Bloggers Block, No Time and A Million Other Excuses…

By @hmsbeefnuts

Hey there, it’s me, hmsbeefnuts. Now I’m only into my second week of my new, less strenuous amount of time writing for my beloved All Geek To Me, and already I’m finding it hard to keep up. I know it’s a poor excuse, especially since I have always found time to write blogs, mostly 3 a week, but at the moment, life is getting in the way. The fact that I’m enjoying the majority of it immensely is the only reason I’m not more ashamed of my bloggers work ethic. Simply put, I’m far too busy in work, and with the people I love most to be able to fully commit my time here, and yes, it is sad that I feel like I’m letting down my fellow geeks, especially Geeky Gem, but I hope she understands, and forgives me for the increasing number of low maintenance blogs. I also hope that anybody who reads this and gives a damn will forgive me too, I am trying my best, I promise.

I have been reading Storm of Swords: Book 2 Blood and Gold by George R. R. Martin. I have just read the Red Wedding Chapter. Now I spoiled myself a few months ago with a Wikipedia search, so I knew it was going to happen, but damn! Martin sure likes to kill off my favourite characters. Apart from the upset at the horrible goings on in Westeros, A Song of Ice and Fire just keeps on getting better, I can’t wait for Season 3 of Game of Thrones.

I’ve also been enjoying Dexter, and Finding Bigfoot, still have not played much of my game library, and have not been to the cinema for like a month. I am going this Saturday however, so I’ll try and fit in a fair few, get really stuck in.

I haven’t even had time to watch my Indiana Jones Blu Rays. It seems I am a changed man, more likely to be found pretending to be The Joker or Cpt. Hook, than to be watching Batman and playing Halo. Christmas time is approaching ever so fast. I have purchased the majority of my presents (thank you Amazon.co.uk) but the time is just disappearing like a hobbit with the One ring around his finger. Speaking of which, I can hardly believe that the Hobbit will be out in a few weeks time, I am so excited, yet I know very little about it. It seems I’m out of the Geek Loop a little.

Anyway, I shall bid you farewell, as I have a Dexter to watch, and sleep to catch up with.

UK Top 10 Films

By Kirkie Chick

Welcome to the weekly cinema chart! The box office this week has perked up in numbers according to reports. So let’s have a look at the top ten films this week!

1. Looper, £2,427,994 (New)

2. ParaNorman, £1,080,197: Total: £4,304,900

3. Resident Evil: Retribution, £792,265 (New)

4. The Campaign, £772,102 (New)

5. House At The End Of The Street, £545,961: Total: £1,864,304

6. Killing them Softly, £470,712: Total: £2,069,984

7. Hope Springs, £423,051: Total: £3,041,790

8. The Sweeney, £410,578:  Total: £3,876,142

9. Brave, £400,511: Total: £21,219,445

10. Untouchable, £317,979: Total: £493,309

We have a new number 1 this week. Looper is a popular science fiction film starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The mob in 2072 when they want rid they send them back into the past where a hitman is waiting, but one guy goes back and is met by his younger self. The director did a film called Brick (2005) which found a following on DVD. Knowing this film I hope that Looper is just as good. Number 2 sees ParaNorman sitting strong in the chart. This is such a good film and I highly recommend. In at number 3 is Resident Evil: Retribution, the fifth film in the Resident Evil series. It seems from reports that this film isn’t as good as the others. It has been released in IMAX like the previous one and in some cinemas only in 3D, which maybe harming the film’s attendance. Time will tell. Number 4 is Will Ferrell’s comedy The Campaign, the story of a congressman targeted by two CEOs to rid him of his position use a naive man to get votes. It seems like your typical slapstick comedy from Will Ferrell. House at the End of the Street sits at number 5. I went to see this. I had heard mixed reviews about it. I thought it was an average psychological thriller, possibly a bit predictable. Number 6 sees Killing Them Softly is still bringing in audiences. I have also heard of mixed reviews about this film. I say make up your own mind. Hope Springs, drops down a couple of spaces from last week to number 7. It does seem that younger audiences are seeing this film as well as the older audience. The Sweeney has also dropped from its previous position to number 8. This film has a steady audience but may be gone from the top ten next week. Brave is still sitting in the chart at number 9. It is such a charming film and I highly recommend. Number 10 sees a film which was released last week but didn’t make the top ten, Untouchable. It has charmed audiences. The story of a wealthy man who after an accident becomes a quadriplegic hires a young man from the wrong side of the tracks as his caretaker. It is a French film with English subtitles. It has been praised at various film festivals.

