Sunday, December 24, 2006
Merry Christmas all! Here is some cool wallpapers as presents. Be thankful because it's more than most people got from me!



[posted by Rades at 10:49 PM] LINK ||
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!
Time for the annual...SCARED OF SANTA PHOTOS!!

Enjoy (as we all do!) these wonderful memories of screaming, terrified children as they wriggle and squirm on Santa's lap. Ahh, the festive spirit.

Gallery One

Gallery Two


[posted by Rades at 10:00 AM] LINK ||
Sunday, December 17, 2006
The Ten Best Trailers I've Seen - #8

Gladiator


Not too much to say about the trailer before getting into the nitty gritty, other than to remember that at the time, the CGI-graphics of Rome were very new and cutting edge, and were a significant part of the movie's appeal. The trailer does do a good job of showing this, though in this version from YouTube you can't really make out the sharp details.

Money Shot: There isn't really a clear-cut "BAM" scene, but if I had to choose I'd say the "Father to a murdered son / Husband to a murdered wife / And I will have my vengeance" segment. The music builds and crashes right at that point, and you're finally finding out just why the General-who-became-a-slave-who-became-a-gladiator-who-defied-an-Empire is doing what he's doing.

Musically: The music (by Hans Zimmer, whose scores are just perfect for this type of film) is very good - nothing too attention-grabbing, but it has lots of clashes and building points that blend well with the movie scenes, whether it's an important line being spoken or a big action shot. Right at about 0:42 seconds is a good example of what I mean.

Visually: First off, the visuals of the movie itself are terrific - the costumes, the Colosseum, the fights, etc. However, we're talking about the trailer, not the movie. In that sense, there's not a lot of extra things. That's not bad - the action shots are well put together, the scenes chosen fit nicely with the music and anticipation, etc. Just nothing special in that sense. Overall, the trailer rocks visually, but more so because of the movie itself than any special work put into the trailer.

The Ending: The ending is okay. The horse leaping through the flames is a dramatic shot, yeah, but to me it looks a bit clumsy and not that great, especially given the HUGE range of wonderful scenes they had to choose from. In fact, the scene immediately prior, that of Maximus standing in the arena, with petals fluttering down around him from above, is a much cooler scene. In summary, I found the ending to be the weakest part of the trailer.
(Also: the May 5, 2000 A.D. is a nice touch.)

Extras: This trailer is actually extremely simple. The two "big" series of lines lays out the plot, the action and scenery fills in all the gaps, and we see a hell of a lot of fighting. And no narration, which I think is a great choice here, since it really wouldn't be necessary. I did find it interesting that the trailer wastes no time at all. There's no slow buildup - you're slammed (in a good way) with the raw premise of the movie, and it's a good one, so you're caught up immediately. Also, there's not very much dialogue at all, but the few lines that are there are all important, memorable ones (except the kid talking to Maximus...that's totally out of place.)

In summary, the trailer for Gladiator is a great mix of action and music, both of which the movie has plenty of. That's why I find it pretty impressive that the most impacting moments to me are the two very memorable series of lines. The first is the "The general who became a slave / The slave who became a gladiator / The slave who defied an Empire" lines (which pretty much sum up the entire movie perfectly) and the other is the equally-as-powerful (albeit shortened version) soliloquy of "Father to a murdered son / Husband to a murdered wife / And I will have my vengeance."

So what's wrong with the trailer? Not a lot. It tells you about the simple but compelling plot, it shows you a lot of cool stuff and wicked fights, and Crowe looks badass and Joaquin Phoenix looks evil. The only negative I would remark on is that while most of the scenes are great, some are just odd and don't really fit the epic mood of the movie.


[posted by Rades at 11:51 PM] LINK ||
Thursday, December 14, 2006
No trailers for right now. I'm too busy being enraged at Toys R Us for randomly cancelling my Wii order...after they had already told me the order had been processed and that yes, I was guaranteed to get one.

