May The Force Be With You.

 By Geeky Gem

You may think from the title of this blog that this might be about Star Wars. However this is not about Star Wars but about 4 Geeks that came together to start a blog.

 

 

15 months ago Hmsbeefnuts and myself came together and decided it was time we hit the internet with of own brand of fun and geekness. Along the way bloggers have joined us, Kirkie Chick with her fabulous take on gaming for girls and her weekly top 10. Caelrona joined us and she brought a mix of anime and manga all the way from America. We even had guest blogs from Ammzzy who told about Wolf Grit by Anne Rice and few choice other things.

We’ve had a lot of fun, from KirkieChick, Ammzzy and Myself spending the weekend at the SFX Weekender to my trip to Hogwarts. You’ve enjoyed Hmsbeefnuts own brand of blogging and had some great stuff from across the sea with Caelrona. I am guessing by now that you may know where I am going with this. So I guess I better get to it.

With the increasing lack of time that myself and Hmsbeefnuts seem to have lately we can now longer give All Geek To Me the time it should have. So it is with a heavy heart that we have decided to close All Geek To Me down. It’s a very sad time as after 15 months and 90,000 views we have to go. Which is a shame we have worked very hard on the blogs you have all come to read and we thank you all very much if you have ever read, commented or liked anything we have done.

I hope you have enjoyed all we have had for you to view here at All Geek To Me.

But for the last time this is good-bye from us and thank you.

Hmsbeefunts, Geeky Gem, Kirkie Chick and Caelrona.

 

Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary – Dead Poets Society

 

Wednesday Whimsy

By: Caelrona

Hiya all! The week is over already and I’m just sitting here wondering where it went. But anyway, Happy St. Patty’s Day to any of our readers who celebrate it. Aside from it being a small holiday; Sunday also brought us new episodes of The Walking Dead and Vikings; both of which I am loving so much. But today’s blog isn’t about television, no matter how much we all love it. Today I thought I’d talk about video games a bit. Lots of stuff happening on that front that I’m excited about; Minecraft just brought the 1.5 update which is murdering me with lag. That’s ok, Mojang, it isn’t like I was excited to play with the daylight sensors or anything. The newest Simcity was also released, but talk online says there are problems with it. Last but not least, Hidden Path Entertainment has finally stepped up to bring our beloved Age of Empires 2 into the modern age with an HD remake. So, let’s get started shall we?

Mojang finally released the much anticipated Redstone Update; otherwise known as Minecraft update 1.5. I’ve been waiting for this for a while with a lot of anticipation, because the daylight detector is a much needed circuit component and I loved playing with random redstone circuits. Unfortunately, the update did more than just bring new items. It brought lag; horrible, terrible, game stuttering lag. I mean, my laptop probably isn’t the best machine to run Minecraft on anyway; but this is just ridiculous. I get lag standing still. Aside from that they also changed the way texture packs have to be laid out, which means a lot of work for me converting mine to the new layout. In the long run, I’m sure I’ll eventually love the Redstone update, probably after a 1.5.1 hotfix to address the lag issue, but for now; screw you too, Mojang. =(

EA finally brought fans what they’ve been begging for with a brand new Simcity that has apparently crashed and burned since its launch. From what I’ve been reading, I’m really glad that I haven’t bought it yet. Apparently they are attempting to sell Simcity as an MMO, which is kind of silly. Take it from a Sim nerd; we don’t play Sim games to deal with other people. We play Sim games to control everything. An option to play with certain people would have been loved by pretty much all fans. Forcing us to play with random people, on the other hand, is not really welcome at all. We could just do PUG’s in World of Warcraft if we wanted to play with random players of questionable skill. Speaking of questionable skill; the AI built into the Sims is laughable. I don’t really think it can even be called AI, since there is no intelligence to it at all. They don’t actually have individual lives, as was promised. Instead they work at whatever the closest workplace is and live wherever the closest house is. But amid all the bad, there is some good news; apparently someone modded Simcity to work completely offline, proving the EA’s statements about online server play being integral to the game was a load of bunk. So hopefully the amazing modders out there can give us a functional Simcity that Sim-fans can love.

