Posted on May 27, 2011 under Dvd |
Those yellow, animated phenomenons have finally made their way to the big screen and it only took eighteen years. So does the animated movie live up to the hilarity of the television show? Read on and find out – doh!
The town of Springfield’s lake is overly polluted and socially conscious Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith) rallies the town to clean it up. Her dad Homer (Dan Castellaneta) saves a pig from being slaughtered after it’s used as a prop in a Krusty the Clown commercial and starts to treat it like the son he always wanted.
This doesn’t set well with Bart (Nancy Cartwright) who finds that Mr. Flanders (Harry Shearer) is a more caring father than his pig loving one. Homer’s new oinking child does what pig’s do and Homer puts the results in a huge silo in the backyard (well, Homer did put a little of himself into the job). His wife Marge (Julie Kavner) tells him to get rid of the silo of pig waste.
Homer does of course, by dumping it on Lake Springfield. This infusion of pollution causes the Environmental Protection Agency to become alerted to the situation. They react in their usual restrained manner – the director Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) orders that a huge glass dome cover the town.
The Simpsons eventually find themselves outside the dome and Homer decides to take off rather than help his neighbors (especially since they formed an angry mob against him when they found out that it was his silo that pushed the lake over the limit). He takes the family to Alaska and start over again, but the rest of the family thinks they should return and save Springfield.
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Posted on Apr 12, 2011 under Movies |
Thievery is alive and well in Hollywood. The glamorization of crime invariably tickles the curiosity of the public. Criminals have been portrayed as exciting, daring and cunning tantamount to hero status. They are the risk takers who should not be completely judged upon their criminal expression but rather looked at as individuals with some merit. They are cast sympathetically as their relationships are examined and ultimately lend credence to the justification, in their minds, of the criminal choices they have made. But worst of all, they are often shown as being ‘cool’, even as they hurdle towards the death of their freedom.
Take, for example, the jewelry or art thief. Movies like the Italian Job, the Score and Ocean’s Eleven display criminals as generally model citizens, other than when they are committing crimes. There may be such criminals but are they so suave in their real lives? Are they seemingly morally upright in their relationships with others? Are they really just good guys who happen to commit crimes? In real life the majority of criminals are not suave, cool or sympathetic figures. They are cutthroat, ruthless and to a degree, sociopathic. Mob figures are the best example of the paradox between the glamorization of criminal life and reality of criminal behavior.
All agree that the Soprano’s, a show about mob life in New Jersey, is a great show. The production value is high, the actors are skilled and the plot lines are well conceived. People get whacked, money gets laundered and criminals get promoted for good work. Yet, in order for the audience to tune in every week they must connect with the characters. Hence, the boss of the family, Tony Soprano is shown as a father, a husband and as attempting to improve his relationships with the outside world by visiting a therapist. This is a ploy to create sympathy for a ruthless murdering crime boss. And it works, as the Sopranos is a hit. What then are the real criminals doing?
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Posted on Mar 09, 2011 under Movies |
This festive fright-fest was a nice surprise from what I was originally expecting. This is another horror remake (from the people behind ‘Final Destination’ – great film), but un-like so many others; it did manage to come up trumps; such as ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’ This is a remake of Bob Clarke’s 1974 classic slasher movie, ‘Black Christmas’; which actually came four years before John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’. Some fans lay claim that it was the original slasher flick.
From the outside, this looks like just another of your basic ‘there’s a psycho hacking up a bunch of pretty girls, who are running up the stairs instead of out of the door,’ and to a certain extent that’s correct, it’s the way this is conveyed which is interesting and enticing to watch.
The story: crazed killer, Billy Lenz, escapes his psychiatric ward and is determined to make it to his childhood home, where he was abused, by Christmas. Problem is, it’s years later and the home is now a Sorority house. It’s Christmas Eve and a who’s who of teen/horror girl stars are there to welcome him, including Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg , ‘Buffy the vampire slayer’ fame), Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, ‘Final Destination 3’), Dana (Lacey Chabert, ‘Mean Girls’) and Kelli (Katie Cassidy, ‘When a stranger calls’ remake.)
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Posted on Feb 04, 2011 under Dvd |
Those yellow, animated phenomenons have finally made their way to the big screen and it only took eighteen years. So does the animated movie live up to the hilarity of the television show? Read on and find out – doh!
The town of Springfield’s lake is overly polluted and socially conscious Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith) rallies the town to clean it up. Her dad Homer (Dan Castellaneta) saves a pig from being slaughtered after it’s used as a prop in a Krusty the Clown commercial and starts to treat it like the son he always wanted.
This doesn’t set well with Bart (Nancy Cartwright) who finds that Mr. Flanders (Harry Shearer) is a more caring father than his pig loving one. Homer’s new oinking child does what pig’s do and Homer puts the results in a huge silo in the backyard (well, Homer did put a little of himself into the job). His wife Marge (Julie Kavner) tells him to get rid of the silo of pig waste.
Homer does of course, by dumping it on Lake Springfield. This infusion of pollution causes the Environmental Protection Agency to become alerted to the situation. They react in their usual restrained manner – the director Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) orders that a huge glass dome cover the town.
The Simpsons eventually find themselves outside the dome and Homer decides to take off rather than help his neighbors (especially since they formed an angry mob against him when they found out that it was his silo that pushed the lake over the limit). He takes the family to Alaska and start over again, but the rest of the family thinks they should return and save Springfield.
Read the rest of this entry »