A bit of creative writing for you...

For some reason last week I felt the need to write some poetry. While it's not the best in the world I thought I'd share it with you.

'Dog Turds'
Big and small but always brown.
White are vintage.
Dog turds.

'Women'
Women, like marmite.
Sometimes you love them.
Sometimes you hate them.
Both have yeast based issues. Women.

'Gosling'
Ryan, Ryan Gosling.
You can't act.
But apparently you're a hunk.
Shallow, shallow women.

'Love'
Like Nik Kershaw I won't let the sun go down on me.
But the woman who works in carphone warehouse can any time.
Love.

It's not exactly Keats but it will do.

THE WALKING DEAD: Evil has a name and his name is David Morrissey...

When it was announced a few weeks back that the character The Governor would be featuring in season 3 of the show and that english actor David Morrissey had been cast in the role of The Walking Dead's most notorious villain I was completely gobsmacked. Not because I thought it was a bad choice or anything but I wondered how on earth they were going to bring the story of Philip Blake (The Governor) to the tv show without toning it down.

I'll come back to that in a minute though.

Regarding David Morrissey I'm really excited about seeing him take on the role. I know a lot of people have only seen him star alongside David Tennant in "The Next Doctor", the 2008 Christmas special of Doctor Who, playing Jackson Lake. But he's also been in many other hit shows and in films such as Some Voices, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, before he played the critically acclaimed roles of Stephen Collins in State of Play. He was also in... erm... Basic Instinct 2.
I know some of our American brothers are not happy with his casting as they seem to think he doesn't look "evil" enough but if you know the character and how he starts out then you will understand he isn't meant to look evil.

If you have never read the comics I don't really want to spoil it for you but if you are interested then take a look HERE at The Walking Dead Wiki's page for the comic book character. Put it this way though. It's one of the most brutal storyline I've ever read in a comic and that's not because it involves zombies either. I can't help but wonder how gruesome they are going to get with the Governor storyline on the tv show?
Last week I read an American TV journalist and fan of the comic point out that although AMC are pretty relaxed with what they allow in their shows they are going to piss a lot of people of either way by adding too much brutality or cutting it out near enough completely which would annoy fans of the comic. Lucky enough though I came across this quote from comic creator and producer of the TV show Robert Kirkman regarding what is coming up in season 3.

Can the dark tone of the comic be matched on the TV series? Some of the stuff with the Governor was pretty intense; how far can you take that on TV?

Kirkman: There are certain boundaries for different mediums. I think that having the month long break between issue to issue or the 6 month break between volume to volume — you can push boundaries to a certain extent on a regular basis, more so than you can on a television show. So there might be instances where we go as dark as the comic in the show, but then we cut short and try to do something else and try to shift gears. People on a couch want to be entertained, they don’t want to be completely depressed. That said, we’re definitely going to go to those places.

There are some things coming up in the 3rd season that I can happily and proudly say exceed some of the darkest things that we’ve done in the comic. I think people are really going to be pretty shocked with a lot of stuff that’s coming. The show is gonna have teeth, the show is not going to be a watered down version of the Walking Dead [comic].

After reading that I must say Kirkman has put my mind at rest.
If you are only a fan of the TV show though I'd suggest before season 3 hits screens you get hold of the novel which came out last year called 'The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor'. It depicts The Governor's struggle to survive the zombie apocalypse with his brother, his niece and their friends before the events of the comic book and I'm guessing now the TV show as well.

Anyway, that's enough of my ramblings but I'd like to go on record now in saying I'd be very shocked if the real Merle didn't turn up again in season 3. Where the group are heading is exactly the sort of place the one handed racist hillbilly would be most at home. And surely he will be looking for a bit of revenge on Rick for making him have to cut his hand off? Heck, maybe he'll cut Rick's hand off as payback?

Just saying.

Mahna Mahna! The Muppets are back

What's your favorite Muppets movie? The Muppets Takes Manhattan? The Muppets Christmas Carol? Muppets From Space? Well, I think this comeback movie beats all of them.
I've been a fan of The Muppets for as long as I can remember and I've been looking forward to seeing the new film. When I had to spend time in hospital as a little kid in the early 80's I have fond memories of watching The Muppet Show on television while in my sick bed.



This is the first theatrical Muppet film in 13 years (the last one being Muppets From Space) and despite the straight to dvd stories they have starred in a new movie has been a long time coming. I was also interested as the story was written by actor and life long Muppet fan Jason Segel, who also stars in the film.

The story revolves around an evil businessman named Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) who's plotting to tear down the Muppet theater and drill for oil beneath it. Three big Muppet fans named Gary (Jason Segel), Gary's girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) and Gary's puppet brother Walter (voiced by Peter Linz) discover this while touring the old abandoned theater. They learn that the only way to save the Muppet theater is to raise $10 million so they go searching for Kermit (voiced by legendary Muppet performer Steve Whitmire) to let him know. Kermit and his new friends then decide to go on a road trip to find the other Muppets (who have all split up) and devise a plan to put on a fundraiser show in order to raise the money to save the theater.

