TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

As far as Godzilla movies go the latest 2014 Godzilla movie is about as spot on as I've seen for believing that Godzilla isn't a guy in a suit and actually could be real. Although I knew there were other very big monsters in this movie apart from Godzilla (not really a spoiler since almost from the beginning you learn there's more than one monster) the trailers gave the distinct impression this was a people versus Godzilla movie.

Although we haven't seen it clearly for sure, film director Kevin Smith (who has seen a well lit, color photo of the suit), says Ben Affleck's Bat costume is pretty much identical to the Frank Miller, Dark Knight Returns suit. If that's true then Ben's world weary Batman will be going 'old school' and be wearing his underpants on the outside (as he should).

Battlestar Galactica: Watch out for Six - especially if she has a synthetic yeast infection! It's looking more and more like the TV series reboot of Battlestar Galactica is actually the true documentary of our future  rather than the Terminator movies. In Battlestar Galactica the next stage of the machine uprising is the ability to create Cylons (i.e. machines/robots) in perfect human form as clones. I'm not sure if the Cylon humans were originally cloned from real humans but I'm pretty sure they were totally synthetic lifeforms rather than machines with a human exterior. Why I'm mentioning this is that currently scientists from several different countries are working on creating the world's first synthetic life form - namely yeast. Yeast is made up of 16 chromosomes with Australia working on chromosome 14. There are teams in various other countries including the US, China, the UK, Singapore and India working on the other 15. Chromosome 3 has already...

Ben Affleck's new suit and car. Director Zack Snyder released first pictures of Ben Affleck in the new Bat suit along with glimpses of the new Batmobile. As a long time Batman fan who's posted many articles on Batman in this blog, including one about the various Bat suits on film , I really wanted to put my thoughts down here. Warner Brothers also announced the title of the new Man of Steel/Batman movie along with an official logo so I thought I should comment on that too. The Bat Suit My initial impression is that I do like the new suit. I'm not a big fan of shorter ears on the Cowl but it never used to bother me with Adam West's cowl so it's not a real issue for me. I've heard a lot of comparisons of Ben's suit to the Frank Miller, Dark Knight Returns  Batman and also the Jim Lee Batman and I certainly can see the similarities. It's also not unlike the suit used in the Batman Arkham Asylum video games - which is what I was kind of hoping...

The Grand Budapest Hotel features an all star cast and tells the story of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at the famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. Their story includes the theft and recovery of a priceless painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune. Although this is a fun film for anyone who enjoys a tall tale with slightly dark and odd ball humor I would highly recommend this as a great film to study for aspiring film makers. Packed full of old school effects and scale models, that give the film a unique style, proving that you don't need flashy CGI... just a really good art department. Very inspirational to film makers in that regard. Beyond that, the trailer, I thought, presented a film that I expected to be more laugh out loud funny however the film's humor is a little darker and a bit more subtle. I also expected much more from many of the cast members which includes; Ralp...

Some days I'm just plain unlucky. I bought a brand new battery for my Frog Van . The old one died after being recharged one too many times and the van not being used enough to keep it charged (it was a second hand battery anyway). The Frog Van. A couple of weeks ago I was installing the new battery and accidentally shorted the negative terminal with the frame of the van as I was tightening the bolt. Just one of those things. You turn the metal spanner a bit too far and hit something you didn't realize was in the way, one big spark later and the entire electrics on the van are dead. Nothing. Turn the key and not so much as an oil check light on the dash turns on. If you know anything about cars then you're probably thinking it's just a blown fuse. That's what I think too. I've checked the battery and it's still got charge. Even stuck it on my charger for a few hours just in case. I hooked the charger up to the van and that didn't change anythi...

Captain America, The Winter Soldier , in my opinion, cements the character alongside Iron Man as one of the most compelling characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not only that but Captain America is filling the void of the all American Superhero that was formerly occupied by Superman on the big screen (Henry Cavill's Man of Steel isn't quite there yet but could be if he puts in the work the way Cap has). Through three films (including Winter Soldier) Captain America, a.k.a. Steve Rodgers, has stuck to his 1940's morals and beliefs of basic human dignity and being a fine, upstanding citizen, whilst being one of the most awesome superheroes to watch against any opponent he goes up against.