Smitty's Delicatession of Love
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "gwattsbdw" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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01:09 am
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I miss you LJ
I miss you Live Journal ... will you take me back?
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11:54 pm
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LJ is dead to me.
Sara Bareilles is awesome.
Also, I never write in this anymore. If you want to keep up with my crazy antics, go read my myspace blog thing.
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06:43 pm
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Floridians rejoice... I'm leaving you ...
Wooooooo !!!!!
Whats with the "woo" ?
I just landed my first job in the CG industry. And its not some crappy freelance gig or anything, its an honest-to-god job. In 2 weeks (and on my birthday I might add) I will begin working for AC Coin and Slot in New Jersey (just outside 'Sin City of the East' Atlantic City).
I will be part of a small group that does bonus round animations and plasma screen advertisements for slot games. While doing slot machine animations may not sound as glamorous as working on the next James Cameron movie, it is still a very good starting job.
Its a steady fulltime job, unlike most tv/film jobs which are almost always contract based. Most jobs in hollywood you could be unemployed in 3 months, but this one is steady fulltime.
Normally I'm not one to talk about money, but it pays $45,000 a year! Thats right, 45 grand for my first job out of school. Not too shabby, I must say. Its not like that is insanely good money, but considering the most I ever made in a year before this was around 24,000 its definately a huge step up for me. Plus, its doing something I actually enjoy, not bottling photochemicals or telemarketing all day.
Plus AC is about a 9 hour drive from Rochester. This isnt close enough for coming up on random weekend visits, but it does mean that things like XMas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July becomesmuch more reasonable. I'll now probably drive up for Phares' wedding and be able to hop back and forth to Rochester a couple times instead of having to fly in from across the country and not have a car. And if I did want to fly to Rochester for a short visit, it'll be considerably cheaper and a much shorter flight.
Another cool thing about it is that they dont have insane hours like a lot of studio jobs. They are pretty much 9-5 everyday. They have one big gaming expo a year and apparently it can become kind of hectic around then, but as far as the rest of the year its fairly laid back. This not only means I wont go insane with pressure, but should also allow me enough free time to keep working on side projects at night and on weekends.
I'm pretty pumped about this opportunity. A couple years ago I was working a shitty deadend job at Kodak (through a temp agency!) and now I am gonna have like a real career-based job and be making decent money. I feel like such an adult.
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04:41 am
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PSP = F---ING AWESOME
I just bought a used PSP from a friend of mine down here.
That fucking thing is awesome. Its like having a PS2 in your hands. The last handheld system I had was a game gear. this blows that out of the water, but retains all the fun of my old game gear.
So far I only have 2 games - I went out and bought WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 (naturally) and Tony Hawk Underground 2. I'm probably gonna go out and pick up a couple of more games tomorrow. I am thinking about getting Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and a football game. Maybe NFL Street instead of the more traditional 'Madden.' I like arcadey style gameplay. I might pick up a racing game too if i can find a cheap one. Maybe the Mortal Kombat one. Depends what I can get used or on sale.
I didnt realize this at first, but apparently you can connect to the internet with your psp and play anyone else who has a psp and the same game.
So you screw heads back home need to buy a psp and smackdown 2007. We could totally battle each other and trade created characters and shit.
Mookie - you got a good job, I'm looking at you pal.
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11:08 pm
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project updates !
I went back and tweaked the texture on my devil guy and also added a few little warts and the like to him. I think it looks better now.
I also started the process of texturing my female head. Right now I am using kind of a cheat of projecting an image of her face onto the model. It shows off how closely I matched the pic with the model, but it results in some nasty streak on the side of the head and such. I hope to go back and do a proper UV for the head soon:
Trying to put together a new demo reel this week. Hopefully I will have it online soon.
Wooo !!
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04:15 am
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Finished Devil
Well today was a madcap race to finish modeling and texturing the devil.
I remember a week ago when i first saw that image of the model thinking "there is no way i am gonna be able to make that." But here I am 5 days later, and I have it done and looking pretty cool i think. I like surprising myself like that. Most times I fail. not failing occasionally is a nice change of pace.
Anyways:
I am still tweaking the textures a little bit and might go back in and add a little more detail to the head. Its almost impossible to get all the little viens and bump detail just perfect with the model, but I am happy enough with what I have. It might not be exactly the same as what I based it one, but its close enough. You would recognize it as being the same character.
My teacher gave me a really awesome idea for a still render to produce too. He said if I do a good job on it, that this model might be good enough to get published in some 3D magazines. Thats definatly cool to hear! And even if not, it is still an awesome idea. Makes me mad I didnt think of it all myself. As the late great Eddie Guerrero said "Lie, Cheat and Steal." so if I have to steal someone's else's idea to make a name for myself, so-be-it. I'm still doing all the real work.
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Anyway, I have a busy weekend ahead of me. I have to do some stuff for that mystery project. I want to play with this guy some more. I want to set up my FATMAN(!) and maybe try and texture that female head I did before.
Sigh, will it never end?
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06:27 am
[Link] | I didnt really get as much done today as I think I needed to.
I spent most of the day cutting muscle and detail into the leg. Trying to cut muscle in is kind of weird. Its harder than you might think. Aside from just trying to get it to look right, you also have to consider what is happening to the "poly flow." Basically, everything that you see in 3D is comprised of single polygons stiched together. An example of this is the wireframe head in a previous post of mine. Anyway, all the polygons need to have a certain flow to them to not only look right, but also to deform correctly during animation. So cutting the muscle into the leg totally fucks up your poly flow and trying to it where it both looks good and will deform properly is like just beyond me. I think I found a happy medium, but to be honest, I wont even know until I go through the rigging stages and try some poses with it. Sigh.
