Kris

Kris, you thought Tesis was thrilling? I went into it with high expectations and did enjoy it but it didnt give me the jolts everyone said it would. The pacing could've done with some work.

My main problem with Tesis is that i think its too predictable in terms of you know who the culprit is too soon but i thought the pacing was fine and wasn't too bombastic like most thrillers tend to be.

Spoorloos was certainly unsettling and full of ominous atmosphere but I don't think it was scary per se.

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It really comes down to what a person classes as a "scary" film to them though doesn't it?

The Vanishing is a great film because its creepy, unsettling and relentless with its malevolence, it always makes you think that such a situation like that could happen to anyone at anytime in the world.

I always think a horror/thriller film has done its job if it changes your mind about certain situations. Whenever i think of The Hitcher i always say "i'll never ever pick up a hitch-hiker when i am driving at night" or if i think of The Descent i think "remind myself never ever to go on a caving holiday" and Wolf Creek changed my mind about going on a backpacking trip over Australia recently too.

Thankfully Psycho hasn't changed my mind about having a shower otherwise i would be a right smelly bastard.

I love a few of the singles, but I'm definitely in the minority in thinking that most of NWA's songs are shit.

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I am one of those in the minority. NWA were good up until the point where Ice Cube decided to leave but even you can count the number of decent tracks they recorded on one hand.

Some people seem to view Eazy-E as a God in the hiphop world but i always seemed to think he was a rather mediocre rapper and the weak link in NWA and that much is evident on his solo records if you've ever heard them.

I have never rated Dr. Dre all that much either as a rapper but the beats and cuts he laid down on NWA's records were revolutionary at the time and his work on albums like The Chronic and Doggy Style were just as groundbreaking as anything he did with NWA.

Speaking of creepy films, this looks interesting...

http://www.hostelfilm.com/

George Sluizer's original version of The Vanishing is a very good call. I would have to say that Michael Haneke's Funny Games, Ole Bornedal's original version of Nightwatch, Mute Witness and Tesis are all quite thrilling films too.

Certain scenes like the scene in Lost Highway where Robert Blake instructs Bill Pullman to call him on his phone is a rather disturbing scene that always sends a chill soaring up my spine and Harry Dean Stanton's character's torture scene in Wild At Heart is rather unsettling as well.

And while we're on the subject of David Lynch films, well Dennis Hopper's turn as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet is a far more scarier horror movie character than the likes of Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers could ever be.

I can see why someone would say The Blair Witch Project because its the first film you think about when you're walking about in a forest at night, in much the same way whenever you swim in the sea you think about Jaws.

Got to say i quite like this cover, its funny seeing neds/chavs on a Hellblazer cover too it has to be said, would have quite liked to have heard the conversation between Mina and Lauren where Mina explained to Lauren what a "ned" actually is.

He seems to have captured the posture and uniform of the Glasgow "ned" rather well.

This place is...

the place Celtic fans like myself refer to as "Mordor"

It's all about "The Predator", Lou.

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Same here. His most angriest and most effective album from his entire career, heavily influenced by the L.A riots and the Rodney King tape, seemed more focused and polemical than anything else he wrote before.

You see, i am on the side of Roy Keane with regard to the criticism he levelled at the Man United players, i think he was merely echoing the thoughts of most of the fans and i didn't see many fans actually disagreeing with what he thought either.

Surely as the captain of the team he's the character appointed by the manager to give everyone a kick up the arse when the team wasn't performing?

I just find it difficult to see why his views are deemed to be controversial when he is merely being honest, Alan Shearer has done it himself in the past but perhaps not as selective and precise as Roy Keane was with his criticisms of several players but seriously, could you honestly say Rio Ferdinand justifies being paid £120,000 a week for his performances at that moment?.

The way i see it, if a guy i am working alongside isn't pulling his weight or putting his graft in but is skiving and generally taking the piss or isn't giving 100% commitment to the job but is getting paid the same wage as i am and not being given a warning or a kick up the arse by someone higher up than me then i would be criticising their workrate as well, i don't like having to carry people or have to take on the extra responsibility to clean up their fuck-ups, i know football and my job are hardly comparable but i can see where the guy is coming from.

If i was a captain of a team like Manchester United and i had a defender in my team being paid a vast sum of money week in week out, you'd be expecting that guy to playing like he deserves that vast sum of money and i don't think Rio Ferdinand does that, he certainly doesn't look like a world class defender at the moment either and as Keane said about him - "just because you get paid 120k a week and have a decent 20 minutes gameplay against some middle table Premiership team doesn't make you anything great", its brutal but its honest and i think they needed that kick up the arse - you saw the way they played against Chelsea, they played like they wanted to prove Keane wrong, his remarks obviously helped to motivate the team didn't they?

