Thursday, May 28, 2009

White Winter Hymnal

A very quick and sloppy sketch done after listening to Fleet Foxes' White Winter Hymnal. It's late and I don't even know why I'm posting this crap, to be honest. Brain Fart! :D

"I was following the pack
all swallowed in their coats
with scarves of red tied 'round their throats
to keep their little heads
from fallin' in the snow
And I turned 'round and there you go
And, Michael, you would fall
and turn the white snow red as strawberries
in the summertime... "

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Dead Snow sketch

That movie was asking for it. Just a puny little doodle on my sketchbook.

Latest Movies I've Seen part 1003

Ah, I miss those times when I had time to get over here and write lengthy reviews about all the movies I've been watching. I've been swamped lately, and with little patience to write, but at the same time I feel the urge to post about what I've been seeing, if only for my own future reference. So here is the list of the past few weeks, along with bite-sized reviews.

1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine


Blatant continuity issues, too many characters for its own sake (some of them very poorly handed, others just plain ruined), Wolverine was too "softy"... What can I say? I really like Hugh Jackman, but he played a better Wolverine on the X-Men movies. This one was just a disappointment. 2 adamantium claws out of 5.

2. Star Trek
This, on the other hand, was awesome. Very well handled reboot, with great visuals (even with all those lens flares), compelling acting by most of the cast (I especially liked the new Spock, and the old Spock played by Leonard Nimoy), and a solid story. It was very entertaining and I had a great time. 4 out of 5 Spocks for this one.

3. Fright Night


Classic vampire movie from the 80s, so you know what you're getting into. It's super cheesy, unintentionally funny at parts, with a ridiculous storyline, but it entertains you and there are actually a couple of scenes with cool special effects for the time. If you're into 80s cheesy horror, definitely give this one a look, you'll have fun. 3 out of 5 shapeshifting vampires.


4. Once


This may seem like the outsider on this list, but it was probably the one I enjoyed most. It's easy to be entertained by spaceships, outlandish aliens, mutants and whatnot, but when the simple story of two people connecting through music really gets you, then you know you're watching something special. Once is wonderful: very touching, very human, and with a beautiful soundtrack. Definitely recommend it, and give it 4.5 out of 5 Irish singers.

5. Dead Snow


Ah, my home turf. A zombie movie. But not just any kind of zombie movie: the kind with Nazi Zombies. Yeah. Let that concept sink in. This norwegian movie managed to be one of the best zombie movies I've seen lately (I think the last I had seen was Virus Undead, which was crap), with the right balance of humor and gore (reminding us of Evil Dead and Braindead, although much inferior to either one). I really enjoyed it, and I'm giving it 3.5 out of 5 zombies.

What have you been watching?

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Scott Pilgrimage

If you've been reading my blog lately, you probably already realized that I think Scott Pilgrim is awesome.

You also may know that there is a movie in the works, directed by none other than Edgar Wright (awesome director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). Well, Mr. Wright has a flickr account that he has been updating everyday with new shots of the cast and sets of the movie "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World", so I thought I'd share it with you guys. Worry not: the photos are pretty un-spoilerish, and they're a lot of fun to browse through. Head over to Edgar Wright's flickr by clicking here.

Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott's creator, also has a flickr account, that he regularly updates with convention sketches, comic thumbnails, con photos and lots of other cool stuff. I've had a blast going through the gallery, and I hope you do too, by clicking here.

And, since we're on the Scott subject, I'm taking the chance to pimp myself out and show you the Scott Pilgrim piece I finished a few days ago (in case you still didn't see it on my deviantart).


If you want to see more of my drawings, be awesome and click here, hopefully you'll enjoy it!

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Comics

Almost a month without updating this time... have I really been that busy? I guess so.
Either that, or I haven't been watching a lot of interesting movies to write about. This month I mostly re-watched some bad movies with my boyfriend Cosmic (I made him do it... I think it's important to see some crap once in a while, so you value good movies even more), but the ones I watched I already talked about in older posts so it's not worth doing it again. I could talk about Wolverine, but that was a disappointment, and, funnily enough, I don't feel like ranting today, for some weird reason. So, what can I possible update on? Let's see... comics. I'm going to let you know what I've been reading these days. Hopefully you find one or two good recommendations.