After the task of cutting in the muscle, I finally did the ears. The right and left ears are slightly different, so i wasnt able to simply mirror it. I got a basic shape and mirrored it and then went in and did the details of each ear. I am fairly happy with how they turned out. They will look better when textured. Anyway, I built them off the head and then stitched them back on and had to smooth that area out to look right. I then started to add a little bit of asymmetry to the head, but I didnt want to do too much before finishing the detail on top of the head.
The ears and legs are pretty much all I got done. I reshaped the ass a little bit too. I also tweaked some of the fat rolls a little as well. I still have to do the hands, the feet , cut the muscle into the forearm and finish the detail on top of the head. All that will probably take about 4 more solid hours of work. Then I can move on to texturing. I really hope to be at that stage by the start of class tomorrow, but who knows.
Oh well, I will have a cool little character when its all said and finished.
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02:32 pm
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Ovaltine and a Hamburger ...
My breakfast today was a big glass of Ovaltine and a hamburger.
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In other news, I have been real busy with school lately. As many of you may or may not know, I am retaking the modeling block to get a little better and faster at it. Mostly I was doing this to get a better grasp on character modeling. I think it is paying off as I have been pretty happy with my last couple of character models (the Rebecca's Realm characters and the head of that chick).
Our latest assignment is to make this crazy devil character. This is a pretty intense little model full of all kinds of challenges (such as sculpting muscle and getting rolls of fat on top of each other). Adding to the madness is that we have to be done Friday. We were assinged the character Monday. Thats a week... pretty damn ambitious for a block 1 assignment if you ask me.:
After the first day I only had this:
After day 2, my progress has me this far:
I am starting to get a little worried about getting this guy done on time. We are supposed to have the model complete, and have it textured, and one nice render all by Friday. So far I have only been working on it in class. I am probably gonna have to start working on it outside of class to get it done.
But the coolest thing about this guy is that I noticed after doing the horns, how this guy could easily be turned into a fat batman. So I textured it like this and decided to do as much of it as I can as a normal fat guy before adding the extra horns and crazy ears. This weekend, with the devil character finished, I plan to go back and finish my "fatman" and I might do an animation, or at least some cool poses with him.
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I am also working on sculpting a classic AWF character that I have been wanting to do for my demo reel. I have the base face plate done so far, only it still needs a lot of tweaking. I am going to make him pretty cartooney. Then I want to do a short promo with it for my demo reel. Hopefully I will have more on that in the near future.
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On top of all that I am also working on a super secret project which I cant talk about with my old block 4 instructor. I'm not really sure why I am not supposed to talk about it, and once I reveal it, you guys will be like "why couldnt you talk about that?", but he said not to, so I wont. But I can say that it is so far only a very small group of people working on it. Its my block 4 teacher (the battlestar/firefly guy), my block 1 instructor (who is a big deal in the industry), a grad (who has made models for BG and has an amazing Demo) and me and a couple other people from my class. So its pretty cool to be asked to work on it. So far it hasnt been too involved. Just had to make a couple models. They are turning out alright, but noting too spectacular. Then hopefully we will get into doing animatics sometime next week. Its only like a month and half project, and we arent getting paid or anything, but its cool to work on it for extra demo reel stuff.
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So, yeah, I am back in full CG mode after a lull of enthusiasm created by not getting that job in Minnesota. My plan is to have a much better demo reel than I durrently have by the end of April. I should actually have a better one at the end of next week, as I am gonna throw together one next week for a class assingment. But in another month or so I really want to have something i can shop around to places. Anyway, I'll keep posting WIPs of that devil guy. and other stuff as I finish it.
Wooooooooo
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06:00 am
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More School goodness ...
These are two comic strips that I recreated in 3D with those models I made a couple weeks ago.
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03:30 am
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More school stuff - coming atcha !
Well we finished our head project. I am pretty happy with the final model i ended up with. I still have a long way to go before it is the demo piece I am hoping it will turn into.
I still need to create the inner mouth: gums, teeth and tongue. Then i need to texture the entire head and the hair. Then i hope to set up morphs for it and do a lipsync. I dont really have any idea yet for exactly what the lip sync will be, but I'll find something. Uma has some good lines in Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction. Maybe something Linda Hamilton says in Terminator? I am trying to think of good female lines. Its tough though, since women usually dont have good lines in movies.
Anywho... Here are the renders I have for the head I made so far. And one pic of the actual chick for reference:
Wooo !!!
In other news, our next assingment in block 1 is to do a set piece from Star Wars. I was assinged the exterior of the Rebel Base on Yavin 4. Funny how my first block 1 did an ATAT, and then I did Kill Vader and now this. I am almost getting sick of Star Wars stuff.
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03:00 am
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Green Lantern's Ring...
The ring was a one day assingment. Worked on it from 6-11. Closer to 4 hours really when you factor in going out for lunch and render time.
Not the greatest thing in the world, but not bad for a first attempt i think.
First time i have tried to get that kind of energy effect.
Also, here are some renders from my character models from before: 
I'm not sure which of those logo shots I like better. Oh well, I guess I'll send them both to the guy who made the characters and let him decide which to use (if he even wants to use either one).
Also, I could have a job interview lined up soon. So that would be cool. I'll keep you guys posted. Human head should be online soon as well.
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02:42 am
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School update ...
I just realized that most if not all og my friends back home never saw either my final project or my current demo reel. Here are links to both.
Creepers - my block 4 project
http://www.daveschool.com/movies/creepers/index.htm
My Current Demo Reel (to be overhauled in the coming months)
http://www.daveschool.com/dod/graduates/gwatts/index.html
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In other school news I recently finished 2 character models which I am fairly proud of and hope to animate in the near future. They are based on characters from the comic strip "Rebecca's Realm" which is some little known goth thing. The guy who makes "Begoth dolls" makes them or something.
