A Winner Is…Me!
A little slice of real life now, to make a change from my usual ramblings.
I like free stuff. I’m part of online market research panels for money, I collect loyalty points when I shop and I enter competitions like a mad man. Free stuff, to me, is the most awesome concept in the history of FOREVER. But, I don’t usually gain advantage from it, sure I’ve got £20 in three months from market research and I get money off shopping ever quarter, but I want to score big man. I want my Wonka Golden Ticket or something.
Well, it isn’t golden, but this morning Odeon cinema did send me through Blue Tickets. Every week I enter in the local papers competition for a free pair of cinema tickets, and now they are mine.
I can go see any one film with a guest before the end of April. There is some choice, so I’m not quite sure what I want to see.
XD My dad does surveys and occasionally gets free things but movie tickets rock. Good job. I dunno what movies are showing where you are, but make sure its a good one, cuz it would suck to use free tickets on a terrible movie.
Well, I needed things to fill my day as I was recuperating after putting my back out a few months ago, so I joined two commercial research and one government research panel, they mainly pay money or tradeable ‘points’.
I love market research, I always volunteer when they offer it in town. The other day I was tasting fruit and muesli, no idea what brands they were using, but some of it was divine. I got free chocolate for that!
Not sure about the movie, I was tempted to see Juno or National Treasure: BoS, but they close tomorrow. Jumper is still out and Be Kind Rewind starts next week. I’m tempted to leave it until mid-month and see what creeps in. I’ve got until end of April to use them.
Be KInd Rewind would be my vote, since Jumper’s story falls flat half-way through. Too bad about National Treasure. It was fun. Haven’t seen Juno, but it must be something to get so much praise.
As for chocolate, I’m considering laying off it for awhile now. XD Once my dad got this really fruity smelling shampoo. My hair smelled like strawberries, it was quite lovely.
I got strawberry smelling shampoo a couple of years ago as a Christmas present, in an Incredible Hulk container. I smelt like bubblegum, either that or a little schoolkid who bought Hulk shampoo. I liked it, I wanted it as body wash though.
Strawberry and Coconut, like with sun lotions, are great smells for people to have, but not together. Coconutty Strawberry is not an appealing smell.
I wonder what strawberry shampoo and Lynx chocolate deodorant smell like together?
Like a delicious taste sensation. ^^ Never had Lynx, so I had to substitute for another brand of chocolate. I personally like strawberry coconut, but w/ more strawberry and only a little coconut. Coconut can have the tendency to get wayyyy too overpowering.
^^ Lynx is a deodorant brand, not chocolate brand. They released a ‘generic’ chocolate scented deodorant before Christmas. It’s actually really chocolatey smelling, when I sprayed some on my arm it didn’t seem to smell like much but after a minute later I started wondering who had chocolate and realised it was me.
Yeah, coconut just makes me think beach and bikinis. Both are very good. I like smells on people, especially fruity smells. I’m not a fan of perfumes, colognes or manufactered scents, but something fruity is great. I also like smells from ‘after swimming’, ‘after rain’, and ‘after non-soap shower’ – which are all completely separate smells. Mmm. ~.~;
Ah, how does my foot taste? XD I guess I should at least google something before I assume a product is what I think it is. XD XD
My sister has a perfume that smells EXACTLY like sugar cookies. I would totally drink it, except then I’d be calling poison control. Again. XD
Heh, no harm done, I could have been clearer. Can’t always assume brands here are present over there. The advert for the deodorant is so damn freaky, I really hate it.
WTF???? XD XD XD
Chocolate scented deodorant??? You’re shittin’ me. Seriously? You Brits and your weird…..stuff. And yeah, what in the hell IS going on with that commercial? Oh, and just wondered something else. When I was in the UK, we used to buy a lot of a generic brand of products called No Frills. Do you guys know what I’m talking about? We don’t have it over here and I had never heard of it before I lived there for a while. It comes in a white package with plain black type, and that’s it. No decorations or color or anything on the packaging. Just looks like military rations. They make everything, from cookies to detergent to pretty much anything you can think of. I remember it being pretty hit and miss though. No Frills cookies were great–sausages, not so much.
