FAMILY GUY

FUTURAMA pushed teh envelope when it came to adult animated humour, where it explored more 'mature' themes than its predecessor, THE SIMPSONS. then there was SOUTH PARK, which, while clearly attracting an 'adult' level of language in it, was more slapstick comedy with the occasional awesome episode. but now, we have FAMILY GUY.

the show is about the griffin's, a pretty average middle-class family. but look a little closer and you'll see the talking dog brian, the evil anti-christ genious baby stu, the slow and humble chris, and the teenage drama queen meg. and that's just the kids. peter and lois griffin, those responsible for such a unique family lend their irreverent style of parenting into the formula that make this show bloody hilarious.

since chow lent me his season 3 dvd a couple of days ago, i have barely stopped watching it. three discs, 21 episodes. i don't think i've laughed so hard in a while at an animated series though i hear that season's one and two are even better.

here's a bit of a taste of what this series is like:

LOIS
that's the first violent thing stu's ever done.

STU
that's not true, what about the ticking time-bomb i left in your uterus when you poppoed me out - happy 50th birthday lois...

or...

LOIS
i'm like one of those bald eagles, i'm beatiful to look at, but mess with one of my chicks and i'll use my razor sharp talons to rip your fucking eyes out!

of course, the "fucking" is bleeped out with the "ding" of the microwave.

get this series, you'll piss yourself.

-LOki

AINT THAT A KICK IN THE HEAD

Westlife in 2004 (L-R): shane, nicky, mark, brian, kian.

well, MARK FEEHILY of irish boyband westlife has publically told everyone he's gay. the band and his family had always known, but mark said "it was the right" time to just let the public know.

so what does that mean? not much, really.

i don't know if you guys know, but i'm a westlife fan - there i said it. those of you who know me well know the story behind it, but for those of you who don't, here's a bit of insight.

when i went to japan back in year 10 there wasn't much english music floating around. despite all the poorly written english plastered on billbaoards and vending machines, there was very little by way of music. so after 25 days and on my way home from the airport my sister put the radio on and on came a westlife song. it was a comforting feeling to hear something in english, and what was more significant was that the voice on the radio could actually sing.

being in australia, we don't get much of anything from the UK when it comes to entertainment or whatever, and apart from the very rare occaision that a song was played on the radio, there wasn't much westlife in australia. then in 2001 they made the radar here and their music video for "when you're looking like that" was on rage. basically, the clip was jsut of the fives guys (now four, after the departure of brian mcfadden (you know, the guy who's going out with delta goodrem?)) going around the world doing something that they loved.

its easy to do that when you're selling 30million albums at a time, but i think all of us can at least do that one thing - and that is have the time of our lives with our closest friends, and looking back on life and confidently saying to yourself "damn, i had a pretty good crack at life".

and that was it. while majority of their songs are cheesy and ballardy, it was the feeling that they, as a group, gave me. something that back in year 12 i needed, something to work for. i don't expect many people to empathise with me, but i think everyone has something that, even if they don't want to admit to it, makes them smile on the inside. if it's not music, it might be a movie. if not a movie, maybe a video game. who knows, but all i know is that you should hold onto what makes you happy.

-LOki

WEDDING CRASHERS

3.8/5
stars vince vaughn, owen wislon, rachel mcadams, christopher walken

it pains me to admit that i'm not a stranger to the romantic comedy genre. the good ones make me feel good, and the bad ones make me want to invest in a time machine. but WEDDING CRASHERS certainly gave me that feel-good movie feeling.

brothers john (wilson) and jeremy (vaughn) are two guys who crash weddings to meet, greet and sleep with heaps of single women who are so "aroused by the thought of marriage that they're willing to throw their inhibitions to the wind". for the better part of 12 years, they've been pretending to be countless cousins, nephews, adopted grandkids etc... but then comes the cleary wedding - the kentucky derby of all weddings.

enter clare and gloria cleary (mcadams and fishcer, respectively), daughters of the secretary of treasury played superbly by christopher walken.

while jeremy has is hands full with gloria, john tries to win over the heart of clare who, conveniently, is going out with some other guy.

the film takes its time to get rolling, but once it does it soars. a lot of work must've gone into the script as every character had deliberate dialogue but executed perfectly by all cast members.

a special mention goes to aisla fischer who plays the immature but scaringly loving gloria; also to dr. quinn medicine woman for her role as the secretary wife - both proper and kinky.

the film explores what it means to be a true friend, and also what one should be looking for in that other someone. with the backdrop of numerous weddings, this movie is given plenty of opportunities to explore that. however, due to the hilarity of the film, many of the emotionally heavy scenes fall flat.

overall though, i've seen this movie twice and liked it both times; if you've got a space $10 and 2 hours, i highly recommend this movie. vince vaughn kicks ass.

