Festivity!!!

Does this happen around the world? Probably. I am of course referring to the concentrated annual outbreak of festivity that is Christmas + New year. An excuse to party? I love to party and boy did I. In a two week window I gained an astonishing 5kg or 11 lbs. That's what happens when you spend every waking hour with cheese and or crackers wedged in your mouth.

I wasn't just eating, I was of course gaming and watching far too many films. A past time that used to take me to the cinema but owing to a cash flow issue, I have no cash, and no films coming out that really motivated me to get in gear to sit in a darkened room for hours on end. Scratch that...Birdman, I want to see Birdman and I've got a free ticket! The ticket is to see anything at any time but I kind of feel like I have to see something good or I'm not really getting the most bang for my buck. I wonder if that phrase has it's roots in prostitution, either that or fireworks. Maybe explosives in general.

I've just googled it and it stems from 1960's American politics, urgh politics. Thanks to some happy accidents I had access to three on demand streaming services: Now TV movies, Amazon Prime Instant Video and Netflix. This coupled with the return of my broski from his medical hermitage resulted in us watching upwards of 30 films in a two week period. If I maintained that pace all year I'd get through a mind bottling 780 million films a year. Only out by a factor of a million...

This is not a comprehensive list, Amazon don't seem to list the stuff you've previously watched! Gonna do a line, of coke, about each one.

This is only here to break up the block of text a little. Will Explain after the list :-D, scroll down.

Full credit to GoldenLegend for the artwork, you can find more of his stuff here.

Winter Soldier - three times! must watch with this commentary - By Mason and Mr. Sunday Movies
Wreck It Ralph - Lots of nostalgia to be had, not just for kids.
Fast & Furious 6 - It's preposterous and I love it!
Amazing Spider Man 2 - Baffling and terrible, villain overload, magic/poison blood...
A Clockwork Orange - Did not grab me right away, dnf. Will no doubt return to it.
This is the End - Many famous people not all that compelling, dnf.
Frozen - It was ok but did not live up to the mahoosive hype.
The Heat - Fun enough even with the sickly sweet ending.
Pirates of the Caribbean - Watched it to see Capt'n Jack ride a sinking ship into harbour.
The Lone Ranger - Pretty fun, more so because of two in jokes involving smoke and crows.
Kick Ass 2 - supposed to see this mid 2013 but wrecked myself, apologies to all involved
The Lego Movie - Fantastic :D
Darkman - Great stuff, early Liam Neeson.
Elysium - Was not expecting it to be so good!
Planes, Trains and Automobiles - Classic, Steve Martin + John Candy = fantastic.
The Monuments Men - Kinda boring, dnf.
Ride Along - Funny enough, think I only enjoyed it because I'm an Ice Cube/Kevin Hart fan.
Iron Man 3 - Not great, but you already knew that.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - Awesome, whimsical and there are men with beards.
Star Trek Into Darkness - Good so long as you don't think too much about it. Magic blood, urgh.
Pacific Rim - Giant robots fighting giant monsters = awesome. The rest not so much.
Thor: The Dark World - More Thor and Loki is always welcome, no sense of danger though.
The Wolf of Wall Street - Insane and funny.
X Men 1st Class - Good stuff especially with this commentary - By Mason and Mr. Sunday Movies
Advent Children - Good fights not as great as I remembered it.
Filth - Yet to finish it but it was compelling stuff..
Captain America - Punching Nazis, magic shield etc. what's not to like?
RoboCop - Reboot, plough through the first 20 minutes it gets a lot better.
Superbad - Nostalgic early morning viewing.
Iron Man 2 - Pretty good but ends in the same way as the first, probs studios fault for rushing it.
Baseketball - Classic.
Django - Superb Tarantino and even better Christopher Waltz!
Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang - Downey Jnr's return and I finally got to see it all the way through.
Hangover 3 - More of a chore as I'd seen the first two.
We are the Millers - Dnf but that's because my free trial ran out. What I saw was promising stuff.
Man of Steel - Bit of a downer but worth a watch.
Dallas Buyers Club - Jared Leto is a genius!
Rocky Horror - Fun songs, did not live up to hype but I want to see it live!
Argo - Very compelling, tonnes of tension. No real character development but still awesome.
The Crow - Brandon Lee's last film, died on set.

Italics means I've seen it before, dnf means did not finish. I wanted to elaborate on one, The Crow, anyone seen it? If you have send me a telegram, carrier pigeon or you could break the mould and leave a comment! Don't leave a comment, I'll get obsessed with comments if you do. Brandon Lee's crow looks like this:

Why so serious???

Remind you of anyone? Kick ass aussie fellow...was really coming into his stride...wore white face paint...once portrayed a fake knight, generic badass and a cowboy. I am of course referring to the late, great Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight as the Joker. You can use google, give it a gander, make up not so similar. But watching Lee's performance it's clear to see where a lot of the inspiration for the 2008 Joker came from. The Crow came out in 1994!