Congrats on winning the tickets! As for the movie, I’ve been dying to see Juno and can’t imagine you could go wrong there. I saw National Treasure: BoS and didn’t think it was near as good as the first one. Sorry, but I have absolutely no desire to see Jumper at all. Just looks terrible. Hope you pick a good one though. On the topic of movies, I’m actually surprised that you guys are getting all of those there at the same time we are. From what I remember when I was living over there, you got them like 2 or 3 months after we did–same with most TV shows. I remember, cause I was over there when The Phantom Menace came out here, and couldn’t see it cause we didn’t have it yet. When I came back, everyone else had seen it already and I had to tell everyone to not talk about it cause I didn’t want anything spoiled for me. Turns out no amount of pre-movie spoilers could come close to the damage Jar-Jar did.
The advert freaks me out a bit, more because of those damn eyes. Those are some disturbing eyeballs.
I know the exact brand you mean, “No Frills” was one of the budget own brands from the Kwik-Save supermarket chain, when they merged with Somerfield it became “Simply”. Most supermarkets here do those kinds of things, just generic simple items that cost very little but you get what you pay for – if you pay piss all, that’s the flavour you get.
As for movies, we’re about a month behind usually, that’s why Cloverfield was such a nightmare of having to keep my eyes closed in forums and threads. It’s much better than it used to be, I remember when Jurassic Park came out four months after the US and everything was basically known from the amount of documentaries that had been made in the interim.
TV shows are a bit hit and miss, in that in some cases we have to wait several months and others get released within the month. We had to wait a month for Sarah Connor Chronicles. We get live PPV wrestling, but shows like WWE (Monday Night) Raw are shown on the Friday. Conan, Leno and Colbert are usually a day or two behind.
Ok that commercial is just freaky AND wrong. I don’t know how I’d feel about smelling like chocolate, I’d give it a shot though. Do you watch Raw? I didn’t figure you for a fan of wrestling, good to know though. Did you use your movie tix yet and if so what did you decide on?
Dan, actually the smell is quite good, but I’m not sure it’s one I’d use as a daily deodorant, more like something special. I guess it depends if you are using it to try to ‘pull’ a girl and what kind.
I grew up with two older brothers who were really in to wrestling, and I went through my huge wrestling fan stage at school. I still watch WWE and TNA occassionally, though WWE is getting a bit tired these days. I miss some of the good 80s gimmicks!
I’m actually using the tickets today to see Be Kind Rewind, mainly because there is bugger all else on or even coming soon.
Be Kind Rewind was good. Its not uproarishly funny the whole way through but the characters are fun, the “solutions” for movie effects are hilarious, and its got a lotta heart. A bit bittersweet, but a fun movie altogether. I’d say it was worth the $9 for the ticket, but i didn’t pay for my ticket so the movie was doubly satisfying.
I actually just got back from seeing it, I liked it a lot, but I got the feeling that there was too many seperate stories tied together. It was fun though and I loved the movies they made.
I got that feeling too. I just watched the Animal Crossing anime movie, and it was the same thing; many little vingnettes tied together. Still, they were both a fun ride.
Another of my favorite movies you can catch online is “My Sassy Girl”, which is sadly been remade for American audiences. -_- You cannot begin to imagine my suffering. I’m prolly still going to see it. Iron Man’s high on my list, since they got a great cast and there’s no way you can screw up an Iron Man movie; he doesn’t exactly have an a-list of villians. XD
I know absolutely nothing about Animal Crossing, except that I used to hear a girls DS beeping on a train to work each morning after she loaded it up.
Iron Man looks good, but Downey’s voice hasn’t gelled well with me from the trailers. It’s a small niggle that’ll work itself out when I’m watching the movie. I’m glad they used Iron Monger and not Mandarin as the big bad though.
Allow me to repost something I heard about the casting for Downey:
“I think he’s perfect for the role. Tony Stark is an irresponsible drunk. Robert Downey Jr. is not only an irresponsible drunk, but also a drug addict convicted of multiple possession and abuse offenses. They could seriously just get him drunk, video tape him and call him “Tony Stark” or Iron man, and he’d be well on his way to winning yet another academy award nomination.”
