Thursday 24 December 2009

I've just realised something...




In Terminator 2, when Arnie and Sarah and John Connor and Miles Dyson go to Skynet to blow it all up and stop the war and everything else that makes those films happen, Dyson has his hand in his pocket pretty much the whole time they are there. I only just realised that it was because Sarah shot him in the arm/shoulder earlier in the film. I always just thought he was really casual about demolishing offices...

Thursday 17 December 2009

Please, please read this

http://www.wherediditallgoright.com/BLOG/2009/12/ratm4xmas.html

Now, stop buying an old, boring, clichéd, altogether not very good song, stop thinking you are putting one over on Simon Cowell and his 'evil' rule of terror with X-factor, and FUCKING GET OVER IT!!

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Does anybody really care anymore??

Christmas number one.

What of it?

I've recently seen a group circulating Facebook that aims to get a load of people to try and get Rage Against the Machine to Christmas number one this year. (How they plan to do this, I have no idea, with no specific song, and I can bet nobody that joins it will actually buy a Rage single) Why? 'Err... because it will well prove that nobody cares about X-factor and it will stop that being Christmas number one.' Question though, does anybody actually pay attention to what gets the number one spot over the festive season anymore?
Yes, X-factor does seem to dominate the sales at that point in the year, but that's just down to some slightly clever marketing, and the 'coincidence' that it finishes in time for Christmas. And obviously that gets thousands and thousands of viewers, who go out and buy the single, so it inevitably gets to number one. Case in point? Oh only the last however many years it has been on.
Now obviously there are a lot of people who don't like the show, and therefore don't like that the winner manages to sell records. But making a group on Facebook to try and get a different song/artist at number one seems a bit over the top. Especially considering that I could bet most people don't actually know what is number one on any given week, unless they looked it up.
So all in all, who cares? If the winner of X-Factor gets to number one again, which they probably will, so what? Seeing as the singles market is rapidly in decline, I think it's time everyone grew up and realised that, in all honesty, they wouldn't otherwise give a fuck.

Friday 4 December 2009

All Time Top 5 Christmas Films

Yes, considering it is that time of year once again, and we are soon to be inundated with hours upon hours of crap TV, so I though, in keeping with the season, I'd give a run down of my all time top 5 Christmas films. Well, sort of...

5. Home Alone
Probably one of the classic Christmas films. One that most people would say. Snotty little kid is left at home when family buggers off on holiday and forget about him. Hello? Social Services? Although in hindsight it isn't one of John Hughes best films, it's still pretty damn good isn't it? Full of laughs for the whole family, with jokes that I get now, but wouldn't have done ten years ago. So good is this film in fact, that I still have a copy of it on video cassette that was recorded off the television back in 1994 or '95. Still works too, I think.

4. The Great Escape
I know, I know, technically it isn't a Christmas film. Nothing in the plot revolves around Christmas at all, but come on, it's on every year! It has to be a Christmas film. One of the best films about British determination and the ability to 'put one over on the Jerrys' (or something). Well, until they all get captured/shot. Indeed the only people that seem to survive are Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. But still, it IS a Christmas film. Although despite the rumours, not seen it on telly at Christmas in a very long time...

3. Bad Santa
Probably the only film really obviously centered around Christmas. This comedy tells the story of life-long deadbeat, played by Billie-Bob Thornton, who, every year, gets a job as a Santa in a shopping centre, then on Christmas eve, robs the place blind. It gets better, he comes complete with a midget elf (who is black, to get a few more race jokes) and befriends an annoying fat kid who thinks he really is Santa. All in all though, it does provide a good few laughs, especially from Thornton, who for some reason does the piss-head waster role very well. It might not be the family fun, watch-it-with-your-nan type of film that Home Alone or The Snowman is, but it is still damn good.

2. Die Hard
I can practically hear the eyebrows being raised. It is a Christmas film though, whatever you want to say or think. Brucey goes to LA to see his family for Christmas. No denying it, it is set at Christmas time, so technically, like Great Escape, it is a Christmas film. And it is really fucking good too. Plenty of gratuitous action, swearing, and dodgy Germanic accents from Alan Rickman. Although I'm pretty certain he gives up half way through...Anyway, Die Hard is awesome.

1. Gremlins
Cute little Christmas present gets wet, then spawns little evil clones, they eat after midnight, all hell ensues. Probably one of the more imaginative concepts for a film, but still, its genius isn't it? From cute little Gizmo, who in all honesty is a bit of a little bitch until the end, to the badass Stripe, who is surely much easier to get rid of than the protagonists make out, the film is great. You really feel yourself get behind that whiney bank teller and his girlfriend. Not only is the film slightly more violent and gory than you would expect from the outset, it is hilarious too. The evil Mogwai are brilliant. The bar scene in particular shines. And come on, you try and tell me you didn't want your own little Mogwai for Christmas after seeing it? It is one of the few films that I look for in the TV guide every year, and that is why, in my view at least, it is the best Christmas movie.

Oh, and Hulk Hogan's cameo appearance in the sequel is bloody brilliant.