I have found a new love... and it's called Torchwood

For those who are not familiar with this tv-programme: Torchwood is a spin-off of Doctor Who. So it's British, it's sci-fi and it's bloody good.

Torchwood is a secret facility under Cardiff. It was founded by the Doctor and it's goal is to keep an eye on aliens and their technology.

The characters are realistic (well, Captain Jack comes from the future, but hey, let's not hold that against him) and the humor of the show is witty. Plots are original and the stories are well written.

I am currently two episodes away from season one finale and I must say that I'm addicted.

Review: Zombi 2 aka Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)

Director: Lucio Fulci
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCullough, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver

Plot: A woman searches her father and ends up on an island where an epidemic turns dead people into zombies.

Highly entertaining. Very nice make-up effects that look good even by todays standards. Plot runs smoothly and the cinematography serves calm camera movements and terrific looking angles. Gory and ridiculous (a zombie fighting a shark?!), but makes you want to watch more movies like this.

Why don't they make them like they used to?

Stars: ****

I Got Tickets!!!

This morning I woke up at 7am. At 7.30 I was the first in line to get tickets to U2's 360-tour. And as it turned out, I was the only one to get the tickets from that place.

Anyway, when the ticket sales opened at 9am, I waited for the cashier to get me the tickets. It took 4 minutes to get through to the computer system, and I got my tickets!

The gig is in August 2010. I'll be there!

Thank you U2 for coming to my country! I love you!

I had a dream...

...about Bruce Campbell. That's all you need to know on that subject.

Review: House On Haunted Hill (1959)

Director: William Castle
Starring: Vincent Price, Carolyn Craig, Richard Long, Carol Ohmart

Plot: An eccentric millionair and his wife invite five strangers to spend a night in the house on haunted hill. Survivors will get 10,000 dollars.

Even though this is an old horror movie, it really startled me at one point. The movie is well filmed and the special effects work. Running only 75 minutes, the plot is dense but there is still enough time for character development.

One thing that I find funny in most of the old horror films: when there is a thunderstorm, the flash and the rumble always come at the same time. If this happened in the real life (which is rare) it would mean that the lightnings are hitting near you all the time.

Excellent movie. Classic. Watch it!!

Stars: ****

The Evil Dead Drinking Game

Me and my friend played it tonight. She drank cider and I drank beer. We watched the first Evil Dead movie and got almost through the second one...

The rules are very simple. You take a sip of alcohol when any of the following happens:

* Ash gets hurt
* Ted Raimi appears as a shemp (watch the commentaries and you'll know)
* the camera moves from the evil entity's point of view
* Ash says somethin korny (all the one-liners count, especially "workshed")
* The Necrocomicon is mentioned
* the mystical words are cited
* a character gets posessed
* Ash talks to the evil dead

Honestly, beer is enough when playing this drinking game. Even at the very beginning of the first movie you have to drink quite a lot.

I think I better get some sleep now so I can watch the end of the second movie and Army Of Darkness. I just hope my friend is up to it. No drinking game this time! (but we're going to do a Romero drinking game some day)

And guess how many misspelled words I corrected while writing this.

Weird Dreams Are Made Of This...?

My sister (soon 13yrs) had a dream about my dog. That's not weird, but what happened in that dream was weird. Helka was growing tomatos and wore blue overalls and a hat. My sister drew a picture of it.


Click to enlarge this work of art (and weirdness).

Of course my sister isn't the only one to see dreams about my dog. My mom once had a dream that Helka wore brown pants. And I saw a dream that she rode a small motorbike but could not turn it. So I had a rope attached to the bike and when she reached the end of the rope, I went to turn her and the bike around. Weird...

Review: Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Director: Ruggero Deodato
Starring: Robert Kerman, Francesca Giardi, Perry Pirkanen, Gabriel Yorke

Cult classic movie about a documentary film crew that disappears into the South America jungles while searching for cannibal tribes, and the search party sent after them.

The reason why this film has become so "must see" is simple: violence and sex. Since Cannibal Holocaust was made in 1980, with pretty low budget, the 70's adult movie influences are very visible. Sometimes it looks like a snuff film. And since the animal rights movements were nothing like today, the animal killings are real.

Apparently the movie was banned in over 50 countries. But what I really admire about this film is that it is almost like a documentary. The way it's shot and how realistic it is.

Very much a must see if only you have the stomach.

Stars: ***

These Two Look Oddly Alike... Part 5

Camilla Parker Bowles and AC/DC bass player Cliff Williams.

Stuff On TV etc.

It's been a while since my last blog entry. So once again this is one of those ramblings on everything.

