Have you heard the news??

The Man In The Mirror has Beat(en) It for the last time… There may not be Blood On The Dancefloor, but I Blame It On The Boogie because he was Dangerous and a bit of a Thriller, espeicially being a Stranger in Moscow… I’ve got a million of these, trust me… It just makes me want to Scream! Ok, seriously, I’ll stop there, but it is just a little bit sad that Michael Jackson is now dead. I didn’t always agree with his actions or ideals, or the way he went about living his life and doing that stuff to his body even if there are all kinds of psychological ways of looking at it. But damn, he did make some good music back in the day that I used to listen to a lot, and he will be missed by a lot of people. Especially my Mum (who actually cried when she heard the news).

Anyway, despite the title to this blog (because EVERYONE has by now, and if not, then you’ve been cryogenically frozen for a while now. Welcome to the 21st Century.) there are actually some things that I’m updating on here today. I mostly only put that because that’s pretty much been the most said thing over the last few days!

I know I always say this, but I’m definitely going to be putting up some script samples on here, once I have the time to properly sit down and play around with the features to see which way of uploading it is the best. I’ve also decided which one I want to put on here. I don’t want to say too much about it, because I want the impact of it to be something fresh and new. All I will say is that if you’re a fan of One Tree Hill, you might like the idea of it!

I was able to catch the last showing of Drag Me To Hell on Thursday. Ho-Ly-Crap, did it put the shits up me!! It was absolutely typical Sam Raimi stuff, as per Evil Dead Trilogy. He’s obviously going for the cheap scares, the jumps, the strings in the background, etc. But there’s also something very sinister at the centre of it, about being tortured and tormented for 3 solid days before going to Hell, and knowing that there’s nearly nothing that you can do about it!! The old Gypsy Lady is possibly the scariest villan in a horror yet, so Leatherface better watch himself because he’s losing out to an old woman now! There’s also, much like with the Evil Dead Trilogy, a bit of a dark humour there in places. The rediculously epic nosebleed scene had me laughing my tits off, mostly at the guy screaming “Is there any in my mouth?!”, and the seance scene with the talking goat and the demon that keeps leaping from body to body. As soon as the goat came in, I knew Sam Raimi would somehow get it to talk! It reminded me of the scene in Evil Dead 2 with all the inanimate objects in the house, and especially the Moose-head on the wall, collectively laughing at Ash. It was freaky, it was weird, but it was also pretty funny at the same time. So Sam Raimi, in my opinion, has done a pretty good job going back to his roots with Drag Me To Hell. The storyline MAYBE could have run a bit deeper, and the ending could have done with being less obvious, but I guess thats just how he decided to do it and it worked pretty well for him, and I’d like to see how he tops it if he makes another horror sometime.

In other news, I’ve been catching up with a few people that went to Download, and apparently if you weren’t there (which I wasn’t!) you missed out on something pretty spectacular! So, yes, it’s a bit of a shame that I had to miss that. NEXT year, however, will hopefully be a different story! I’ve also recently discovered a band called The Veronicas (all be it through the medium of 90210), but they have one song which seems to be coming up every so often in the background on things called Untouched, and when I first heard the music I was kinda hooked, but I had NO idea what the song was or even who the band was! Their sound on this song is pretty cool – there’s a strings base to it, which I really like, and then it gets kinda techno-y which I wasn’t sure about, but then it gets a bit heavy and hooky towards the chorus. So I had it in my head for a while, and had no idea who it was, which was very frustrating! But I hope to find out if their soon-to-be released album is all as good as that song.

Also, in related musical subjects, I’ve recently received information regarding a certain bands new album due for release in Autumn. This certain band happens to be one of my favourites as well! Yes, Paramore have officially told fans on their website that their new album will be named Brand New Eyes and will have the new material they have been performing on their recent tour with No Doubt. The cover art looks relatively minimal compared to the eye-catching cover of RIOT!, this cover having a disjointed picture of a butterfly at the cover. I’m sure it will make more sense once the album has been heard, though, but I am DEFINITELY looking forward to that now! ALSO, they have now said that long-time touring and contributing member Taylor York has now been made an OFFICIAL member of Paramore!! I’m very happy for the guy, as he’s been touring and making music with them for a while now, and he deserves to be part of the family, so congratulations to him.

