Monday, 25 June 2012

Opinion: Books Vs. Films

Like Religion Vs. Science, Man Vs. Woman and Xbox360 Vs. PS3, there is a debate which starting to wage war against paper and cameras and that is whether the book or the film of a certain story is better.

I know so many people who would say books are better, but there are a few points I'd like to give.  Firstly, in most cases the book came first, we as humans always like the original and hate change, I bet if were the other way round, people would say the film is better.  Secondly, a book doesn't become popular until the film comes out.  Only a few die-hards would've known Twilight and The Hunger Games were books before they became multi-million dollar franchises.  Now Harry Potter is the exception, but the popularity exploded when the first film came out, thus the books became incredibly popular.  That wouldn't happen if the book was better than the film.  Thirdly, the films make so much more money than the books, people generally love films, they use both the eyes and ears, you can see people and relate to them easily.

Now, book lovers will say the book goes into detail and you can imagine it, however, a book takes too much commitment, it could take days or weeks to finish a book, you have to remember what happened previously and if you don't, you don't know what's going on.  A film takes two hours, you can sit down and enjoy for a short period of time and you don't have to keep coming back to it.  I find it much easier to commit and relate to a story if I watch it in one go, I don't like watching TV shows week-by-week, I love watching it all in one sitting.

I know people are going to disagree with everything I just wrote, but that's just me!

Friday, 22 June 2012

Opinion: Making The Bus Monitor Cry

From one opinion to another.  This has been making news all week and I actually watched it and boy was I sick.  I defend teenagers to the end, but even this made me shamed to be a teenager.

Basically, this video is ten minutes of kids verbally abusing an innocent woman for no reason.  I watched parts of it, no way could anyone watch the whole thing from start to finish without screaming with rage or crying with disgust.

The one thing which really upsets me is the fact that these kids are around my age, perhaps younger and there is no way that I, or anyone I know who's my age, would ever do that, let alone film it, the only logical reason for this being online is because the kids doing it wanted to seem tough and cool, whereas it comes across as just plain sad.

To anyone who watches this and hates all teenagers now, I must say, we aren't all like that, it's just a minority ruining our generation and these kids and the rioters from last year aren't doing us any favours, so hate the "excuses for humans" we call children, don't hate the rest of us.

If you are brave enough to watch it, the link's below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l93wAqnPQwk

Opinion: Cheryl Cole

My first ever opinion review on one particular person and I thought we could start with a national treasure.  Singer Cheryl Cole is one of the nation's most loved people, she's gorgeous, she's nice and she makes music people enjoy, but there are a couple of down points.

One of the main problems is the singing, she can't sing very well, no matter what it is she attempt to sing.  This does confuse me, as she won a talent show pre-X Factor, so she won on the basis of actual singing ability, so what happened ten years ago?  Well, Cheryl won as part of a group, so she's always had four other voices backing her up, a solo career means singing alone, no other voices to back her up.  She must've had talent, maybe the publicity got her away from the vocal coach.

There's no denying Cheryl is attractive, she's a male fantasy, constant winner of Sexiest Woman in the World and envy of women across the country, my personal opinion,  I don't see it.  She's too skinny, to me skinny isn't attractive, she's pretty in the face and that's it, men might think I'm mad, but that's my opinion.

What Cheryl needs to do is to find a new job, singing has given her a platform but there are probably things she can do better, modelling is a possibility, dancing too, but there aren't any megastar dancers.  She needs a man too, one that won't mess her around, she said that she has a thing for Prince Harry, I say Harry should go for it, they'd make a great couple, and it'd be good for gingers too!

Thursday, 21 June 2012

News: Join me on Facebook!

This blog now has a Facebook page!!  It's basically for letting you know when new posts are available and also what to expect in the future.  Feel free to like the page, exclusive previews of upcoming posts will be on it, as well as instant updates and maybe a few trailers for films and TV shows I'll be talking about in the future!

http://www.facebook.com/JamesBoothsWhatInTheWorld

TV: Man Vs. Food

The show that makes McDonalds looks like a gym is of course Man Vs. Food.  It's presented by Adam Richman, a food fanatic who travels around America to find restaurants which have odd meals and tough challenges.

There's something very addictive about this show, you can sit back, relax and watch a guy talk about food for 30 minutes, what's not to love?  As a self-confessed foodie myself, I love the fact that the show is more than just people scoffing mammoth amounts of food, if anything it praises good food made by independent restaurants and gives them much needed publicity.

Now, you do get people saying shows like this are disgusting as eating contests are a bit gross and food should be enjoyed, not force fed for glory, these people have never watched this show.  It's so much more than an eating contest for half a hour, the contest is the last five minutes, it looks at incredible food and praises not only the quantity, but the quality too, most of the big foods have either won awards or are locally famous, Richman also meets people who travel miles just for the food, that's commitment!