I hope you will find a good film to watch amongst this chart. That’s it for this week. Until next time happy cinema viewing!

(Source The Guardian Online)

WEDNESDAY WHIMSY

By @hmsbeefnuts

This weeks Wednesday Whimsy will be an ode to holidays. Not the kind of holiday where you board a plane and jet off to exotic places for a week or two, and certainly not a celebration of some religious event (for that is where holiday gets its origin, holiday/holy-day, your welcome fact fans). This year I have a week off, one whole week away from work, where I get to do exactly what I want for a whole week, exciting huh? Well it is for me. So far, we are a day in, and I have slept in and gone to the cinema and made some nice food, and taken my dog for long walks. Pretty good so far. But I thought I’d let you know about what else I have planned for the week, at least in a geek context, let the Summer of Jon commence!

As I mentioned above, I saw Brave yesterday. A lot of people are hating on this film, but for me, Brave is one of, if not the, best Pixar film. The animation is obviously stunning, as usual, but the theme of the film is right up my alley. The ancient Scottish wilderness is simply beautiful, stunning hills and mountains, picturesque forests and castles and brilliantly rendered characters, many of which are memorable. The protagonist herself, Merida, is a strong female role model, and one of the most likeable animated characters in a while. Sure, the story is pretty basic, we all learn a valuable lesson in the end, but then it must be remembered that this is a kids film, and although it doesn’t stray far from typical fairytale plot points, including a witch, although, not all that wicked, this is no bad thing. Sometimes the simplest stories are the best.

Perhaps the most ‘Disney’ of the Pixar films, Merida should fit nicely into the Disney Princess Sorority, even if she is very ballsy and would destroy Katniss Everdeen in an archery competition. I’m a fan of fairy stories, myths and legends, and Brave defiantly feels like it belongs in such illustrious company. I saw Brave in a room full of excited kids and not so excited parents, but everyone left the theatre smiling. The film had good action scenes, was scary enough just to put an edge on proceedings, and I’ll admit it, quite heart warming at times. I went to see this with my Mum, and there is not a better person you could take with you to see this, go take your Mum now. I’ll admit it, I’m not a fawning Pixar fan, I like The Incredibles, Nemo and Monster Inc. but hate Toy Story, Cars, Wall-E and Ratatouille. Brave however, did it for me, top marks Pixar.

Today I returned to the Cinema, this time for The Bourne Legacy. I had enjoyed all The Bourne films thus far, and am happy to say this continued with this new direction for the franchise. Taking place during the events of the previous films, The Bourne Legacy widens and enhances the Bourne Universe, revealing that the secret goings on of Treadstone etc. go way beyond Mr. Bourne. Hawkeye himself, Jeremy Renner is our hero and he handles himself superbly, even coming close to a certain Mr Neeson in one specific wolf fighting scene. It seems that wolves are the go to animal for putting main characters in danger. As is usual in these kind of spy films, characters all talk very quickly about secret organisations with amazing names and codewords, I love all that stuff. Ed Norton is the man charged with bad guy duties, and he does a reasonable job of trying to track Renner down. The beautiful and amazing Rachel Weisz is on hand to scream a bit, then lend a hand, and maybe become a bit of a love interest at the end. The action is typical of The Bourne Franchise, all parkour running about, bike chases and slick taking people down with no fuss.

The film is perfectly watch-able and enjoyable, but I do think that I should have perhaps re-watched the previous films, just to keep things fresh in my mind, however, if this is your first Bourne film, it wouldn’t be too confusing, although you may wonder why Matt Damon is reduced to a few black and white picture cameos. By no means a great film, but I enjoyed it and would watch a further sequel, and isn’t that all a film really needs to accomplish. Worth my time and money.

