I’m not going to spend my time writing a review because I can’t be arsed, however, I will say that I enjoyed it immensely, and as I had previously written, the movie was exactly as I imagined it to be.

This article today is my personal opinion on reviews and comments from some of those that watched the movie. I am going to critique the critics. Some of these comments left me shaking in anger, (what else is new), and much in the way of pure vitriolic hatred spewed forth from my mouth, as some of the comments I read were just plain stupid.

Although I do not wish to repeat myself too much, what exactly did these moronic inbreds expect? Well, I am going to call it the “Dark Knight Effect“, (a brilliant movie and one you won’t see me insult in any way at all), because I believe people were expecting something a lot more “adult”.

“Character Development” was something that came up in a number of complaints, which left me both shaken and stirred. For god’s sake - THEY’RE GIANT MECHANICAL FUCKING ROBOTS. What more do you want from them? - Talks on philosophy? Discussions on Sun Tzu’s The Art of War? A deep dark love affair between Sam and Arcee? Please, tell me, tell me what you want because I don’t have a clue and I don’t think you do either!

If a movie like Transformers went “Dark” I don’t think it would have been half as good as I found it. Movies like Batman and X-Men have decades of comics and writers behind them. Transformers was based on a cartoon, which was based on a toy range. Yes there were comics and some of them were borderline “Dark”, but for a movie, it just wouldn’t fit. Transformers needs to be big, brash and balls-out. It needs explosions, guns and missiles, if only for the fact that nothing else would work for a movie like this.

The critics are no better. I don’t know what they thought they were going to watch, but to say that the movie was made worse by the introduction of more robots is lame. Why shouldn’t people want more? Star Wars wasn’t made any worse by the introduction of more characters in The Empire Strikes Back was it? Once again the critics show themselves as nothing more than wannabe authors and hacks. Fuck them.

The witless prattling that some of these people made was just to prove how anti-Transformers they are. Why did these people pay good money to watch it? Why did they feel the need to watch a movie just so they could rush home, sit in front of their computer screens and write unnecessary bile about a popcorn movie? Well, they probably have nothing else to waste their time with.

I can only imagine that when they were younger they probably wanted mummy and daddy to buy them some Transformer goodies for Christmas, but received nothing more than a loaf of bread wrapped up in their own overblown sense of self-worth. So now the living breathing pus-buckets sit in front of their PC screens trying to offload their angst on to other people. Well, like a lot of good folk, I’ll ignore them, because I enjoyed the movie and I managed to do so by not expecting too much.

There are movies I hate, some I downright despise, but I’m not going to waste my time telling people how much I hate them. These movies get made because people go to see them, and these idiots writing about it have paid money to see a movie they’ve hated, so I guess the jokes on them.

P.S. To the people that do like it – How cool was Soundwave and Ravage? Seeing them was one fanboy moment I’ll never forget!

Written by: Arron Kasady ……Roll Out!

I have watched the trailer countless times. I’ve wept with joy at the brief appearance of Jetfire, I’ve fallen to my knees and praising the gods of cinema at the thought of seeing The Devastator in a live action and jumped up and down like a hyperactive teenager on a trampoline on hearing the words “The Fallen.” Some of you may not understand such excitement but those that have followed the Transformers Universe will understand.

What is that I hear you say - Why am I so happy in this piece when normally I want to take a nail gun to the world of entertainment? Well, fear not, that man hasn’t gone away because although I am excited at the nearing release date of the movie there is something that has been bothering me lately. It was something that I had expected to happen should have prepared myself for and, when it did happen, let it gently wash over me and ignore it but I’m not built like that and as normal, I’m wound up.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Big robots, big guns, explosions, death and destruction on a major scale and, to top it all off like a whacking great cherry on top of a pretty fine cake, an even bigger robot so big that it’ll even have trouble fitting on an IMAX screen. So, what is not to like? Well it would seem that some of you out there expect a bit more from this movie - check out some comments on YouTube and certain film sites – you wanted a darker turn ala The Dark Knight, you want better dialogue from the characters, scenery chewing from the human element of the movie, and some of you wanted Michael Bay gone because he couldn’t handle the franchise. There were other comments but I’ll if I list them all I’ll be here all day.

