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Yep, this is the way it ended. I am sorry, but this isn't clever. David Chase is speaking up about that rather abrupt ending to The Sopranos. For a time, he was avoiding the criticism aimed toward his handling of the season finale. ((And mostly Chase wonders why so many viewers got so worked up over the series' non-finish.)) It was a shitty ending to an otherwise kickass season. It is just poor writing. Having the screen go black for 15 seconds doesn’t do a good show justice, Mr. Chase. You f’ed up and admit it. ((Chase says the New Jersey mob boss "had been people's alter ego. They had gleefully watched him rob, kill, pillage, lie and cheat. They had cheered him on. And then, all of a sudden, they wanted to see him punished for all that. They wanted 'justice' ...)) Actually, most people believed that Tony was a rather pathetic person that never let things go. He only cared about his feelings and no one else’s. He even killed some of h...

Read MC’s post first, before reading this one: Remembering Return of the Living Dead (1985) _______________________________________ I wanted to make a follow up post on MC post about Return of the Living Dead MC has great post about this little movie gem. I remember watching this movie with my family, and we had a great time watching it. It was kind of a spoof and part horror movie. Think Night of the Living Dead with jokes. There seemed to be a sort legal dispute between George A. Romero and John A. Russo. Some people behind the scenes didn’t want to step on Romero’s toes and make a simple rehash. They added the humor, thus making it a spoof of the original Night of the Living Dead movie, and not a direct sequel to the other series. I like part 2 a little more than this one, but perhaps because it had zombie kids and also for the sheer cult-ness of it. Side Note: Yes, this movie is set in Louisville , Kentucky . I am not sure why. It looks nothing like the c...

Singer Robert Goulet dies at 73 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQsxAP_UDaZdZjDZhVyo6fgnhN4gD8SJTU500 Comment: I really liked this guy. I thought his role in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear as the main bad guy was pretty funny. And, who can forget some of the recent ads he’s done. Here are a few of his ESPN ads Robert Goulet ESPN Commercial 3 Robert Goulet ESPN Commercial 1 Robert Goulet ESPN Commercial 15 Emerald Nuts ads Emerald Nuts boogeyman Super Bowl XLI Commercial ad 2007 A message from your friends at Emerald Nuts He was certainly one of the coolest people around.

Transformers the Score I heard for a while there weren’t any plans on releasing the score to the Transformers movie. But the film’s composer Steve Jablonsky made statements that there was always going to be a score release of his music. After hearing the score, I have to say the score ranges from fair to impressive with the tracks on the CD. There are some themes that feel too much like Zimmer’s Batman Begins, but then there are some unique tracks that sound alien enough to stand out from The School of Zimmer tone. Jablonsky uses a great deal of strings and chorus for this score. The chorus is varied enough that it will surprise even the most jaded Bay hater out there. I have to give credit to Jablonsky for not deciding to go for the more The Rock style score. This score is a good mixture of electronic music and a real live orchestra. The proud main Autobot theme is mostly done on the French horn, and I think the French horn is certainly a good choice because ...

The Characters and voice talent All of the voice actors from the TV returned for the movie. The producers also felt the need to add some bigger names to the film. Some bigger star power would help sell the movie they felt, like the way they added big names to the Transformers movie. Don Johnson was a big name at the time with his role on Mimi Vice. He played the role of hot head Lt. Falcon. Another writer mentioned this; Think of this guy as the human version of Hot Rod from Transformers. Don Johnson does pretty fine job with the limited amount of character development provided with script. I think he handles the relationship with Duke fairly well. Yet, there are a lot of character traits that I just don’t like about Falcon. He almost doesn’t deserve to be in GI Joe. Burgess Meredith does a marvelous job as Golobulus. While we don’t get to see much of the character, I think his voice fits the design of the character model well. We see that this is a very in...

Isn't this that tape ad with the dude getting blown away by the incredible sound? A few things from film composer Terence Blanchard http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15625264 Here’s a performance of Terence Blanchard’s Funeral Dirge theme from When the Levees Broke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Z3GO9IqUE I enjoy listening to NPR for the interviews. They seem to be more down to earth than the mainstream ones. He mentions a few things I wrote in my paper about him.