1. Wolverine: Logan


So, since I mentioned the Wolverine movie, I'm starting out with this one, penned by Y: The Last Man's Brian K. Vaughn (also writes some stuff for Lost, but I've totally fallen out with that show... but Y: The Last Man is awesome, though) and with art by Eduardo Risso, this isn't exactly a groundbreaking Wolvie story (it's hard to make one these days, because it seems like every angle of his misterious past as already been explored...), but it's very interesting anyway. It's set on World War II, and Logan was captured by the Japanese army while serving on the Canadian parachute batallion (or something along those lines). There he meets and american soldier and a japanese woman what will change his life. The writing is solid, but what especially caught my attention was Risso's art, that I though was absolutely kick ass. I never read 100 Bullets (the comics he's most famous for) but I just might have to look it up after this, because the guy kicks ass. 3.5 out of 5

2. Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together


Ah, Scott! These books are always a little bundle of joy to me. Scott and his gang had me on the first volume, and it's just been getting better. I love both Bryan Lee O'Malley's writing and his art, that while apparantly simple, is very dynamic and endearing. Scott's journey is filled with bumps on the road that we all can relate too, and his relationship with his friends, his girlfriend, his band, is a pleasure to follow and it almost makes you feel like you know those people (stupid thing to say, I know). His combination of slacker/hero is one of the things that makes this comic so great, and little things like a pannel showing him melting in the heat of his house playing Nintendo and still being too lazy to get up and get some water really make me smile. Plain and simple, these books make me smile and I'd recommend them anytime, anywhere. Can't wait to read number 5... I'm just delaying the pleasure a little, and trying to make the wait for number 6 less excruciating. 4.5 out of 5



It had been a while since I read a manga of any kind, but since this book was recommended to me and my boyfriend by someone who knows his comics (working in a comic shop kinda comes with that, I guess), he bought it and I read it first, because I'm a little leech like that :B Anyway, this was a pretty good surprise. And I really mean surprise, because I had no idea what this book was about. Turns out it was a cleverly written sci-fi/mistery story, that deals with a group of childhood friends, now adults, that must dig deep into their memories to try and stop the impending end of the world. It was a very enjoyable read, and it was pretty cool to see the storyline jumping back and forth from the 60's to the 90's. The childhood bits almost reminded me a little of Stand By Me... which is good. The characters were well-developed and endearing, the story was suspenseful and... well, I have to know what happens next. This definitely has my attention, and I'll try to get my hands on volume 2 soon. 4 out of 5


Mark's already a familiar face around my comic book shelves, and it's great to see he's still able to keep my interest fueled after all this time. It never ceases to amaze me how good the story is (and considering it's Robert Kirkman who also writes The Walking Dead, well, it's amazing how the guy keeps such consistent quality writing on such different styles...), how incredible the art is and how with each volume I just wish I had the next one to pick up and read right after. Invincible is one of my favorite comics ever, it has rightfully earned that spot, and if you're not reading it, you're missing out terribly. 4.5 out of 5


Last but not least, the best zombie comic to ever see the light of day is up to it's 9th TPB and keeps all the intensity that we're used to. After volume 8, this felt a little bit slow and uneventful, but it was pretty unrealistic to imagine that every book after 8 would keep that pace - I think people would die from art attacks just reading it. Don't get me wrong - this book still is rich in emotional intensity and action. The story is progressing on a very interesting direction, and I can't wait to see what comes next, because I feel like this was almost the calm before the storm. But sadly, the next volume will probably take a while to hit the shelves.

Besides this, I've been reading a lot of Sin City issues and other miscelaneous comics that my boyfriend awesomely lent me, so I can't complain about my comic life at all.

And I won't complain about movie life either... after all there are some decent movies coming out these next weeks.

What have you guys been reading? Any recommendations?