Episode 54: “Cute bike, aww”

In my previous post I talked about The Dark Knight ARG event, which led to a showing of the newest trailer (which I missed) in 12 major cities. At each screening one lucky person won a reel with the trailer on it and everybody thought it was only the trailer they had just all seen. And it is. Kind of.

The reel contains the exact same trailer, only every single frame in it has been defaced by the Joker! Chris Presswell, the winner of the London reel, discovered this first and you can find photographs of almost every frame on his blog. Some of the “comments” of the Joker are pure brilliance (I had to laugh at the “Me me me” and “Boring part”).

Now some of the other reels have actually been played in a projector and for our convenience been put on YouTube. So far we’ve got the Chicago reel and Dallas reel, and I’m sure the reels from other cities will follow soon. The cool part is the defacings were all done by hand and they differ between the featured reels. I’m curious to see if there’s also something of a hidden clue in this all.

The Chicago reel:

The Dallas reel:

I’ve been following the marketing campaign for The Dark Knight ever since their first “stunt” appeared a couple of months ago. Sadly most ARG related real-world activities had been previously only arranged for the US, forgetting (as usual) there are over seas fans just as willing to participate in these crazy events. Last Saturday I discovered the Joker’s website had been updated with countdowns to special events in 12 differet cities, including London. Yeah! Finally an event I can participate in!

The timer for the London event was counting down to Monday 28th of April 9:00pm and had this message along with it:

Gather with 300 of your closest friends at this exact spot on April 28th.

You’ll need to be in contact with a partner-in-crime who has online access to relay your instructions once you’re there. These instructions will give you the TRAIL to follow, but be sure to look both ways when crossing the street; we wouldn’t want you to make an unscheduled visit to the ER now, would we?

Put on a smile and plan to spend about an hour or so bonding with your fellow clowns.

Notice the TRAIL and ER? Chances were we were going to get to see a new trailer! The coordinates on the page led to this spot, a 5 minute walk from Piccadilly Circus. So at 7pm I arrived nice and early at the meet-up point, where I met up with some of the guys from the SuperheroHype forum. I had also arranged for another member on the SHH forum to be my online oracle, who would phone me all the clues through. For two hours we waited patiently and (of course) it started raining. A couple people were hard core enough to paint their faces Joker style and convinced several others to do the same.

I guess there were about 150 people gathered together, when we got the first clues in:

Step 1: By the “ubique-itous” statue with the alien friend, face forward and count every ground floor column to your right. Beware the policemans’s black and blue stare.

Step 2: Up the stairs prepare for battle. You’ll be greeted with open arms. On the island, discover those who died in war and divide by the woman who surround them.

Step 3: Go to the place of the frilly collar and count the number of steps you see in stone and light.

The first one took some time to figure out what we were supposed to do. The “ubique-itous” statue with the alien friend was clearly the memorial where we had gathered (it had ubique engraved on of it’s pillars). If you stood in front of it and looked forward, you were facing steps leading to Nelson’s Column with The Mall stretching out on both sides before it. On the right side, you can find the Carlton House Terrace with (well, wouldn’t you know) a long line of columns. Some people counted them and we got two different tallies: 34 or 35.

The second clue took us north, past Nelson’s Column to the Crimea memorial that featured a statue of a woman with open arms. After standing there for almost 15 minutes, nobody could figure it out so we continued to the third clue. This one was easy: the frilly collar had to be the fountain at Piccadilly Circus. Once there we counted the stone steps leading up to it (9) and discovered the neon lighted musical “The 39 Steps”, leading to number 48.

By now we found out we needed three two-digit numbers to open up a (online) safe, which would lead to more clues. Together with a couple others, I decided to walk back to the Crimea memorial to try and figure the second clue out. Still no luck and I made my way back to Piccadilly Circus. I then got phoned by my online oracle, who told me the safe combination was 35-90-48 and that there was a fourth clue:

Around the bend from the Miserable People is an exotic gate. Your contact will be waiting there. He will give you your final set of instructions.

By the time I made it back to Piccadilly Circus, the big group of people were of course all gone. Now around this time I kind of started bumbling around. Remember, I had been walking/running around for 40 minutes (on too high heels) and apparently my brain doesn’t work that well under exhaustion. Looking back the clues seem so straightforward and I’m kicking myself that I could mess this up so enormously. I’ll first describe what I should have done.

