Good "where the woman protagonist explores contemporary morals, marriage and parenthood." Anyways I recall it as being quite depressing and painful to read, so I wouldn't recommend it, although maybe it is just me. There is also another newer book that he wrote called A Long Way Down and I think it is about four strangers who encounter each other one New Year's Eve on top of a building, where they are planning on leaping to their deaths. Not sure I will give that one a read or not.

Here are two short but amusing videos.


First of all here is a clip from the opening of Saturday Night Live recently where Al Gore appears to be the guest. He is giving a presidential address in a 'what if' he won the election in 2001 kind of deal. It is funny and good and stuff and junk.

Secondly there is a neat snafu courtesy of the BBC. Apparently they accidentally brought an expert's cab driver on the air instead the actual expert. He does an admirable job of making stuff up as he goes along though after the initial shock. He seems like a nice guy and has a pleasant voice.

Here is a straight uncut version with music in the background (for some reason) and here is a cut up version where they acknowledge the mistake.
Update: He wasn't a cab driver

Here is a guy in a 'suit' made of baby dolls.

Japanese Spiderman show

This first one is a from 1978. It is fairly long at 24 minutes, but since it streams you should watch the intro at least. It has a really snazzy song. The video features 'fansubtitles' that help you make sense of the japanese. There are also a few minor tweaks on the Spiderman story that you may or may not notice. In any case it is pretty awesome and has nice swinging sound effects.


Heat Vision and Jack

IF YOU DON'T WATCH THIS ONE I WILL STAB YOU! This show is awesome! This is apparently a pilot from 1999 that was directed by Ben Stiller and pitched to Fox, but they refused despite it being TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME! It is about an ex-astronaught named Jack and his talking motercycle name Heat Vision (Owen Wilson) and the special effects rival the Spiderman episode in quality. It is really funny.

more coming..

I just watched a movie that I rented and I started to watch the director's commentary right after. Ok, that is not what I am referring to though. I realized after a while that I had already seen the commentary years ago when I originally watched the film!

The picture is just to add flavour and doesn't relate to the post. It is pretty awesome though. I think he might be hiding from the law.

I finally have a bit more music to share. First of here is a nice cover of 'Lay Lady Lay.' It is done by Magnet with Gemma Hayes. If my link croaks, check his myspace site. His original stuff seems a little wussy and vacuous for me. Anyways, I nabbed this originally from mp3 blog that only does covers- Copy, Right?

Secondly here are two songs from some French broad named Camille. It has some Fiesty, Bjorky aspects to it. There are some cute beat box noises on the second song. This link will probably work longer than my crappy shruggle one.