AMV of the Day: Ash vs Gary (Pokemon)

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Arleigh

For the first AMV entry for 2013 and the latest in a long series I’ve decided to go for nostalgia to dictate my choice instead of quality (though I will say the video does it’s job well in matching the song used). Anyone who grew up during the late 90’s and early 2000’s have heard, seen and/or obsessed over the Japanese pop-culture phenomenon simply called Pokemon.

I was already an adult and I was caught up in the hurricane that was Pokemon when it swept through the West in the late 1990’s. Hell, I pretty much played most of the different color editions of the game on the Game Boy and it’s subsequent handhelds. I’m even proud to say that my two favorite Pokemons were Pikachu and Togepi. But that’s a different matter altogether. Today it’s all about the AMV titled “Ash vs. Gary”.

The video uses the very fight-like song “Remember the Name” by Ft. Minor to highlight the Pokemon battle match between the two rivals. As we can see in the video the two use many different Pokemons in their collection to battle it out. Their battle lasts until they each just have one Pokemon left and it’s a sudden death match that many fans of the show fondly remembers. In one corner is Gary’s fully evolved Blastoise (which is the final evolved version of the starter Pokemon Squirtle) and in the other corner is Ash’s tempermental Charizard (the final evolved form of the starter Pokemon Charmander).

Really, there’s nothing left to say other than enjoy the video and take a glimpse into a nostalgic trip down my own memory lanes.

Anime: Pokemon

Song: “Remember the Name” by Ft. Minor feat. Styles of Beyond

Creator: Logan8703

Past AMVs of the Day

Arleigh’s Top Ten (……TV Shows) of 2012

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Arleigh

With each passing year my TV viewing habits have begun to change. I used to watch mostly network shows with the occasional premium cable channel series here and there. In the last couple years it’s been more of the opposite. I watch less and less of whatever the top networks are showing and instead have taken most of my TV viewing pleasure from basic and premium cable channels. Only one show from the big networks makes my Top Ten TV shows of 2012.

The ten shows I’ve picked as best of 2012 arrive on this list in no particular order. They’re just numbered to keep things organized…

Community – This show is the only network series to make my list and it’s well-deserving. The show has garnered such a huge cult following that seems to confuzzle those who still haven’t jumped on the Community bandwgaon. The show’s hilarious and full of pop-culture and geek culture references that each new episode we see something crazy and new from showrunner Dan Harmon and his crazy crew of writers and and, even moreso, talented ensemble cast. The fact that despite low ratings each season it’s been on the air since it premiered just show’s the power of it’s fans to tell the NBC network to keep the show for another season (maybe another more after this upcoming 4th). Plus, the show has Annie’s Boobs.
Justified – This was the series that premiered three years ago with a pedigree that most networks would kill to have on it’s show. You had acclaimed tv screenwriter Graham Yost as series creator and showrunner. The show was adapated from a series of Elmore Leonard novels featuring the character of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (who also had critics favorite Timothy Olyphant in the role). The first two season’s were major hits for the series. This past year’s third season couldn’t match up to the great season 2 that earned Margo Martindale an Emmy for her role as the devious and cold-blooded matriarch of the Bennett Clan, but it did more than hold it’s own by introducing an outsider to the mix of Kentucky-grown characters in Neal McDonough’s Detroit mobster and deviant criminal mastermind Robert Quarles. the interaction between Olyphant’s Raylan Givens, McDonough’s Quarles and Walton Goggins’ Boyd Crowder was some of 2012’s best tv moments.
Doomsday Preppers – This series has become a sort of guilty pleasure for me, but despite that label it’s also one of the best shows on TV. The premise of the show may sound ludicrous and hilarious at first glance. I mean it’s a series that details in each episode a couple of families who have taken to extremes their attempts to prepare for whatever doomsday will befall in world in the near future. See, it sounds like a reality tv show that’s tailor-made for what elitists would consider the redneck and uneducated section of America. The truth of the matter is that the show’s ludicrous premise also is it’s strength. We may laugh, at first, at the families who have gone to extremes to create survival shelters, home grown food stocks and other means to survive a catastrophe. While we laugh the show does point out that whether a disaster happens soon or later the very survival preparations and techniques these families make become learning tools for the viewing audience. We won’t need to go to such extremes, but the fact that we laugh at these people while we have no clue how to survive when catastrophe strikes means the joke is on us and not on the Doomsday Preppers.
The Walking Dead – Speaking of doomsday, this show on AMC seems to be the show that, like it’s zombified monsters, survives it’s own producers and writers attempts to kill it off. This year saw the second half of the show’s season 2 minus it’s original creator and showrunner as Frank Darabont was fired. The show continued to pull in great ratings despite being on basic cable and writing that tended to lean towards average with frustrating characters the audience would rather see die than survive the show’s zombie apocalypse. But something miraculous happened this year and that’s the show’s newest showrunner in Glen Mazzara simplified Darabont’s more deliberate and existential narrative style and tone for the show. Under Mazzara the show’s first haf of the 3rd season saw more action and characters actually becoming more complex and nuanced. There’s been less exposition dumps to tell the audience what’s going on. The show has also amped the danger towards the characters as we saw not one but many characters die before the season even hit the halfway mark. The show’s writing still has a ways to go, but no show on TV can match The Walking Dead in sheer tension and watercooler moments that fans (and even detractors) were left wanting more and more everytime a Sunday ended.
Sons of Anarchy – The show by showrunner Kurt Sutter that was original billed as “Hamlet meets Hell’s Angels” had one of it’s better season in 2012 as we saw the biker gang SAMCRO finally split into two camps. On one side is the former President of the club Clay Morrow (played by Ron Perlman) and newest club President Jax Teller (played by Charlie Hunnam), the son of the club’s original founder John Teller, standing on the opposite side. The show returned to it’s Shakespearean roots in 2012 as we saw Jax try to maneuver SAMCRO away from it’s illegal enterprises and away from the clutches of the not just the CIA, but the Mexican cartels, rival biker gangs and inner-city crime lords. The series saw the departure of a fan favorite character in one of the most brutal and vicious deaths on TV, but also one that was necessary to push Jax into becoming more ruthless and cold-blooded in dealing with his club’s enemies. Sons of Anarchy is also aired on the FX Channel which makes it such a powerful bookend to it’s fellow series in Justified for the basic cable network.
South Park – Matt Stone and Trey Parker continues to insult all and everyone. The show benefits from this and it hasn’t changed in 2012. The show looked to be slowing down after an uneven 2011, but came back strong in 2012. There’s nothing else to be said other than a show that can come up with an episode that has Honey Boo Boo and Michelle Obama in the same episode and make it all come off as hilarious and thought-provoking deserves to be on everyone’s top ten tv shows of 2012.
Deadliest Catch – Discovery Channel’s long-reality series about crab fishermen in the dangerous waters of the Bering Strait and the Arctic Circle continues to be one of the best reality series on TV. It’s simple premise of just showing the rigors, dangers and the toll the job of crab fishing in the Arctic Sea continues to lure fans old and new alike back to the series each new year. It’s definitely a show that puts down anyone who thinks they have a hard job. Nothing is harder than a job these men do where every moment can literally be the moment that something will happen that will take their life. It’s must-see TV (well except for Lisa Marie with the pitching ships and heavy seas and stormy waves).
Boardwalk Empire – The show that details the rise and fall and rise again of Atlantic City’s man behind the scenes Nucky Thompson during the 1920’s continues to be one of TV’s best shows and continues HBO’s almost two decade of fine, quality original tv programming. We find Steve Buscemi in fine form as the corrupt city treasurer Nucky Thompson whose actions in season 2 creates major ripple effects for 2012’s season 3. While the latest season wasn’t on the same level as 2011’s season 2 it’s uneven slow burn for most of it’s season 3 run culminated in a bloody and tense-filled affair as Nucky’s penchant for surviving leads to an almost Michael Corleone-level of retribution by season’s end.
Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin. A Clash of Kings. Three baby dragons. Peter Dinklage. Arya and Stannis Lannister. Battle of Blackwater Bay. Neil Marshall. Sexposition. Ice zombies. Nothing else need to be said. One of the best shows of 2012, if not, the best show of 2012 period.
Archer – The most out there and down right funny show on TV in 2012 was the FX Channel’s animated series Archer. It’s a an animated series that spoofs the spy franchises like James Bond, Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the like, but also being one of the raunchiest shows on TV and making it all come off as hilarious. Whether it’s the title character’s child-like behavior despite being the show’s top spy or the pyromaniac and autoerotic-fixated agency secretary Cheryl, the show’s cast of characters are all so memorable that the show doesn’t even need to have celebrity guest stars to try and pull in viewers, but they do it anyway with one being Burt reynolds himself playing as himself and bringing back memories of why Burt was considered the “star’s star in his heyday””. The man is just smooth as velvet and cool as ice.

