I'm Back!!! =]

• Hey,
  
  Rob's back!! and this would be the reaction I could be expecting from some people...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Hahaha, anyway, I have been doing alright this week (I had only 3 days of school this week because there was some teachers development staff thing...who cares! days off, woohoo!)
• I've finally got the tickets to go see Kimya Dawson on the 18th of June. I bet it will be awesome as and pretty entertaining.
• I spent my Thursday all day in the city with Lisa (Missy was with us for a little bit and Chantelle came later) and it was a really good day, very tiring when I got home after SYN though.
• Friday, I spent one of my well-known lazy days: had ice cream for breakfast, watched Talladega Nights and Borat and had a bowl of popcorn for lunch. (God, it sounds like I was stoned that day...except I haven't, and probably never will, smoke pot).
• Chantelle has a new baby brother, congratulations for her and her mum =]
• Today (Saturday), I pretty much went out with family to the city. Had a great lunch in Richmond and went to the footy afterwards (Collingwood vs. Hawthorn). Unfortunately, Hawthorn killed us by about 65 points, so that definately suck. Though it was still a good day.
• Right now, I am typing away on the blog, just watched To Kill a Mockingbird and have Rage blasting in the background (Anti-Flag are picking the songs for the night. YAY!), but I think I might just go to sleep any minute around now.
• So that is my week basically. If you want to leave a comment and say hi maybe, feel free to do so and remember, no matter if you're right or wrong, you're right!....talk to you later. LOL
  

Rob's Guide to the Film Galaxy #1

Hello, welcome to the first editon of Rob's Guide to the Film Galaxy, where I look at all sorts of film topics and expand your film knowledge (sounded a bit wanky then, didn't I?), and also I'll be reviewing films both present and past. But now for today's film blog:

FILM REVIEW

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Hello. welcome to London. Enjoy many of the attractions you can find: The Big Ben, soccer matches and Buckingham Palace...but if that is too bright for you; why not try Fleet Street, where you can find a pie shop which sell the worst pies in London...and don't forget to go upstairs where you get a nice, clean, *hint hint* bloody *hint hint* shave and you'll lucky if you come back out at all...

This is the world of Sweeney Todd, a Broadway musical which has now been turned into a film by none other than the master of gothic-themed films himself, Tim Burton! and who else would he have portrayed the neck-slitting main character other than his favourite actor, Johnny Depp!

The story is about a barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), who had a beautiful wife and a baby daughter, getting falsely arrested and sentenced to life of hard labour out of England. Luckily, many years later, he escapes and gets a lift from a young, helpful sailor (played by newcomer Jamie Campbell Bower) back to London. Benjamin changes his look from upper-class and decent to dark and soulless and adopts the name, Sweeney Todd. He moves back into his old upstairs barber shop on Fleet Street and finds out, according to his landlord from downstairs, Mrs. Lovett (Burton's partner Helena Bonham Carter), that his wife was sexually abused by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who made the arrest on Benjamin/Sweeney, and made her poisoned herself to death; and also he has taken his daughter and claim himself as her guardian. So Sweeney must get revenge and he can only do it by what he does best and take it to extreme....if you catch my drift.

Now, this is not the first time I have seen an adaptation of the violent musical, well actually it's not really a full adaptation because it's just a lame school play performance in the not-so-good Jersery Girl. So I guess this is the first full adaptation of the musical I have seen. Now I am happy to admit that Burton is one of my favourite directors, along with others like Tarantino, Scorsese, Kubrick, Rodriguez, Smith, The Coens, etc. (Yes, I know, I have a lot), and I have spent my time watching most of his work, from his early films (like the short film Frankenweenie and the first two Batman movies in the early 90's) to his well-known stop-motion films (The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride). Also over the last two decades, in most of his films, he just takes something that exists and puts them into his own dark vision (Eg. He has used the story of Frankenstein and changed it into a similiar story for a dog in Frankenweenie; or when he takes a mix of 1950's B-grade Sci-fi films and 1970's disaster films, and then *ta-da*, you have Mars Attacks!). He has also been known to work a lot with Johnny Depp, as Sweeney Todd would be the sixth film they have worked togehter (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood [the portrayal of influential yet really bad director], Sleepy Hollow [actually one of my favourites from Burton], the not-that-good Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake; and Corpse Bride [so far my favourite Burton flick of this decade so far])

For Sweeney Todd, this feels like basic Tim Burton all the way (gothic themes, that cheesiness that makes you giggle a little bit and...Johnny Depp) so this is a must for hardcore fans of Burton (like myself).

POSITIVES: Since this is a musical, I kind-of have a thing against most of them (espically High School Musical). I just think they are way too corny and meaningless. But when it comes to Sweeney Todd, I think it's not bad for a musical. The songs cover most of the dialogue in the film and its what makes the film, cause without it, it would have been pointless! I give good acting credits to Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, and also definately Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Borat and Ali G), who makes a brief appearance.

NEGATIVES: Well, some of the other supporting characters were slightly irritating. Alan Rickman, I reckon he is a good actor and all and he has had played a villian before (Die Hard, anyone?), but this is a not role for him, he barely sings at all, only one song! I reckon if they got someone like Christopher Walken or Sean Connery (if he came out of retirement), that would have been great! and that kid!! God, when will people learn, you can't work with unexperienced kids actors in M, MA or R rated films!! and as for the musical side, well there were some of that corny/cheesy vibe but I didn't have a huge prob with that one.

So, in conclusion, Sweeny Todd is a must for anyone who is a fan of Tim Burton or musicals, or you just want to see a first-ever gory musical on-screen.

3 and a half out of 5 bloody razors!

YOUTH RIOT! EPISODE 2 (21/02/08)

Hey, if you didn't know, there is an awesome show on an awesome radio station. YOUTH RIOT! on SYN FM (90.7)! It's on Thursday nights from 8pm till 9pm and we play some good punk and metal music that your hosts Rob and Toni-Marie love. We also have some cool segments, like CONFUSION FUSION, where we play a punk and metal song that has been remixed; COVER OF THE WEEK, where we also find a good cover song and play it for the people.

This week, we got some music from Unearth, Shai Hulud, Horsell Common, Millencolin, Mclusky and more... Plus we will be playing some new stuff from Die! Die! Die!, as their new album Promises, Promises is SYN FM's Album of the Week.

So tune in tomorrow night at 8pm by tuning in 90.7FM if you lived in the city or the surburban areas near the city (and if you don't, stream it from http://www.syn.org.au)

Pacman is everywhere!

This is the first of many awesome animated and funny as hell videos that I will be posting up!

First off, this is from one of my favourite TV shows called Good Game, which is on ABC 2 (if you have digital TV) on Mondays at 9pm or on ABC 1 (everyone else) on Fridays at 12:30am (Saturday, actually, but its more simpler, so you wouldn't think its on sat night). They did a segment last year called Qtr-Circle-A, where they take video games and make different forms of medium for each episode. (From Tetris turning into surrealism to learning about first-person-shooting games in 1950's-style how-to films). In this one, Pacman decides to try out more video games apart from his own!

Welcome!

Allo Allo, what's all this then?

That is probably what your asking yourself (but not how I said it just then.)

Well, Welcome to my new blog website. I will be talking about few of my favourite things like:

• Films
• Video Games
• SYN FM (the radio station where I do a show every Thursday night)
• General Life
• and more...

So feel free to send me a comment about anything and I'll keep you posted