Friday 13 February 2009

Operation BEARD...

An update of randoms here.

I followed this link from Brother Chris' blog about Neil Gaiman having a rant about someone mistaking the Henry Selick directed film Coraline, as being by Tim Burton. I shall explain, but here's the link - here.

Ok so, maybe not when it first came out, but since I realised my mistake I have been a supporter of Henry Selick. He's the real guy who directed Time Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. And I still fight in his corner. If you read Neil Gaiman's blog, he explains where the mistake was made and so on, but I find it unbelievable that even members of the press can't be bothered to look at the Internet Movie Database. Anyway for anyone who cares to read, Henry Selick also directed James and the Giant Peach, which is ok i guess. I've only seen it once and wasn;t a fan of the live action segments. He also directed Monkeybone, which I think was hated by the critics, but does have its own charm. The design work is cool, and it has an excellent blend of live action and animation. Selick also directed, or actually animated, I'm not sure, the animated fish segments from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In summary, Henry Selick is a cool guy, and needs to be recognised.

Brother Chris, in a previous post here, ask for suggestions for films where the lead leaves his hometown for a better life somewhere and actually finds it. A quick background to this is because I'm moving down, and due to certain things happening, am not yet sure if the right choice was made. So we were talking about films that cover the subject, such as Orange County and Lonesome Jim, but in both the lead decides to return home having decided that's where he belongs basically. Explanation over. So films were suggested in the comments section, such as The Station Agent, which is cool, then a load I hadn't seen so I wont repeat, but also Star Wars A New Hope, and Superman. I don't agree with these though, and choose to hide here to avoid any backlash. The reasons given were Superman's planet is blown up, so his life improved, as did Luke Skywalker's. However, Luke's family had all been blown to bits, and he hated farming and wanted to leave form the beginning so that's out. Superman, on the other hand, his home blew up so couldn't return if he wanted to. Close but no cigar. Anyway, the best I could come up with was Stardust. Tristan goes in search of star, learns something along the way, and stays for a better life in Stormhold.

I found this cool little game based on the upcoming Watchmen film. Its basically a style of 80#'s coin-op beat em up in the style of Double Dragon and the like, but featuring two members of the Minutemen. Check it out here.

Finally to tie the blog title in, I'm currently involved in Operation Beard. As I have no job anymore, and do not need to look for work due to complications of various visitations I'll be making over the next month, I have decided to take a leaf out of Keanu's book and grow a beard mid-employment. Why not I say. As a side note though, I also need to get a haircut and am contemplating bringing this into Operation Beard. However, the whole process may mutate and become some kind of Project Hermit style monster. I'll keep you posted.

1 comment:

Chris Regan said...

It's because in films you have to have an inciting incident that makes it so the character can't go back to the life he had before. Similarly, in the films where people are stuck at home, there's either something that makes them come back home or something that makes them need to leave but there are things stopping them. That's why films are easier than real life - the problems are simpler. See how I turned this around into a lesson on scriptwriting?

You should totally post pictures of your beard progress.