Should this film be made to appease those that expect more from the movie business? Should it be made for those that consider film high art? Since when should a film about giant robots be about interaction between the human characters. Okay, I’ll agree with the point that a movie lives or dies by its script and how well the characters come across on screen but I’m not expecting the ‘Othello’ of robots. I don’t want Optimus Prime to suddenly go Shakespeare and stand beneath a giant balcony proclaiming his love for Arcee in old worlde verse. I don’t want the film to go Hamlet and have Autobots sleeping with their own mothers and poisoning their uncles. Most of all I definitely don’t want to see Ironside break out into monologue enquiring about his entitlement to “a pound of flesh.”

It seems to upset some people that films like Transformers are made and think little of people who find enjoyment from it, but why shouldn’t we enjoy it? It’s a blockbuster which has a strong fan-base, has plenty of back-material to draw from and contains everything which makes a summer movie great.

As I write this I am currently carving a tally-mark into the wall next to my desk, counting down the days until I can book my IMAX ticket and enjoying the ultimate pop-corn movie. At least I know I’ll be enjoying watching Transformers 2 while the art crowd sit around a flea-ridden mini-screen in a pit of a cinema watching a short movie about the plight of Bolivian Pig farmers.

Out of the two - Which do you think will be remembered when the robots really do rise up and take over the planet?

I rest my case.

Written by: Arron Kasady

Look at the above sentence for a minute. Take it in: Nine words; nine words of pure hatred. I haven’t made it up, I didn’t just write it for effect so that people would see it and immediately want to read the rest of this piece; No, in fact, I copied this from a forum message-board (before it got deleted, thankfully) that was set up to discuss the new Star Trek movie.

Someone who hadn’t actually seen the movie had become irate by a few reviews that mentioned that the recently released Star Trek movie was set in an ‘alternate time-line’ to the series. Angered by this revelation, this person felt the need to loosen his tongue and write the above comment and other unwholesome things about the director and his family.

I just want to say this in response to him, and the other people who have there noses put out of joint by films that don’t match their vision of a well known TV/Comic Book franchises – “Get a fucking life.”

For gods sake, is it really that bad that a director wants to bring his own vision to a long running series? Is it that bad when a film based on a comic book omits a much-loved second-tier character? Does it really matter that a film-maker DOESN’T share the same views as the socially inept that sit around and do nothing but LIVE in a fantasy world where Star Trek and other films of its ilk are real?

Chris Pine - the actor playing James T Kirk – claimed he had calls from ‘fanboys’ in the early hours of the morning threatening his life because he had the audacity to be chosen for the role of Kirk AND, even though it has absolutely fuck all to do with him, had these morons complaining that William Shatner hadn’t been given a cameo role in the movie.

This guy, who wanted nothing more than to bring his own version of Kirk to the screen, had to put up with these in-breds threats over something that has really nothing to do with him. Didn’t these idiots stop to think that William Shatner hadn’t received a cameo offer because he looks like a bloated whale that’s been dipped in candy and has a heart that is about to explode at any given second? Do you really think the director would want Shatner- meat’ all over his cast and crew? At least Leonard Nimoy still looks cool.

It makes me so angry that there are people out there who take it all so personally. It’s not just Star Trek either, Transformers is another example. I am a Transformers uber-fan; not just the film but the cartoon and the comics. I for one am pissing my pants in excitement over the recently released final trailer for the upcoming sequel but guess what? Not everyone shares the same over-excited view as me. Some people are a little put out by Devastator (for those that don’t share the same passion for 60ft tall kickass robots as me: just wiki it.) being turned into a gorilla ‘type’ robot who has to walk around on all fours. Who the fuck cares, the film-makers are trying to make it realistically as possible! You have giant robots created using the finest CGI ever put to screen, wreaking havoc on screen - Go to the cinema, eat your damn popcorn, sit back, watch the film and don’t give a shit.

I’m not going to talk about some of the other problems ‘fan-boys’ have with the Transformer movie because I’ll most probably get so wound up I’ll implode and create a new-born star right here in my office.

I don’t give a damn if my favourite comic book villain (Carnage, for those who care) is left out of a Spiderman movie if Sam Raimi doesn’t think it’ll fit. I don’t care if Spock goes insane and kills Scotty if it means a better movie comes out of it. I don’t care if Megatron never makes the transition to Galvatron because some people wouldn’t understand is. If a movie fails it’s because it hasn’t entertained EVERYONE and not just the people that have followed it from day one, wear the T-shirts, buy the boxes-sets and have their own replica props - It’s called business.

