Instant Cool – Buy Blood Car – The Ultimate Christmas Gift

If you haven't heard of Blood Car you are in the majority. Let's try change that. Find out how you can watch the funniest film of 2007 here.

It was the night before Christmas – wait that’s not right. It was a week or two before Halloween and I was covering the Toronto After Dark Film Fest. It was the second day of the festival, which also happened to be the day jam packed with the most screenings. I had just sat through a nearly three-hour screening of Uwe Boll’s painfully dreadful In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (Burt Reynolds plays a medieval king- that’s how fucked this film is).

I was beyond tired and 99% sure that I was going to fall asleep during the screening of the next film. Unless, of course, the next film was something spectacular – the kind of film that drags you in and keeps you there in the moment against your will – like that crazy Dutchman from Hostel. From what I knew about the forthcoming film it did not seem like one of those movies.

It was some flick called Blood Car and at the time I thought this was an extremely lame title. Within the first few seconds of the film I was more hooked than a 14-year old girl on Zac Efron. The small budget indie is essentially a re-imagining of The Little Shop of Horrors concept but instead of a plant it’s a car.

The film is set in the not so distant future where gas prices have gone through the roof and nobody drives anymore. Then a young school teacher accidentally develops an engine that runs on blood. Being the only guy around with a working car gives him the power he has never had in his life and the question is raised, “How far will he go to keep his car running.” Here is the trailer:

The film is shock/black comedy all the way pushing the boundaries that most films wouldn’t. It’s definitely not for the conservative crowd but those of you who crack up over South Park and Family Guy will love it. If you were into Shaun of the Dead you should enjoy this.

The film is being independently distributed through TLA and the official website. The official website store is done through b-side, who specialize in indie movies. You can purchase the film from them for $15 plus you get a digital download free (or simply pay for a digital download for $3 or $6), so you don’t have to wait for your copy to arrive before you watch it. What are you waiting for – Pick up a copy today!

Or wait if you don’t want to spend money, here is the gift of information from The End for this Christmas. When you register with b-side they will give you a free portable download file (valued at $3). This is basically a 700mb Div-X film designed specifically for video i-pods but this is probably above the average pirate div-x quality that most Varsity students are used to. Use your free download to get Blood Car and end your miserable year off with a screening of the funniest film of 2007.

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Golden Globe Nominations

Here are the Golden Globe nominations and what this will probably mean for the Oscar nominations.

The Golden Globe Nominations have been announced in a year that appears to be wide open with no clear favourites. No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood are the current front runners for the top award having snatched the major critics awards so far. However, Atonement leads in nominations having received best actor, actress and picture nods. Here is the break down of the nominations from The Hollywood Reporter. After this list will be my comments regarding how this will possibly effect the Oscars. 

Film Nominations:

Motion picture -- drama "American Gangster" "Atonement" "Eastern Promises" "The Great Debaters" "Michael Clayton" "No Country for Old Men" "There Will Be Blood."	Director Tim Burton, "Sweeney Todd" Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men" Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" Ridley Scott, "American Gangster" Joe Wright, "Atonement"
Actress -- Drama Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" Julie Christie, "Away From Her" Jodie Foster, "The Brave One" Angelina Jolie, "A Mighty Heart" Keira Knightley, "Atonement"	Actor -- Drama George Clooney, "Michael Clayton" Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood" James McAvoy, "Atonement" Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises" Denzel Washington, "American Gangster"
Screenplay Diablo Cody, "Juno" Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men" Christopher Hampton, "Atonement" Ronald Harwood, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" Aaron Sorkin, "Charlie Wilson's War"	Picture -- Musical or Comedy "Across the Universe" "Charlie Wilson's War" "Hairspray" "Juno" "Sweeney Todd"
Actress -- Musical or Comedy Amy Adams, "Enchanted" Nikki Blonsky, "Hairspray" Helena Bonham Carter, "Sweeney Todd" Marion Cotillard, "La Vie En Rose" Ellen Page, "Juno"	Actor -- Musical or Comedy Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd" Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl" Tom Hanks, "Charlie Wilson's War" Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Savages" John C. Reilly, "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"
Supporting Actress Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There" Julia Roberts, "Charlie Wilson's War" Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement" Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone" Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"	Supporting Actor Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men" Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War" John Travolta, "Hairspray" Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton"
Foreign-Language Film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," Romania "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," France and U.S. "The Kite Runner," U.S. "Lust, Caution," Taiwan "Persepolis," France.	Animated Film "Bee Movie" "Ratatouille" "The Simpsons Movie"
Original Score Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Vedder, "Into the Wild" Clint Eastwood, "Grace Is Gone" Alberto Iglesias, "The Kite Runner" Dario Marianelli, "Atonement" Howard Shore, "Eastern Promises"	Original Song "Despedida" from "Love in the Time of Cholera" "Grace Is Gone" from "Grace Is Gone" "Guaranteed" from "Into the Wild" "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted" "Walk Hard" from "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"

Television Nominations:

Series -- Drama "Big Love," HBO "Damages," FX Networks "Grey's Anatomy," ABC "House," Fox; "Mad Men," AMC "The Tudors," Showtime	Series -- Musical or cComedy "30 Rock," NBC "Californication," Showtime "Entourage," HBO "Extras," HBO "Pushing Daisies," ABC
Actress -- Drama Patricia Arquette, "Medium" Glenn Close, "Damages" Minnie Driver, "The Riches" Edie Falco, "The Sopranos" Sally Field, "Brothers & Sisters" Holly Hunter, "Saving Grace" Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"	Actor -- Drama Michael C. Hall, "Dexter" Jon Hamm, "Mad Men" Hugh Laurie, "House" Jonathan Rhys Meyers, "The Tudors" Bill Paxton, "Big Love"
Actress -- Musical or Comedy Christina Applegate, "Samantha Who?" America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty" Tina Fey, "30 Rock" Anna Friel, "Pushing Daisies" Mary-Louise Parker, "Weeds"	Actor -- Musical or Comedy Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock" Steve Carell, "The Office" David Duchovny, "Californication" Ricky Gervais, "Extras" Lee Pace, "Pushing Daisies"
Miniseries or Movie "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," HBO "The Company," TNT "Five Days," HBO "Longford," HBO "The State Within," BBC America	Actress -- Miniseries or Movie Bryce Dallas Howard, "As You Like It" Debra Messing, "The Starter Wife" Queen Latifah, "Life Support" Sissy Spacek, "Pictures of Hollis Woods" Ruth Wilson, "Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre)"
Actor -- Miniseries or Movie Adam Beach, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" Ernest Borgnine, "A Grandpa for Christmas" Jim Broadbent, "Longford" Jason Isaacs, "The State Within" James Nesbitt, "Jekyll"	Supporting Actress -- Series, Miniseries or Movie Rose Byrne, "Damages" Rachel Griffiths, "Brothers & Sisters" Katherine Heigl, "Grey's Anatomy" Samantha Morton, "Longford" Anna Paquin, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" Jaime Pressly, "My Name Is Earl"
Supporting Actor -- Series, Miniseries or Movie Ted Danson, "Damages" Kevin Dillon, "Entourage" Jeremy Piven, "Entourage" Andy Serkis, "Longford" William Shatner, "Boston Legal" Donald Sutherland, "Dirty Sexy Money"

 

In terms of the Oscars here are my picks for Best Picture nominations:

"American Gangster"/"Juno"/"Sweeney Todd"
"Atonement"
"No Country for Old Men"
"There Will Be Blood."

Atonement, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood are shoe ins for best picture leaving one spot, which will likely go to Sweeney Todd or American Gangster but I'm penciling in Juno as well because the critics have been loving it.

Best Actress will most likely come more from the Comedy Musical section as the dramatic nominees have been in weaker overall films.

Julie Christie, "Away From Her"
Keira Knightley, "Atonement"

Amy Adams, "Enchanted"
Marion Cotillard, "La Vie En Rose"
Ellen Page, "Juno"

Here are my Best Actor picks.

Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
James McAvoy, "Atonement"
Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises" or Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd"
Denzel Washington, "American Gangster"

Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Savages"

And lastly Cate Blanchett is pretty much a definite for a Best Supporting Actress win at the Oscars, having been robbed so many times for Best Actress in previous years and her performance is probably the strongest/strangest out of all the contenders.

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Dexter to be Castrated then Shown on CBS

Studio Briefing reports that due to the writers strike various Showtime shows will be edited down from their adult cable format to be played on sibling broadcast network CBS. CBS chief Les Moonves said, "Dexter is probably the first one to go on -- with some edits. ... It fits with our crime shows."

That means no semi-nudity and overly grotesque gore scenes for the general American public. This is a creative solution (which NBC announced first) from the content starved networks, since most people do not see these shows on cable.

It will be interesting to see how this amazing show fares on broadcast. How will it's rating stack up against the other CBS hits (which are crap). Hopefully not so well that they decide to keep it in its castrated form exclusively on broadcast TV.

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The New Batman Teaser Poster

Here is the new teaser poster for the new Batman film coming out next year. It looks fantastic as has been the rest of the promotional material for this film. Click the image for the high-res version.

For those of you who don't know Heath Ledger is the new Joker and his version looks to be way more twisted than the Nicholson version. Here is a picture also this is the new Bat suit, which is the first Batman costume ever with a moveable neck.

And if you haven't seen the teaser trailer, watch it here. At the end you will hear Ledger talking as the Joker and he sounds like a completely deranged clown. Perfect.

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A Racist Was Here – or – Edward Carson Was Here

Do you want to learn more about our ill informed little visitor and perhaps a little about racism as well? Probably not - discovering how backwards the world is is really depressing. Yes, you are probably thinking, “But racists come here all the time" (see transformers comments). This is true but that’s usually in an anonymous capacity. A few days ago Edward Carson’s tiny little head appeared on our Bloglog. It’s not hard to guess how he found his way here.

I was catching up with the comments on an article at capetownnews.co.za when I came across Ed’s comments. Here is a disturbing extract:

In a perfect world, kaffirs would not be so resistant to civilisation; they would embrace it and become part of it, and in time would acquire some of the human characteristics that us whites take for granted. In a perfect world. It doesn’t take rocket science to realise that we live in an imperfect world. So my friend, put aside your utopianism and guilt associated with our inability to get the blacks to transcend their sub-human nature, and wake up to the real world.

Very poetic. For non-South African’s, the ‘k’ word he uses at the start of the quote is a derogatory word for a black person, similar to the ‘n’ word, but if you’ve heard it spoken in South Africa you would understand that it is a hell of a lot worse. After reading this comment, out of curiosity, I went to his site and he obviously followed the link from his Bloglog.