Hidden Path Entertainment is making many oldschool gamers very happy with an Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings HD release this coming April via Steam. I was so excited when I heard the news. I spent plenty of time playing Age of Empires, and having my friends slaughter me in online play. I still play it occasionally, although the hoops I jump through in order to run it on my Windows 7 machine without glitching are ridiculous. All of which is precisely why I am so excited; the HD release will feature updated graphics and had been designed to run on newer machines and operating systems. No more crappy graphics caused by Aero. As a bonus, they aren’t simply updating Age of Kings; they are also including The Conquerors expansion all in one glorious HD bundle, which is nice because that means we won’t have to turn around and pay again just to get those 5 civilizations. The best thing? They are charging a measly little $19.99 USD for this (a perfectly reasonable price, in my opinion) instead of some ridiculous amount that gamers would still begrudgingly pay for their much loved game. All in all, Hidden Path Entertainment is full of win!

Of course there are tons of other games being released, or have just been released recently that I’m also excited about. I mean, we did just get a Walking Dead game, and they announced Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag for then end of this year. All of which is super exciting, and I’m totally looking forward to them all. But since I didn’t want to bore you with tons of game announcements, I stuck to what pretty much sums up as my Top 3. I don’t know about you; but I’ve got some gaming to do!

Until next time,

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

My Days Off: Movies

By Geeky Gem

I feel the natural conclusion to these blogs is to tell you about some movies I have watched on my days off in recent weeks. Now I havent been to the cinema since The Hobbit came out shocking I know, I will fix that. So most of the movies I will talk about here will be ones I have seen on DVD or Blu-Ray at home.

Total Recall (2012)

Now I am a fan of the original Total Recall so I was a bit unsure of this movie. When you sit down to watch and you have seen the other one the one thing you have to keep in mind is that this is not a remake but a re-working og of Philip K. Dick’s book. We’ll remember it for you wholesale, is the book this movie is based on and I have to admit I liked it a lot. It’s a great action movie and perfect if you like that genre.

Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil

I found this little gem on Netflix and only started to watch it as I love Alan Tudyk. Its comedy horror where Tucker and Dale go into th words to do up their cabin so that they can spend summers their fishing and what not. However things do not go as planned when some teenagers show up and think that Tucker and Dale are there to kill them. It’s a funny little movie and worth a watch.

Skyfall

Did you really think I wasnt going to buy this on Blu-Ray when it came out. It was brilliant on the big screen and loses nothing coming from your smaller screen a brilliant end to the trilogy. Fantastic acting and an awesome story is what makes Skyfall one of my favourite all time Bond movies.

The A-Team

I love this movie as it based on one of favourite shows as a kid, as you can tell by now I love a good action movie. There is nothing wrong with this, yes at first i was a bit like really your making an A-Team movie please don’t ruin this. They didn’t but it didn’t make a lot of money hence no sign of a sequel. If you havent seen it check it out.

Harry Potter

These movies are my default if I fancy nothing else. So you will find I watch these at lest a few times a year. I wont tell you how much I love them as you should know from other blogs I have done.

There we have it just some of the movies I have watched on my days off.

Wednesday Whimsy; Caelrona at the Renaissance Faire

By: Caelrona

Hiya All! I can’t believe it is already Wednesday again! Well, I don’t know about ya’ll but I was busy this weekend. As some of you may know, I live in the United States; specifically I live in Arizona. Once a year our uh, fair(?) state has a Renaissance Festival. This Renaissance Faire is huge, sprawling and packed with many shows and fun things to do (and tons of way to spend so much money. So. Much. Money.) My friends and I decided a while ago to attend, and last weekend was dedicated to the Renaissance Faire. We spent both Saturday and Sunday from, sunup to sundown, walking about in medieval dress. Our feet hurt, our ribs hurt (cinchers and corsets are bloody painful!), hell even our scalps hurt. But we had tons of fun, and I thought that I’d share that with you as best I could through a blog. I mean, what is geekier than a Renaissance Festival?!