Anyway, thats about it for now, not too much else to catch up on. I’ll make sure to leave a post when I’ve added some new stuff up, but it’s likely that there will be another page for it anyway, so hopefully you’ll go over and check it all out!

Why am I not at Download Festival?

That’s right – the largest rock, punk and metal festival of the year, taking in 3 different stages over a 3 day weekend, with some of the biggest names in their respective genres from around the globe gracing the stages in Donington, the home of this festival for the last few decades, and I’m not there to see it. Why, I hear you ask, are you not at this monumental annual occasion? Well, there’s a number of reasons really – the cost of the tickets plus camping passes for the weekend is a tad high, but not TOO high, but is still a contributing factor. Possibly more so for my friends who are flat broke from being students, which is another reason I’m not there right now. Plus, I don’t have a tent, so I’d currently be sleeping rough for the next few days. Still, it would almost be worth braving just for the majority of the line-up this year. So, instead, I’ve decided to log on and leave a post about it. I may throw in some other things; I’ll see how I feel…

I’m mainly disappointed I couldn’t make it for the headlining band that will be on the Main Stage in literally a few hours time from now. The reunion of Faith No More has been a widely talked about happening this year, and the fact that their headlining show at Download Festival 2009 is one of only two shows they’ll be doing in the UK (the other one was two nights ago at London’s Brixton Academy, and sold out in minutes. Mostly to people who already had Download tickets, as well!!) makes their show tonight one that shouldn’t be missed. Even a majority of the other bands that are playing are going to be watching them, as many of them were influenced by Faith No More when growing up. So, the fact I’m currently missing Faith No More is a bit sad, but not completely disheartening. After all, there are loads of other bands there that I’m also going to be missing! There’s far too many to name here, but some of the bigger names that appear are bands like Motley Crue, Main Stage Day 2 headliners Slipknot and Day 3 headliners Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Black Stone Cherry, two of my newer, most listened to bands right now The Blackout and The Answer, and of course the legends that are Journey! Such awesome bands playing in one place over three days makes me very jealous of the few people I know who have gone up there for the whole weekend! Oh, well…

Anyway, I went to see Terminator: Salvation the other day, and I have to say that I was hoping it would be good but at the same time expecting it to suck (that’s mostly because Wolverine destroyed my faith, though). But after watching it all the way through, my hopes for it being good were fulfilled pretty well! It’s not an amazing film, I didn’t come out of it immediately wanting to go watch it again, but at the same time I wouldn’t have any trouble doing so. For those that haven’t seen it yet, I may be about to reveal some spoilers, but overall it was a very tight and sound film. Plus, it was better than Terminator 3, but that’s really more of a bonus and, let’s face it, isn’t really hard to achieve! The fact that it doesn’t really “end” as such was a tad disappointing, because they leave it as such at the end that you know it’s going to keep going for another few films. Although, when Christian Bale signed on to this film, he made it clear that he signed on to another two after this so it was at least slightly expected that it would be left as a more open ending.

As the film progresses, you kind of see where things are about to go with the character of Marcus Wright. The fact that he even comes into play when he’s meant to be dead makes you immediately suspicious that he’s a Terminator, and the twist at the end that he’s been used by Skynet the whole way through is a tad obvious, and that he rebels against Skynet anyway is only to be expected (because, he obviously has to save the day!). What I did NOT see coming, however, was the T-800 towards the end that attacks John Connor. Only it’s not JUST a T-800, it’s a T-800 that looks EXACTLY like Arnie from the first Terminator! Of course, it’s not actually The Governator in the film, but a mixture of CGI, face recognition and (as I learned from someone today) footage from the first Terminator imposed into the film. Still, it had to be done really, because it just wouldn’t be a Terminator film without it! As for the rest of the film, it wasn’t incredible, but it was engaging. The bits with the giant machines and various models of Terminators being destroyed in increasingly more adventurous ways is fun, and the meeting between John Connor and Kyle Reese is an essential part of the storyline. But towards the end, you tend to think of two things – 1) Where are they going to go in the next film? and 2) When are they going to get around to inventing Time Travel to send Kyle Reese back in time? But that’s probably where they’re going for the next films anyway, so it’s just a case of wait-and-see really! I’d give Terminator: Salvation about a 7/10, because they probably could have made it a bit better, but it didn’t suck, so that’s a bonus!

