Mental

Mental

A housewife who lives in a fantasy world of her favorite musical and her five daughters (all of whom are convinced they suffer from some type of mental disorder) are the social outcasts of their suburban Australian neighbor. When the mother is sent to a mental institution after the most entertaining nervous breakdown I have ever seen in a movie, the daughters are put in the care of a complete stranger by their politician father. 

I almost did not put a summary to this movie because I did not feel I could do it justice, especially for how much I REALLY like this movie.

Before I get started on my gushing of this film I also want to basically blurt out that I got to see this film before it was released here in the States (Suck on that Hollywood!). This movie is also what I will compare other upcoming Australian comedy films to, so it better be just as funny or funnier than this film in order to keep my attention.

In case you haven’t figured it out I think this movie is awesome!

I immediately recognized Toni Collette from her previous role in the film “Little Miss Sunshine”. I will admit, I never knew she was an Australian actress. Same goes for Anthony LePaglia whom I recognized from the show here in the States “Without A Trace”. The really weird part was watching Liev Schreiber (an American actor) put on an Australian accent. I still thought it was all cool nonetheless.

My favorite moments throughout the movie were definitely the musical opening of the film, the scene where Collette’s character helps the five daughters who think they have mental issues get even with the two bitches at the donut shop (EASILY MY FAVORITE SCENE HANDS DOWN!!!), when they kidnap the aunt’s collection of porcelain dolls, when they invade the neighbor’s house with the strange woman’s best friend, and the final scene which you definitely need to see for yourself. I especially loved the donut shop scene and the final scene. 

Oh! I also liked watching that blonde kid get tazed and smashes his guitar. Although I will admit that the character’s convictions and actions are a bit confusing at the beginning when he is throwing himself on top and all over the one daughter and then later in the movie she ends up with him and he somehow respects her. I think the reason it is confusing is because it seemed like it was rather instantaneous than delved upon or fleshed out through the storyline, or maybe I’m confused (it happens).

My description of Toni Collette’s character, Shaz, would be if Mary Poppins were to happen to go into a bar, get really drunk, meet a sailor, and gave birth to a child who would grow up to take over her mother’s job while integrating her father’s mannerisms, cursing included.

One thing I can definitely say is this movie does make it easy to relate to the characters from the youngest to the oldest, regardless of whether or not they are girls/females. Especially when the film reveals why they are either behaving or have come to acting in a certain manner because of how something affected them, and it doesn’t it flawless but without completely losing the viewer. Aside from the one particular scene (the neighbor invasion scene) that only females can relate to. I could definitely give a huge hug to the mother, and the black haired daughter.

This movie also revolves around “The Sound of Music”, which becomes rather obvious in the first five minutes of the film, but what is nice is it doesn’t encompass or take over the entire movie, it is used to add to the comedy of the film. Which is funny when your think about it; a comedy film with cursing/swearing, some rather grim issues, paired with something that has a rather squeaky clean image. But it actually works really well together.

Just curious, why didn’t they use AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” for the ending sequence? That totally would have fit in every way possible. If you do not know what I am talking about run (don’t walk), get a copy of this movie and see it for yourself.

Go ahead! I’ve got time.

I’ll be right here when you get back, you might want to select the beginning of the next paragraph so you won’t lose your place.

I will admit that I cannot get enough of “Mental”. I have seen it about nine or ten times, and it gets better with each viewing. It is also one of those movies if I start it I have to watch it all of the way through, I cannot just stop and come back to it. If I have to stop the film for any reason I restart it from the complete beginning.

I also have another confession to make; before watching this film I had never seen “The Sound of Music”. I have heard and have been familiar with the songs from the musical/movie, but never really sat down to give it a view. I am still debating if I will write a post about it. 

“Mental” is definitely one of my favorite comedy films, and I hold it in a very high regard. I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it, cannot get enough of it.

 

Miranda (UK)

Miranda

Miranda is a British sitcom about six foot one inch tall thirty something who owns her own joke shop in which she also lives above. The show stars the titular character as she has to put up with her best friend who manages the shop, her overbearing mother who is trying to marry her off in the worst ways possible, and the owner of the restaurant whom she has had a crush on for a long time. As well as one of her former boarding school friends (I think?)