Jousting

One of the main things we spent nearly all of Saturday keeping track of was the jousting tournament. There were three different jousting events, all tied into one another, spread throughout the day which basically meant a crap tan of walking for us as we’d see one, then walk about the other shops and shows until the next joust and have to walk all the way back. There were four knights jousting, whose sections could be sat in to cheer for. We ended up in the section for the rider in amethyst. Unfortunately, we picked the loser of the tournament to cheer for, which was a letdown, but he was a good sport and spent the remaining time in the arena talking to everyone in his section of the stands and letting kids pet his horse.

The Tortuga Twins

My friends saw two of their shows; whilst I was only able to see one. During the first I was getting my hair braided at one of the stalls. However, the show I did get to see was hilarious. It also was apparently their only rated R show. It was definitely adult humor; several families got up and left within the first few moments (although why they were there that long I can’t imagine; they loudly proclaimed several times that it was an R rated show.) Several random audience members were accosted, embarrassed and mildly molested during the show. Well, I say mildly, but…

Zilch the TorySteller

Zilch the TorySteller is.. oh, I don’t even know how to describe him. He’s hilarious. From his website; ‘My name is Terry Foy, although you might know me better as Zilch the Storyteller. Er, ah, Torysteller. The stories I tell have a bit of a twist to them. I spalk in toonerisms. Ah, I talk in spoonerisms. Citching one’s swonsonants fack and borth Worning your Turds around. It’s serfectly pimple. You just have to tink thaster than you falk.’ Yeah. Try reading that a couple times and see if you get the idea. He talks that way the entire time, telling various ‘TairyFales’ like ‘Rindercella and the Stoo Tugly Epsisters,’ ‘Rittle Led Hiding Rood,’ and Spilliam Wakshear’s ‘Jomeo and Ruliet.’ Also, if that weren’t enough to catch your attention he goes off on random tangents to tell awesomely nerdy jokes and small stories. Like the time he had a group of Klingons and a group of Storm Troopers having a little inter-genre mixer at one of his shows, and one of the Storm Troopers was wearing a kilt! Or when he had a front row of Doctor’s from Doctor Who, and they kept getting excited and squeaking; ‘We’re in chronological order!’ This man was so funny, we could hardly breathe most of his show.

Tartanic

I’ve saved the best for last. Now you might be wondering; what is Tartanic? The simple answer; Tartanic is a band. They are the most interesting band I’ve ever come across, and one showing had me hooked; I am now a fan for life. The long answer? Dressed in kilts and sunglasses, Tartanic gives its audiences a barrage of sound from not one but two Highland Bagpipes, and three percussionists. Imagine one dancer, six drums, six drones, 18 notes, fast fingers, high comedy, flying bagpipes, taste-defying stunts and scorching hot music played at over 120 beats per minute with driving speed and high-volume, all brought to you by five men without pants. Yeah, they are pretty damn awesome. Little ol’ me with my pirate’s heart of gold even shelled out 15 clams to buy their latest album. That’s right; they are so amazing they got me to PAY for music. We saw 3 of their shows between the two days we spent there; mainly because I kept dragging my friends to them. What can I say? I love me some men in kilts with bagpipes and big drums.

 

So there you have it! That is how I spent my weekend; running around a huge dusty portal back in time and getting accosted by various people who thought I worked for the faire. Honestly, just because a girl is wearing period clothing doesn’t mean she’s going to sell you a corset people. But anyway, I had an amazing time, spent way too much money and walked so much I still hurt from it; it was fantastic!

