The Carrey

Arguably one of the most popular comedic actors of our time, Jim Carrey has starred in numerous both critically and publicly acclaimed movies. When it comes to acting, he has a great amount of talent for both serious and extremely bizarre roles.

Carrey is a funny guy, yes. Personally though, I'd like to smack him across the head.

So if you haven't heard by now, Jim Carrey has taken back his support of the movie Kick-Ass 2. Carrey himself stars in the movie as a militant weapon-toting character called Colonel Stars and Stripes. Carrey stated on his twitter recently that filming for Kick-Ass 2 had ended before the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre where several children and staff members where either shot to death or severely injured. Some of them crippled permanently. After the massacre, Carrey apparently decided that such violent movies as Kick-Ass 2 would be insensitive towards the victims and therefore he took back his support of the movie.

Now, this could have ended there. Carrey could have pulled back his support of the movie in light of the horrors at Sandy Hook, people (myself included) would have accepted his decision and that would be the end of it. However, the Sandy Hook shootings took place in December of last year. Kick-Ass 2 is set to release this coming August. Photography for Kick-Ass 2 ended in November. What this means is that Carrey has known how violent the movie was going to be for several months, known about Sandy Hook for several months but only NOW does he decide to pull back his support of the movie. This my friends, is what we in the business call a load of crap.

What this screams for me is that Carrey has felt this way for several months, but being the hypocrite this would make him, he waited for the paycheck to get passed. Thanks for the money suckers, Your movie sucks!

So why is this a problem? Why am I upset that a single actor suddenly changed his mind on a project - even if it is a project I have been looking forward to? Fuck it, right? Well, here's the thing. Mr. Carrey is, as I said, a very popular guy. Had it been a lesser known actor, I probably wouldn't have cared. But Carrey is likely to to completely ruin the sales for the movie on his name alone. Already mainstream media have printed articles with titles like "CARREY LEAVES VIOLENT MOVIE". Sure, you and I are reasonably invested in movies in general and we probably already decided whether or not to watch this movie. But the average viewer? The kind of people that only watch movies once in a blue moon? Let's just say that it's not going to be pretty.

I'm not saying that the average viewer isn't intelligent. Sure enough, they can be just as intelligent as anything. But unless you have a vested interest in movies you most likely aren't going to hear both sides of this argument. Most people will read the article "Carrey leaves violent movie" and decide not to watch it because an actor they like decided it was bad news. This movie is going to lose needed viewership because of a combination of ignorance and outrage. I can already hear the outraged soccer moms scream in disgust as I type this article.

Now, this isn't just about the movie losing sales. Carrey, to me at least, is also kind of insulting the viewer in taking back his support of the movie. What he is basically saying by doing this is that violence in media leads to violence in real life because the average viewer, in his eyes, isn't able to tell fantasy from reality. He'll still take money for appearing in it, so fuck that. 

So how can he win back my respect? By standing by the decision he's taken. Simply going back on his own words and saying "Oh wait, I changed my mind, go watch Kick-Ass 2 everyone!" would piss me even more off. One thing is making a stupid decision, that's annoying enough as it stands. An entirely different matter is going back on your own word due to peer pressure. That's just spineless. 

Mr. Carrey, You've fucked up. Now stand by it and stand tall. I'll keep defending your movies to my dying breath, but please take another minute to consider what you're doing and WHEN you're doing it. The when is sometimes, and especially in this case, more important than the what or the how.

- Later days.

Offspring Fling!

The game really isn't as creepy as the title may sound.

Sometimes it's nice to just sit down and relax with a nice puzzle platformer. This is exactly that. Lately I've not been one for big games but more something I can play for a bit and then quickly stuff away when I've had my fill. This game fills that purpose quite nicely. In Offspring Fling! you play some sort of bunny.. thing. You purpose is to get all of your offspring to the door in the level by flinging them through various obstacles, activating buttons and whatnot. There really isn't anything else to it. The artstyle is cute and fuzzy and the puzzles are just hard enough to keep you interested throughout.

I've had this game for some time now but I've not really played it before recently. Reason is that I got it in a Humble Indie Bundle and then just kind of forgot about it. Call it a pleasant surprise if you will. I even only booted the game when I did because I heard the game had become part of Steams Trading Card system. In hindsight, I'm kind of ashamed I didn't try this out sooner because it actually is pretty good. It reminds me of Braid, another puzzle platformer I just kind of bought and forgot about originally.

While certainly a good game art and game-play-vise,
the story for Braid was just kind of pretentious and confusing

This game is nothing like Braid though, it knows exactly what it is and it doesn't try to tack on some kind of artsy fart-sy drama on top of it that no one but the creator actually understands. The artstyle is cute, the music is cheery and simple, and the story is the most wayforward ever: Your family is attacked by a dinosaur, so your offspring scatters. Go collect them!

So why I am I talking about this game at all? Escapism mostly. There's some issues with my school-transfer endangering my entire livelihood (In my country, students are granted a monthly payment from the state). I'm expecting to have my grades put into the national exam database today so I can send out applications to the next stage of my education but I fear there may be some technical difficulties for various personal reasons. On top of that, my father has finally gotten told by his doctor that his liver is giving in after years of light-alcoholism so my life is kind of stressful. This makes me write as escapism, mostly reviews for Kaiser Critics. 

Anyway, I'll keep you posted.

Later days.

Batman

So I've bashed Christopher Nolan on this blog a couple of times. Needless to say I am not a fan of his methods nor his movies. But that's not exactly what I want to talk about. I want to talk about comic books.

Lego Batman the movie: DC Super Heroes Unite (2013)

Lego Batman the movie: DC Super Heroes Unite (2013)

Beginners Guide: Team Fortress 2

I've been playing Team Fortress 2 for quite some time now, considering myself a pretty decent player. However, some newer players make choices in the game that to me just defies logic. Therefore I provide you with this short list op tricks I've picked up for new players:

In General:

• Before choosing a class, please consider the setup on your team. If your team already has 3 Heavy, pick a Medic or at least another class.
• Don't let dying dishearten you, thankfully dying doesn't play quite as big a role in this game as in most others
• If you get an item drop, please wait to check it out or equip it till after the round is over. You're needed in the game.
• If you get a losing streak, don't take it out on your team mates OR your adversaries. Just carry on carrying on.
• Changing class rapidly helps no one, try to keep it to a minimum
• If you and your friends are on an English server but NOT native or at least adequate English speakers please consider not using voice chat and maybe using Skype instead, communication is awesome but listening to a language you don't understand can just be confusing and distracting. 
• If you ARE adequate at English or a native English speaker and discover someone not following the above rule, please hesitate to be in their faces about it. Be polite. Always be polite. Remember, you can just mute them if you're not using the voice chat anyway.

Batman (1966)

Batman (1966)

Lots of morereviews up since my last post :D