Hero

I finally got around to seeing this last night. Whilst it's a visually stunning film the soundtrack was sending me to sleep so I've come away thinking it was just "ok". It's the same fault I had with Crouching Tiger although being a fan of Ninjas as a kid, I tolerated the soundtrack.
The follow up comes out in December, I know they won't replace the drumming with some angst filled synth rock, which is what you'd get in an American equivalent, but I can wait in hope!

Saw is still my favourite film this year..

Flat is tidy!

Got one of those phone calls that I dread getting.

"hello, it's the estate agents. is it OK to pop around tomorrow as someone would like to view the flat"

For those that don't know, I'm trying to buy a new place and my current landlord is selling the place I'm in currently. This means I have people coming around looking at my stuff. A couple of weeks ago an old couple wanted to view the flat and I said that the place wasn't presentable and could they do tomorrow. However they were indignant so I backed down. They then went on to comment about the state of the flat and made some pretty shitty comments about me indirectly. So now I don't let the agents come around unless I've been given 24 hours notice. That way I can get the place decent for them to see, and I won't get annoyed by more crappy comments.

I'm not a slob, nowhere near it but I don't like criticism like that.

So, the flat has been tidied this evening and the agent can do what he wants tomorrow.

B-Boy Championships are over...

...and what a superb weekend it was.

Saturday was the singles battles and featured a B-Boy battle and for the first time a Popping battle. For me the latter was the better contest, and the final came down to French guys; Salah and Sally Sly. I'd seen Salah before and knew he was really good but here he was in his element and he totally blew all the opposition away, to say he was in another league would be an understatement. However for reasons that no-one can figure out, the judges gave it to Sly. The crowd went mad when the announcement was made. Sly left and Salah stayed and gave another performance. You can tell that this guy has a background in mime and he brings that to his popping. I can't find any footage to show you how good he is, if I do I'll post it. Oh and in the b-boy battle it ended up with two Koreans in the final; Hong 10 and Physics. This final was really close but Physics won it with 8 spins on his elbow, some shit that blew away Crazy Legs, so it must have been good.

Sunday was the team battle and this ended up with a Korean / American final - Project Seoul vs Massive Monkeys. This was really close, both teams having some great routines. I personally thought the Americans had it but the judges gave it to the Koreans. The team battles for me are what the whole weekend are about, and the crowd was well up for seeing these. The move of the night involved a french kid running into 2 team mates and then being launched backwards up into the air towards the rest of the crew who'd built a tower to catch him. Crazy!!!!

The only downside to the weekend was a live act called Breakestra. If there was a musical equivalent to dying on stage then they did it. Unfortunately they played a continual set so had no opportunity to stop and gauge the audience reaction. It got so bad that people just started doing their own battles in the crowd for entertainment.

Not me though, I just watched...

Roll on next year which I hope will be something special given it's the 10th anniversary.

The Machine

Whilst at the B-Boy championships, Afrika Islam (who was hosting with Crazy Legs) made reference to his new band, called the Machine. When you see the line up you should see that this is something special.

Chuck D (Public Enemy)
Melle Mel (Furious Five)
Afrika Bambaataa (Zulu Nation)
Afrika Islam (Zulu Nation)
Ice T (Body Count)
Ernie C (Body Count)
Chad (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails)
Axel Hilgenstoehler (Thumb) **OK, I don't know this one either**

Pretty good huh? I thought this was made up as Islam does say a lot of shit on stage. However it does appear to be true, apparently they played their first gig in Germany a few days prior to the battles. The link to a review of that is here .

(If you can't read German it basically says they sound very heavy - rap with industrial overtones and that Ice T never showed up which is a bit bad for a premiere, although he did appear via video link)

Def Jam Vendetta - Fight for New York

The new Def Jam game came out today and I bought a copy on the way home, a complete impulse purchase. For whatever reason I also bought the Star Wars boxset but that's another story!

Anyway, the game is pretty good, nice solid graphics with some sick moves, especially those that involve the crowd. The moves appear a bit limited but that could be because my character hasn't developed yet. It also has Henry Rollins in it, which is enough reason to get it I think. Unfortunately I've not unlocked him yet.

In terms of fighting hip hop celebrities, I've so far destroyed Ice T, O.E. and Sean Paul (Took much delight in the last one). I wish there were more games where you can beat seven shades of crap out of celebrities.

Saw

This is a film that came out today and which I caught after work. It's probably the best film I've seen this year, although to be honest there hasn't been much stand out stuff (Big Fish springs to mind though).

Anyway, if you liked Se7en, with it's dark visuals and non-hollywood ending, then this is more of the same, but much more sadistic. The guy that wrote this needs to be looked at closely as there is a very evil streak in his personality. Instead of having a serial killer, this goes one better by having the baddie put his captors in situations where they end up killing themselves. Much more inventive.

Just about every horror movie, that has come out in the last couple of years, have been marketed as being "the scariest thing since...... and the vast majority of them have been very disappointing and not scary at all. This however really lives up to any hype (and there hasn't been much) that has been thrown at it. Women were screaming in the cinema, and blokes were doing that styled out laughing they do when they don't want to be seen screaming.

Anyway I really like this film. I'm thinking on going to go and see it again, if only to spot the clues to the ending which I'm not going to give away here.