Anyway Mr. Carson is one of the few racists out there I’ve seen who is brave enough to put his real identity on the line. He peddles his Hitler babble on his blog which features the old South African flag in the title. I am fairly certain this guy thinks Lamborghini’s are sexy.

Anyway there are few positives to discuss about Ed (other than freedom of expression and the fact that he is open about his bigotry). And a list of negatives would be a far too time consuming list of the obvious.

Instead let me rather present to you a theory of racism. I would like to bring up the work of Geoff Lakoff and Mark Johnson , specifically Metaphors We Live By. This is a sort of misleading title since the book deals with metaphors and metonyms but Metaphors and Metonyms We Live By just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Johnson and Lakoff believe that metaphor and metonym (along with their weaker versions simile and synecdoche)are important parts of our conceptual systems that guide our existence. Here’s a quote:

Metaphors have entailments through which they highlight and make coherent certain aspects of our experience. A given metaphor may be the only way to highlight and coherently organize exactly those aspects of our experience.

Metaphors may create realities for us, especially social realities.

Metonym, or more precisely synecdoche, proves to be particularly useful to help explain sheet wearing hoodlums such as Eddy. For those who can’t remember grade 11 English a Metonym is a relationship based on two things through association (ie. Referring to ‘the springboks’ to represent the South African Rugby team).

The weaker form, synecdoche, is when a part is taken for the whole, like when the stereotypical construction worker refers to a woman as “legs”. This particular form is what a lot of racists, and in particular Ed, do. For instance Ed groups all black people in the same category even though I highly doubt he has proof that this is the case for all black people.

So yes most of the violent crime in South Africa is being committed by blacks but it is not being committed by all the blacks. This is where Ed is having his problems - he is letting personal experience ("I did not have a gun. I did not believe in violence. I was not a ‘racist piece of shit’. But none of that could save me from black hatred and violence.") rather than logic guide his thoughts. If all black people were out there killing whites there would be no more white people left in South Africa.

In closing before people go off to Ed’s badly decorated blog just remember what Voltaire said, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.” Ed has the right to say what he wants (well technically in SA you can’t say hate speech) and we have the right to tell him that what he says is a load of crap. Oh and Ed if you read this why not write a post about Dina Rodrigues on your blog (oh and here is a little something you might find interesting).

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Vancouver 2010 - What's Up With the Mascots?

Check out the crazy new Winter Olympics mascots. Can you guess which one used to be named after sex? Well, can you? My money's on the green one.

Remember the good old days when choosing a mascot was a simple matter of saying, "Hey, we're in Africa, why don't we just use a giraffe?" Well apparently that was a long time ago. The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics have gone and made the whole thing complicated and awkward.

Firstly, fuck that idea of having just one mascot let's have a whole army. Yes Vancouver 2010 has 3 official mascots and wait for it... they in turn have their own mascot (or sidekick), leaving a grand total of four mascots. Here they are, Quatchi, Miga and Sumi (who has "special powers") Note - Mukmuk not picture:

Secondly, these mascots aren't just cute cuddly images but they also have elaborate back stories. For instance:

Quatchi, a shy and gentle giant, is a sasquatch - a popular figure in local Aboriginal legends of the Pacific West Coast. Quatchi reminds us of the mystery and wonder associated with the great Canadian wilderness. Although Quatchi loves all winter sports, he's especially fond of hockey and dreams of becoming a world-famous goalie.

You wouldn't want to have an event without exploiting the environment so one of the mascots is also "environmentally conscious".

In addition, screw whatever Canadian heritage the country has, the designers opted to go with an Asian influence because Pokemon is what the kids love these days. Corporate greed is pretty. You can find more information about the mascots at their own minisite, where you will also find a rather addictive game about recycling (don't mock it I was going to post this yesterday but got distracted).

Oh and before I forget one of the mascots was originally named after an offensive word (apparently something to do with sex). If anyone finds out what the original name is I am willing to give you a back rub.

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Women are Evil?

Women are evil, at least that's the word on the street. Inside this post is "scientific" evidence that will prove absolutely nothing of use but hey at least it exists.I remember a few years back at varsity a friend of mine had this stuck up on his wall:

At the time everyone had a laugh (ha ha ha) and thought it was a clever joke. While the person who created it undoubtedly meant it as a joke (as well as an ode to masculine hegemony) and did not intend it to be analyzed seriously lets just be crazy and do it anyway.

First off, "Girls = Time x money". This is debatable as while women definitely equal time (what doesn't?) they certainly do not have to equal money (maybe who ever created this should have tried doing some sit ups). Sure there are enough Gold diggers out there to allow Kayne West to make millions off a song about it but this is a rampant generalization. A more accurate formula would be, "prostitutes = time x money". I'm sure that conservatives will be delighted to finally have a scientific argument against prostitution. Perhaps Senator Craig will present it to Congress (oh that's right he can't because he resigned after soliciting for sex).

But hey lets role with it and pretend that this is true. Then it is safe to say that anything that equals time and money is just the same. Hmm what else equals time and money. How about children, yes children equal time and money, thus children are evil (I always knew it). How about education and health care (republicans must love this formula)? What about any entertainment you can think of - video games, movies, books, etc. they are all evil too. 

According to this anti-terrorist programs are evil and so is war (maybe Republicans aren't so crazy about it). In fact the only things that are not evil are free methods of spending our time and of course working for money. That means this whole formulae is un-American and anti-capitalist. Thus, according to this formulae the correct form of political action is communism.