-LOki

MONSTER IN LAW

3/5
jennifer lopez, michael vartan, jane fonda

up in northland where the air is thinner than chadstone, we decided to see this movie. i'm not a big fan of j-lo (!) but i figure what the hell? so i went in, sat down, and closed my eyes.

nah, the film is suprisingly funny and hits most of the laugh cues on the head. the story follows charlie (lopez), a single woman who has a change encounter with kevin (vartan) and through a series of montages, they get married. kevin's mother however (fonda), a washed-up television show host is not so happy that a "pregnant lesbian" is taking her son away.

the story is a little old; mother in law trying to get rid of the daughter in law, but the antics they use on each other elicit some laughs. a mention has to go to wanda sykes, who plays ruby - fonda's personal assisstant. i think her role is what really got the movie rolling and the laughs that it effortlessly evokes from the audience.

very superficial, very formulaic, very funny.

-LOki

HOUSE OF WAX

2.5/5
stars elisha cuthbert, chad michael murray, paris hilton

i wanted to see this movie for two reasons: elisha cuthbert and paris hilton. the former, because i like her, and the latter cos i wanted to see that since money couldn't by brains, maybe it could buy some acting skills.

the film is about a bunch of kids going to some random football game, but taking the ever-so-fobidden short cut through the dark woods until they eventually stop in the middle of nowhere and start a 20-minute sequence of drinking, playing football (in teh dark!) and no-so-subtle sexual inuendos. one character has a video camera and goes around filming everyone, making paris hilton feel right at home.

cuthbert and murray play twin brother and sister, cuthbert being the good one and murray being the badass one. with their little group of friends, they go to a town that looks like its abandoned (gasp - it is!) and that's where people start getting killed. people die pretty easily, although the token black guy didn't die first but dies pretty pathetically.

cut to the rest of the film where there's plenty of running away from a couple of bad guys. paris hilton puts up a bit of a fight though, which is kinda cool, but not cool enough to avoid being speared in the head.

the film is long and boring, apart from the last ten minutes when the house of wax is completely destroyed - at last!

-LOki

"MAYOI NAGARA DEMO II, ARUKI DASHITE" - NARUTO

depending on which subtitler you're relying on, it roughly translates into "IT'S OK TO GET LOST ON THE WAY, BUT YOU GOTTA START WALKING SOMETIME". just recently i've been sucked into watching NARUTO, a relatively new anime series that takes forever to get somewhere, but tells a great story. thanks to dom (wake up!) and jase for bringing this anime to my attention.

but this post isn't about NARUTO.

i was at uni today and saw a flyer from the CBF (christian bible -something) and it said "feel confused? life out of control?", and as i walked past to get to my civil procedure lecture, i was tempted to take out my sharpie permanent marker and write "yeah? well quit bitching and get over it!" as if a 30 minute meeting between classes is going to fundamentally change one's outlook.

over the past week, while i've been seeing a few movies, i've been thinking a lot as well. whenever people ask me things like "how's things?" or "what's up?" i find myself answering quite optimistically. even if there are things bothering me at the time, i know they're only transient and i can usually get over them. but there are somethings that really do shit me up the wall, but sometimes i just accept it and try to live with it.

and from then on, i started to feel a little better. while my life isn't perfect - far from it actually - i'm seeing more of the good parts than the bad. and that's enough to get me through. i've been seeing the guys a little more often now; it had been a while since i have.

things with the comic have been going great; with jase relentlessly working on thumbnails, the roughs for the first issue will be done by the coming weekend. while there have been a few ups and downs, ulitmately we're all still working towards the same goal. i found that my experience in chalkboard has let me see look at things from different perspectives, and that sometimes what's right isn't always a matter of pride.

study-wise, i think i'm finally back in univeristy mode, which means i need to catch up on all the stuff i missed when i wasn't! i think i'll be fine, despite having hundreds of unread pages waiting for me. but i think i can manage, even with the lack of sleep i've been getting lately. meh, we're only young once - better use this body as much as i can before i start not being able to altogether.