I should have renders of them up over the weekend at least, if not an animation as well.
Also we just started doing the realistic human head project again. Some of you may recall that the last one of those I did was my infamous zombie head. This time we are doing an ex-student from the school. If you are curious to see her, watch NASA Seals on the DAVE school site (or just let it load and fast forward to the end). She is the cute redhead that appears in the "next time on NASA SEALS" teaser.
I am excited about this. This project, and organic modeling in general, are why I was retaking the modeling block. After only 2 days I have a pretty decent looking face already done. Thats way faster than the zombie head, which took like over a week to model.
The assingment doesnt call for us to texture or animate the head, its just modeling. However I am pretty sure I am going to texture and animate it anyways. Definatly going to texture it, and I will at least do a couple of simple morphs like a smile and blinking and stuff for my demo reel.
I will probably do some sort of short lip sync with it too. Anyone have any ideas for a female quote i could use?
I am toying with the idea of continuing the model past the head and trying to do my first realistic human body with her. I might not though. I got a lot of things I wanna work on for a demo reel, so it all kind of depends on which things I wanna focus on.
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A little closer to home for you AWFers is the next solo project I want to start. Since I have a better handle on organic modeling now, I plan to model and animate a cartooney Abe Lincoln as a Pro-Wrestler. He is gonna basically be a roided up Lincoln caricature, and I plan to only animate the end of a promo. I'll be doing Hogan's voice and he'll be saying something like "Whatcha gonna do General Lee, When President Lincoln and the largest arms in the world come gunnin' for you?!?! " and then pose.
I think that could be a cool way to start a demo reel. And a good looking cartoon Abe Lincoln Wrestler in the Hogan sideways arm pose might make a good demo reel cover too. I might throw a black and white tanktop on him that reads "aBe" nWo-style.
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So yeah, even though I havent talked about it with alot of you guys much lately, I am still busy and involved with school. I was sort of feeling shitty about it and not very into it after not getting that job, but now my excitement level for cg is picking up again. I guess I am getting my second wind for it or something.
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09:45 am
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http://www.livejournal.com/update.bml
I have been both busy and not seeming to get anything accomplished lately. One of the big things in my life lately is that I had to reformat my computer last week. That has been a major pain in the ass trying to get everything back up and running like it was before.
One of the perks to reformatting, and one of the major reasons I did it, was getting my dvd burner back up and running. It quit working like 4 months ago and I finally decided to try and reformat to fix it and it worked! Well sorta. The drive works now, but I was having trouble getting shit to burn. I had Nero 6 installed from the disc that came with the dvd burner. That didnt work. And DVD Shrink didnt work for copying dvds either. So i downloaded Nero 7 and right now it seems to be working as I am burning RAD onto DVD!!
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Thats right, RAD, the ultimate BMX movie from the 80s is back! and its on my computer! I havent watched it yet because I am waiting for it to burn so I can watch it on my tv.
I also got a couple other jems I recently downloaded: THE COMPLETE SERIES OF "CAPTAIN POWER AND THE SOLDIERS OF THE FUTURE", Season 2 of Transformers (49 episodes!), Dead or Alive: the movie (ith Kevin Nash and Jamie Pressly), and a best of CM Punk in ROH dvd.
Hopefully I can get all of these burned without too much trouble.
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In other news, Kill Vader just passed 11,000 views on Youtube. Thats pretty cool. To be honest I was always a little let down that it didnt take off more than it did. I always had dreams of it becoming an internet sensation and catching on like some of the other really popular fanfilms out there. But I had come to accept it wasnt going to.
But recently it has been getting more and more popular. A little over a week ago it started getting like 100-200 hits a day. I think alot of them are japenese. There is some thing on youtube where you can see who is linking to you video, and one of the sites is in japenese. And it then links to another site in japenese. So thats cool.
So now that it has over 10,000 views I feel better about it and can enjoy its sucess a little bit more than i did before.
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Last weekend was the big annual comic book convention down here in Orlando - MEGACON !!
I worked Saturday at the DAVE School booth and then also went back Sunday. To be honest I was kind of let down in Megacon this year. Last year I picked up an awesome making of Star Wars DVD with a shitload of extras called "Behind the Magic." I also found Birds of Prey on DVD and got a couple of cool trades.
This year I had some extra money saved up and was looking forward to finding some more cool DVDs and stuff. This year they had all the old shit they had last year and no new cool dvds. I was really hoping that they would have the installments of 'behind the magic' for empire and jedi (as advertised at the end of the star wars one) but they didnt. They also didnt have any other cool dvds. I was able to find one trade that I had been looking for, but they also didnt have like 3 or 4 other ones I wanted. In fact I saw some at a walden books that I didnt buy because I thought I could get them cheaper at the show, and they didnt even have them at the show.
However, I was able to get one really sweet deal at the show.  Thats right, KING KONG BOOKENDS!! WOOOO !!! This set was originally selling for 200 but I got it at the show for only 40 bucks! What a deal!
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eh, i'm sick of writting this. I';; do another update in like 5 months.