Until next time,

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

Wednesday Whimsy

By: Caelrona

Hiya all! Caelrona here; you might have noticed my, uh, lack of a blog post last week. Sorry about that. I missed my day, and to make matters worse I don’t even have a legitimate excuse. I had one all typed up, and ready Tuesday morning, and decided to have a catnap before putting pictures to words. When I woke up.. BAM! it was nearly mid-day Wednesday! I lost an entire day to sleep. Not that I’m particularly complaining; I do love sleep, but now I feel bad. Anyway, there are tons of things I want to blog about; I mean, The Walking Dead just started back up, and there is a new show coming on March 3^rd that I am super excited about. However, since Valentines’ Day was this past Thursday, I’m going to save my excitement about The Walking Dead. Valentines’ Day only happens one time in a year; so I figure I ought to blog about it whilst the blogging is good (er, relevant, Hehe.) So in honor of Valentines’ Day, I thought I’d share some of my favorite chick flicks. I do watch them occasionally, and even though I spent my Valentines’ Day with my friend Annie in a theater filled with dudes watching A Good Day To Die Hard, chick flicks are more.. uh, lovey, and thus more suited to a Valentines’ blog.

 

10 Things I Hate About You

10 Things I Hate About You was made in 1999, and released by Touchstone Pictures. It is an American teen romantic comedy with a runtime of 99 minutes. The film is a modernization of Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’, and is titled after a poem written by the film’s female lead about her bittersweet romance with the male lead. The film follows two teenage couples. Cameron, a new kid at school, wants to date Bianca. Unfortunately she cannot date unless her older, non-conformist shrew of a sister Kat does. Being broke, Cameron tricks popular jerk Joey into paying bad boy Patrick into dating Kat. What can I say? I’m a child of the 90’s. Plus, Heath Ledger looks pretty damn good in this, so that does influence me a little bit. This is one of my favorite chick flicks. I mean, how could it not be? It’s a modern day Taming of the Shrew (yay, Shakespeare!) I prefer the aspects of the movie having to deal with Kat and Patrick (Julia Styles and Heath Ledger) rather than Bianca and Cameron (Larisa Oleynik and Joseph Gordon-Levitt). I’m guessing that is probably because I identify more with those characters, but whatever.

Never Been Kissed

Never Been Kissed was made in 1999 by 20^th Century Fox, in conjunction with Flower Films and Bushwood Pictues, and was released by 20^th Century Fox. It is a romantic comedy, with a runtime of 107 minutes. It follows Josie, a copy editor desperate to make reporter, as she goes undercover to get the scoop on the high-school scene. A ridiculed nerd when she was in high school, she starts off pretty bad until her drop-out, but cool, brother enrolls undercover to help her out, giving her an over-night popularity makeover. Both siblings find love and joys of youth again, but in Josie’s case it is sensitive bachelor teacher Sam Coulson. As the publication deadline and prom approach, the price of blowing their cover rises; and it seems ever more daunting, yet inevitable unless she sacrifices her career for love. I think this one is probably on most girls’ chick flick lists. At least, it is if they are my age. I love Drew Barrymore in everything I’ve ever seen her in, and while parts of this movie are too ridiculous for words (Oh Gawd, the Barbie outfits,) parts of it are really sweet. I particularly like the dress Josie wears to the prom (er, her second prom, I mean.) I’m not really a chick flick type of girl, but this movie I’ll watch just because it’s on, even if I’m not in the mood for a chick flick. It’s just a good movie.

Simply Irresistible

Simply Irresistible was made in 1999 by Regency Enterprises and was released by 20^th Century Fox. It is a romantic comedy with a runtime of 96 minutes. Simply Irresistible is about a young woman who inherits her mother’s restaurant, but not her ability to cook. After a shopping trip, she begins to develop the magical ability to influence people’s emotions through her cooking, which is also much improved. Her love interest, a no-nonsense businessman, tries to resist falling in love with her after discovering her powers. I’m not actually certain why I like this movie. I’ve only seen it a handful of times, but every time I watch it, it doesn’t seem to slide off my list of chick flicks. There’s just something about it. I’m not a big fan of either lead actor (although I like Sean Patrick Flanery in The Boondock Saints,) and I wasn’t old enough when this came out to really identify with the characters, so I’m at a loss as to why I like it. I think it might be the idea of magic through cooking… not that I’d use such powers if I had them or anything <.<; No No.

