Matching my last post about those annoying anti piracy ads, I’ve found this gem in the depths of the web. A short AMV by Doki Doki Productions. It’s called Plunder Propaganda and it’s a hilarious spoof of the usual ads:

A high quality version is available at AnimeMusicVideos.org (after a free registration you can download each and every AMV on the site, which are tens of thousands).

Another spoof was done by the IT Crowd:

And last but not least, as a reference the original annoying ad™:

This commercial shows just one of the many reasons why everyone should learn english as a second language. It’s just established as the language of the world. Although the french still want to speak french even in business relations…

Anyway I’ve never seen that commercial on german television, although it is supposedly a german production. They only show the worst commercials on TV here nowadays.

So without further ado here is the brilliant ad (I’m still laughing after watching it 5 times in a row):

And for you non-german speaking folk out there, the translation what the old guy says:

“Das hier ist mein Sektor” - “This here is my sector”
“Das hier ist das wichtigste Gerät des Küstenwächters” - “This here is the most important device of the Coast Guard”
“Das Gerät und das Gerät” - “That device and that device”
“Überlebens… Radar” - “Survival… Radar”

From the people who claim 300 is a true story, comes the tale of a nations birth (well actually it comes from Adult Swim) - 1776

Cheesy? Maybe. Accurate? Hell no. But funny non the less!

And as a comparison the real 300 trailer:

Yesterday I’ve watched Toki o Kakeru Shōjo, Tokikake for short, or as the english call it - The Girl who leapt through Time. While the title may suggest a flick for girls only, I thoroughly enjoyed the move as a man in his 20ies too.

After getting the special edition DVDs recommended by amazon while browsing for animes, the customer reviews got me hooked. Reading that the movie wasn’t even mainstream in Nippon but still won all kinds of movie festival prices helped made my decision to buy the piece clear.

So the story goes: Makoto, a 17 year old girl is about to die in a freakish train accident when she suddenly finds out that she can leap through time into the past and redo things there. At first she only uses her new-found ability to make things right for her, get good test grades and make less of a fool of herself in various situations (although they then turn out pretty funny with her knowing stuff all the others don’t). She has two male friends in the school with which she playes baseball and hangs out all day. But as more as she jumps through time to have fun all day long she realizes that maybe, if only good things happen to her, more bad things will come to others.

The movie is a rather unique time-travelling movie, with more focus on the moral and philosophy of ones doings, and with the central phrase the charakters learn in english class, “Time waits for no one.”

Besides a few scenes the movie is relatively action-free (i.e. there are no big explosions, but still action happens between and to the characters, just not on a action-film level), but it had everything else a movie need to succed: Loveable characters all with their little quirks, a really interesting story, very funny moments, sad moments, moments of romance and, while not an ending with everything one could wish for, and ending with everything one could hope for.

It is really a feel-good movie, with the ultimate motto of “seize the day” and “do things as your heart tells you to”. The last time I have seen such a heartwarming movie was probably Tim Burton’s Big Fish.

I can only recommend this masterpiece to everyone interesting in anime, or good storytelling and interesting characters. And although the Wikipedia entry only mentions the Japanese and German DVD releases (amazon.com only lists the region 3 DVDs, but with english subtitles still so that is an option), the film was shown on canadian and american film festivals so it is bound to be released in the US too.

And on a last side-note: The anime is based on a story by Yasutaka Tsutsui, whos other film adaptation was Paprika which was also a very philosophical flick about dreams in the real world, only bound by imagination.

All it takes is a good or just innovative video, to get the fans going in making their own interpretation of it. And sometimes the mockup of the video is even better or at least more funny than the original, as with this example:

Step 1: Take a rock video

Step 2: ???

Step 3a: Make a similar song and video referencing oversold and former popstars instead of living-on-the-edge rockstars, and use image samples instead of real video footage to make is look poorly done, but focus on the lyrics:

Step 3b: Use the exact same video, but add characters from a game to it, and write a song about the game:

We all knew the Master Chief from Halo was badass. As was Samus Aran from Metroid long, long, before him. Now the time has finally come for the two to battle it out in a big city brawl. And to make things worse the hive is also swarming there.
So much for the “story” of this brilliant machinima. What really made my jaw drop here is the animation which is top-notch. Never before have I seen such fluid and perfectly choreographed fighting in a fan-made game video. There are a few scenes reminiscent of the Matrix action, but other than that it looks very original. As if the fight between Master Chief and Samus wasn’t enough of brilliantly choreographed styling, when the two have to team up against the hive they let hell loose upon them, double-team style.

I just wish that you would actually be able to do all these crazy moves in the video games!

Sorry for not updating in a while but I’m really stressed completely at work since a new project started last week, and we got meetings and stuff all over the place… gotta drive 2 hours to another one tomorrow 6 o’clock in the morning… *sigh*

Anyway, I saw the movie 300 a few days ago, and while I really wanted to like it, the best thing about it I can say is that the action was very cool. Story- and character-wise I would have anticipated more from the creator of Sin City.

