Vampire Movie Poster Picks

Seems like ever since summer started Moeruhime has dominated all our internet access just to download her addiction for the season.  I don’t want to mention her addiction right here as if you go to her own blog, you’d see them plastered everywhere and mentioned every entry.  Just take a look for yourself, moeruhime.i.ph.

Most of us have been busy, basically, living.  As classes started today, and with Moeru Hime starting next week, we have more time having our turn on the internet.  We do have our own computers.  But everytime we’re online, she bugs us to put in Keyhole so she can watch her addiction in real time.  We’d love to put Keyhole in.  But, we, as big brothers, are afraid that she might not do anything else anymore.

Enough about our littlest sister.  Moving on to me.

For a film fanatic, I’m guilty of not following the Cannes Film Festival closely.  Filipino Director Brilliante “Dante” Mendoza won best director in this year’s festival for his movie KINATAY (another oops! for me as I haven’t seen the movie — due to the fact that I don’t know where to catch it — I know excuses)

But it is Park Chan Wook’s creation that stirred my interest once more.  Winning the third top honor — JURY PRIZE — for THIRST revived my engrossment for Vampire literature in all medium.  For me, the combination of Park Chan Wook and Vampires is priceless.  [Sadly, it seems that it paled in comparison to OLDBOY (which will soon be bastardized by Hollywood) as OLDBOY got up to 2nd honors]

In SNARKERATI, they posted the TOP 70 VAMPIRE MOVIES OF ALL TIME. I mostly agree with their choices.  However, as this was posted a couple of years back, a handful of great Vampire movies have come out already that didn’t make the cut.  Here are my additions to the list — and what do you know — it’s also posters I’d like to have on my bedroom wall (which will eventually adorn my own condo unit once I get to own one).

I’ll have to cut here since heavy graphics are on its way.

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Battle of the Pops Championship

Rain won over Nidji

Ain’t much of a surprise.  Rain is a bigger star. What surprised me is Nidji winning over Jason Mraz. Well good for Asia! In our territory, we support our own.  Ne?

announcement

Now for a bit of news.  I’ll be moving over to my own blogsite, moeruhime.i.ph.  I’ll be leaving House of Geeks to my bros and my sis.

Why am I getting my own site?  Just to endlessly talk about my obsessions and right now I’m pretty obsessed with Arashi.  So I’ll be talking about them more and more.  Which is just timely, as this year is their 10th year anniversary.  So many tributes and vid clips from jr. days and features in magazines, I don’t know where to start.  I’m still configuring my site.  So wish me luck.

I’ll be having my sis, and sometimes my bros, to guest blog on my site — depending on my topic (i.e.  Thor on our favorite Asian Dramas; Flicker on any anime turned live-action).

I’ll be posting some general stuff here as well (not a total move). Mostly about anime and manga. But I’ll be spending more time adoring JE boys over at my site.

Ciao ciao!

Battle of the Pops Semi-Finals

I got so busy with downloading Johnny Entertainment (JE) projects that I totally forgot about Battle of the Pops.  If one of the JE boys were in the battle, I wouldn’t have forgotten it.  IDK, maybe it still depends on which JE group. 

Now, Battle of the Pops is down to four. 

Rain vs. Ayumi Hamasaki  and   Nidjii vs. Jason Mraz.

My friends would definitely pick Jason Mraz. We went to sing karaoke/videoke last Saturday, and my friend Ichi put in mostly Jason Mraz.  I was looking for Arashi’s Happiness, unfortunately, there was none.  No Glamorous Sky by MIka Nakashima either.  Didn’t bother to look for Anna Tsuchiya anymore.  Settle for Utada Hikaru and Laruku.  Music 21, please add more new J-Pop songs.

I was surprised to see Ayumi Hamasaki won over Rihanna.  The last I checked (also voted), Rihanna was winning.  I guess, I can’t underestimate the powers of J-pop fans.  I was also surprised by Nidii’s win.  I’m not familiar with SEA-Music (IDRK — correctly e please) so IDK how popular they really are.  But, I guess, they’re pretty popular. They did win against pretty boyband Farenheit (oh poor cuties).

I think Rain will win against Ayumi. Ahhh … duh, that’s Rain. Nidjii is currently winning against Jason Mraz.  But who knows, the tides might change at the last minute.

Round 4 ends on March 25.

Vote here now!!!

I didn’t vote. I just couldn’t choose.  But I’ll definitely vote in the finals.