I don't know who came up with this but lets call him Lloyd. According to Lloyd women are evil but so is everything else that's worth a damn in this life. In conclusion Lloyd is a commie bastard that wants to piss all over the American way, and that my friends is what my good friend Ronald Reagan would call evil.

Note: The author of this article is not American nor has he ever met Ronald Reagan and he possibly watches far too much of the Colbert Report.

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Live Writer - Blog Like a Pro

Windows Live Writer will help you blog better and it's free. 

I seriously recommend Windows Live Writer to anyone who blogs. Particularly if you are a Blogger user as this is the platform I use and have found Live Writer to be an extremely useful tool. I started using the beta version a month or two ago and found it helpful. The only problem was that if you did not have access to an FTP server you could not place images from your hard drive in your posts.

My hard drive crashed this week and after I reformatted it I began reinstalling all my programs. I went to the Live Writer website and it turns out that it is out of beta (a notification from the program would have been nice). Anyway the previously mentioned problem has been fixed and now the program will upload images straight to blogger for you.

It is an extremely powerful blogging tool. You can create your posts in Live Writer and post them to your blog when you want. The program downloads your template so you can write posts in your blog format. In addition you have a spell check, a link bank and you can create templates for posts to follow. Plus you can do different to effect to images you upload such as gaussian blur or drop shadows.

Live Writer is especially useful if you have more than one blog. You can switch blogs in seconds. Live Writer works best for those who make complicated posts that are more than just text. Try it for yourself. 

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The Bachelor: Forrest Gimp

According to Chris Harrison (host of The Bachelor) the bachelor's decision not to pick a mate is what everyone is talking about in North America (I personally haven't heard anyone talking about it).

I did, however, happen to land on the season finale while channel surfing and notice that this years bachelor is a bigger gimp than usual. He talks like Forrest Gump (as does Bush). I am starting to think that the films success played apart in George W's election. I guess that's how they roll in the states.

What's more shocking than the season finale is that this sexist piece of crap is still on TV. A bunch of women fighting over one man really does nothing to further the feminist movement. You can even hear the sexist undertones in the way that show creator Mike Fleiss talks about the finale here.

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Review: Smorty

Want to get paid for blogging? Try Smorty.You may have noticed our review of Pro360 a week or two ago. This was our first review for the blog advertising system Smorty. It allows you to blog for money. Basically it works in much the same way as Pay for a Post.

The first posts you have access to pay about $6 a post. The more you post the more points you earn and this gives you access to the higher paying posts. The system allows you to post your own opinion. However, the advertiser has to approve the post, so this might impair your ability to give an objective opinion, but our review of Pro360 was by no means a praising of the service and it got approved.

The Smorty service is ideal if you want to blog for money but do not get enough traffic to support the pay per a click systems such as Adsense. I can vouch for Smorty in that they paid promptly straight into my PayPal account.

One problem I have had with the service, which is not really a problem, is that there are very few post options that are relevant to this blog. Once more companies start to use Smorty to advertise on blogs this problem will resolve itself.

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More Spiders and Some Mice on Drugs

Animals seem to be getting high left, right and center.A big heads up to --Bamboo Blitz-- who drew my attention to this. In a previous post we showed some images of what allegedly happens to a spiders web when it is on drugs. Here is a video on the same topic. It seems to be a far more thorough investigation.

It's been on YouTube forever so you've probably already seen it. Over here is a flash app that shows the effects of drugs on the brain with the use of mice as a visual aid.

  The Explanations aren't so interesting but watching the mice act like they are on drugs should entertain you for a solid 60 seconds.

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Spiders on Drugs

When humans get high they become promiscuous, do nothing or freak out. When spiders do it they spin some crazy ass webs.Cannabis.net have the following pictures of what happens to a spiders web when a spider is on drugs.First off here is the regular straight up sober spider web:

Then if that spider decided it was a good idea to drop some acid his web might end up looking something like this on the right.

That looks pretty groovy but what if that spider had thought, "You know what I don't really want to see giant Oranges running up the sides of buildings chasing Evan Rachel Wood. Why not try mescaline Hunter S. Thompson used to do that it would be pretty cool. "

Well then the spider would end up producing a web more like this one on the left.

Ok, so I'm sure we can all agree that if Spiderman is taking on Doc Ock he should definitely rather be on acid than mescaline. You wouldn't be able to beat many super villains with that web.

Ok so the peyote is not for you. Why not rather sit back and smoke some hash.

 Well then the spider would manage to spin this out of his ass. 

But maybe the spider decides that drugs aren't for him. Instead he heads down to Wimpy for a nice cheese burger and caps it off with a good old cup of coffee.

 

 

This is what would happen to his web:

So if any of you out there happen to be spiders stay away from the Red Bull cause that shit will fuck you up.

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Box Office Expert or Spin Doctor

Do you know who Paul Dergarabedian is? Do you know what his link to Bee Movie is? Do you know if Dreamworks pay him in diamonds? If the answer is no you've found the right article.Bee Movie captured 1^st place at the box office in its second weekend of release after opening in second last weekend to American Gangster. "It's so rare to do what Bee Movie has done," Media by Numbers President Paul Dergarabedian told the Los Angeles Times, attributing the jump to "terrific word of mouth."

This is an interesting statement from Dergarabedian but before I discuss why this is so interesting and unusual let us first learn a little more about Dergarabedian and Media by Numbers.