You know that bullshit where when you go through website or whatever and you get that message that says “Not available in your region”? Yeah, fuck that! I want to see a show, I will damn well see it! I don’t have a region free machine for no reason (as well as some various other ways to acquire media that everyone wants to tell me is only available to some exclusive excuse they dream up for only keeping it in their region only).

Anyways back to Miranda…

I loved this show! Miranda was definitely far better than any American sitcom that is on now by any means (Family Guy, American Dad, Cleveland, etc. do not count! They are animated! Normal live-action sitcoms is what I am talking about). I loved the humor, the breaking the fourth wall, hearing more British slang and actually recognizing a good portion because of how many sitcoms out of the UK I have seen from the 1980s to now. Above all I loved her! Not in an infatuation, stalker kind of way. More like how the actress (even if she is playing herself to a degree) is portraying the character. She reminded me of a couple of female friends I used to have who would have a tendency, while you were hanging out with them, to say something so off the wall or cheeky (I like this term) while no one was looking save for whoever was sitting or standing next to her.

I also loved how every time the mother would come into a scene to talk about something/someone or setup Miranda on some date, and then would walk away exclaim, even if Miranda said something a bit uncomfortable, “Such fun!”. I also liked when she would push Stevie (her best friend/manager of her store) to the ground whenever she would say something either embarrassing or annoying. As funny as it was, for how convincing her falls sound I hope the actress didn’t get hurt during production. Those ‘thuds’ are pretty convincing and very audible.

Favorite episodes? I’m not sure where to begin because every moment in every episode had me laughing so hard I was in tears and my gut would hurt for a few minutes. If I have to at least attempt to mention a couple of favorites it would have to be; the episode where Miranda is supposed to go on holiday (vacation to us Yanks) and ends up staying at the hotel in the same area. When she actually went home to get her pants to press them in the hotel’s press machine and when she was mistaken as someone else who was supposed to be putting on a seminar was pretty damn funny.

I definitely loved the episode where Miranda and her mother had to go to a therapist because it was mandated after an incident that happened in the park. Just the random amount of things the mother and Miranda would do and say just kept me laughing the entire time, especially for crazy it made the two when the therapist kept quiet the entire time. 

I also thought the cast was great! I especially liked how every time the posh friend Tilly (Is this the correct way to use this term? That is what she is, right?) would make everyone wait while she was talking on her cell phone and saying, “Bear with…bear with…bear with..”. I liked how the majority of the time you really wanted to choke, but ended up feeling bad for her in the one episode where she found out for herself that her fiancé was trying to cheat on her. 

So far, I have definitely enjoyed every episode I have seen of this series. Judging by what I am reading it doesn’t look like there are any new episodes as Miranda Hart has been working in the show “Call The Midwife”, which is starting to air here but I am not sure whether I will like this new show or not after seeing the previews. 

Anyways if you haven’t checked out Miranda see it. If you haven’t heard of it, definitely see it.

Side-note: I also managed to grab a copy of her book and get the episodes of the radio show before Miranda was officially turned into a television sitcom. Awesome stuff!

Mass Effect Trilogy

Mass Effect Trilogy

Mass Effect is a science fiction action/roleplaying game in the form of a first-person shooter. You play as the game’s main character whom you can customize as male or female, Commander Shepard. The object is to stop the oncoming zombie-like race of Reapers (Totally original guys!) from wiping out mankind and all of the other races that are trying to co-exist throughout the universe. Another game that gives you the option to play as however you want your character to look like. There is also the option to choose whatever convictions you want the character to take, and the outcomes of each circumstance. I picked up the second game before purchasing the first and third installments because when I asked the clerk at the Gamestop which was the better game, they said Mass Effect 2 was, so I went with that. 

One thing I can definitely say I enjoyed about this game as well as the two Fable games I have played is the option to play and customize the player character as male or female as well as whatever good/evil path you want to take the character or however the convictions you want the character to execute. Just like Fable and Fallout 3 I chose to play a female, redhead character because I get sick of staring at the typical male, jock type of characters that are quite common with most FPS (first-person shooter) games. I also think this stems from the fact that my favorite science fiction films are the first two Aliens movies.