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05:32 am
[Link] | <table style="width: 320px; border: 1px solid gray; font: normal 12px arial, verdana, sans-serif; background-color: white;"><tr><td colspan="2" style="background: white; color: black; padding: 5px;"><b style="font: bold 20px 'Times New Roman', serif; display: block; margin-bottom: 8px;">What American accent do you have?</b> <div style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 4px;">Your Result: <b>The Inland North</b></div><div style="width: 200px; background: white; border: 1px solid black;"><div style="width: 93%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div><p style="margin: 10px; border: none; background: white; color: black;">You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."</p></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">The Midland</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 80%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">The Northeast</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 70%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">Philadelphia</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 67%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">The South</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 62%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">The West</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 41%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">Boston</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 25%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">North Central</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 22%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; padding: 8px;"><a href="http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have"><b>What American accent do you have?</b></a><br><a href="http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Quiz Created on GoToQuiz</a></td></tr></table>
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05:57 am
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2006 Movies Year in Review ...
Well it's about that time again. Once a year I like to sit down and compile a list of my favorite movies of the year. Why do I do this? I'm not sure really. I know nobody cares what I think about movies, but its kind of fun to look back and kill a couple hours thinking about it.
Its funny how my opinion of movies change over time. For example last year this is how i ranked the movies of 2005:
1. Star Wars - Episode 3
2. Serenity
3. King Konig
4. Sin City
5. Batman Begins
6. Mr and Mrs Smith
7. War of the Worlds
8. Madagascar
9. The Island
10. Fantastic Four
To read my in depth 2005 review: http://gwattsbdw.livejournal.com/2006/02/13/
Looking back, Now I would put Sin City at #1 and King Kong at #2. Star Wars would probably be somewhere in the middle. This year I dont have Lucas' mystical hold on me, clouding my judgement. Plus this year will be heavily influenced by my schooling, which has given me a much greater respect for CG movies and Visual Effects.
So without further adue, Here is my ranking of My Favorite Movies of 2006!
1) V For Vendetta - Much like Sin City this was an indy comic that I had heard of but never read. I really like this new trend of making movies out of lesser known comics. When I try to read alot of indy comics the art kills me, because when I read comics I do it 80% for the art. Making them movies lets me concentrate on the story. I hope 300 can be as good as V and Sin City. Also this story featured some particularly good acting from Natalie Potman (which is odd since she is so bad in SW). Enough action to keep it from getting boring, but very much a character driven piece. Also the loss of civil liberties strikes pretty close to home with some of the shit that is happening these days.
2) Over the Hedge - The first CG feature on the list and my favorite of the year. In my opinion this was easily the funniest of the bunch. Great characters (i especially liked some of the character design) and great voice acting by Bruce Willis, Steve Carell, Gary Shandling, and William Shatner. The texturing was amazing, especially the translucent skin of the turtle. Also the animation was more exaggerated and cartooney than alot of CG movies go. All in all a great movie for kids and adults, and especially people studying CG animation. Could have been number my #1, but the whole touchy-feely 'loner finds a family' angle is getting really old.
3) Pirates of Caribbean 2 - Although I didnt like this movie as much as the first Pirates, upon seeing it again, it was still pretty good. My main complaint is that it was too long, and some of the interactions seemed inconsistant with the original. HOWEVER, it still had some great lines and easily the best Visual Effects of the year. What endures this movie so much to me is that it has done what I thought was impossible. It suceeded in truely photo-realistic CG elements which I could not distinguish from live footage. When I first saw it I thought that Davey Jones was mostly make up, except for the tentacles. It wasnt until a few days later I found out that he was 100% CG. From the clothing down right down to the eyes. The actor was filmed onset in a grey mocap suit and then replaced with the digital Davey Jones. I seriously thought I would never see VFX reach that level, and I am still amazed by it. And besides Jones and crew, the Kracken and the Ships were also amazing effects. And the action itself was pretty good. I'm excited to see Pirates 3.
4) Snakes on a Plane - Possibly the best 'bad movie' ever made. This movie shows the difference between a "best of the year" and "favorite of the year" list. I havent laugh so hard, or enjoyed myself so much at a movie in a long time. The snake attacks were brutal, Sam Jackson was the man, and this movie actually lived up the the hype, unlike most movies.
5) Mission Impossible 3 - Unlike most people I am not suddenly biast towards Tom Cruise because of his religion. I was never a huge fan of his, but he does make good movies, and as long as he makes movies that seem cool, I'll go to them regardless of what stupid thing he prays to. Anyhow, this was the directorial debut of JJ Abrams, the TV genius behind Alias and Lost. He definatly brought his distinctive style to the this movie and made a movie which rivals the first Mission Impossible and is lightyears better than the shitty MI2. The first act kind of drags, but after that its non-stop action. The bridge sequence is awesome, as is the 'impossible' kidnapping at the vadican. Good acting all around. Great action. Better than 90% of action movies.
6) Open Season - My second favorite CG movie of the year. The texturing and lighting wasnt nearly as impressive as Over the Hedge, but the animation was just as good. Again this movie went totally towards the exagerated and cartooney end of the spectrum. The fantastic animation and comedy that was actually funny, made this movie stand out considerably against other CG releases this year.
7) Jackass 2 - Although its not really a movie-movie, these idiots jumping off of crap and hitting each other and drinking horse semen is alot funnier than most screenplays. This movie is tied with Snakes on a Plane for Funniest Movie of the Year. There is some really nasty stuff in here, but if you can stomach severe gross-out humor, definatly give this one a look if you are in the mood to laugh.
8) Casino Royal (tie) - Best Bond film in a long time. I was weary about this guy being the new Bond, but he won me over. I miss seeing the whacky Q moments, but this was such a serious movie it wouldnt have fit. Like alot of movies these days, it clocked in at 2:30 which is about half an hour too long if you ask me. Especially when they wasted 15 minutes at the end showing us how in love he was with that bitch and him quitting and shit. But the Monkey Man chase, the torture scene, "shaken or stirred" "does it look like I care?", and the inclusion of Texas Hold'em (I dont know why, but I love Poker in movies) make it a winner in my book.