I watched The Hunt For The Red October and I thought it was an alright film with Sean Connery's funny fake Russian-but-still-Scottish accent. Most shocking thing about this movie was how young all the actors were (well, apart from Connery who has pretty much looked the same for at least three decades). Especially Tim Curry and Alec Baldwin (the best of the Baldwins).


See how young he is?!

Alarming news from the TV world. One channel is going to show Baywatch for the whole summer! They already showed a very disturbing ad where Hasselhoff takes off his pants and underneath he has the red trunks. And lots of hair... *brrr*

Yesterday I took my dog for a walk. There's nothing unusual about that, but I asked my little sister to come with me. She was against the idea until I bribed her. It cost me 1€ and the rest of my divine white chocolate (not much, maybe three pieces) to get her to agree. And so we walked for two hours. Then I got my sister to agree that she would go for a similar walk with me once a week. But we'll see if she will keep that promise.

As a comic relief, here's a photo of my dog looking stupid. Maybe it's because I have used too much Cheerios to train her and now she thinks nothing but round things...


She's looking at a Cheerio in this pic...

Things To Find From Flea Market

In my home town there are two fairly good flea markets. On the Easter weekend I went to both of them to see if they got anything of interest.

On the first place there was a jacket that looked like something out of Crockett's wardrobe. It was green and I seriously considered to buy it in case there will some day be a costume party with an 80's theme. But I didn't buy it.

What I bought from there was an LP-record. Def Leppard's Hysteria. It's a classic and it cost only 2,5€! And it has a cool cover.



On the second flea market I knew exactly what I wanted. I had seen the LP there before and now I was going to get it. Don Johnson's album! Cool.



I also found a Phil Collins album.



Now I'm happy.

These Two Oddly Look Alike... Part 4

Yes folks, Tom Jones and Tim Curry. They could be brothers.

Doggy Update!

My dog turned 3 years on March 14th. On each of her birthdays I've taken an official birthday pose photo of her.



The reason why she looks so miserable in the photo is that her right hind leg is sore. And that is due to an accident in agility practice. My poor girl is now resting for two weeks and has pain medication. Hopefully she will get better soon for I am getting withdrawal symptoms from excersicing with her...

The Infinite Editions

My friend watched Caligula (1979) and found out that there are about a million different cuts made of this movie. Mostly the reason has been sencorship, since Caligula is a movie containing lots of sex scenes.

This made me think. Why do they make so many cuts nowdays? We are already used to have the cut that we see on the big screen, then when the movie is released on DVD, we have the normal version which is the same as seen in theatres, then we get the director's cut and special edition and extented edition. On top of all this we also get the definitive edition and of course the edition that is somehow linked to the movie's name (The Hobbit Edition, and other stupidly named editions).

Very often these different editions are not so different from each other. Maybe the length varies from 180 minutes to 179 minutes. One scene may have been added and one has been taken away. Or maybe the special effects have been improved (Star Wars).


We were completely happy with the original versions of the original movies. Right?

The releasing of so many different cuts seems like the industry wants more money. Or the other reason for this may be that no-one agrees what version is the right one. Hence the director and the producer have different cuts to show what they think the movie should have been. Whatever the reason, the film industry doesn't give very positive image of itself with this.

Then there are the Anniversary Editions. Now these I think are worth buying especially if it's an old classic we're talking about or otherwise a masterpiece. These editions usually contain masses of extras: documentaries, deleted scenes, storyboards, interviews, making ofs... You know. They resemble very much to the Collector's editions.


Must...have...the...head...

Of course it would be most consumer friendly if there were only two editions released: one for normal viewers with some extras (maybe trailers and a documentary) and one for the collectors. The latter edition of course would come in a neat packagin and contain every possible extras.

One alternative besides those two would be "the Shaun way". Let me explain. When Shaun of the Dead was released on DVD it had very good extras right away. No need to wait for the edition that has all the nice bonus materials. I think they pretty much put all the necessary stuff on the DVD already. That's how you do it.


Go Shaun team!

That Darn Cat!

And no, I'm not talking about the movie. I'm talking about our neighbour's cat.

Last week we got quite a lot of snow. Not as much as in London but enough so that I had to clear our yard. I put my little doggy on a long leash (about 6 metres) and started on the job. Not long after I had almost completed and stopped to catch my breath, our neighbour's stupid "I fear no dog!" cat appeared on our yard.

Helka, who hates cats (unless they are my aunt's), of course started sneaking up on the nuisance, who had by now reached the area where Helka still could barely reach.

Next what happened: Helka started running towards the cat. The cat fled and Helka reached the end of her leash. Snap. The lock of her collar gave up. I started calling her back and luckily the asshole cat hid under the stuff next to our outbuilding and Helka returned to me.

Stupid stupid cat!