They'll miss a leader like that in the team now.

And Mark, what about Ghostface Killa?  There have been other Wu-Tang members who are flashier, but for me he's been the most consistent, both as part of the group as a solo artist...gonzo-bonkers-batshit insane but a digustingly tight flow that makes him one of the greats.

Don't disagree with what you say about Ghost's flow and rhymes, however the thing i like about Ghostface is that he seeks out other producers other than RZA to produce the beats for his records, some of his best stuff is when he hooked up with guys like The Beatnuts and JuJu, i think half the problem with Wu Tang solo records is that the RZA stamp is all over them and as much as i like hearing the sounds of clashing swords and martial arts movie samples, it does get a tad repetitive.

The problem with most producers is that their style becomes customary, you can pin that on any hiphop producer from RZA to Muggs right down to underground producers like Necro and Mighty Mi.

Some great records there, Kris. Endtroducing... is one of my favourite albums ever, but I thought it'd be a bit of a stretch to include it in a "greatest rap albums ever" list, which is why I didn't include it.

I had that feeling too because i thought the focus of Charlie's thread merely stretched to records with rapping in them but thought i would break the rules a bit and stick in DJ Shadow's album, even though its not what you would normally class as a "rap" album but it is fundamentally a "hiphop" album.

I know it's technically "trip-hop," but fuck it, I'm throwing Massive Attack's Blue Lines on the heap because it's THAT good.

I am one of these guys who prefers Mezzanine but i am a morose motherfucker.

A personal favorite of mine is Common's Resurrection

I'm on the Like Water For Chocolate fence with regard to Common.

And Paul's Boutique is a stunner, but I actually prefer Check Your Head.  Even more musically creative and, in my opinion, the Beastie's best lyrical skills by FAR on any of their albums.

I agree. The Beasties show more of their range as musicians and also rappers on that album than they did in Paul's Boutique. The only difference between the two is that the Dust Brothers produce better grooves and beats than the Beasties' do.

I dunno Kris, to my mind Nas hasn't put out a decent record since Illmatic.

In terms of lyrical delivery, i think Nas is in a league of his own, the problem with Nas in other records he has made is that he has never managed to get a production team together that really compliments his style, and you can see the difference in production values when he hooks up with the likes DJ Premier or The Large Professor.

I do agree though that there isn't another Nas album out there that will ever become as seminal and vital as Illmatic went on to be but then again, the same thing can be said of the Wu Tang Clan, Notorious B.I.G, Gravediggaz and Snoop Doggy Dogg for examples and their first albums, the albums those artists released after their debut records were largely disappointing records that never had the impact the raw sounds of their first records had.

I kind of have a soft spot for Method Man's Tical over 36 Chambers which has often has me marked out for derision amongst my hip hop loving peers.

Most of the members of the Wu Tang Clan have released decent solo records, two of the best in my opinion are Genius' Liquid Swords and Raekwon's Only Built 4 The Cuban Linx.

Method Man, as much as i like his style and flow, i wish he'd quit making lacklustre records with Redman.

I would also include: the first Gravediggaz album (but nothing after that)

Wholeheartedly agree. I bought that album when it first came out and was then known as Niggamortis until it was then pulled and repackaged as the slightly less offensive 6 Feet Deep.

Anyone else here remember Onyx?. I just rummaged through my CDs and found their debut album Bacdafucup, some of the tracks on here have rather silly titles like "Attack Of Da Crazy Baldhedz", "Black Vagina Finda" and "Bichazbootleguz".

Not that i would ever tell them that their song titles are a bit silly that is.

Charlie - Enter The Wu Tang(36 Chambers) you mean?

That one sits at the top of my list.

The others on my list would be -

Nas - Illmatic

Notorious B.I.G - Ready To Die

Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus

Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill

Mobb Deep - The Infamous

Mos Def - Black On Both Sides

Cage - Movies For The Blind

Eric B And Rakim - Paid In Full

Rass Kass - Soul On Ice

El-P - Fantastic Damage

Big Punisher - Capital Punishment

Scarface - The Fix

A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders

Gangstarr - The Ownerz

Madvillain - Madvillainy

Edan - Primitive Plus

Dr Octagon - Dr Octagonecologist

And i am gonna chuck DJ Shadow's Endtroducing in there too you punk ass motherfuckers

And Charlie, Illmatic is an essential hiphop album to get your hands on, amazing production values on that courtesy of Q-Tip, Primo and The Large Professor.

Nas can be hit and miss with some people but i rate him up there with one of the finest lyricists in hiphop over the past decade, Stillmatic is one of these albums some people i know are on the fence about but again, i think his lyrics just make that album a damn fine album, especially his opening diss track to Jay-Z "Ether" which for me ended the feud between him and Jigga lock stock and barrel, despite Jay-Z's diss track "Takeover" on The Blueprint.

Jay-Z does some good stuff too, i find it hard to fault either of The Blueprint albums because there is some fine production on there but Nas seems to attract the best producers from both the mainstream game and the underground scene and flits between the two, and its that bridge between the mainstream and the underground that gives him the edge over anything Jay-Z and Rocafella come out with.

P.S And i can't believe no-one has even mentioned Notorious's Ready To Die, which for me pisses all over anything Tupac did from a great height, and thats including his best stuff All Eyez On Me and Me Against The World

No doubt he will be getting touted in the papers for a move to Celtic now.

How bored i am with that story.

And I also finally got to see Mel Gibson's What a Woman Wants - or something like that - which I liked.....

surprise there re the role of the curly haired miss, whose name I cant remember this moment - she was the aspiring actress at the coffee place.

The high powered woman there was Helen Hunt who was his love finally.

I've had deaths in the family funnier than that supposed "comedy".

I watched Doom today.

It was merely okay, had the potential to be gorier, scarier and more action-packed than what it could've been. The Rock wasn't as bad as what i would have imagined him to be and the FPS scene was excellent but the ending was dull.

Was funny seeing Dexter Fletcher looking rather bizarre as a man with half a body and some funky looking wheelchair for legs. Made me wonder what he does when he needs a piss.

I'd argue there's just as many violent tossers in middle class areas though.

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Yeah they're called "soccer hooligans"

The new cybermen...looking somewhat retro:

 

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Its an improvement, the lack of Bacofoil being the improvement of course

Looks fine to me, i am more interested in what they do with the Cybermen in the new series than what they look like.

teaser trailer for The Fountain

 

looking very nice indeed, this is one of the flicks I'm most curious about for the coming year...

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DC Vertigo are doing the movie adaptation i hear too...

My view on relationships is that i don't think i am very good at them. I think its because when i am not in one, i yearn to be in one but when i am in one, i yearn to be single again. I think i just get bored too easily at times but because of past girlfriends who did display behaviour that put me off them, i am wary of who i meet and if they display a pushy or control freak-esque attitude towards me i tend to want to shun them and not bother with them anymore.

I also have a bit of a loner mentality myself at times, i really like my own company and i don't like to be bothered by people but some girlfriends i have had in the past have been way too possessive or if i say "i don't want to come round tonight as i am busy" or "i don't really want to come round as i want to see one of my mates" or "i can't come round tonight as i just want to chill out a bit by myself for a bit" then they get all touchy and think they've done something wrong and i just think "fucking hell, does my entire social life have to revolve around you?"...its just something that really pisses me off about the girls i meet.

Thing is, you work 40 hours a week and its more difficult for me as i work nightshift hours, which i enjoy doing as i work with a great bunch of people whom i have a great cameraderie with and its an easy job that allows me to get paid well for doing very little but obviously the most difficult thing in such a job is keeping your sleeping patterns in check and because our days off change every week, you have to plan things in advance sometimes but whenever i had days off, the last girlfriend i had wanted to know when they were so she could plan what i was doing on the days i was off and i just got really tired of it because, well, i was tired anyway and needed to chill out for a day just to have the energy to do something the next day.

I think her attitude was what put me off in the end, i think she is a nice person deep down but i don't think she is what i am looking for, and i'm not what she is looking for either, plus i must say that even though i thought she was attractive first time i met her, i gradually began to not be attracted to her as time went on.

The way i see it, let fate take its course and see what comes along. I am not in a hurry for another relationship anyway...saves me money buying extra Christmas presents after all(although i promise i will buy something for the STH secret santa....my word is bond on that Red)

"Anyone suffer from SAD"

 

God yes! Those stupid fucking kids always telling me not to fucking drive when I'm fucking drunk. I get so fucking sick of it!

Hold on....What do you mean that's SADD?! She said SAD? Well, fuck it!

:)

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I think the beauty of being American, depressed and prone to reckless behaviour or even killing sprees or school massacres is that you can always exonerate yourselves from the blame and say "Marilyn Manson drove me to all this madness".

I just want to know who the hell Randy is!

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A.K.A "The artiste known as Wolvy"

I just wondered how Iraqi insurgent kids celebrated Halloween, do they come up to your door wearing their costumes(balaclava, army fatigues etc) brandishing their A.Ks and waving the severed head of an "infidel" and then ask you for a couple of quid?

