jueves, 29 de enero de 2015

When the Smurfs and Pocahontas went to space...

by Alex Zavala (@alekdome)

Back in 2009 when Avatar came out, to be honest, I was blown away. No one had or has ever done such good 3D, motion capture and CGI. I even wanted it to win the Oscar. Of course then it lasted 3 months in theaters, became annoying and I was able to see it for what it really is: a ver good looking re-make of Pocahontas. I still like the movie, but there is no way it is coincidentally the exact same film as Disney's 1995 classic.



Here's basically what I'm saying. Change corn for a "precious" alien material, and Ratcliffe for Phoebe's little brother.. and what do you get?...

Everything in both story lines is the same.... seriously!
Can you tell me these two magic trees don't look similar?



The Avatar one didn't have a protruding face Zordon's style, I'll give you that. 

But they both have the Indian chief that wants his rebellious daughter to marry the uptight warrior, but instead falls in love with the enemy's insider, who is not at all liked by the uptight warrior and who falls for her as well, having a change of heart, which doesn't matter to his greedy superior who decides to invade and ends up trying to kill the Indian chief causing the rebellious daughter to doubt the insider's intention, which of course doesn't last long before he goes all "hero" and is badly wounded trying to save the indian civilization and making the invaders leave. 

Can't keep up? Just watch either movie.





Hell, James Cameron even plagiarized himself, he took this baby from Aliens:





And turned it into this thing:





I read an interview where he says he's worried about Hollywood not being original anymore, he said people need to stop making so many sequels. I also read that Avatar 2, 3 and 4 are well on their way...

lunes, 26 de enero de 2015

If it happes in life, it happens in The Simpsons


by Alex Zavala (@alekdome)




I was at a meeting at work today, and someone was saying how their job would consist on typing "ctrl -"v"" over and over again. It came to mind that time when Homer leaves a Drinking Bird as a replacement to keep typing "y" while he went to the movies. Moments later, my boss gave an example of something that immediately made me think of Lionel Hutz fixing shoes while giving legal counseling and attempting to sell a drank cup of orange juice. This reinforced in my mind something that I've been saying for a good few years now: Anything that ever happens, has already happened in some form in "The Simpsons".





Interestingly enough, I am talking about the first eleven or twelve seasons alone, the actual great ones. To be honest, I have seen very few episodes of the last 10 seasons of the show, they're just not that funny anymore. One might argue its because I've grown up, but no, I still laugh my ass off watching the episodes I've seen fifty five thousand million times.

It is understandable that they can't still be funny after so many years, I mean, there is simply no way that after covering every possible situation in life, they can still come up with good ideas. With that in mind, I would urge the producers to please END IT already! Do it while it still has some dignity, no one wants to see their favorite show go all "Two and a Half Men" on them.



I'm serious, I mean, come on! There is nothing memorable about the HD intro with them watching a flat screen TV, ugh! Nobody remembers when Sideshow Bob moved to Italy and got a family, or when Patty and Selma adopted an asian baby. But who doesn't know what you're talking about when you say "Mr. Plow" or "The Be Sharps"? Who doesn't remember Homer going to space, Lisa´s wedding in the future, Bart dating the reverend's daughter, Maggie´s first word, and Marge's hair loss??


Those are the classic moments worth watching over and over again, anything new, doesn't really seem worth it, so give it a rest already. And I would like to put my theory to the test, comment or tweet any life situation, and I will tell you when in the first 12 seasons of "The Simpsons" something similar happened.




I leave you with an excellent irrefutable argument to use in a future fight: "It takes two to lie... one to lie and one to listen" - Homer Simpson.

jueves, 22 de enero de 2015

Welcome to Lens Blur

by Alex Zavala (@alekdome)

Hello,

Welcome to "Lens Blur"...a place to look at film and television blurred by my own personal views. If you landed on this blog by mistake, stick around. With some luck, what I have to say might actually be interesting to some.

My name is Alex,  and let me begin by saying I AM NOT a movie critic. Movie critics think they know everything, yet this is all they have to say about anything:



Not because they don't like it... but if it is not an artsy, abstract, independent movie, their public reaction will always be:


Which is kind of what happens these days with whoever has a say in Oscar nominations and wins... but we'll leave that subject for a different time.

I will try to give you a more honest opinion, I am not embarrased to say I like Nicolas Cage films or cheesy chick-flicks; and I am certainly not embarrased to say I like commercial cinema. This goes to all the movie critics who are probably thinking:


Something that SO MANY people like isn´t bad just because your "illustrated" minority thinks so.


Of course there's a lot of shit out there (Adam Sandler's "Jack & Jill" I am looking at you) but I just wanted to differentiate myself from those who are too pretentious to admit they too like big explosions and super powers.

Anyway, this was just a quick introduction to what this space is like. I will try to write posts regularly wether I get a lot of views or not, but if you do read them and like them, care to comment and share. You can also send me hate tweets to @alekdome (non-hate ones are welcome too).