With this in mind I don't know if I was expecting a different plot but the "Saving the theater" scenario has already been done a number of times in The Muppet universe. Not that this bothered me though as this was a huge nostalgia trip. All the classic Muppets I loved when little were here and I liked even some of the more obscure ones were given centre stage to shine.
The cameos from lots of Hollywood celebrities were absolutely hilarious. My favourites of these were Jack Black and (although he's not even in it for more than five minutes) Dave Grohl. His cameo as The Moopets drummer Animool had me in stitches.
The songs in the film were great and were lovely, touching and in some cases side splitting funny. I won't tell you what my favourite song was but it was performed by the guys in the picture below.

Overall this was a wonderful film which adults and kids will enjoy for years to come. If you haven't seen this yet then you should go ASAP and take the kids with you as well. It's already one of my favourite films of the year. And because it's done so well at the box office I'm guessing (and hoping) a sequel is already in the works. My only gripe? Where was Rizo? Anyway...

In the film when it looks like The Muppets are no longer important Kermit has a line -

"I guess we have been forgotten." - Kermit.

No you were never forgotten Kermit. I'm glad to see you back. And judging from the popularity of the film, so are others.

"The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" Mini Review - I'm a bit late with this one.

I watched the xmas special "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" the day after it aired over Christmas.

The synopis for the 2011 special by Steven Moffat was as follows.

During the Christmas season of 1938, the Doctor finds himself on a damaged alien spacecraft in Earth's orbit. He escapes the exploding ship and the fall to Earth by rapidly donning an impact space suit, though in his haste, the helmet is put on backwards. On crashing to Earth, he is found by Madge Arwell, wife of Reg and mother of two children, Lily and Cyril. She helps the Doctor, stuck and unable to see while in the impact suit, to his TARDIS, and the Doctor promises to repay her for her kindness.

To be honest I've fallen asleep during all the Narnia movies so I wasn't expecting this to bode well for the special just from knowing the title alone. Two minutes in I was already thinking it was like watching a CITV program from back in the 80's. There was a rather funny moment at the begining when he actually walked into that real police box thinking it was the TARDIS.

I couldn't help but wonder where you are meant to draw the line between Christmas Special and Christmas "Shoving it down your throats" Special? I swear that Murray Gold (composer) sampled the Aliens soundtrack in this as well.

Moffat is normally good at coming up with original ideas of his own but he seemed to struggle this time round. I managed to count story elements from Narnia, Lord of The Rings, The Never Ending Story, Bed Knobs & Broomsticks and any WWII film from the 40's in this. It didn't really make any sense whatsoever to me.

As for Bill Bailey he was seriously underused and didn't really need to be there.
Still it looked amazing and Matt Smith is an awesome doctor. It's the scripts that let him down. He's the Colin Baker of the new era of the show when it comes to the Christmas specials. This was a bit of a damp squib to end of considering we are not having any new episodes for a while now.

George Lucas retires - I guess this means the end of an era?

Last Thursday saw an announcement from the man himself that he won't be making another blockbuster.
"I'm retiring," he said. "I'm moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff."
Lucas said he would only work on a fifth Indiana Jones film before he calls it a day otherwise, Red Tails, an action adventure about a pioneering group of African-American pilots who fought in the Second World War, which he financed himself (and already getting pretty bad reviews), will be his last blockbuster. According to the New York Times Lucas will spend the rest of his life making small, experimental art-house films.
Now I've always tried to be constructive with my criticism of Lucas as there will never be any escaping that I am a massive Star Wars fan. From the original trilogy when I was a kid, through the nineties with the spin-off novels and graphic novels and ending with the prequel trilogy. I've spent enough money on Star Wars merchandise over the last twenty years to probably fund an episode of the CGI Clone Wars series alone. I stopped buying stuff years ago though as I lost interest in one of my first geek loves.

Everyone knows all the grief Lucas has been getting since 1997 for his Star Wars Trilogy Special editions (which to be honest I never had a problem with as it gave me the chance to see the original films on the big screen). But as the years went on he started contradicting the original trilogy with his each new prequel instalment. Then to make things worse in 2004 he decided to have a mess around with them again. The way I saw, it was OK, if he wanted to change a few more things to bring them in line with the prequels then fair enough. It would make sense for him to do that wouldn't it?