According to the Media by Numbers website Dergarabedian has been the industries most widely respected and widely quoted expert for nearly 15 years. Media by Numbers goal is to provide in-depth analysis and perspective for everything in the box-office and filmed entertainment industry. According to them, “We don’t just give you data. We help you understand it, use it, learn from it and profit from it.”

I am not disputing the validity of Media by Numbers mission statement. What I am concerned about is the validity, or intentions, behind Dergarabedian’s Bee Movie statement. Interestingly although Bee Movie has become number one in its second weekend its second weekend drop is worse than previous animated films that opened in early November. Consider the following:

Chicken Little – 21.0% drop

Monsters, Inc. – 27.2% drop

The Incredibles – 28.7% drop

Bee Movie – 32.8% drop

In addition Bee Movie has lower user ratings than each of these films (with the exception of The Internet Movie Database user rating for Chicken Little):

Chicken Little Yahoo User Rating: B- IMDB User Rating: 5.8

Monsters, Inc. Yahoo User Rating: B+ IMDB User Rating: 7.9

The Incredibles Yahoo User Rating: B+ IMDB User Rating: 8.2

Bee Movie Yahoo User Rating: C+ IMDB User Rating: 6.5

In addition Bee Movie’s second weekend drop is less remarkable in light of the Veterans Day weekend meaning more kids would have been out watching movies on Sunday. This is more likely the main factor helping lead Bee Movie to a first place finish rather than word of mouth.

This analysis is interesting for one specific reason. When the media says a film has terrific word of mouth it convinces the public that the people who are watching the film are loving it. However, clearly the yahoo and IMDB user ratings paint a different picture.

It is an interesting explanation from an analyst with over 15 years of experience to give and one has to wonder if Dergarabedian is a credible news source or if he is merely a spin machine being used by certain Hollywood players.

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Animated Oscar Contenders Announced

The animated oscar contenders have been announced. Who do you think will make it out of the 12 films?12 films have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 80^th Academy Awards.

They are Alvin and the Chipmunks, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, Bee Movie, Beowulf, Meet the Robinsons, Persepolis, Ratatouille, Shrek the Third, The Simpsons Movie, Surf’s Up, Tekkonkinkreet, TMNT.

Alvin and the Chipmunks, Beowulf and Persepolis have not yet had their required LA qualifying runs. 3 Films will be chosen for Oscar nominations, which will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2008.

My money is on Ratatouille and Beowulf to definitely get nominated with a wild card coming from a foreign film or box office powerhouses Shrek and The Simpsons.

I’m glad to hear the Aqua Teens submitted, who cares if they have a snowballs chance in hell. Hopefully they won’t try any guerrilla tactics to promote themselves to the academy. Who do you think will get the nod?

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Planet Terror vs Death Proof

It's the battle of the Grindhouse. Who do you think will win? I'll give you a clue it's not Morgan Freeman.

You have to love the mainstream media for being completely useless. It was big news in April when Grindhouse was released and had a mega-disappointing opening of $11.6 million. The $60-million film only grossed $24 million in ticket sales by the end of its run.

The media was a blaze with speculation as to why the high profile project failed. Generally the blame was pointed at the project being badly marketed. Apparently a large portion of the market didn’t realize that the film was in fact two separate features being played together with fake trailers in between.

The two features being Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof and Robert Rodriquez’s Planet Terror. The media blamed the poor performance on Planet Terror mainly because critics loved Death Proof and many ticket patrons not knowing it was a double bill left after Planet Terror (which screened first). It also seems so did the studio as The Weinstein Co. decided to withdraw Grindhouse from Cannes in favour of a longer cut of the isolated Death Proof.

The poor box-office performance resulted in The Weinstein Co deciding to release the films separately on DVD and internationally. Now we have reached a phase in time where both films have had their separate DVD releases. And the media has done… nothing.

Death Proof has been in release for around 7 weeks and Planet Terror has now completed its 3rd. Yet there is no buzz about what happened with their sales figures. Well lets fill you in.

Planet Terror has convincingly drawn larger numbers than Death Proof in almost every respect. The film that was blamed for the failure of the Grindhouse venture is the more financially successful of the two. Lets look at the numbers.

Here are the first two weeks of DVD sales for Planet Terror and Death Proof:

Death Proof   DVD Week 1 - 367,661 total units sold - $8,242,960 total gross

Planet Terror DVD Week 1 - 424,474 total units sold - $9,741,678 total gross

Death Proof   DVD Week 2 - 479,019 total units sold - $10,803,080 total gross

Planet Terror DVD Week 2 - 561,524 total units sold - $12,886,976 total gross

Thus Planet Terror is about $2 million ahead of Death Proof after they both had two weeks of release. In terms of rentals Death Proof debuted to the tune of $2.87 million while Planet Terror soared past this with $5.77 million in its first week. As it currently stands Death Proof grossed $12.16 million after 7 weeks, while Planet Terror has grossed $14.45 million after just 3 weeks.

Anyway these figures would suggest that Planet Terror is the stronger of the two features. Plus there is this poll on sucksorrules.com that suggests the same thing. I think somebody owes Robert Rodriquez an apology.

Here are the Trailers:

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Think Green Video Competition

Do you want to read a post filled with really bad environmental commercials? No, what if I told you there's free candy... and makeup? Now maybe? Ok, ok, I'm sorry I'm just really bad at giving away free puppies. That's right there are pictures of cute fluffy little puppies in this post. Just read on. [note joke stolen from Blood Car].

But seriously watch the videos and have a pretentious laugh at those with noble hearts but no talent.