So, these were my Top Ten shows on 2012. The FX channel definitely made it’s mark by getting three shows into the list with HBO running second with two. I know there’s a major omission of Breaking Bad in this list, but I thought the new season (really just the first half of the final season with the second half due later in 2013) was a letdown after blockbuster of a season 4. It seemed more like a first half that was table-setting for what looks to be the show’s final 8-episode this year to put the show to bed on a blaze of glory.

Song of the Day: When the Levee Breaks (by Led Zeppelin)

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Arleigh

Who would’ve thought that Ben Affleck, the same guy who was in one of the most ridiculous romantic scenes ever put on film (hint: animal crackers), would be turning out to be one of the brightest directors these last few years. He hasn’t missed yet with two directing gigs with Gone, Baby Gone and The Town. With Argo he makes it three solid hits in a row.

One thing that really struck me about the film Argo was Affleck’s use of licensed music to cue up particularly important scenes throughout the film. One such musical cue used one of my favorite rock and blues song ever. It’s Led Zeppelin’s cover of the Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy song of the same name. Most young people seem to know this song from it’s constant use to score scenes and sequences about the Katrina disaster, especially scenes of a flooded New Orleans when the levees broke during the hurricane. It was nice to hear the song used in a scene not dealing with the aftermath of Katrina but to highlight the mental situation of the characters in Argo. I won’t say which scene exactly, but for those who have seen the film will know what I mean and the lyrics to the song should become even more weighty once they put two and two together.

I really love this song. From the use of harmonicas by John Paul Jones (and probably another sessions player) to Robert Plant’s emotional wailing right up to one of the best drum work by the great John Bonham. You can almost literally feel those drum sticks drop heavy on those drums. One would almost think Bonham was using tree trunks to play this song.

When the Levee Breaks

If it keeps on rainin’ levee’s goin’ to break
If it keeps on rainin’ levee’s goin’ to break
When The Levee Breaks I’ll have no place to stay.

Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan
Lord, mean old levee taught me to weep and moan
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home
Oh well oh well oh well.

Don’t it make you feel bad
When you’re tryin’ to find your way home
You don’t know which way to go?
If you’re goin’ down South
They go no work to do
If you don’t know about Chicago.

Cryin’ won’t help you prayin’ won’t do you no good
Now cryin’ won’t help you prayin won’t do you no good
When the levee breaks mama you got to move.

All last night sat on the levee and moaned
All last night sat on the levee and moaned
Thinkin bout me baby and my happy home.
Going go n to Chicago
Go n to Chicago
Sorry but I can’t take you.
Going down going down now going down.

Trailer: Pacific Rim (Official CES)…and Jaeger Designs

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Arleigh

I think Guillermo Del Toro’s upcoming giant robots vs giant monsters summer film will either fail to live up to the hype it’s been gathering since the very first teasers and images were released or the film will blow people’s minds away. This looks to be a film that will not brook any middle-of-the-road reaction. Some will either love it and some will absolutely hate it. Already there’s people who have been dismissing it as nothing but a jumped-up-Michael Bay rip (like that’s even possible) or dismissing it just because it’s a summer blockbuster, special-effects heavy film and not a barely-funded, arthouse, indie foreign film about the meaning of life, existence and the ennui that befalls all.

I, for one, am hyping this film up to beyond what’s safe to hype a film up for (yeah that doesn’t make sense but still deal with it). I’ve been a fan of Del Toro since I first caught his imaginative and inventive take on the vampire myth with Cronos. While he’s earned geek cred for his genre projects he is also once of the few filmmakers who have also gained the respect of the arthouse indie crowd with such films as The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth.

Enough gushing over the man. It’s all about the new trailer which premiered at this year’s CES over in Las Vegas. One wouldn’t think of CES as a place to premiere new footage about a summe rblockbuster, but as one can spy in this newest trailer it looks like Qualcomm paid some cash to get itself named in the film even if it’s just in the background. Also, just to show just how awesome this film will be there are also the design blueprints of five of the giant Jaegers that we’ve caught glimpses of in the trailer.

Arleigh’s Favorite Five (…Songs) of 2012

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Arleigh

I must admit that in 2012 I didn’t get to listen in full many new albums outside of soundtracks. My Fave five of 2012 Songs will reflect this fact, but still with the lack of variety in my past year’s listening habit I thought the songs I came up with for the list I still would’ve put on a much bigger favorite 2012 list if I had need to come up with one. Without further ado he are the Fave Five (though it’s more Fave Six but I decided to combine the first entry’s two as a tie).