But with the Blu-Ray release he decided to change things again. A few are listed below.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

There are computer-generated rocks in front of R2-D2 while he’s hiding in the canyon; however, they’re “magically not there” after he comes out of hiding
Obi-Wan’s fake “Krayt Dragon” roar is once again altered and it sounds “hideous”; keep the mute button at the ready
Greedo shoots first – again – but this time with slightly fewer frames than the previous release
Luke’s lightsaber while training on the Millennium Falcon is back to being “white” and “blue” as it was originally – it is no longer pale green, per the 2004 DVD release

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Flames have been added to the probe droid crater
Most of the blue tint on Hoth is gone
The Wampa arm is “fixed” — whatever that means — but it’s still imperfect
R2-D2’s once black panels are now blue in space
A la the DVD release, Emperor Palpatine – via hologram – is still played by Ian McDiarmid in his Revenge of the Sith makeup

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

The static shot of C3PO and R2-D2 approaching Jabba’s palace has been replaced by a “wide pan with a huge door”; the door is now peppered with laser blast impacts
Han Solo’s “carbonite thaw” is now CGI
A computer-generated “Dug” from the prequels (Sebulba, the evil racer who podraced Anakin in The Phantom Menace, was a dug) is seen walking across the screen after Luke infiltrates Jabba’s palace; the dug looks “really fake, like it was [added at the] last minute”
Wicket the Ewok now has computer-generated, blinking eyes
Darth Vadar says “No” several times as he picks up Emperor Palpatine and tosses him into the Death Star reactor core; the “Nos” seem to be sampled from The Empire Strikes Back and Revenge of the Sith, respectively

As you can see, most of them were once again just correcting special effects faults but a few of the new bits change the tone of the films completely. I don't have a Blu-Ray player so I was never going to buy these anyway but I can understand why some people would be annoyed that he refuses to release the original untainted films in a better looking format than the 2006 limited release they were given.

I'm glad he is retiring now as I think he has pretty much had himself surrounded by "Yes Men" for the last twenty years that were too afraid to tell him some of his ideas where a bit rubbish (for proof of this watch any of the prequel documentaries where you can clearly see this in action). I do wonder though if out of spite George will decide to utterly murder Star Wars? As in no more novels, no more movies, no more video games. Period. Nah of course he won't but I suppose my hopes of a sequel to Willow now have been blown out of the water.

What do you think of the news?

Thank you to all my Square Fwends for 2011!

So this will be my final blog before 2012 begins and although it is going to be a short one I thought I just thank every one of the new friends I've made this year for taking me to your bosom (metaphorically obviously).

A lot of the lovely people I've been lucky enough to meet this year comes from me spending a lot of 2011 at The Square. I'm not always the most confident person and I can't help but feel I've really come out of myself this year, mainly down to all the new people I've been lucky enough to meet.

So you lucky people! thank you once again for taking the time to talk to the poor mans Jesus look-a-like and discovering I'm not actually as annoying as I might come across the first time you meet me (probably). I've enjoyed drinking with you, talking about why E.T isn't an intergalitic "Gypo" and rocking out to Pearl Jam with you.

Here's to The Square in 2012 and meeting lot's more people.

The Notebook - Gosling's Redemption.

"I am no one special. Just a common man with common thoughts. And I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect, I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived. I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and for me, that has always been enough."

*spoilers ahead*

So a friend of mine lent me a film starring Ryan Gosling called "The Notebook". As you may remember I had a bit of a rant about Ryan Gosling a few months back after seeing the film "Drive" and since then all I've been getting told is I should watch this film as he is amazing in it.
To be honest I couldn't of thought of anything more unappealing than watching another film with Mr Gosling in but seeing as someone was making the effort to lend me it I thought I'd give it a go.

For the people that don't know "The Notebook" is a 2004 romance film directed by Nick Cassavetes, based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. It's about a young couple who fall in love during the early 1940s. Their story is narrated from the present day by an elderly man telling the tale to a fellow nursing home resident who suffers from dementia.
To be completely honest I thought this was a pretty good film. A simple enough story which really seemed to capture the look of early 1940s America perfectly. This is only the second film I've seen Ryan Gosling in and I think he is far more suited to these soppy roles than the one he was given in Drive. He seems to be the perfect romantic lead as Noah and the chemistry between Rachel McAdams as Allie Hamilton and himself is electric. I believed that these two were really in love. Can't really fault Gosling in this film.

The real stars of this film for me though were James Garner as the older Noah and Gena Rowlands as the older Allie. I think these two made me far more likely to lose control of my tear ducts than the others.
A sad scene for me was when the older couple are having dinner and Allie remembers Noah only to forget who he is suddenly. Very sad that.
The only thing that maybe pulled me out of the movie was at the end when Aliie asks Noah whether they might die together and then the next morning they are discovered lying motionless next to one another in bed. I think it would of been better to end the film with them still having brief moments like we saw during the film.

Overall It didn't make me blub but I enjoyed this. And as I have such a wide variety of tastes when it comes to films (My DVD collection is a giant mix of genres) I'll probably buy this if see it going cheap.

No more Gosling for me though for a while.