I've been poor this year at updating

Whilst my Autograph Geek blog sometimes get multiple updates in the same days I've neglected my poor Film Geek blog, I really don't mean to, anyway here I'm writing a quick catch up of films I've seen recently, some rewatches, some first timers, with possibly only a couple of lines dedicated to some films (probably part 1 of I don't know how many)...

The Dark Knight (2008): I'm not sure if I'm gonna go hyperbole but I want to call this the best superhero comic book movie ever made, I originally saw this back on original cinema release and was totally blown away and most of the applause should go to Heath Ledger's blistering performance as The Joker, the movie completely belongs to him, but you honestly can't fail to ignore performaners like Gary Oldman or Michael Caine who are class too, there are also some amazing set pieces contained within. Excellent *****

No Country for Old Men (2007): Speaking of amazing performances Javier Bardem is brilliant in this insant Coen Brothers classic. Never mind that the plot at it's most basic is somewhat unoriginal, it's the Coen's they do it with class and style. The scene with Bardem in the gas station is one of my favourite scenes of the last few years. Again excellent *****

And finally for this part Cool World (1992): I've always thought Ralph Bakshi films have many great moments but you always feel ultimately underwhelmed by the entire article, Cool World is especially no different. Think Roger Rabbit more aimed at adults and it's often an uneasy mix of some great moments that wouldn't be out of place in a Tex Avery cartoon and scenes like that of human and cartoon character having sex. Brad Pitt stars (third billed) just before his career started to take off strongly. I didn't hate it but was underwhelmed **1/2

New Era

I haven't forgot about this blog, stuff coming up soon...

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog Teaser Trailer

Here is the new internet only musical series by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, it stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day (who appeared in the last season of Buffy). This looks pretty exciting.

Why can't we work out our differences? Why can't we work things out? Little people, why can't we all just get along?

After Small Soldiers, Mars Attacks! is another film I saw at cinema on it's original release, but unlike Soldiers seen a few times on VHS, the last time I probably saw this film however is sometime in 1999, so like this is also something else I haven't seen in 9 years until a couple of days ago...

As a Tim Burton movie it rates well above Planet of the Apes, but well below Beetle Juice, Edward Scissorhands, the Batman films, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Ed Wood, so what I'm pretty much saying is it's far from vintage Burton. This wasn't the only alien attacking earth film of 1996, the other one was of course Independence Day, this of course attempts to be funnier and on the whole as a much more well known cast, among those Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Tom Jones, Glenn Close, Michael J. Fox and people like Natalie Portman, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jack Black also went on to become more well known.

My main problem with this film is it feels like the cast are having a much better time then the audience, sure it's quite fun seeing a-list stars getting zapped to death but probably not as much fun as it is for the actors and also sometimes the humour seems a bit mistimed. But at the same time there is a lot to like about this movie, like Jack Nicholson's dual roles at the President and a Las Vegas Hotel owner, some of the deaths are fun like Michael J. Fox's and Rod Steiger's and some of the use of colour is pretty terrific.

You feel there was a much better film there somewhere down the line (i.e in the script or in a different cut), but it's still a fairly watchable movie with some good and some not as good as it should be moments. I'd still recommend it but don't expect anything classic.

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Just what the world was missing...

Following in the legendary footsteps of Dustin "Screech" Diamond and professional wrestlers Sean "X-Pac" Waltman and Chyna comes the latest celebrity with a sex tape, yes it's Mini-Me himself Verne Troyer, nothing against Verne, but it's just these sex tapes never feature anybody I find attractive. TMZ. com have got a bit of the video on which I refuse to link on the grounds of good taste.

You've got a lot of guts. Let's see what they look like.

I remember seeing Small Soldiers for the first time back in the cinema in 1998 (Christ, ten years ago!), thanks to free tickets that where likely from a magazine or newspaper or some such thing, I remember not been entirely blew away from what I saw on the big screen, I remember enjoying a few moments, it just didn't wow me, so now roughly 10 years later I revisit Small Soldiers for the first time. As father time changed how I'll view the movie. In those ten years since I've come to appreciate Joe Dante more, become a much bigger Phil Hartman fan then I was then and grown to love David Cross (thanks in no small part to Arrested Development). So will I view the film any differently...

On a second belated viewing I enjoyed it more, I didn't find it fantastic by any means. If you don't know the plot to Small Soldiers, it goes something like this, Denis Leary, a very rich toy company boss pressures David Cross and Jay Mohr to come up with something special, Mohr logs on to a military website and buys special microchips, underestimating the power of these chips they are put into a series of action figures - The Commando Elite and The Gorgonites - delivery man Dick Miller later lets Gregory Smith, have a batch of the figures before release date to spice up his dad - Kevin Dunn's shop which doesn't sell anything violent, unbeknownst to Smith, these toys have a mind of their own and the Commander Elite are obsessed with wiping out the Gorgonites...

There is nothing too original feeling about this movie, I couldn't help but draw slight comparisons to Joe Dante's earlier work Gremlins: A young man getting hold of something he really shouldn't have and cause havoc, the Gorgonites are pretty much the Gizmo of the movie, even the relationships between the fathers of Smith's character and Kirsten Dunst's character (played by the legendary Phil Hartman) which was pretty much built on conflict, flight a little bit been there done that. There are some good moments like when Dunst's Gwendy (like Barbie) dolls are programmed with these chips by the Elite and begin to attack Dunst (the Gwendy dolls are all voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Christina Ricci) and I got a kick out of some of the voices, as well as the small roles from Dante staples Dick Miller and Robert Picardo. On a sad note, it's sad seeing the film knowing Phil Hartman was shot by his wife before the film's release.

