John Mortell’s blog

I have no idea what this Hungarian film is about .. but I want to:

The Gifted Babies have a trailer up of their new film ‘Milton Murder Mystery’. It brought a smile to my face anyway…

Milton Murder Mystery Trailer from Gifted Babies on Vimeo.

This marvel/DC parody is much better than Inglorious Basterds:

Like everybody else it seems, I have seen the clip of Susan Boyle singing, and while I do not deny that she has a tremendously impressive voice, frankly I have found it hard to buy into the general ‘ugly duckling / swan story that has been built around her. Even if the story is a good one. But Clive James, over at the BBC, in my opinion hits the nail on the head about the story here. Follow the jump for the full article, but the important part I have attached in block quotes:

The facts, alas, say that in every opera house in the world the chorus contains at least half a dozen people with voices as good as Susan’s, and most of them won’t become stars, so all the hoo-hah about Susan’s sudden stardom was at least partly illusory, based on the dangerous notion that overnight prominence on television will always change reality permanently.

In the opera house, music ought to matter more than anything but it remains true that one of the reasons people flock to hear Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca singing together is that they look the part almost as well as they sing it.

Things shouldn’t be that way, but strangely enough they have become more and more that way in the last forty years, during the very period when feminism as a train of thought has done so much to educate us about the restrictive nature of expectations based on pulchritude.

When I first started attending Covent Garden in the early 1960s it was still quite common for the soprano to be an unlikely stimulus for the tenor’s cries of passion. Today, most of the sopranos look like film stars. It could be said that the more our primitive male prejudices are broken down, the more we all become free. But one of the consequences of freedom is that ticket buyers are free to choose, and it is likely to remain a fact that ticket buyers of both sexes will choose to see the imported dreamboat.

Susan might very well, after this, get a job in the chorus and even sell a lot of records, but if the press expects more than that it could be adding yet another chapter to a long story in which discoveries have been shoved onto the boards to fulfil a role in a fairy story which is fated not to turn out well.

… Is a rather enjoyable short film by Kyle Higgins. Though a little bit simplistic in its plotting, and even though the ‘villains’ motivations don’t really make sense, it’s a great looking, well designed movie set in 1960′s Chicago about a superhero union. The link for the film is here and just to give you an idea of the ‘style’ of the film, here’s a poster for it:

My mate Cethan worked on this film for the Bangor Film Festival. Its not bad in my opinion:

This Guinness ad is causing a bit of a fuss around certain websites. Personally, while I can see why people would be offended, I actually don’t see what’s so unpleasant about the ad tbh….

Banned Guinness Commercial – Watch more amazing videos here

Don’t exactly remember where I came across this, it’s been on my pc for years. Anyway, it’s more a curiosity but take a look:
Judge Dredd Advert

I only just heard about this movie, but I have to say, I’m quite impressed with their ‘fake’ presidential ads. What’s kind of worrying though is that I’m waiting to see something similar in real life… I especially like the ‘some of the facts in this ad are exaggerated, while others may be completely fictitious’ disclaimer at the end of some of them…

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I love the title of this movie, from the director of ‘Super Size Me’.. Watching this is certainly better than trying to study for my exam tomorrow, for which I don’t know what to do as my lecturer is the worst I’ve managed to have in the three years of my college career. Anyway, enjoy the clips & I love that the trailer has Gogol Bordello’s ‘Wanderlust King’ as the soundtrack: