Feb
07
2009

Battlestar Galactica greatest show ever?

My last post I talked about the best shows of 2008 which showed Battlestar Galactica dropping to 2nd place. But I would like to announce that it is will be the best show of 2009 hands down. But lets not get too far ahead of myself.

The beginning of the mid season saw the return of 3 of my favorite shows, and not just returning back to the air but back to the top of their game as well. The 3 shows are of course Battlestar Galactica, 24 and Lost. Lets start with 24, this new season is the first to see the show leave LA and center on Washington DC. This takes the show to a hole different level, instead of it being about the fate of a major US city now it feels like the fate of America is at stake.  But as much as this show is great, maybe even as good as its first season, Lost has been better. Lost is starting to reach some sort of clarity. For so long there has been one crazy unexplainable thing happening after another with nothing really tying it all together. But like I said all of it is starting to fit together and all those questions are starting to be answered. After 4 seasons of build up the pay off is amassing.

Though the first couple of weeks in January I would have said Lost was the better show but then along comes episode 13 (15 if you count Razor) season six of Battlestar Galactica titled “The Oath”. This is one of the greatest episodes of TV to ever grace my eyes, as good as and maybe better then the first episode after the miniseries titled “33”. More suspenseful then 24 and more fulfilling then Lost could ever be. It ranks up there with my favorite episodes from LEXX “Brigadoom” and “Yo Way Yo”. Up there with my favorite episodes from Alias “Phase One” and my favorite episode from Rome “The Spoils”. If you are not watching Battlestar Galactica then you are truly missing out, with only a handful of episodes left it is becoming clear that it is greatest show of all time!

By Mantz | Posted in Movies/TV | Comments (0)
Jan
04
2009

2009 / Plus Best TV of 2008

First if you are reading this from Facebook and want to read the entire story go to www.theutopiaofgreed.com. For some reason they no longer have a link to view the original article. Now on to more important news, today is the 4th day of 2009 and I have to do my new years resolutions. I have already started one of my resolutions to blog more, which is going along well, what with the new website and 3 posts in December. My other resolution is to get back to work on Project Refusal which I have not touched for 6 months at least.

Now on to the best TV of 2008. The last year was strange what with the writers strike, some shows where shortened (like scrubs) and some where never shown (24), but all that means is that the top 10 list has more room to showcase some other amazing shows.

Best TV Of 2008 Top 10:

10) Skins – Not nearly as brilliant as the first season but still great.

9) Venture Brothers – The first half of the season was somewhat lacking. They did a lot of filling in back history which I did not think was necessary or very funny. I liked how we the viewer only got bits and pieces of the past before but never the whole thing. But the second half of the season was brilliant as always.

8 ) True Blood – What if vampires were real and announced to the world that they existed, that is the basic premise of true blood. The show follows a mortal girl, played by Anna Paquin, that falls in love with a vampire; basically Twilight for adults. 

7) Chuck – This is one of my guilty pleasures. The show is very funny and extremely sexy (thanks to Yvonne Strahovski). It is not a great show but it it does put a smile on my face each week.

6) Californication – This year saw the second season of David Duchovny’s show about a smart ass New York writer living in California. The show has some amazing acting and well fleshed out characters, not to mention a very funny wit. 

5) Lost – The second season and the beginning of the third season sucked big time but starting half way through the third season the show found its footing and has been amazing ever since. Every flashback/flash-forward has been interesting and has driven the story forward. If the second season has turned you off the show I urge you to give it another chance. 

4) South Park – Funny like always. Not much more to say, either you like it or you don’t.

3) 30 Rock – Tina Fey’s show keeps getting funnier and funnier. Everything that comes out of Alec Baldwin’s mouth is golden.

2) Battlestar Galactica – 2008 saw the first half of the last season. The First few and the last few episodes where brilliant. But the middle episodes where very slow which is why the show fell to number 2. I am not going to spoile anything but the last episode was a major mind fuck.

1) Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia -  Number 2 from last year is my number one pick this year and not just because Battlestar was less then perfect. The show is referred to as Seinfeld on crack. This seasons sees the gang kidnapping people, destroying the house of a Mexican family and putting on a community play. This is the funniest show I have ever seen and I recommend that everyone give it a try.

For past years lists you can look through the archives or go here and here. I will also be doing a best of list for movies and computer games when I have finished reviewing all the contenders.

By Mantz | Posted in Misc, Movies/TV | Comments (0)
Dec
27
2008

Snow WTF

I am writing this from the snug on Bowen Island where I am waiting for the ferry to resume service. I was supposed to be going home yesterday but there was too much snow. It has finally warmed up a bit and has stopped snowing long enough for me and my brother to clear the drive way; only to learn that the the ferry ramp is inoperative and all morning sailings have been canceled. So here I sit hoping that the 3:00 will run.

All this snow leaves me wondering where is global warming? This winter Vancouver has had its worst snow fall since the sixties. Last year Ontario had its worst snow fall in recorded history, China had its coldest winter in 100 years, and Bagdad even had snow (something that never happens). 2 Bad winters in a row has got to throw a dent in the global warming theory.

But of course weather is not a good measure of climate change. For that we will need to look at the temperature of the atmosphere and the ocean. To accurately measure the atmosphere we need to look at data from weather balloons and satellites; both of which have been in service for more then 20 years. The result is that the atmosphere is not warming and in fact has cooled by 0.5 Fahrenheit. So this warming that has us all scared must be in the water. Last year the NASA project Argo which utilizes 3000 buoys (which can dive deep under water) released its results. For 5 year, since the project started, there has been no warming in the ocean.

With absolutely no credible evidence of global warming can we finally put this scam to rest. If only it was that easy. take the banning of DDT for example, with all scientific data saying that it was perfectly save it was sill banned. Now millions of people are dying ever year from Malaria, but the environmentalists are happy because they saved the misquotes. My advise is never listen to some one that favors the life of a bug over the life of a human.

By Mantz | Posted in Bowen Island, Misc, Politics | Comments (0)
Dec
20
2008

‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ can suck my balls!

Yesterday my friends dragged me to the new movie ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, a remake of a classic sci-fi movie where a alien in a human body comes to the earth to kill all humans. The movie is absolute garbage, one of the worst movies I have seen since Minority Report (which I consider one of the worst movies of all time). It has one of the worst morals I have ever seen in a movie. I order for me to explain my hate of this movie (and I’m talking serious hate) I will have to get in to some major spoilers; but why do I care if I spoil one of worst movies of the year.

They story is about a alien named Klatu that comes to earth to save the earth from the humans. He is convinced that humans are killing the earth and we cant change our ways. Over the course of the movie he learns of human love and decides to give humans another chance; but not before he sends us back to the dark ages by stopping all forms of industry. In other words the movie perfectly follows the environmentalist manifesto. The only way to please a environmentalist is to have nature untouched by humans, which is only possible if humans don’t exist or all forms of modern industry like cars, electricity, factories, agriculture, etc. where scaled several hundred years. The Movie like environmentalism also has no respect for property rights, stating that the earth is not our planet and that humans have to right to it.

Now even if the pro environmentalist theme is not enough the movie also features some dreadful acting, lackluster special effects (if you have seen the trailer you have seen all the good stuff) and a anti climactic ending. You know its a bad movie when Keanu Reeves acting is the best part. 

By Mantz | Posted in Movies/TV | Comments (0)
Dec
16
2008

I’m back and I am joined by my new friend Web 2.0

After almost a year of no new posts I am back and ready to commit to making this the best blog I can make it. The first change is very obvious, I have a new website! All of my past posts have been ported over from the old site, but if you want to go down memory lane you can still see the old site @ old.theutopiaofgreed.com. One of the main reasons I created this new site is because I wanted it to be as easy as possible for me to post whenever and whatever I want. To do this I am using Wordpress (a open source blogging tool) to bring my website to the next level of Web 2.0.

