Yeah, I know we’re already a month into 2010, but I still wanted to do a list of the movies I’m most excited for. These won’t be the best movies or the top grossing movies (otherwise I would have added the Twilight and the Harry Potter sequels), but these are the movies I personally am really looking forward to.

Alice In Wonderland – March 5th (US, UK)

I can’t wait for this movie! I’ve been keeping an eye on the IMAX website, waiting till the tickets will be released (I’m not even in the country on the actual release date, but still want to get seats as quick as possible). If you hadn’t heard about this little movie yet, it’s Tim Burton’s interpretation of Alice in Wonderland, starring new comer Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and tons of more familiar actors. I’m a sucker for Alice In Wonderland stories/reinterpretations, and I love the look of this movie.

Kick-Ass – April 2nd (UK), April 16th (US)

The first two trailers I saw of Kick-Ass looked awesome, so much so that I’m now in Avoid All Marketing mode. I know I want to see this movie when it’s released and I just don’t want to be spoilt by any new trailers. I’m still a little bit scared about Nicholas Cage (when was his last good movie?), but my hopes are high. Kick-Ass is about a teenager (Aaron Johnson), who decides to become superhero after being inspired by the heroes of comic books. He soon comes across a mysterious vigilante called Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), and his daughter Hit-Girl (Chloë Moretz).

Iron Man 2 – April 30th (UK), May 7th (US)

I wasn’t the hugest fan of the first Iron Man, but I still am excited for its sequel. The moment Samuel Jackson was revealed at the end of the last movie was one of my best cinema experiences (everyone was cheering together and it felt great). I know this movie is going to be a blast! Especially with Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke added to the cast. Not too sure about Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, but at least she does look the part!

Robin Hood – May 14th (UK, US)

This is the one movie on this list I’m still really dubious about. So far it just looks like Gladiator in medieval times. But it’s Ridley Scott. And Russell Crowe. And freaking Robin Hood. I want to like this so much and be swept away as I was with Gladiator.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time – May 28th (UK,US)

I love the look of the trailer; it reminds of The Mummy and Pirates of the Caribbean (in a good way). I think this is mainly going to be a fun action movie. It won’t win any awards or anything like that (and I have a feeling it might lean towards the cheesy side), but I think it’s going to be one of those movies I could watch over and over again.

The Last Airbender – July 2nd (US), August 13th (UK)

Yeah, I was addicted to the TV show, so it was kind of a given I’d be excited for the movie. As I said last week, I think the trailer looked awesome! I haven’t always been a fan of M Night Shyamalan, but I like how he’s staying true to the original (at least from what we’ve seen so far). I still have some doubts (like how will Appa and Momo look like?), so bring on the full length trailer!

Inception – July 16th (US)

Christopher Nolan is one of my favourite directors, mainly because of Memento and The Prestige. I mean, I loved Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but I adore and love love love Nolan’s movies with unusual intricate story lines. Inception seems to fit right in along those lines with a trailer that looks complex and a completely mental. Yay, my type of movie! I love how Leonardo di Caprio has said in an interview that it “didn’t make sense to him” while shooting the movie.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – August 6th (UK), August 13th (US)

I know I shouldn’t be this excited for a movie of which I’ve only seen a handful of images. But everything I’ve seen so far just looks cool. The comic book has been on my wish list since I’ve heard of the movie, and I like the style of it all. Plus it’s being directed by Edgar Wright, the genius behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. I mean it can’t turn out bad, right?

Rapunzel – November 24th (US)

I still haven’t seen Disney’s latest animation yet (The Princess and The Frog), but I’m already excited for Rapunzel. I grew up with the golden era Disney musicals (I was 6 when The Little Mermaid came out) and it’s great to see them going back to them. Plus Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi (Chuck!!!) as the main characters? Yay!

Tron Legacy – December 17th (US)

And last but not least, Tron Legacy. It’s been ages since I last saw the original, and about time that I give it a rewatch. The footage we’ve seen so far of this sequel looks awesome!

So do you agree with my choices? Or are there other movies you’re more excited in seeing?

As I said in previous posts, I’ve got some catching up to do with old blog posts. Remember I organized a Blogger’s Secret Santa last December? Well, I ended up getting this wonderful book:

Awesome, right? I still haven’t had time to read it, but it contains some of the essential Philip K. Dick stories: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which Blade Runner is based on), Martian Time Slip, Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and A Scanner Darkly.