At the end of the day, film-makers will always bring their own ideas and vision to the screen. It’s inevitable that things will be left out for the sake of making a good movie. That’s all film-makers want to do - make a good movie that everyone can enjoy, and all I want to do, as an avid film fan, is pay my money and be entertained.

Word.

Written by: Arron Kasady

I was always a firm watcher of LOST. Every ‘LOST’ I would sit down when it was on and watch avidly at the escapades of the survivors, moaning at the constant breaks interrupting my viewing and the, way too loud, crescendo of violins at the end of every episode. But, as the weeks went on I began to record LOST and watch it at a later time. As the serious continued the time I got around to watching the recording began to get later and later until I was watching it at least a week later.

It dawned on me then how apathetic I had become towards the series, its plotlines, its idiosyncrasies, and in some cases I was beginning to hate the characters - Kate and her Madonna worshiping, steroid induced muscles; Jack and his annoyingly one dimensional presence whenever he is on screen; Juliette and her lack of ANY CHARACTER WHATSOEVER (don’t believe me? Watch any major moment in the current series; she never loses her ‘moronic plank’ expression).

I can’t say its all bad - although in some cases the writing most definitely is – Ben and Locke are always a good bet for an above-mediocre episode and I always seem to have a good chuckle whenever Jeff Fahey is onscreen, although I could put that down the “The Lawnmower Man” effect, but I’ve just LOST the love and I’ve moved on. Like a husband who realises his marriage is getting boring and has looked to pastures new for some excitement (”Oh Dexter, how I love you.”) I’ve asked for a divorce. I can’t take the vapid characters, the over the top fantasy, the relentless “We are going to try and fuck with your head so many times you won’t know which era you live in just for the fun of it”, I just can’t.

Believe me, I tried to give it all the love I possible could but I no longer can. Every time I watch it now I pray the Island teleports off, makes a slight miscalculation with its trajectory and ends up smack bang in the middle of a black hole. I would gladly pay a lot of money to see the sight of Jack whining his head off as his spine gets sucked through his arsehole into another dimension.

I’ll upset people with this, I know I will, but I can’t help it I’ve tried to stay interested, I really have. I’ve tried to get into the whole Miles being the son of Pierre Chang thing; I’ve tried to stop my sides from splitting at the flashbacks of Ben when he’s twenty-something and with a parting; heck, I even had a smile on my face when Hurley was writing the Star Wars script, but ultimately it’s all just me trying to paper over some ever widening cracks.

So it’s with a heavy duty machine gun in my hands, a nuclear missile pointed straight at the centre of the Island, and, with a paid assassin on the look-out for Alan Dale that I wipe a tear from my eye and bid a fond farewell to my love affair with LOST. It was fun while it lasted.

Written by: Arron Kasady

Buy LOST Complete Seasons DVD Boxsets Right Here -
Lost: The Complete Fifth Season DVD
Lost: The Complete Fourth Season DVD

Only last week were we told that a screening of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan in the US was interrupted by none other than Leonard Nimoy, so that he could play part of the latest movie for adorning fans instead. Shortly after this, at one of many Premiere’s of the movie, it received a supposedly six minute standing ovation. Die hard Trekkers have also described it as the best Star Trek movie ever. Can it really live up to this hype? Or is the publicity machine in overdrive now and we will soon experience a massive disappointment?

This movie attempts to tell the story of how our familiar Enterprise crew first meet each other, focussing primarily on the relationship between Kirk and Spock. The James Tiberius Kirk that the audience is introduced to, long before he’s been given the captaincy of the USS Enterprise, spends his evenings drinking and brawling in bars, where a chance meeting with an officer sends him on his way to Starfleet Academy.

On the other side of the galaxy, a young Spock is taunted by his Vulcan classmates for his half-human blood. He turns down an offer of a life spent in science and research to become a cadet himself.

Fresh faced Chris Pine is cast as the young Kirk, and he is joined by Heroes’ villain Zachary Quinto as the young Spock. Physically, he’s as close to Leonard Nimoy as you could ever get. We already know that he and Kirk are destined to become best friends, but watching their bumpy course to friendship will be entertaining to watch.

The teaser trailer began the marketing campaign as early as its appearance at the beginning of the movie Cloverfield. Since then there has been a constant trickle of photos and clips to keep the anticipation building.