I was supposed to go into Shaftesbury Avenue, where I would find the theater with Les Miserables. Two corners away from that is China Town, whose entrance is marked by two large oriental gates. There I was supposed to find two of the Joker’s henchmen who were giving out raffles, Joker cards and instructions to the final destination: the Odeon at Leicester Square. Where I would see the newest trailer.

Ehm, yeah. I didn’t do all that. Instead I blundered around Shaftesbury Avenue, having no clue where to go. I came across some others who had lost the large group too and I ran along with them. We actually did pass the gates at China Town, but I’m guessing we were already too late, cause there weren’t any clowns there. Eventually we heard we had to be at the Odeon, raced over there, got into the cinema… only to discover we were too late. It was over. We had missed the trailer.

I’m still a bit disappointed with myself that I managed to miss what the whole quest was about. Maybe I shouldn’t have walked back and tried to figure the clues out and just have followed the big large group. Maybe I should have gotten the phone number of one of those big large group people, who could have told me where I should have gone to. Maybe I could have been a bit smarter and actually figure the (stupidly simple, now I know them) clues out. I know, I know, a lot of maybes.

Was this a waste of time? No. I actually don’t think it was. I may have not seen the trailer, but it should show up online in these next couple of days, right? I haven’t really missed out on anything; I just won’t see it as soon as I had hoped. It’s mainly about the experience: meeting other fans, figuring out the clues, and the thrill of the quest. That’s something I wouldn’t have gotten to do, if I had stayed at home.

From what I heard the trailer is intense and extremely awesome. It appears the rest of us will have to wait for it till Sunday though. I mentioned before that everyone who had gotten in to see the trailer had received raffles. After the trailer there was a draw and one person won a can with the reel with the trailer. Everybody kind of assumed there must be a DVD also in it, so that it could be put online. Now I’m not that sure. The Joker site has a new page called Happy Trails, showing an advertisement for a projection system (using reels) available this Sunday. So I guess we’ll all have to wait.

Even though this didn’t go exactly as I had imagined (now that’s an understatement), I love participating in these type of games. After We Tell Stories and this event, I can only hope I’ll be seeing (and doing) more in the future. Anyone want to join me next time?

For more photos, check out my Flickr.

Interesting links for April 23rd through April 28th:

• (Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos – Some beautiful and very creatively shot photographs. I especially love the train and the swimming pool shots. Makes me want to come up with something similarly mind warping.
• BLDGBLOG: Hotels in the Afterlife – A collection of photos of deserted desert hotels in Egypt. Only the skeletons were built and then the whole project was abandoned. Why don’t they make a movie here?

Where was the kicking, people? Sigh, I’m seriously behind with these trailers and I’ve got long list to share with you all. I’m going to try to do my next post in two days time and then keep this up as a weekly post.

Fugitive Pieces
An indie film, that’s been picked up for a limited release, Fugitive Pieces is about the life of a World War II survivor, attempting to deal with his experiences. While it seems as an interesting enough film, the trailer goes in full blown dramatic mode, with orchestra blazing sentimental musics, snippets from raving reviews of movie critiques and the big trailer voice booming: “…a story about finding ourselves…”. Tone it down a bit, please? [Trailer]

Meet Dave
There used to be a time when Eddie Murphy was actually funny. Why does he continue making these type of movies? Meet Dave is about a crew of miniature aliens whose spaceship has a human form. Murphy plays the spaceship and the captain of the aliens. This just looks so bad and unfunny, I really don’t want to waste my time on it. [Trailer]

Wargames: The Dead Code
Again another lesson in ‘How not to make a trailer’. Not that there’s anybody out there, who even cares about this movie. It’s a direct-to-dvd sequel of the classic Wargames, but they could have very well just left the Wargames part completely off of it. Yes, both of the films are kind of about the same thing, but this isn’t a sequel. It’s a cheap and easy way to try and attract more simple-minded buyers, who don’t take the time to read the back of the dvd. [Trailer]