Overall, it's improved on a second belated viewing but remains nothing to write home about, there's enough to recommend and despite some minor violence it's a good movie for the little ones.

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These are the changes I'm Planning to the blog...

Likely Gone:

• Bask in the Loveliness: Don't fit in the new direction I'm going for
• Great Years in Film: Struggled to have the passion for it
• Great movie scenes: Will not exist in the written form at all now (see below)
• Other probable absentees are Fonzie's Wall of Cool and 40 Things I Love About..., but who knows if they'll ever come back.

More and New:

• Question Time: I (well it's me for now) ask myself a question, like I would be interviewing myself, subjects such as "Do I Consider Myself a Film Snob?
• Trailers: Covering old and new trailers, from films I fear coming or massively excited about to cool exploitation trailers
• Movie Scene of the Day: The new version of Great Movie Scenes where it will just be the scene, probably without any explantation.
• Top 10, Top 20, Top 50: Want to have a little bit more fun with this so it won't be just Top 10 Films for example.
• Assumption Rules: Reviews for films I've never seen (or films about to come out), anything in common with the film is just purely concidential.
• Movie News and Views: Will give more news and views of what I'm excited about or scared about coming to the big screen or small screen.
• Tributes: Have put up many little tributes the last couple of years, but the following will be a bit more in depth, I will start from this moment in time.

Outlaw is the latest film from Nick Love, director of The Football Factory and the Business, these two films seem to pretty much have a love them or hate them vibe about it, both of these movies starred Danny Dyer, likewise people seem to love or hate him and now the two team up again for the third time along with Sean Bean and Bob Hoskins

Before I completely go into the main body of Outlaw, I have to stay the film as got a somewhat similar plot to a script I've been working on - Britain is in decay because of the gang culture, a group of people band together because they simple just can't take it anymore - my script is a little bit more tongue in cheek and clearly references movies like The Wild Bunch, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Untouchables and old kung flicks, but if my script was to be turned into a film, they'd be a fear of some sort of comparison, anyways, I digress...

Something about this movie just didn't click for me, there was some great photography and didn't have problem with some of the scenes, it just felt flat, the camera, which I'm assuming was intending to be almost hand held documentary in it's conception, ended up just mostly been annoying when it just properly couldn't stay still. Sean Bean's motivation for being the Outlaws, was never really explored properly - his he pissed at England, because he served time in the army and saw all them atrocities in far off countries, before coming home, finding his door locked and seeing through the window his girlfriend cozying up with another guy, Danny Dyer's and Lennie James motivations where much more clearler, Dyer constantly felt harrased and bullied in a lot of aspects of his life and James in the fact he was a barrister bullied into not going up against a gangland boss which eventually sees his pregnant wife stabbed

I didn't hate it, but didn't feel blown away by it - I wanted the ending to be The Wild Bunch, but felt it was more Hair Bare Bunch, there was just no spark, couple that with at times annoying camera work and sometimes a little bit serious feeling, it's a movie that just disappoints...

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Come on, sweetie pie. Morning, Elvis. You're a pretty Elvis, aren't you? Yes, you are.

Horror remakes are all the rage these days - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Omen, The Hills Have Eyes, The Amityville Horror, Dawn of the Dead etc, etc - usually of varying quality, rarely a patch on the original.

A couple of days ago I saw the Halloween remake for the first time, directed by Rob Zombie, who was the lead singer of awful death metal group White Zombie and the director of House of 1000 Corpses, which wasn't bad and The Devil's Rejects which was better. Now the original Halloween, I consider the granddaddy of slasher movies, it was the first true slasher movie of what we've come to love (Black Christmas did beat it by 4 years though) and was clearly an influence on movies like Friday the 13th, so I was pretty much in the camp of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it...", but however I attempted to watch the film with an open mind, I'd like his first two movies enough and not every remake in the history of the world sucks, so what did I think

Well what makes it different from the original, Michael killing his sister Judith while he was 10 years old, was what a 10 minute scene at the very, very most in the original, now this time we get an whole backstory, young Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) is seen first killing Elvis, a rat in what we assume by the musical choices (Love Hurts, Don't Fear the Reaper etc) is the 1970s, here we see Michael's family, an abusive and crippled stepdad (played by the great William Forsythe), his sister Judith, who is only slightly slutty (Hanna Hall, who played the young Jenny way back in Forrest Gump), a baby sister and a stripper mother (played by Zombie's wife Sheri Moon) who at least is loving towards young Michael, We then see Michael struggle at school with the bullies (led by the kid from the Spy Kids movies). Some short time later he follows the Spy Kid into the forest attacking him viciously with a piece of wood and pretty much killing him dead. On the night his stripper mom needs to go stripping so she asks Judith to take him treak or treating, she decides to stay and have akward teen sex with her boyfriend in her bedroom while crippled step dad gets drunk until he's unconcsious downstairs, young Michael, whose got sweets (so he must have gone trick or treating) decides he's had enough and gaffer tapes crippled stepdad to his chair while he slits his throat, Judith's horny boyfriend goes downstairs to make himself a sandwich and is quickly beaten to death with a baseball bat, leaving half naked Judith upstairs, he feels his sister's leg for a bit before she realises it's her younger brother, a stab in the stomach later, she is crawling all bloody, until he goes crazy stabbing her another bunch of times, he goes to his baby sisters crib and picks her up and takes her outside to wait for there mother, like nothing as happened...