Miss Congeniality

Miss Congeniality was made in 2000 by Castle Rock Entertainment in conjunction with Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment, and Fortis Films, and was released by Warner Bros Pictures. It is an American police comedy, and has a runtime of 109 minutes. Miss Congeniality is about a tough, tomboy FBI agent named Gracie Hart, who is forced to go undercover – as a girly contestant in the Miss America beauty pageant. Aided by master stylist Victor Melling, she must get in touch with her femininity to keep her cover while working with her love interest and fellow FBI agent Eric Mathews to catch a criminal who is planning on blowing up the Miss America pageant. I love this movie. I also really like Sandra Bullock, so it isn’t really a surprise that I’d love a movie where she plays a tom-boy FBI agent. I can even forgive her for getting in touch with her inner femininity, because she pulls it off well, and with humor.

Ever After: A Cinderella Story

Ever After was made in 1998 by Flower Films, and was released by 20^th Century Fox. It is a historical romance based upon the fairy tale of Cinderella, and has a runtime of 121 minutes. Ever After follows the story of a common girl, Danielle de Barbarac, who is treated like a slave by her aristocratic stepmother as she overcomes all odds to become a princess. Yet another Drew Barrymore film; what can I say? I like this movie because it takes all of the magic out of the picture. Magic is all well and good, but watching Cinderella get the prince under her own power is a nice change. Plus, in the end she rescues herself. It’s a very strong picture of womanly independence and strength, while still remaining a romance.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha was made in 2005 by Spyglass Entertainment in conjunction with Amblin Entertainment, and Red Wagon Productions; and was released by Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks. It is a film adaptation of the novel by the same name, and is a historical romance with a runtime of 145 minutes. Memoirs of a Geisha follows the story of an impoverished nine-year-old, named Chiyo, from a fishing village as she is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto’s Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo, until she is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo’s bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha’s mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic and social skills a geisha must master in order to survive in her society. As a renowned geisha she enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. Memoirs of a Geisha has stunning visuals. I cannot say enough about how absolutely gorgeous some of the scenes are in this movie. The story is intriguing and very interesting, with enough romance to really sell as a chick flick. I don’t watch this movie often, but I still love it.

 

Well, there you have it. My top… er, 6… My Top 5 (and a bonus!) Chick Flicks. We’ll go with that, even though the real reason is because I apparently fail at counting. Oh well, hehe. I also just noticed that half of them were made in 1999. Apparently that was a great year for chick flicks or something, or maybe it’s just that movies made in that year were being shown frequently on television when I was a teenager. Either way, way to go 1999. All of these movies are entertaining in their own ways, and they are really great if you’re feeling in a chick flick mood. Speaking of, all this blogging about them has kind of gotten me in the mood for a chick flick, so I think I shall be off to watch one!

 

Until next time,

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

Star Trek : Deep Space 9

By Geeky Gem

As you may or my not know I am a fan of Star Trek and one my more favourite versions of the show was Deep Space 9 or DS:9 for short. I loved this show and never missed an episode.

The show is set in the Milky Way galaxy, approximately during the 2370s. It was the first and only Star Trek production to take place on a space station rather than a starship. However it did eventually have a ship added into it by season 3 we came to know and love the Defiant. To be honest this made the show better as they could explore better story arcs.

DS9 first aired in 1993 and ran for seven seasons, ending in 1999. Rooted in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek universe, it was the first Trek spin-off created without direct involvement from Roddenberry, although he did give his blessing to the concept shortly before his death in 1991. The series was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, not having Roddenberry on board didn’t take anything way from the work these guys did. If Roddenberry had lived longer I think he would have been very proud.

I think the main reason I liked this show was the fact that it was on a space station and not on a ship. this had led to many a debate with my boyfriend over whether its a real Star Trek or not s it doesn’t move. I say it is as it does have the Defiant, he says nope it doesn’t count and will not watch it. Oh well his loss as I love it.