A New Captain America? http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=12094 Well, it certainly looks that way. The site in question mentions that it is not Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, but someone entirely different. I really like this new design with the handgun and shield. I also like the black they've added to the uniform. Alex Ross designed this new Cap. Ross' work has always impressed me. (Read DC's Kingdom Come ) While the only way we'll ever see Steve Rogers's Captain America again is in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. But, I think this new character will be an interesting read. Here is Captain America having the worst day of his life. (Well, there was that Captain America movie too, which he was forced to watch.) _________________________________________________ Nice picture

Shatner is upset over not being in the New Star Trek Film http://www.cnn.com/2007/ SHOWBIZ /Movies/10/26/people.williamshatner.ap/index.html Uh, sorry, Shatner, I think J.J Abrams does not want to deal with all your shit. (("I couldn't believe it. I'm not in the movie at all. Leonard, God bless his heart, is in, but not me," Shatner, 76, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I thought, what a decision to make, since it obviously is a decision not to make use of the popularity I have to ensure the movie has good box office. It didn't seem to be a wise business decision.)) How arrogant of him to think that he was the only box office draw. The story is about Spock and not William Shatner. While Abrams hasn’t convinced me that this reboot is a good idea, I’m still going to give him a chance. Moreover, anytime someone pisses off the Shatner, I’m happy.

My friend stationed in Iraq Part 1 of 2 I mentioned about a year ago that I had a friend that was ordered to go to Iraq. Well, he's come back alive and well. He seems to be the same person he was when he left, more or less. The first question I asked him was this: “So, how was Iraq?” I asked. “It was bad. What do you think?” he answered. So, I asked him about Blackwater. And, he told me they were assholes and he'd seen them everywhere. “So, how's progress in Iraq?” I asked already knowing the answer. “Ain't no progress in there. It's just a bunch of people dying, a whole bunch.” Here are a few things he mentioned... He didn't lose anyone from his group, but he patched up hundreds of Iraqis. So, he saw a lot of wounded and dead people. A sniper fired two rounds at him, missing him both times. He felt the wind from the bullet pass his face. He then said, “After the first shot, I ran like a bitch.” (Note: This didn't seem to ...

Whatever happened to that Dude, you’re getting a Dell guy? For the longest time, this guy Ben Curtis was the main face behind the Dell ads. Sure he was a stoner, but he was a likable stoner. Who knew a stoner could become the spokesman for a major computer company? Later on, Ben Curtis got into a little trouble with the law over some weed . After being phased out of the Dell ads, the Dell dude seemed to disappear. However, that’s not the case. It looks like he’s been busy promoting Gameznflix . In addition, Ben has made appearances in the videogame Bully , and an episode of Law & Order this year. Here’s some info regarding the arrest and the connection to his contract with Dell. I really enjoyed watching these ads back in the day. Gateway never had anything this entertaining in their ads. Hey, Dell, bring the Dell Dude back! I’d loved to see him kick those Mac vs. PC guys’ asses. Here are a few videos The very first Dude ad : He looks so young he...

Sandra Oh : “Hey, I’m not that bad.” Maxim released its top five Un-sexiest women http://www.maxim.com/Entertainment/Thefiveunsexiestwomenalive/slideshow/435.aspx And I have to agree with some of their choices. 5. Britney Spears : give her some more fast food. Actually she’s not that fat, but her actual looks have certainly gone away. She’s lost that cuteness she had in that hit me one more time video . 4. Madonna : Let it be known that I have never found Madonna attractive. Her early music was pretty tight, but I just hate all the New Age Euro-Techno mess she’s trying to shovel out now. She’s too skeletal for me. 3. Sandra Oh: Okay, this one is a little mean. I think she has a nice tight body on her, (watch Dancing at the Blue Iguana .) Sure her face is a little long, but she has unique features. I would have certainly dated her character in Sideways . 2. Amy Winehouse : I don’t really know who this person is. She’s like the funky ...

The Story Basically, the movie was an origin story for Cobra. However, truth be told, it was merely an overblown 6 part mini-series that they used to have to open a season. The story is slightly bigger, but not as special as the Transformers movie that came before it. Again, this probably had something to do with production problems. However, the movie does have a small amount of blood and violence that the TV show never had. Then there was the famous story about Duke dying in the film. The writers intended to have the character killed off and to give Lt. Falcon a reason to stand up and become a responsible man. With the negative response from children from the Transformers movie, the producers didn’t want a repeat of what happened, so they did a quick change in dialogue, stating that Duke was merely in a coma. Watching the movie recently, I feel they should have killed off Duke. It would have given the rest of the movie a serious tone. It would have reminded ...

A bouncy boot up for Windows... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWydEW-VO6A Uh, I posted this before, but here's an extended version. (uh, boobs don't bounce like that, even when standing still. This must be the same boob physics program that was used in the DOA series.)

