Q&A: Anything goes

OK. Here's the time to ask questions. Either ask on the blog via the comments section, on my Twitter and I will answer them whenever possible. You can ask me about anything. Anything on my blogs. Anything about movies, music whatever the topic is. Anything. Anything about what I think in entertainment, culture, whatever. It's all up to you.

But here's a limit. For each Q&A you only get to ask one question. The question should not have something about my personal life. Don't ask me where do I live. Don't ask me what school do you go too because I'm trying to be anomynous as possible on the Web.

Quick music - Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Vampire Weekend

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

From literally one of the world's biggest bands, The Suburbs, their latest album is one of the most addictive albums I have listened from a band. Arcade Fire is a new Radiohead for a new generation. Their contemporary lyrics deal with living in a suburban life and dealing with the national id of yourself. It may not have greater like their previous albums Neon Bible or Funeral (which I haven't heard yet) but The Suburbs is their most ambitious yet.

The album is nominated in both Album Of The Year and the indie-restricted category Alternative Album Of The Year. It may win Album Of The Year based on critical analysis but it certainly will win Alternative.

Listen to tracks: The Suburbs, Ready To Start, Sprawl II, Empty Room, Half Light (No Celebration).

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Reading reviews from Pitchfork is boring unless an album recieves a perfect score. (10.0). Kanye West's latest MBDTF is the first album to recieve that score since Wilco and sparked a range of opinions on Twitter. Besides I would have gave The Social Network a 10.0

 But it's right that the record should receive that kind of score because this is literally a work of art from West as it makes hip hop more into a art form. He's inspired by the all lows to create this classic that is metaphorically an abstract portrait of a modern man.

He may be that genre's Radiohead or Thom Yorke. College Dropout or Late Registration is his The Bends, Graduation is his OK Computer, 808s was his Kid A, this record would be his In Rainbows or another OK Computer but like that album more critically acclaimed.

I never heard hip hop with such ambition and really grandiose as this album and it goes within its hype that may have West forgiven.

Listen to tracks: Runaway, Monster, Power, Gorgeous, So Appalled, Lost In The World

Vampire Weekend - Contra

This is one of those albums that I listen when I feel happy. Let's face it. Hipster culture makes me happy. Music, movies and women who are act like hipsters. Vampire Weekend is one of them. And it's one of their catchiest record to date.

The ambiguous lyrics can be heard from Cousins and Holiday because of the fast pace and the slow but mellow Diplomat's Son which reminds me of a movie made by Woody Allen. But all for a while Vampire Weekend mixes African beats and reggae with pop. It's what indie rock is all about



Listen to tracks: White Sky, Cousins, Giving Up The Gun, Diplomat's Son 

Franchises teenagers can't get enough of

According to the Oxford Dictionary, franchise is a term used to describe a series of operations whether its film or tv for the use of commercialism. Franchises are the back bone of Hollywood's operations since they can't keep going if they are done. Hollywood is totally desperate for franchises coming and going so they can make a shit load of money. And they spend that money to make more movies and to pay their actors in any list based on alphabetical order. If you're an A lister (technically there's no such thing, but i'm telling you) you get about $20 million a year. Currently the highest paid actors are the stars from Harry Potter raking bwtween $15 and $20 million.

I like that process that Hollywood is doing because it's been active for almost eons. But I don't like what Hollywood is changing. Back in the 20th century, Hollywood was making movies with such directors like Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorcese and the Coppolas. In Hollywood there was no such thing as a franchise until Star Trek, Star Wars and The Godfather came in. The Godfather is rather the greatest franchise of all time despite the fact that it is a trilogy. Now we have Twilight, Transformers, Harry Potter, Saw, Hostel and most recently the Fockers.

Currently, this is too much.

In the past, we often got movies that doesn't come up with more than two films. For instance you can't have a sequel to Blade Runner not only because it wasn't a box office success, but because it's based on a Phillip K. Dick novel that doesn't span more than two books just like the Harry Potter series or the LOTR trilogy.

Some of the well known franchises spanned by Hollywood back were Indiana Jones, Robocop (even though it shouldn't be made), Alien and The Terminator. All were good except for Robocop but we're in the 21st century and it's the year 2011 and we are getting sequels. Lots of sequels. The major animation studios Pixar and Dreamworks are releasing sequels to Cars and Kung Fu Panda, a sequel to The Hangover and Zombieland both to be sleeper hits two years ago, a prequel to X Men but this time it's the X-Men and to top off the year's end, Sherlock Holmes.

Is it just me or is Hollywood out of control?

The reason why I'm complaining is there is one too many. Sure there's that excuse that there are more sequels because it was based on a popular book that goes into another story, but it's just that Hollywood is so demanding these days as they are incredibly over-inspired by movies that are considered the greatest such as Gone With The Wind, The Godfather and Indiana Jones as they're like 'ok we can make more money out of this just like _______________ '.

Or maybe it has to do with studio executives having to meet the demands of their audience depending on that franchise. The most prominent target audience today is teenagers and they go to the movies to see the dumbest things or to become absolutely mindless in today's pop culture.

So here's my list of the mindless franchises teens still enjoy.

The Fast and The Furious


What is it: an orgy of cars that go full speed and this is basically a bunch of street racers racing against each other out of all odds in street lights whether day or night.


Teens enjoy it because: It's full of fast cars, hot starter girls and basically all action. Every film is the same plot but in another city. Also there's a lot of hip hop. Cars are made from the Asian car industry and this is a 13 year boy's wet dreams that is shown on the screen

Why I don't: it's just a pointless series of car races that is formulaic in each film. Also sends out a wrong message of street racing to car hoons. This is basically car porn at it's highest.

Saw and Hostel

What is it: Saw is where several people go to some crazy warehouse and is tortured into a round of games by a puppet named Jigsaw. Hostel is where people get tortured and get raped into dead meat.

Teens enjoy it because: They wanted to get scared to the extreme. Also they think torture is enjoyable

Why I don't: critics termed torture porn to these kinds of movies. Saw is released in Halloween every year and it always get ridiculous the more torture it use.