One thing I can definitely say I liked about this game, far more than I did Halo or Gears of War, was that I was able to play the game with whatever music I wanted to listen to as the soundtrack. If you know me, you pretty much can figure out that I am going to be listening to a lot of Metal. I was actually able to fit certain albums and songs to the feel of the game no matter where they came up in the playlist. I would name bands, but being that this post is about Mass Effect I really don’t think having a huge list of what I was listening to while playing would really help out by any means, plus I don’t think my experience would be the same for someone else.

Unlike Halo (I forget which one) where the game would tell me every time I wanted to listen to music while playing about how it will ruin the experience of playing Halo, which by this point I wasn’t too impressed with that game series to start with, I actually liked that Mass Effect would duck the music to the point it actually felt like the soundtrack to the game. So I could hear what I needed to, without the music bleeding into the game, although I made it a habit to pause the music during cinematic parts of the game.

This post goes out to Eric from The Warning Sign blog for highly recommending playing all three installments of the Mass Effect series, because if he hadn’t mentioned to me that you could carry your character over from the first game all the way to the third installment I think I would’ve ended up just sticking with the second game. 

I will break this down by the individual game and what I thought of them.

Mass Effect

I enjoyed this game, I liked the beginning of the storyline. It had an ok balance of gameplay action and cinematics (cut-scenes). The only thing I really didn’t care for was the tedious nature of the vehicle missions. Especially for wonky the vehicle would control. It took me a little while to get used to the controls of this game, because I was used to the controls on the second game since that was the first one I had purchased and played first.

Like most roleplaying games or any game with side-missions I made sure to get the “bitch missions” out of the way. For those of you who do not know what a “bitch mission” is; it is basically anything in a game where you are sent to go retrieve an item or something and it has no bearing to the game’s storyline. This term is carried over from my nickname of the Gamecube game Animal Crossings, which I have dubbed “Everybody’s Bitch” (if you have played this game you know why).

I also started getting this nagging feeling while basically mining for various minerals on some of the planets that I had experienced something like it before on a much older game. More on this later.

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 definitely stands out compared to the other games. It definitely carried the story over real well, but I liked that it gave a bit of mystery to the Reapers, along with whether or not you conform with working with the Illusive Man (voiced by Martin Sheen). I really enjoyed the gameplay, everything seemed to be well-balanced. Although I would’ve liked to have the experience point system like the first game had.

Since I already had played the game the first time around I didn’t take me too long to get used to the controls. 

I had already played through Mass Effect 2, but once I picked up the first and third games, I decided to play through the game a second time since I learned you could carry your character over from the first game. Which I thought was pretty cool. Kind of like the game .Hack, except much better. I pretty much blazed through the game the second time around.

I also got to experience the final boss glitch that is common with this game. Fortunately it was the only glitch.

I thought the mining missions were a lot better on this game, where before you were controlling a vehicle that tended to have a mind of its own, this time around you flew to the planets, scanned for minerals, and then sent out probes to collect them. I started getting that feeling like I had before with the first game that I had experience something like this  in a much older game to the point of having flashbacks, so I decided to look the game.

Mass Effect 3

I have a couple of nicknames for Mass Effect 3, a few of which are; Crimean War The Simulator, Charge of the Light Brigade: The Sci-Fi Version, and The First Twenty Minutes of the Transformers Animated movie. 

For those of you who do not know what I am talking about you can either:

Read this

Read this also

Watch this

Watch this other one

or listen to this song

Seriously, a few of the missions feel like you are taking part in the Charge of the Light Brigade. So either someone at Bioware is a huge history buff, really loves the first twenty minutes of Transformers The Movie, is an Iron Maiden fan, or all three. The final portion of the game was a complete Charge of the Light Brigade moment.

The experience point system wasn’t too bad, it was kind of like a combination of the first two games, although I really did prefer the experience point system of the first game.

After finishing Mass Effect 2, I began on the third installment carrying the character I had started with from the first game to this one. I do not know if it was my copy of the game, but I encountered quite a bit of glitchy moments in this game, especially with my Xbox freezing up during load screens, which I have never experience with any of my other games. The other thing that was nagging me about this game, and I do not mean the positive one that I have been talking about with the other two installments, is how it kind of plays like Gears of War. 

