Calm down dear, it's only a blog post

Yes yes, I'm full aware at how shit I am at this. I know I haven't made a post in ages (I'd check how long but the internet here is worse than herpes in your eye), but hey, I'm here now! who knows how long I'll stay, but I guess a little update wouldn't hurt? So here are some thing's I've enjoyed recently:

A new series of Newswipe (hooray!)

Christmas being over and TV shows starting again (woo!)

Being far too lazy to do my essays, so managing to watch some quality (and not so quality) films (yippee)

Yeah. Exciting life huh? Rather than go into immense detail about every single film I've seen since last time, I'll just try and rush through it. But before we start, let me just say. I haven't seen Avatar (yet?), so shut up. I'm sure it's great and everything, but if one more person tells me I MUST see it in 3D at the cinema, then...well I'll probably just nod and agree whilst secretly cursing my laziness. But I digress, so here we go:

Up in the Air: Easily one of my favourites, Jason Reitman strikes lucky for a third time (Thank You for Smoking and Juno being his others, and ranked highly in my DVD order...yes I order my DVDs, shut yer pork cylinder). It's a great story with a great cast (George Clooney in particular, probably on par with his performance in Michael Clayton), and is just the kind of depressingly dark comedy that I enjoy.

The Hurt Locker: A strong Oscar favourite this one, and I can see why, it's weirdly appealing in an odd way. Unlike other war films, where moments of silence usually become superseded by explosions, gunfights and bloody guts, the whole film has a relative calm about it, as if something can go horribly wrong at any point. A brilliant script and relatively unknown cast make this one a beauty.

Adam: This one's a story about a guy (Adam, funnily enough) who has Asperger's syndrome and thus struggles to fit into everyday society. It's sorta like a romantic drama, only, weird and a bit nerdy. Enjoyable nonetheless.

Whip It: Drew Barrymore's directoral debut, starring Ellen Page as a teen from a small town outside of Texas who joins a roller derby team. Classic funny times ensue.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell: This is a screen-adaptation of some of Tucker Max's stories. I really didn't have high hopes (or any hopes at all) for this film, but it was kinda fun. Gross, but fun.

The Men Who Stare at Goats: Didn't really know what to make of this. I like George Clooney and Ewan McGregor, but I didn't really get what it was trying to do. I think it was trying too hard to be hilariously funny, and falling flat on it's face. There are moments of comedy, but at other times you just have to wonder what the hell is going on.

New York, I Love You: This one's a bit of a crazy one, and I'll only advise you watch it if you like mega-depressive indie-esque deep-filled films that don't really try too hard (Sorta like Linklater's Before Sunrise/Sunset, only less existentialism and more...New York). In essence it's a series of short films, each directed by different people (with one done by Natalie Portman), but with certain characters overlapping into other stories. Pretty good stuff.

Law Abiding Citizen: A pretty neat thriller, with some good twists and turns and some good ol' fashioned blood (now that I think about it, quite a lot of the stuff, like Saw proportions)

I think that's it for now (or at least, those are the ones that I can remember, I'm pretty certain there's been many more). Oh also, 30 Rock is just as awesome as ever this year, as well as a new show called Community (it's most notable stars are Chevy Chase and "the guy from The Soup on the E channel", but hey, don't let that put you off, it's effing A)

As for future releases, I haven't really had a chance to watch any trailers (what with aforementioned internet being absolutely fucking terrible), but I'm sure there's some good ones coming up, right? Bah, who cares, I'll watch anything.

~ Lazy

Moral Kaufman

I just discovered Charlie Kaufman wrote the story for one of the episodes of Moral Orel! You could usually see Moral Orel on [adult swim] but they stopped showing that on UK TV back in 2008, much to the dismay of many. Anyhoo! Watch it by clicking the link: "Love" - shitload of ads to avoid, but what do you expect?

Enjoy!


-Tubs

Christmas + RatM = everyone should shut up

Stop talking about RatM and what a great (read: TERRIBLE) idea that was, and listen to this:



-Tubs

Holidays are coming

I haven't yet seen the Coca-Cola Christmas advert, but I have been assured it is being broadcast, so I suppose that means it's basically Christmas now.

In the next couple of weeks, I'm going to bust out a Christmas playlist for you but for now be contented with the brilliant Sufjan Stevens Christmas album 'Songs for Christmas'. It's not new, but it is good. A warning, however, it isn't full to the brim with blinding Christmas cheer; after all, this is Sufjan Stevens we're talking about. Good to slowly get you into that festive mode, though. So enjoy!

Hohohere!

- Tubs

Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain

-Tubs

How to: Smack My Bitch Up

-Tubs

P.S. Yes, I know Lazy has been the only one blogging for AGES. I'll try to step up and actually write something soon. MAYBE.

Just a quickie...

...this week, haven't really managed to watch much, altho I can't exactly say that I've done much else because, well, this is me we're talking about, and I'm pretty damn lazy.

So here's the roundup, as far as I can remember:

Taken: Have had this one for a while now, and it's not really caught my attention until somebody recommended it to me. It was fairly enjoyable, a quite down-to-earth tail of an retired government agent who travels to Paris to find his daughter who has been abducted, utilising all of the skills he knows best (basically, it's like your dad kicking some ass). I was hungover when I watched it, so it could have been worse than I remember.

Se7en: Took me AAAAGES to watch this one, 14 years to be exact. Granted, I was 7 when it came out, but you think I could have gotten round to it at some point. It was, however, worth the wait. Just the right amount of plot twists in this detective thriller made it a great watch, especially with the cast of Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, who manage to play off each other brilliantly. I also love seeing how outdated technology is just a decade ago, much like the "futuristic" technology in The Bone Collector.

Weeds: I've finally managed to get round to catching up with the 5th season of Weeds, and have to say, I'm not that impressed. The first few seasons were great, but after branching away from the Agrestic/Majestic suburbs, the storylines have become way too far-fetched and ridiculous to say the least. Not only have the mexicans thoroughly invaded, but the amazing sub-plots involving Andy and Doug have all but vanished. Re-watching the first and second series has reminded me that it IS a great show tho.

Dexter: Managed to complete Season 3, after starting it a couple of months ago (I really need to pick something and watch it from start to finish in one go). Pretty great, as per usual, although I'd still lump it in the same boat as Weeds, in which the original series was SO great that it's pretty hard to compete as the series develops. Season 3 did have a pretty great last few episodes, which helped to redeem the previous episodes (which could explain why it took me so long, the earlier episodes were so boring that I just couldn't be bothered).

And that's pretty much it. Granted, TV shows take longer to watch, but still, poor effort on my part. Also, I was pretty bored yesterday, and wasn't in the mood for ANY of the films I've got, so I started 30 Rock from the beginning. Never fails to amuse, and is in some parts better the second time around, where you notice the little hidden jokes that fly so thick and fast the first time (much like my re-watching of Arrested Development, the number of hidden gems in that is incredible).

Hopefully next week I'll find something good to watch, if not, I'll probably just make up a few lies and pretend that I actually care :)

~ Lazy