Bangkok Dangerous
Even though Nicholas Cage‘s movies have been lately more Miss, then Hit, this one seems actually more than half decent. Cage is a hitman who has a “job” in Bangkok, but can’t pull it off and gets all these nasty people after him (of course). I somehow get the same vibe off of it as some of Cage’s older action movies, like Con Air and Face/Off, and I can only hope this movie is anywhere near as good as those. [Trailer]

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Weren’t the dinosaurs extinct before the Ice Age? But now we’re seeing them in the 3rd Ice Age movie? Anyone else see the flaw there? This is only teaser trailer featuring the beloved Scrat, so we haven’t seen anything real about the plot. Except of course that it involves dinosaurs. The 2nd movie wasn’t actually as bad as I had expected, so I’m gonna wait and give this 3rd one also a chance. [Trailer]

The House Bunny
A movie about a Playboy mansion bunny (Anna Faris), who becomes the house mother of a group of socially inept sorority girls; that’s doomed to fail, right? And yet, after watching the trailer, I wasn’t completely appalled by it (unlike Amanda Bynes‘ Sydney White). It even reminds me a bit of Legally Blond and Clueless. This isn’t going to be a great movie with a good plot and maybe not even good acting, but I think it will be a bit of simple fun entertainment. [Trailer]

Surveillance
Interesting. And potentially good. That’s what I felt when I saw this trailer. It’s directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch, daughter of David Lynch and you can see she’s inherited her father’s fondness for weirdness. The description of the movie is “An FBI agent tracks a serial killer with the help of three of his would-be victims – all of whom have wildly different stories to tell.” It’s a German trailer, so the text is in German (luckily it’s not dubbed), but I missed that when I was watching: I thought it was just some weird quirkiness of the film. [Trailer]

Hellboy II: The Golden Army
I didn’t like the first Hellboy, but this trailer has got me psyched for it’s sequel. The plot and background mythology look cool, the visual effects look wicked (although I have to admit sometimes a bit wonky, but that could also be the small screen I got) and some of the creatures look fantastic. My only gripe is with the bad guys; they look a bit too much like the Wraith from Star Gate: Atlantis for my liking. [Trailer]

Blindness
Based on the book by Jose Saramago, Blindness is about a doctor’s wife (Julianne Moore) who becomes the only person with the ability to see after everyone in the city is struck with a mysterious case of sudden blindness. This teaser trailer is perfect, slightly lifting the veil so that you know a bit about what the movie is about, without giving anything away. One of the films on my Must-Watch list of this year. [Trailer]

Anamorph
This could be another ‘same old, same old’ serial-killer movie, but by using the concept of anamorphosis we could get a very interesting movie. Anamorphosis is a painting technique where there’s a part of the painting that’s only discernible when using a distorting mirror or when viewed from a specific position. I’m not really sure how this is applied in the movie, but I’m guessing the killer is posing his victims and creating real-life anamorphic crime scenes. [Trailer]

Interesting links for April 16th through April 22nd:

• 25 Season 7 Cast Photo – First photo of the main cast of season 7 of 24. I am looking forward to this season; they seem to be taking a somewhat different direction. Some minor spoilers; nothing that hasn’t been shown in the earlier released trailer.
• Creating ‘The (Former) General’ – Adrian Hon, one of the creators behind We Tell Stories, elaborates on the creation of the latest (and last) WTS story. Beware: don’t read this if you haven’t read the story yet (which you all should do, cause it’s great).
• Ctrl+Alt+Del Choose Our Adventure Story – For the past 3 weeks the CAD comic did a Choose Your Own Adventure style comic series, with people having to vote at certain stages. Great idea, only it ended way too soon. Btw, check out the story tree at the end.
• Top 10 Amazing People Who Cheated Death – The human body can take a lot of hardship. Some of these stories are just plain weird and I also question the authenticity of some of them.
• The Empire Blog: How You Know You’ve Become A Sci-Fi TV Geek – Cute little quiz to see how much of a TV sci-fi geek you are (although I have to say they only mention the mainstream “sci-fi” shows). Without taking point 7 into account (cause that one just doesn’t make sense), I scored 63 points. How geeky are you?
• Technology moves fast – Funny little post post from Matt Cutts about a book from 1996 he was reading where the character describes a cutting edge system.

Episode 53: “What?”