Later on this week I plan on seeing The Expendables 2, and that should be enough cinema for anyone in one holiday. Anyway, that’s enough chatter about me, I would also like to comment on All Geek To Me as a whole. Geeky Gem and I would like to extend our sincerest thanks to everyone who has read, commented or licked a link to All Geek To Me over the past 8 months. On Sunday we hit a huge landmark of 25,000 views, we broke our weekly view record with a very respectable 1,921 views and also beat our previous daily record of views with a fantastic 368 in one day. So a massive thank you once again. I really don’t think either Geeky Gem or I ever thought we would get 1,000 views, let alone 25,000 so we are very grateful to you all. I’ll catch you next week with some more rubbish about something I haven’t thought of yet, catch you guys later.

 

MY BIGGEST CINEMATIC DISAPOINTMENTS

BY @hmsbeefnuts

I don’t know about you, but I can usually find something to like in most things. I can forgive little things here and there in films, justifying that, maybe I wouldn’t have done it that way, but as a whole, the film was watch-able. There are not many films that I walk away from filled with hatred and disgust. There are a few though. As I go to the cinema weekly, I get to see a lot of films, but these next films, well, they are the worst (or best) examples of disappointments that I have experienced in a theatre. Most of these are for personal reasons, but all left me gutted as I walked out of the screen, hatred and disgust, seeping out of every pore. Sounds pathetic? Well, it’s only because I care so much, that I allow myself to become so disappointed, and I’m sure we have all felt the same kind of thing at some point. So read on to find out what films I wanted to walk out of, what films I could barely keep from loudly booing. Let the hate commence.

ALEXANDER

Alexander the Great is my favourite bloke in all of history. I studied him at university, he is a personal hero of mine, he was the greatest general to have ever lived, never lost a battle, was a legendary hero in a very real world. To say I was looking forward to this is an understatement the size of the Macedonian Empire. I sat there waiting to be wowed by the tails of my favourite ancient hero, and within twenty minutes, I wanted to run away and hide. I just hated it, I don’t know whether it was the editing, the rushed nature of the battle scenes, the Irish accents that the Macedonians had, or all of the above and more. I just knew that I was watching a film about this great man, and it was sullying his good name, at least in my eyes. I walked out of the film in a stinking mood, perhaps I was too close to the subject matter, that I had a vision in my head of an Alexander the Great Film, and this was certainly not it. I have subsequently watched the Directors Cut, and it is much better, but it can’t quite wash the sour taste out of my mouth of the film I saw at the cinema. There is a great Alexander film to be made, and one day I will see it, hopefully.

SPIDER-MAN 3

The amount I was looking forward to a third Spider-Man film was incalculable by mere words. I had loved Spider-Man 1 & 2, they were awesome films, bringing the seemingly impossible to the screen. My brother, a huge Spidey fan, my best friend and I went to the first showing, buzzing with excitement, and very much looking forward to seeing Venom on screen. Things were OK for about an hour, and then, well, it all fell apart in front of our eyes. Topher Grace was never going to be a good Eddie Brock, or a good anything, in anything, but I didn’t hate him at first, that was to change quickly. Venom was botched, Sandman was ret-conned to be the man who killed Uncle Ben, Peter Parker had become a walking, dancing ‘dig on this’ emo nightmare. The film was rushed, too crowded and just not up to the high standards of the first two. All three of us walked out of the cinema with a heavy heart, it had destroyed us to hate a Spider-Man film. That wasn’t supposed to happen, we were supposed to be elated, talking about our favourite parts, reliving the good bits. Instead we made our way solemnly to the car and went home. I don’t think we even said more than ten words to each other.