Channel [V]: It’s the Battle of the Pop: Asia vs America!

AAAAAAHHHH!!! I missed March 16th’s voting.  But I still have time to vote for March 29th’s face off.   Good thing, almost all of the winners of the 1st round are on my list of votes.  This is so much fun!  Many Asian artists are now breaking out in the pop-culture empire of Hollywood.  It started with Bruce Lee — and continued on until last year with Rain’s co-starring in Speed Racer.  Gackt is already filming his Hollywood debut.  This month, BoA will be r eleasing her first album in the U.S. of A.  I wonder, who will be next.  Hey WEST!  Get ready for an Asian Invasion. Not to mention the numerous Asians included in Dragon Ball the Movie (I still think that’s a riot since the original series is mainly Asian characters now turned into Americans. LOL)

Ok, so I’m over reacting.  How can Asian artists win over Western artists?  Western artists have a bigger market, wider reach and a more universal language.  I mean, I’m into Asian artists and I still have a hard time understanding their Engrish.  I’d rather listen to them in their native language.  And what about those who doesn’t speak English at all?

Who am I kidding?  Whathever language they’re using, Asian invasion is on! AJA-AJA-FIGHTO-OH!  VOTE HERE!

Round 1 is done.  Battle for Round 2.

1.)  Rain vs. Utada Hikaru

Rain (or Bi for all of us) won over Akon.  No contest there.  Bi is a better dancer and has a gorgeous body.  What about the song?  I don’t listen to Rain much (I’m more into boyband songs) but I don’t really like Akon.  So I’ll let my biases take this one.

Utada Hikaru won agains Ne-Yo.  I have a copy of these two’s collaboration.  It was one hellava sons.  But I’ve been Utada’s fan since her “Automatic” days and I continue following her.  But please stop the sexed-up music videos.  That’s not her, even if it’s for the American market.  That’s just plain rude.  Still, no contest for me here.

Rain and Utada are facing off.  Rain is currently on the lead.  I voted for Utada because she’s one I’ve already put on the pedestal.  She’s Japanesey RnB.

2.) Wondergirls vs. Fergie

Wondergirls 100; Pussycat Dolls 35.  Not much of a doll domination, is it?  It really is a wonder, how these sexy-cute girls won over the seductive Dolls. But, I guess, sexy-cute is better than just plain sexy.

It was a close fight between Malaysian Dance-Pop sensation Che’Nelle and Fergie.  Sexy as she might be, Che’Nelle is still a little too fresh to fight against Fergieliciousness.

So it comes down to  Wondergirls vs. Fergie. Though at this point, Fergie and her humps couldn’t compete with 5 sets of humps.

3.)  Rihanna vs. Ayumi Hamasaki

Jolin Tsai is no competition to Rihanna.  Rihanna right now is the hottest act in the world.  While Jolin Tsai may be one of the cutest Taiwanese stars (for me though, top taker is Rainie Yang — I wanna be like her), I believe Rihanna’s music is far sexier and more stimulating.  Not to mention, infectious.  Umbrella is still ringing in my ears.

Ayumi Hamasaki would no doubt win over Gwen Stefani (ah! I made a pun!).  For one,  Ayumi Hamasaki is a real Japanese, while Gwen Stefani has been popularly called  “Wapanese” in the interwebz with her Harajuku girls and Japanses fashion inspired clothing line.  (DISCLAIMER: I am not a wapanese, though I like lolita clothing, anime and J-dramas, my love for anything Asian is not limited to Japanese culture).

Between Rihanna and Ayumi Hamasaki, though, for a moment I thought Ayumi Hamasaki might have a chance.  But with the current votes Rihanna is leading.  I voted for Ayumi Hamasaki just because I like her music more than the over-played Umbrella-ella-ella-ey-ey.  Ey.

4.)  Stefanie Sun vs BoA

Singapore pride Stefanie Sun won against Katy Perry.   I like Katy Perry; she’s perky and weird.  Brattyneelah listens to he, too.  I know nothing about Stefanie Sun.  I don’t get to follow much Singaporean pop culture.  Maybe I should.  Basing it on interwebz info, Stefanie Sun is a bigger star than Katy Perry; at least in every Chinese state.