Couldn’t have said it better meself. XD
Animal Crossing is a life sim game where you move to a town full of animals and get your own house. You pay a mortgage, make friends, do chores, catch fish and bugs, dig up fossils, donate things to a museum, and generally make a little life for yourself in your own town. Not as customizable as MySims on the Wii, but very addicting nonetheless. I’ve been playing my copy of AC on the DS for 2 years straight. ^^;; If you get/have a DS, its a fun time waster.
Oh, I definately agree with that about Downey, he is the perfect candidate for it. Just the edge on the voice was a little off to me, and, now I think about it…I don’t think he looks so great with the goatee.
See, I’d probably get completely tied up in AC, I can just see it…though, mortgage, ack!
XD Agreement. I’m more of a Fantastic Four fan, so really, nothing can get much worse than their expeditions into the silver screen. The goatee is meh.
Animal Crossing. Its sweet, sweet digital crack cocaine.
I could never take FF seriously, ever, it was always a comedy comic to me. That said, what they did to Doctor Doom is almost as unforgivable as what Batman and Robin did to Bane. I’ve yet to watch FF2, I fear it. I loved in the trailer where Stark is being driven through the desert and tells the army guy “No gang signs. Just kidding, throw them up” and hard drinking in battle conditions.
So many things are digital crack, I just long for social digital crack that features eye candy and good entertainment. Hell, anime-styled Second Life with zero restrictions on ‘content’, no basic cost, in-game economy and invite only zones, I’d be there.
Don’t even get me started on what Joel Schumacher did to Bane. The best Batman villain ever and they made him a mindless moron! WTF? I am curious about Iron Man though, I can see Downey as Stark mostly because of the alcohol thing. I’m also curious to see how Ryan Reynolds handles Deadpool in the Wolverine movie. I hope he doesn’t screw it up because I really like him as an anti-hero.
Schumacher was to Batman what Boll is to video game adaptations.
Is it true that he’s ceasing the rape of my childhood? I hear he’s moving onto the smaller projects now (prolly cuz the government got wise to his shitty movies). Don’t start me on Alone in the Dark. Good god.
On the other hand, the most accurate movie to game conversion is a little known Capcom game called Sweet Home. Classic Japanese horror at its best. And, of course, really bad effects. ^^
So your saying that the “Super Mario Brothers” movie wasn’t an accurate game to film conversion? And Boll is another one, why oh why do they let this man continue to make movies? I read an article about a year ago stating that he intentionally makes flops because there is some obscure German law that allows him to recoup what he invests in a movie if it fails to perform. So he gets paid by the studio for whatever reason they decide to use him still and he recovers whatever it is he invests as well.
Dan: I actually liked SMB, only because the talent made it bearable, and I actually liked most of it, outside of the ridiculous plot oversights. XD;;;; I’m a sucker for cheesy, unrelentingly stupid reimaginings. Boll’s movies are different, cuz he’s intentionally doing a bad job, whereas SMB was an honest try to make a horrible buck.
In the realm of accurate, recent movies, Silent Hill was pretty damned good. Stand alone, I liked it, as a reimagining, it was pretty cool. I was ok w/ Resident Evil, but the sequels really made me hate the (movie) franchise. Mortal Kombat was decent, the sequel was terrible. Street Fighter….um….yeah. Doom cracked me up, but by no means was it decent. The Dungeon Seige movie was ok, only because the game was in the subtitle….and really, no one kinda played it (I did, pretty unremarkable).
I WOULD KILL for a Legacy of Kain animated movie. KILL. Just to tie up the story. Please, Amy Henning? Pretty please???
I realize my opinion of my video game-movie conversions may offend some, but I sure as hell ain’t backing down. Who do I look like, an online video game reviewer? XD;;; Yeah. Good thing I’m on Guise’s website; I can count on him to deflect hate.
GUISE! TANK FOR ME!
SMB would have been a great film without tying it to the SMB name. In my mind, SMB should have always been animated, but to a better quality than the cartoons. That said, I did like the background, characters and story, and I do watch it sometimes when it shows on TV. It’s the good kind of bad.