Leonard Nimoy who also appears in the movie has been very active in the promotion of the movie, capitalising on the character he has inhabited for forty years now. He provides the link between old school Trekkers, and the new young fans who will not be that familiar to the Star Trek universe.

The trailer does promise plenty of action and special effects to keep your average movie-goer happy, along with the back-story and origins of the crew for older fans. But will this re-imagining of an old formula succeed? The last Star Trek movie Star Trek: Nemesis seven years ago was hardly a box office success, so maybe it is time for a fresh look at the franchise.

After waiting all this time we will soon know if the new Star Trek crew works or not. If it does, then you can guarantee sequels to follow very quickly. My only question about the new Star Trek movie is, ‘where is William Shatner?’

And the format is not just limited to animated movies; Live-action films like comedies, dramas and documentaries are being produced for the big screen 3-D experience. But why the sudden resurgence of 3-D films? What makes them any different from previous attempts into the third dimension?

3-D motion pictures have been with us as early as the 1890’s, when British film pioneer William Friese-Greene began to experiment with the process. He discovered that when two films were projected side by side on screen, the viewer could look through a stereoscope to converge the two images, and the illusion of 3-D was achieved.

The golden era of 3-D really began in the 1950’s with the release of the first colour stereoscopic feature film, Bwana Devil. Although 3-D films were still being produced during the early 1960’s, the second wave of 3-D cinema was started using a new technology called Space-Vision 3D.

It was in the 1980’s that IMAX began producing non-fiction films in 3-D, and the first IMAX 3-D fiction film was the 45-minute Wings of Courage in 1995. But since the advent of digital cinema, the technology has finally reached a level that really benefits the third dimension.

Exhibitors have begun to regain interest in 3-D films again. The technology needed for creating 3-D films has now matured, and shooting in the format is less limited, and the result is more stable than with previous attempts.

One of the main changes to the 3-D viewing experience are the red-and-green glasses that have now been replaced by Aviator-style shades. The images are now produced digitally so that the image is crystal clear and produce no artefacts that were present in previous incarnations.

Theatres are now having to compete with the home cinema market, and are able to offer an experience that people can only have in the theatre. And the majority of piracy these days is due to someone taking a camera into a movie theatre, but with 3-D films, this is not possible.

What other 3-D films can we expect in the near future? James Cameron is currently shooting his live-action drama Avatar in 3-D. Pixar studios are releasing five 3-D movies this year, including a 3-D-ified version of Toy Story. George Lucas has hinted that he may re-release all the Star Wars movies in 3-D. And Steven Spielberg is currently shooting Tintin in the format, with Peter Jackson doing the 3-D sequel next year.

But with more than 30 3-D movies currently in production, including Pixar’s Up and Disney’s Tron 2.0, it looks as though the third dimension is here to stay for some time yet.

You see, the writers of this series told the viewers that they didn’t have a clue what was happening. They claimed to have an idea how the series ended but getting there…nope…not a clue; they just made it all up as it went along. That was okay though, while there was 20+ episodes to a season they had plenty of television time to play with. They also claimed they had enough material for about nine seasons (which is a downright lie in my opinion) and they could keep the viewers entertained for as long as was possible.

Then the bomb dropped. They went to the TV Company to find out how much more time they had, and were told “only two more seasons to play and with reduced episodes.” Oh dear.

You see, what is REALLY getting on my nerves at the moment is that the writers spent the first three seasons faffing around, trying to tell as many stories as possible that now, with the lack of ‘episode time’ they seem to have realised “Oh shit, what are we to do now? We’ve opened up so many different story line branches we don’t have enough time to look at them all! ”

So what are they doing? Well, they are trying to close as many storylines as possible as quickly as possible whilst at the same time trying to keep the mystery going. The story is being thrown at us so quickly that it’s hard to concentrate. A few answers have been given to us but sadly a few of the other minor, but interesting, plotlines have been chucked to the wayside.

It could be that I am jumping the gun a little, there might be answers to the question I have coming up, but when the writers themselves tell us that they have decided not to carry on with some of the characters stories, I don’t hold out much hope.

The writers have very little time to try and give the viewers the answers they want, and I can only hope that they know exactly where they are going with the few new plot threads opening up, but, as it stands, and even though I know I’ll watch all of the episodes right up until the end (I have given 4 years of my life to this series, I am not backing out without finding out the answers), I can honestly say I am not so sure I care anymore.

