What is the fascination with serial killers? Let’s be honest with ourselves. We put on a facade in public that serial killers are diabolical filth we do not wish to be fetishized. In actuality, if you are not directly involved in their schemes or one of their victims, you can’t help but hold a bit of intrigue for them. If you don’t believe me, then why is Showtime’s Dexter on its seventh season?
Monthly Archives: October 2012
Adele’s Skyfall Song is Double 0-Awesome
This is a very self-explanatory post. Adele’s new song that has been teased for days is finally out today and it is the theme for the next James Bond movie, Skyfall. The song was released at 00:07 in London on Global James Bond Day, which is when Dr. No first came out 50 years ago. I’ll leave the YouTube embed below this before I give my quick thoughts. As a hint of the level my giddyness for this song, I’m downloading this on iTunes while I type this post up.
I’ll get this out-of-the-way: I love Adele. Yeah, she got extremely overplayed and it now drives people nuts when they hear “Rolling in the Deep” or some might cry profusely when “Someone Like You” comes up on the playlist or radio. But you cannot deny her voice and holy crap, her voice was MADE for a Bond theme song. Hell, I know the YouTube video isn’t the opening title sequence but if they made more silhouettes of girls in the background and random plot elements, this could pass easily as one. Letting the orchestra take over at the chorus is brilliant after the piano start and it just builds into a true Bond song. The lyrics are undeniably James Bond and yet not cheesy or forced. “For this is the end/I’ve drowned and dreamt this moment/so overdue I owe them/swept away I’m stolen”. Effin’ love it. She co-wrote this song with her “Rolling in the Deep” collaborator Paul Epworth. If this isn’t the first Bond song to hit number one on the charts, I’d be shocked. Like I said, it’s just that good. There have been lots of Bond songs that have been awesome (I don’t care what you say, I dug the Jack White/Alicia Keys one) but I think this might be up there now. Thoughts, comments? You know where to leave them.
Updates: Paranormal Activity 4 & Confirmation of PA5
Paranormal Activity is rapidly becoming a franchise dangerously close to overstaying its welcome. Even though the first one and second had their fair share of haters, I thought they had told a pretty solidly creepy story. The third, not so much. As I said in my last update, if they wanted us to accept this an anthology type series, they’d have started with 2. My guess is the “creepy” kid from the trailers is the child Katie took at the end of PA2, who now may or may not be a demon. I guess it’s a good half measure between a full on continuation and a wholly new story. The good folks over at Bloody-Disgusting have an informative update from the directors, who give the briefest of glimpses into what the actual plot for the film is, as well as whether a particular character will return or not.
via Bloody-Disgusting:
Catfish duo Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman talked Paranormal Activity 4 in the newest issue of EW where they confirm that the sequel, in theaters October 19, will be a modern-day take. They also reveal that they’re working on expanding the mythology into a fifth film (obviously).
“I can tell you this – we’re definitely expanding on the mythology and the history of this demon,” Schulman says of PA4. “We’re really trying to get to the bottom of it!”
Were told that the sequel will explore the family of witches (who live next door to a newly introduced family) in this fourth film from creator/producer Oren Peli. While inside insiders tell us Katie Featherston won’t return, the filmmaking duo refuse to clarify. I guess we’ll find out in just under two months!
Along with those details are a few photos that have been released on Facebook and Instagram for PA4, which show some shadows and the main girl character levitating. The thing that makes me suspicious about all of this promotion is how the last movie was promoted. So many interesting ads and clips were released that implied almost an entirely different (read:scarier) movie. These promotional photos sure look captivating, but who’s to say they’ll even be indicative of the final product? I wouldn’t be surprised if this blond girl character turned out to not even be the main character at this point.
Those photos are nice and all, but boy am I skeptical about this one. The one positive, definite change I can see is its set in modern times, so we’ll avoid any weird anachronisms like the last one. If I sound overly negative, it’s because I’m the most critical of things I love the most, and boy did I love PA 1 & 2. I’m really hoping to be surprised by this film, but like all things I prepare for the worst.
Review: “WWE: Main Event” Did not Disappoint…
A lot of WWE fans have been wary of the attempt on a third show to complement the 1-2 punch of Raw/Smackdown. Previous attempts like NXT, Superstars, and even nu-ECW have led to them mostly being relegated to an online audience, rather than being canceled right out. When they announced a new show called Main Event was going to debut, a lot of fans were a bit apprehensive about its real potential, necessity, or for that matter longevity. Frankly, most expect it to end up with that same online only fate as all the other shows. Now while I’m not hedging my bets on this show having the staying power of Smackdown, I do think it’s here for a while, for a few main reasons.