The following videos were selected in a Think Green video competition at rollmio. Firstly, I'd like to say that the videos that came in the top three were just not that great (in fact nor were the special mentions). Obviously the competition was open to the public and clearly people were not working on these with large amounts of time or money. However, what shocks me is the unoriginality of the concepts, each add looks like something that's been done before.

Anyway here are the ads in there order of placing and my comments.

1st Place:

 

What the hell's up with this country song? The big problem with this ad is that if it does stop people from littering the world will still suffer from a large excess of vomit caused by this ad. Plus what's up with the music at the end? Has anyone here heard of a little something called phasing out?

2nd Place:

 

This is in another language so I don't catch the phrase at the end, which might have helped me get it. The point is fairly obvious when it is viewed in context but if this popped up on TV randomly I'd have no idea what this was about. On the plus side this is definitely the best produced video of the lot.

3rd Place:

 

Well done on finding the most annoying kid's laugh in the world. I almost dumped the entire contents of by bin out the window in protest of this. Plus an animated tree growing in an environmental commercial, I've never seen that before. Well done.

Special Mention 1:

This one gets some points for originality and spirit. Main problem have these guys not heard of sound editing? The music was so muffled I thought I had a hearing problem.

Special Mention 2:

 This one works the best on the whole. Again nothing spectacularly new but this definitely should have come somewhere.

Special Mention 2 or The Toilet Selection:

This, seriously? What the hell? I definitely do not want to "keep the trash in the bin" after watching that. I guess none of these resorted to sex to make a sale but then again maybe they should of. Leave your comments. How would you rank them? Oh and in case you came here looking for pictures of puppies:

 

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Review: Pro360

Have you ever wanted to gamble online but have been scared off by the mass of options. Maybe there is a solution...

Have you ever wanted to gamble online but have been scared off by the mass of options. That’s where Pro360 comes in. Pro360 is an online casino review system. They list a bunch of online rooms and provide reviews of them. The rooms are arranged according to rank and have been rated by both the site and user reviews. It’s easy to narrow the list down to your game of choice: craps, poker etc.

The incentives are obvious for such a business. They get the referral fees from the casinos that they sign up people for. Obviously there is nothing wrong with this and Pro360 have set up some fairly impressive bargains for people who go through them. For instance, if you sign up with Titan poker regularly you get a $200 sign up bonus but if you go through Pro360 that increases to $500.

Problems:

There are 76 poker rooms and Party Poker is not one of them. It just doesn’t make sense to not review one of the biggest poker rooms if that’s what you are about. There is also no mention of Absolute poker, which as has been mentioned earlier on this blog, is going through a bit of a scandal. I think it would be a nice addition to mention the dodgy gambling destinations and some kind of warning. Otherwise the whole thing is a good idea but it just doesn’t go far enough.

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Review: Private Practice

For those of you who can't get enough of Grey's Anatomy here's the spin off...

The Plot: After discovering that she is infertile; being rejected by men left right and center; and failing to get promoted (tough year), Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) leaves Seattle Grace, in this Grey’s Anatomy spin off, for sunny California. She begins working at a private practice, which is filled with TV regulars such as Taye Diggs (Day Break, Kevin Hill, Ally McBeal), Tim Daly(Wings), Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy) and Paul Adelstein (Prison Break).

The Good: Generally an enjoyable show and will definitely please a large portion of Grey’s fans. It’s also good to see Daily and Diggs on shows that will actually stick around. Plus Adelstein just continues to impress me (did any one catch him on Scrubs – hilarious).

The Bad: One of the things that makes Grey’s work so well is that it is in Seattle and filmed with a greyish or dull tint, which is contrasted by cheesy character moments. The cheesy moment seem less cheesy in the bleak setting of the show. Practice on the other hand plays it’s equally cheesy (or possibly more so) elements against a very bright and cheerful atmosphere, making it kind of vomit inducing at times.

The Ugly: I’ve seen two episodes so far and none of the medical cases have been particularly interesting. Which is strange because the Grey’s formula is: Find an unusual medical case - Apply it to the character on an emotional level - then further allow it to be a point of reflection for one of the main characters. Also there's an unattractive receptionist/surfer with no acting ability and flabby man boobs who continues to walk around shirtless. Disturbing.  

The Verdict: This show was the top debut of the season for awhile until fellow ABC freshman show, Samantha Who?, knocked it off that pedestal. Plus the ratings have been continuously high and it has already been picked up for a full season. This one is bound to be a success and with time the writers and actors will be able to better define the characters and their situations.

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Review: The Bionic Woman

Our TV reviews have taken a bit of a dive recently but now they are back in full swing with NBC's The Bionic Woman.

The Plot: A woman is almost killed in a car crash, losing several of her limbs. However, her scientist boyfriend reconstructs her with bionic body parts making her into a cyborg super woman.

The Good: The fight between the Bionic Woman and, wait for it… The other Bionic Woman is well choreographed. Plus there are some decent effects.

The Bad: The story is relatively slow and doesn’t really leave one wanting more. Lead Michael Ryan does the whole chameleon thing drifting from tasty to nasty. Critics also find her performance too deadpan but I think it works in the role.

The Ugly: The show has already changed producers a number of time it its short existence, which means that the shows direction is in trouble. There is nothing worse than watching a show that doesn’t seem to know where it is going. The lead character just seems rather ungrateful. She’s angry with her boyfriend for saving her life because of the changes he makes to her. On the other hand her BF tells her she is a cyborg in one of the worst possible manners. Subtlety is an art.