8) Monster House (tie) - Yet another CG movie. I wonder why... Unlike the other ones listed on here, the animation in this one is almost awful. It's straight mocap. This is the same way Polar Express was done. I dont know why Zemekis has such a hard-on for Mocap. It is effective when used in moderation, and with super realistic models, but in a movie like this it just doesnt quite work. Especially in the faces. The faces seemed almost dead. However, there is still an awful lot to like here. For one thing it was a CG movie that wasnt about talking animals. I wish more CG projects would stray away from that. I really liked the idea here too. Kind of a new twist on the old haunted house gimmick. The real cool part was at the end when The House came to life with the trees for legs and chased the kids all over town. That house had an amazing rig to it. Its worth the price of a rental just to see the last 10-15 minutes.
10) Rocky Balboa (tie) - I actually liked the character story of Rocky as an aging boxer more than the fight. In fact I thought the fight was a let down. I didnt like all the HBO plugs and shit. I also didnt like how a couple times they were just standing there hitting each other and not selling anything. In all the other movies, any contact was supersold. That helped make it more exciting. Also I dont think this fight was any more realistic due to those parts, because in real boxing, you never see two guys just standing there landing blows on each other at the same time. Not that the boxing match was awful, but it didnt live up to the fights in the other movies. Still Stallone gives his best performance in a long time. His rants on how no one can tell him what to do and his prefight exchange with the champ are good enough to overcome the awkward relationship with his son, and that woman. A good bookend to the series. Much better than leaving it at 5 anyway.
10) Superman Returns (tie)_ - Purely on the list due to visual effects. My favorite movie sequence of the year was probably the airplane rescue. There is one shot in particular where he rips off the first wing, then pauses in mid-air, turns to look at the wing, turns back towards the camera and charges toward the plane. That shot, though it only lasts maybe 2 seconds, is the reason i love movies and especially visual effects. In that shot (and a couple others in the movie), comic books spring to life and its even better than you picture it in your head as a kid. So for that sequence, the sequence when he catches falling shit from the earthquake, and when he lifts the island up into outer space, It deserves a spot on the list.
Honorable Mentions: Taladega Nights (a close 11th), Flushed Away (a close 12th), Firewall (proved Harrison Ford still has it), Lucky Number Slevin, Thank You for Smoking, 16 Blocks, Hard Candy, and Posiedon.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2006:
1) Superman Returns - This is a movie that, like the Star Wars prequels, I had been waiting to see for years. What a freakin let down it was. The main culprit was the awful, awful, awful plot. The whole plot sucked, especially the Superkid shit. Also: Lois was poorly written and poorly cast. Lex Luthor was poorly written. Not enough action. Too long. Based on the Richard Donner Superman movies, which werent that good to start with. Etc... If not for the eye candy I would have been even more dissapointed in it. Furthur pissing me off is that I bought the 2 disc special eiditon of this soley for the effects and assuming they would have a big making of section on the visual effects. There is nothing about the visual effects of the movie at all on there (except some stupid thing oin brando's head). There is a 3 hour documentary that doesnt cover effects at all. I was so pissed. I am selling it on ebay. I pray to god that in the next Superman movie they pretend this movie never happened. No Super-kid. No more Marlon Brando Jor-el. Bring Pa Kent back to life. Write Lex as a power-hunger businessman instead of a money-hungry conman. Write Lois as a head-strong independent journalist, not a confused little girl. And give us a seriously kickass villian that Superman can slug it out with. My top choice of all time would be Doomsday (But I would almost not want to see him in a Singer movie since he fucked this one up so bad). My second choice would be Bizzaro. After that Mongul, Brainiac, Metallo, or Parasite. I really hope they move in a different direction with the next one.
2) Lady in the Water - I am a big M Night Shaymalan fan. Well I was a big fan of his. But recently he has been acting like a dousche. I read a bunch of interviews on how he was pissed at Disney because they didnt flip out over this screenplay and even though they were gonna give him the money to make it, he left because he didnt feel he had their support or something. Well, guess what, Disney was right, this movie blows hard. Like nothing happens in it. Its just a lame. period. It was a good 3 or 4 notches down from the Village and about 10 down from his other movies. I hope he has learned his lesson - if everyone tells you your idea sucks, believe them. I wish he would make Unbreakable 2 next. Or at least a good movie instead of another shitbomb.
3) X-Men 3 - more disappointed by what it could/should have been than how it turned out. Although it turned out bad enough to be disappointed in that too. Cyclops getting burned sucked. I didnt like Prof X dying. I hate Halle Berry and didnt like her in any of them. Some of the action was cool, but not cool enough to save the movie. And there was a ton of weird plot holes (like when magneto moved that bridge to alcatraz it was day, but then it cut to them jumping off the bridge and it was night. That kind of thing is such an obvious mistake it baffles me). I hope they take their time and go back to the source material (the comics) for the next X-Men movie. Singer should have done this and let someone (anyone) else do Superman.
4) Cars - the first pixar movie I really didnt like at all. Technically it is very good. The scenery is simply amazing in how realistic it looks. When theyt take that little tour throudh the desert and go by that waterful, it is gorgious. But the story itself is the same goddamn 'loner finds a family' arc that almost all the cg movies this year were. The difference between say this and Over the Hedge is that OTH was actually funny. All the jokes in this one fell flat. And while Incredibles wasnt particularly funny either, it was still pretty cool and had sweet action. The race scenes in this one were just so-so. The characters were all pretty lame, in personality and in design. I hate Larry the Cable Guy. And who wants to see a movie about cars anyway? I dont get people's fascination with cars. They are useful. They make life a million times easier. But so does your fridgerator. I dont see people gathering weekly in parking lots to look at each other's fridges... sigh. I hate America. Hopefully this will just be a rare miss from Pixar and not the start of their downfall (in quality anyway. it still made a shitload of money).