See it counts right? There is a ship. I love the crew onboard the station as well, especially Avery Brookes who plays Captain Benjamin Sisko. Along with additon of many other great characters and story lines it really is  good show to watch. Don’t believe me then watch it. It has amazing special effects and brilliant story. Put this together with some fantastic characters and you have a show that will have you gripped before you can say light speed. Here are the opening credits for season 1.

Wednesday Whimsy

  By: Caelrona

Hiya all! It’s Wednesday again, and I’ve paused my video games to bring you another blog. This week I went to the movie theaters to see Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters with a couple friends of mine. This movie didn’t make it on to my list of 2013 movies from my last blog post because… well, I’m not really sure. It didn’t come up on any of the big lists for expected blockbusters when I was looking up movies for this year, and (maybe because I don’t watch much TV..) I haven’t seen too much in the way of promotion for it. My friends mentioned it to me, and so despite not making it on to my list (and it totally would have done!) I did actually go to a theater and see this one. Furthermore; I liked it. It was just my type of movie; plenty of violence and a bit of gore with enough humor and seriousness to keep it interesting.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters was just released here in America on January 25th. Unfortunately, it won’t be getting released until February or even March in other parts of the world, so I will try my best not to ruin it for those of you who won’t be able to see it immediately. So, in case it wasn’t obvious, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is based on the classic children’s tale of Hansel and Gretel; two little children happen upon a house made of candy in a forest and get captured by the witch living in it. They end up killing her in a desperate struggle to save themselves from being eaten by her. This movie expands on the children’s tale, showing how Hansel and Gretel continued their lives after that incident and turned their gruesome beginning into a unique lifestyle and career.

This movie does a very good job of bringing that original tale to life for adults, as well as adding to it in a clever way. Jeremy Renner (AKA Hawkeye in the Avengers) plays a very no-nonsense, slightly socially-inept and ass-kicking Hansel, while Gemma Arterton (Princess Tamina from the Prince of Persia movie) plays his equally kick-ass, no-nonsense sister Gretel. Both actors are excellent, and their characters feel very believable and real as people. Playing opposite them as their foe is Famke Jansen (Jean Grey from the X-men movies) who delivers an excellent performance as an evil Grand Witch. Apparently she enjoys playing especially powerful female leads, which is nice, because she certainly is good at them.

If you get the chance, I would highly recommend you go and see this in the theaters. I enjoyed it immensely, and I cannot wait until a DVD release so I can have my own copy, because this movie was right up my alley. If you enjoyed movies like Van Helsing, The Prince of Persia, or The Scorpion King then this will definitely be something you’d enjoy. It has that same feel to it as those movies do, although I’m not entirely sure what you’d call that, exactly. Anyway, I will leave you with that!

Until next time,

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

Wednesday Whimsy

By: Caelrona

Hiya all! It is Wednesday yet again, so you know what that means! I have taken a break from my video games to bring you another blog post. Now, I know that it is already the 23^rd of January, so I’m a little late getting started on this, but I was recently looking at films that are going to be coming out this year. I gotta say, some of them have me pretty dang excited, so I thought I’d share them with you. Now, there are a lot of films coming out, and I’m pretty excited about a lot of them (I think 13 of them, at last count?) so I think I will probably limit this to a quick Top 5, as to not take up too much of your day. Anyway, let’s get started!

Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies comes out February 1^st, and I am super excited to see it. I’ve made my love of zombies known in previous blogs, but just in case you missed it; I freakin’ love zombies. Trailers of this have been showing on TV for a while, and they look really awesome. This is one movie I might actually drive the hour and a half to the nearest theater to watch on the big screen, because holy cow; ZOMBIES.

The Host

The Host comes out March 29, and I’m fairly interested. I read this book when it first came out and it is a pretty good book in my opinion. If you haven’t read it, then I would suggest giving it a go, because despite being from the same author as Twilight, it’s actually decent. I have a rule about watching films to which I’ve read the book for, because usually the films are total crap compared to the books (there are notable exceptions to this rule,) so I am still on the fence about whether or not I will watch this, but I will be keeping my eye on it for sure.

