Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Picture Kaleidoscope 1/30/13

Happy Wednesday!




Photographer Shoots Scary Self-Portraits Showing Himself Falling from PetaPixel. Photos by Kerry Skarbakka. Such a weird concept, no?


Creepy Doll-Like Photography at Trendhunter. Photography by Guim Tio Zarraluki.


Mata Guanaco by Andrew at Earthshots.org


Galea by Matthew Feeser at Earthshots.org - looks way cool! Nice stuff at his website as well.


UnderWater Realm - Shooting Underwater Has To Be Creative Both Artistically and Technically from DIY Photography. There's even a trailer for the series the pics are for. Kinda cool!


Have a great one!



Monday, January 28, 2013

Mind Sieve 1/28/13

Greetings!






Family Therapy: Learning To Love Mercury and Pluto by William Ledbetter at Baen.com. Cute family allegories and great info on current missions too!



The Call Trailer - this one looks mighty disturbing. Eek!




42 Official Trailer #2 - Harrison Ford, Alan Tudyk, and more in this one!




Identity Thief Trailer - I don't even know what to make of this one. lol. Hubby will probably love it. 




Star Wars 7 Sneak Peek from Barely Political. I couldn't look...away...




Emperor Official Trailer #1 - Oooo! This looks good! I'm in!









7 Libraries of Sensational Photographs You Can Use For Free by Johnathan Gunson at BestSellerLabs. Primp those blogs!

You Can Now Easily Add Media To Your Linked In Profile by Viveka VonRosen






From the Wise but not safe for work - Chuck (NSFW) Wendig - 25 Hard Truths About Writing and Publishing. He's spot on, peeps!

Enemies of the Art pt 1 - Approval Addiction from Kristen Lamb.



Sunday, January 27, 2013

Virtual Tourist - Worms Pinball and Star Wars The Old Republic 1/27/13

Happy Sunday!


Worms Pinball
Hubby uses Steam for a lot of his playing and game buying, so he ran across this sucker when it was on special (He also got Worms Golf, but that one is proving hard to take pics of). He also plays regular Worms with his buds.


They did an awesome job making it look like real pinball. And it really acts like and has a lot of the features of some of my favorite real machines! It also has a ton of extra little games you can stumble over for the little screen at the top. Still struggling to figure out several of those. Doh!


Star Wars The Old Republic
Jedi Consular
Corellia


Corellian tranportation systems

Doesn't he look badass! 

Whoosh!


They do like to use this machine for all sorts of creepy looking places. Heh heh

Destruction is everywhere. 



More furry dudes!


My new pet! Super creepy!


Robot manufacturing plant


Some of the assembly lines at the robot plant


Hard to say if all that dust/smoke in the distance is normal industrial yuck or part of what's been destroyed.


New emote I got in one of the random prize packs you can buy. Like a Sith power glare. Heh heh.



Doesn't he look nasty? Are supposed to be like construction/disaster relief droids.


More of the Corellian transportation system en route.




Han, your world is really in a bad way.


The pic in the background of the woman? It's very popular in this sector of Corellia. 



More weird status. Eek!





Wonder if we'll get some sunshine by this afternoon? Have an awesome day!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Movie Review - Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters


Starring: Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Pihla Viitala, Derek Mears, Robin Atkins Downes, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Joanna Kulig, Thomas Mann, Peter Stormare, Rainer Bock, and more.

Directed by: Tommy Wirkola Written by: Tommy Wirkola and D W Harper Cinematography by: Michael Bonvillain Music by: Atli Övarsson

Premise: Hansel and Gretel were left alone in the woods at night by their father and were almost eaten by a witch. Rather than give in to the horror of their childhood trauma, the two siblings decide to save others from suffering their same plight and become witch hunters. Years later, a series of child disappearances brings the siblings to a small town where an unknown evil is gathering for a very special night. (Rated R)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton are great as the famous siblings. I loved the little touches in visual cues or silent looks that spoke of the siblings close relationship and also their different personalities. Famke Janssen was delicious as the evil Muriel.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: From the unique touch-ups on the witches, to the glowing of wands, to the great work on Edward, the special effects were great. Throw in some super cool weapons and colorful zapping spells and there's plenty to keep the eyes occupied. And wait till you see the candy cottage! The frosting on the roof even dripped.

