This time Charlie looks how Politicians, the Media and the Voters interact. And how we all became like Richard Nixon. Excellent as usual. Enjoy!
This time Charlie looks how Politicians, the Media and the Voters interact. And how we all became like Richard Nixon. Excellent as usual. Enjoy!
Once again the Brits deliver some highly amusing moments. Enjoy!
This time Charlie Brooker attacks the media’s handling of Haiti and why Celebrities suck at raising awareness for important issues.
Very smart as usual!
Satire / History about 30 minutes
Educate yourself: Do you know who Harriet Tubman was? I didn’t!
Mark Steel once again delivers a brilliant and highly amusing historical lecture. Can we clone this guy and send at least one to every school?
Terry Gilliam is one of my Gods! I love his unique vision, creativity and humour. It is sad that there are not more story tellers like him around.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is a colourful, unique and special story. Highly recommended to anyone who can cope with a story that is NOT meant for 14-year old kids.
Argumental is a great BBC TV Show based on the good old British tradition of the debate club.
Once again Charlie Brooker dissects the News Business and shows us how all that crap is made (up).
All media education should be as brilliant and nasty like this.
BBC about 30 min.
Once again Mr Brooker pleases Misanthropes like me by dissecting the madness of daily life and the media frenzy we all live in.
Some excellent insights into the Newsbusiness and the so called "narrative" that is behind the Group Think of large Broadcasters.
Sherlock Holmes is one of my personal heroes: he uses his brain to beat the villains. He has always been the archetype of the smart, civilized and nevertheless determined hero.
Guy Ritchie is addicted to violence in his movies – everything needs to have a "bang" to make any sense … for him. And of course he has to turn this old fashioned Gentlemen into a boxing and shooting womanizer …
Jeremy Brett – a great and endearing actor!
Did he actually read ANY Sherlock Holmes novels? Did he never watch the great Granada TV series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with the great Jeremy Brett?
Too bad many young people will confuse the brawling Robert Downey version of Sherlock as a bit smarter than usual hero – instead of the real thing.
Another great Sherlock: Basil Rathbone.
By the way: Mr Downey do you really need to play any idiotic hero role thrown your way?
Guy Ritchie I hereby sentence you to another marriage to Madonna!
PS: The currently best running adaptation of the character and attitude of Sherlock Holmes is done by Hugh Laurie as Dr. House – and his friend Dr. Wilson is obviously Dr. Watson.
The Thick of it is one of my favourite shows – it’s deeply cynical and a great satire about political dealings. It based on the British Labour Government under Tony Blair – but it could be any modern Government.
It’s all about spin doctors, power grabbing and back stabbing, while trying to score points with the public and being politically correct …
It follows the British tradition of such great shows like Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister and The New Statesman.
Season 3 just finished and I can’t wait for another one. There is also a movie called In the Loop featuring almost the same cast of actors albeit playing a bit different characters.
Highly recommended for people who love politics and satire.
Most Christmas movies reek of sweetness and kindness – and are terrible morale fantasies. I despise such brain sugar.
Sure Trading Places is also fiction – but it is a moral fable with a nasty sting and big bowl of satire. It illustrates many nasty aspects of real life: poverty, injustice and arbitrariness …
But it conquers these obstacles with wit and brains – and not stupid trust in the kindness of people.
So this is the movie James Cameron always wanted to make? His childhood dream? Some dreams are better left untouched …
It perfectly fulfils the current desire of the masses to be nice to mother nature and go back to a simpler life (by watching high-tech-movies).
The movie plays with the old concept of the Noble Savage (please read the <- Wikipedia article, because it is excellent!). This theme has been used many times in famous stories like Moby Dick, Mowgli and Tarzan – and almost every time it has been bastardized by Hollywood.
Cameron spends 300 Million Dollars and 2,5 hours on this theme and completely disappoints. Like Roland Emmerich almost all his movies have the same core message. In Mister Emmerichs case it’s utter destruction of our planet (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and 2012) and in Mr Cameron’s case it’s always a huge military drama (Terminator I & II, Rambo II, Aliens, Abyss, Avatar).
The more money these directors get – the more crap they produce. I call it the George Lucas Syndrome – but many others have suffered from it as well (like Carpenter).
Why can’t these film makers get a good therapist and workout their problems, instead of recreating the same boring story lines over and over again?
UFO is a very cheesy British TV series from the 1970’s – it has everything a 12-year-old boy needs: explosions, great machinery, heroes and women in skimpy dresses.
Still 40 years later UFO is quite watchable for the targeted audience – and fat old bastards like me.