Fast and Furious 6

Fast and Furious 6 comes out May 24^th, and I’m really looking forward to it. I know they might not seem like my type of movies, but I have always had a soft spot for the Fast and Furious movies. I like Vin Diesel in most things he plays in (in fact I can’t think of anything I don’t like him in,) and I am super excited to see Michelle Rodriguez back as Letty. I have a soft spot for Michelle Rodriguez, because she is so damn bad ass in everything, and almost always dies.

World War Z

World War Z comes out June 21^st, and I am super excited about it. I believe I may have mentioned my love of zombies before? Yeah? Ok, good. So aside from zombies, there is another reason I want to see this movie; I’ve read the book. Normally that would mean this movie would get crossed off of the list, due to that little rule of mine. However it looks like (from descriptions released to websites like IMDB) this movie is going to be a ‘loosely based on’ type of movie, so I am going to just enjoy it as a separate entity.

Riddick 3

Riddick comes out September 6^th, and this is yet another movie I am super excited about. I loved both Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, and I’ve been waiting for another Riddick movie since then. I cannot wait to see what this movie brings to the Riddick storyline. This one might actually pull me to a theatre as well.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug comes out December 13^th, and like everyone else in the whole bloody world I am so excited to see it. The Hobbit, along with each of the Lord of the Rings books, are among the very few that I’ve broken my Book-or-Movie rule for and I have yet to be disappointed. The movies have all been epic, and I expect nothing less from this one!

 

Ok.. So it ended up being a Top 6. Sorry about that; I completely forgot about Riddick, and I just couldn’t push any others off of my list, so… Top 5 and a Bonus? Maybe? Obviously there are a lot of other movies coming out that I am super excited about as well. Just to name a few we have Thor: The Dark World, Star Trek: Into Darkness,The Seventh Son and The Wolverine. I don’t know about ya’ll, but I know that I am definitely going to be watching the movie releases this year a bit more sharply than I usually do, because there are some pretty awesome things coming out this year.

Until next time,

Caelrona – signing off! ❤

Hmsbeefnuts Returns With His Top 10 Films of Last Year (Better late than never)

By @hmsbeefnuts

 

Hello, I’m back. I haven’t written anything for a while, apart from an attempt at a children’s story, which is still a work in progress. However, I have been very busy with that thing called life, it’s been far too busy as of late to write much of anything. Well, I thought it was high time that I did something to contribute to this blog I started with Geeky Gem, before she thinks I have abandoned her for good, I havent by the way. So last year was a great time to be a movie geek, we had a few films that many geeks didn’t think would ever happen, but were delivered to the screen in fantastic and amazing ways. I enjoyed many films this year, although I didn’t see as many as I would normally have done, I still got more than my fair share in. So standard Top 10 Time is the order of the day… here we go.

 

10. Prometheus

Lots of people didn’t like this Alien Prequel, but I liked it a lot, in fact, I’d rather watch this again than Alien (not Aliens though, obviously). I liked that we didn’t get all the answers, I liked that it left things hanging somewhat. Good special effects, good mature Sci-Fi. Give it another chance, and don’t view it as a direct prequel to Alien, and more of a film set in the same universe, that may answer some questions, but poses far more.

 9. John Carter

 

Again, not a film many people seemed to like, but I loved this fun Sci-Fi/fantasy film. Great effects, a lot of fun, monsters, aliens and fighting, all a growing geek needs. It’s like Star Wars before Star Wars was invented. Probably never going to see a sequel, and it is such a shame.

 

 8. The Grey

 

 

Liam Neeson has to survive a plane crash, freezing Alaskan temperatures, snow, ice and a pack of hungry wolves who are pissed off at humans being in their territory. Although this film wasn’t Wolf Puncher The Movie, as the trailers seemed to suggest, it ended up being so much better. Really worth checking out.