But nontheless, this edition of VG Cats is genius, mixing Mario and the probably most-shown-scene from 300:

Yesterday I watched Children of Men, a movie I haven’t heard of before seeing it in the “new releases” stand at the local video store. The blurb read interesting so I borrowed it. And what a great and fascinating movie it was!
I’ll try not to spoil the story for you, but the essence of it is: It is the year 2027, mankind is practically infertile, there has been no baby born sind about 18 years now. Britain is very isolated and tries to keep all the (illegal) immigrants from the mainland under control - with extremely harsh restrictions and lots of violence from the police and army. Everything is very dystopian, the world seems at its end.
But then a pregnant african-american woman surfaces, and the story around our everyman hero Theo (Clive Owen), his ex-wife and resistance-leader Julian (Julianne Moore) and their friends and foes begins to unfold.
That basically is the beginning, anything more and the spoilage would be too much, but rest assured, this is no Hollywood production where protagonists magically dodge bullets.

Anyway, the visual style of the movie is deeply impressing. In a world of ultra-fast-cut MTV-style action flicks, Children of Men scores with extremly long takes, documentary-style camerawork and of course, its brilliant character actors. The longest take in particular, that I had to watch 3 times in a row just to believe there wasn’t any cut in it, is as follows:
Our heroes are running through a dark tunnel towards the street where there is heavy fighting. They come along a T-crossing where some random guys get shot, there they get stormed by the resistance and are nearly executed on the spot. All of a sudden their would-be executers are shot themselves, and the party is on the run through the street again, with the camera chasing behind them. All this time there are cars coming around corners, people getting shot left and right, families running around and hiding, and so on. They get around a few corners, ride through a shot-up bus, and then watch as army troops shoot a building where the resistance hides with tanks. Between two shots they get into the building and up the stairs where there is more shooting and explosions. They don’t know what to do when tank shells explode on the walls of the building and troops come storming in.

The take doesn’t end here, but anything more and the ending would be really spoiled if you haven’t seen this brilliant movie.
I really love movies with long takes and slow cuts, because it emphasizes the actors (and cameracrews) performance on screen, and this one here did particularly well in that respect. Anyone can shoot 2 second takes and cut them together in the editing room so a half-way good movie comes out of it. But working with long takes really brings the actors to their limit, because everyone know if (s)he fucks up, the take is gone and there have to be another 5 or so hours of preparing the next take.

Apart from the brilliant execution, Children of Men is an inspiring movie about hope, the ability to stand above racism and see mankind as a whole, and loyality to one owns friends.
On top of all that I dig the fact that the movie has Michael Caine smoking and growing pot as a die-hard hippie. He cites the fact that in 2027 there are instant-death pills available everywhere (called “Quietus”) but Cannabis is still illegal. Food for thought.

Creating those self-made costumes must have been one hell of a job! I really dig the Optimus Prime one, but they are all great in their own respect.

There’s beer. Then there’s advertisments. And then there are really, really great beer advertisments. Budweiser often had them, Tuborg had a few good ones, Heineken also. But this one beats them all when it comes to big, epic ads - it even has its own Wikipedia article.

Inspired by Cheers Beer [Dan’s blog].

As they say, the best advertisements come from Britain. As I say, the best comedy comes from Britain, too. These 2 ads show that they can do both. The Johnny Walker “Android” one is a little bit melancholy but it does feature a strong message to the viewer - as does the “Get a Mac” ad, but the latter carries a much more comedic undertone. But watch for yourself:

Found on: the thinking blog and must have GIZMOS respectively.

Men vs women. Testicles vs Mammaries. Drying with a towel the size of a small state vs making a shampoo mohawk. It is always the same with the eternal gender struggle. But more often than not the very differences between us are a source of comedy. As in this little video:

I already wrote about how funny the 30-second Bunny Theatre from Angry Alien Productions are almost two years ago. I almost forgot about the sheer craziness that evolves when bunnies re-enact famous movies, and when they don’t have more than 30 seconds time to pull off the particular story. So without much further ado, I’ll just take you to the latest entries from the troupe:

Borat: Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Bunzakhstan
Brokeback Mountain
Caddyshack
Fight Club
Highlander
King Kong
Pulp Fiction
Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Reservoir Dogs
The Ring
Rocky
Star Wars
Superman Returns
War of the Worlds

The most laughs I definately got out of the Star Wars one: not only does it feature outtakes which no other of the features has, but there is a short frame of the famous Cantina, and the bunnies hum the cantina melody - how sweet! And of course the Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs ones are great too, especially the scene with Butch, Marsellus and Zed from the first one. Here all the bunnies have to say after the humiliating scene is “We cool?” - “We cool!”

This guy, Frank Caliendo of MAD TV fame, is just freaking hilarious. His impersonations of famous people like George “Dubya” Bush, John Madden, or even Chris Rock on Scooby Doo, are among the best, if not the best, I have ever seen. And they still make me laugh after having seen them like 10+ times. Too bad you can’t buy the whole DVD from his site without a credit card, because then it would be on my shelf ASAP.

I just realized, while surfing the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), that on there is an entry for “Your mom“. Surprisingly, she was the composer of “Cabin Fever: Beneath the sky”. Just imagine the paradoxon that would come up when your mom was watching a movie where the credits listed “your mom”. ^_^