I loved Silent Hill and the original Resident Evil movie, I couldn’t really have expected more from them to be honest. RE2 had some good moments that I really enjoyed, but I think I could have done without Alice for that one. RE3 is just that step too far away from the series.
Mortal Kombat, I would have preferred as looking like a taping of Wrestlemania with a backstory. Streetfighter was better as Anime and Manga books.
I’m still waiting for Monty on the Run: The Movie.
As for Uwe Boll and the German tax law, how it stands is that anyone who puts money in to a German film gets to write off the investment as a tax deduction and if it’s borrowed money, they can write off any fees associated with the loan. They only pay tax on profit, getting a writeoff for losses. There is minimal risk involved, so they can churn out movies without worrying if the audience will actually go and see it. I’m an advocate for government supporting filmmakers, but that is ridiculous.
Dio, I’m your human shield. Don’t worry, I’m bound to say something offensive to someone soon enough, that’ll deflect attention!
I heard Boll’s going to smaller things lately. I would become a devout anything to hear that. I hate him so much. Him and Bay. The only good Bay movie was Bad Boys 2.
I never was a fan of Alice. Seems like a self-insertion character. The Mary Sue. I like Milla Jovovich, but Alice SUCKED.
Silent Hill is my favor horror movie next to Spirits and Shutter. Unfortunately, Shutter has been also remade. WTF. And My Sassy Girl. GAH.
Alice kind of made sense in the first film, where you really needed someone to assosciate with and who you could see growing more resilient against opposing forces. Pretty much a Ripley or Sarah Connor character. After they made her uber-Alice though, I started to lose interest quickly. Jovovich does scared puppy eyes well in the first film though.
Alice was really bland. I dunno. If it weren’t a RE movie I could gel it. But…eh.
Sweet Home. Fuck yes. I’m hoping the Fatal Frame movie will turn out decent, but I know it won’t. If Shutter succeeds, then there’s a small chance of it not completely sucking. I’m a little leery of Silent Hill 2; the game was such a tour de force that there’s no way they can have that complexity if they follow the first movie. Chris wasn’t anywhere as complex and deep as James Sunderland.
I’m not too keen on SH2, just because SH was about as much as I could hope for and I fear they will try to ‘push the envelope’ with it.
I guess I’m in the minority here, I liked the RE movies. Not because they have anything to do with the game but because they’re zombie flicks. As for Silent Hill, LOVED IT, I’ve never played any of the games but I didn’t feel that I needed to have seen them to enjoy the movie. I mean I knew the basic premise but that’s about it.
As for the Japanese horror remakes, honestly they haven’t done much for me so far. I watched both the remakes of The RIng and The Grudge and they left me feeling kind of blase, I haven’t watched the originals but given how I feel about the remakes I just don’t feel inclined to see the originals.
Dan, I loved the zombie elements of the RE films, and I really enjoyed RE1. I also liked a fair amount of RE2: Zombie children, near-nekkid Zombie prostitutes. My main problem was that as a character, Alice in RE2 was too overpowered and two-dimensional to make me think they were in too much danger, whereas in RE1 she was growing more independent. RE3 was a good idea, in theory, but in practice having a Zombie apocalypse is usually a death knoll for a saga.
SH allows you to basically get a feel for the video game series that even a non-gamer can enjoy, which I think is why it’s had general appeal. I would have liked to have seen some anime done for it, small mini-seasons of individual personal hells.
I’d definately suggest trying to catch the originals, if only for comparrison.
I can see your point and I agree, the whole “Super Alice” thing was a little much and she’s not exactly the most “fleshed out” character of the series but they make money and the fan boys like to look at her in next to nothing so they’ll contiue to make the movies.
I can definitley see SH as an anime and would definitely be worth watching. And the mini-season idea would make it even better, that would open up a lot more story ideas and give you new characters to identify with.
One of these days I’ll get around to watching the orignals, it’s just the remakes left such a bad taste in my mouth that I’m in no rush to see the same story again any time soon.