BoA against Miley Cyrus. WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  Of course BoA will win.  Come on, everything about BoA is better than Miley Cyrus.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana.  But  BoA and I, we come a long way.  I actually started listening to K-Pop and started watching Arirang because of BoA.  I take back what I said earlier.  I want to be BoA (only with the looks of Rainie Yang). She’s a total package.  And have you seen her dance?  She’s the sexiest tomboyish girl I’ve ever seen on stage.  I can’t say anything bad against her.

Of course I voted for BoA.  I don’t know anything about Stefanie Sun, so my biases would take over.  I love BoA.  I just hope that the Americans like her, too.  But please, please, PLEASE, stop the sexed-up version.  She sexy enough.  I hate the American video of “Eat You UP”. But I love the Asian version that really shows her dancing skills.  Now that’s hip-hop!

 (Edit: Remoived “P1″ in title because of futility of not putting up a part 2)

Star Trek XI DisIllussion

  So, for the last couple of days, Paramount and JJ Abrams have been releasing statements that NO PICARD OR DATA will be showing up in the movie.  Dissappointment for all three of us guys here at The House of Geeks — but I kinda had the feeling that everything is a conspiracy enfolding before us.

   So as a peace offering here’s the latest Star Trek XI trailer from youtube  — can’t help but love the cockyness of them all.

 Thanks to ImperatorAquila for the clip.  Don’t know him, just borrowing his (or her) stuff.

 Can’t wait to don those uniforms … hehehe …

Public Enemies Poster

  Found another great find and addition to the list of posters I want on my walls.  But because I’m lazy what you’ll be reading below are quotes from other sites.

  The plot is as follows:  (Taken from IMDB — A Universal Pictures marketing release)

The true story of legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Depp)the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoovers fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the downtrodden public. No one could stop Dillinger. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyonefrom his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Cotillard) to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression. But while the adventures of Dillinger’s ganglater including the sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham)thrilled many, Hoover (Billy Crudup) hit on the idea of exploiting the outlaw’s capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI. He made Dillinger America’s first Public Enemy Number One. Hoover sent in Purvis, the dashing “Clark Gable of the FBI”. However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis’ men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents) who were real gunfighters and orchestrating epic betrayals from the infamous “Lady in Red” to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nittiwere Purvis and the FBI able to close in on Dillinger.

It’s a great movie because:

• Johnny Depp hasn’t made a mistake in his choice of projects (yes, including Ed Wood and Friday the 13th).  I’m fan, and will always be. 
• Christian Bale is once again starring.
• Michael Mann directs it.
• The great ensemble of actors who will be supporting the two main stars:

• Marion Cotillard as Billie Frechette: Dillinger’s torch singer girlfriend.
• Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd^[5]: An American bank robber and alleged killer.
• Giovanni Ribisi as Alvin Karpis: A noted criminal in the United States known for his alliance with the Barker gang in the 1930s. He was the last “Public Enemy” to be captured.
• Stephen Dorff as Homer Van Meter: A criminal and bank robber active in the early 20th century, most notably as a criminal associate of Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson.
• Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover: The first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States.
• Leelee Sobieski as Polly Hamilton: Dillinger’s final girlfriend, ignorant of his true identity.
• Jason Clarke as John “Red” Hamilton: A Canadian criminal and bank robber active in the early 20th century, most notably as a criminal associate of Dillinger.
• John Ortiz as Frank Nitti: Al Capone’s right-hand man and Underboss in the Chicago Outfit.
• David Wenham as Harry Pierpont: A member of Dillinger’s crew.
• Stephen Graham as Baby Face Nelson: He was a bank robber who acquired his moniker, Baby Face Nelson due to his youthful appearance and small stature. After Dillinger’s death in July 1934, Nelson became Public Enemy Number One.
• Richard Short as Samuel P. Cowley: He was the FBI agent who brought down Baby Face Nelson but was mortally wounded in the gunbattle in Barrington, Illinois.
• Christian Stolte as Charles Makley: A known associate of Dillinger’s and who broke him out of prison in 1933. By the end of that year, Makley ranked fourth on Illinois’ list of “public enemies”, behind Dillinger, Pierpont, and Hamilton.
• Stephen Lang as Charles Winstead: He is the leader of the Texas Rangers who join the manhunt for Dillinger and his gang.
• Shawn Hatosy as John Madala: An FBI agent who helped capture Ma Barker.
• Branka Katic as Anna Sage: the infamous “Lady in Red” who was romantically involved with Dillinger at the time of his murder.
• Emilie de Ravin as Anna Patzke: a bank teller who was taken hostage by Dillinger and later released.
• James Russo as Walter Dietrich: a man who Dillinger met while in the Michigan City penitentiary. He taught Dillinger and others “the methods of Herman ‘Baron’ K. Lamm, a Prussian army officer turned highly successful bank robber”.
• Lili Taylor as Sheriff Lillian Holley: Sheriff of Lake County Jail, Crown Point, Indiana, where Dillinger was incarcerated

(Got from Wikipedia)

The story.  The cast.  The director.   Promising.