Step Up


What is it: franchise that's about breakdancing and about being a champion at that field

Teens enjoy it because: Teens these days are acting hip-hop and gangsta. Breakdancing is just there.

Why I don't: Dance films like this are so formulaic and generalised and then Step Up 3 is in 3D. A major excuse by dance movies to profit. It's the same as Fast and Furious but this time with dancers. Also a major excuse for Flo Rida to sell his songs.

Transformers


What is it? Two alien robot races fight against each other at Earth

Teens enjoy it because: they're victims of Michael Bay who fools them with explosions, fighting robots and Megan Fox.

Why I don't: Michael Bay spends too much on special effects rather than story. The second Transformers became ridiculous with stupid humor such as a giant Decepticon with giant steel testicles. We would be fooled by the ridiculous amounts of comedy and effects by Bay than not to enjoy it.

Twilight

What is it? Based on Stephanie Meyer's fantasy novels about a love triangle between two hotties and an unattractive emo: steroid abusing werewolf and an emo vamp.

Teens enjoy it because: Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson are both eye candy who constantly go pit bull against each other for that one girl

Why I don't: Do I have to explain? It's a perfectly logical explanation that can last up to twenty lines.

Scary Movie


What is it? A movie that has a thread of a plot from a horror movie, but most of it is based on pop culture.

Teens enjoy it because: The worst humor there is: slapstick comedy, pop culture references or just to be scared.

Why I enjoyed it: Because it's such a guilty pleasure. Not like those Frieberg-Seltzer movies.

Nightmares of a chronic masterbating ballerina

Black Swan


A- (9.4)


There are two kinds of people in this world who see Black Swan. One of them is the ballerina flick gathering awards buzz for both Darren Arronofsky and Natalie Portman. And then there's that kind who quote:

Oh yeah. That ballerina flick with the lesbian scene with Portman and Mila Kunis. I like that!

That second kind would probably be immature about this flick because this movie had totally rocked my world.

Natalie Portman plays a ballerina named Nina Sayers who is elevating to the top of her professional level as she's about to play the White Swan and the Black Swan for the major play Swan Lake. The White Swan is timid and vulnerable she transform herself into the Black Swan where she's the opposite of the White. However Nina wants to make herself perfect for both roles as she is only pressuring herself to impress the perverted ballet director Tomas (Vincent Cassel) and her stage mother (Barbera Hershey). She is bullied by many of her colleagues of the ballet world because of what she is. Nina then encounters a free spirited newcomer Lily (a really hot Mila Kunis) where she's suspicious of her thinking that's she's aiming for both roles and because of that as she becomes mentally damaged.

Previously, Arronofsky had wanted to make this movie into a companion piece to a mixture of this and The Wrestler where it's a romance between the wrestler and the ballerina. If you have The Wrestler and this movie seperately, Arronofsky might have created a series of dark character studies where you wanted to kill yourself. This may be Arronofsky wanting to do a movie hat is simlar to David Lynch's Mullohand Drive or that movie meets Red Shoes another ballerina film that was generic at its time.

Black Swan is a character study of obviously the ballerina. This is Natalie Portman's most challenging role to date and proves that she's one of the greatest actresses of her generation. Nina Sayers is a conflicted character who's a self-loathing, ballerina damaging herself for her aims to be perfect and to impress people who she feels had let down especially her mother who still treats her like she's 12 year old. She fills herself with riddled jealousy and emotional breakdowns so she can get what she wanted. That is where you should understand her and the troubles she's facing. Portman puts in a powerful performance which lets her character go for a hell of a ride just lke Jodie Foster did with Silence Of The Lambs. She deserved all of the accolades that she had received and it's more likely that she may win her Oscar.

It's great to say that Arronofsky is a great director of actors since his supporting cast is also excellent especially Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis who play provocative players in the game of ballet. Cassel's character is very hard to like and Kunis plays Lily someone Sayers is envious of but they both make a charismatic impact on Sayers' wellbeing. Barbera Hershey is also very good here playing a stage mother who reminds me of Margeret White the overbearing mother from Carrie. But it's Winona Ryder who has a small role as a retiring dancer that steals her scenes to get Sayers out of her emotional level.

Black Swan is has jump-out-of-your-chair moments where it follows the various elements of psychological horror. That subgenre is the most effective out of horror and that is what Arronofsky has done. But be warned. Black Swan is not for the faint of heart if you can't handle moments of sexual pleasure (there's two masterbating scenes and a scene where Portman and Kunis has a lesbian scene) or shocking moments of Portman's well-being.

The choreography is dazzingly well staged as well as the score by Clint Mansell

Arronofsky has put in ambition, jealousy and some moody craftmanship in this masterpiece. Despite the fact that this is the surrealist study of a dancer's angst, the interesting part about this movie is the number of questions I'd been thinking about for the nature of this film and it seems that Arronofsky is trying to send a hint to the audience. Does he want to explore the world of near failures (such as Mickey Rourke from The Wrestler and here in Black Swan) with sexual fantasies and exploration? Is the portrayal of the ballerina accurate given how it;s the pressure that makes Nina tick? What is the meaning of the lesbian scene? And does Sayers has a personality disorder that slowly destroys her?

The ending of the movie seems way too twisted even if it was small. But to me it seems like this is what Sayers would've wanted. But this film had blown me away and needless to say this is one of the scariest experiences I've ever witnessed. This is intense and unpredictable.

But if you want to dismiss it because you think some scenes are way over-the-top. Think about it. You either think it's a generic psychological thriller or how should I think of it. The nightmares of a chronic masterbating ballerina.

To me, black is beauty.

The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender


D- (1.4)

The Last Airbender should be recalled The Last Thing We Would See From M. Night Shyamalan because this is not only a poorly executed adaptation of a TV Series, but also just messed up with a director who just committed career suicide by ruining a once beloved cartoon. Or there should I say one of the worst movies of theis century. Even Armond White didn't like it from the start.