 

 7. Dredd

 

Wasn’t really on my radar, but I absolutely loved this new take on Judge Dredd. Uber violent, loyal to the comic and very stylish, in a low key way. I would love to see a sequel to this. Karl Urban was great as Dredd, and in any other year, this would have been the best comic book movie, but this year was stellar.

 

 6. Cabin in the Woods

 

 

I’m not even going to talk much about this, because you must see this unspoiled. If you like horror of any type, you should give this a watch. An awesome film.

 

5. Skyfall

 

 

A great end to the first Daniel Craig Bond Trilogy. Not quite as good as Casino Royale in my mind, but it was excellent none the less.

 

 

4. Jack Reacher

 

 

Didn’t really expect to like this film as much as I did, but I loved it. I have a lot of time for Cruise, and his Jack Reacher was fantastic. Made me want to check out the books, so job done there. A gripping thriller, with great action, more Reacher please.

 

3. The Dark Knight Rises

 

 

This could easily have been my favourite film of the year, and it could easily change place with number 2. However, I place this as number 3, simply because the spectacle of number 2 won out. This is the end of a brilliant, outstanding trilogy. Lots of people have said that this wasn’t true to the character of Batman, and I can see that point. However, I like to view the Nolan trilogy as kind of an Elseworlds tale. It seems impossible to imagine a better, realistic take on Batman, simply brilliant.

 

2. The Avengers

 

 

I never thought it would happen, and then I never thought it would be this good. The Hulk was the stand out star, but the beauty was everyone got to shine. This was no easy task to film, and Marvel and Joss Whedon did a miraculous job. Phase one is over, on to phase two, I can not wait.

 

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

 

 

 

My personal favourite film of the year. I love Middle Earth, have done since my Dad read me The Hobbit when I was 5. I loved the books, loved the films, and was in no doubt that I would love The Hobbit. Well, I was right wasn’t I. This film was magnificent, yes it did take a while to get going, but it needed that time. Time spent in the Shire is never wasted. It felt like meeting old friends, slipping back into a comfortable state of amazingness. I could watch this film endlessly, everything was wonderful and just as I imagined. Thank you Mr. Jackson. There will always be part of me that will wonder what Del Toro’s Hobbit would have been like, but overall, I’m glad PJ got to do this, it ties everything up with the Trilogy much better.

Spot Light on Stand-Up: Rhod Gilbert

By Geeky Gem

A few months ago Hmsbeefnuts did some blogs on his favourite comedians, now as I am not one to be left out I thought I would do one on a gentleman I have had the pleasure of seeing live.

Mr Rhod Gilbert is a Welsh comedian from Carmarthen, he didn’t take up comedy until 2002, after taking a comedy workshop course. Of course within 18 months, Rhod had already won several different talent competitions which lead to him being for the Perrier Newcomer award for his first solo show in 2005 at Edinburgh Fringe entitled 1984.

He has since gone on to perform live shows called Knocking on Heaven’s Door in 2006,  Who’s eaten Gilbert’s Grape in 2007, The Award Winning Mince Pie in 2008 and 2009, The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst in 2009 and 2010 moving on to his latest show The Man with Flaming Battenberg Tattoo. Besides doing stand up Rhod has also got his own radio show on BBC Cymru along with a television show called Ask Rhod.

However the show I have loved him the most is called Rhod Gilbert: Work Experience where he travels around Wales trying out different jobs sometimes with straight face sometimes with out. If you havent seen it you must its is really good.

Anyway last year I went to see him do stand up here in Cardiff on his Man with the Flaming Battenberg Tattoo tour.

I have to say it was the funniest 3 hours of my life last year, at one point he hadn’t even noticed he was meant to take a break and had been on stage for well and 1 hour and 45 minutes. His brand of dead pan comedy is brilliant and I can’t stop laughing when he tells some of the jokes. The duvet from the mince-pie show still makes laugh. if you have never seen Rhod live or in fact any of his shows you ave to give them a go. He sometimes appears on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. I am going to leave with just a small clip of Rhod in action.

This clip is about him buying bedding, taken from the comedy roadshow but it does also appear in the mince-pie tour.