STAR TREK XI — Possibility of Picard and Data Appearance?

   So Wondercon just wrapped up.  Star Trek XI is already creating the hype.

  I heard from LATINO REVIEW.COM that in one of the comics panel a super secret was revealed by a slip of the tongue.  It was a panel consisting of the writers and artists for the 4-issue comic book prequels to the movie (which I never knew — have to ask Capt. Retcon about this one). What they claim is the movie will start from the cliffhanger ending of the comic books.  The comics started last year.  Trade Paper Backs will be available starting April, but they’ve started accepting reservations already.

So here’s what they said in the site:

“The end of issue 4 is a cliffhanger and is going to continue in the first few minutes of the movie.”

Right after that was said, another writer (or artist) said that part of the movie will take place with the Next Generation cast crew and to look out for that. Another guy on the panel gave him a quick “uh oh” look and smiled.

After that, someone from the audience asked “So are members of the Next Generation cast in the new Trek movie?” to which the same guy replied, “I really cannot say anything about that.”

  Interesting.  Don’t you agree?  While Thor Rentzky (the real Trekkie among us) is sleeping, I’m sure, he’ll be surprised and won’t believe it.  He’d say, “Data died in Nemesis! They killed off a hero!”  

  So as a proof (if you can hear it) … below are youtube vids of the said panel discussion.

 And here’s another one …

But the questions remains … Is this fact or fiction?  Is it true or false?  Is it just our imagination?  Or all these panel thingy a mis-direction planted by the marketing people to appease TNG fans who are already getting ready to make war because the reboot will affect the future of the past Star Trek series?

What do you think?

Terminator Posters

I’m not too excited about the Terminator Salvation movie.  As a kid, we followed it seriously.  But somehow the third installment — Rise of the Machine — left me a little dissapointed.  Surely, everyone loved Kristanna Loken’s kick ass femme killer android.  (beep beep! Claire Danes fans) I’m not so crazy about Claire Dane’s inclusion though.  It’s also a pity that Edward Furlong couldn’t join the cast to reprise his role.  And the Governor’s appearance, seemed to me forgettable (either that or I was to pre-occupied by Kristanna Loken’s hotness burning the theatre).

Christian Bale’s inclusion in the movie is the only one that’s going to bring me to the theatre’s this time.  I’m not really a Bale minion like my two brothers, but I do respect him as an actor — and a really good one at that.  McG is a good director, but it’s James Cameron who makes this one a cult classic worthy.

So like any other movie, the posters excite me.  And this one, I could definitely say is worth a glass frae of its own.  Especially the single image of the terminator robot — or whatever you call it.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Countdown

March is already upon us.  People are already counting down the days to their favorite highly publicized movies.  I, certainl, am one of them.

I’ve read the novels — all seven of them and one supplementary about mythical creatures — and I’ve seen the past 5 movies.  I will tell you honestly, though it  is not the greatest piece of literature ever graced mankind, it is highly entertaining and somewhat inciteful (something another highly publicized tween drama novels/movie[s] lacked).  Throughout the years the books stood in our bookshelf, I crack a smile remembering the funny moments in each and every one of them.

Now book 6 has come to life and will soon light up the white walls of theatres around the world — July 17, 2009.

I originally wanted to share with you a feature MTV made — a behind the scene look, with new never-before-seen footages of the movie; more exploration on the romantic side — especially Ron and Hermione’s (yes, I am one of them who thought they’d end up together); and more wizard duels.

MTV’S BEHIND THE SCENE LOOK

I believe Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is the most pivotal of all books — as this is where all the struggle starts — the real struggle between good and evil.  For now, I’ll leave you with the official trailer floating around since last year.

 I’m trying hard to put an Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Countdown widget — I’ll see what I can do about this one.