A few news Bits Matthew Vaughn talks about his feelings on X3 Comment: Vaughn was the director slated for X3, before stepping away from it and Ratner stepped in. (("What happened with X-Men was I didn't have the time to make the movie that I wanted to make. I had a vision for how it should be, and I wanted to make sure I was making a film as good as X-Men 2, and I knew there was no way it could be. I just suddenly knew it wasn't the right thing for me to do. )) I can understand that. If I knew I had to follow a highly praised film, I'd probably get cold feet. ((Brett Ratner stepped into the breach, and Vaughn was not impressed. "As it happens, I could have made something a hundred times better than the film that was eventually made," he says. "It sounds arrogant, but I could have done something with far more emotion and heart. I'm probably going to be told off for saying that, but I genuinely believe it." )) BTW, I love the dis tow...

Another LOST Star gets busted! http://www.ogpaper.com/news/news-01167.html Uh, perhaps this is a DU I curse. This time it was Daniel Dae Kim. Does this mean he'll get killed off? The Hawaii police must really hate the show. I sort of liked Jin last season. Somebody, please take the booze away from the cast!

Blood Diamond This film is intense and sometimes very brutal in the way it portrays violence. However, with its important subject matter, the violence needs to been seen, because this stuff really does happen even today. And, I have to give credit to the filmmakers for not backing off and making a soft PG-13 movie. This is a hard R-rated movie. There are scenes that will make you go, “oh, shit.” The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio (Di-CRAP-rio) and Djimon Hounsou . Djimon plays a man that looses contact with his family after rebels raid his village. He is forced into slave labor and discovers a huge diamond, which he hides from his overseers. Djimon does a convincing job playing an everyday man that gets caught up in the horrible war ripping his homeland apart. DiCaprio plays a go between man that smuggles weapons and diamonds between countries. This is a character that can be both charming and ruthless at the same time. DiCaprio’s performance here is very go...

GI Joe: The Movie Like the 80s Transformers movie, the producers created this movie during the run of the weekly cartoon show of the same name. Both this and the Transformers movie were developed around the same time by the same creative teams. Due to major production problems, the GI Joe movie was pushed back and Transformers was released into the theaters first. Because the theatrical run of Transformers: The Movie bombed, this movie was doomed to the Direct-to-Video hell. I also felt this movie’s production values were harmed when that happened. With little or no promotion, it was released to video stores and often ignored. After this movie, sadly, Sunbow would lose the rights to GI Joe and the cheaper animation studio DiC would take over. With this movie, you could tell the show under Sunbow would have completely taken the main storyline in another direction. Like the Transformers third season, they were cleaning out their old characters and themes, and they were going to start fr...

A plan is coming together Marie Osmond faints : I could watch this clip over and over. If there were more random fainting in reality TV, I'd actually watch it. The best part is when her dancer partner didn't catch her. Not being a Osmond fan of any kind, I have to say that she handled herself pretty well afterwards. Some of the Funniest deaths ever in movies : There some 'classic' 80s clips in here. “Let off some steam.” The A-Team intro : Brings back memories. This was the time when you could edit together hundreds of action clips for no reason and put on a bland Mike Post main theme behind the footage. Throw in title cards for the actors, smirking of course. Then you can call it the opening credits. This was probably one of the things that revealed that the quality of TV was lower than movies at the time. Side Note: I love the Dirk Benedict joke with his reaction to a Cylon walking by, given he spent one season fighting them on Battlestar Galactica...

A wonderfully bad videogame error http://youtube.com/watch?v=qWE3AN7ym-g Magically, this really bad error is in a Spawn Videogame. With the exception of the toys, most Spawn merchandise sucked badly. Yes, the enemies keep falling of the ledge and dying to their death. At some point, you’d wish the bodies would start to pile up. At some the point, the suicidal villains would stop and look down at their fallen brothers. I’ve seen this respawning bug in modern games too. You have to love when creatures will follow you right off a cliff. Or continue to fall off while you are at a hard to reach area. That’s either dedication or stupidity or both.

Please get in a pit and love someone... Random Things ~While reading through TMZ , I came across a post about some chick named Lisa D'Amato. I never heard of this chick, and I've never seen an episode of America's Top Model. However, I read that she did an atrocious rap video and peed in a diaper. So, I watched the video, and it is bad, really bad. Yo, check it ! And she responds to all the 'haters' (the people that know it sucks). (Note: The interviewer kisses her ass so much, that he might be called the new Larry King.) ~ I guess Kid Rock didn’t like the waffles : There appeared to be some type of fight at a Waffle House with a customer and his crew. Now, I work on the night shift, so I know that you will run into some strange people in 24hrs locations. ~ Looks like the Grindhouse fallout is still being felt , because the Barbarella remake is being scrapped. Though not a great director by any means, I still like many of Rodriguez’s m...

