No Clean Feed!

www.internetblackout.com.au

Gone Fishing

Happy New Year to everyone. I am still around, just taking a bit of a hiatus at the moment.

Will be back to normal soon :)

Deadgirl (2008)

This film is morally reprehensible and yet sadly, could be a coming of age film for the masses who seem to treat everything in life as a commodity - people included. Despite a supernatural story element that defies explanation, the morality of the movie and its sexual and violent objectification of women in frighteningly plausible extremes is shocking to say the least. The scariest part is that you know people would relate to both of the main characters differing views and I guess on some level the film is making an attempt at some form of social commentary, despite how majorly it fails. If the film was a little more intelligent and explored some of the themes it attempts a little more deeply it may have been more interesting, but as it stands this is a tasteless and sickening film that will leave you with imagery that you will not quickly shake off.

Recent Movie Viewing

As I am lazy and haven't been writing reviews of late....here is a brief run down of the last few weeks viewing....as you can see I have not been short of movies to watch, just short on writing about them!!

Moon (2009)
Every once in awhile a film comes along that reaffirms your belief in cinema. For me, Moon represents everything I like about the movies and more specifically the science fiction genre. This may stem from the fact that it is not a big budget Hollywood blockbuster! With a cast you could count on one hand and driven by a stellar performance from Sam Rockwell.

Moon proves once and for all that if you have a story to tell, everything else is just secondary.


Zombieland (2009)
A completely enjoyable Zombie romp, it seems that Zombies aren't content with the horror genre and are now trying their luck at comedy and rightly so. With plenty of laughs and plenty of gore I am sure this will please all fans of the living dead!


Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (2009)
An out of left field CGI tale of self discovery and worth that is far less corny than it sounds... whilst not all the gags work, for the most part this is one of the more decent CGI films to come out of a studio that isn't Pixar in years!


Jennifer's Body (2009)
Actually better than I was expecting, perhaps because it was different to what I was expecting. Megan Fox is a bit on the annoying side and the soundtrack could have done with some equalization, but an enjoyable 90 minutes of good horror fun nonetheless.


9 (2009)
An interesting post apocalyptic tale that sees small robots in a fight for survival against deadly machines. Great visual effects and an intriguing visual style make the film great to look at. The voice talent do an adequate job to bring the characters to life and the story is interesting although maybe a little rushed.


The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Terry Gilliam once again proves his directorial mastery and a true return to form with this expertly crafted marvel of celluloid. A pleasure to watch and a great last acting role from Heath Ledger.

The Final Destination (2009)

Where to begin. This, the fourth Final Destination film brings the series to an all new low with some of the worst casting, scripting, acting and over-the-top death sequences (not to mention the lame 3-D gimmick). What is even more annoying is that it is directed by David R. Ellis, who was responsible for the more than adequate Final Destination 2.

With so many possibilities, and 3 previous films to work from it is quite disappointing that this is the best they could come up with!

Idiot premonition boy and his wonderpals are spending a day at the races, the car races to be exact. Like most other people in the audience they are hoping for a crash and this being a final destination movie it is more than happy to oblige.

After the initial premonition things divert from the usual story arc and rather than have visions of what is to come our lead boy must decipher dodgy CGI effects that are apparently hinting to who is next (as he can't remember) and how they are going to die, that or they are an ad for the local hardware store.

The film is incredibly clunky, the death sequences are more like watching a Looney Toons episode than a Final Destination film and the characters are all so vile or uninteresting that really, the deaths they do suffer are luxury compared to what you would like to have seen happen to them.

So basically, unless you want to waste 90 minutes of your life, treat the film as you would your dodgy Uncle Bob and avoid....

How B Grade Movies Saved (Or Ruined) My Life

Recently I have been moonlighting on a community radio station co-hosting a show called "How B Grade Movies Saved (Or Ruined) My Life". It is currently airing at 5pm on Saturdays, but from December 5th will air at 6pm on Sundays. Each week we discuss a specific genre or subject of B movies as well as new releases on DVD & Blu-ray. We also throw out a B movie challenge to the general populace who are encouraged to seek it out and view it. Of course that requires us to see it too. I figured I would start documenting the shows here on my blog, and maybe at some point begin offering them as a podcast, but we shall see how I go. For now you can tune in live online at www.edgeradio.org.au then select Listen Online.

