Sunday, October 9, 2011

Movie stars are idiots. Deal with it.

I'd like to believe Sam Jackson had a little too much of
his own home brew, but the reality is he's just an idiot.

So after Morgan Freeman and Samuel L. Jackson talked about something they have no intelligent opinion on and a recent poll looked at what types of films conservatives and liberals enjoy, I got to thinking: What if I got rid of every film starring, written, produced or directed by someone I disagree with politically?


I'd have (at least) less than half of what I own now. Below is a list of the movies I own. The ones that are crossed out are the ones with an actor or another filmmaker with whom I disagree with politically. This list is not definitive and if I really looked deeper into it I'd have more strikethroughs.


Also, the list is just for fun. Spare me your comments on the Tea Party, the "Occupy" protests, Obama, Palin, etc. OK, here we go:



All-Star Superman
Avatar
Back to the Future
Back to the Future Part II
Back to the Future Part III
Bad Santa
Batman Begins
Batman: Under The Red Hood
Bull Durham
Casino
Chasing Amy
Clerks
Clerks II
The Dark Knight
The Departed
Enter the Dragon
A Few Good Men
The Fighter
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part III
Goodfellas
Good Will Hunting
Heat
I Love You, Man
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
Justice League: The New Frontier
Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon 2
Lethal Weapon 3
Lethal Weapon 4
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Major League
Mallrats
My Cousin Vinny
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Role Models
Scent of a Woman
The Shawshank Redemption
Snatch
Star Trek (2009)
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the SIth
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Vol. 1
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Vol. 2
Thor
The Town
Transformers
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Watchmen
Wonder Woman
X-Men: First Class


To emphasize my point, nine of my Top 10 favorite movies are crossed out (Note: I count the Star Wars Saga as one film).

To further emphasize my point, Freeman and Jackson couldn't have been more racist at a more opportune time. Stupid comments? Yes. Stupid enough for me to say "I'm not going to see The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises?"

Hell no.

Moral of the story? If you watch the Lethal Weapon films and see a Jew hater and a global warming psycho instead of buddy cop action you should lighten up.

Out.

And you thought your presentation was bad...

A reenactment of the back row during
 the ENG 421 presentations. 


BLOGGER'S NOTE: The events mentioned in this post occurred the last Friday of the summer quarter at New England Tech. It was a painful experience but by a combination of request and boredom I'm here to share what transpired on this dreadful night of presentations.


Friday. Week 10. 5:45 p.m. Time for the final presentations in ENG 421 - Technical Communications. Figure about 12 projects at 5-7 minutes apiece and you're out by 7:30, 8 tops.

That is, if your classmates actually read the PowerPoint regarding the length and content of the presentation. What should have been a few simple comments about the process of the class turned into a bunch of lousy diatribes that would have gotten my ABT classmates F's in lowrise design studio.


Here's a sample of what you would have learned had you joined me for this magical event:

How to Make Homemade Stovetop Fudge

  1. Three cups of sugar 
  2. A wooden spoon 
  3. Bake for 30 minutes 
  4. Post video on YouTube 
  5. Put fudge in a plastic container and leave it in your car so it melts and your classmates have to scoop a piece out with their finger 
A Beginner's Guide to Working Out
  • Working out is important because you don't want to be fat 
  • Apparently if you don't know what you're doing people make fun of you at the gym 
  • Do your exercises with a partner so your 60-minute workout turns into three 
  • When starting off with a pectoral fly, use 45 lb. weights so you tear your triceps 
  • Once healed, repeat process 
How to Connect your iPod/iPhone to your Car

  1. Acquire proper tools 
  2. Disconnect car battery 
  3. Remove ashtray and cigarette lighter 
  4. Oh, wait, anyone that's bought a new car in the past eight years doesn't have an ashtray or a cigarette lighter. Fail.
How to Build a Computer
  1. If you actually understand all the components that make up the computer, proceed to Step 2. If you don't have the first f****** clue about computers, then you won't understand a word of this presentation so save yourself time and money and go buy an Apple laptop.
How to Build a Guitar from Scratch

  1. See the "How to Build a Computer" guide and replace the words "computer," "computers" and "Apple laptop" with "guitar," "guitars" and "Gibson", respectively.
How to Saddle a Western Horse