Plurk and Twitter

For those people who is in Plurk and Twitter and would like to follow all the opinions of THOR RENTZKY and MOERU HIME about Japanese, Korean and/or Taiwanese Drama they are currently viewing, just add us.  It’ll be handfull and spoilery, but they have fun opposing sometime similar opinions on the relevant show.

These Plurks and Twitter can be found at the side bar.  You may also follow theme here:

http://www.plurk.com/ThorRentzkyome

http://twitter.com/moeruhime

Thor Rentzky has a hard time blogging, but promises to do so even after flooding Plurk.

Thor got to get a better picture

Music Pimp: Indie Rock Covers

 After days of tediously uploading my Indie Rock Covers album one by one (which by the way is still not complete) — I’d like to share with you my favorite of all of them.  Welcome to thefirst ever MUSIC PIMP segment.

Remember George Michael?  Remember when he was still a straight (or straight-acting) guy?  Remember that infamous music video where all they covered was the girl’s legs that ran from Apari to Jolo? 

The Boy Least Likely To released their cover of George Michael’s popular song FAITH through limited edition download in 2007.  It’s been floating around the net ever since.  Their version is a fresh take from George Michael, making it as their own little baby.  It’s easy to listen to and calms down your spirit.  The guitar’s upward strumm makes you follow the beat by shrugging your shoulders or stomping your feet — closest thing to make me dance, anyways.  Adding the claps and whistles, its pseudo-country-sounding acoustics and its Irish Folk Song arrangement to it makes it sound like an entirely new song.  

Listen to it and tell me I’m Wrong.

Boy Least Likely To - Faith (George Michael)

The Boy Least Like To is an indie British rock duo composed of composer/multi-instrumentalist Pete Hobbs and lyricist/singer Jof Owen.  I keep on making a mistake of putting an ‘S’ at the end of ‘Boy’ in their name — for obviously there are two of them, hence they’re plural, hence they should be “Boys” instead of a singular “Boy.”  But who am I to tell them how to grammatically compose their band’s name?  Whether their name is grammatically correct or not, I like their version of FAITH. I’ll be looking for their original songs next and listen how they really play.  I have a certain obsession on British music, whether indie or mainstream.

Know more about them by visiting their official website and reading their blogs and news about their music.  THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO .

There are more interesting songs in the playlist. CLICK ME and listen to all of them.  Songs to take note of as well are the following:

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SUMIMASEN DESHITA!

Dear friends,

Tomodachi gomenasai!

We are very sorry for the pix not showing up in our first ever FASHION VERDICT.  My sister, Brattyneelah, forgot to take out the private lock on the album where we placed the 2009 Oscar pictures.  We have changed the permissions to public viewing and so if you try again the images of the lovely dresses at the 81st Academy Awards red carpet is now viewable.

Please visit Red Carpet Fashion Awards [dot] com for more pix and fashion verdicts of their own.

Domo arigatou gozaimasu to all of your patience.  We promise to not let this happen again — definitely not intentionaly.

Domo,

Moeru Hime

!(~__________~)v

2009 Oscar Fashion Verdict Part 2

And so we continue our Fashion Verdict Special …

Brattyneelah and Moeru Hime continues to tell us what they like and they don’t like even if they really don’t know who the dress designers are (most of the times) and their fashion taste are limited to Goth Punk and Japanese Lolita …

 
   

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2009 Oscar Fashion Verdict Part 1

Welcome to Brattyneelah and Moeru Hime’s first Fashion Verdict!  Today we’re going to talk about the 2009 Academy Awards red carpet.

As it is image heavy, will cut here and those really interested to read on click here … images borrowed from Red Carpet Fashion Awards …

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Academy Awards Congratulations

Sitting in instead of Brattyneelah for the moment to talk about the talk of the town — The Academy Award … 

ACTORS

Most people thought Mickey Rourke would get it — but I knew, it’d be Sean Penn.  Why?  Because they’ve bypassed Sean Penn quite a few times.  It’s about time they honor Sean Penn’s genius talent, even if I think he was better in “Dead Man Walking” more than “Mystic River.”  As for Mickey Rourke, I do believe he deserved the win — Oscars just doesn’t work that way.

Kate Winslet has the most nominations at her age.  She’s already being compared to Meryl Streep who has the most nominations for an actress.  In fact, Winslet has more noms at her age compared to Le Streep — Winslet :  6 at 34; Streep : 6 at 36.  Winslet  is also one of the few who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for a title role (IRIS 2000) a role she shared with Dame Judi Dench.  It’s about time, they gave her an Oscar for a Lead Role … a role she won the Globes for Best Supporting Actress.