You can also become a fan of the show on Facebook using the link below.

How B Grade Movies Saved (Or Ruined) My Life on Facebook

Back to the Square Box

Well, I have been a bit slack with my TV viewing habits of late...and I am about 1 or 2 episodes behind in my viewing....however I thought I would update what I have chosen to watch in the current TV line up. I haven't exactly added any new shows to the line up, but then there has been anything that has attracted me to view it this season...

Getting better with each season, Dexter is still one of my favorite series, everything about it is a guilty pleasure and the addition of John Lithgow as the new "bad guy" is casting at its best!

Always good for a quick laugh, The Big Bang Theory hasn't outstayed its welcome as much as I thought it might. Testament to good writing, good acting (with perfectly cast roles) and the obvious fun that is had during the creation of the show.

Although on a Sweeps break, the return of Dollhouse had me sit up and take notice. The first four episodes were finally what I was expecting to see in the first season, and awesome powerhouse of a show with potential on so many levels and areas of the human psyche. Now that Echo has become less of the lead, we are given much more to work with and it really has helped the show out!

The Mentalist is far more about the characters than the show....in what essentially is just a light hearted Law & Order show with far less believable plot points, I am hoping that the Red John story line is going to pick up again soon as that was what interested me in the first place, but alas he is nowhere to be seen thus far....

What is it with shows making light of death these days? Castle is another buddy cop drama similar to The Mentalist above, but instead of a "people reader" we have an author. I wonder why it has suddenly become the norm to have female detectives with jokey male "partners".


Back for its 14th Season, Top Gear is back to normal with the usual far out antics and super car madness. Nice to see the Aussies get some representation with Eric Bana as the star in a reasonably priced car and the news involving the recall of prams in the U.S is priceless....

Rant Alert: Violence & Video Games

For those of you who have read my blog in the early days, you will note the change that has occurred over time. Less ranting, longer reviews and (recently) less posting.

Every once in awhile a topic arises that gets me annoyed enough to write about. It is a sad day when the only time I feel like writing is when I am annoyed.

On my local news website today, two articles appeared in succession that, on the outside, bear no relation to each other.

The first is an article relating to the South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson and his opposition to the introduction of an adult classification rating for video games. You can read it here

I should point out that Mr Atkinson is a right wing labor minister who believes very much in Christian Values. Now I don't have a problem with him wanting to protect children from harmful material, be it pornography, violent video games or even violent TV and Movies, but I do have a problem when that protection also prevents me from accessing material that is, for all intent and purpose, made for me.

I am 28 years old, I do not have children, I am employed full time and have been ever since I left college and I am in a steady relationship that is coming up to its 3 year anniversary. Therefore I believe I am big enough and ugly enough and definitely responsible enough to decide for myself what I should and should not be able to see, read, play or do in the confines of my own home.

Why can't I play an R rated video game?

Apparently I need to protect the children I don't have from viewing violent content, and that means I have to give up my right to play what I want to play.

Correct me if I am wrong, but, children have parents, I thought the role of a parent was to protect their children from harm or foul and raise them to the best of their ability. At what point did this responsibilty get designated to a governing body of politicians? I would have thought that the governments only responsibility is to children whose parents fail in their task.

Am I wrong?

The second article related to a 13 year old boy who took a gun to school with the intent of a killing spree - you can read this article here.

I draw your attention to this line "The boy, said to be a video game enthusiast, had on Monday left a message on his blog stating that "this is the last day of my life''."

The only question I have is what does this sentence have to do with the story?

It would seem I need to post a rant about violence in movies and video games and their relation to violence in society et al, as it is something I do feel very strongly about. For the record, I do NOT think playing a violent video game makes you any more violent than you already would have been. If you want a great visual example for this argument, seek out Penn & Teller's: Bullshit. In their 7th season they did a show on Violent Video Games and this exact argument. You can see a clip below:



I have already posted my thoughts regarding violence and horror in movies, so I don't really want to go through all of that again, but you can read the original post here.