The title sequence where we're given a quick flash through of Hansel and Gretel's life with the moving paper cutouts was great. And like the original fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, the sequence gets bloody. The rest of the film also had its share of bloody splatters.

3) Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" is a fairy tale about a fairy tale, so normal rules do not apply. The spin on the well known story was a lot of fun. But even better were the couple of unexpected story loops that got thrown in as well. I'd talk about them, but I don't want to spoil them for you.

Several great one liners in the script! And since there were no rules, we get lots and lots of anachronistic but still very fun weapons.

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: Lots and lots of hand to hand combat with lots and lots of fun weapons. All the fights were fast, well choreographed, with many little surprises. Several great strategies for dealing with witches on their brooms (which in this film, it looked like any kind of stick would pretty much do as one - some were even quite bizarre looking). A lot of trees had parts and pieces scraped, cracked, or blown up, making the 'gags' more amazing with all that wood shrapnel for the stunt people to avoid during filming.

5) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: Since the film dealt with witches, it seemed apt that several of the sweeping views over the forest and the town appeared to have been shot from the point of view of a witch riding her broom. As I mentioned earlier, the candy cottage was marvelous. The candy designs on the door was cool until you realize that the outer circle look like giant teeth, which then made it  utterly creepy. The gloomy, rotted inside of the cottage made for a great contrast. The woods, the hidden ponds, and the waterfalls were perfect.

6) Costuming/Makeup - Total Thumbs Up: Between the CGI and great makeup, the witches all had unique looks of their own. Wounds received in battle by the brother-sister team didn't just disappear  in the next scene, but were kept. And I was quite impressed with the bruising we could see, along with the scars Hansel's accumulated over the years, during a quiet moment in the film. (Though with all the fighting sequences and stunts, there's a chance those bruises were actually the real thing.)

Conclusion: "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" is a great romp if you're looking for some fun fights, an unexpectedly decent story, and super cool weaponry. Like the original Grimm fairy tales, the film is graphically bloody in places, so I wouldn't recommend it for younger viewers. If you can afford it, definitely go see it in IMAX 3D.

Rating: 4 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Paying Full Price To See Again)

Monday, January 21, 2013

Mind Sieve 1/21/13

And off we go!





This was too much fun - Catzilla



Red 2 Trailer. Looks even more fun that the first one and it was a blast. Heh heh.



Dead Man Down Official Trailer - looks funky!



The Power of Few trailer - another funky looking one.


The 10 Essential Genre Films of 2012 by Ryan Britt at Tor.com. Some nice insights. 



New Pacific Rim Trailer - woot! Totally pumped about this one. 











From Chuck (NSFW) Wendig - What Flavor of Publishing Will You Choose?

Writers: Getting Unstuck After Rejection by Meredith at the Writer's Inner Journey.


Have a great Monday!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Virtual Tourist - Angry Birds Star Wars and Dishonored 1/20/13

Overslept this morning. Very unusual. :)

Angry Birds Star Wars
Hoth

Don't think I'd ever taken a pic of the puzzle group selection screen. 


Look at the insanity of this puzzle! I've yet to get one of those golden egg things. I can't even imagine how you even come close to getting near it. Got real lucky on this one and made it through. Was stuck on the one before it for a while.



Now we're above Hoth. Gravity wells!



This one is proving a toughie. Ugh!


Dishonored
Mission 2

You'll probably have to click for the larger version to see the circling birds above. :)

Much to my amazement, I"m having to return to several places I've been at before for Mission 1. Oi!


A weird haze seems to be covering things.

When I took this, I had no idea they were about to tell me it was my objective! lol. Not as easy to get to as one might think. (And yeah, it's a brothel. What a place to keep the empress's daughter at. Eek!)


Scientist and goodies merchant. 

Sewers - as they introduce me to "Weepers" as the new annoyance (humans too far gone with the plague) rather than rats.


View once I get dumped to the closest entry point to the zone with the Golden Cat.


More circling birds and signs.


New addition to the familiar zone. Sucker launches missiles and more. Nasty piece of business. And there's also assassins running lose as well.


Interesting message left on a wall.

Have a great one!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...