Penelope Cruz is the only viable winner for this category.  Though I was rooting for Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).  2 Exs of Tom Cruise won post relationship … could there be a third?

Heath Ledger’s post-humous award — again — wasn’t a surprise.  Everybody knew he’d win.  I’ve been a fan since “Ten Things I Hate About You” and I surely am proud that he was given the award.  However, it’s just sad that he’s gone from us now.  And it still makes me wonder, would he have won if he didn’t die?

TECHNICAL

Director: After Trainspotting, I thougth Danny Boyle would be like a one hit wonder.  It took some time, but thanks for proving me wrong.  I love it when artist prove me wrong.

Screenplay:  I would be in a more joyous mood if Wall-E won.  However, we can’t really judge the award committee’s decisions just based on the movie itself. I haven’t read the screenplays, so maybe they did deserve the win.  I think Slumdog Millionaire deserved it — I think Milk’s win was a political one — and I’ll always wait when Oscar gives the best writing to an animated or sci fi movie.  Good thing Lord of the Rings already won, or I’d still be waiting for a fantasy win.

Cinematography:  It was no contest.  Slumdog Millioner — shooting on location — was a hard feat for a cinematographer … and it delivered.  It was the right decision to give it to them.

Theme Song:  Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s the first time that a foreign language song won right?  It was a foreign language song, right?  I coudln’t remember.

Best Animated Feature: No contest, Wall-E had to bag it.

Best Foreign Language Feature: Okuribito sounds interesting.  I couldn’t find a copy though. Thor is giddy about Ryoko Hirosue though.  Apparently, he’s seen her in one of her J-drama.

Best Feature Film:  As it was the underdog of this year (or rather 2008) — Slumdog Millionaire has proven that darkhorses really do exist. And I believe one day, a Filipino Dark Horse will claim the top prize.

Congratulations to all the nominees and the winners.  Greatly played.

… And We’re Back In The Game …

After almost a week of waiting for I.PH to return (and this after a few days offline while painting Los Banos red) we’re back online and ready to blog.  But most likely, after this one, we’ll be posting Monday again (parties left and right — and tomorrow is a hectic day for us).

So many things have happend.

Thor finished watching a handful of shows and is ready to write his endless thoughts about them.  In fact, he has been spamming his PLURK account about these shows telling us that’s his little way of using the interwebz as his notebook.

Brattyneelah, on the other hand has acquired quite a few mp3s to share with everybody and has been raving about the song “FAITH” originally by GEORGE MICHAEL and covered by Indie band BOY LEAST LIKELY TO.

Ms. Annie Mae has now taken the handle MOERU HIME just because she thinks she’s a princess and a Moe at that (she’ll explain what a Moe is soon).

Flicker Flip is in hiatus but wants to write something about REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA one of these days as well as LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.  He just saw HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU and thinks he’s like the character ALEX played by JUSTIN LONG.

Capt. Retcon is still waiting for a meeting with his other comic book geek friends to discuss certain issues about and from DC’s FINAL CRISIS and we hope to hear his thoughts on this one day.

But for now, after a long day and a long wait, we’ll rest and hold our breath to see what happens next to this tiny little starting blog about the geekdom and their loyal followers.

In His Defense

LEAVE CHRISTIAN ALONE!!!

Just the way Britney’s greatest fan said it.  I wish I could have recorded myself saying the same thing.  Unfortunately, I have no decent camera.

Everybody’s in on the first scandal of 2009.  I’ve heard jokes, seen skits and of course the songs.  Flicker, who’s not really much into music, seems to be enjoying the The Mei Shi Bale song.  Weeks have passed and still people are talking about it.  Look at me, I’m still blogging about it.  But I blog in his defense.

Christian Bale has already spoken his apologies for his tirade on this set through the Los Angeles radio show last Feb 6.  It’s still in Yahoo news, i believe.  And for that I respect him  more.  Not just because he’s Bruce Wayne — well mostly because he IS Batman.

Bale, it seems, is one of them method actors.  He explains in the radio show that when the incident happened, he was in the middle of shooting a “crazy” scene — where his character, John Connor was supposed to be going crazy.  And when Shane Hurlbut (the DoP) inadvertently step into the set while the camera was rolling, as Bale have said it “I took it way too far, and I completely mixed up fact and fiction — I’m half John Connor and half Christian there….” This is common knowledge in the entertainment industry (stage, TV, Film — probably even in the AV), you don’t mess up a method actor’s scene.