A couple more days and Lost will be back with more episodes. Lost can be pretty confusing and this video only highlights this even more:

I’ve read a couple of these ‘8 Things’ posts now with the writers tagging anybody who wanted (Patricia Hanrahan, Rosie Sherry, Rachel Clarke), so I finally thought why not give it a go. It’s turned out a bit longer than I expected, but then I didn’t want to say one fact and not explain a bit about it. Anyhow, here it goes:

1. I don’t like whipped cream, yoghurt, licorice and milk products mixed with fruit.

Besides the yoghurt, I’m not really disgusted or so by these foods. It’s just that I don’t appreciate their tastes and I don’t see them as “yummy” as most people do. Why bother with whipped cream on my ice cream? It’s not as if it’s going be more tasty because of it, it barely has a taste, it’s like you’re eating air. Yoghurt on the other hand… blegh. I cannot even stand the smell of yoghurt, let alone having to eat it (although as a kid, I obediently did).

2. I’m a collector.

If I was born in a previous generation, I think I would have ended up as someone collecting stamps. Or elephants. Or something tangible like that. Living in this media world though, I’ve got other resources to satisfy my collecting habits: video games. Specifically: Final Fantasy and Pokemon. Both are just perfect games where you have to find and gather certain items with the goal of completing your collection. I always have to find every single item, before I deem a game “finished”.

3. I hate umbrellas.

Okay, I don’t really hate umbrellas. I hate getting hit in the head by umbrellas carried by stupid people who act as if because they have an umbrella that gives them the right not to pay attention to where they’re walking (and where their umbrella is attacking people). Half of the time, it’s not even raining that heavily. Seriously, a little rain doesn’t hurt! Then again I’m one of those people who love walking in the rain (as long as it’s not too cold); there’s something oddly peaceful in it.

4. I’m not a girly girl and have no idea how to use most make-up and styling products.

Apart from a little lipgloss, I don’t wear any make-up. Mainly because the times I had, I only ended up looking worse or more fake than I was without it. It always looks weirdly clumsy. If I could pull off the natural make-up look, that looks as if you’re not wearing anything, I might give it a go, but so far I have no idea how to do that. Besides that I’ve never used a curling iron or a straightener in my life.

5. I draw lines and shapes in my mind.

Eh, yeah, I should explain this and I’m hoping you don’t find me crazy after I do. Whenever I’m looking at something in front of a uniform background, my mind keeps dividing the background into geometrical shapes. Most of the time I’m not even conscious of doing it, until I catch myself at it again. It even happens when I’m watching stuff on TV, when there’s a face close-up of a character. Or when I can’t sleep at night, I do the same with my ceiling, even though the ceiling never changes and my mind comes up with the same solutions every time. And yes, I say solutions, cause it’s not just cutting it all up into shapes. I’m always trying to figure out what the most efficient solution is for a certain problem, like using the least amount of lines possible, or using only squares or triangles. It’s like my mind is constantly processing these problems for no apparent reason. Okay, should I go hide in a corner now?

6. I’ve attempted to learn morse code, hieroglyphics and Elvish.

Besides being bilingual (English and Dutch), in high school I’ve had three years of German, four years of Latin and French and 5 years of Ancient Greek. Weirdly enough though, I’ve never had a real affinity with languages, so even after those years I still can’t speak French or German. But give me a text in some language and a dictionary… I think I could pretty quickly decipher it for you. I like codes and trying to crack them, which I think is again related to why I like programming and why (I think) I’m pretty good in jumping from one programming language to another. Anyhow, before all that, back in high school I attempted to learn the above mentioned “languages”. Never got so far to actually be able to do anything, but it wasn’t about being able to speak or understand the language: it was the thrill of cracking it and figuring out how it worked.

7. I’m named after a A-Team character and Jane Fonda.

Sort of. My given name is “Melinda Jayne”. The “Melinda” comes from Melinda Culea, who played Amy in The A-Team. My mother liked the name after seeing it for the first time and then wanted to change it to Belinda to make it a bit different. It changed back to Melinda, when another girl was born who they had named Belinda. The Jayne comes from Jane Fonda, but with the added y to make it more “special”.