Honestly of all the cartoons I've seen in my current age along with Arthur and Phineas & Ferb, Avatar: The Last Airbender was a cartoon that I absolutely enjoyed. It was a cartoon that has Asian mythology and martial arts suited with Western audiences. But I only watched the first season in which this movie was based on and The Last Airbender had bit the hand.

To tell you the story, it's about two children Katara and Sokka whose powers could use water as their weapon discovered a 12 year old kid in an iceberg near their place. His name is Aang (by the way why the f**k do they call him Aung) played by Noah Ringer, and he is as the title suggest the last living Airbender who can use air as his powers. The Fire Nation led by Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) who had conquered almost everything in the Spirit World, wants the Airbender who is the Avatar, a sorcerer who can master Earth, Water, Air and Fire. Katara and Sokka helps out Aang's quest to master all of these elements so he can defeat the Fire Nation.

Did M Night Shyamalan got paid $72 million to f**k up everything up? On the screen. You know I can tell you that Shyamalan is a huge fan of the show and he wanted to direct this movie because his daughter was a huge fan of the show as well and was intrigued of how big of a fan she is. However anything that was great about the cartoon from Nickeloneon is left out of the movie and I think that Shyamalan wants to put a huge stamp in this movie. And does he ever. Because of that, not only does it appalled me that they destroyed the whole reputation of the cartoon, but the creators of the show still approve of this. The direction of the movie was truly lazy. I was going to give a pass to Shyamalan cos I haven't seen any of his movies The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable or The Happening which were critically panned.

The acting is just utterly terrible. Noah Ringer who plays Aang is awful as he had shown no emotion to his character. So are the people who played Katara and Sokka. They never show any sort of emotion at all. The worst of them all is Aasif Mandvi who plays Admiral Zhao who just irritates me because he doesn't show any personality of Zhao. The only performance that almost matches its character is Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire who plays Prince Zuko. He portrays the same person Zuko was in the cartoon but he's given no dialogue and I can't even help seeing him glare at the camera. However the only great performance I could hand compliments to was Cliff Curtis as Uncle Iroh (his part would've been played by Ben Kingsley) who has most of the movie's humor but couldn't deliver it well.

The cast would've been better if the script written by Shyamalan was improved but the question is why this kind of cast is put in to this movie when most of the characters that originates from the cartoon are almost Asian (Water Tribe was a mixture of Asian and Inuit, the rest of the elements are all of the Asian race especailly Fire which is specifically Chinese) while the rest of the characters are White or Indian. The Water Tribe are all Whites while the rest of the Fire Nation is Indian. That just offends me.

One of the great things about Avatar: The Last Airbender is the level of comic relief. Aang, Sokka and a dude named Uncle Iroh delivers a sense of charm into the humor of the cartoon. Where as this, that is gone. The reason why Aang sucked is because he's joyless. The reason why Uncle Iroh sucked is because he feels bored. THe reason why Sokka is terrible is because he has no sense of humour.

I believe that this movie went along with the script too much. This is based on the first season of the show and the script felt so rushed that there were many holes based on plot and logic all crammed into 99 minutes of film.

The visuals are not as eye popping as it is. The 3D just reflects how everything sucks and in the first seventy seconds they get to throw everything at you and because of the effects I just felt bored.

And can you believe it. The ending is a set up for episode two. I can't imagine what despicable ways M Night Shylamalan would be putting in that sequel. Shyamalan had counter argued that no one appreciated his style and art he has put into his movie. Well to Mr. Shyamalan. The art that you put in this movie is nowhere between Picasso or Monet. This is might have been below Dali under surrealism. No. It isn't.

It's not that your movies are bad, but if people can watch their movies for the following reasons they wanted to watch it, then they should forget about you for a year or two.

If you want a movie completely opposite of this movie, see Inception. But if you want to watch a movie with amazing flashy special effects with choreography, see Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Because if you people are still liking this movie, I don't know what kind of taste do you have in movies.

The Song that would've get nominated for an Oscar

I'm just curious. Of all the categories in the Academy Awards, there are two category that has to do something with music and movies together or combined. Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Last year where every critic condemned the fact that The Blind Side gets an nomination for Best Picture, I was wondering whether Linkin Park's song for Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen should get a nomination for Original Song.

Why do I ask. It's because that was the best song off a movie I've listened since Eminem's Lose Yourself which also won that Oscar. Here's why?

Linkin Park is a vibrant band despite heavy criticism of its lyrics which are considered emo or just weak. But after redeeming their fans and critics with their third album Minutes To Midnight, Linkin Park wrote a song for the sequel to Transformers called New Divide since their song What I've Done was served during the end credits of Transformers.

When the song was released, New Divide became Linkin Park's best known song having charted in many countries and was responsible for Transformers 2 having a lot of teenagers (boys and girls alike) brain damaged by being lured to that song.

This is the best thing about Transformers  even though the movie's actually terrible. The song was sort of inspired by industrial music and it has much of the nature of the movie. It impresses me also because i'm a huge Linkin Park fan and it quite makes up for the movie. And it's sort of compensation the movie owes me since I did not enjoyed it.

New Divide represents music that fits into science fiction that is so big for movies. It's moody, altruistic and also sophisticated. The song appeals to much of the mass audience and when at the first twenty seconds it increases the excitement for the movie.

It bothered me to think that a nominee from the Best Original Song would be from a musical or some Disney movie. Remember when there were songs from movies topping the charts that makes the movie popular. Remember Bruce Springsteen's Streets Of Philadelphia where it won Best Original Song at the same time when Tom Hanks won an Oscar for the same movie. They were great because they tell a story.

I'm just curious because New Divide is a song for a movie that may have not gained a good reputation for Transformers (given the critical reviews were uniformly poor), but it has gained back Linkin Park to the world. But all I want is one special song by a particular musician that is well known to be recognised by an organisation that hand out prestigious awards for movies and one that recognises a songwriter singing anthems from New Jersey (Springsteen) and a rapper recognised to be white and a songstress annoying the shit out of us about a boat mixed with some panflutes.