Crazy Young Michael is sent to an insane asylum and put under the eye of Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell), at first Michael doesn't really remember the killings and his mother still visits (probably holding on to her last bit of family), but his becoming obsessed with masks, whilst there he also befriended by Danny Trejo an orderly. After Michael goes crazy killing a nurse with a folk and in the process Michael's mother sees him insane in person for the first time, Michael mother kills herself at home (not sure how much later after the previous event). We cut to fifteen years later, Dr. Loomis is quitting on Michael (now played by Tyler Mane) after he stopped talking for the past 15 years, we quickly learn Loomis as wrote at least one book on Myers and as probably benefited financially from being Myers doctor. Also still working there by the way is Danny Trejo, after new guard Tom Towles (Lew Temple, whose great here) whose a bullying redneck and his equally bullying redneck cousin (Courtney Gains) taunt him and rape a female mental patient in front of him, Myers snaps killing both men, Danny Trejo arrives at the hospital, the kindly warden tries to help him but Myers ends up drowning him, figuratively showing the audience Michael what he is capable of, after a brief stop at the Truck Stop, he kills the legendary Ken Foree before the movie becomes not that much different from the 1978 version (which I'll go into in a little bit).

So there you go, whether you asked for it or not you get a much bigger Michael Myers backstory, and I did like parts of his backstory - Forsythe was great as always and Sheri Moon got to show a different side to her - but did we really need to see behind the mask so to speak, I can live without seeing a massively developed Freddy or Leatherface backstory and could live without a Michael Myers one, so what becomes 10 minutes of the 1978 becomes 40 or so minutes of the 2007 version, but the backstory as much as I am complaining about it, is the best part of the movie, the 2nd part which is more similar to the original features a more spunky Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor Compton), whose performance I really liked and was completely different to Jamie Lee Curtis' original and two similar to the original counterpart sluttier friends (One of them played by Danielle Harris, already a veteran of the Halloween movies appearing in 4 and 5 way back). I have to admit despite some good little performances and camoes in this part (The Devil's Rejects used it's cameos better though) - Micky Dolenz of the Monkees fame having a good little part - it mostly as very little tension, which is a shame, Zombie is showing great talent as a filmmaker, but this overall feels like a bit of step back for him. Kudos for Zombie for using John Carpenter's original chilling theme, a lot of remakes that have an original with a memorable theme you spend most of the movie waiting for that theme and are disappointed if it doesn't come

Overall, disappointing despite some good points mostly in some good performances and I expect I haven't heard the last from Scout Taylor Compton. I'm gonna have to be stingy on the rating here...

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God is up there crying!

What I've got here for you lucky, lucky people is the trailer for Disaster Movie from the same people that brought you such "classics" as Date Movie, Epic Movie and Meet the Spartans (I'm not sure if they did Superhero Movie to tell the truth). Something you'll notice from the trailer is the lack of disaster movies spoofed in the trailer, Iron Man? Juno? Hannah Montana? Sex and the City? last time I checked none of these could be classed as disaster movies. But apparently these movies have been making $80-$90 million back from a $20 million budget just at the box-office, so they are gonna keep making these movies until somebody screams stop, these sort of "spoofs" make Spy Hard look classic by comparison never mind Airplane! or the like and to think I live in a world where they'll never probably be a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2 or D.E.B.S. 2, but there is one of these a year, shame on you (the people who see this shit at cinema).

Brains! Brains!

Yeah, I'm back from the "DEAD"... I'm gonna start reposting a lot more in here again including some new bits and pieces... some stuff coming up sooner rather then later!

Bask in the Loveliness of...

Jessica Alba

Bask in the Loveliness of...

Sarah Carter

Bask in the Loveliness Returns!!!!

Emilie de Ravin

The 12th Top Character I missed out by accident from the list below

ADRIAN MONK (Tony Shaloub)

MONK

Top Eleven Favourite Characters from Shows Still on the Air

*All characters are still on the show as time of writing and all show are still on the air.

BEN LINUS (Michael Emerson)

LOST

BENNET (Jack Coleman)

HEROES

CHLOE O' BRIEN (Mary Lynn Rajskub)

24

TRACY JORDAN (Tracy Morgan)

30 ROCK

PAM BEESLEY (Jenna Fischer)

THE OFFICE (U.S.)

DR. ARCHIE MORRIS (Scott Grimes)

ER

LARRY DAVID (Larry David)

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

JULIUS (Terry Crews)

EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS

JOY (Jaime Pressly)

MY NAME IS EARL

JANITOR (Neil Flynn)

SCRUBS

BARNEY (Neil Patrick Harris)

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

Lost is Back

Lost is back for it's first episode since the Writer's Strike put a dent in this seasons run and what it great episode it was. The show focused on Ben and it was his flashforward. Ben is easily my favourite character on the show (Desmond and Sawyer would be in my top list aswell) and had a shocking scene when alex was shot in the head by Keamy . So this episode kind of made Ben a hero or maybe not a hero but it give him a personal vendetta and he actually showed emotion in this episode. Terrific.