Back to the image from before the list. Scroll up, mentally or literally, did you see the "scroll down" in the caption? That's the logo for the Weekly Planet Podcast, the official podcast of Comicbookmovie.com, if you don't trust my links google them etc. The podcast is presented by James, Editor at Comicbookmovie.com, and Nick Mason, all round funny guy?/knower of many comic book related tings.

Find him here...

I first came across these two via Mr Sunday Movies youtube channel, James' alter ego on the interweb. If you scroll all the way down there's some embedded Batman goodness for your viewing pleasure. All the videos in the playlist are built around excerpts from the podcast so I was naturally inclined to listen to more. I started with the most recent and eventually went back and listened from the very beginning. 66 plus episodes and I've not been disappointed by any of them! So give them a listen, or don't. But definitely do! Because if you vaguely like comic books, superheroes and or films then you will be happy as Larry.

I was going to wrap this up after Larry, I mean how can I possibly top that? But then Phaseler swung into town. This is of course the ferociously hairy, demon from New Zealand...almost rhymes right? For those who don't know I used to live with this guy and he's like Walter White, in so much as he's well good at chemistry. And the name is an amalgamation of his first and last name. He was heading up north to check on the wall and visit his elder sister, Chaseler. She's married so I don't think she's Chaseler any more but I have no idea what the surname of her husband is. Pretty sure his first name is John, Jon, Jean, Jhon seems like a top bloke, chiselled face, strong handshake. I was leaving while the couple were arriving for a swift drink before heading home.

Rewinding back to the beginning of the day it was windy. Well the wind had been ripping across the beautiful British landscape since the day before, Friday the 9th of January. I had been outside to fuss my dog and feed him his evening meal. As I headed for the door I felt a firm push upon my bare neck, like someone was pressing an enormous hand into it. I turned sharply on my heels, little too sharply as I lost my balance had to steady myself on a nearby ladder. Was it some past foe come to wreak their bloody revenge upon my aged self? Was it the grim reaper finally come to take me away? Was it the mad Scotsman in the blue box? Nope it was the wind.

Wind related imagery to break up block text

In passing I let my folks know what I was planning for the next evening, trip to Doncaster for a catch up with the chemist and Chris, top bloke and kick ass photographer. He is in many ways like Jimmy Olsen in so much as he is good with a camera. Naturally my parents had hyped the wild wind into something that would tear me and my car from the countryside before being deposited in a field. I ignored their warnings mostly because I am petulant child. Setting off I had a little trouble getting to the car as the wind was so strong, I had trouble walking in a straight line. But once on the road not a wobble.

Arriving at the venue I bung a text to P n C before ordering up a combo platter. I sit down and stick Brooklyn 99 on my phone. Before I know it a strange man is haling me as he approacheth. As my aged eyes adjust and my mind compensates for the countless centuries I realise that this is Phaseler! I have to awkwardly unhook myself from my phone before going for handshake/fist bump and settling on the customary man hug. He immediately comments on how much smaller I am, since he last saw me I have misplaced some 10kg in bodyweight. I was indeed once a horse of a man, now more of a...I have no idea what animal aptly conveys my current physical state. Perhaps a donkey with a bad back?

He's timed his arrival well and my combo platter lands soon after. It was ok but you get a bit of everything thus it is not a great way to start a meal. I inquire about the absence of Huan and if he'll be heading back to Mordor. He explains about something called a verbal defence of his thesis. Some people check that you wrote it by asking you questions etc. Following that he'll be crowned the king of New Zealand, pretty sure that's what he said. And then the last member of our trio arrived.

A dramatic recreation of our parley...

We were well into the combo platter by this point. Chris had lost a load of weight as well, he was quite the specimen when we first met but owing to numerous injuries he'd lost his ripped physique. But he's back to being ripped and had freshly handed in his notice to pursue photography, awesome sauce. By pursue I mean career/business not like a predator stalking it's prey.

Chris had posted and update informing all that he was watching 10 Things I Hate About You the other night. This was met with an onrush of generic beration, not a word apparently but you know what I mean right? Some JGL talk later we arrived at the actress who played Bianca Stratford, also played Alex Mack in The Secret World of Alex Mack. Paul in forms me that the name of the girl from Smallville is also Alex Mack. I am vehement that that is not the case. Because I misunderstood what he meant. He meant the name of the actress who played Chloe Sullivan is Allison Mack.

I whip out my phone and furiously google the two so as to prove myself right. I explain that I've got 100GB of data with the limited edition sim. Turns out that's way more data than I could ever use in a month, especially with all the free wifi. I think we got on to the gerbil's that Chris kept, long dead. He now has an albino ferret. In the time between our meeting and me writing this monstrosity the aforementioned wind threw open the hutch of Chris' albino amigo. Being a curious so and so he went exploring and was eventually found several days later in a neighbour's garden. Turns out I know most of my mate's middle names. Why? because I care that's why!

There was talk of boardgames, something I enjoy but rarely actually get involved in. Partly because I am short on the time required to properly partake and mostly because I am ferociously impatient. Like a honey badger in a queue. I actually zone out and realise I should head home. My aged body has started to nod off. Only an hour so I down some orange juice, take a selfie and bolt.