I remember seeing one of those Big Brother shows on Channel 4 one night and one of those fame-craving morons was enquiring one of his housemates as to how to boil water, i just thought that was startling how a grown man in his early 20s didn't know how to do something as mentally and physically unchallenging as that but then i thought "well he is appearing on Big Brother so he does have considerably less brains than JFK did after he was assassinated"....and yes, i think someone like that should feel ashamed for not knowing how to do something as basic as that.

I am surprised some of them can dress themselves or turn on the shower to have a wash, i mean these people are so stupid that they're likely to ask for a menu in a laundrette.

I'm sure it sounds like I'm just ganging up on you and joining the "pick on Wolvy" brigade, but we really are telling you these things because we've been there and done that and learned from our mistakes.

As much as i agreed with everything you said above, i don't think there is a "pick on Wolvy brigade" here at all, we're not bullying Randy into doing something with his life nor are we ridiculing the guy, i think Randy knows better than anyone that he needs to change his attitude if he wants to get out of the situation he is in at the moment.

Basically a few of us have tried during this thread of late to administer a dose of reality into Randy because thats what the fella needs, we've all spent time encouraging him, we've all spent time listing options and solutions he can pursue and we've all spent time talking him through his problems but the fact of the matter is that Randy needs to start sorting out his own problems instead of moaning about them so much on this messageboard and he needs to stop displaying such an apathetic and defeatist attitude towards everything.

We all want Randy to enjoy his life and be happy and get out of the situation he is in but i just wish he would take more of our opinions and advice onboard, the reason some of us have been a bit harsher with Randy recently is because he has given some of us the impression that our efforts to help him out are falling on deaf ears and the constant complaining and incessant whining about how his life is miserable, how he hates all these people who annoy him at jobs he works at or how his parents are the blame for all of his woes and if it takes a few harsh words to shake Randy out of his apathy then perhaps thats exactly what he needs but i think using the term "pick on" is rather strong as that suggests to me that he is being bullied or made fun of or being made a whipping boy, and thats not the case at all.

I will scream if I read one more post like that from Wolvy. I really, really want your life to get better, Randy, because I think you're a sweet, funny, decent guy but you really have to change your attitude to get a happier life. I hope you know I don't mean to hound or be a total cow to you, but you can have a better life than the one that currently makes you so miserable, and we have given you some great advice on this forum, please put some of it into action. Change your life, you can do it.

 

We have a really good spread of life experience on these boards, and people really care about other forum members, so you know we'll be here for you if you need to vent, or ask advice about anything, so don't forget, we're a resource! Use us!

Spot on Pooka, couldn't have said it better myself.

Sometimes people just want to be listened to and aren't asking for solutions to their problems

Maybe not but i fail to see the point in merely listening to someone who sounds like they need a bit of encouragement and advice to get themselves on the right track, i would hardly call it patronising to suggest some options to someone who sounds like they could use some advice and support.

People here in the Bay Area are always hyped up, edge and competitive, but just when you think people would relax and slow down because its dark and the weather is worse than ever (the darkest, coldest and rainiest time for us), people let themselves be put into the Xmas rat race, where they're expected to work as hard as ever, and even a bit harder to make up for the work they won't be doing on their vacations, while at the same time dealing with worst of the year crowding to shop for presents

I usually work through the Christmas period because i want to avoid it, it doesn't depress me or bother me so much because like i said, i just blank it out and don't bother to deal with it.

I think the getting presents thing at my age is the thing that humours me most because i know as you get older, the presents become fewer and fewer until you end up just receiving a pair of socks as a gift. I don't think there's ever a Christmas goes by where i don't receive a pair of socks from someone.

And of course, there's always the obligatory Christmas card from my aunt and uncle who always spell my name "Krisstopfher" or something equally as , i have been alive for 26 years and in all those 26 years of my existence on this planet, they still don't know how to spell my name properly.

The Christmas dinner part is the other thing i tend to want to avoid too, i am one of these people who eats very little at a Christmas dinner because i hate feeling like i am forced to gorge on as much rich food as possible and thus give myself an incendiary case of heartburn where every time i exhale i howl like a man with a bullethole in his belly. I don't understand why turkey is such an obligatory part of the dinner too, i think plywood has more flavour than turkey does.

There are a few places that charge a big door charge, but they always have stupid suburban straight couples in "eveningwear" coming up in limos (that they are never seen in otherwise; yech, I mean stretch humvees??  :wink:  ) waiting out front in those witless lines. 

Stretch humvees?. What is this world coming to?. As if the humvee itself wasn't wide enough for a road, here's a stretch humvee to take up more of the road.

I don't understand this humvee craze, a humvee was initially designed to be an army vehicle i assume, whats next? people driving tanks to work?

"Hi, going to be late into work this morning sir, just trying to find a good spot to park the Apache helicopter"