What I watched on TV: Thursday 25th

Heroes: So Heroes returned to British screens some 7 months after the U.S show for the second season. I'd gone out of my way to avoid seeing it online because it just doesn't have the same effect. It was great to see David Anders from Alias in what looks to the very least as a featured part though his English accent is distracting, also great to see the underrated Stephen Tobolowsky. Couple of actors where absent from the episode though such as Nikki and her clan. Apparently this season isn't great but I enjoyed the first episode of this season enough.

ER: ER is only a week behind the US, I believe this is the closest in 14 years of it been on British TV that it's been shown after the US showing. This week was pretty much Neela based, which included a naked dream (sadly you didn't see anything, this been a Network TV show) and she got "dumped" by her med student Harold, whilst at the same time redeeming herself to Gates daughter/quasi-daughter/whatever she is. Morris and Frank also had a great battle this week

My Name is Earl, is now showing it's third season over here. Earl's still in prison and he was trying to write a short story as part of class, all the other characters kept coming up with outlandish stories that featured themselves, it was a pretty good episode. Joy is my favourite character BTW.

The Big Bang Theory, is good as far as been nothing special, Kaley Cuoco from 8 Simple Rules is appealing and Johnny Galecki and the other guy (who is like Niles) are good, I tend to watch it just because it doesn't tax the brain cells (ironic since it's about these intelligent nerds).

The Office: I'm talking about the American one here, I really dig this show because I tend not think of it as a remake of the great British series. I adore Jenna Fischer and Steve Carell and Rain Wilson can really make me laugh. I believe we are on the third season over here, this episode was about a bunch of the characters splitting up in two's going to companies to sell paper. Good.

Entourage: Vincent Chase is my least favourite character. People like Artie and Johnny Drama I love. Johnny Drama was obsessed with getting a hat that was only available at a medical marijuana centre. E and Billy's arguing was also an highlight of the episode.

The Coreys: It seems that only after an handful of episodes it's others. Tensions rised between Haim and The Feldmans, which nearly involved them coming to fists with each other and Haim leaving seemingly for good. The show is obviously very manufactured but it was decent in a car crash sort of way.

Exploitation Theatre

I'm just not that big fan of porn, I'm not trying to hide any information here - I seriously get distracted by the bad acting and the unrealistic plots (some lucky fella might call the plots realistic) and I especially hate things like people looking at the camera, one thing I do like about dodgy pornos is of course the dialogue and the music. The dialogue more often then not is hilarious. These last few lines I'm mostly talking about hardcore porn and softcore thrillers, there is one type of "porn" (I use the term loosely from now on) I love - The 70s Sex Comedy Porn -

Now I'm not somebody who watches these sort of films for jolly's (read: wanking) and find it hard to imagine that anybody could or would. One film I saw recently was Eskimo Nell (1975) produced in Great Britian and starring Christopher Timothy (All Creatures Great and Small), Roy Kinnear (Veruca's dad in Willy Wonka) and Christopher Biggins (THAT camp guy) - if that's not a great cast then I don't know what is -

The film's plot is about a director and writing securing the funds for a film from 4 different people/groups and all 4 of them wanting something different, here's what they ask for...

• A family movie involving eskimo's.
• A filthy as hell hardcore porn movie.
• A kung-fu musical featuring Nuns (?)
• A gay cowboy movie (beating Brokeback Mountain by 30 years - though it doesn't feature any of the emotion and unrequieted feelings of that movie - it does include a spanking though)

Most of the films funniest moments come from scenes been shot from the 4 movies, the family movie's dialogue comes across as completely filthy, the unbelievable scenes from the kung fu musical and the performances of the "actors" in the gay cowboy movie.

This film is massively enjoyable with a really excellent performance by Roy Kinnear as Benny U. Murdoch (B.U.M) and the really annoying American actress (I need to look up her name) which help make this a movie I can strongly recommend.

Some Recent Filmmmmmssssssssssss

The Holiday (2006) was a sweet romantic comedy if not entirely memorable, best parts of the movies are Kate Winslet and Eli Wallach's scenes as well as the twist for Jude Law's character. Cameron Diaz' character took a bit of getting used to it and was annoying for the first 40 or so minutes. I think I can recommend it.

Something I've always said about Friday the 13th (1980) is that unlike Halloween is the fact it's not a great movie. Don't get me wrong some of the deaths are pretty cool but the acting is mostly appalling (lead actress Adrienne King in particular), however I did enjoy Betsy Palmer's performeance as Mrs. Voorhies and the Carrie rip off fake ending. I still enjoy this movie though.

Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) however is a rehash of the first movie and is nowhere near as good by any standards, this is the first movie that features Jason doing the killing (without the hockey mask). Pretty uninspired but not completely awful.

Besides all these it's been very television as far as I can remember...

Just finished watching the the first two seasons of the Ren and Stimpy show (aka the John K. years). Really, really funny without some excellent episodes. It's a shame it was never as good as this again.

A great series that never got a massive, massive audience was Dark Angel, watched both series back to back. I absolutely love Jessica Alba so it was a great selling point for me in the first place. Both series are different but both are strong in their own ways. Loved it.

Must of watched some other stuff, just can't remember at the moment...

WWE Smackdown in Sheffield

So last weeks Smackdown event was my 3rd WWE event (all in Sheffield), 1st Smackdown event and my 5th wrestling event ever, I'll have a quick descripition of the day below before I get to the actual show...