CLASH OF THE TITANS

Harryhausen was my bread and butter growing up. I had watched the original Clash of the Titans so much when I was young, the tape broke. I don’t tend to think that remakes are necessarily a bad thing, and so when a new Clash was announced, my excitement level was high. What would modern day Harryhausens be able to conjure up on a computer and put on a cinema screen? 3D was a big factor, but I heard it wasn’t too good in the film, and so, opening weekend, I sat in a normal 2D screening, ready to be blown away…. Two films on, I’m still waiting. Clash was abhorrent. Sam ‘G’day mate’ Worthington, is not meant to play ancient heroes. The story was a pale comparison to the original, and the monsters were not half as exciting, or magical. I wanted to punch the person in front of me, just to release some hatred, but instead, it slowly built over two hours until it was at a fever pitch. I left as soon as the credits rolled, I had to be out of there, I couldn’t stand it any more. Having not seen it since, I can’t really remember what I hated so much about it now, and believe me, I don’t fancy re watching it in order to remind myself. I just know I hated almost every second of it, and hated the preceding second twice as much as the previous. I still went to watch Wrath of the Titans, and I was slightly less disappointed by the sequel, but only by an amount that could be measured by a super powerful calculator.

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE

I was initially sceptical about the whole Harry Potter phenomenon. I didn’t want to watch a ‘baby’ film, and Lord Of The Rings was so much better. I soon changed my mind when a girl dragged me to see the first Harry Potter. Although LOTR was superior, I loved Harry Potter, and was at all the opening day screenings of all the films from then on, and of course, devoured the books. It was all going so swimmingly, until Half Blood Prince. I was so bored during this film, I fell asleep, twice. I don’t understand what went wrong. The scene that was most important to the story was botched beyond all recognition (clue: it involved the death of a beloved character), and the film was quite simply, depressing. Thins didn’t get much better in the next film either, but kicked it up about 20 gears for the final film. Admittedly, the book is a bit of a chore too, but I just didn’t connect with this film. Walking out of it, I was majorly disappointed, to a degree I never expected from the Harry Potter franchise. I guess it’s not the worst film ever made, but high expectations can lead to crushing failures. I expected too much perhaps, and was served something less than spectacular. I didn’t enjoy this film at all, and I so wanted to, so very much.

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

Raiders of the Lost Ark is in my top 2 favourite movies. I love Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade is really good. When Crystal Skull was announced, I’ll admit, I was excited, I felt no apprehension at all, perhaps foolishly, but I trusted Spielberg and Ford, not so much Lucas, to keep up to the series high standards. I also like Shia Lebeuf, and the return of Marion sounded like a good send off to the series. WOW. Was I wrong. As I sat there with a group of friends, at a midnight screening, all my joy and hope seemed to be draining out of me. Ford looked old, the plot was shit, Shia Lebeuf doing a King of the Monkeys impression. The fridge getting nuked, the god-damn gophers, and stupid fucking Aliens. I tried to put a brave face on it. It wasn’t that bad was it? Was it? Yes, it was terrible, awful, a disgrace. Luckily, there are three awesome Indy films, and the fourth never needs to be watched or talked about in polite conversation. Usually I’d be all for a new Indy adventure, but maybe they need to leave him alone, Indy doesn’t need to be dug up again, he belongs in a museum, with the other works of art. I was slightly depressed for a few days after watching Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I’m over it now of course, but I don”t wish to repeat that experience again.

WEDNESDAY WHIMSY

By @hmsbeefnuts

Hello Wednesday fans, and welcome to some more Whimsy. I must admit, Wednesday is my least favourite day of the week, it doesn’t know what it is really does it? Smack bang in the middle of the week, too far away from Saturday, yet far enough from Monday to be truly tedious. Yet in Britain, it is Orange Wednesday, where customers of Orange Phones can get 2 cinema tickets for the price of one!! Unfortunately, this means the cinema is full, and thus, not a good day to go. Damn you Wednesday, damn you to the very pits of Hades, from whence you emerged, all boring and joyless. Hmm. Excuse me.

Now next Month here at All Geek To Me, we will mostly be getting very excited about The Dark Knight Rises and will be celebrating this fact in our Summer Knights celebration. As such, my usual round up of the films I watched during the last month, will now take the place of this weeks Wednesday Whimsy. So I hope you look forward to some of the articles etc. we have coming up, and hope you enjoy my following look at the films I deemed worthy of a trip to the cinema this month.