The Fave Five starts off with a tie that comes from the same film. Both songs come from the soundtrack to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. While the film may not have been up to some audiences’ high expectations the soundtrack itself by Howard Shore (and for “Song of the Lonely Mountain” as sung by Neill Finn) continued the high-quality of the Tolkien soundtracks which began with the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. “Song of the Lonely Mountain” is a much more folk rock addition to the soundtrack while the “Misty Mountains” was actually part of the film itself when the character of Thorin Oakenshield sings it with his band of dwarfs while at Bilbo Baggin’s hobbit hole in the beginning. Both songs so a great job of telling the story of the quest that begins with this first film in the new trilogy.
The theme song 2012’s Skyfall was a throwback to the classic James Bond theme song’s of the Sean Connery and Roger Moore Bond eras. In fact, I thought it’s one of the best theme songs the long-running spy thriller franchise has had these past 25 years. It helps that you have Adele singing the theme who seems to be able to hit the right proper emotional notes during the song. It’s really hard to think of Skyfall the film being as good as it is without making sure one mentions Adele’s theme for it. I’d take the leap and say that the song itself may even be better than the film itself.
Mass Effect 3 was the epic conclusion to what was this gaming generation’s version of the original Star Wars space opera. It was a story that spanned the galaxy with memorable characters, thrilling action and some very good writing. There will always be the vocal minority who seem to think the ending to the trilogy was bungled by the writers over ta BioWare. That’s a whole different debate altogether. One thing that doesn’t seem to bring out the pitchforks was Clint Mansell’s score work for the game and it all culminates with the song simply titled “An End, Once and For All” which in it’s extended version more than makes up for whatever deficiencies the ending it orchestrally-scored may have had.
Another game’s music makes itself to my Fave Five list and this time it’s my second favorite song for the year of 2012. It’s from Halo 4 and it’s a song that brought new life to the venerable franchise. It didn’t just make the end credits more than just memorable, but also surprised many fans of the franchise’s music since the song wasn’t composed by the franchise’s original music composer, Martin O’Donnell, but by Kazuma Jinnouchi. It’s the one song in 2012 that I must’ve listened to on repeat for hours on end and probably in the high hundreds by now. It’s a song that brings back memories of the scifi soundtracks of the 80’s. It’s a work that I easily can compare to the best that’s ever been composed by luminaries in the genre like John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Michael Giacchino and others.
What can I say. The song speaks for itself. How can one not say this was the best song for 2012.

Trailer: Evil Dead (Full Red Band)

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Arleigh

Remake. Remake. Remake.

I can hear the howls now. Not another horror remake and one of a classic in the genre that many fans consider one of the holy grails of horror cinema. Guess what I say to those people. SHUT THE FUCK UP!

With the complete blessing from both Sam Raimi and Bruce “Who is God when he wants to walk amongst his creations” Campbell and them back but in the role of producers and mentor to the remake’s director, Fede Alvarez, and the young ensemble cast I have much more faith with this particular horror remake than others of its kind.

The trailer itself looks to go on the far extreme on the horror side of the original. I didn’t get a sense of much of the black humor of the original film (and it’s subsequent semi-remake), but I think that’s a good thing. Why remake a classic beat for beat when one can go their own way and explore something even the original never did.

One thing I can say about this full red band trailer that has me jumping up and down like a horror fan on bath salts…

VIOLENTLY AMOROUS TREE: Check!

LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF BLOOD: Check!

GRAPHIC DISMEMBERMENT: Check!

CHAINSAW: Check!

DEADITE POSSESSIONS: Check!

FACE-EATING (or Extreme GIRL-ON-GIRL MAKE-OUT SESSION: Check and Check!

Evil Dead lands it’s bloody, possessed corpse on everyone this April 12, 2013. Until then….

….Shop smart. Shop S-MART.

Trailer: Aftershock (Official)

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Arleigh

Horror is still my first true genre love when things get boiled down to their most basic. 2013 looks to be full of horror films to more than satisfy my appetite for them. One such film that I’d be itching to check out is the Chilean horror-thriller titled Aftershock.

The film was co-produced by horror filmmaker Eli Roth who also had a hand in co-writing the script with Guillermo Amoedo and the film’s director, Nicolás López. The film is a fictional account of the aftermath of the 2010 8.8 earthquake in Chile and how a group of young partygoers try to escape the chaos of the city after the quake. Part of the film’s story uses the real-life prison breakout of prisoners after the quake and the resulting chaos in the damaged areas of the city.