I arrived at the train station for 9.40am, I was the last one there with my nephew Dominic, Welkey, Len and his son George where all ready, everybody else had got there for 9 in the excitement even though we'd all arranged to meet for 9.30 (yeah I was late, sue me)

The train to Sheffield took just over an hour and we quickly headed to the HMV in Meadowhall as two superstars where doing a signing there at what we found out was 4 o'clock (WWE.com said 3) - Kelly Kelly and Michelle McCool - it's fair to say Sheffield got the Raw end of the deal on this tour, other towns had the likes of Kane, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and C.M. Punk - whilst waiting in the cue we found out McCool had cancelled and was to be replaced by Kofi Kingston, it felt a really, really long wait in the queue and in the end I got a Royal Rumble 2008 steelbook and my ticket from last time signed by the pair. I can't complain

After tea we headed to the venue (Hallam FM Arena) via tram and went to the concession stand as it opens earlier before the event for people who didn't get tickets and the like. £15 for a programme is too much for me and the shirts had gone up £5 from last time to £20, so shockingly for the third time I didn't buy anything from a WWE event. We then went outside to queue, we where near the front of our entrance and we queued for over an hour, when the doors opened we where first in, well technically Welkey, Len and George where the first in the actual arena, but I was 4th. We got to our seats and took a few photos posed near the ring, we waited an hour for the show to start... Oh yeah before I talk about the show, it was nearly £10 for 3 beers for the 3 of us, we each did a round (that was nearly £30 for nine bottles of beer. what a rip off!) I forget to mention we where Section B Row 7 GREAT SEATS!!!

Hollah Hollah. Teddy Long opened the event, running down matches in the card, earning his pay cheque. Vickie Guerrero was nowhere to be seen.

Kofi Kingston beat Jamie Noble and Kenny Dykstra in a triple threat match, when he pinned Noble. Pretty good match, quick paced, crowd don't know if Noble is a face or heel though. Me, Len and Welke cheered for Noble, I'm sure he heard is chanting his name.

WWE Tag-Team Champions Morrison and Miz beat Jimmy Wang Yang and Shannon Moore in a decent match, M&M did a good bit on the microphone before the match

Kelly Kelly beat Victoria in a better match then it should have been, Kelly Kelly's pants constantly falling down helped. I cheered (and cheered alone I feel) for Victoria during the match

Mark Henry beat legend Tommy Dreamer, you kind of guessed Dreamer was losing once Henry's music hit. Not a great match by any standards but enjoyable.

Batista and Finlay (w/Horney) beat Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins in an awesomely entertaining match. At one point the match involved waterpistols (!) and after the match finished the three faces did an irish jig to Horney's music which included Batista putting Horney's hat on (picture above). Wonderful.

Eve Torres came out to throw t-shirts into the crowd. She ain't a bad arm for a dame, which lead us on to intermission.

C.M. Punk beat Shelton Benjamin in a slow match, I did expect better from these two but it was great to see them wrestle in person.

MVP beat Matt Hardy after a bit of cheating. MVP did a "Andy Kaufman" bit on the mic before the match started. Good match.

Undertaker, Kane and Big Show beat Edge, Chavo and Khali in a great main event. I'VE GOT TO SEE UNDERTAKER WRESTLE IN PERSON!!!, Khali is not a wrestler at all but he applied his self well enough and obviously others helped carry the match. Brilliant.

The show ended with Taker doing his pose in the middle of the ring

Then home, the kiddies fell alseep soon because it was a long day. The show was much better then the last show we attended and was seriously a lot of FUN. Great to see a lot of the wrestlers specially Undertaker. Brilliant day.

On a last note, I haven't seen a wrestler wrestle more then twice for the record, these are the 2 times club: Triple H, Randy Orton, William Regal, Edge, Batista, Shelton Benjamin, Kane, The Miz, Tommy Dreamer, Abyss, Christian, Rhino, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. Any guesses on who will be the first wrestler I see three times!

Three of the Best

REN AND STIMPY CARTOONS

Here is the latest thing that will probably not last incredibly long (as is the norm around here - but who knows hey?). The whole thing is simple - Three of the Best - it could be anything. episodes or characters from a certain show, quotes, wrestlers, anything. I'm going to start with Ren and Stimpy which ran from 1991 to 1996 (I believe). It's no coinicidence that all these cartoons are from the first two seasons before creator John K. got the show took off of him by Nickelodoen. Anyway on with the list...

SPACE MADNESS

Any episode with Ren completely on edge and off the boil is among my favourites (Stimpy's Fan Club is also a great episode) and it also features the Time Eraser Button. This was one of the earlier episodes that proved the show could be genuis.

SON OF STIMPY (aka STIMPY'S FIRST FART)

Probably the most famous episode of the show and perhaps rightly so. It manages to get some emotion from it's ridicilious premise (it even made my nephew cry when he was younger) and is just an amazing episode of television.

SVEN HOÉK

It's odd how "The Don't Wiz on the Electric Fence" game stuck with me for years despite not seeing the episode for a long time, before reaquanting myself with it, Ren's idiot cousin Sven comes to stay with them and hits it off with Stimpy, very very funny including one very disgusting moment!

R.I.P. Stanley Kamel

Sad to hear about the death of Stanley Kamel, who appeared in loads of television shows and films. He'll be best rememered for his role as Adrian Monk's psychatrist Dr. Kroeger on the great show Monk. You'll be missed...

Life and that...

<p> Suppose I should catch you up on my life really quickly...