5) Nacho Libre - I loved Napolean Dynamite and I love wrestling. So what could be better than a movie about wrestling written by the writters of Napolean Dynamite? Apperently alot of things can be better. I dont really like Jack Black. Although he kept his 'Jack Black-ness' to a minimum in this, it still showed up a couple places. Mostly it was too much of a kids movie. I wish it had some stronger dialouge and less 'fat guy in tight clothes' type humor. The midgets part was pretty good though.
6) Ice Age 2 - I liked the first one. Didnt really like this one. Couldnt get into the whole Manny finds the last female mammoth thing. And those possums were annoying. We already had one annoying character, annoyign characters should not outnumber normal characters. Plus it just wasnt that funny, or charming. The only good parts were the little intermissions with Scrat. Scrat is fucking awesome. I would rather sit through a bunch of short movies that were really funny (like a bunch of scrat shorts) than one big movie that isnt. I would love to see Blue Sky or Pixar do that. Just make a bunch of 5-10 minute shorts and release that as a movie.
7) Pink Panther - I love Steve Martin, and what I remember of the original PP movies was good. So why wasnt this good? I dont know, but it just wasnt. It was god-awful, but it wasnt good enough to ever want to sit through again. Too bad John Candy is dead, I'd love to see another Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
All in All it was an alright year at the cinema. I would say probably better than most, however Last year was far, far superior. I guess that kind of taints it for me. I would say that there were a whole lot of medium quality movies this year, but not that many great, or even good, ones. I mean Snakes on a Plane made #4. I would say the only 3 movies I really, really liked were the top 3. the rest would fall under liked, but not crazy about.
2007 should be as good as 2006 though. The upcoming year has a number of potentially good movies. Some already look like they wont be that great, but who knows, we may be fooled. 2007 brings: Pirates 3, Spiderman 3, 300, Die Hard 4, Tranformers, Fantastic Four 2, Ratatouille (Pixar), TMNT, Meet the Robinsons, and thats just off the top of my head. Hopefully at least some of those movies will be great, or at least better than most of the movies in 2006.
Current Mood:  content
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06:30 am
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Taking the Christ out of Christmas
Howdy y'all.
Well I am officially a graduate of the Digital Animation and Visual Effects School. Dec 20th was our graduation.
December 19th we only had like 32 out of 124 shots done. Although that nuimber is pretty misleading because alot of those shots we all rendered out except for like one pass and then they could be comped. But in any case we still well over half the movie that handt even started being comped yet the day before graduation.
I knew we were gonna be behind that week so I had already taken the day of graduation and the day before off of work. To make a long story short I stayed there 25 and a half hours (they let us stay all night)to work on it. And just as our 1:00pm deadline hit we got out last shot approved. It was a pretty sweet feeling. There were about 6 of us or so who stayed all night working on it. Out of a class of about 15. Oh well, towards the end we were just waiting on the computers anyway.
So I had my graduation and it was alright. The movie looks awesome in alot of shots. Some shots not so much. The animation was kind of hit and miss, but the textures were bueatiful and a good portion of the lighting was also bueatiful. But the problem is that it still has the same awful dialouge and writing as it ever had. So even though I was proud of the work we had done, I still couldnt really enjoy it totally. Plus there was a codec problem when it was burned onto the disc for the graduation showing, so it looked all blurry. That didnt help. But it was still kinda cool seeing it up on a big movie theater screen, knowing how much effort we had all thrown into it and stuff.
There are a few little changes we are making to it before the FINAL version will be done. Basically tweaking some colors in post and maybe relighting a couple shot (due to the speed at whch we had to finish everything). Hopefully it will be done by Mookie's Wedding, and I can just give him a copy of that instead of buying him a real wedding present.
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Which brings me to my next point - I'm coming up for Mookie's Wedding! Wooo !! Apparently all anyone had to do the whole year I was gone to get me to come up was get married. And I should be coming back up for Phares' wedding next october too.
So I guess we are all planning to hold the AWF XMas party about a month late so it can be when we are all in town. I will probably be there from the 23rd - 30th (but I havent gotten the tickets yet).
Part of the time I am home i will be spending with Steve, gramps, and my sister who moved back to Rochester just scant months after I left. Yeah, that made me feel good. ... Stupid sister. But I also wanna hang with my old rasslin buddies. Besides the Wedding and XMas party, I could use a Wild Wings visit and stuff. Only catch is that I wont have a car, so I need rides to all these places.
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So it is late XMas Eve as I write this. This weekend has gone by so freakin fast. Due to lack of much sleep over the past couple weeks, and the fact that i am sick, and due to the fact that I am a lazy bum, I have pretty much slept away the entire weekend. Late last night I did get to do some shopping at Walmart though.
I am giving Jake my old VHS copy of the Star Wars trilogy. He is about to turn 7 in January, and I think he is old enough to appreciate how cool SW is now. Plus since I am regifting something I already owned, its free. I could have just gotten away with that, but I wasnt to get him something else too, like a star wars toy to play with after watching the movies. Since he really liked the transformer videos i got him before, I got him one of those crazy Star Wars transformers (Drath Vader/Tie Fighter). Then I saw they had an Optimus Prime that was pretty cool looking there too. So many of the transformer toys now adays are stupid 'cybertron edition' or 'beast wars' or whatever, that I was so pumped to see an old fashioned Prime that was like the cartoon, I picked that up too.