This is an ex-collar

I Found an Easter Egg!

As you (the only person who reads my blog) know, I love the Grand Theft Auto-series. Every now and then I check from the Internet wether there are some new things to find from the games. And as I tried to find a picture of a guy jumping through the window to my earlier blog text, I came across directions that help you find an easter egg from Vice City.


It even says Happy Easter!

This is how you will find it:
1. Go to the VCN building Downtown (it's near the most Northern bridge)
2. Go through the open doors so you get to the helipad.
3. Go on the helipad and near the wall. Jump through the window and you land in a room where the Easter egg is.

Stupid Stunts! part 1

Jumping through glass
As simple as this stunt may sound, it really pisses me off. In about every possible action movie we see people jump through a window. That's ok, sometimes it's necessary to get out of the building as soon as possible. It's how Hollywood does the stunt that I find annoying.

In the golden days of the moving pictures, every stunt was made for real and without much attention paid for safety of things. Take Harold Lloyd for instance. He was really hanging from that clock as though it wasn't really as high as it seems in the movie.

This really was dangerous

In those days when there was a scene where the character had to jump through the window, you did it for real. If you did it at all (the glass was quite expensive).

Then came sugar glass. It is made of sugar, water and corn syryp. As it hardens it looks just like real glass and it breaks easily. And the best thing about it: it's edible! Sugar glass is what you see in most of the older action movies. I like it when they use sugar glass.

But. Nowdays they rig the glass to "explode" into little peaces. This is how it's done: some electrical thingys are wired to the glass and when a stuntman jumps the charges break the glass. Of course timing is crusial and sometimes you see the glass break before the guy hits it. And that is one stupid stunt!

Unless you are Chuck Norris when it's understandable that you can break glass just by staring at it.

Chuck is the man!

Complaining About Things

This is going to be a complaining post. Some positive things may appear.

Again I have to bring up the scheduling on TV.
On Saturday 10pm I watch Most Haunted (very stupid British show and that's why it's funny) and after that at 11pm it used to be time for Murder (very good show about regular people that are trying to solve real murder cases).
For two weeks now things have been different. Most Haunted is still in its regular slot but now I have to suffer through two unfunny programs before Murder. And do I have to mention that those two shows are fucking repeats!
So I have to stay awake until midnight to watch Murder. And after thet there is still Stargate (season 3 repeats) and The X-Files (season 8 just starting). If I wanted to watch all those (of course I would like to) I'd have to stay awake 'til almost 3am!
For me it's impossible to stay awake if I have to watch boring shows in the middle of the night just to wait for the good one. I better send some angry feedback...

My morning routine was badly interrupted today
Here's what I do when I wake up.
1. Get dressed
2. Put the kettle on
3. Take the dog out
4. Feed the dog, make tea and sandwitches
5. Open computer and check mail
This morning I got to the 4th point. My brother woke up and went straight to the computer. I was just making the sandwitches. So I went to Plan B (sort of from outer space, just read on): I watched a movie. From 1985. Morons From Outer Space. It was funny and just what I needed to get my spirit up.

My dad doesn't know how to use the Internet
This happens every so often. He and I are at home together and of course when he has to do the simplest thing: check his e-mail (which there isn't any) I have to do it for him. So annoying!

My dog is fine
Now here is some positive news. During the last week of her heat she got a diarrhea. After that she was constipated. At some point she didn't eat well.
Things are different for her now. She eats well (I got her back on Nutro), her droppings are normal (a vital fact ;) and her nose is cold. And we're going to agility practice on Wednesday. Our last practice went well and Helka is becoming a master weaver (not quite yet but we're getting there).

I use too many brackets (in case you didn't notice)
This is something that I do a lot. Those darn brackets! I can only guess how annoying it is to read my text and I can assure you that it's pretty annoying to write too. All those brackets! Get me to the bracket rehab (is there one?)!!!

I Love Harryhausen

During the weekend came two movies that weren't that great but I had to watch them anyway. The reason was simple: Ray Harryhausen.

Harryhausen's visual effects may look rather ridiculous today for people who are used to CGI but to me they still look great. And cute. Stop-motion animation is today underrated. Unless you work in the industry of visuals. But Harryhausen has had a great influence on special effects industry and his creations are truly memorable.
I have listed here some of the best Harryhausen creations.

The Skeleton Army

Possibly the best known creation. Watch Army Of Darkness and see the influence.

Minoton

Very impressive and a loyal helper to his master. I want one!

The Dinosaurs

These are better actors than Raquel Welch. Honestly!

Medusa

Don't look her in the eyes! Nooooo!!

Kali

The most impressive one. You should see her dance.


And sorry about the crammy quality of the pictures. It's hard to find any better ones.