The Best Subway Performance I’ve seen This is probably one of the best public singing groups I’ve seen. They are singing Phil Collins’ best song I can feel it in the air tonight . They really made it their own with their harmonizing and changing of the words. You can tell these guys really are enjoying themselves. People in the record industry need to take note. I did some digging and found out who this is. They’re called Naturally Seven and here’s some information. Here’s their Myspace page : You can listen to many of their song here. (They have another version of I can feel it in the air tonight in the media player, second song.) Bonus videos: The Phil Collins song Miami Vice Pilot - Phil Collins " In the air tonight " : This MV version just simply kicks ass, and it should have been in the new movie.

Strange Picture http://nubiana.co.uk/2007/10/13/as-the-girl-turns/#more-740 Head to the post above and study the picture and read the post. There is a girl spinning (Think all those James Bond intros). People will see her spinning either clockwise or counter-clockwise. I see her spinning clockwise, mostly. But if I look away, she will change directions. Here’s a cool tip: Blink you eyes quickly while looking at the picture. You will see her change directions. (Switch closing your eyes too.)

No Four Legged Creatures Allowed, that includes US Senators A Strange Restroom encounter not involving a Senator True Story A few weeks ago, I was in a public restroom at school. I came out of one of the stalls and proceed to wash my hands. After turning off the water, I headed for the paper towel box to dry my hands, and the door opened. An ordinary heavy looking white dude in a red golf shirt came strolling in. He then stepped to the side and opened the door wider. To my surprise, a little brown dog walked into the restroom. The dog’s hair was fluffy. This guy brought his dog into the building and brought it into the restroom. A human restroom… So, the dog proceeded to walk around the restroom. I was a little more than disturbed. Listen, I’ve heard of rich people taking their dogs everywhere, but this was just stupid. (I was in a government building dealing with that traffic ticket and a very well dressed woman brought her little shitty dog into the w...

Bill Maher is my new hero ((Maher on Friday night helped security remove a rowdy protester from the studio during his weekly HBO show " Real Time with Bill Maher ," and it was all captured on live television.)) And, there was any taser involved either. Yeah, some of these crazy 911 conspiracy nuts got in the crowd and started to disrupt the show. Maher lets the guy shout for a while. However, there comes a point when you can’t take it anymore. (("Do we have some (expletive) security in this building," Maher yelled, "or do I have to come down there and kick his (expletive)?" When security reached the man's aisle and the man resisted leaving, Maher ran into the seats and helped them push him out the door, shouting "Out! Out! Out!")) This was done without 20 cops pulling a guy from a microphone too. Some people might try to say this is similar to the ‘don’t tase me bro’ incident, but this isn’t an open forum like the John K...

Mr. Brooks This has me deeply confused. On one hand, I enjoyed the actual concept behind the movie, giving us a cold-blooded killer that kills for the sheer joy of it. On the other hand, I found myself questioning the casting and acting choices. Like, why did they cast Dane Cook in this movie? He is so bad that his terrible acting brings the entire movie down a grade point. With a different more skillful actor, this role could have been very interesting. The other poor choice is Demi Moore, whom seems to be acting in her Striptease mold and cannot get out. She is totally out of place. I guess banging Ashton Kutcher can suck the talent out of you. However, the film draws me in. I enjoyed watching the twisted mind of Kevin Costner’s character. I also liked that he had an evil personality represented by William Hurt ( Marshall ). His alter ego talks to him and gives him chillingly logical reasons for murdering. I found it fascinating that he goes out and kills ...

The Two Coreys are no longer friends: Hell is freezing over. http://www.accesshollywood.com/news/ah7129.shtml Comment: Besides being total prick, has-been Corey Feldman told the news that Corey Haim and he are no longer on speaking terms. I’m sure Hollywood is really upset with the fact that these to has-been aren’t talking. ((The two Coreys are no longer friends according to Feldman, who spoke about the matter earlier this week to US Weekly.)) But, didn’t you two do a stupid reality show about your friendship? Isn’t that false advertising? While it appears that Corey Feldman is still attached to the new Lost Boys movie, Haim is not. I’m guessing Haim is back to using drugs again and even Feldman doesn’t want anything to do with him. At least we won’t have another season of the Two Coreys again. BTW, because this new Lost Boys II is direct to video, something tells me that it’s going to suck big time. Lost Boys 2: The Tribe http://www.imdb.com/title/tt10...