Now the problem exists that my stupid brother didnt just have one kid, but had to have a boy and a girl. Dont get me wrong, I love little Kasey to death, but the fact that they have two kids means I have to spend twice as much money at XMas. Shopping for Jake is easy and fun. I know what is cool to a little boy, and I think that stuff is still cool too.
A 5 year old girl on the other hand I am baffled by. There was like a whole aisle of Brats stuff which just made me shake my head. I dont think slutty dolls with belly shirts and too much makeup is a very good role model. People wonder why teenage pregnancy is such a problem these days -- look at what you let your children play with! These little whore action figures end up being your child's role models. Ugh. It pisses me off how stupid the world is.
Anyway, I got her a My Little Pony glitter glue coloring book. A care bears XMas dvd/cd combo, and these little bobble head pet things called 'the littlest pet shop' or something. I also picked up Disney's Holiday Classics DVD because it had 'Mickey's Christmas Carol" on it. Thats one of my favorite things I remember from being a kid. I liked that one better that Charlie Brown and Rudolf and it holds up better over time too. So I was gonna watch that with them tonight.
For my brother John I ordered the Marv Levy book online (he wont get it for another week though) and I am also gonna give him my copy of SOCOM with the cool headset. Tom would be so jealous.
Then for my sister-in-law I had no clue what to get her. Its funny, you dont realize how little you really know someone until you have to buy a gift for them and are completely stumped. I was gonna just get one of those generic gift basket of soaps and lotions they have at walmart, but then last minute I saw another one that had only a couple body washes (as opposed to 20) but it also had a little radio with suction cups so you can have a radio in the bathroom.
All in all, I think I did pretty well shopping. I am pumped to see Jake's reaction to the transformers. I hope we have enough time tomorrow to watch on of the Star Wars movies.
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I was supposed to go over there tonight, but then my brother called me earlier and said my sister-in-law was having people over or something and that I should just wait and come over on XMas. That kind of pissed me off. Its not like this time of year makes me think about my dead parents and all the crap I've lost over the years or anything. I mean, why would I want to spend XMas Eve with my family? Of course I'd rather sit all alone in a dirty apartment. I should have slit my wrist tonight. That would have shown 'em. Actually it wouldnt have bothered me had they not invited me and then uninvited me. But whatever.
Plus Buffalo lost today, mathematically eliminating them from the playoffs. I mean it was a real long shot they could still get in anway, but hey there was at least a chance. So today kinda stunk.
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But it wasnt all bad because I also got myself some XMas gifts this weekend. I went to a couple of the local comic shops around here and scored the first half of the Alex Ross mini-series Justice in a hardcover book. Oh yeah, the comic book stores down here bend Rochester comic shops over the couch and violate them. The ones down here are awesome. They all have a shitload of statues and toys and collectables and are huge. Anyways, I read about half of that trade, and its pretty cool so far. One thing I dont really like about Alex Ross is that he has such a hard on for the old shit from the 60s. Like he would never include Doomsday or even Mongul in one of his works, but instead he uses goofy villians like captain cold and that cheetah girl. What a hack.
I also traded in a couple of XBox games I never play anymore and bought "BLACK". Black is the best video game ever made. Its a first person shooter. There arent really any gimmicks to it, you just go around shooitng shit. What makes it so good is just that the graphics are so good and that everything in enviroments reacts to getting shot. And the boards are huge, but they arent mazes, so you dont get lost. Its just a really well done game. If you have an XBox or PS2, go buy it. I do wish it was 2 player, but its still worth getting for 1-player mode.
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I got more stuff to write about soon, like my review of Rocky 6, news about my moving, possible jobs I might get, and more. I'd write about it all now, but this entry is already way too long and I want to get back to playing Black.
Send me gifts.
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07:28 am
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http://www.captaincapitalism.com/
http://www.captaincapitalism.com/
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05:53 am
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Goldberg To Pen "Walker" Script ...
I was over at the movie news site Dark Horizons when I saw a headline reading "Goldberg To Pen "Walker" Script."
Here is what the link said:
Jessica Goldberg has been hired to write "Since Walker Left," a remake of the 2003 French film "Since Otar Left" for Vertigo Entertainment and Focus Features reports Reuters.
Set in Tennessee and New York, the story tracks the lives of a mother and daughter whose one joy comes from the regular letters sent to them from the family's adored son, Walker.
When the daughter finds out that Walker has suddenly died, she tries to conceal the truth from her mother, changing the course of their lives forever.
Goldberg is a playwright and graduate of New York's Juilliard school.
You can only imagine my disapointment, I was hoping that Bill Goldberg was writing a movie for Walker, Texas Ranger.
How much fucking better would that have been?
I have not the words to describe my disappointment.
Current Mood:  disappointed
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07:09 am
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44% of the Americans believe the world will end soon ...
Wow. This article has some scary implications if it is true.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15566391/site/newsweek
Oh and for the record, anyone who is against stem cell research is a retarded piece of shit.
And Rush Limbaugh is a total fucking dousche-bag ass.
When I did become a democrat? I'm not really, but I am more now than i used to be. I guess I'm middle fo the road, but I used to be way more to the political right. I voted for Bush the first time. Now I totally regret that (although Gore won NY anyway).
I just dont understand people who can ignore and want to impeade the progress of science and medicine because of a mythology book written 2000 years ago. I'm not saying there arent good things that can be taken from the Bible, but people need to learn how to seperate fact from fiction. The Little Engine that Could has a great lesson, but I dont see people on their knees at the train station worshipping.