Thanks, Secret Santa!

If you’ve been following my Twitter account, you will have noticed I’m working on a new series of events: the Geeks of London.

Most of you here know that I’ve been doing the Geek Dinners for two years now, so why the sudden new event? While I loved organizing the Geek Dinners, I noticed a couple of things: For starters, it’s always been confusing to people what ‘Dinners’ meant. In a lot of people’s eyes that meant a sit-down dinner, and some were then scared off by such a formal setting. We never ever did an actual proper sit down dinner, most of the time it was just a buffet, but it’s always been a bit unclear to people what the dinner part entailed.

Besides that I’ve always felt the term Geek doesn’t necessarily only mean techy geek. I think geeks come in all types of varieties, like movie geeks and comic book geeks. One final reason to change the event was because of the Girl Geek Dinners. I appreciate what the Girl Geek Dinners are doing, but they’ve grown so much by now that a lot of people didn’t realized there was also a “normal” Geek Dinner (I hate using the term “normal”, because that would imply the GGDs are abnormal, but I hope you get my drift).

So the idea of this new series of events was to step away from the former Geek Dinner name, but to also organize meetups for all different types of geeks, be they movie geeks, comic book geeks or tech geeks. The first meetup will a Movie Geeks of London meetup, which will take place next week on Tuesday the 16th (for more details check out the website).

I’m hoping more people will get involved and will take on the role of organizing some of the meetups. I really want this to be as varied as possible with all sorts of themed events. The first event will just be a hang-around-a-pub-and-meet-lots-of-new-cool-people type meetup, but I’d love to do some meetups with special speakers or sponsors (or in the case of the movie meetups maybe a certain movie that everyone agrees on seeing before meeting up). I know we might have a pub quiz being planned and once the weathers a bit warmer I want to do some photography and geocaching walks. If you’ve got an idea for an event, let me know and I’ll help get you setup.

Interesting links for February 1st through February 8th:

• Happy Pills!? Sweet Happiness in Sugar-Pill Supplements – Shop that sells “medical emergency sets” filled with sweets.
• Can Live-Action Airbender Live Up To The Cartoon? – Some side by side comparisons of the teaser trailer and the cartoon. Plus: Appa!
• Do Knot Forget – Cool ad from Ford.
• Spelling Society : Chaos poem. – Awesome poem.

My arm is finally starting to feel better, and I’m slowly getting back to sitting longer behind my laptop. It’s still not completely healed, but it’s much, much better than the past couple of weeks. I’ve got so many blog posts to catch up on: my final movie and book reviews of 2009, the Secret Santa I organized and more.

Here are some short review of books I read last year:

A Song of Ice and Fire – George R R Martin

Ages ago I tried reading A Game of Thrones and just couldn’t get through it. When I heard HBO was making a TV show out of them I knew I had to give them another try. Maybe I was too young the 1st time around, cause this time around I loved the books. The story, the characters, the world, everything is so detailed and built up, I think I might be spoilt for other series. I still have to read the fourth book (A Feast For Crows), but the first three are amazing.

I’m now so looking forward to the HBO show, I just hope they get this right. This is the type of fantasy TV show I’ve been hoping for; something that’s more like a costume drama, just not set in our world.

A Game of Thrones (UK, US), A Clash of Kings (UK, US), A Storm of Swords (Book 1 UK, Book 2 UK, US), A Feast For Crows (UK, US).

The Nightwalkers  – Jacquelyn Frank

I really enjoyed these books, it’s again a cool different type of world. In this case it’s set in our world, but with demons, vampires and shapeshifters. The demons (with which the series starts) are the most interesting species with the characters each having elemental powers. The series starts off pretty cool, with some revelations being made over the demons and their back history. There are 5 books in the Nightwalkers series (Jacob, Gideon, Elijah, Damien, Noah) from Jacquelyn Frank. The story continues in her next series Shadowdwellers, about the 4th species in that world, but these 5 form a complete story.

Jacob (UK, US), Gideon (UK, US), Elijah (UK, US), Damien (UK, US), Noah (UK, US)

The Black Magician Trilogy – Trudi Canavan

I read this series a couple of years ago… and absolutely hated it. Well, I liked the premise, but somehow at the time I just didn’t like the ending. Re-reading it now though makes me realize how your tastes do change through the years. This time around I loved every bit of it.