So many people out there started blogging (my brother included) about this and lashed out on Bale’s “lapse on judgement” (that line never grows old for me).  For one, we only have an audio recording of the incident.  We really do not know what happened before and after the recorded incident.  I’ve read quite a number of blogs who condemed Bale when they didn’t even understand who Bale was talking to at all.  I mean, not to be too arrogant here, I knew when Bale was saying Bruce, he was talking to (I pressumed) Bruce Franklin, the associate producer of Terminator 4.  BRUCE IS NOT THE DIRECTOR OR THE DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY BALE WAS LASHING OUT ON.  Shane Hurlbut is the DoP and McG is the Director.  

Secondly, Hurlbut did the deed twice.  The recording came from the second time Hurlbut distracted Bale’s performance.  Once is an accident.  Twice, you’re just trying to piss off people.  Also, apparently Hurlbut isn’t a squeeky little guy as we can hear in the recording — in fact he’s a former football player, as Bale told the radio announcers.  That’s why Bruce reprimanded him in the end as well. 

He who has no sin cast the first stone.

It’s not exactly accurate, but it will do in relevancy.

In any workplace, everyone is stressed and pressured.  Everyone is bound to make a mistake, and it usually starts a domino kind of downfall. Hurlbut made a mistake which promted Bale to make a mistake that promted the producers to make a mistake — their mistake being sending out the recordings for insurance purposes which TMZ got through some obviously devious researching (I love TMZ — unfortunately I just can’t stand TV — and I don’t actually believe the producers, IMHO they might have been the ones who sent it to TMZ).  Nobody is perfect.  I myslef am just ALMOST perfect.

So leave Christian Bale alone!

I also liked how he addressed the jokes, the songs and the skits …  Bale said, “Feel free to make fun of me at my expense; I deserve it completely.”

I believe that makes him a bigger man. 

Go Bruce Wayne!

CAPT. RETCON

 XS — Thor will be talking about Hana Yori Dango, Meteor Garden and Boys Before Flowers next time.

XXS — EDIT — did a few edits just to clean up … it was hard writing with a bad light.

BALEful Temper Tantrum Re-Mix

Christian Bale is a cult icon especially after leading the Batman movie franchise.  Both brothers of mine — Retcon and Thor — shower him with adulation.  As an actor, I respect and admire him.  With his impressive filmography, who wouldn’t?  Empire of the Sun, Swing Kids, Little Women, The Machinist, The Prestige — I can name a few more, but these are the ones that made me consider putting him up on the pedestal (well at least I could name more than Retcon and Thor can — which are just Batman and The Dark Knight).  However, for a few months now — maybe a couple of years(?) — reports of his intractable temper have been floating around the interwebz — and these made me consider. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I still admire him as an actor.  But there are facts that an actor should have a critical understanding:

1. An actor’s job of acting doesn’t stop when the director says cut.  They are paid millions because they have to take their job of acting home until they sleep and again when they wake up in the morning and all through out the day.  It’s just like every executive officer, CEO, COO, etc, who take home their work.  If they’re a jerk who happens to be packaged as a poster child of nicities, then they act the part.  If they’re a nice kid packaged as a badass, then they don’t have to be nice.  I always thought Bale was one of the former.  But then, I may be wrong as news like these travel a lot slower than a 16-hour flight from U.S.A to the Philippines.
2. An actor works hand-in-hand, not only with the director, but with the entire crew — yes even the Production Assistants — to create a great movie as a team.  In any working environment, politics, misgivings, misunderstandings and conflicts ruin the dynamics of a team.  Screaming at your Director of Photography puts you at risk of a — ooops! the red heads fell on top of your head — predicament (I’m not saying they’d do it, it’s just that they can — and a lot more).  And again, it makes you look like a jerk.
3. An actor — however good you are as an actor or however popular you are to your target audience — will only be as good as your last movie.  If you throw a tantrum on your last set, and the producers and the crew had enough of you, you’ll never see work again.  Not even if you have a good agent.  Look at Robert Downey Jr.  He’s been in and out of rehab before but still everytime he was out of it, he has a job because he’s professional annd knows how to treat his mates nicely (this I heard from Biography channel — unless I remember differently).