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

 

This feels like ages ago now, having seen Snow White on June 1^st. I did like it very much, despite Kirsten Stewart being in it. Someone needs to cheer her up, perhaps buy her a happy meal, and a chocolate shake, because she seems to have one acting mode, look depressingly off into the middle distance, and bite her lip. The fact that clearly she is not the fairest in the land, especially when that land is ruled by Charlise Theron, can be passed by, as in all other aspects, SWATH was pretty damn good. The production design on this movie was fantastic, and the Troll in particular is surely in with a shout as top cinematic monster this year? I liked that the film had quite a retro feel, it seemed to be reaching into the 80’s, to movies such as The Princess Bride and Legend. The dwarfs were quite good too, even if they were used sparingly. Theron was a good big bad, and the only weak point was the Wicked Queens pathetic brother, not menacing enough to be a threat, and with a very stupid hair cut. The first movie this month to promote the axe as the weapon of choice, SWATH, is well worth your time.

PROMETHEUS

 

Oh Boy. The most controversial film for quite some time, and one that has split critics and audience members alike between those who loved it, and those that didn’t get it. Well I saw this film twice, and I loved it both times. Clearly this is a prequel to Alien, although not a direct prequel. Yes, the film is engineered to make you think, it is not a film that gives away all it’s motives. Yes there are curious things that don’t quite seem to fit. For example, the scientists in this film seem extraordinarily stupid, there is a character played by a young man, who is in some very odd old age make up, and certain things are glossed over, character’s actions don’t always seem to fit 100 %. However, I don’t think that Prometheus is any different from any number of films, especially Alien, where scientists act in stupid ways (why would anyone put their face over an opening Alien egg sack?). It is part one of a purposed new trilogy. Things aren’t going to be spoon fed to you, questions will be posed, and not necessarily answered right away. I liked this film more than the original Alien, but not as much as Aliens. I can’t wait for a sequel. The film was beautifully shot, well acted and had a great fan pleasing final shot. This film is a great conversation starter. Go see it with a few friends, and prepare to talk about it for the next few days.

RED TAILS

 

I hadn’t really expected very much from this film, apart from some impressive dog fights and aerial combat scenes, Red Tails hadn’t had a great time of it when it was released earlier this year in the US. I have to say, that I enjoyed this film quite a bit. Yes, the cgi battle scenes were very good, a bit like a more earthly Star Wars, however, I also enjoyed the story, characters and acting. It was not a story I was familiar with, but it was one of bravery and courage in the face of battle, and oppression. It was refreshing to see a Hollywood movie that starred an almost exclusively black cast, and it really made me wonder why Cuba Gooding Jnr. Doesn’t get more quality roles. If you see Red Tails, go for the awesome battle scenes and daring do, but you might be surprised that you start to really care about the characters, seeing as this is a Lucas Film production, and lets be honest, it was very hard to care about most of the characters in the Star Wars Prequels, or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Red Tails is a good movie, perfect Sunday afternoon watching.

JAWS

 

I have written about JAWS before, and some of you will know that it is one of my two favourite films ever made. Until a few weeks ago, however, I had never seen it in a cinema. It was worth the trip. I always think that films are meant to be shown theatrically, that no matter how big your TV, how booming your surround sound, it will never compare to the cinema. I have seen JAWS hundreds of times, but I never saw it fully before. The picture popped, the sound was crisp, the viewing was tense and exciting and the best I had ever seen JAWS look. I am a massive fan of these re-releases, and hope that they continue, the classic films of the past need to be experienced the way they were supposed to be experienced, on a huge screen with pristine sound, and in the pitch black, that draws you further into the story and the drama. JAWS was the best film I saw this month, but that isn’t exactly fair, as it is the best film I have ever seen in a theatre, until Raiders of the Lost Ark gets re-released.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER

When trailers for this movie were showing in front of films I have seen, a collective groan could be heard, barely audible, but still very much there. The groan always annoyed me. Yes I had read the book this movie was based on, and enjoyed the hell out of it, but that still didn’t account for the majority of people thinking this looked stupid, and me thinking it looked amazing. Turns out they were wrong and I was right. This was a very entertaining, and exciting thrill ride, with a touch of real history, that included some of the coolest vampires seen on screen for a good while, and two very inventive action sequences that whilst slightly ridiculous, fit perfectly into the universe of the film. I thought the acting was of a good standard, the production design was outstanding, and for the love of all that is holy, Abe had a gun axe. Even the 3D, which I was forced to view it in, didn’t bother me at all. Easily the best movie Tim Burton has been involved in since Sleepy Hollow, I enjoyed this very very much.

