Saturday, December 29, 2007

My Bullet Point Review Of Sweeney Todd

HIGHS

  • Easily one of Tim Burton's greatest achievements.
  • Fantastic cast. Who knew Johnny Depp could sing like David Bowie?
  • As made evident by the South Park movie and now Sweeney Todd, any musical is made better by gratuitous bloodshed.

LOWS

  • One of the theatre attendants commented that people have been walking out of the movie because "they didn't realize it's a musical." Idiots.

TORREY'S OPINION
Strongly Recommended (as long as you enjoy musicals)

RANDOM RELATED FACT
To prepare for the role of Adolfo Pirelli, Sacha Baron Cohen hired his personal barber as a consultant on shaving techniques. He spent 16 hours learning how to handle a razor.


Just My Style

Bryan said he thought of me when he read this comic. Bryan knows me very well.



Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Predator vs. Alien



(I can't take credit for this joke, I'm merely sharing it.)

Monday, December 24, 2007

/Film's Definitive Top 25 Movies of 2007

1) There Will Be Blood
2) The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
3) Ratatouille
4) Persepolis
5) In the Shadow of the Moon
6) Juno
7) Sicko
8) Once
9) The Bourne Ultimatum
10) No Country For Old Men
11) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
12) Enchanted
13) Gone Baby Gone
14) Away From Her
15) This is England
16) The Savages
17) Control
18) Hot Fuzz
19) Hairspray
20) 3:10 to Yuma
21) Rescue Dawn
22) Zodiac
23) Superbad
24) Knocked Up
25) Michael Clayton

Man, I have a lot of catching up to do. If you'd like to know the science involved in compiling this list, click here.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Bill Maher's Dickheads Of The Year

Michael Vick
Stop saying what he did is a cultural thing, just one of those things black folks are known for, like jazz. He's not one of the Scottsboro boys, he electrocuted dogs.

Erik Prince
We used to have rent-a-cops. Now we have rent-a-soldiers. As CEO of Blackwater, the most notorious private-security contractor in Iraq, Prince has his own navy, air force and spy agency. This guy is building nothing short of a parallel national-security apparatus. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but he's a super-Christy Jesus freak who looks on the Crusades the way rednecks pine for the Confederacy.

Bob Murray
The fat-ass, lying embodiment of the Bush administration's regulatory policies. After the cave-in at the Utah mine he owns, Murray hijacked the press conferences and insisted that the tragedy was caused by an earthquake. An assertion all seismologists agreed was wrong, but hey, it was a disaster — no time to start injecting facts. The probable cause was the controversial — but, of course, profitable — practice of retreat mining, where you remove pillar supports in order to get more coal.

Sen. Larry Craig
A man who consistently voted against gay interests, but turns out to be not just gay but the kind of gay who likes to get it in public restrooms. Don't people like Larry Craig and Ted Haggard and Mark Foley prove that being gay really is a hard-wired thing — not, as the conservatives always claim, a "lifestyle choice"? If anyone could choose not to have gay sex, it would be these guys, since their whole careers are built on not having gay sex.

Sen. David Vitter
Even more disgusting than Craig. Caught dead to rights as a customer of the D.C. Madam, and explained it away by saying, "Several years ago I received forgiveness from God in confession." Oh, well, all righty then, it's all good, then you're obviously not a disgusting, horrible hypocrite who runs on family values and then fucks whores at home and in Washington.

College Republicans
The place where cutthroat, amoral putzes like Karl Rove cut their teeth. They're all staunchly for the Iraq War, although none have volunteered to go, even though they're the same age as the grunts doing the fighting they say is so important. Doughy losers who, at age twenty, care more about tax cuts than girls. And lately they've been holding these "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" parties around the country where they basically play hide-and-seek with one lucky player posing as the wetback. Usually you have to be older and married before you start hating life so much you try to blame the Mexicans for all your problems, don't you?

The Solid Quarter
That twenty-five percent of America who would not desert George Bush if he ran over Dakota Fanning with his pickup truck on the White House lawn. Is it a coincidence that twenty-five percent is also the number of people who, in an AP poll of predictions for 2007, said they expect Jesus Christ to return this year!? I don't think it is.

The Asshole Who Shot Up Virginia Tech
I've forgotten his name — which is as it should be! Please don't go look it up and do what the media did and give this shithead what he wanted.

Congressional Democrats
Who, when it came time to render judgment on the administration's patently illegal wiretapping, took advantage of a deeply unpopular lame-duck president by caving in to his every whim. They agreed to allow the Justice Department to spy on Americans without a warrant. I know it is unconstitutional and all, but hey, if you can't trust the sober judgment of Alberto Gonzales...

Alberto Gonzales
At the Bush White House, a constitutional crisis is when somebody actually reads the Constitution. Gonzales obeyed Karl Rove's orders to decimate the Justice Department by firing the U.S. attorneys who weren't Bush loyalists to the point of corruption, then told Congress, I can't recall who put together the list of which attorneys to fire. But I stand by the decision to fire everyone on the list. Which I never read. Also, nothing improper occurred. And I know, because I can't recall.

Michael Mukasey
And let's not forget the new guy, who further shredded the reputation of the United States as a nation of laws by testifying that because Bush is commander in chief, he can basically ignore the laws of Congress. Kind of makes you miss those innocent days when Gonzales just couldn't recall.