To my great horror there will be a "serious" remake (more here). Anyone remember the terrible Thunderbirds remake?
Since Galactica proved to be such a success and money maker we can expect many old series turned into zombies to make some more cold hard cash.
Why is Hollywood so afraid of new stories?
A great mash up with some of my greatest heroes. Where is our next Carl Sagan?
Thanks to S. Quinn for sharing this with me.
Everyone has his / her own Christmas movie they like to indulge to get that "happy family feeling".
Strangely Tim Burton’s "Nightmare before Christmas" touches that very nerve perfectly for me: it’s silly, it’s emotional and very funny.
And mixing Halloween and Christmas somehow expresses perfectly our modern approach to the whole affair for me …
But it’s not just the movie that’s so great – it’s soundtrack is brilliant too and feature many great songs from Maestro Danny Elfman:
Click player below to start the great Overture:
Click player below to start Jack singing "What’s this?":
So if you haven’t seen the movie yet – get it on your Christmas list.
Madame Billionaire Extraordinaire Oprah has announced her departure and the end of her show. Good riddance!
But she is hardly alone and the brainless noise of tears, celebrity arse sniffing and shameless product plugging will continue anyway.
Are women (or better say house wives) really that desperate that they watch any crap that "touches" their puny minds and strokes their egos by reassuring that their dumb lives are worth something – if they buy the right cream?
I am afraid we are a stupid species …
What an outstanding movie – one of the rare ones that actually captures the "fight & violence" aspect of being a male without being too pathetic or macho about it.
And it perfectly portrays madness as well.
I think Fight Club is the Office Slaves perfect dream of breaking out and finally releasing his anger of his own conformity and the stupidity of modern life.
But consuming Fight Club is one again mental masturbation: you only watch it, you are not doing it.
Facing violence and actually fighting someone else can’t be consumed. There is no substitute for pain, angst, triumph, excitement and fury.
A movie can go only so far – and Fight Club does a great job of pushing the male identity question down the throats of it’s audience …
Well done, Sir!
More? Fight Club @ Wikipedia
We need more bizarre and surreal short movies like this. Thanks to YouTube and Vimeo more and more talented movie makers find an audience and inspire each other.
Make sure to watch it in HD on YouTube – if your internet connection is up to it.
Nevermind the German dialogue – this is hardcore Kitsch. But like all pain it has to be shared to be truly effective …
Honestly, I often wonder how kids survive that mixture of high fructose sweets and this kind of TV?!
No surprise that kids are all mental and hysterical these days. How can you be a calm and centred person after watching this kind of stuff for years?
Watch the official trailer here.
I admire Tim Burton for his unique style and approach to stories and movie making. But I wonder why he is now constantly remaking classics like Alice in Wonderland and Willy Wonka?
I am sure a guy like him should have great story ideas himself or buy some from gifted writers? I think it’s a waste of time and talent to redo classics …
Official site: www.themenwhostareatgoatsmovie.com
The movie features a great cast of many of my favourite actors. It is based on the book with the same name.
The military is always eager to find the ultimate weapon, but I think this is the first movie that perfectly illustrate the madness behind it – combined with our current mad ideas of esoteric and spirituality.
From Monster to best friend and lover – the vampire has been transformed into the new human idols on our screens.
The times when vampires were “just” blood sucking monsters are over. Since “Interview with a Vampire” (or better say the Lestat-Books by Anne Rice) that image is history.
Now they are mostly our friends, more like much older sisters and brothers – incredibly sexy and wise. And now they even want to be our chummy friends!
The vampires bite was always a sexual act and a very horny symbol. Since we still can’t show two people making love on TV (killing each other is oke) we simply let them bite each other to show what can’t be shown.
Plus Vampires get away with many immoral act, because they have evolved into a super species. As ancient beings they have transcended social niceties and laws.
Overall it’s simply a wet dream for the powerless masses – hungry for sexual and power fantasies onscreen for their tiny minds. “If I only were a Vampire I could have such a horny life, kill the evil humans and get away with it …”
Cooking shows have always been a part of the TV diet. But in recent years cooking shows – crossed with the madness of reality tv and gaming shows – has become a whole need breed of televised craziness.
I think the whole madness started with Iron Chef:
It was TOTALLY over the top and removed from “normal” cooking. It pleased poor people as well as gastro snobs.
Programs like Top Chef and Hell’s kitchen are often rude and more like a soap than a cooking show. It’s no longer about food, but just competition and kicking someone’s arse.