Well I'm making a super super interesting film about teenage pregnancy and teenage parents (there all deadbeats by the way), hopefully that should be finished soon...

Applied to go on a short University course about sit-com writing... I already have a killer idea about clowns that I want nobody to steal...

Went to Collectormania Manchester 5 last month, got loads of stuff signed and met an whole bunch of people including Michael Winslow (seem to think I've already mentioned this at least in part).

Going to see WWE Smackdown live in Sheffield next Thursday. Two superstars are doing signings during the day they are MICHELLE McCOOL and KELLY KELLY (pictured above in the black top- think she'd be happy if I took that to get signed). I know Len will not be too interested in seeing them but Welkey will probably want to go. So It'll probably leave me with the deciding vote methinks.

That's it for my boring arse life...

Autograph Maniac

Did I tell you I'm deep into the all autograph collecting thing...

Yeah, straight up, Homies... I'm still doing the whole DVD collecting thing, it's just as another geeky hobby for me... I even attended the Collectormania Manchester 5 convention and met an whole bunch of actors including Michael Winslow from the Police Academy movies, aswell as Emma Caulfield and Anthony Head from Buffy, Noah Gray-Cabey and Jimmy Jean Louis from Heroes and a few others... good event but over spent a lot

Well, here's a bunch of my signed DVDs (only counting ones got this year)...

• The Office Series Two signed by Ricky Gervais, Mackenzie Crook, Martin Freeman, Lucy Davis and Ewan McIntosh (dealer)
• Re-Animator signed by director Stuart Gordon (dealer)
• An Evening with Kevin Smith signed by Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (dealer)
• Peter Kay: Live at the Top of the Tower signed by Kay (dealer)
• Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story signed by murderer Chris Benoit (dealer)
• Scary Movie signed by Carmen Electra (dealer)
• Bring it On signed by Clare Kramer (dealer)
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre signed by Gunner Hansen (dealer)
• The Devil's Rejects signed by director Rob Zombie, Sheri Moon, Sid Haig and Bill Moseley (dealer)
• Children of the Living Dead signed by Tom Savini (dealer)
• Little Voice signed by Jane Horrocks (through the mail bitches)
• Heroes Season One signed by Noah Gray Cabey and Jimmy Jean Louis (in person)
• Police Academy signed by Michael Winslow (in person)
• Spaceballs signed by Michael Winslow (in person)
• Gremlins: Special Edition signed by Michael Winslow (in person)
• Robot Chicken Season Two signed by Michael Winslow (in person, yeah went a bit mad)
• Star Trek Generations signed by Marina Sirtis (in person)
• Torchwood San Diego Comic Con Promo signed by Kai Owen, Anthony Lewis and Siobhan Hewlett (jn person)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone signed by Matthew Lewis (in person)
• TIme Bandits signed by Kenny Baker (in person)
• Red Dwarf VIII signed by Chloe Annett (in person)
• Doctor Who: Survival signed by Sophie Aldred (in person)
• Night of the Living Dead 3-D signed by Sid Haig (brought directly from Mr. Haig)
• Hellraiser: Lament Configuration Box-Set signed by Doug Bradley (in person)

and some other stuff, but not all of it

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer Issue #1 Comic signed by Anthony Head, Emma Caulfield and Danny Strong (Head and Caulfield in person, Strong's was already on the comic brought from private dealer)
• Shaun of the Dead 2000ad Comic signed by Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright (dealer)
• Life on Mars: Promo Booklet signed by Dean Andrews and Marshall Lancaster (in person)
• Trainspotting 10x8 signed by Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle and Danny Boyle (dealer)
• 10x8s of among others Rosario Dawson (x3 cause I love her so much), Sarah Silverman, Chloe Sevigny, Juliette Lewis, Pamela Anderson, Caroline Munro, P.J. Soles, Jason Bateman, Judd Apatow, Jonah Hill, Maggie Grace, Daniel Dae Kim, Mick Foley, Molly Holly, Parker Posey, Terry Jones and many more.
• Chazz Paliminteri signed A Bronx Tale playbill aswell as The Seafarer playbill signed by David Morse and Ciaran Hinds and 2 more. (both dealer)
• Pantomime theatre flyer signed by Britt Ekland and Michael Elphick and 3 more (dealer).

I'll keep you posted with future stuff... dealer usually means UACC Registered Dealer by the way...

Short Filminess

Only watched one film this week, all the rest as been television series... that movie is Emilio Estevez' Bobby (2006), the film was occasionally good but never spectuclar.

Some of the cast where great, most of all Freddy Rodriguez, Laurence Fishburne (who's in it very little), Anthony Hopkins, Harry Belafonte, Demi Moore and William H. Macy. Some of the cast was pretty forgettable such as Heather Graham and Helen Hunt, who when not on screen you completely forgot they where part of the movie, whilst others such as Shia LaBeouf and Ashton Kutcher seemed to be in a different movie to everybody else.

The film dealt with the day Senetator and Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy is due at the Ambassador Hotel on the day he would be assassinated in 1968. It's more about the characters and what they are doing and a little bit about Kennedy himself.

The use of the newsreel footage was pretty great, there where some great songs (if some where a little too predictable) and I geniunly do think as a director/writer Estevez as a better film in him somewhere down the line.

I'll just go and say I semi-recommend it...