Aftershock looks to be in the same extreme horror that the French have been helpful in making one of the newest trends in horror cinema. The trailer is not the glorious red band variety everyone has been waiting for but there seems to be enough hints throughout to show that Aftershock will not be a bloodless affair.

The film premiered during last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and the buzz surrounding the film has been quite positive. Unfortunately, there’s still no word on a release date in the US or anywhere for that matter, but it definitely joins Franck Khalfoun’s Maniac as one of my must-see horror films for 2013.

Song of the Day: Django (by Luis Bacalov)

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Arleigh

So, over the weekend I was finally able to catch the latest from Quentin Tarantino. To say that I enjoyed Django Unchained would be an understatement. Review of the film will be coming forthwith. One thing I really loved about this film was how Tarantino continues to pay homage to the very films he has used to inspire the ones he himself makes. This is clearly evident when one hears the original title song from the original Django play out in the beginning of Django Unchained.

Simply titled “Django” this song was composed by Luis Bacalov with lyrics by Franco Migliacci and sung by Roberto Fia. For fans of the spaghetti western this song is just as iconic as those composed by Ennio Morricone for Sergio Leone’s “The Man With No Name” trilogy of spaghetti westerns. Where Ennio’s compositions were more in line with Leone’s more serious take on the Italian view of the western, Bacalov’s “Django” definitely has a much more grindhouse feel to it. It sounds like something that would be heard in a western, but also has that 60’s era folk rock sound.

For those who have been loving Tarantino’s spaghetti western should really go search out Sergio Corbucci’s original Django and also Bacalov’s score work.

Django

Chorus: django!

Django, have you always been alone?

Chorus: django!

Django, have you never loved again?
Love will live on, oh oh oh…
Life must go on, oh oh oh…
For you cannot spend your life regreatting.

Chorus: django!

Django, you must face another day.

Chorus: django!

Django, now your love has gone away.
Once you loved her, whoa-oh…
Now you’ve lost her, whoa-oh-oh-oh…
But you’ve lost her for-ever, django.

When there are clouds in the skies, and they are grey.
You may be sad but remember that love will pass away.

Oh django!
After the showers is the sun.
Will be shining…

[instrumental solo]

Once you loved her, whoa-oh…
Now you’ve lost her, whoa-oh-oh-oh…
But you’ve lost her for-ever, django.

When there are clouds in the skies, and they are grey.
You may be sad but remember that love will pass away.
Oh django!
After the showers is the sun.
Will be shining…
Django!
Oh oh oh django!
You must go on,
Oh oh oh django…

The First 6 Minutes of “Maniac” Remake

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Arleigh

There was one film that had caught my interest once the project was announced in late 2011. The film was going to be the horror remake of the classic, grindhouse slasher flick from 1980 called Maniac. This film is considered by many fan of the grindhouse and exploitation scene as a classic in the slasher genre. It was also hailed by many moral groups as a prime example of how horror cinema was beginning to reach “pornographic levels of violence” especially towards female victims.

So, it was quite an interesting bit of news when the remake was announced and Frodo Baggins himself would take on the role of the film’s serial killer in Frank. It was an inspired bit of casting that gave the film’s early production a much needed boost in interest. It’s now been over a year and the film has made the genre film festival circuits and the buzz surrounding the Franck Khalfoun-directed film is that it more than lives up to the grindhouse and exploitation aesthetics of the original while bringing in a fresh new stylistic take on the slasher genre.

We have below is the first 6 minutes of the Maniac remake and one can see how creepy the POV-style the filmmakers are going to take for the film has turned out.

There’s still no release date announced for Maniac.

Third Year Anniversary of Through the Shattered Lens!

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Arleigh

As the December 24 inches towards it’s end I would like to say thank you to everyone who have been a part of helping Through the Shattered GRow from a small idea where people can write things about entertainment without fear of being censored. It’s been a labor of love for myself and Lisa Marie Bowman who I call my partner-in-crime since this site’s humble beginnings. While Through the Shattered Lens could never come up to the level of the bigger and better-known entertainment blog sites I do appreciate the loyal followers who have decided to make this site a destination place for all and everything entertainment.

The past year has been one reaching new goals and records that I never thought possible. It has also been a trying one which has tested my own idea of keeping the site free from trolling and abuse. While this has made for some less than civilized back and forth between writers and commentators (I, for one, find myself guilty of it as well) in the end I’ve stuck to keeping the place free from unnecessary policing.

So, a third year of Through the Shattered Lens has arrived and we boldly move to making a 4th Year Anniversary become a possibility a year from now. What better way to celebrate this latest anniversary than approval from the Trinity of Geek Gods above.