NOTE: A recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy takes the cake for the worst doctor – patient diagnosis report in the history of serious TV drama. It is revealed to said patient that there is cancer in her tongue and that it will be removed and replaced with tissue from her calves. The patient, who is a chatterbox, responds, “Will I still be able to talk?”

McSteamy replies, “Yes, you’ll still be able to talk…” [pause], “But no one will be able to understand you.” [Insert canned laughter]. That’s worse than the doctor from Family Guy.

The Verdict: It’s not looking good for this show, the ratings have been dropping after a promising debut (8.4/13; 6.8/11; 6.4/10; 5.5/9; 4.8/7) and the mainstream media are trashing the show. One of them referred to it as “The Moronic Woman”. Plus I’m fairly certain this is a high budget series so network expectations are higher then what it is generating. It’s lucky this year the writers strikes has given most new shows an extended life cycle. I don’t see this making it to a second season.

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Watch the Pumpkin Rott - Slowly

As part of their marketing for the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. have set up a flaming pumpkin animation here. The right hand side is slowly rotting in, I'm sure, anticipation of Halloween.

This film already had a similar marketing tactic that resulted in the first photo of Heath Ledger as The Joker being revealed. Will this rotting pumpkin result in the first image of Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face? Find out on Halloween.

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Saw IV - Seen a Lot

Jigsaw is back and he's making box office analysts look like a bunch of corpses.Box Office analysts have been saying for months that the Saw franchise has burnt out and that Saw IV would have a drastic drop in it’s opening tally. Figures between $18-$22 million were the general estimates going into this weekend.

But now Jigsaw has blown those figures out of the water with a $14 million Friday and early estimates of $33.3 million for the weekend. That puts it in place to possibly take the Saw crown away from Saw III, which had a $33.6 million opening last year.

I am not surprised at all by this result; I have been expecting a mammoth weekend for a while now. The tracking that came in this week was the only thing that caused some doubt in my mind. Now lets sum up why analysts thought Saw IV was going to disappoint and why they were wrong.

Torture Porn is Dead:

The horror genre got an upsurge in 2004 from the original Saw when it began a trend that is now known as torture porn (this can be debated torture porn is not necessarily new, also other films can be argued as the starting point). The trend resulted in three Saw movies, Hostel and The Hills Have Eyes, which were all hits. This year, however, a number of torture porn releases failed to impress. This included the massive drops from franchise heavy weights Hostel 2 and The Hills Have Eyes 2.

There definitely is a lack of interest in the genre but the Saw films are in a different league from the other torture films. Firstly, even the first Saw ($55m) was far more successful than the nearest torture porn rivals (Hostel - $47m, Hills - $41m). In addition these two films achieved impressive grosses from other means. Hostel (which was crap) was marketed under the Quinton Tarantino name and many teenagers mistook Hills as the movie adaptation of MTV’s The Hills (this is probably not true). Thus torture porn is dead and probably never even reached the heights that it was hyped up to. Saw on the other hand is a well-established franchise that makes it stand out from the genre as a whole.

The Series has been Descending in Quality:

Many argue that the first Saw was unbelievably original and since then the franchise has been relying on increasing the gore/torture factor while becoming more and more of a sixth day violation.

For me Saw was never that original, ever heard of a little Fincher film called Seven? And in terms of Saw fans they are almost split down the middle over which is better, Saw or Saw II. There are even some who champion Saw III. The most important thing to remember is that the franchise has progressed and developed a complex protagonist who many view as the greatest villain of the new millennium. Jigsaw kicks ass and each movie has done a good job of adding to the character making any Saw film with Tobin Bell a must see.

Position, Position, Position:

The film has marked off the Halloween weekend as it’s designated landing point for the last four years. There is no better time for a horror film to launch and the Saw franchise has become a Halloween tradition.

Plus each film has been release a year apart making it hard for another franchise to some in and block it from the weekend, while at the same time keeping interest high.

Saw IV though will probably have bigger drops than the previous sequels. I'm looking for a finish just north of $75 million. I will have to see it before I comment on the possible success of Saw V.

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The Problem with Blog Rush

Blog Rush has some major snags in its service and its policy that leave it looking rather questionable.Blog Rush is a great tool for getting traffic to your blog. We were using it and found it very effective. The first problem with Blog Rush is that they do not seem answer their customersupport@blogrush.com emails. We have sent in a number of emails to them some recently and some when they first started and have not received a response to any of them.

The second problem is with the so-called ‘Quality’ review. This blog failed the review yet as far as we can tell it passes every single one of the standards. Since failing the review we have sent a number of email to ask why and nothing. How are the corrections meant to be made if the mistakes are not pointed out?

Blog Rush do not inform you in the email that they send why they have failed a blog. If the quality reviewer cannot take the time to simply write a small phrase or check a box that mentions why the blog failed can we even call it a review. The lack of feedback means that some blogs that meet all the criteria can be band for no reason at all. It also means that without this disclosure the system is ripe for foul play.

