martes, 25 de enero de 2011

Uhm, can I change my vote?



A few weeks ago I did a feature about the TOP 5 BEST CHRISTMAS SPECIALS OF 2010. But at the time, I was completely oblivious the fact that Rare Exports was released in December. For those not in the know, Rare Exports were a couple of mockumentaries shorts that told the story and security measurements of a company dedicated to hunt and domesticate the deadliest of marks... no, not men: Father Christimases.

The movie itself is kind of a letdown. It abandons the mockumentary approach to tell us the story of how the company was created. But doing so destroys the great mysteries of its own mythos. Where do Father Christmases come from? How come there are so many? In the end, is it a bizarre twist on fairy tales or a bizarre twist on biology? What are the personalities of the of the three misterious viking-like hunters that take this dangerous task upon themselves? What's the natural habitat of this lordly creatures? This and more questions that made the original so charming find the answers that shatter that charm.

They say that the better spoofs are the ones that don't downplay themselves, that play it straight and serious throughout the experience. That's what I loved about the shorts. The feature length film has a personality disorder, it doesn't know if it wants to play a serious monster movie or a goofy one. Actually, I think somewhere along the second act it goes for the goofy option, which completely demolishes everything that the shorts have accomplished.

It's not a bad movie. Well, actually, it's pretty bad, but that's part of its charm. It still is one of the best monster-movies-where-the-monsters-are-actually-naked-old-men from last year. I could easily give it the number 5 rank in that top 5. The office was there to fill up space, anyway.

Check out the shorts. They're still pretty sweet.

miércoles, 19 de enero de 2011

Duckman!



Oh, Duckman, how I love you.

Duckman is a great means for age verification. If you ask anyone if they know what Duckman is and they say yes, they're probably in their late twenties or early thirties. If they don't know who he is, then they must as well be underage and you better run, because that conversation is quickly going nowhere.

I used to watch Duckman as a kid (pre-teen, to be more precise) and it scarred me for life. No, it wasn't the adult themes that the show covered WAY ahead of its time, it was that over-the-top, cliffhanging last episode. I waited and waited and waited until torrents were invented (the series was never released in Argentina and was not available on DVD at the time) that I realized that was supposed to be the actual ending of the show. Not unlike that OTHER SHOW with the Alien Life Form.

And speaking about ALF, does anybody else find slightly disturbing that everyone calls him by that acronym insted of his real name, Gordon? I mean, imagine a show where someone from Korea was referenced just as "Korean" or, to be more blunt, Jewish people were called just "Jews". It would elicit an uproar, and with good reason.

But I digress. The video above belongs to a show I enjoy, mostly because its host clearly does careful research on his subjects but doesn't need to bloat about it. A Top 11 moments of Fluffy and Uranus, because you know what I think of PC messages.

miércoles, 12 de enero de 2011

The King is Dead. Long live the King.


Another thing that Martina called me off on this week is the fact that we’re always mentioning the death of people on the blog but never their birthdays. Now, there’s a good reason for this, and it’s that while death are unique occurrences, birthdays happen every year and they lose their novelty pretty quick. We would celebrate births but let’s be serious, we never know if the newly spawned brat is going to be the next Yuri Norstein, so, what’s the point?

martes, 11 de enero de 2011

Neil Gaiman on The Simpsons



We've mentioned Neil Gaiman a while ago and suddenly Martina pointed out to me this post where the man is coming out of the Marge Simpson Studio where he recorded his part for an upcoming Simpson's episode. I think he's the fourth comic book writer after the brief but epic appearence of Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman and (I think) Daniel Clowes. Can't remember if Stan Lee was ever on The Simpsons but, c'mon on! He's Stan Lee! He makes more cameos than comics nowadays!

And I'm probably forgeting someone else.

miércoles, 5 de enero de 2011

Yeah. It finally happened.



So, it seems that today is all about the stuff that cross over to real life. I'm sorry to not comment any further, but I'm a little at a loss of words over this.

X-treme cross media



This somehow reminds me of last year's Jesse Schell's DICE conference. Video Games are everywhere. They're taking over. And we'll embrace our new digital overlords because we've been instructed to be oversized men-children by the corporations that educated us through TV. And thus, a new society of control is born.

Paranoia aside, even though I think the car is pretty cool, I wouldn't be caught dead driving that thing. Nothing personal, I just don't like driving. Or jelly fishes. Or snails. It's a good thing it's a convertible too, because the noises it makes when a door opens annoy the hell out of me. It's like those site that start playing music when you load them, or that diabolical Pac-Man banner that starts playing really loud whenever you accidentally stumble upon it.

But going back to my original comment, isn't it strange that everything now is subtly becoming a game? I mean, I feel really comfortable with it, but where does this obsession of ludosizing (that's the technical term for "making things more game-y", and I'm coining it) everything comes from? Where will it lead to? Will it be profitable in the long run? Will it become the norm?

I can speculate, but what do you think?

martes, 4 de enero de 2011

Quidditch



I hate sports. I actually don't mind playing most of them, even though it's been a while since the last time I did, but I hate the general cattle-mindset that seems to induce on people. Smart people. People that wouldn't flinch after Michael Bay savagely butchers a beloved franchise of their childhood or J. J. Abrams dumbs criminally down an otherwise smart product, suddenly find themselves torn apart when their favorite team loses a match. And they don't ever stop whining, arguing and being general asses about a topic that I couldn't care less about. Trying to drag me down, you half-chewed pricks.

And that's why I've got mixed feelings about this whole Quidditch-for-muggles thing. I know it is done in spirit of naive, clean and pure fun, but with a long, long rulebook and an international association pushing for an exhibition match on the Olympics 2012, I'm afraid thing's might get too serious. I love fan-made subculture as much as the next guy (actually, I know the next guy and I can say I love it more). It gives you that fresh sensation of unbound, raw creative energy. But within every manifestation of fan-culture there's a breaking point where it becomes too serious and stops being fun.

By the way, sorry about the video's language. There was an English version but I couldn't embed it.

lunes, 3 de enero de 2011

Jalapeño



Wow, James Caan is playing the Jalapeño in this episode of Annoying Orange.

By the way, Jalapeño is my favorite kind of pepper.

1884



So, Terry Gilliam joined the production team of 1884, an absurdist animated feature about a British secret agent working for the empire. The movie is a said to be a recreation of the future (the titular year of 1884, to be more precise), made in 1848. I see what you did there, pulling the old Orwellian trick of inverting the 1848 into 1884.

Anyways, we all remember fondly Gilliam’s animation from his Monty Python days and, although the technique is completely different, the style of the movie reminds me of those days. The trailer also reminds of the original fake trailer for Machete, for the amount of information and twists it compiles in just four minutes. The film will be directed by Tim Ollive, who has collaborated with Gilliam in the past. Check out the trailer and draw your own conclusions.