It's a pity that when you qualify a song to the Oscars, it's really difficult given the strict rules there are. If the lyrics have nothing to do with the movie, it's out of the race. New Divide has "I remember black skies, the lightning all around me" is some euphemism for robots invading the Earth. If it the song came from some other movie, it's not eligible. New Divide was written just after the first Transformers.

If it was nominated, the band would've performed at the ceremony, which means that the ratings for the awards would've been boosted.

This blog post is out of curiousity since the movie's theme song is really listenable and vibrant that the submission for the song was rejected by the Academy who is bias to any songs that came from any movie made by Disney or movies about music. New Divide had lived up to Linkin Park from its nu metal roots and into a new era for the band

The Drugs Don't Work

B- (6.1)


When I was watching Rolling Stone's review of The Green Hornet, I was given an interesting insight on how that movie would never be made. Directors are coming and going, actors left because of scheduling conflict and how this movie gets so many delays in its release date.

A Scanner Darkly is another example of a movie in development hell. It suffered itself with problems from the animators as they haven't completed sequences. Some of them do not have movie making skills. Some of them left during production and Linklater took the budget to $8.7 million (it was originally $6.7 million). So it was one of those movies like Watchmen and The Green Hornet that was on hold and was put into the shelf for a while until it is intially released.

This movie marks the first time Robert Downey Jr and Winona Ryder had came back to movies after their stint with the law. (Downey Jr was released from drug rehabilitation while Ryder was on probation for an infamous shoplifting incident.)

A Scanner Darkly was based on the last novel by Phillip K Dick whose science fiction novels including Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report are turned into cinematic classics for its genre. The movie's completely rendered and its set in some future and America is still at war... on drugs. Many addicts are living under Substance D a lethal recreational drug many agencies are trying to get rid off. Agents are dressed in a suit where every millisecond a pattern of body parts are shown. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an agent going undercover to spy on his friends Harris (Robert Downey Jr), Luckman (Woody Harrelson) and also his supposed buddy Donna (Winona Ryder). But ASrctor is pretty much monitoring himself given that he's an addict himself. As the movie progresses, it unravel a series of twists and storylines it had set himself up.

This is one of Phillip K Dick's weakest movies. It's not that bad, but it's not that good. The animation looks vivid and rich making it look like a cover on any Grand Theft Auto game. It took a lot of effort to make this movie into animation. If it was just live-action without any animation, then the entire film feels so slow and boring.

A Scanner Darkly gradually has numerous concepts about drug addiction, overworking and mind or if you mix these together it's mind over drugs because you are killing yourself in your job. This film's screenplay is at times multi-layered, but most of it is stripped thick turning them thin. Unfortunately that's the biggest flaw this movie is getting.

Richard Linklater who directed and screen this movie seems to be getting his own stamp of the movie and is just bad because the animation might have been a gimmick. What he does is that in order to get a rise out of viewers, the dude just performed various twists that are so little yet confusing.

Where at the first half of the movie I was really fascinated about the lives of these drug addicts. These characters may have been left out from Darren Arronofsky's Requiem Of A Dream because they're not dark, or just paranoid. But where I get to the second half, it's blasted boring because none of these characters (Downey and Harrelson is left out of the scope) appeared at that half where it quickly loses its interest.

Performances from the cast are uninspiring to say the least especially Keanu Reeves who can only make that one facial expression and Winona Ryder whose characters get too many twists. The one notable exception from the cast is Robert Downey Jr. who is making a comeback here since his character Harris has so much wit, but simultaneously has a sense of paranoia.

A Scanner Darkly is even blackly hilarious but here's the question: do I actually like this movie? Is it bad? No. Is it good? No. It's just an average movie and even though the actors are completely rendered it feels tedious. If you like cult classics or really trippy movies, then this is for you.

Cloverfield

B+ (7.6)


It is obvious that in a monster flick, some hybrid giant creature like a dinosaur or a dragon will invade a huge city and people are not just trying to defend themselves from the monster but also trying to attack it. The biggest problem with this kind of movie is that it involves a lot of computer generated giants just destroying the city while the city's residents does the most predictable things to put it down (i.e it focuses greatly on effects, rather than screenplay). Ask that to Godzilla.

Cloverfield is an exception. Like many movies of its kind it start off at ten minutes with the monster beginning to destroy the city. That city, Manhattan.

But before that, the whole movie is actually found footage obtained by the US Defence where everything is shot by some amateur named Hud. hud is documenting a farewell party for his friend Rob who is going away to Japan where he has a job there. However a mysterious monster destroys part of New York and he and six friends instead of escaping finds a girl whom Rob has went out with.

Cloverfield is like Blair Witch Project except this is 100x the budget. They features unknown actors and is shot in hand-held camera. However the great similarity both movies have is that it is not only focused on their characters, but also based it on their point of view.

Directed by Matt Reeves and produced by J.J Abrams, this is not your generic monster flick. It is not only based on some average citizen's sighting but it has heart and it is genuinely an exciting, tight and gripping experience that will scare you several times.

Generally, Cloverfield seems to be inspired by monster flicks such as Escape From New York where the head from the Statue Of Liberty crashed in one scene and Godzilla where the monster seems to be a hybrid of Rodan and that monster but it seems to be reminding me of Hitchcock where Reeves seems to think that this should have a sense of fright and terror in a city with a huge population.

Where Cloverfield avoids genericness is that where in the plot a group of friends not only survive but going deeper into the city by finding this one girl in where the heart cares for and what it is. Ten minutes before the monster invades we see a social gathering where there's conflict between two characters so that way we know that this movie solely focused onto its characters, which is a great aspect about this movie.

Cloverfield happens at post 9/11 where obviously New York is still recovering after two planes collided with the World Trade Centres. However there is little to say that there is one allusion since there isn't one other than the fact that is shot like footage showing 9/11. More so Cloverfield's monster is never told in this movie with huge depth since we don't know know what it is except a few pauses of the monster's face will tell you.

Also the characters are never developed much but the performances are nevertheless convincing.

Unfotunately nobody couldn't embraced the hand held camera and the ending is a bit too vague. If it is, then it is Blair Witch all over again.