Wednesday Whimsy

By @hmsbeefnuts

Thursday is named after the mighty Thunder God Thor, but today isn’t Thursday. It is Wednesday, and as we all know, Wednesday is named after the God of both Weddings and Retro Gaming, WedNES (sic). WedNES, was in the Greek Pantheon and was son of Zeus and the beautiful Princess Peach. Greeks would pray to WedNES on the occasions of weddings, or indeed, when they were experiencing a particularly hard level of Mario Bros. The usual offerings were a mysterious liquid called Gamerfuel, or some marzipan and icing. This of course is complete rubbish that I have made up, in order to start Wednesday off in a whimsical tone. With that done, onwards to some stuff!!!

June has started off quite well movie wise. Thus far this month, I have seen Snow White and the Huntsman, Prometheus and Red Tails. I have enjoyed all three, so that’s a positive. Next, I am very much looking forward to the re-release of JAWS. I have never seen this in a cinema, and very much want to, it is one of my 2 favourite films of all time after all. Please local ODEON Cardiff Bay. Please show JAWS. I will love you forever, well, love you more than I already do, which is a not inconsiderable amount.

Talking of Cinema, the subject of snacks enters my mind. What are your favourite Cinema nibbles? I know people who basically bring a full picnic into a movie, and others that don’t even sip a drink. Personally, I like a sandwich/hot dog, or nachos, I can’t stand popcorn, and a Pepsi Max or 7-up. When I was in the States, the cinema snack selection was vastly superior, chicken fingers and curly fries, with a refillable Mr Pibb, hell yeah. There is something so disgustingly amazing about the nacho cheese that draws me to it again and again, horribly delicious.

In TV land, I am finding it very hard to deal with the loss of Game of Thrones. It is far far to long to wait for Season 3. I will have to find a replacement show, and as it happens, Dexter starts soon, so I can replace Westeros for Miami. I know True Blood is back this week, and I really loved the first 3 seasons, but season 4 lost me, it was too much with the fairies and stuff. I haven’t yet seen the second (third?) season of Spartacus, so I will definitely be giving that a go, and Finding Bigfoot comes back soon too, so maybe it won’t be so bad after all.

I have bought a lot of Batman Graphic Novels in the past, not so many in the last year, but I have picked up the re-released No Mans Land Vol. 1 & 2. The Dark Knight Rises is supposed to be, at least slightly, inspired by these books, and so I will work my way through them before I go and see the film. I am also stuck half way through A Storm of Swords Book 1. I’m finding it such a chore to read at the moment, the more I write, the less I want to read it seems. Although I have been working my way through The Monster Hunters Survival Guide, by. A lovely book explaining how to kill, or subdue numerous monsters throughout the world, it is wonderfully illustrated, and I feel by the end of it, I will be fully prepared for every monstrous eventuality. My favourite chapter, has of course, been on Bigfoot.

Games were announced at E3, games that look amazing and I really want to play, and as with reading, I don’t have much time to play games any more. Nintendo’s E3 conference was a bit of a damp squib, although I still want a Wii U. I’m shocked that they didn’t announce a 3D Mario, Zelda, Mario Kart, Star Fox, F-Zero, Metroid, Smash Brothers, or Donkey Kong. However, New Super Mario Bros. U looks good, and some of the Nintendoland mini games look fun, but surely this game needs to come free with the Wii U, just like Wii Sports came with the Wii.

Finally, I will leave you with some awesome looking trailers for Tarrantino’s Django Unchained, and Disney’s new animation Wreck It Ralf. Check them out below, and catch you soon.