*(That last bit is just my theory as I’ve never been in a professional or mainstream production set)

Retcon and Thor will be defending Bale’s honor for sure.  But for me, I’ll see his good movies — maybe even rave about it — and forget him as soon as he fades away.

But that won’t be anytime soon.  Publicity is still publicity, whether it’s positive or negative.  Nothing beats bad publicity to keep your limelight shining even when you’re not doing anything productive.  Ask Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton or Mischa Barton.  With the exception of Ms. Spears, what are these ladies doing these days?  I mean no disrespect, these lovely ladies are still a feast to my eyes — I just honestly don’t know what work they’ve done lately.

With TMZ’s tenacious procurement of pernicious scoops, Bale falls prey to the interwebz’s creative flair.

You can hear the original in this TMZ recording.  There have been a few remixes already,  I don’t know who started it (anyone care to educate me?) but I found this one at Brooklyn Vegan.  It’s a song composed and performed by The Mae Shi.

Enjoy … I sure did.

peace!

Flicker Flip

Watchmen’s Final Poster

I am one of those skeptics who don’t take comic-book-turned-movie all too well.  Lately, they’ve been releasing great adapatations.  In fact, I’d say, last year was the peak of all comic-book-movies.  With that I meant, there were more hit than miss.  I don’t care much about box office success.  Sometimes, it’s all in the marketing.  Like Watchhmen.

We’ve been seeing and hearing the Watchmen publicities for quite sometime now.  The trailers look good, and even though I’m not one of them Billy Corgan fans, his song added to the effect.  The initial character posters were enticing, made me look for other characters.  My brother, RETCON, was a bit giddy when MTV Splash Page came out with the supposed Final Poster — It’s the same as the cover of their OST. 

Suddenly, somehow, I lost all interest.  I expected better artwork or better layout.  IMHO, LJ and Deviantart artists can do better.   The IMAX poster looks ok.  Though it still doesn’t work for me.  Although, whether it works or it doesn’t work for me, I’ll be there on or after March 6, 2009 at IMAX watching this thing with Retcon.  As for my reception of the movie, I won’t base it on my thoughts on the posters.  And since I haven’t read the graphic novels, it will surely be different from them all fans.

On LAST AIRBENDER Live-Action Movie

     VS   

Round 1

Fight!

FLIKCER FLIP (FF):  Hey, Annie … you watch AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, dont you?

MOERU HIME (MH):  Yeah, why?

FF: M. KNIGHT SHYAMALAN is making a live-action movie of it.

MH:  To my detriment, yes I’ve heard.  The only good thing about it is JACKSON RATHBONE is playing SOKKA.  Those cute boys of TWILIGHT just make everything right in this world.

FF:   I just read that DEV PATEL of SLUMDOG MILLIONER will be playing ZUKO instead of JESSIE McCARTNEY.

MH: Nooooo!  Wait, who’s he again?

FF:  The guy in Slumdog Millioner.

MH:  Sorry, don’t know him.  What’s a Slumdog Millioner?

FF:  It’s a movie.  Just won the GOLDEN GLOBES?

MH:  Not an anime.  Not my interest.  Besides, has it been shown here in the Philippines?

FF:  Not yet.  Unless your friendly neighborhood pirate has it in your list, or Thor has it in his download list.

MH:  So what made you think I would know something about it?

FF:  Nevermind.  So what do you think of the live-action movie plans?

MH:  Have put it in my list of things to disappoint me in the future.  Right now, it’s still KEANU REEVES signed up for SPIKE SPIEGEL on top.  Now, that’s the reason why I don’t watch live-action movies.  Whether it’s in Japan or in Hollywood — most especially in Hollywood.  Suspending disbelief just won’t work anymore.

FF:  I don’t know.  I think Shyamalan is a good director.  I remember you being scaredy cat of the 6TH SENSE.

MH:  And after that, what other movies of his can you really say that you liked?

FF:  I liked UNBREAKABLE.

MH:  Wasn’t that, like, direct to DVD or something?

FF:  No, it wasn’t. 

MH:  Well, here in our country it was.

FF:  Well, LADY IN THE WATER was pretty good.

MH:  You say that in anything that CHRISTOPHER DOYLE is credited. 

FF: I’m the eldest, you should listen to me.

MH: A stupid idea is still stupid.  Am young and have a impressionable mind.  Don’t impress stupid things on my mind.

FF:  I’ll never win this argument, am I?

MH:  Nevah!

wins!