My Geeky Trivia

By Geeky Gem

For this week trivia I am taking back in time again to a movie I loved as a child and had for Christmas on Blu-Ray. Flight of the Navigator was just one movie that as a kid I watched over and over again.

When David’s parents pull up to their house in the beginning of the movie, the song playing on the car radio is “You’re The One That I Want” from “Grease”, also directed by Randal Kleiser.

In his room in Nasa base, David asks when “Starsky and Hutch” is broadcast. Director Randal Kleiser also directed Starsky and Hutch.

The ship used in the movie can be found in a boneyard at the Disney MGM Studios Theme Park at Walt Disney World in Florida. It can be seen on the studio tour.   (Which I have seen and have a picture of.)

The tee-shirt worn by the girl at the restroom is for EPCOT Center, the then-new Disney theme park in Florida. Her brother is wearing a Miami Vice tee-shirt.

When MAX, the ship computer, is describing the animals he has on board, he said “That is a Feenastarus from the Pixar Elliptic”. This was five years before Pixar, a fledgling special effects computer group at the time, teamed up with Disney, who produced this film.

The second film released under the Disney banner to contain profanities (the first being 1981’s The Devil and Max Devlin). The word “shit” is said twice.

When escaping the NASA facility, MAX and David travel “precisely 20 miles from point of origin” in approximately 35 seconds. This is equivalent to a speed of 2,057 miles per hour.

One of the prop hulls was refurbished and is now used as the topper to a drink station in Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.

The music video playing in the scene where David meets Carolyn McAdams is Blancmange’s “Lose Your Love.”

There we have it, Flight of Navigator was an awesome movie and has all the things I love in it, Aliens, adventure and a talking ship what more could you want.

Sorry Everyone

By @hmsbeefnuts

Hey guys, Hmsbeefnuts here with a bit of an apology. Well, it’s an apology if you were expecting something of any worth written here today. The story is as follows, last night, whilst perusing some sites before bed, I managed to pick up one of those virus things, that completely got passed my anti-virus stuff, so thanks for that. Anyway, long story short, I had to reboot, and lost the blog post that I was going to post today, a third entry in my Geek Olympic series, as well as all my videos, pictures and songs and everything so once again, fantastic. I spent most of today fixing things, but my tardiness at backing things up, has left me an article short, and with a feeling of stupidness bordering on full retardation.

Now for fans of my Olympic outbursts, don’t worry, I will rewrite what I lost, and make it better than ever!! However, we are left with a quandary, what can I write about that is quick and easy and still borderline entertaining? Well I did think of just posting up some scantily clad pictures of super hot actresses, but since scantily clad ladies may have been partially responsible for my current predicament, I thought better of it. No instead, today’s super short article will be some pictures of that other thing that drives our hearts, apart from sex, food. America is obviously the king when it comes to delicious food that is very very bad for you, and damn it, it is all so good. Here are some foods, and drinks that I must have when visiting the States, but are very difficult, if not impossible, to get here. The more observant of you may have in fact noticed, I have already placed some in the article, full marks if you did.

British food is complete shit compared to US food, and I can’t believe that Americans put up with it when they come over here.

Now I will bring this article to a long overdue close with a picture of Wild Cherry Pepsi.

Wow, I really half arsed this one didn’t I? I would like to apologise again for the shittyness of this blog, I haven’t even gone on about how tasty Mountain Dew, and Wild Cherry Pepsi are, or how Crunchy Cheetos are the finest snack in the world, or Bologna, my god bologna!!! It’s just a really hastily put together post with a few bright pictures to bulk it up and make it look presentable, but there we are, that’s what I get for looking at porn late at night instead of sleeping. I will return next week with a proper post, forgive me, I tried my best, I am on holiday you know…

Indie Cinema and Why I Hate It

By @hmsbeefnuts

What is an indie film? Well for me, an indie film is perfectly captured in the work of Wes Anderson. The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic and Moonrise Kingdom. I hate all these films. I have only seen two of them. The trailer alone for Moonrise Kingdom is enough to make me spill my Pepsi Max and scatter my popcorn everywhere. It literally disgusts me to my core. I have never been a fan of that kind of quirky little drama film, although I will admit to liking some, namely Eagle Vs Shark, and Gentleman Broncos, but in the main, I just don’t get what is so appealing about these boring, boring films.

It annoys me when these films are praised to the sky. ‘How original’; critics say, ‘Five stars!!’. What?!? There is very little original about the majority of indie films, they are, in my opinion, very formulaic, perhaps even more so than films such as Battleship. Now in no way am I saying that Battleship was a good film, or in fact, very original, but I did enjoy watching it at the cinema. It was dumb, loud, expolsive and stupid, but it was fun, for two hours. I would never watch it again, but it was popcorn flick that gave me enough bang for my movie buck. Films by Wes Anderson etc. very rarely, if ever provide me, with value for money.

I could write a Wes Anderson story outline, let me attempt it here. Small Town America. Weird loner, lets say, male, adolescent. Outcast from the ‘cool’ kids in school/job/town. Has a weird hobby, lets say, flies kites. His parents are divorced, or at least, he comes from a ‘broken home’. He hangs out with one other weird, although not quite so weird kid, they don’t say much to each other. He is useless with women, although a very cute girl takes a fancy to him. He gets involved in contrived weird situations, and becomes some what of a local hero, or overcomes some obstacle, although he doesn’t learn anything and at the end of the film, he is very much in the same position as he was at the start. He still loves flying kites, not talking to his friend and being weird. If Wes or his mates haven’t already made a film exactly like that, I’m sure he will very soon. The style of the film is bleak, washed out colours, boring camera moves, no visual flare, depressingly boring.

I would rather chew my own dick off than watch The Royal Tenenbaums again, or The Life Aquatic, or Fantastic Mr. Fox, or Where The Wild Things Are. I get that these films clearly aren’t made for me. I go to the cinema for spectacle, to see worlds and lands and adventures I could only imagine. I don’t go to see an even worse version of real life. I fail to see any positives in films like these, and things get even worse, if that’s possible, when British indie films come out. Instead of the enforced weirdness and whimsy that infuses American indie cinema, British indie films are very depressing, very boring and harrowing. No thanks. British cinema has some great genre films and film makers, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Dog Soldiers. Film makers with talent and vision like Neil Marshal and Edgar Wright.

I’m sorry if you like Wes Anderson and his contemporaries. I know that they are reasonably popular, that they speak to a certain audience, that audience just isn’t me. I know at least one person who contributes to this blog that happens to like Wes Anderson, and I hope that soon she will leap to his defence and tell me why I am very, very wrong. The geek world is broad and wide, one geek’s treat, is another geek’s trick, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what makes life interesting? Enough of my ranting, I shall leave you with this final thought, Wes Anderson is rubbish, catch you soon!!