Now the website is still under some construction, but for the most part it is up and running. In a couple of months I will be doing a major upgrade to my server which will make the website even faster. For the upgrade I will basically be taking all of the components from my main rig to build a new server. Which of course means that my main rig will be getting a major overhaul of its own.

Over the last year my blog is not the only thing to suffer, Project Refusal has also suffered some neglect. But that will also change because starting in January I plan to renew my efforts to bring my game to life.

One major change to the site is the destruction of the forum which is replaced my a comment system. So please leave some comments on what you think of the new site and any problems you might be having.

By Mantz | Posted in Misc, Project Refusal, Server Updates | Comments (0)
Feb
15
2008

Best of Movies 2007

I have just finished viewing the last film on my must see list of 2007. With that complete I made a list of all my favourite films of the year in no particular order. That list ended up with 18 films, I consider this a very good year for movies. With the list I then eliminated 8 films; this is a best of 10 list after all. Then I went thought them and ranked them from best to worst. The result is the list below which is my favourite films from the last year. This does not mean that these are the best films of the year; they are more a reflection of my tastes and personality.

Best Movies of 2007:

10) 300 – The basic theme of the story is about individuals standing up against the masses, defending there right to freedom. Well sort of, it is more about incredible visuals and lots of blood; but what’s wrong with that.

9) Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – I am not big on musicals, there are vary few that have ever pleased me: the Brigadoom episode of Lexx, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Moulin Rouge. I now would like to add Sweeny Todd to that list. Directed my Tim Burton and staring Johnny Depp and featuring insane amount of blood, how could it fail?

8 ) Eastern Promises – Viggo Mortensen is brilliant as a Russian mobster, I wish there was more movies following this character, by the end of the movie he is just getting started on his journey.

7) Grind House (Planet Terror / Death Proof) – When walking out of the theatre I have never felt as fired up as when I left Grind House; for the drive home I pumped master of puppets at full volume. Now most people like Planet Terror more then Death Proof, for me it was the opposite.

6) Gone Baby Gone – This is Ben Affleck’s debut as a director and it is great. It stars his younger brother Casey who has done an amazing acting job as a PI searching for a missing girl. What is great about the story is the moral question that it brings up and how difficult it is to tell the difference of right and wrong.

5) 3:10 to Yuma – Christian Bale play’s a cowboy trying to save his ranch by collecting a reward for escorting Russell Crowe to jail. The problem is that Russell’s gang is going to do any thing in their power to stop him. Besides some cool western gun fights this movie also include some great acting by all.

4) Stardust – Is a great little fantasy film in the same vain as The Princess Bride. With all of the big fantasy films sucking over the last year it was nice to see something like stardust come along.

3) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – This is the second movie on the list where Casey Affleck turns in a brilliant acting performance playing Robert Ford. This movie as some of the best acting of the year, except for maybe my number one pick.

2) Shoot ‘Em Up – The most fun I have had at a movie this year. All action movies should take a lessen from Shoot ‘Em Up that its ok for a movie to have little plot and simply be about the fun of one man shooting a lot of other men. From beginning to end that is all this movie is about plus a lactating prostitute and a baby.

1) There Will Be Blood – From the brilliant director P. T. Anderson (Bogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love) come the story of an oil man and his son. That oil man is played to perfection by Daniel Day-Lewis. Some of the major Hollywood reviewers have compared this movie to Citizen Kane, and they are right for doing so. I am not going to go in to the plot; I am simply going to say see this movie. If you are lucky the movie is still in your area and you can still see it on the big screen.

I don’t know when I will complete my list of best computer games of 2007. I have yet to play Crysis which I consider a major contender for best game of the year. I have put off playing the game because I don’t yet have a DirectX 10 video card.

Liberty don’t give it up without a fight!

By Mantz | Posted in Movies/TV | Comments (0)