IF you're looking for a great monster flick that is neither cheesy nor tasteless then this is for you. Groundskeeper Willie has a love for amateur movies. This is a prime example of a great movie shot by amateurs

2010 is the year of the geek

For the past week I have been complaining of how society is becoming tasteless with music and movies. It's not just that. There's reality TV shows like Jersey Shore and please-don't-mention-them the Kardashians and the biggest fad of all time. The Auto Tune.

But not everything's bad about 2010. I watch my best share in movies and music and whoever's following my views here's what good about 2010. It's where the geeks rule. IF you want to rebel against society's taste, you're a geek, if you enjoy video games, science fiction, fantasy or comic books, you're a geek. Well being is a geek is all that good. First of all you get to enjoy your youth if you're a nerd in your late 40s and second of all it breaks out your inner geekiness. 

This is how 2010 had made geeks becoming gods.

First of all let's start off with movies. For the past 12 months, movies have evolve around 3D and absolutely the dumbest stuff we have seen on screen. They all have been successful which is why I've been complaining. Where Avatar had just killed the geeks, the geek culture may have come into revival.

My top ten movies involves four movies: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Kick-Ass, Inception and The Social Network. All of these movies have geeks and it's no shame.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World has a really geeky title, but it's full of true geek. Michael Cera is a geek himself playing the title geek falls in love with the girl of her dreams and must defeat seven evil exes in order to keep going out with her. The reason why Scott Pilgrim is so good is because they want to be a geek and chose to do it in a ridiculous and surreal manner. The characters geek, the music geek, and the visuals also belongs to geeks because it combines video games and comic book into screen life. Bursting a douche's head into coins had never felt so exciting

Kick Ass. Awesome title, but geeky. Where a geek dons a superhero with only two baton sticks as his weapons and has his ass kicked. Sure it has an 11 year old swaering and kiling. Sure if Nicolas Cage rips off Adam West. Sure it was a box office bomb since it never got our attention because it was blocked by Tea Party fanatics. But wahtever it is Kick Ass is a total geekfest and it is literally a geek itself when it is bullied by critics for all the sures above.

Inception. It's the year's favourite movie by a geek. There's one obvious trait about geeks. It is smart. And so is this movie which is a geek. Leonardo Dicaprio plays an extractor who thinks like a geek because he is obssessed with dreams. It is most talked about because it is confusing but a geek can quickly figure it out himself. It also has a huge fanbase


The Social Network (probably the best movie of the year) is a movie about a geek who makes the biggest social gathering on the Web called Facebook. Jess Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg who is not only geek, but a genius, punk and billionaire. Zuckerberg has all the common traits of the geek. He rebels against the social world since he's socially inept, obsessed with computers and such. And he's the richest geek alive.

It's not just movies that count, it's also the music. Where our radio stations punk'd us with music that is unlistenable, the music that is the listenable is ones the geeks are listening to at the moment.

First of all, Vampire Weekend started off the year with their second album Contra a poppy, catchy, cheery record with a lot of African beats and songs about hipsters and geeks alike like Cousins or Holiday. Indie rock is the new rock where after Nirvana introduced alternative rock with Smell Like Teen Spirit, Vampire Weekend might introduce us about the angst of geeks everywhere about certain traits and other crazy stuff.

If you don't think so, try listening to Arcade Fire one of the biggest bands... literally. Well they're not that big but they have a huge fanbase and that The Surburbs, the band's latest record is both critically acclaimed and a commercial success to the mainstream. Arcade Fire may be this generation's Radiohead. The Suburbs may their OK Computer, where a lot of music geeks called it the greatest album of its time.

Look how big Arcade Fire had become. 

Another band with a similar fanbase is a big band called Muse. 

Muse had became the best bands there is in the new millenium. If you want to see a live gig from some random band, buy tickets for Muse because they are the greatest live band of the 21st Century. How is this associated with geeks and 2010. First off their all of their records (Showbiz, Origin Of Symmetry, Absolution, Black Holes And Revelations, The Resistance) is like Edgar Wright (the dude who made Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World). He mashes up genres. If you imagine them composing the score of Scott Pilgrim or Inception you will have classical music meets alternative metal and progressive rock meets RnB. So this has been the geek's music because their lyrics involve science fiction and crazy fantasies.

Muse may become the Heir for Biggest Band In The World which is currently held by U2 (they still support them in their big tours). Their live performances should be a must see for any fan or any music lover there is.

So there you have it. Geeks rule 2010. If you want to avoid the travesty of our society today, become a geek today

The Tourist/ The King's Speech

The Tourist

Warning... Spoiler Alert!

D+ (2.1)


I really love to take a piss on Hollywood on what they are today and it's really a shame that many famous actors and actresses have to put up with gossip and risks that would have tested their reputation. The one part is that celebrities are victims of studios cashing into movies that involves mind-numbing special effects or in this case a movie with another famous person. This is known as the star vehicle just so studios cash in to audiences' money since two most famous people were put there.

This is the perfect example of what studios are doing to Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, two of the most famous people in Tinseltown since they are highly paid and drive everyone's eyeballs on them. And it's called the Tourist.

Angelina Jolie plays an allusive woman in white who is wanted because her partner Alexander Pierce had embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars to several sting operators in Europe. She then meets Frank Turalo (Johnny Depp), an American maths proffessor who's on vacation to Venice so she couldn't be caught. Frank is then involved when British agents mistaken him for Pierce and he ends up in love with her.

I was expecting that The Tourist would be a totally mediocre experience, even if it was directed by Florian von Doonweshmark (his name reminds me of Doofenshmerf from Phineas and Ferbs) who directed The Lives Of Others which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film which I never heard of. However it exceeds my expectations where it is way below mediocre. It's lame.

Everything except the art direction just blows. The setting of Venice is so beautiful, I like the photography, and even so I don't even mind eye candy for the guys or the girls. But every aspect, every tiny little detail is just a waste of my 2 hours. The miscasting, the illogical plot and messy dialogue

Doonweshmark must have took each misstep along the way whilest directing it and he wrote the screenplay. Every line of dialogue was either cheesy or just plain terrible. I have to admit that I laughed twice during the movie, but I still hate it. There were some scenes that were just cliched, some that I've correctly estimated for the next ten minutes and some scenes that just bored me to death. And they must hired some professionals because the stunts are just pretentious and poorly staged. To tell you the truth there is just a lack of action. And the score is just typical and annoying.