Anyway, I’m done for the evening now, so I’m going to go away and think about how awesome it would be to be watching Faith No More right now, but how terrible it would be to have to shower using a watering can tomorrow morning!

LISTED Film Previews – July/August ’09 (Part Two)

As promised, here is the second lot of the film previews for July/August time. They’re not all particularly great films, but thats probably more of a testament to the fact that the better ones have come and gone more recently more than anything else. Such as Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation, both of which I managed to see yesterday, totally spur of the moment style! Both of the films were great, and I’ll probably post my thoughts on them soon, but I’m also caught up in sorting out other stuff right now as well – internship possibilities, music stuff, more writing opportunities, etc. But, in the meantime, you can wrap your dirty great eyelids round these!

ICE AGE – DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (PG) (Dir. Carlos Saldanha & Mike Thurmeier)

If you (or your kids, whichever) thought that the first of these films was a great original comedy animated movie, and that the humour in the second one wasn’t perhaps wearing thin or was lacking in plot at all, then you’ll likely have the right attention span to enjoy this third instalment. This sees the cast reunited once more, this time with the addition of Simon Pegg playing the part of Buck, a one-eyed dinosaur hunting weasel. Make of that what you will, but the rest of will probably only be going to see it for that cute little squirrel. Released July 1^st.

LAND OF THE LOST (12A) (Dir. Brad Silberling)

I think it’s pretty fair to say that a lot of what Will Ferrell does is pretty great comedy. Anchorman and Talladega Nights were both incredibly funny and quotable, and even his more “kid-friendly” films like Elf have moments that get the adults laughing too. And Land Of The Lost looks like it might be in a very similar league! Recreating the original 1974 TV series (a-la Lost In Space style. But hopefully, better.), Will Ferrell plays Park Ranger Rick Marshall who, on his latest expedition, gets sucked through a space-time vortex with his research assistant (Anna Friel) into an alternate world full of dinosaurs and other amazing creatures. In hopes of surviving long enough to get back, they befriend a local primate Chaka so they can survive the tribes of the Lizard-like Sleestak. All of this, mixed with the classic comedy of Will Ferrell sounds like a winning combination, so anyone that likes dinosaurs and side-splitting humour will feel right at home watching this! Released July 31^st.

G.I. JOE – THE RISE OF COBRA (12A) (Dir. Stephen Sommers)

The man that brought us The Mummy and Van Helsing takes himself away from the world of monsters and legends to revamp the animated show/toy line on the big screen (apparently because it “was the nearest chance he would get to making a James Bond film”). From the look of the trailers for this film, it’s got plenty of action, plenty of Sci-Fi and plenty of CGI, which means that the kids and the kids-at-heart will be firmly planted on the edges of their seats. Casting Ray Park (who also played Darth Maul) as the awesomely silent-yet-deadly Snake Eyes can’t be bad either! Released 7^th August.

THE COVE (12A) (Dir. Louie Psihoyos)

Filmed using state-of-the-art equipment, The Cove follows a group of activists led by world-renowned dolphin trainer Richard O’Barry as they attempt to infiltrate a cove near Taijii in Japan in the hopes to expose a serious instance of animal abuse and a threat to human health all at once. Although this documentary does not have a set release date, it is due out at the end of July, and the trailer looks both amazing and shocking at the same time. 

As Published in Listed Magazine Issue 20 and on www.listedmagazine.com