As a zombie flick, I concede that RE was pretty fucking awesome. XD Kicking a zombie dog int he head was pure genius, and brother, did I cringe when that first zombie was walkign around on that broken ankle. O_O The death rays, however, were a little cooler in RE4. ^^;;; But then, I’m hot for Leon.
Actually the problem of a SH anime is the fact that its meant to be American. And personally, I’ve seen other takes on them, and frankly the art made me want to stab my eyes out with a rusty spoon. O_O If Studio Madhouse did it, I would give it a try, but only if its in English w/ Japanese subtitles, like the games (where the acctors mo-cap their own characters). (Madhouse did the Devil May Cry anime, and they have a good handle of the horror aspects of DMC, only they really need to make it dirty and gritty)
I cannot tell you the amazing twists in SH2 and 3, so anything else (like SH4 ^^::) really never stood up. I love Harry, and Rose was a wonderful alternate take on the story, and yet, there is something much more painful and honest about a father, a normal, unarmed, civillian (Harry was a writer) facing HELL to find his little girl, who btw, wasn’t even his biological child. I love the movie, but I kinda wished to see the father’s perspective of looking for a child; its not an angle you see very often. Esp. in horror, where its usually a woman/mother. I have nothing against a mother/child angle, its just that Harry’s story would be that much more palpable.
I cannot recommend the Thai version of Shutter more before it comes out here. W/o special effects like American movies, the make up and camera angles make that movie so much more real to me. And I doubt the remake’ll do a better car scene. The Korean movie Phone is also a deliciously scary movie, with one of the scariest little girls in the Asian horror business (the other being the little girl from Spirits/Oan Hon, which is a hard to find Vietnamese horror movie).
Am I the only one who’s positively giddy like a school girl over SH5? Alex…..*droolllll Yet another reason to get a 360 (that and RE5….good god, Chris. XD). And OMGOMGOMG Fatal Frame 4!!! On the Wii!!! Its a good year to be a survival horror fan.
The thing is, I can quite see an anime studio being true to the intention and background of a series more than I can see a German or American film. But, yes, it would have to be made in English language first.
Hmm…Dio+giddy+schoolgirl+gaming+survival horror=…mmmmmm
Sorry, what were you saying? ^^;;;
I agree. Neither German nor American directors/producers/whathaveyou have really demonstrated any respect for established series (well, precious few). But if at the very least they use Akira Yamaoka’s music, then I guess they can do what they please. Its not SH w/o his music, or indeed Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. I love her voice.
Er…well, Madhouse did kinda screw up the Count of Monte Cristo, so even anime studios can disregard source material….^^;; The animation was neat, tho.
You’re not a survival horror gamer, are you, Guise? ^^ Its fun! Besides established series like NiGHTS and Legacy of Kain, I love a good horror game. My current fav is Eternal Darkness; any game that fucks with the gamer is grade A fun to me!
I love survival horror games, but I suck at actually playing any game ever invented, so I prefer to watch others and enjoy the stories (unless I cheat as my only means of survival. T.T;;). There are actually very few games I’ve ever seen through to the end on my own – Resident Evil, I don’t think I even got an eight of the way through.
I’m also a wuss at gaming, Jurassic Park on the SNES used to scare me, even though I could map where everything spawned.
The best thing about Survival Horror games is that they are so engrossing stories, you can read a walkthrough and picture the scary shit in your head.
If I had any of the recent systems, survival horrors would be on my list of must-haves. If I’m going to suck at a game, I’d much rather suck and be able to blame ‘atmosphere’. ^^
I used to suck, but the Sonic/Mario gamer in me helps me let my fingers do the talking instead of over thinking the controls. The only series I have problems with is RE, specifically the old ones, cuz I’m better w/ the 2D control scheme rather than 3D (2D=up is relative to your screen, 3D=up is relative to your contrller and is always constant, unless I have reversed that explaination).
I can direct you to a few. Which systems do you have?
I have…a PC. That’s sadly it at the moment. A next gen console is on my “when I’m back in work” list of purchases.
I know what you mean about the controls, primarily from a series of very good articles on camera direction and controls from here. That’s the thing, just reading those controls scare me.