8. One of my first memories is of the Care Bears movie.

I have no idea how old I was, but I remember seeing this movie in the cinema (the second was Snow White). I think I was about 3 or 4. Other memories around that time was: me walking in the rain, holding on to my brothers pram. And a weird dream in which the walls of an elevator turned into bricks. I’ve got a very vivid memory and can remember a lot of events in detail. Almost every period in my life has a certain smell and feeling to it, and both I can call to mind almost instantaneously.

I again am not going to tag anyone. Anyone who reads this and is inspired to a list like this themselves too, go ahead. I look forward to see what your 8 things are going to be.

Episode 52: “And I miss your base and I miss your height”

I always love those Muppets musical parodies where they take a song and twist it a bit. Now Sesame Street has done the same thing together with James Blunt on his famous (but rather annoying) “You’re Beautiful”. Can you guess where the song’s going?

Thanks to Sizemore, I got an invite for a bloggers screening of Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night. I had seen the trailers and read early reviews on it, so I went in with the feeling I would like this movie. I didn’t expect though that I’d be laughing so much! It’s by far one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a long time.

Peter Bretter (Jason Segal) is devastated when he gets dumped by girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kirsten Bell), star of a hit TV show. In an attempt to get over her he takes a vacation to Hawaii, only to discover Sarah is there too… with her new boyfriend, rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). While trying to avoid and forget about Sarah, Peter enjoys the companionship of the laid-back resort employee Rachel (Mila Kunis) and a myriad of other characters.

Let me get one thing clear first: the movie seems as if it’s a romantic comedy, a chick flick, a boy-meets-girl story. It isn’t. While Forgetting Sarah Marshall does have a couple of these elements, it is first of all a solid good comedy. Initially I was surprised to see that more than half the attendees of the screening were woman (which for the geek crowd is still quite rare), but I’m guessing most guys are thinking this isn’t a film for them. Trust me when I say it is. There’s a sliver of an emotional message in it, but don’t let that put you off and miss the hilarity that takes up most of the film.

That being said, the movie is funny. Very funny. As I said before, I don’t think I’ve laughed this much during a film in ages. At times the audience was so in stitches that I couldn’t hear some of the next lines. A lot of the jokes are sexually laden, but in a good way. The jokes are more mature than the standard bodily fluids, high schoolish, There’s Something About Mary type of jokes you normally get in comedies from recent years.

Almost all the main actors are fairly unknown in the realm of movies, but they all prove they have the caliber to belong on the big screen. I like Jason Segal in How I Met Your Mother, but I didn’t think he could carry the weight of a movie as a leading actor. This role though is tailor-made for him. Literally. Besides starring in the movie, Segal also wrote the screenplay, weaving his own experiences throughout the story. No big surprise then that he fits so right in the role. One of Segal’s next projects will be to revive the Muppet movies and after seeing this film, I’ve got confidence he’s the perfect person to take that on.

Kirsten Bell (Veronica Mars, Heroes) and Russell Brand are great as the ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. Both characters avoid falling in the predictable stereotype roles and are more nuanced than you would expect. Sarah Marshall isn’t a complete spoiled, pampered Hollywood starlet and Bell manages to make her likable and hatable at the same time. Russell Brand really surprised me. For those of you who don’t know him, he’s an English comedian and I know quite some people who thoroughly dislike him. Here he plays a similar character to how we usually see him and yet, it works. I couldn’t imagine any other person playing Ardous Snow and he delivers some of the best lines of the movie.

Mila Kunis (That 70’s Show) is adorable as the easygoing Rachel and her chemistry with Segal works really well. The supporting characters are also brilliant with a wide range of familiar faces: Bill Hader (Superbad, SNL), Jonah Hill (Superbad, Knocked Up), Paul Rudd (Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin) and Jack McBrayer (30 Rock). Looking at the names you can clearly see it’s a Jude Apatow produced movie and in this case that’s not a bad thing.

I could tell you a lot more about Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but I don’t want to give too much away and spoil the movie for everyone. There are certain scenes that are just unforgettable and outrageous, describing them would never do them justice. This is a movie you have to see and I recommend it to anyone who wants a couple of hours of pure fun. Again: don’t leave your seats when the credits start rolling. There’s a little scene during the credits you’ll also want to see.

