Hot Fuzz vs Clerks 2

Saw both these films on Saturday, Hot Fuzz at the cinema at midday and Clerks 2 on DVD in the evening. Both films were very different in style/humor, but both entertaining in their own ways.

Hot Fuzz
Great film from the Shaun of the Dead boys with a nice little murder mystery cop film that just exlpodes in an glorious orgy of guns and violence at the end (which hopefully won't influence too many young kids to go out and shoot each other). Seeing an American style cop film but adapted into a very British rural village environment made for some great moments, but the stand out moment has to go to the scene where the main lead, Nick Angel (Simon Pegg), does a flying kick to the face of a shotgun-wielding granny. Have I mentioned I met Simon Pegg and Nick Frost last year at a NerdFest and have a signed Hot Fuzz mini-poster?? Am I a nerd or what?
I give Hot Fuzz 4.5 out of 5, for being a good action romp!

Clerks 2
After 10+ years, writer/director Kevin "Silent Bob" Smith returns to the world of Dante and Randell, the slacker clerks from the 90's, who are now a bit older and fatter (or as he put it, fugly) and working at a Moobys fast food joint after the Quick Stop convienence store burns down. It was a bit strange seeing these cult characters return, especially as time hasn't been too kind to the main actors, which also made it kind of hard to believe that Rosario Dawson's character would sleep with Dante. It was only at the end of the film that I realised that this film was actually Randall's film, much like the original Clerks was Dante's film. However, the writing was great and had some very funny moments, but after having seen Hot Fuzz (which had director Edgar Wright's trademark frenetic editing), Clerks 2 felt like a slow film. I think Kevin Smith might be more suited to shorter TV episodes than film, as while his films are funny, they just don't have that something special to make them really stand out as a "film", especially when compared against Hot Fuzz! (It'll probably stand alone after repeated viewing, though.) The stand out moment of this film had to be "pillow pants", and you are going to have to watch it to understand what that reference is all about!
I give Clerks 2 a 3.5 (maybe a 4 if it grows on me after repeated DVD viewing) out of 5 for a funny nostalgia trip.

The dichotomy of London - guns and graphic novels

Last Saturday night I went to a "Graphic Novel Event" at Streatham library, where the library staff invite people in the comic industry to come and talk about their work (I went to one last year which was quite good). However, the previous Saturday night, a kid had been shot dead at the local ice skating rink further down the high street. This is a classic example of what it is like to live in London: one one hand you have a "cultural" event where intelligent people go to discuss/enjoy an aspect of the Arts, while on the other hand you have kids shooting each other, probably because one of them got "dissed". Anyway I'm not going to get into the social/cultural/economic reasons for these divisions, and continue with what happened at the library.
David Lloyd, who is most famous for having drawn the 'V for Vendetta' series, was there to promote his book 'Kickback', mainly because his publisher has done such a poor job of it. David's been in the business since the late 70's (I think), and had quite a few things to say about the comic industry (mostly negative, but interesting). He bemoaned that most comics are about super-heroes and that the two big publishers (DC and Marvel) are very rigid in their ways and not open to change, especially in promotion to attract new readers. He did mention that the Japanese "Manga" comics are really booming at the moment, as they offer a good chunk of reading material at a cheap price and that is what the kids are reading, while it seems mainstream comics are being read by an older audience (i.e. me!).
Since manga has kicked off quite a bit in the last few years, the team at the library got two young women who are creating their own manga series to give a talk about that. I can't remember what the title of their series was, but it sounded so awful that I don't really mind not remembering. They are in the process of getting a publisher to see if they'll print it, and I wish them the best of luck, but it sure wasn't my cup of tea! I'd like to think that I have quite a broad reading spectrum, and am always open to reading new and different things, but unfortunately this won't extend to what they were doing. The basic storyline was of people working in a mental institution in a parallel world where magic is used to heal people, but all the characters seemed to be fairly dysfunctional themselves, with a lot of them trying to commit suicide or self-harm. Is this what the kids want to read these days? Is that what female readers want to read these days?? Yeesh!
Finally, the last person to talk at the event was Paul Gravett, a comic guru who writes books on comics and organizes lots of comic-related events. This guy is really smart, a great public speaker really knows his stuff, but as the other people had talked for a long time, his time was cut short, which was a great shame, as he was probably the most interesting speaker. His latest book is on the history of UK comics, and features a lot of the comics I read as a kid. It was weird growing up in Australia and reading UK comics like the Beano, Whizzer & Chips, Topper, the Broons, Oink etc, but I remember them nonetheless. (I read these comics as a pre-teen and then moved onto Batman, Superman, X-Men etc as a teen, with the Transformers comic acting as a buffer/lubricant between the two.) His enthusiasm for comics, graphic novels etc is really contagious, and he believes that the comic industry, especially the UK comic industry, will rise again (as it declined rapidly with the growth of computer games in the 90's).
Anyway, no gangs came running into the library to pop any caps in any asses, but there were a lot of police outside the ice rink as I passed by on the bus home, but they were there as a deterrent for any repeat events. Who said Saturday nights were dull?!?

What a great idea!

Once again, Australia leads the way!

http://www.toiletmap.gov.au/

Snow, Man!

I made a snowman out the following materials: snow, a traffic cone, some sticks and 2 x 1 pence pieces. The result = modern art!

More snow!

Heaps more snow today - it came down sometime this morning, very quietly, and continued until about 11am. Surprisingly, the trains weren't too badly effected, so I got into work OK :(
Oh, and I only fell over once on the way to the train station!

Perception of Australia on British news

The fact that a small crocodile ended up in someone's swimming pool in Australia made it into the BBC's headlines this morning. Similarly, if anyone is attacked by a shark, bitten by a snake or lost in the desert, this will almost definitely get in the news too. (Oh, and usually sport gets a mention too, but it's been very quiet recently considering the poor performance of the England cricket team.) So how come when I get bitten by a squirrel, this doesn't end up on the news in Australia?!?

Film review of 'My Super Ex-girlfriend'

Guy dates nerdy chick, nerdy chick just happens to be a super-hero, she's actually a bit highly-strung (i.e. loony), guy breaks up with her, she then decides to use her super-powers to make his life hell, etc etc. This could have been a good movie, but it just didn't seem to work very well. The special effects were reminiscent of the bouncy speedy effects used in The Mask, whenever sex was had, it was done with clothes on, and the all male actors just seemed just a bit on the ugly side to actually attract the women in the film. The super villain and the male lead's friend both came across as camp and bored. I give it 1.5, maybe 2, out of five. Maybe watch it if you are bored and there is nothing else on.