Ultimate TV Tie-In, Crystal Meth

With great TV comes great memorabilia; endless figurines, T-shirts and posters. Now Breaking Bad has topped them all with a distinctive line of blue methamphetamine sold in limited numbers only in Kansas City.

Not exactly an official product but more a crystal meth cooker giving a little nod to Breaking Bad. Unless they tried the alternate recipe we all learnt from the show and are now using it full time. Either way I’m really happy that Breaking Bad has got a dedicated audience, if a little unhappy that the dedication goes as far as selling harmful drugs.

Next up: Weeds branded cannabis and Hung inspired male prostitutes. Can’t wait.

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Out Now – 23rd July 2010

It’s Friday and you know what Fridays mean… PRIZES! Well actually films are released on days like these but if you do want something for nothing you can still go claim your free paintball tickets from The Expendables. If you’d rather sit in the dark experiencing some kind of narrative than run around a forest this weekend, let’s see what’s coming out.

The Rebound
It’s a generic Romantic Comedy so you know my normal over the top sarcastic response. This one involves an older woman falling for a younger man. Hopefully Ms. Deschanel will watch and learn to not feel shame for out love.

Splice
Adrian Brody confuses everyone again and totally at some point has sex with a creature he and some woman make in a lab. Speaking of that woman, three times in the trailer they make it look like she might die, then immediately show her alive and well later on in the film. Who can I trick into seeing this with me?

Baarìa (limited release)
This is an “autobiographic epic of three generations in the Sicilian village where” writer/director Giuseppe Tornature grew up. I love the name Giuseppe.

City Island (limited release)
Hidden among the good foreign stuff is an American comedy starring Andy Garcia unravelling and such. While the clip shown on Top Gear looked rubbish this could actually be good as limited release comedies often are. This isn’t a solid rule though.

Ivul (limited release)
What’s that you say Lassie? “Part nightmare, part fantasy, Ivul tells the tale of Alex, who bizarrely moves out onto the roof of his house and refuses to come down after a false abuse accusation. From there, he watches the family he loves, but can’t live with, as it destroys itself from the inside out.” Thanks Lassie, that sounds pretty good.

Lassie may or may not be linked to IMDb.

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Review – Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour

I’m not really supposed to review comic books but I’ll be brief. It has taken me a whole extra day to get my hands on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s final tome in the Scott Pilgrim saga thanks to slow delivery by Amazon. This is amusing in a way in that all the events in Scott Pilgrim stem from one Amazon delivery girl being ultra-efficient.

The final book provides a satisfying close to Pilgrim’s journey with the usual mix of jokes, emotions, fighting and the fourth wall being repeatedly broken. Some things I had predicted came to pass and some things I was completely wrong about, to say any more would ruin a great story. The art is the best of all the volumes and contains more huge anime eyes than any other.

This book was a joy and the entire series is one I will happily revisit. I doubt I will ever relate to another comic hero as much as I can with Mr Pilgrim.

It was interesting reading the final showdown having now seen clips from the trailer for the film and some obvious differences became apparent. But the film will have it’s day, for now let’s bask in the epicness that is the Scott Pilgrim comics.

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Review – Predators

Adrien Brody certainly takes on a good range of films. This year we’ve had a hopeless romantic in Brothers Bloom, a fieldmouse in Fantastic Mr. Fox and are soon to have a mad scientist in Splice. For Predators Brody unveils a new character as he becomes the gravelly voiced and big armed action hero. And he pulls it off too!

Without Brody Predators would just be a bad action/sci-fi/thriller but he manages to bring it up to a mediocre action/sci-fi/thriller. As a result the film was pretty enjoyable though did had surprisingly long sections where nothing particularly happened, I suppose these were to create “tension” but it didn’t really work.

None of the characters were particularly memorable and they were all completely unlikable. Topher Grace in particular managed to come across as a creep as he pretty much reprised his character from Spiderman 3. Grace’s best performance on the big screen remains in his small part in Valentines Day.

Having not seen any other films in this franchise (I know, I know) I can’t really compare it to the other but from the sounds of the first this contains slightly more of the actual Predators while retaining the jungle setting.

One thing I’ll say for the film is it doesn’t beat around the bush at the start… well technically the characters do… anyway the action starts right off with everyone falling from the sky.

In summary, it wasn’t very good but wasn’t painful to watch.

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Out Then – 19th July 2010

Somehow one of this year’s biggest releases went and came out in cinemas without me noticing. I blame the fact that it’s been out in America for AGES!

Toy Story 3

Apparently the most efficiently tear jerking film to hit the silver screen this year come from some familiar faces, the faces of some toys. As Toy Story 2 proved that a sequel can be as good as it’s predecessor it seems the third installment is keeping audiences happy a whole fifteen years after the original. How do Pixar keep making great films I ask you, ignoring for a moment the travesty that was Cars. You’re probably going to see this, if not… oh.

Don’t hold out for The Rebound, the best film this week is already out!

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