Hey, there hot lady. Weren't you the girl that got naked in that American Pie movie? ~ Can P-Diddy stay out of trouble in Night Clubs?: It doesn’t look that way. When is this guy going to get in trouble for his violent behavior? This guy has severely beaten many people and has never spent any time in jail. Then he makes a song about prayer? WTF? ~Call me old fashion, but I thought Victoria Beckham was hotter without all the plastic surgery. Now, she looks like an upgraded version of 7 of 9. ~I wonder if they’re going to make another animated TMNT movie. I really liked the first one. ~I've had a huge crush on Shannon Elizabeth . She has a lovely body, but poor acting skills. I wonder what happened to her career? Did she really divorce her hubby over a Punked prank? ~So Indiana Jones 4 wraps production , I have high hopes for this movie. Here's hoping Lucas didn't interfere that much in the script writing.

Check this video out, talk about old school. Who knew they predicted the DVD/Laserdisc format in 1983. (The video discs) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ3IRSldvYA Comment: This couple seems to be reacting perfectly calm when you consider someone is turning their furniture into devices. I’d be running for the door. Bill Cosby gives us a $100 rebate on a Texas Instrument computer. Thank you, Bill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA8Acx6IVoY

"Who loves ya, baby?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEgsfo0JDU4 An old Star Trek: The Motion Picture news piece: this old piece is really cool, because it shows some of the key players in the making of this film. This is pretty neat because there is very little behind the scene footage because director Robert Wise kicked out the Behind the Scenes Crew for visiting the set. He felt they were in his way. Key points worth noting: ~ William Shatner is a total prick in this piece. He gets a little mad when the interviewer starts to ask him about becoming a Superstar. Shatner during this time wanted to distance himself from trek, but couldn’t become the big star he dreamed of. Watch the way he answers these questions. ~ Persis Khambatta talks about shaving her head for her role in the movie. She actually starts talking about ‘getting off’ on being bald in a sexual nature. (I kid you not). Watch Robert Wise’s reaction when she says it. Note: There is a...

The Death Star vs. The Death Star II I remembered how cool the Death Star looked in the first Star Wars movie. I just loved the design of it, and I always wanted to get a model toy of it. I wanted to blow up my own planets with my own Death Star. I also liked the enhanced explosion with the Praxis explosion ring added to the Special Editions. While looking through the web, I found some interesting facts about the two Death Stars. 1. The Death Star II is enormously more powerful than DS1. 2. It only took the Empire three years to create the DS2, while it took the engineers to create the first one nearly 20-30 years. That’s an amazing turnaround. 3. The first Death Star was 160 kilometers, but the second one is 900 kilometers: I always thought the second Death Star was supposed to be smaller, but more powerful. The way it was filmed, it looked smaller compared to the first one. I was wrong. 4. The Death Star I could only fire every 24 hours, because it...

1408 I thought this movie was going to be another bad PG-13 horror movie with bad shitty acting and plotting. However, it turned out to be one of the better new age horror movies I’ve seen lately. While certainly not perfect, there are some really good concepts involved in this story and some truly creepy moments here and there. John Cusack is a writer who writes about famous haunted hotels and motels. While he’s not a true believer of the ghosts or even the afterlife, he still writes about it. He discovers a hotel room in New York that many consider truly haunted because of the deaths in the room. The writer discovers that the room really is evil. I really like the character arc Cusack’s character goes through in the movie. He starts out as a man that doesn’t believe in anything because of the death of his daughter, but through this horrible ordeal he finds out there is an afterlife. Cusack’s never goes over the top with his performance. Samuel L. Jackson is a total badas...

Cab Calloway and Nicholas Brothers : You have to see this dance number. The Nicholas brothers were a famous tap dancing group in the 40s. This comes from the amazing musical movie Stormy Weather . Though Cab Calloway starred with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson , Calloway didn’t really get along with Robinson. Calloway saw him as a sell out because of the foolish roles he took earlier in movies ( The Little Colonel ) It takes some skill to move around like they did in this film…something these new pop stars need to learn. So, this is the new Transformers cartoon ?: Uh, I don’t like the design at all. It just feels like a bad Go-Bots episode. What were they thinking? I do like the new Starscream voice and Grimlock sighting. But come on, you couldn’t have gotten a better design? Here is more of this mess . At least Beast Wars was a Sequel and the Prequel. Now this is Subway entertainment : You have to love that some people have no reaction to...