"what the hell has this got to do with the title of this post?" i hear you ask? well, here it is...

there are some things that are certain, and others that aren't. if there's something you're after, you're never going to get it unless you start something. and now, if things seem a little grim, "it's ok to get lost on the way" - but you gotta start walking sometime. yeah yeah, i'm a philosophiser now, but i've been thinking about that line in the opening sequence of NARUTO ever since i heard it. it makes so much sense.

"start something."... thanks omer.

-LOki

(for the full image, check out sugoiweb.com)

THE ISLAND

3.5/5
stars ewan mcgregor, scarlett johansen, steve buscemi, sean bean

ok. i had initially decided to give this film a 3/5 for the reasons i've outlined in my previous post "CRITIQUING THE CRITIC", but after a second viewing (and earbashing from the guys i went to see it with), i gave it that extra .5.

the film is about a society of clones that hav ebeen brought up thinking that they are the only survivors of a worldwide contamination, and that "the island" is the only place left on earth that is pathegon free. the clones stay at the institute and eagerly await their chance to visit the island, the last paradise on earth. but, like all michael bay film, this is not what it seems.

in fact, these guys have all been commissioned to be made by 'real' people, people living in the outswide world, as insuarance policies should any of their own organs or whatever stuff up.

lincoln echo six (i want that name! (ewan mcgregor)) is the first of the clones to question his purpose in life, and this leads him to do a bti of digging until he reveals that there is in fact no island of paradise at all, and that all the clone who had been sent there were harvested for tier organs. in one heartbearking scene, a clone gives birth to a baby girl, and once the baby is taken away, the clone is discarded like yesterday's newspaper. it's fucken horrible.

so anyway, his life-long friend (well, three years since these clones are made straight into adulthood) jordan delta two (johanssen) wins her way to the island and can't wait to go. and this is where the story really kicks off, as lincoln and jordan make their escape into the real world.

the film looks stunning, which is not suprising considering michael bay's (the director "armageddon", "the rock", "pearl harbor") reputation for blowing shit up and making it look fantastic. acting-wise, the cast does an amazin job, especially steve buscemi as one of the very few characters who isn't a clone himself, but treats them as human. we need more poeple like him around. up until i saw this film, i couldn't stand scarlett johanssen - but now i love her.

i guess what really tipped the .5 scales is the underlying theme - that the new american dream is to live forever, and that some people are rich enough to do anything to get that. it questions the very notion of what it is to be human - is it just flesh and bone that make a human, or is it something more? memories, life experiences, compassion, and feelings are what make the concept of human come to life.

in this film ironically, the 'clones' have been embued with more emotion and feeling than the 'real' humans.. and the human are protrayed as absolute pricks. it's like a bell curve on one of those shitty graphs we used to do in maths; you can only go so high in scientific progress until you reach a point where all the work done after that starts crumbling the human conscience.

alright, this is film review and not a discussion on the concept of what it is to be human. BUT, this film is sure to bring these kinds of questions up in your mind.. and for a blockbuster film to do that is quite rare.

i never heard of the composer for this film before (and i can't even remember thier name), but he does an awesome job, especially in the opening and closing sequences. SFX were done well also, relying on a lot more live-action stunts and explosions than CG... but like i said, if you're michael bay, you can afford it.

see this movie.. it only scores 3.5 for a couple of reasons: product placement, and length. at 134 mintues, the explosions get kinda boring.

-LOk

SIN CITY

2.5/5
clive owen, jaimie king, elijah wood, bruce willis, jessica alba

i didn't see why so many people loved this movie. stylistically it was very impressive, and the way the stories unfolded was quite interesting, but beyond that it was simply another "gangster bad neghborhood" movie.

the film follows three stories running parallel in SIN CITY. first off is that of haradigan (willis), a cop on his last job to save a little girl from being raped and torn to shred by the city's senator's son. secondly, it's marv (mickey rourke) who's on a vendetta againt whoever killed his beloved one-night stand, blondie (king). and finally, its clive owen (can't remember his name) teaming up with ex-flame gale (rosario dawson) against some crooked cops.

overall it was watchable, and i mentioned above the style of the film (noir-ish/comic book) was what made this movie ok to watch. it was a bit violent and it seemed either frank miller is a raging feminist, or he jsut likes seeing guys have thier balls cut off.

i actually saw this movie twice - i don't know why.

-LOki