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Zack Snyder has an unusually cruel eye.

  By Allan | March 13, 2009 - 9:29 pm | Movies & TV, The Culch
16 Comments

I’ve written a longer review of Watchmen elsewhere, but there is an addendum I’d like to make that fell out of my head until a fridge moment today (and will serve as my inaugural post here). The Kennedy shooting during the title montage was possibly the cruellest thing to grace a cinema screen since the first filmed kick in the nuts. It was clearly based on the Zapruder footage and as a dramatic reconstruction of a significant cultural event it gets full marks. Snyder obviously had someone count the pieces of brain that landed on the back of the car. It’s that accurate. The scene serves no purpose however, other than service Snyder’s apparent fascination with the myriad ways bodily tissues disintegrate under stress. It’s not the only clumsy appropriation in the movie (the Last Supper and VE Day kiss in Times Square gave me the dry wretches) , but … There’s more →

Bet you never saw lunchbags like this

  By lecraic | March 13, 2009 - 12:09 pm | Random Whimsy
1 Comment

Remember going to school with a packed lunch. How was your lunch packed – greaseproof paper, a plastic lunchbox, stuffed in your pocket, wrapped in tinfoil? I feel deprived now – I never had lunchbags as cool as what Lunchbagart gives his kids. “A new bag each day for my kids. I’m the dad. I make these during my lunch break.” Brilliant stuff. Lunch Bag Art / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Movie News 13/03/09

  By Darren Byrne | March 13, 2009 - 8:53 am | Movies & TV, The Culch
2 Comments

Continuing my churn through the latest movie news, I have found yet another horror classic is to be rehashed remade. Stephen King’s It, the stuff of many a childhood nightmare will return to the big screen. Is there anyone creepier than Tim Curry who could play Pennywise? Kind of non-news this: Keira Knightley will not return for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. She’s had enough of the franchise. Haven’t we all? A bunch of release dates announced: Thor will be out in June 2011, Iron Man 2 in May 2010, Captain America will see the light of day in May 2010, as will Spiderman 4 and The Avengers movie won’t hit the screens until May 2012. It’s all so very far away… Speaking of Iron Man 2 (I was, honest), both Scarlett Johansson and Mickey Rourke have signed on. I. Cannot. Wait. (But I guess I’ll have to) … There’s more →

Balderdash

  By Peter | March 12, 2009 - 7:20 pm | Random Whimsy
5 Comments

Licking stamps eyes closed wide Holding hands a winters tide Cealing kisses an envelope torn And doth returns the summers mourn Fussy, would he is he can? Holding hands when all began Crossing roads an intersect, scorn And lovers cry together reborn A smile a glance a passing face A flowers petals stripped of lace Warmer softly into began And tossled sepals a trickle ran A smile so soft a rushing glow A lovers charm a pause, you know Happy, nothing but hands hold warm And so returns a summers morn

Movie News 12/03/09

  By Darren Byrne | March 12, 2009 - 10:31 am | Movies & TV, The Culch
1 Comment

Does anyone else find it a little strange that Watchmen’s screenwriter is practically begging people to go see the movie again? David Hayter posted the following on HardcoreNerdity: If the film made you think. Or argue with your friends. If it inspired a debate about the nature of man, or vigilante justice, or the horror of Nixon abolishing term limits. If you laughed at Bowie hanging with Adrian at Studio 54, or the Silhouette kissing that nurse. Please go see the movie again next weekend. You have to understand, everyone is watching to see how the film will do in its second week. If you care about movies that have a brain, or balls, (and this film’s got both, literally), or true adaptations — And if you’re thinking of seeing it again anyway, please go back this weekend, Friday or Saturday night. Demonstrate the power of the fans, because it’ll … There’s more →

What culture?