  1. Make stupid comments the entire night 
  2. Get your history wrong 
  3. Pronounce "Sarmation" incorrectly 
  4. Don't explain to anyone what a "Western Horse" is 
  5. Explain in excruciating detail how to saddle the Western Horse but don't tell anyone how to get on the horse 
  6. Resume annoying comments on other people's presentations
Introduction to Belly Dancing


  1. Get The Flan aroused by being hot and telling off the rude video game geeks that wouldn't shut up or turn their phones off 
  2. Insert DVD 
  3. Learn nothing about belly dancing because you don't weigh 90 lbs. and can't move your body in those positions
How to Recycle Paper

  • Okay, out of respect for my CM brothers I don't really have anything bad to say about this one except that when you say your presentation lasts five minutes and it goes 13 you should buy a clock

What you didn't learn about was how to create a concrete walkway. Why? Because if my partner and I told you how to create a concrete walkway you wouldn't have read the document we made.

And because we have professors who rip us new ones for rambling on and on. Guess they don't teach that in the other techs.

Out.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

That Ain't Superman

Man of Steel my ass.


I try my best to keep this blog clean. In this instance I'm not even gonna bother. Hide the kids.


With that said, who the f*** is that guy in the cape and the big "S"?


It sure as hell ain't Superman. This is Superman. This is Superman. This is Superman. That guy up there looks like this asshole:




While I'm well aware that promo image appeared about two weeks ago, on top of my own work I had to digest this information. With this picture, Zack Snyder as director, Christopher Nolan as producer, and fans dying to see a brawler Supes, it's looks like Superman is on track for another epic fail. Here's why:

The Picture: In case I wasn't clear I'll be more specific. Dark colors do not suit Superman. Superman is a symbol of hope, inspiration and morality, among other things and traditionally he's always worn bright colors. That guy looks downright evil (hence the Superman III reference). If my cat was in a tree and that guy went to get it I'd run like hell.

Snyder: Dawn of the Dead was meh. 300 was okay. Watchmen was great. The "sucker" in Sucker Punch was anyone stupid enough to pay money to see it (your less-than-humble host included). Here's a quick rundown of the type of characters you see in Snyder's movies:

-Dawn of the Dead: You've seen one zombie movie you've seen them all.

-A bunch of psycho Greeks led by an idiot king who thought getting slaughtered by an inferior army was a better idea than regrouping, leading his people to victory, having sex with his wife, raising their son to be the next idiot king and just plain living.

-The most f***** up group of superheroes you'll ever see.

-Sucker Punch: A chick who gets screwed by her stepfather and decides to be lobotomized for the hell of it. But not before she helps her crazy friends escape. Or something like that. Did I mention that Sucker Punch was awful?

Bottom line? Snyder is an average director at best and his resume does not indicate he can handle a true representation of Superman.

Nolan: For those of you who think producers don't play a big role in movie productions here's a reality check: They do. More on that in a minute.

Over the past twelve years or so Marvel has pumped out one successful comic book film after another and has represented every major property on the silver screen, culminating with The Avengers next May. In fact since Marvel's done a complete 360 its starting over again next July.

In that same timespan DC/Warner Brothers has had one, ONE, successful franchise. That was Batman. It was directed by Nolan. Now Warner Brothers has made Nolan some sort of "godfather" on this Superman film because apparently they think Nolan has the magic touch.

There's one problem with that. Here's a rundown of the type of characters Nolan deals with:

-A corrupt cop with insomnia

-A guy who stalks people for no reason

-A guy who can't remember what happened five minutes ago

-An emotionally scarred billionaire who dresses up like a bat

-A guy who drove his wife insane so they could escape a dream

-Two magicians trying to kill each other

See a pattern? Same issue as Snyder, this isn't the type of character Nolan works with. There's nothing physically or mentally screwed up with Superman. But I assume that's going to change.


Brawler: When you're invincible, have super strength, heat vision, freeze breath and see through walls, there's really no need for you to hone your fighting skills. You just have to throw a few punches and throw s*** at the other guy. It is what it is and that's why no one's ever really seen an all out brawl featuring Superman on the big screen. It's just gonna be mindless destruction where Supes goes through and couple walls and Zod gets hit with a car, repeat, repeat, repeat. Then all the fanboys who were complaining that Superman needs to fight more will be complaining that the fight was stupid.


I shouldn't criticize one picture, but that one picture tells quite a story. The creative team issues speak for themselves. Throw in DC/WB's inability to put together multiple successful comic book franchises and this is a disaster waiting to happen.