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World's tallest man saves pair of dolphins
He was literally the only one who could save them, because he had to use his long spindly arms to reach into their stomachs to grab some plastic the dolphins had eaten.

Judge Dismisses Meowing Charges Against 14-Year-Old
"A judge dismissed charges on Monday against a 14-year-old boy accused of meowing whenever he saw his 78-year-old neighbor."

Detroit Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya missed 3 games during the World Series because of a wrist injury...
...from playing TOO MUCH GUITAR HERO FOR PS2.

All about Conan O'Brien's www.hornymanatee.com website
"We couldn't have done this two years ago, three years ago," Mr. O'Brien said. "It's sort of this weird comedy dialogue with the audience."

He added, "I still have an abacus."


[posted by Rades at 12:51 PM] LINK ||
Saturday, December 02, 2006
The Ten Best Trailers I've Seen - #9

Resident Evil - Apocalypse


I vividly remember this trailer as completely kicking my ass in the theatre. As most will understand, there's always those awful ads before the trailers even start (though they are getting better recently), and I assumed this was one. Which made the surprise moment even more surprising. I suppose that most people familiar with the video game series probably realized what was going on immediately, but I definitely know the series and didn't realize it, so who knows?

Money Shot: Without a doubt, when the model's face begins cracking and deteriorating. The "commercial" part of the trailer is just long enough that if you didn't recognize the innocent Umbrella name-drop earlier, you're totally caught off guard. It's freaky and startling, and just for good measure they throw a wild, crazy dog barking in there to make sure you're awake. Awesome.

Musically: The music is very well done. There's three parts - the fake commercial, the short action montage, and the chilling ending. In each segment the music fits exactly what the trailer is conveying...first, it's that generic, soothing blend of music that plays in basically every real health commercial (which adds a ton of authenticity to the feel of it). The action part isn't really music, but the rapid, increasing beats parallel nicely with the "revelation" and quick video shots. And the ending goes back to the fake commercial theme, only this time it has a twisted, very sinister tone to it...which is perfect.

Visually: The fake commercial part looks exactly like the type of commercial it's imitating. Exactly. Combined with the appropriate music and voice, the fake commercial comes across as very believable. The action shots are quite fast, but a few scenes jump out at you...the barking dog, the falling cannister, and lots of zombie mouths, all of which pretty much sum up lots of the first movie.

The Ending: Back to the fake commercial theme! But this time, the secret's been revealed, so they switch to giving us spooky music and a cryptic line "Our business is life itself," which of course as anyone who's seen the first movie knows is very, very ironic. It's an effective ending. It fits the theme of the overall trailer and leaves us with a great parting shot of that line and the T-virus canisters.

Extras: The fake commercial part is just so well done. It completely parodies and imitates real-life health product commercials in every way...the music, the voiceover, even the close-up shots and CGI animation of the product "working". I'm not the biggest fan of the series, but I saw the first movie and played a bunch of the games. I am well aware of what Umbrella Corporation is. But I was still completely surprised when the big scene switch came. (The funny thing is, when they mention Umbrella, I actually thought to myself "Huh, that's kind of funny, this company has the same name as that company in Resident Evil...BUT IT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME THEY WERE THE SAME. Maybe I was just particularly dim-witted that day.)

So what's wrong with the trailer? Well, it doesn't do a thing to sell the new movie. We see not a single scene, or hint, or ANYTHING, as to what Apocalypse will be about. So it's not like Average Joe sitting in the theatre will see this trailer and all of a sudden want to see it. This is a problem because the people who were already going to see the movie (fans of the games or of the first film)...were already going to see it!

To summarize, this trailer was awesome and very original, but it was basically useless. If you weren't going to see it before, then you still weren't going to after seeing the trailer, and if you were already planning to see the film, well then you didn't need to see the trailer. In this sense the trailer fails big-time.

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Darth Vader Being a Jerk
Star Wars would be such a better movie if stuff like this happened.

The Holiday Hawk commercial
This makes me laugh every time I see it. EVERY TIME.


[posted by Rades at 4:58 PM] LINK ||