George Bush
Come on, no list of assholes and fuck-ups could be complete without the Dipshit in Chief. Who will tell this president what everyone but him already knows? The theory of evolution. And the times tables. And where the sun goes at night. And that Iraq is going to be three different countries. And that everyone hates us and we've run our military into the ground and the Taliban is back and we still haven't caught bin Laden and the economy is tanking and we wasted eight years blowing the oil companies while the Earth is melting. We had a pretty nice house when this Cat in the Hat of presidents came in and made the mess of all time. And who's going to clean it all up — Rudy Giuliani?

Rudy Giuliani
A phenomenon I still don't understand. Rudy says if a Democrat is elected in 2008, we'll be at risk of another 9/11, because... he was mayor of New York when they attacked the World Trade Center the first time? His slogan should be "Not on my watch... again." And if that's not enough of a reason for him to make this list, try this: The year before he was elected mayor, the NYPD made 720 arrests for marijuana misdemeanors. In the year 2000 under Rudy, that figure was 59,945. That's an increase of... a lot, dude. Why am I confident that he'll be on the list again next year?

(info from rollingstone.com)

Friday, December 21, 2007

Big Red

I really enjoy the Hellboy comics and I thought the movie was well done. Now Guillermo del Toro has the sequel coming and I am excited for it! I have always been curious, however, of how Hellboy was received by those unfamiliar with the source material. I think people generally enjoyed it. Anyway, watch the trailer already.


Thursday, December 20, 2007

I Have A Thing For Spencer Krug


My current music obsession:


Sunday, December 16, 2007

Crayon Physics Deluxe



Thanks to Bryan for pointing me toward this outstanding vid.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

He Does Exist

After initially disputing Tony's claim, I discovered tonight that there really is a singer named Bootsy Collins.


Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Perfect!


Cleanse Your Queue Of These Puppies

Double Viking's Worst Movies of 2007:

9) Revolver
8) Hostel II
7) The Number 23
6) Who's Your Caddy?
5) Delta Farce
4) I Know Who Killed Me
3) Because I Said So
2) Norbit
1) Epic Movie

Blogger's Note: I am pleased to announce that I managed to avoid all of these.

According To Greg

Title in Most Dire Need of a Comma than Any Book in Literary History:


Positive First Impression

If the movie can manage to live up to this badass poster, we'll be in good shape.


My 12-Year-Old Side Finds This Hilarious


Thursday, December 06, 2007

That's How He Rolls

Chris linked me to a couple of hilarious Darth Vader clips tonight. Enjoy.




Look Out Below

If anyone knows how I can get this on a t-shirt, let me know.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Governor, I'm Not Sure Now Is The Best Time For That...


California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger curls a dumbbell that was found in the remains of a home that was burned down on Sunday in the Angora wildfire near South Lake Tahoe, California June 27, 2007. (from Reuters)

Thanks to Jeremy for the link.

Batman Returns

Great poster!



Monday, December 03, 2007

GlucoBoy

I thought this was a brilliant example of how video games can be more than a simple mindless pastime.


GlucoBoy, a game compatible with the Game Boy Advance or DS Lite, was launched in Australia a couple of weeks ago on World Diabetes Day. The Glucoboy makes monitoring and achieving blood sugar goals fun. Whenever a user performs a glucose test, points are awarded which allows the user to unlock games. More points are awarded if the user’s blood sugar falls within the specified goals. The points may be spent in the game or the GRIP online community. Users post their scores to the GRIP community to see who has the best scores in a town, country, and world.

There are 2-full length games along with a mini-arcade (3 additional games). Games are played by inserting the Glucoboy cartridge into the Nintendo Gameboy.

The idea was created by Paul Wessel who noticed that his 9-year-old son would constantly lose his glucose monitor but not his gameboy. Mr. Wessel states “That moment something came to me - if I could combine blood glucose testing and video gaming technologies, perhaps Luke would be more motivated to test.”

It took Mr. Wessel 3 years to obtain Nintendo’s approval to make this device. The development is well worth the wait. The Glucoboy will prove to play a critical role in providing the incentive for kids to be compliant with their blood sugar monitoring.

(from Hippocratech)

Props

Bryan pointed me toward this clip today. It's pretty darn hilarious.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

The Way Things Go

I can't even comprehend the planning involved in setting this entire thing up. It is truly amazing.


The Way Things Go from Jack Turner on Vimeo.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Going For The Gold

It certainly gets my vote...

Disney/Pixar are contemplating pushing Ratatouille for the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards, but the Mouse House is worried that such a push, might diminish their chances of winning the Best Animated Feature Oscar. As you probably know, Beauty and the Beast is the only animated film to ever be nominated for Best Picture, losing to Silence of the Lambs in 1992. Five years ago the Academy created the “Best Animated Feature” Oscar to reward the animated film’s which have been clearly given the shaft in the Best Picture category.
Ratatouille is one of the best reviewed films of the year, and of all time (with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with over 195 reviews). Brad Bird’s film is already ranked in the top 100 films of all time on IMDb with an 8.4 user rating (44,000+ votes).

(from slashfilm)