It all Big Brother these days: people watching other people living and doing their job. Social porn at it’s worst and nevertheless very successful, because everybody can relate to it.
Where are all the TV shows were you could learn something or get inspired? Where are the TV shows that show the better side of humanity instead of nasty competitions and slimy fights? Don’t we have already enough of that?
But I guess such shows are a relief to many suppressed viewers, because they can “identify” with those onscreen bastards and act out their fantasies while wasting their lives in front of the telly …
Modern movie stars are so "all over the place". A bit more shyness and reservation would often add some charm to some stars instead of that constant slutty behaviour to market themselves …
Give us style and grace instead of "secret" porn videos.
I love this movie and I love Kronk! The Emperor’s New Groove is one of the best recent Disney movies. Enjoy and if you like clip buy the movie …
Another familiar screen face gone. I always like Malden, he was a unique actor.
Amen! Bye bye Karl …
I adore Mister Cohen for his talent to spot societies awkward taboos and hitting them hard. His Borat was already brilliant and I think Brüno will just as painful to watch.
I think Mr Ustinov is a genius and all around artist. His Nero is one of the most memorable performances ever. His face spiel within a small scene just lasting a few minutes is incredible!
Friday Fright Night! Time for another cheesy horror movie with some great actors: a very young Jack Nicholson and a very old Boris Karloff.
Enjoy!
Oh my how you have change over the years! I was never much into Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, but her certainly is a cultural icon. But I am wondering if Disney can fight the decline of his popularity. Today Donald seems lame and odd compared to the Simpsons, Pokemons and many creatures from video games.
Friday Fright Night – enjoy this cheesy classic horror flick. As usual Vincent Price makes this trashy movie quite amusing … enjoy!
BBC News: Kung Fu star Carradine found dead and Obituary
And another one of my childhood heroes departs this planet. David Carradine was amazing in "Kung Fu", which introduced many Westerners to the more serious and spiritual aspects of Martial Arts – in contrast to all those cheesy action movies before.
David Carradine was often wasted in many bad movies himself, but somehow he kept his dignity and aura of the Kung Fu Master.
Rest in peace O-Sensei!
There have been hundreds of blonde starlets aching for fame and glory. They all tried to allure us with their blonde hair, red lips, boobs and bedroom eyes. But only a few were as special as Miss Monroe.
Her personality made her special, that mixture of innocence, neediness and sex appeal.
I hereby officially quit being a Star Trek fan. No I have nothing against the new Star Trek movie – it’s as bad as most recent ones. I am just bored by the total lack of ideas and inspiration. Already with the dreadful series "Enterprise" the franchise had started cannibalizing itself by reinventing it’s past and trying to make it all fit somehow.
Now creating a new alternate storyline is certainly an easy way out – just take the original idea and mangle it for the "next generation" of viewers.
The different Star Trek series always had the stupid habit of copying old story plots and therefore repeating itself. But recycling story elements and old characters into an alternative universe to restart the series is too lame for me.
Gene Roddenberry tried a new approach to telling science fiction stories in the 60’s. Sure – some of his stuff was also terrible, but he broke many old taboos and created a great positive universe to literally inspire millions of people.
Exactly that lack of inspiration and new ground has so appalling – not just in Star Trek – but most TV series and movies.
All intelligent life forms seem to have forsaken the media business?
I know it’s a bit late and outdated, but still worth watching and highly entertaining – if you have a dark soul like me.
Thanks Mr Brooker!
Star Trek has been remastered and rereleased for eager Fans to consume. It is amazing to me how "real fans" will buy the same movie or TV series again and again, just because a tiny aspect has been changed.
Blade Runner – a great movie I adore – has been released in a gazillion forms. George Lucas has reedited his own saga way to many times. But each time the fans bought the "new" edition.
It is amazing how dumb "real fans" are, especially they know each episode by heart and recite the damn show without seeing it anyway.
Once again every shitty country in Europe sent it’s "best" songs to compete with each other in the Eurovision contest.
And like every year the songs were mostly terrible and the voting was as idiotic as ever. Slavs voted for Slavs, Nordic countries for fellow Nordic countries. The Turkish Diaspora produced a high rank for their nations terribly tittie twisting song – Turkey could put someone like Mr Methane on stage and still score a Top 5 position.
The winning Norwegian Song is mediocre at best and I am sure all of Europe’s 12 year Girls must have voted for that charming übergifted little shit.
I hated it and will so until I die.
Of course I will watch next years Eurovision. I love to hate the trashy competition. And I will once again hate the winner, since only bad songs win – not really good ones. But everyone expects that anyway …