Unfortunately I can also blame the casting. Jolie and Depp are great actors but their performances are really one dimensional and wooden. Jolie has a limited amount of dialogue and looks as if she's bored and Depp seems to be revising his character as Jack Sparrow for the next Pirates Of The Carribean movie because his bumbling personality does not appeal to me and is so annoying.

There is absolutely no sense of chemistry between the glamous leads as both lack any substance needed to lighten it.

The one thing that had made me mad with this movie is that part of Donnersmarck's mundane direction is that there's a twist ending that doesn't make any sense. The ending is in Spanish. Not in language but in subtitles and I was so dumbfounded it made me thought 'wow, this is really messy'. Unfortunately, the biggest flaw is that The Tourist doesn't even know what tone to take. Is it a comedy? Because the dialogue so terrible with some insulting views about the Americans it had made the whole audience unintendedly laughing. Is it a thriller? There's no action. Is it a film noir? There's no character in the two leads.

And this needs to explain why it was nominated for three Golden Globes when it is so terrible. Is it just a ploy so they can avoid the Razzies because of the star players or is it for TV ratings since no one cares about awards shows? I don't know, I absolutely felt cheated.

It is Hollywood that's gone wrong here.

The King's Speech


B+ (7.8)

I was absolutely surprised that this was not only taken over by the critics and festival goers, it was a crowd pleaser in Australia as well and to me it was a surprise to me because this is about the Royal family which I had never learnt about its ancestery and this is one of the best films of last year.

It won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival and I went to the movie with no hopes at all because in that theatre I was the youngest person in that cinema watching this movie. The whole audience is around 60 to 80 so there were a lot of seniors passing by and I thought I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The King's Speech focuses on King George VI (Colin Firth) and before he became the head of the monarchy, he was the Duke OF York when Edward VII (Guy Pearce) decided to marry an American divorcee and given that the regulations is that he's the Head Of the Church, the Church cannot take the Duke's wish of marrying a woman who's twice married and so Edward abandoned his place to the Royal throne to George. The man who wouldn't be called King by the whole public never wished to be King because it involves public speaking or making speeches which he truly dreaded. George has a speech impediment that not only disallows him to make a speech, he constantly stutter when having a conversation or when he tells a bedtime story to his daughters Elizabeth (our Queen today) and Margeret.

Having no hope to treat this impediment his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) went to Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffery Rush) where his unorthodox methods not only treated Bertie's (his family usually calls him that) weakness but grow a special relationship between the two during times of war and post war

The only thing I heard about The King's Speech is that like The Social Network it is one of the best films of 2010. I went into the film with no expectations because the Royal Family never had me interested. And also anyone under the age of say 50 wouldn't be interested about the film's premise. But then when I came out of the movie once it was finished I was really astonished and impressed with this film and knew why it had to be the year's best.

The plot was really fascinating in many levels as it's about the biggest weakness of a King who's an icon for National Resistance during World War II that's supposed to be the King's duties. It's also fascinating of how Bertie has to become King because his brother Edward marries someone who is not the Church's type.

It is also unintentionally hilarious as the humour for the film comes quick and fast. Not to mention it is filled with a lot of wit. But the problem with this movie's humor is when to laugh. Most of the audience had laughed between scenes and it's great that they're enjoying themselves.

Colin Firth should receive an Oscar for Best Actor because he portrayed a famous King as we never had learnt before. Bertie's emotions have me sympasise for him because he's kinda feels like he's autistic. He's not confident and has a lack of communictation with the public because of his handicap and he'd get picked on by his father for not speaking perfectly. However Firth makes his character really inspirational and motivating as whenever words come out of his mouth at any stop it's exciting that he had overcome his weaknesses. Geoffery Rush is hilarious and fun to be with as an Australian speech therapist who's character is very riveting as he helps Bertie to be a King along wars and troubles and has a play-by-my-rules stance.

Even Helena Bonham Carter is splendid as Bertie's wife as this is a departure from her usual character as a melodramatic psycho. She also supports Bertie with seldom where she's the only person in his family who does that since none of his family never cared if he had trouble speaking.

The King's Speech is basically an actor's movie since it has universally impeccable performances by these finest veteran actors. And this is where it has a lot of heart under its system given that these characters has a lot of soul and emotion that have put many people in tears.

But apparently The King's Speech is not perfect. What would've made it perfect is that many historical dramas have this particular formula that I have trouble with. I mean we know the main character has something bad that restricts his duties as the head of a powerful monarchy but then it's when he's starting to take over and it's make it so predictable at the end of the film and once you get to the ending it's just that is that.

The King's Speech would have made my top ten list had I reviewed it before the year ended. The film has fine craftmanship and is aspiringly dramatic.

Teenagers and Movies, Music and Culture (Part II)

Here's a challenge to all people I will target in this posting - if you can write 100 words or of your all time favourite movie whether good or bad and send to me via my email at:

adriannguyen@rocketmail.com

There's no prize,  but I want you to complete the challenge so I know you can write review
_______________________________________________________________________________

OK. What is it about this current generation. Generation Y is that generation.

I am quite sure that as you move to different generations they are literally dumb into making choices. Like should you spend on cash when you have $600 in your wallet or you spend by one of your credit cards you should only use for 'emergencies'.  The biggest disadvantages on cash is that you'll lose some money you should pay for lunch. The biggest disadvantages with credit cards is that as much as you spend it on expensive items more, it'll expire.

DVDs are quite like $6 to $29. But the average price for a new DVD is about $20 while Blu Rays are worth $30. But there's something that DVDs (or the film industry) need to take a stance on. Movie Piracy.

You know. The people supplying us with discs showing movies currently screening in theatres are Triads. And teenagers are going to the street buying these discs where it only cost $4, but the disc has a low quality in picture, sound, and features. I don't teenagers hold up a majority but we've seen ads where they say piracy is a problem for the film industry. And the people who buy pirated movies simply ignore it.