And the best part is how they feel they can justify any of their beliefs by saying that they have faith. Its like you cant debate anything with them. Despite the fact that it is 100% physically IMPOSSIBLE, people actually believe Noah's Ark really happened. That some guy heard God speak to him and warned him of a flood and then proceeded to build a giant ship and collected 2 of every kind of animal from across the globe. PEOPLE BELIEVE THIS REALLY HAPPENED! I heard a couple religious people at school talking about where they thought it was.
It makes my brain want to explode.
And because of people like this, millions across the globe have to suffer from diabetes and alzheimers and parkinsons,etc... Maybe Stem Cells arent the wonder cure that has been speculated, but for christ's sake shouldnt we be running as many tests and experiments as possible to find out ?!?
Anyway, that guy summed it up better than I can about why religion is an awful and scary thing in politics. I get too worked up. I want to go burn down some churches right now.
Instead I'll watch a bootlegged copy of WWE's Cyber Sunday.
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03:46 am
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I hate my life.
So yeah, I am mega broke and stuff. I dont want to get too deep into shit, but lets say I've finally hit bottom. I almost got evicted this week. My grampa (and i am sure it is mostly because of his fat, cunty, money-grubby whore of a wife) has started bitching me out about borrowing money. Well excuuuuuse me, I thought you were happy to help me with money while I was in school, I guess you lied. Fucker.
Anyway, I finally had to break down and get a job. I havent started it yet though, I start Tuesday. I am gonna be a driver for this gardening company called Greenhouse Productions. I'm gonna load up a van full of plants and vases and shit, and then drive around and unload it. Yay! Fun! ... sigh ...
It could be worse I guess... my nose could be gushing blood.
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So RCW is dead. Thats kinda depressing. Unlike Tom and Huber, I have no real reason to hate RCW. I got sick of wrestling and I left on my own terms. I wasnt there for all the crazy bullshit at the end though, I probably would have hated it too.
But RCW was cool because it offered an opportunity to people who just wanted to have fun. I never wanted to travel and 'go pro.' I didnt really like associating with alot of the dousche bags you meet on the indy scene level. I just wanted to goof off and have fun in a wrestling ring, and RCW provided that. And its too bad for people like Rob, and the Hoosiers, etc... that they wont have that opportunity anymore without being charged charged training fees and other bullshit like that.
So the news of RCW's passing is kind of sad. Not as sad as When Coach got cancelled, or when John Candy died. Or when I stubbed my toe this morning when I got up to take a piss. But sad, nonetheless.
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How come none of my friends are ever online?
My Rochester friends that is. I talk to a couple guys from school online, but the old gang of AWFers seems to have virtually disappeared from the face of the earth.
Tom, Mookie, Rob, Jason, Brian, Huber... even Lou! None of you bastards are ever online. I blame your shitty women and shitty jobs. Leave them so we can hang out online more often.
Like, what the fuck? Send me some emails or something.
** side-bar: after writing this portion of my entry, I have since started talking to tom and lou over IM. But still.
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I got the History of the WWE CHampionship DVDs from Netflix and it is an awesome set. i havent been too into wrestling lately (except ECW. ECW fucking owns!), but the set is a great collection. Most of the early stuff I found kind of boring, but some was good. Sgt Slaughter and Bob Backlund had an awesome match. I never thought I would see Slaughter flying around the ring bumping like a crazy person (and throwing a decent dropkick). Now I understand why he cant really walk right in his old age. Heh. Disc 1 also had some great Hogan work, the classic cage match with Orndorff, the Andre Match and the SAVAGE MATCH FROM WM 5 !! Wooo ! I think I own all the other Hogan matches on DVD already, but that one was a new addition to DVD. And thats one of my favorite Hogan matches, if not my #1 favortie.
I've only watched disc 1, but if the other 2 discs are anything like disc 1, I will definatly add this to my XMas Wish List.
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So I got this friend at school named Wes(sley). Wes is crazy. But in a good way. Anyway, me and Wes argue about shit all the time because he has some shitty opinions and is stubborn about them (an example of his shitty opinions is when he calls Alex Ross a hack. Alex Ross is the fucking man). Then I try to correct him about his shitty opinions and he calls me racist (he is dominican or some shit). Then I tell him to go eat a burrito and watch Zorro.
Anyways, I bring it up because one of our recent lively debates was 'what is the best car chase ever?' He started by saying that his favorite used to be the car chase from Ronin (some shitty deniro movie from the mid 90s, if you dont know), but then said it was the one in Bad Boys II. He was all like "That was bad-ass. They were throwing cars at them. Coolest shit ever, bro." (in his crazy Bronx-meets-Mediterrainian accent(he lived most of his life in NYC)).
But of course any sane person knows that the best car chase ever has to be the one at the end of the Blues Brothers. They crash about 200 cop cars in that. And it was done with real cars, not CG ones, which makes it alot cooler if you ask me. He argues I should appreciate the CG ones more sine thats what we do, but I disagree. CG is fun and a great career path for me, but its always better to use real stuff. CG is fake. Even the best the CG is still fake. Same with minatures. If you got the stones to buy and crash 200 real cars, you are fucking awesome. And not only does the end chase rule, but Blues brothers also has the 2nd best ever car chase in the mall sequence. That one might actually be better really. Its too close to call. But when asked that question, to me, you gotta say "the best car chase ever is fron Blues Brothers."
I even went so far as to rent Bad Boys 2 and see the car chase Wes was talking about. It is pretty bad-ass. And the CG effects look awesomely real (to the point where you might not be able to tell if you didnt know). However, it still doesnt hold a candle to the Blues Brothers.
That was a really long set up to this poll question:
In your mind, what is the best car chase EVER ?
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So yeah. I've been really depressed lately. Somebody cheer me up with a funny picture or something.
Until next time, this is GW saying, "I'm a downy clowny."
Current Mood: depressed
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