Sadly, the show has finished, but it still gets played on TV and is developing a loyal fanbase both in the US and UK and has made a star of Adam Richman, who is perfect for the job, he knows how to talk to people and can get people laughing, even if his mouth's on fire or his stomach is close to bursting.  So, tasty food and a loveable host makes this show almost perfect and I recommend it to food fans across the globe!

News: GCSEs scrapped for O-Levels

The big news story of the day is the scrapping of GCSEs for the much tougher O-Levels.  Michael Gove has announced today that by 2014, GCSEs are history and O-Levels will be re-introduced into the curriculum.

Now, I've already done GSCEs, so I feel obliged to give my opinions about this story.  I personally don't mind if the GCSE is removed, I disagree with the fact that they are removed for being too easy.  I did GCSEs for two years and I can tell you, it's no picnic, they are difficult, not as difficult as A-Levels, but they are suppose to be harder. 

Of course the middle-aged politicians are going to say they are easy, most of them have had a good education and they did O-Levels many moons ago.  Also, has anyone considered that most kids are quite smart?  The negative stereotyping of a few teenagers (last year's riots come to mind) has given adults the impression that all of them are stupid, anti-social 'chavs'.  I'm not saying there aren't any of these, but not all of them are.  I know that there are kids out there that care about their future, revise for exams and take it seriously, I'm one of them and I know even more of them.

So, the notion of GCSEs being easy is ridiculous, I've been through it and so many thousands of others.  I just hope that the new O-Levels won't affect people's futures too much, I can say that an exam doesn't measure a person's intelligence, there are many ways to determine how clever people are but if exams are the way to go, don't make them too hard, the future of the nation does depend of it.

Film: Monsters University Trailer

Any Pixar die-hard will know that yesterday saw the trailer for the long-awaited sequel to Monsters Inc.  And I must say, it looks incredible!

We all know it's going to be about how the dynamic duo Mike and Sulley met, but I've got a feeling there maybe more to it.  The trailer promises college escapades, such as turning the ball shaped Mike into a disco ball, which is the best thing ever, but there has to be more.  The beauty of a film is presenting a dilemma and seeing how the characters solve it, it doesn't really work if the whole film is seeing whatever college monster students do.  Knowing Pixar, they'll have something up their sleeves, plus their teaser trailers never give the plot away, so I am very excited to see what happens and I rate this as the first must-see film of 2013!

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Film: In Time

In Time is a 2011 film starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde, Cillian Murphy and Alex Pettyfer.  It's about Will Salas (Timberlake) trying to change a world where time is currency and the rich live forever.

First of all, as soon as I heard about this film, I was instantly interested, a world where time is literally money brings up a lot of ethical and social issues and I wanted to see how they were handled.  I must say they were handled very well, you can tell a lot of preparation and thought went into conceiving a world like this. 

Two things I particually enjoy about this world is the casual use of time as currency, there were constant references to the price of things, from coffee to bus fare to hotels to casinos.  Second was the fact that everyone in this world looks 25 or under, you can't tell who's young or old, it took me by surprise when Timberlake's character called Olivia Wilde mother, they around the same age in real life.  Another thing about this is we see Philippe Weis's (film's baddie) mother-in-law, wife and daughter (played by Seyfried) together, they all look the same age, it's very freaky!

The film's plotline was simple enough to understand, but it did leave very little to be resolved, a world where currency is time which equals life leaves little to change, the green numbers on their wrist were actually genetic, not technology grafted onto them, so you couldn't deactivate them.  Another thing that concerned me was the main plotline itself wasn't focused on a lot, most of the film was Timberlake and Seyfried's characters getting to scraps and trying to get time to keep them going, but the film itself is over 100 minutes, that's a lot of currency for them!  There was also an unanswered question; What happens when they sleep?  Does the timer keep going or stop?  If you sleep for around 8 hours and the poor can't afford 8 hours, how do they live?  Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

The acting was surprisingly good, I expected Justin Timberlake, a boyband member, to be a terrible actor and was brought in for a pretty face, but he surprised me, Amanda Seyfried was decent and Cillian Murphy was very good.  It was a shame Olivia Wilde wasn't in the film too much and Johnny Galecki (Leonard from TBBT) wasn't in it nearly enough, same with Matthew Bomer (Bryce Larkin in Chuck.)

Sci-fi fans may not think too highly about this film, but it's definitely one to watch.  I recommend this film to pretty much anyone, it will make you think about the social class system, but there's enough action to wet your appetite.

Film: Avengers Assemble

A couple of months ago, I reviewed the Avengers film series in preparation for the film, now the film's been out for a couple of months and it's the 3rd highest grossing film of all time, so I feel the time is right to review it.

We all know the score, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye join forces to defeat Loki, Thor's adopted brother who brings alien baddies to Earth and soon the world's in trouble and it needs protecting.  Cue the Avengers!!