Well I'm not talking about movie piracy. I'm talking movies here and how this generation treats it like dirt.

Teenagers are going to the movie more than their parents. I mean their parents would adore celebrities like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Aniston, Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp but I and the rest of Y adored people like Robert Pattinson, Megan Fox, Taylor Lautner, or any actress that had posed in a lad's mag before.. These people cannot even act but yet they are in love because they are good looking.

Why are boys drooling at Megan Fox. She's just a sex bomb. Seriously there are actresses that are pretty enough than Fox. What about Zooey Deschanel or Emma Stone. Even Blake Lively or Mila Kunis? Come on. They should be part of your stupid famtasies.

Whatever happened to celebrities who are naturally beautiful today? I mean the only actresses that are naturally hot are Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Natalie Portman.

I given up to the former. Johansson is a no good actress even if her amazing looks could lure both the boys and girls. And the only men she attracts are guys that are older than her. In their 40s? That is not on. Hathaway is literally a white person. She doesn't put on a lot of makeup except for some lipstick and eyelash or plastic surgery and every year she's becoming more gorgeous than ever.

A lot of girls see both Johansson and Hathaway as role models but they have something against Hathaway. They think she look like a rat and is annoying. On the other hand there's Natalie Portman and she might be one of the greatest actresses of her generation. The problem with her is that unless you have seen the Star Wars prequels, you have never heard of her. Teens should at least watch one Natalie Portman movie other than the Star Wars prequels.

 I have a total of 28 DVDs and I call them The Good Ones because all of these movies were acclaimed. Here some example:

• Kick Ass
• Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
• Inception
• Up
• Minority Report
• The Dark Knight
• The Departed
• Little Miss Sunshine.
• (500) Days OF Summer
• Sin City
• The Matrix

These movies are examples of what teenagers are missing out. IF I was going to a field trip to Washington and my teachers ask me to bring a movie so I and the other kids won't get bored I will bring them in. But I will most likely to pick Scott Pilgrim or Minority Report since the movie should be rated PG -13 or M in Australia. I wouldnt choose Inception or The Dark Knight because they think it is gay and I wouldn't choose Up because it's a Pixar movie. 

Inception and The Matrix has one thing in common. They both go into different universes and they both are smart and make the audiences think. It took me a while during the movie to figure out the plot halfway through The Matrix. And I'm not telling you that because you were too numb to understand it or people like me ahd figured it out. People at school once teased me for watching the Matrix because they couldn't understand it like they couldn't understand Inception.

I tried that hard to convince people to watch good movies. Nick Lyons tries to tell people to watch Black Swan. Problem is nobody listens to him

The only movies teenagers love nowadays are movies with broad humor like Adam Sandler movies or movies with Rob Schneider (my favourite actor of all time. Not), movies with hotties such as Twilight and Transformers and movies that are witless and juvenile like the Frieberg-Seltzer movies and they say it was funny. 

Come on people. Why can't teenagers be mature about movies? I mean they may as well forget their dates or what day do they have their exams.

Well I don't blame them. You know teenagers can be either the most demanding or undemanding depending on what movie Hollywood makes. If it was a Christopher Nolan movie it will undemanding because we don't know what movie idea Nolan has next in his mind. But if it was Transformers or an Adam Sandler movie, every young person will say (not literally) 'we want more. Give me more'.

I believe there will be more Resident Evil movies than there is for James Bond. The more movies they're planning the more demanding it gets. Seriously can it stop. It's a stupid video game movies. They're meant to be bad and pwned by the box office.

But honestly I still have something in common with the public. I enjoyed some Adam Sandler movies including Anger Management and Happy Gilmore, but the best movie with Adam Sandler is Reign Over Me. I enjoyed Superbad which was really funny and another movie The Hangover. Both these movies are actually hilarious based on story and comedy. I still have fun with comedy unless I would be offended

So if anyone is reading this you have two choices - either think about the movies you watch and change your taste or give me hate mail at my address or the comments.

You're offended? Hate me. Hate Me. I'm ready for you. Try and spam me whatever you want because it would never solve anything.

Teenagers and Movies, Music and Culture (Part I)

If I can reveal part of my identity is that I am 16 years old. i have moved to a new location because I wanted to start my new life. The new life is to stay away from people who are too prejudiced and biased towards me.

I get judged a lot. My opinions, my tastes in culture, which actress I like and what kind of talents I have. My talents include music, reading, maths and english as well as studying law and obviously movies.

Unfortunately young people can't tolerate them.

I wanted to open up about my interests but people knock it off all the time. Why is it that so many people criticise without thinking it through or giving me a simple piece of logical explaination why they would criticise.

The point is high school kids pick on you for doing something they've never heard of or you did something that was really good. For example, watching a movie or going to a gig of your favourite indie band.

If you remember that one of my most popular posts was how I was bullied for watching Inception and how I think The Social Network would be put down the same way I've experienced when saying I'd loved Inception. When I told at least one tall person to watch that great movie, he just did and had find it a fascinating movie. I told everyone that there's a movie about Facebook but I didn't tell anybody that you should watch it because it has great reviews. I didn't take The Social Network up to heart but I did with Inception cos it was one of the most talked about movies there is since it was very hard to understand. But I don't get why people never see things my way.

 HEre's an example. In my country (i.e Australia) people at my school hated Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister because she has red hair and she's a woman. That observation is nowhere detailed and yet very broad. I also disliked her because she doesn't done anything good yet to my place. And she's following me on Twitter would you believe it! SO what it is that people see her as a bad PM prejudiced to the fact of her physical appearance. If I had lived in America where I go to an American high school, the kids would be liking Barack Obama because of his colour.

When Nick Lyons (a person I follow on Twitter) told me that everybody at his place dismissed him for watching Black Swan, I felt kind of bad for him because we both lived the same lives. Our tastes are dismissed because we have seen movies few young people have seen. Lyons complain about our youth today and he is actually right. Movies, music and everything. Let's start off with music, shall we?