My biggest gripe with this game is the end, and I am not talking about game’s storyline (which I will get to in a minute). Still controlling the character towards the end of the game was a bit tedious, especially when the pace for playing out the final parts of the game is slow. It is one thing to be patient when you are waiting because something central to the plot, but when the final moments of the game decide that it should be interactive it just feels like you are treading sludge.

As for the storyline in this final game of the trilogy, I felt the ending completely blew the wind out of the sails of a lot of the mystery that kept the storyline great. It just felt so anti-climatic. Did it take away from the fun of the game? Not really it just left a little much to be desired. 

One thing I really didn’t care for was the numerous times the game would switch in the middle of gameplay to more cinematics. You would be in the middle of a really intense moment, gunfighting back and forth, dodging enemy fire, and then suddenly slow down to transition to a cut-scene. I felt this took away from the fun of the gameplay. It was like if you were walking down a sidewalk trying to get to work and some salesman stopped you every ten minutes to tell you a different bit of information about whatever product he is trying to sell. Except in this case it is just the game transitioning to another part of the battle/story.

All in all, not completely bad. I would definitely play the second game a little more than I would the first and third games. I felt all of the intense moments throughout all three of the games really gave you the intended impact for the money. I really enjoyed getting to play through all three. Yeah, I felt the end of the story by the third game was like a ball of yarn unraveling while you are trying to roll it up. It just didn’t keep the feel and intensity that the rest of the game had built up throughout the experience.

Oh! And that nagging feeling I got while playing the first two games.

I’m not sure how many will remember this game, but I have been wondering if Electronic Arts was borrowing the mineral scavenging missions from one of its older titles. A game called Starflight, where you fly around, land on planets, and….mine for minerals.

Again, a big thank you to Eric from The Warning Sign for informing me that you can play the same character throughout all three games. 

New Posts Before The Summer Semester Begins

If you have been following my audio diary on my other blog then I don’t think I need to bore you with the details of what has been going on while I was attending my first few classes of the semester for my certification. I will say I did have a lot of fun with the two classes I had on campus, everything was definitely a positive experience. I especially enjoyed my speech class.

But…

I have been getting that itch to write new Words From The Heretic posts that I have been staving off because I wanted to dedicate and keep my focus on my classes. There have been quite a few movies and shows I have been enjoying while I was working on my homework assignments and projects, and some video games that I have been playing on whatever time I didn’t have any assignments or projects due. 

I am also in pre-production for the two things that I have been promising to post on my other two blogs that are related to the two speeches I performed for my speech class that I am quite proud of. So hopeful I can get those finished and posted in time. Hopefully you enjoy these upcoming posts as well. 

Let’s have some fun!

Welcome To The Realm Of The Heretic!

Reblogged from Words From The Heretic:

Since this my first blog and first blog page. I thank anyone who stops by for a read or quick glance to see what my blog is about, whether they stay to see what I post next or move on.

I am pretty much using this blog to express my thoughts, ides, likes, dislikes about things I either see, watch, read, listen to, or observe.

Read more… 397 more words

While I am preparing a proper post for Ocular Manifestation Maelstrom I figured I would dig up the very first post I published here on Wordpress. It is a rather small glimpse of what I was initially looking to do with Words From The Heretic before it became the way it is now. Enjoy!

The IT Crowd

Reblogged from Words From The Heretic:

Show Description: The IT Crowd

"Hello IT! Have you tried turning it off and on again?'

The IT Crowd is a British comedy series that revolves around the lives and workings of three IT co-workers from their individual personalities, personal lives, and their working together. A show that is not one ounce afraid of geeking out.

I've never had this show suggested to me by any of my friends or anyone I know, I happened to find out about when I was researching the cast list on IMDB when I was writing up my review of the show Doc Martin, as well as seeing it multiple times on Netflix.

Read more… 361 more words

http://bit.ly/YyseSF I am still pinching myself after reading the above news!

Desperate (Get Me Out of Here)

Reblogged from Words From The Heretic:

One thing I am not afraid to admit is being a bit of a 1980’s Pop, Rock, and Metal addict. For me there are just some albums and songs that I just cannot go through the day without listening to. When it comes to Pop and Rock of the decade I am especially partial to female solo singers and female fronted bands.

Read more… 521 more words

I have decided to reblog this post in memory of Christina Amphlett. Your music has brought me a lot of enjoyment. R.I.P. NP: Divinyls - Desperate