The first is that it was promoted and executed in much the same way Smackdown was. That is to say, almost like a little mini-PPV. I remember when Smackdown debuted on the UPN network 12 years ago, and it felt like we were getting a free 2 hour PPV with how important and different it was from Raw at the time. Main Event gave me that same feeling, by the promotion of the big fight in it between CM Punk and Sheamus. The whole thing has a good hook, being a champion vs champion match and all, and with CM Punk and Sheamus’ in ring skill, it was hard to accurately call who’d win. As much as I hate Sheamus, I can’t deny he’s a great wrestler who should just never say anything ever.
The second main reason, is that it has a pretty self-sustaining, built-in purpose. At first I thought that “Main Event” was just a place holding, whatever-lets-just-name-it title, but the show does seem to be literally a Main Event worthy spectacle. With how crappy the main events from Raw are these days, a whole show dedicated to making sure there’s one solid, well done match in its runtime is refreshing. At an hour-long, it’s also a refreshing change of pace from the long 3 hours of Raw, and the sometimes just right, sometimes too long length of Smackdown. The actual show itself opened up with both Michael Cole and The Miz announcing themselves as commentators for the show, and introducing the show itself, which is fine and dandy for the debut episode. They followed it up with some actually pretty decent video packages for both CM Punk & Sheamus. Punk’s in particular was AMAZING, and told a good story in 3 minutes.
The actual match between Punk and Sheamus was a good 20 minutes long, and did a good job of making Sheamus look strong, while making Punk appear to be more of a Heel, without actually sacrificing any of his internal logic of character framework. Whoever is responsible for the direction that CM Punk’s character is going, is a genius and I have a strong feeling it’s Punk himself. The show ended with a brief tag team match between Santino & Zack Ryder, and Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd. Making that match the connection between it and Raw was smart as well, since this whole Tag Team Tournament is probably the best thing that’s happened to the Tag Team Division since I’ve been watching WWE.
I’m loving this whole tournament concept.
The strength of this show is that it doesn’t NEED to follow on the heels of any of the Raw/Smackdown story lines, they can just announce a Main Event (see? That’s brilliant), and then just go with it. Next week’s show is between Big Show and Randy Orton for the #1 contender spot for the World Heavyweight Championship. Something like that immediately gives us great purpose for the show, as it could have great longevity as the Go-To show for settling feuds, contender spots, angled matches, special gimmick matches, and the list goes on. If they just cut out the promos and give us two 20 minute matches, I could see it doing the WWE a lot of good. Fans who have an issue with the WWE not having enough actual wrestling could tune into this, and enjoy seeing 2 solid and fairly long matches a week. Currently it seems like its gonna be one big longer match and another shorter one, but it could change.
Again, the most surprising thing by far was the quality of the video packages. Each was actually captivating and informative, rather than an unnecessary recap of previous events. It sets it apart from Raw & Smackdown pretty definitively. I’m looking forward to the show’s future, and hope it lasts. Hopefully the average fan will get past the fact that there’s “just one or two matches”, and dig it for what it is. It’s not a perfect show yet, but I could see it getting there. All in all, it was a well done hour-long show, that I’ll definitely be looking forward to in the future.
4/5 Grizzly’s
First Trailer – “A Good Day to Die Hard”
Today marked the release of the first trailer for the upcoming 5th installment of the Die Hard franchise. Set for release on Valentine’s Day 2013, this will be a better present than any box of chocolates. What we know is that McClane heads to Russia to bail his son out of trouble, this will be met with explosions and one-liners. Not sold yet? Check out the trailer, when ‘Ode to Joy’ starts playing you’ll remember why you should be excited for this movie…
Countdown To Halloween #28: The Monster Squad
Monsters are one of the most popular mainstays in all of fiction. Nearly every child has a universal connection with monsters in one way or another. From childhood it can manifest as a fear, typically of the quintessential “monster in the closet”, or simply just a fascination with them after conquering your fear of them. I think in a way, children can relate to monsters. When you’re young, by the virtue of being younger and less knowledgable, you tend to feel like an outsider. In much the same way that only children can relate to other children at that age, monsters only really get along with other monsters, and there’s a mixture of empathy there that children feel for monsters. For example, who didn’t feel remorse after seeing King Kong die? Not all monsters are as relatable as others, but we know that our fear of them only stems from our misunderstanding of them, and ourselves. So what am I getting at?
Continue reading Countdown To Halloween #28: The Monster Squad
Grizzly Bomb 