The trilogy is about Sonea, a young girl who lives in the slums and finds out she has magical abilities. But as long as the city can remember only people from the upper classes have been found with magic and have gone on to train at the Guild. The first book drags on a bit and it only really becomes interesting once Sonea is actually at the Guild learning her powers. There are some cool concepts in here, like the way the magic works.

The Magician’s Guild (UK, US), The Novice (UK, US), The High Lord (UK, US)

Heart Fate – Robin D. Owens

The 7th book in the Heart series from Robin D. Owens. I didn’t love this book as much as some of the previous ones, but still an enjoyable read. Heart Fate is about Tinne Holly, the younger brother of Holm Holly (who was the hero in book 3) and his heart mate Lahsin Yew.

Heart Fate (UK, US)

Fire Study – Maria V Snyder

I loved Poison Study and Magic Study (the first two book from this series) and had been looking forward to their conclusion for ages. I won’t say anything about the plot, cause I’d otherwise spoil the first two books too much. Yelena is a great character and it’s cool to see how much she grows during the series.

I liked Fire Study, but somehow at the same time I was a bit disappointed by it. I think I just wanted it to be more than it was; with characters and a world this rich, I was expecting a grand emotional finale. It’s sort of there, but it’s missing that special something that makes me fall in love with a book.

Fire Study (UK, US)

The Rogue Hunter, The Immortal Hunter – Lynsay Sands

Two books from Lynsay Sands’ new Rogue Hunter series; it’s basically a continuation of the Argeneau series (same world, same recurring characters) only she ran out of Argeneau family members to write about.

The first books from the Argeneau series were hilarious, they’re the funniest romance books I’ve read. But the last couple ones… meh. They’re still okay, but I’m missing the funny in them. The Rogue Hunter has some cute moments in it, but most of the plot is pretty boring. The Immortal Hunter, however, gets interesting again, setting up a new main storyline and mystery. I can’t wait to see how this continues.

The Rogue Hunter (UK, US), The Immortal Hunter (UK, US)

The Tamir Triad – Lynn Flewelling

I’m a fan of Flewelling’s other series, The Nightrunners, and was curious to see more of one of the stories we heard about in there. This trilogy takes place a couple of hundred years earlier, when the country Skala is being ruled by an usurper king. For Skala to prosper though, there must always be a Queen on the throne, so the current king is secretly murdering his own female king to protect his own reign. Following prophecy, two wizards spellbound a princess at birth, with a glamour to disguise her, making her look like her dead (sacrificed) brother. The girl grows up believing she’s a boy…

The premise of this book is pretty unique, yet without interesting characters this could have failed completely. The characters and the world that Flewelling has created are fascinating; I sped so quickly through these books, I just wanted to know what happened to them as quick as possible. Great books, I recommend them to anyone who wants a cool new fantasy world.

The Bone Doll’s Twin (UK, US), Hidden Warrior (UK, US), The Oracle’s Queen (UK, US)

The Summoning Series – Robin D. Owens

I read the first two books of this series in early 2009 and finally got around half a year later to finish this series. The books are about the world of Lladrana, where forces of darkness have invaded. The different factions of the world resort to their final option: Summoning their prophesied saviours from the Exotique land aka Earth.

Each book is about the summoning of a human to this strange world where they each discover they have magical abilities. What I loved about these books was how unpredictable they were; they didn’t follow the standard romance formula. Plus it’s got a great fantasy story with lots of magic and talking hamster!

Protector of the Flight (US), Keepers of the Flame (US), Echoes in the Dark (US)

Episode 159: “cafes near the louve”

Most of you might have seen this yesterday already, but if you haven’t… so sweet:

Ever since getting my bridesmaid’s dress from Laura Ashley, I’m kind of digging some of their designs. I still find most of their stuff a bit too stuffy and proper, but some dresses look really cute.

This first one is leaning towards the too ‘neat and proper’, but I think with the accessories it could look awesome.

And this second just looks elegant:

Both dresses are on sale right now, and are only available in limited sizes.

Episode 158: “Well, it’s not a very strong drink’.

SPOILER alert: if you haven’t seen last week’s season opening of Lost, don’t watch this video.

Via io9

Funny little flash game where you have to turn gears. It’s only 20 levels, but gets pretty tricky:

Yep, I’m starting yet another “rrific” post, this time all about terrific t-shirts! I managed to get this one in a sale yesterday at David & Goliath’s Carnaby Street store for only £5:

Cute, right? And perfect for Hackdays!