Glee, Justin Bieber and the rest of today's music.

When you hear atrocious music on our radios we skip it because it's horrible. Justin Bieber is played everyday just so he can get 14 year old girls in their cars to shriek when they hear them. I have nothing against Bieber, but his lyrics are really cliche and they're not really lyrics at all. They're pick up lines and that's what have the whole female gender swoon for him. And guess what? His most famous song Baby is considered the worst song of 2010 by some publications. And... ok i hate everything about that annoying p**ck.

Bieber is responsible for a third of the world's stampedes last year. HE visited Australia just so a morning breakfast show could get ratings. It was a disaster. The audience could not control themselves which has his gig cancelled. However he still performed in the studios. I have no problem but when he continuously make headlines because of his great performances, I couldn't stand it.

I can be honest that I actually hate Bieber haters. You know it just pisses me off when every comment about Bieber is posted on Youtube and they were negative. Bieber's videos are the most hated in Youtube would you believe it? So it's hard to classify what majority I'm in when I hate Bieber haters when I hate Bieber himself, but his lyrics are just pick up lines and are so shrill and laughable.

You know what else is worst? Bruno Mars. The dude is really annoying and I would give him benefit of the doubt for liking Nothin On You since I like that song, but Bruno Mars like Bieber gave us really cheesy lyrics (I'm sorry) including Bilionaire which I find the chorus laughable and cheap. I find 2010 atrocious in music despite my article of 2010's best music.

If you're 'glee' enough please stop!

I was laid off for listening to MGMT, The Killers, Muse, Radiohead and any rock band there is because these bonkers think that rock is dead. I honestly don't like RnB and the teens still play it on their radios. I don't mind it as long as it wasn't play too much on the radio. If you don't like today's music move on to great music from the past. As long it is original and was great back then.

If you try listening to any great songs from the past expect it to be covered by the excruciating Glee. When I first heard Empire State OF Mind by Jay Z, I was loving it. But the 'Gleesters' ruined by autotuning it because their fans are either too dumb to know that song or they just want it suitable for their own show. Please Glee. OR should I ask Fox Corp. Please don't give this show the rights to sing from Nirvana or Linkin Park or My Chemical Romance because if they did, then the songs covered will turn soggy like your ham sandwich spilt by your black coffee. So please stop covering songs that were once great.

I honestly watched the first five episodes of Glee. I like them, however I still hate it. The acting is so terrible it's almost equal to Twilight. You can't do anything about it if you want to convert me into a lover. I'm not. I'm a fighter.

And I'm really disappointed that so many great people from Hollywood is liking this turd. Why Anne Hathaway would you turn into this show? You were once my favourite actress. And now I have to move on. Why. Javier Bardem. WHy? Neil Patrick Harris. Why? Everyone's going for this no-brainer.

There's not a great rock song last year that was charting the charts. (Hey Sould Sister does not count). Does the majority (i.e teenagers) have a problem with rock? I want an answer. IF you think rock music is not lying there cracked into big chunks, your only solution is to listen to music that is not mainstream because that kind of music is great. Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire are great examples and people listen to them if they've been following them on the Net.

I think Australia's taste of music is really shallow. I get tortured when P!nk is played by every station and they have to follow everything in America. I think they should go back to follow Britain.

Expect to hear more as I look into teenager's views on movies.

The Expendables

C (4.2)


The Expendables. All your favourite action heroes from the 80s and today are here. Rocky, Commando, Die Hard, House of Flying Daggers, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Everywhere join together to blow things up.

Well that's what the ads were trying to say.

Look when The Expendables was released I was really excited to see this movie. But I got side tracked with another movie called Scott Pilgrim vs The World and was also wanting to see that movie. I tricked everyone that I've seen The Expendables when I have actually seen Scott Pilgrim just because nobody heard of this movie and if they've had, they'll completely forget it. I've enjoyed it and got the movie on DVD. (The Expendables - 0 Scott Pilgrim - 2)

But here's what's going to sting your hair off. The Expendables is actually better than Scott Pilgrim. Scott Pilgrim is surreal and the title character is a bit of a bitch usually not spending time with his bandmates. The Expendables knows what to do, feels realistic and it's about boys being together just like the popular kids bonding at my school. Plus it's more successful when it comes to finance. (3-2)

Nah. I'm just messing with you. Scott Pilgrim is greater when it comes to the critics and how crazy it is. I finally watched THe Expendables as an in flight movie
(3-4)

The Expendables follow a group of mercenaries which includes the three leads: the leader Barney (Sylvester Stallone), Christmas (Jason Statham) and Yin Yang (Jet Li). Get it Yin Yang? So they've finished wiping out Somali pirates and rescuing hostages. Their last job is to wipe out a Latin American dictatorship so they get back to their personal lives.

The Expendables want us to believe that we are experiencing the great action films from the 80s and 90s. Well, that's what Stallone wants us to believe given how he's doing all of the work. He directs, written and stars in this movie. The Expendables is just that average. When I mean average, I mean Sylvester Stallone movie.

Obviously you get the action, the same villains out of his movies but the rest lacks any plot or logic. The rest of the dialogue is either cheesy or cliche.

THe acting is a mixed bag. Even if it is still ordinary, it's Stallone's best effort and Jason Statham is the most interesting character. However Jet Li does little to the film as he is given less screen time. The one character I thought wasn't interesting was Mickey Rourke given lines where he confessed how he would've saved this one girl on a mission but at least he does it well.

The action sequences are sickening and badly edited and I wondered why they would blow up a building when they finished wiping out the whole colony of troops. I honestly wondered whether these scenes have been too long and I think that the bad thing about The Expendables is that it had taken itself too seriously. Stallone tries to give us memories of the bad ass movie stars that were great in the 80s, but instead we are given a huge body counts and deafening explosions.

This has only one audience at one special event. Guys in a drunken nights out or teenagers hungry for action. And if you're part of that event, then this is for you. If it is for mindless entertainment, then leave your brains out and go.

Have you heard of the Dirty Dozen. This is the Stupid Seven.