Let’s quickly look at the quality guidelines and how they apply to this blog:

• The blog contains unique, quality content that provides opinions, insights, and/or recommended resources that provide value to readers of the blog. Articles, videos, public domain works, press releases, and content written by others are okay to be used on the blog, but the ratio of unique content should far outweigh content from other sources. CHECK

• All our content is completely unique. We have a few links to other stories but the majority of them are written by our writers and even when we link we provide our own commentary. CHECK

• The blog should be updated on a regular basis (at least several times a month) and should not just go a few months between posts. CHECK

• The blog should already contain at least 10-12 quality posts. New blogs with very little content will not be accepted. CHECK
• The blog's primary contain must be in English. BlogRush is currently not available for non-English blogs. CHECK

• The blog should not contain an excessive amount of advertising and links and very little actual content. The focus of the blog should be quality content. CHECK

• The primary content of the blog should not be "scraped" content from other sources and/or script-generated pages for the sole purpose of search engine rank manipulation. The focus of the blog should be quality content. CHECK

• The blog's content (or advertising) should not contain any of the following types of content: hate, anti-racial, terrorism, drug-related, hacking, phishing, fraud, pornographic, nudity, warez, gambling, copyright infringement, obscene or disgusting material of any kind, or anything considered illegal. CHECK

Thus, it seems we meet all the criteria. I suggest people digg this post to spread the word then maybe Blog Rush will do something about the situation, especially since they are not answering their email.

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The Amazing Poker Scam

Here is some great poker advice: "Do not play at Absolute Poker!" Steven Levitt from Freakonomics (great blog, better book) has been following a poker scam there. Part One: Some poker player played like he could see everyone's cards, crazy. Part Two: Fellow poker players investigated and with the aid of an inside informant discovered that a staff member of Absolute Poker was responsible for the cheating. Hopefully this isn't happening at 3 Piggs. Read the full story here and here.

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Video Game Destroys the Box Office

Tired of merely killing Aliens, the space marines of Halo 3 set their sights on the film industry, claiming poor Ben Stiller as their first casualty.

According to Studio Briefing the release of Halo 3 may have been the cause of the recent low box office earnings. Here is the original segment:

Some industry analysts are blaming the release of the videogame Halo 3 for the current dive in movie ticket sales. Advertising Age has observed that over the Oct. 5 weekend, after Halo 3 had sold $300 million worth of copies, the box office was down 27 percent below the same weekend last year -- the worst performance for an October weekend since 1999. Over the same weekend, The Heartbreak Kid, which some box-office gurus had predicted would make up to $30 million, brought in only $14 million. "The audience on this game is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you'd see in cinemas," Mike Hickey, an analyst at Denver research firm Janco Partners, told AdAge, adding that the box-office slide "could last for several weeks.

This is just going by official sales and isn't taking into consideration all the pirate copies of the game that are bound to have spread. In any case this means that film distributors will now also have to take high profile game releases into consideration. The poor performing R-rated Heartbreak Kid was essentially released when a large chunk of it's target audience were glued to their computer. Big oops DreamWorks.

Since games tend to consume a lot more time then major sporting events this means that distributors are going to have a whole new bunch of challenges on their hands. Possibly having to forecast a games potential impact in weeks before claiming a release date.

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Stick Arena: Say Good Bye to Your Life

Stick Arena is a game from XGen Studios where you run around and kill other stick men. The best part is it's a live multiplayer game, which means you are running around against live opponents.

You can also register and thus keep all your stats. So grab a baseball bat, sword or gun and kill some stick figures.

 Play Stick Arena

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The Most Disgusting Short Story Ever Written

Sexual taboos and gross out vomiting, now that's a crazy combination for one little story.About two years ago I read a review for Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted, which you should probably know a little about first. Basically Haunted is a short story collection, however, instead of just arbitrarily collecting his short stories in an anthology Palahniuk has weaved them into a novel. Basically the main characters are all partaking in the same twisted writing seminar and Palahiniuk’s short stories are the work of the characters.

Anyway, the review made mention of one particular story called Guts. The reviewer broke off into a rant over how disgusting this popular Palahinuiuk story is. Anyway, I completely forgot about the review and went on with my life. Then the other day I started reading Haunted and Guts is the first short story in the collection.

This tale of taboo sexuality is probably the most disgusting thing I have ever read. I actually gagged while reading it (in fairness I was hung over). It’s an extremely well written piece of fiction and as disgusting as it is I could not stop reading. It’s starts off fluffy and lighthearted and climatically builds till your wriggling in your seat with discomfort. I was forced to finish and walked around for the rest of the day as nauseous as hell. Strangely enough I highly recommend it. Read Guts here.

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Review: Reaper

Writing this review made me sleepy.

The Plot: Another show with a slacker but this time he doesn’t become a top secret government security concern (Chuck). Sam just turned 21 and what he doesn’t know is that before he was born his parents sold his soul to the devil. Satan himself has come to collect and now Sam must live out the rest of his life as the devil’s bounty hunter, capturing escaped souls from hell.

The Good: Kevin Smith (Clerks) directs this quirky pilot to perfection, delivering a sharp witty, quick paced 40-minutes that packs on the comedy. You have to love a show where the main character dropped out of college because it made him sleepy. Bret Harrison is perfect in the lead role and his own show has been a long time coming. Ray Wise makes a great devil and Tyler Labine as the weird sidekick friend is hilarious.

The Bad: No actual horror here and this is the kind of show that should have some kind of scare factor. Plus I saw the second episode and it was the same formula, which was a bit of a downer. The show needs to make the escaped souls concept better.

The Ugly: Once again a comparison of the first two episodes but the effects budget was obviously much higher in the first and the second really didn't feature much action.

The Verdict: The show scored a 2.1/3, which is good for the CW, plus it has had very small declines since the debut which means this should be around for the season.

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