[rating: 4.5/5]

First off, there has been a lot of Iron Man news these past weeks: new clips, new photos, even six actual scenes from the movie have been released. If you’re curious, go ahead, take a look. Me? I’m already convinced I’m going to see this movie, so why bother with all this stuff? In the end they’ll only potentially ruin the movie for you.

Anyhow, it’s been a month ago since I did my last Trailerrific post and a lot of trailers have come out since then. I’ve been meaning to do this much more regularly (like every week), but I never get around to doing that (yeah perhaps I’m just lazy). I’m going to split this all into three posts with the second and third parts appearing sometime at the end of this week. I promise though: from now on this will be a weekly post. Any volunteers into kicking me when I don’t?

Pathology
Remember the previous two trailers? This trailer is a Red Band version of that first one, meaning more blood and more sex (a lot more sex). Strange enough though by adding the Red Band stuff to it, they’ve cut away more of the parts that would spoil the movie. It still gives a tad too much away and in my opinion they could easily make an interesting trailer without revealing so much. Then again I guess the movie’s pretty predictable anyway and nobody’s going to see it because of the brilliant intricate plot. [Trailer]

The Life Before Her Eyes
The teaser trailer came out in January and I already said then that this will be a 2009 Oscar contender. And after seeing the full length trailer I stand by that. Evan Rachel Wood plays Diana, a teenage girl who experiences a high school shooting. Years later the grown-up Diana, now played by Uma Thurman, is still traumatized by the event. [Trailer]

Mamma Mia!
I’m not an Abba fan, never was, never will be. But I have a feeling I will see this movie (not in the cinema), just because of Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan. The film is based on the Broadway musical about a bride-to-be trying to figure out who her father is. If you like cheerful musicals, this is the film for you. [Trailer]

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
What do you get when you mix vampires, Hamlet and the Holy Grail? Apparently, this movie. I’m not kidding. This movie seems to mix the those three subjects in a weird and unique way. Definitely going on my Must-See list. [Trailer]

The Strangers
I want to say this film seems interesting, but looking at the horror movies Hollywood has lately produced, it all seems to be repeats and rehashes of older films. The Strangers looks like it might have a slight original angle, but tell me how many masked faces did you count in the trailer? I’m just getting a feeling of “been there, done that, next movie please”. Although it does have Liv Tyler (without pointy ears), so that should get the geeks going. [Trailer]

Tropic Thunder
This film could be the dark horse of 2008. In short: it’s Galaxy Quest in the jungle. Three big actors working together on a big-budget war movie are dumped in the middle of the jungle, thinking everything that happens to them is part of the movie. You’ve got the action star (Ben Stiller), the comedy star (Jack Black), the method actor (Robert Downey Jr.), the crazy director (Steve Coogan) and the war hero (Nick Nolte). If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, you should. This will definitely be a must-see this summer. [Trailer]

Stone’s War
The premise of this movie is Nazi Zombies fighting in World War II. That alone would make see this movie, which made be think there would at least be an interesting trailer, right? Now I know it’s not an official trailer yet (it hasn’t even got a release date yet), but couldn’t they come up with anything better? Something without the standard ‘Requiem for a Dream’ tune? Something that actually shows ‘Nazi Zombies’? I’m not asking too much, am I? [Trailer]

Deception
Any film with both Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor in it, gets my stamp of approval. Deception is about an accountant (McGregor) who gets introduced to a secret sex club called The List by new lawyer friend Jackman, but of course not all is as it seems. Again a potentially great movie and a trailer that reveals too much. Given the (what I believe will be) intricate plot, maybe it doesn’t actually spoil anything, but do we really all those “surprises” and “reveals” in the trailer? My tip: watch half of the trailer. If you’re convinced, stop watching. If you remain unconvinced, watch it all. [Trailer]

Special
I’m not sure about the release dates of this movie. It was made in 2006 and has been released in some countries, but from what I’ve heard there might be a wide release of it this summer (please contact me, if you have some more info). The film is being described as a superhero spoof, but don’t think this means it falls in with the silly parody movies like Scary Movie, Epic Movie, etc. Michael Rapaport plays Les, a metermaid that has a psychotic reaction to his medication and starts believing he’s a superhero. [Trailer]