  By Grandad | March 12, 2009 - 10:03 am | Random Whimsy, The Culch
8 Comments

Writing for Culch.ie should be interesting. Why? Well, for a start, I have never been to the movies or even seen a movie. I have been to the cinema a lot and have seen thousands of films, but that’s a different story. Nowadays, I don’t go to the cinema much, if at all.  I tend to see films as they come out on television which means I am about ten years behind everyone else, but who’s counting? Pop music is another matter. We all know that pop music hit its peak in the seventies, did quite well in the eighties but died the death after that. So why am I here? I don’t know? I was asked to join in and add my tuppenceworth, and who am I to argue?  I pointed out that I knew feck all about modern culture but they said it didn’t matter. So I may … There’s more →

Breaking News…

  By NaRocRoc | March 12, 2009 - 8:45 am | In The News, Music, Random Whimsy, The Culch, TV
1 Comment

George Lee. Crazy George Lee. Turns out he’s a fan of Welsh indie acts from the mid-90′s. Particularly the Manic Street Preachers and Catatonia. Seems he has a thing for Cerys Matthews. “Phwoaaarrr” says he, before describing her as “Blondie with bite”. Who’da thunk it eh? Says he’s not to blame for the “R” word but because of it he’s too busy to listen to the Killers. Poor old Georgey boy. But my question is this… Is he human or is he denser?

Braid your own

  By Will | March 11, 2009 - 11:37 pm | Games, Random Whimsy, The Culch
5 Comments

It seems that it really is the 80′s again. Recession, strikes, protests in the streets, leg warmers (well, pants tucked in socks for the same effect), writers in their bedsits trying to create the next big novel and bedroom game programmers. Oddly these nerds may be the storytellers. I’m a nerd and proud of it, however I notice trends too. Thanks to the iPhone, facebook apps and the XBox 360 developers kit (XNA) the chance exists for a single programmer to design and build his or her games. And maybe live off the proceeds. Some will take a technical problem and build a game around it (for example, building an infinite city, or getting the game characters to have realistic reactions) others will take on the social aspects of games (imagine a two player game that can only be played with those near you, beats passing notes in class, or … There’s more →

Love in the Present Tense

  By Niamh | March 11, 2009 - 10:50 pm | Books, The Culch
2 Comments

‘Love in the Present Tense’ by Catherine Ryan Hyde is a sweet and lovely story. It’s about a teenage mum, Pearl and her young son Leonard, aged five. She sometimes leaves him with a neighbour to be minded, a 25 year old guy named Mitch, who grows quite fond of Leonard, a sweet and wise young boy. When Pearl one day leaves Leonard with Mitch and says she doesn’t know when she’ll be back to pick him up neither of them think anything of it but Pearl doesn’t come back at all and after some time Mitch assumes a father role, taking care of Leonard and his problems with his sight, getting him into school, etc. Leonard is later adopted by another, more suitable family, to the heartbreak of both Mitch and Leonard. Mostly the book is about love. The pure love between a mother and her son that gets … There’s more →

James Frey | Masterclass on making it all up

  By Darren Byrne's Waistcoat | March 11, 2009 - 10:42 pm | Books, The Culch
5 Comments

Recent chat from round the giant book bonfire… Me: Have ye heard the news? Them: No? What news would that be? Me: Yer man Oprah fell in and out of love with is coming to Dublin. Them: Tom Cruise? Me: No ye saps. James Frey. He’s giving a fiction masterclass in Waterstones. Them: Ah ask me arse, yer making that up. Me: Ha. That’s just what Oprah said. James Frey, author of Bright Shiny Morning visits Waterstone’s on Dawson Street in Dublin. Friday, 13 March 2009, 18:30 – 20:00 Tickets are €4 Call for details: 01 679 1260 “A rare opportunity to meet the internationally acclaimed author of the renowned debut, A Million Little Pieces, who will reading from his latest novel, Bright and Shiny Morning, and talking about his work. Reviewed in Time Magazine: Relentlessly entertaining….It’s reminiscent of one of Tom Wolfe’s billion-footed beasts”