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

This past Sunday I went to a friends house to stay up past 12 to watch Wrestlemania XXIV on Sky Box Office PPV. I really wanted to see this event as it happened, not for the Big Show/Floyd Maywether "match", not for the triple threat match featuring John Cena, Triple H and Randy Orton, certainly not the Bunnymania match, not Edge/Undertaker and not even the Money in the Bank ladder match, it was really for one match only - THE NATURE BOY RIC FLAIR vs SHAWN MICHAELS in a career threatening match (for Flair).

Whilst the match wasn't neccesarilly a ***** classic, the match had it all drama, near finishes, signature moves, one sick bump involving Shawn Michaels moonsaulting onto an announce table. In the end, Michaels finished off Flair with the Sweet Chin music - but not before mouthing the words "I'm Sorry... I love you" to Flair, then like that Ric Flair's 35 career was over... he stayed in the ring as the crowd cheered for him and he hugged his family...

I also stayed up late the next night to watch Monday Night Raw live, which the finish saw Ric Flair standing in the ring thanking everybody including the fans, before an whole bunch of wrestlers - past and presents, face or heel, came out and hugged and clapped for Flair - there was not a dry eye in the house.

Well it's certainly true to never say never in the world of professional wrestling. Ric Flair's retirement after an incredible 35 years is a day I knew would come but always kind of worried it would. Ric Flair, for the longest time as been one of my favourite wrestlers (and actually my lone favourite wrestler for some time).

He was there wrestling at my first ever live WWE event. He stole the show, the crowd loved him including parents who where not neccesarilly wrestling fans dragged by there kids enjoyed is in ring antics. The 1992 Royal Rumble which he entered number 3 and won (along with the WWF Championship) is still my favourite, favourite Royal Rumble of all time, and I still watch it regularlly (thanks to it's inclusion on the great Ultimate Ric Flair Collection).

Thank you for all the hours of entertainment, Ric.

Latest DVD Purchases (from the past week)

• The Dragon, the Hero (Bruceploitation film starring Dragon Lee)
• Steve Austin: Cause Stone Cold Said So
• Dark Angel Season One
• Dark Angel Season Two
• Bobby
• The Holiday
• Worzel Gummidge

Bask in the Loveliness of... TWO LOVELY LADIES

Nora Zehtner who appeared in the movie Brick as well as playing Eden on Heroes Marsha Thomason, who was a regular on Las Vegas, but also played Naomie on Lost.

Trailer Trash

A trailer to the wonderful 70s classic "Switchblade Sisters"

Short bursts of film revieweness

Quick short reviews, to catch up on the classics and "classics" of cinema I have seen recently...

Brick, directed by Rian Johnson is a great film-noir story set in a high school starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a high school detective investigating his ex-girlfriend Emilie de Ravin. I really enjoyed how it turned the genre convention on it's head. Gordon-Levitt's performance is great and Nora Zehetener (Eden in Heroes) is alluring as the femme fatale of the story.

A movie that I saw fairly recently that was bad with no redeemable features was Black Xmas - a remake of the 1974 Bob Clark movie - starring Michelle Trachtenberg, Lacey Chabert, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Andrea Martin. Everything about this movie was so predictable. Just plain terrible!

Another bad film I saw recently (I sure can pick um) was the Paul W.S. Anderson "classic" Alien vs Predator, which I'd pretty much avoided because of the fact it was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, but hey curosity killed the cat. The film pisses on the memory of two film franchises and as no exciting moments. PLEASE AVOID!!!

Better then Black Xmas and Alien vs Predator combined was the classic 80s actioner No Retreat, No Surrender 2, that is dumb, but it's dumb in the best possible way with glorified violence that only exists in 80s movies and cheesy one-liners, it genuienly is worth checking out if your a fan of those no consequences action movies of the 80s. Cythina Rothrock is in it too - she ruled in the 80s -

Switchblade Sisters, a 1970s film from Jack Hill (who Quentin Tarantino champions) was suprisingly - amazingly marvellous - it's about a girl gang (suprisingly not called Switchblade Sisters) called the Jezebels, and it as everything a 70s exploitation movie should - Lesbian prison wardens, knife fights, gratious nudity and gratious violence. Highly recommended.

Another great film from Jack Hill is the Blaxploitation classic Foxy Brown, which was brilliant (but just falls somewhat short of the brilliance of Coffy), starring Blaxploitation queen Pam Grier, it is in a lot of ways just a rehash of Coffy, but it hooks you and as a cool soundtrack, the cast also includes Antonio Fargas (as her deadbeat brother) and the legendary Sid Haig (as a drug peddeling pilot). Recommended.

Return to Oz

So call Me Mr. Unreliable, it's been a few months since I last did a proper post here at blogger, tried going back to Livejournal but that just annoyst the hell out of me. So I'm coming back here, knowing me probably only for a couple of weeks or months (or even days)

Trailer Trash

Watched Coffy for the first time yesterday, really, really enjoyed it. Pam Grier, Sid Haig and Allan Arbus are all da bomb! Here's the trailer for your enjoyment...

A Youtube video in tribute to Heath Ledger

Still my favourite Heath Ledger moment...

Shocking Death

HEATH LEDGER

R.I.P.

Was really looking forward to his role as Joker in the Dark Knight.

I'll always remember him firstly from his role in 10 Things I Hate About You.

Bask in the Loveliness of...