So long as I find out what that big, four toed foot is about. If they palm me off with another few second shot of a giant statue and say nothing else about it I’ll be most upset and they won’t like me when I am upset.

Written by: Arron Kasady

The Mumbai-set tale of a young man whose destiny leads him to love and fortune via a TV game show was once considered the underdog of the awards season. The movie was without a distributor before it was picked up by Fox Searchlight and put on the path to the Oscars, where it scooped up honors from the Golden Globes, the SAGs, the BAFTAs before coming to the Academy Awards.

In the lead acting categories, Kate Winslet finally took home an Oscar for Best Actress for Holocaust drama The Reader, after six nominations with no win. Sean Penn picked up his second Oscar award for Best Actor for Milk, managing to beat hotly tipped Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.

Penélope Cruz was won Best Supporting Actress for the Woody Allen comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The late Heath Ledger was the expected winner of Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight, with the award being accepted on his behalf by his father, mother and sister.

The Harvey Milk biopic won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Man on Wire won the Best Documentary Feature award and WALL·E the was the recipient of Best Animated Feature.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which going into the Oscar was leading with a total of 13 nominations, had to content itself with three technical awards, for Art Direction, Make-Up, and Visual Effects. The Dark Knight took home Best Sound Editing, while period drama The Duchess won Best Costume Design. In the short film categories, Smile Pinki won Best Documentary Short Subject, La Maison En Petits Cubes took home Best Animated Short Film, and Spielzeugland was named Best Live Action Short Film.

Hosted by Hugh Jackman, who performed an opening song and dance number with assistance from Anne Hathaway, the 81st Annual Academy Awards show clocked in at a little over three hours. The highly-touted revamped broadcast moved the proceedings along glamorously if not as quickly as anticipated. Presenters, who in a break with tradition were not announced before the broadcast, included numerous past Oscar winners, who were enlisted to present the current acting awards. Appearing onstage were such stars as Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Ben Kingsley, Eva Marie Saint, Michael Douglas, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, and more. Steven Spielberg presented the final award of the evening, Best Picture.

The full list of Oscar Winners

2009 Oscar Nominations on DVD and Blu-ray

Lets face it, when you watch Slumdog; it’s not exactly original is it? It’s a simple “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy looks for girl, loses her again and then finally manages to bump into her at a train station for the obligatory happy ever after moment.” Just because it’s played against the backdrop of Delhi and Mumbai during India’s economic explosion and incorporates their version of a miserable game show, we are meant to believe it’s the greatest thing since the dawn of man? Come on, give me a break! Danny Boyle is just going through a ‘bollywood’ trip and it’s left the awards fawning at his feet like this film is some sort of second coming.

I can’t blame the movie for receiving all of this attention because the fault lies not with the film but with the judges on the various awards panels. It exposes them for their lame bandwagon jumping attitudes. If this film was set in America, would it have garnered such attention? I highly doubt it. Nope, this film, for them, is about showing the world how “liberal” and open minded the judges can be, but if the Baftas were anything to go by, then it’s a sham because it certainly didn’t deserve half of the awards it was presented with (I’m looking at you Best Music and Cinematography awards).

The panels at these awards are meant to pick films that are both exceptional and original. On this occasion they have failed miserably because Slumdog Millionaire is neither of these things. Considering the films it was up against at the Baftas and will be against at the Oscars then it was and will be picked purely on the basis of its aesthetic and cultural content. The stink of hypocrisy has been rife in the awards worlds for a while and its getting more rank with every passing year.

Now if you want my opinion as to whom should win best film then it has to be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, because a story doesn’t get any more exceptional or original than that.

Before I go I do want to say that the panels get it right every so often because it’s about time Mickey Rourke got an award because lets face it he is great, and The Wrestler is a much better film than Slumdog, yet did not even get a Best Film nomination at the Baftas.

Rant over.

Written by: Arron Kasady

Starring: Beyoncé Knowles, Idris Elba, Ali Larter, Christine Lahti, Bruce McGill, Scout Taylor-Compton, Ron Roggé

Director: Steve Shill

Release Date: April 24th, 2009
Release Date: 29th May, 2009

Studio: Screen Gems

Synopsis: Derek is blissfully happy in his career and in his marriage to the beautiful Sharon. But when Lisa, a temp worker, starts stalking Derek, all the things he’s worked so hard for are placed in jeopardy.

Obsessed Theatrical Trailer

Official ‘Obsessed’ Movie Website