This film is basically a comic book fan's wet dream, loads of superheroes fighting together.  What I love is the crossovers, you get Iron Man and Captain America working together and Thor and Hulk do a little teamwork too.  You've got Iron Man's intelligent put-downs, Captain America's leadership, Thor's general awesomeness, Hawkeye's accuracy, Black Widow's skills in combat and Hulk's SMASH!!  Plus Nick Fury watching over them, I was expecting him at one point to say "I've had it with this motherf***in' aliens on this motherf***in' Earth!" or "Say what again, I dare you!"  Sadly not, though there was a stupid ass idea involved.

Something else that I loved was the comedy.  There were a lot of jokes and visual gags, we all know which ones we loved, something involving a big green man beating up two gods, on separate occasions.  Iron Man was on perfect sarcastic form and Hulk even got a couple of jokes too!

So, this is the perfect blockbuster; comedy, action, explosions, an easy-to-follow story and heroes uniting to kick some butt!

News: Blatter Wants Goal Line Technology

So, England are in the quarter finals, good news!  However after the Ukraine goal that wasn't allowed, FIFA boss and general anti-Brit Sepp Blatter wants to introduce Goal Line Technology.

Now this has really annoyed me and the rest of Britain, not because he wants to introduce GLT, that's a good thing, makes the competition fairer, it's annoyed us because of the timing.  Any hardcore England fan will know that Frank Lampard scored a goal in the England/Germany game in the World Cup two years ago.  We moaned and groaned to introduce GLT to major tournaments, but FIFA had none of it, we moved on.

Now as soon as it matters to England's success, Blatter wants GLT and says "it's a necessity", if it is so important, why now?  Why not two years ago?  Why not ten years ago?  If that goal was allowed, then England would still be in the quarters, but we would play Spain and we'd be screwed!

Maybe I and the rest of England are reading too much into this, maybe the amount of disallowed goals has gotten to a point where GLT is needed, though it's very coincidental it should happen as soon as England win and we play Italy, a good team, but much easier to beat than Spain.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

TV: Married... With Children

This show is a cultural milestone for comedy.  It broke the mould of family based comedy and made it funny to point out people's weaknesses.

The story follows Al Bundy, a former football star who ended up as a shoe salesman and general failure.  He's unhappily married to Peggy, the red-headed, money-grabbing wife who makes it her goal in life to ruin Al's.  Their kids are Kelly, a blonde bimbo with no intelligence and Bud, a socially awkward genius.  Their neighbours are Marcy, a feminist who hates Al.  She was married to Steve Rhoades until he left and she married to Jefferson D'Arcy.

This show really interests me as it's a kind of show I don't usually like or watch, yet for some reason, I can't get enough.  I think it's because you feel sorry for Al, well I do, you want him to succeed just once and it never happens, mainly due to Peggy, who I've deducted to be the baddie in this show due to her constant spending and her hatred of Al.  Al has a reason to hate Peggy, Peggy hates Al cos he hates her!

The main source for comedy is of course, the put-downs.  They are mainly from Al to Peggy or Marcy, but Peggy and Marcy do bite back, plus Bud and Kelly have a good sibling rivalry, any brother and sister know what it's like to have someone who just knows how to push your buttons.

Something else I've noticed is the lack of resolution or moral, it's not a show which teaches you life lessons, it's to laugh at idiots who don't know better and make your life seem less pathetic, which does feel good!

In a weird way, I think Al does get what he wants in the end.  Any Modern Family fans know Al Bundy is played by Ed O'Neill aka Jay Pritchett, so in some kind of strange TV realm, Al is divorced from Peg and married to a young, beautiful Columbian and has two successful adult kids.  So in a way, Al Bundy comes out on top!

News: It's Euro Time!!

Well the group stages are over, England are through and they have a fighting chance, can anything be better?  Well...

First of all, the pre-match and post-match analysis on both channels is incredibly dull, I personally don't want to re-watch all the good parts and determine what they should've done, it's in the past, move on!!  The commentary is also dull, I know no more than what I knew before they spoke.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the competition, it's one of the few times that the nation gets together and supports the same team, though you get the haters who think the England team are a bunch of over-paid man-children (which they are,) but that should be left aside.  I like the players who play for the love of the game, not the size of the cheque.  It strikes me that Ronaldo, Rooney and Balotelli are in it for the money, they enjoy the lifestyle more than the game, nothing wrong with loving the lifestyle, just don't be idiots about it!

At this time, you also get the "experts"  who shout at the screen and say how it should be done.  There is no point, 1: They can't hear you 2: What's done is done, move on!  Roy Hodgson seems to be doing just fine and we're winning, don't complain about one missed free kick, focus on the on-target goals!

So, the knock-out stages begin on Thursday and as usual, England are last to play.  Everyone will predict Spain, Germany, Portugal and England for the semi-finals, it would mean we would face Germany in the semis, but a semi final knock-out will be just fine, we knew from day one we wouldn't win, but at least if we lose with some dignity, we'll move on and wait for 2014.