Katherine Heigl

Trailer Trash

The trailer from the great 1968 British film Twisted Nerve

Greatest TV Themes (THE NUMBER ONE)

#1

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

Greatest TV Themes (The Top 3)

#2

Cheers

Greatest TV Themes (The Top 3)

#3

Crime Story

Greatest TV Themes (The Top 9)

#4

Quantum Leap

Greatest TV Themes (The Top 9)

#5

Freaks and Geeks

Greatest TV Themes (The Top 9)

#6

Angel

Greatest TV Themes (The Top 9)

#7

Lost in Space

(Original Opening)

Greatest TV Themes (The Top 9)

#8

Hill Street Blues

Greatest TV Themes (The Top 9)

#9

Mysterious Cities of Gold

Bruce Lee and Popeye vs James Bond, Clint Eastwood and Emmannuelle +++ Much More

Bruceploitation Corner returns after an absence forced by not seeing any new Bruceploitation movies in the time between this one and the last one, but the good news is it's back with a bang, featuring two titles -one completely unlike anything that's gone before it- and another that as a villain then throws poisonous snakes at the hero... Anyway on with the classics.

When Bruce Lee died in 1973, it left a massive gaping hole in the Eastern superstar market which expoloitation producers filled with likes of "lookalikes" such as Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee and many more, it often varied in the lookalike stakes from not at all to maybe a little, some of them where pretty good fighters whilsts not been BRUCE, but not all of them not even Bruce himself could say they starred in a movie like The Dragon Lives Again (1978- again with most Bruceploitation movies the year seems to vary from source to source) which starred Bruce Leong (who didn't look like Bruce Lee at all, go on look at the picture above -nothing like him right-) as Bruce Lee, who dies and goes to hell and gets on the bad side of the King of Hell (whose very a very randy King of Hell aswell) after an erection/nunchuk joke that lasts about 10 minutes Bruce goes on is way to a part of Hell that looks like Chinatown at the turn of the century, Bruce then seems to get on the wrong side of rag-tag bunch of villains which include James Bond (The only thing he as in Sean Connery is that he is white), Dracula (who doesn't mind going out in broad daylight), Clint Eastwood (Chinese and dressed as The Man With No Name), The Exorcist (French, male and looks nothing like Linda Blair), The Godfather (nothing like Marlon Brando, the fact that he and The Exorcist continually get called by their name is the fact they repeatedly get called by their names) and Emmanuelle (whose hot) aswell as a bunch of minions in them crazy skeleton suits. They repeatedly go after Bruce for reasons never fully explained but luckily Bruce as got friends on his side including Popeye (What did Popeye do to get into Hell? Slaughter Olive Oil in cold blood), Popeye is played by Eric Tsang whose actually gone on to have a succesful career.

Anyway there's lots of gratious T&A shots, a great sequence of Bruce dancing with Emmanuelle, a bunch of Mummys, the names of Bruce's fighting styles which include The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon and best of all The Third Leg of Bruce. This film deserves to be a hit on the cult circuit i.e. stoner college students, weird films fan. Highly recommended. The Best Bruceploitation movie of all time?

Enter the Game of Death (1979 or 80), rip-offs the titles of two Bruce Lee films in one (how many Bruceploitation films can say that) and sees Bruce Le wear Bruce Lee's famous Yellow and Black jumpsuit for most of the movie. The films craptrap plot involves the Chinese, Japanese and Germans (and probably others) obsessed with a secret document that for some reason is been kept at the top of a tower, so the good guys (read: The Chinese) send Bruce Le up the tower to fight a number of baddies a la Game of Death, most of the baddies aren't too great truth be told except one a guy who throws poisonous snakes at our hero, that is the greatest scenes in this movie and without it could almost be described as a lacklustre affair until the last 20 or so minutes which is non stop fighting, among Le's opponents are Bolo Yeung (who was in any Enter the Dragon aswell as many other Bruceploitation movies) and a black tall guy, who I imagine the only thing he as in common with Kareem Abdul-Jabber is that he is a black tall guy. Recommended for some good moments but far from essential.

Bask in the Loveliness Returns (But for How Long...)

Linda Cardellini

Viewing...

Fast Food Nation (2006), based on a non-fiction book by Eric Schlosser (who also co-wrote) reminds me of the documentary Super Size Me, in the fact it's aimed at the fast food industry (duh, obviously Rob!) but to use a food pun both lack the proper bite. Director Richard Linklater's (also the other writer) career as seemed to be pretty much based on average to good films (he's made excellent work aswell) which is a shame because I always have interest in his movies. There's a good cast in this movie, Linklater pal Ethan Hawke stands out in his few scenes and shares good moments with Patricia Arquette (as his sister) and Ashley Johnson (as his niece) and BruceWillis pops briefly aswell, it's a good movie with the final scene shown in a real slaughter the only true lingering memory. Recommended if hardly essential.

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) is the latest DVD to arrive from a recent batch that I ordered of British R2 DVDs, that have been impossible to find in the local shops. This is something I first saw probably about 9/10 years ago late night when I was still a teenager. Heather Matarazzo is excellent as Dawn Weiner, a young girl at Junior High who gets called ugly to her face (and one student tells her he's going to rape her) and is probably the ultimate outcast, I've heard a lot of people say they identify with this character and I guess I do too a point at that age, the idea of feeling and outsider and all that. Brendan Sexton III plays another student (the rape one in fact), and he's great here, he's an actor I wish had more success but for some unexplained reason hasn't. This film made me a fan of director Todd Solondz work and it is certainly his best film alongside Happiness. Highly recommended for the low budget indie fans.