So I've managed to once again not get my work done. Why the hell is this so god damn hard all of a sudden? To top it all off, I have two more titles added to the pile: Captivity and Murder Party.
I really need to get past this block... maybe an all night, caffeine induced movie marathon will help get things moving in the right direction. Throw out the intended order of what would get done first (with the sole exception of one TV on DVD set) and instead just write about whatever strikes me creatively and then go from there. Thankfully I only have a small number of November titles to look forward to, with probably only a handful of December ones aswell. Then I think I'll be taking a short break from it all in January.
Maybe if I convince myself into believing that these reviews will be fro my blog they'll be done quicker. Like those earlier reviews I did a few months ago where I was churning out what felt like a review each day.
Aww Hell...
Reviews
With the ever growing stack of DVDs I need to review continuously rising, I'm going to go on a DVD reviewing bender. Spending the next 24 hours trying to get as much done as humanly possible.
On the list of titles we have: Assume the Position, Shanghai Kiss, Troy: Director's Cut, Fido, Casshern, The Graduate, Severance, Triad Election, The Case for Christ, Brothers and Sisters Season One, a screener copy of Car Babes, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Volume One, and the two disc version of Transformers.
That's 13 reviews (31 discs, I believe) that need to be done. For the next 24 hours I'll be working away at as many as I possibly can. First up is Transformers -- because it's the closest to completion right now.
I'll be sure to update the blog as the day goes by.
the first round of reviews will be be done in the following order:
Transformers
Severance
The Graduate
Case for Christ
Casshern
Brothers & Sisters: The Complete First Season
Blogs R Us
So much for that idea, the actual work that would be needed to make the site I was talking about is simply out of my grasp. I did get to have some fun photoshoping some new layouts for the idea, though. I plan on starting up a new blog instead. Yes, I know, I'm very original. Moving on...
The idea seemed to come to me when I realized that I've been stuck writing about the same thing for what is now more than two years with absolutely nothing to show for it. That kind of lingering stagnation isn't good for keeping the mind active and productive. So after reading so many other great blogs like GeeksofDoom.com (check em' out), I realized the potential to be had in simply talking about all of the things I deem relevant.
Right now the only thing holding me back is a lack of motivation for writing reviews -- or anything for that matter. I can start them, I can think up entire paragraphs and fine tune them in my head while I'm in the shower or walking around the neighborhood getting some exercise; It's only when I find myself sitting in front of a computer screen with an open word file that everything vanishes and I'm left with a blank slate. I can't explain it other than the say that it's quite possibly the most annoying thing in the entire world.
It's not writers fatigue, it's not writers block, it's not even a lack of motivation, I simply can't get anything done. And I write that with a stack of DVDs that I need to get finished some time this week staring me in the face... mocking me. I think the best way to get this all squared away is to get back to the basics. Write less, fine tune, get in to a rhythm, overlook perfection and simply aim to get things done. They may not be the best that they can be (FYI, I hate putting out something I consider subpar of unfinished), but at the very least I'll be getting something done and move past this phase.
Everything's Coming Up Milhouse!
So the other day, out of the blue, I was hit with an idea for a new website. Only unlike all of my other harebrained schemes, this one actually got me excited at the potential. I won't go in to specifics yet but it has to do with movies, just know that it has nothing to do with gossip, news or reviews. In fact, the general idea has been around for a long time only I don't think any -- at least none that I know of -- exist.
If only my photoshop skills could keep up with my imagination...
Superman: Doomsday... WTF?
OK, I just watched the first of what is apparently going to be many direct-to-DVD animated movies from DC. If this one, Superman: Doomsday, is any indicator of what's to come, they've already lost one viewer. Based on perhaps the most read comic book in history about the death of Superman, appropriately titled The Death of Superman (DC didn't mince words when it came to titles back then), this movie was flat out painful to sit through. You know your in for a rough ride when the first twenty minutes feel like an hour.
Perhaps the biggest problem with this movie is that it completely drops the ball on delivering the one thing everyone has been dying to see: the death of Superman. In the comic book, the whole story focused on the last son of Krypton finally meeting his match and was then put in to enough peril for readers to actually be scared for his well-being. Because by this point in the 90's the Man of Steel lost a lot of his readers when they realized that there was never a jam Supes couldn't find his way out of. So when he was going Mano-a-Mano against the embodiment of destruction and devastation in Doomsday, the playing field was even between the two combatant.
Here, that entire story is over and finished by the end of act one. The real kicker being that there isn't even a mention of what transpired during that time for the rest of the damn movie. Instead, the creators felt compelled, or forced, to tell the resurrection story. Not knowing that part of the Superman mythos myself, I can only hope this isn't what actually happened in the books.
The movie is stuck in that unpleasant limbo of being too violent for children while being too adolescent for adult audiences. Only here can you find Superman feeling guilty for not being able to rid the world of Cancer and seeing Lex Luthor shoot a woman in the face. Point blank. And what was up with the unneeded post-sex scene between Superman and Lois? I honestly have no clue who they're marketing this movie towards, and I get the feeling neither do they.
Admittedly, I did kind of like some of the little winks and nods placed throughout the movie. Like the reference to a moment in Kevin Smith's (who has a brief cameo here) unmade Superman screenplay.
Live Transformers DVD Review Blogging
So I've decided to restart the blog with a new layout and a new focus on what to post about. Instead of my initial ambitious --yet set up for nothing but failure-- idea of cover all new DVD releases weekly, I'm going to instead try and cover whatever might interest me in entertainment, the interwebs, or life in general. I'll start today by doing a live blog of sorts in order to get my review finished for the Transformers DVD before release day. I'm going to be covering all of the special features and then work my way back since they're so massive and dense -- they're actually going to be the toughest part to finish. So each hour I plan on updating this post with a new segment from the DVD. Stay tuned (and click the expand link for all updates).
I gave up on this, but here's an update with my full review here.