Podcast Episode 74 (Christmas Special Part 2)

Thor's Christmas Special 2012 

part 2: Star Trek into the Shire

Thor, Hiemdale, and Borr discuss mostly Star Trek into Darkness, the new Superman movie's trailer (Man of Steel), We review the new Hobbit film (the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) and how in compares to the other movies and the novel. Michael Bay's Pain and Gain, The Rock, Transformers, The X Rated Criterion Collection edition of Robocop

Keywords: Lord of the Rings, JJ Abrams, Star Trek, benedict cumberbatch, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldaña, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Khan, Is benedict cumberbatch Khan?, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek: Nemesis, Whales, Mothra, Godzilla, The Kinks.

cover photo via: http://balsavor.deviantart.com/art/A-Starfleet-Christmas-105163245?q=boost:popular+christmas+wallpaper&qo=168

Podcast Episode 73 (Christmas Special Part 1)

Thor's Christmas Special 2012

 part 1: Vidar Saves Christmas 

 Thor, Hiemdale, Vidar, and new gods Bor, and Gmot discuss their favorite christmas movies. Home Alone, The Year Without a Santa Claus, The Kink's "Father Christmas" , Adam Sandler's "Eight Crazy Nights", Groundhog's Day, Bill Murray, Ghostbusters, Ghostbuster 3, Fan made Ghostbusters 3, Ghostbusters vs. Freddy Kruger fan made movie, Christmas, hanukkah, Chanukah, Chanukkah, Chanuka. Santa Con, Philadelphia. San Francisco, Atlantis, the Krampus, Rome, Itay, Italians email comments and complaints to HourofThunder (at) gmail (dot) com

Gonna Fly Now

I find this pretty cool. On the wall at a Potbelly's sandwich shop in Center City, Philadelphia, this Rocky poster has the images on it made up of every line of dialogue in the movie written out by hand.

Podcast Episode 72

Thor's 72: 

The Shadow in: 

The Wrath of Magnon

The previous episode of our parody of the shadow ended on cliff hanger, so I decided to be a merciful god of thunder and give you the second and final part right away.

Enjoy,

Thor

(What is the The shadow? see the descriptions of Episode 67 or Episode 71 for details:
http://strictlycommercials.blogspot.com/2012/10/podcast-episode-67.html

http://strictlycommercials.blogspot.com/2012/11/podcast-episode-71.html

This is the first of a few episodes which will no be labeled "Explicit".
This is because they contain no language you would not hear on american FM radio, it does not mean they are any less weird than are usual episodes.

NOTE FROM THOR: On air I say this is episode 70. This episode was recorded before the james bond special but is now episode 72 since the review of Skyfall was more time sensitive, so it was released first.

cover photo via: http://thelivingshadow.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_(Dynamite)_Vol_1_8

Podcast Episode 71

Thor's 71: 

The Shadow in: 

The Race Towards Death 

Another episode of our parody of the classic Orson Welles radio play "The Shadow" starring the original cast from our college radio show.

The first episode the the shadow we did for this podcast is available here: http://strictlycommercials.blogspot.com/2012/10/podcast-episode-67.html
The above link also contains the links on how to download all the episodes we performed in college back in the day.

This is the first of a few episodes which will no be labeled "Explicit". This is because they contain no language you would not hear on american FM radio, it does not mean they are any less weird than are usual episodes.

NOTE FROM THOR: On air I say this is episode 69. This episode was recorded before the james bond special but is now episode 71 since the review of Skyfall needed to be released in a timely manner.

official site still awesome and still here:
http://hourofthunder.podomatic.com/

Podcast Episode 70

I see your Schwartz is as big as mine. Now, let's see how well you handle it.

Thor's 70: James Bond Special Part 2

The second and final part of the James Bond Special. Thor, Baldr, and Vidor count down the top ten bond movies as ranked by AMI publishers and give their opinions on what the best and worst bond films really are.

Listen to and download this and past episodes on Thor's Official Site.




The all Bond films in order of release date:
(Star * indicates Non-Broccoli produced films):

Dr. No (1962-Sean Connery)
From Russia With Love (1963-Sean Connery)
Goldfinger (1964-Sean Connery)
Thunderball (1965-Sean Connery)
You Only Live Twice (1967-Sean Connery)
*Casino Royale (1967-David Niven & Peter Sellers)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969-George Lazenby)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971-Sean Connery)
Live and Let Die (1973-Roger Moore)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974-Roger Moore)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977-Roger Moore)
Moonraker (1979-Roger Moore)
For Your Eyes Only (1981-Roger Moore)
Octopussy (1983-Roger Moore)
*Never Say Never Again (1983-Sean Connery)
A View to a Kill (1985-Roger Moore)
The Living Daylights (1987-Timothy Dalton)
Licence to Kill (1989-Timothy Dalton)
GoldenEye (1995-Pierce Brosnan)
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997-Pierce Brosnan)
The World is Not Enough (1999-Pierce Brosnan)
Die Another Day (2002-Pierce Brosnan)
Casino Royale (2006-Daniel Craig)
Quantum of Solace (2008-Daniel Craig)
Skyfall (2012-Daniel Craig)

(Episode also includes us discussing Doctor Who and Indiana Jones, because we almost always do.)

Song via: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/72af13678f/his-name-is-james-bond

Microsoft gave up and just decided to steal every aspect of Apple's marketing

Gravy Train

Observed on the southbound ACE line, 42nd St/ Times Square Station

Podcast Episode 69

Thor's 69: SkyFall Review and James Bond Special Part 1

Thor, Baldr, Vidar, and Hogan (who returns for the first time since Episode 26) discuss the new james bond film SkyFall, go over RMI publisher's ranking of all 23 james bond films, and offer there opinion on every single film and where it SHOULD have been in the rankings. (Part 1 of 2).

Download past episodes on The HourOfThunder Official Site.


The all Bond films in order of release date:

(Star indicates Non-Broccoli produced films):

Dr. No (1962-Sean Connery)
From Russia With Love (1963-Sean Connery)
Goldfinger (1964-Sean Connery)
Thunderball (1965-Sean Connery)
You Only Live Twice (1967-Sean Connery)
*Casino Royale (1967-David Niven & Peter Sellers)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969-George Lazenby)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971-Sean Connery)
Live and Let Die (1973-Roger Moore)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974-Roger Moore)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977-Roger Moore)
Moonraker (1979-Roger Moore)
For Your Eyes Only (1981-Roger Moore)
Octopussy (1983-Roger Moore)
*Never Say Never Again (1983-Sean Connery)
A View to a Kill (1985-Roger Moore)
The Living Daylights (1987-Timothy Dalton)
Licence to Kill (1989-Timothy Dalton)
GoldenEye (1995-Pierce Brosnan)
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997-Pierce Brosnan)
The World is Not Enough (1999-Pierce Brosnan)
Die Another Day (2002-Pierce Brosnan)
Casino Royale (2006-Daniel Craig)
Quantum of Solace (2008-Daniel Craig)
Skyfall (2012-Daniel Craig)

Tiny ad for surfboards

(sent via cellular)

Sherlock

An ad for the CBS police procedural "Elementary" on the C train line in brooklyn turned to a discussion of the merits of this show via people writing on the ad in Sharpie.

What was cool is how thoughtful and insightful the comments were. Above are two of my favorites.

Thor's 68: Horror movies and Halloween TV shows Special 

 Thor, Baldr, Njord, Frayja and Vitor talk about their favorite Horror Movies, Halloween TV shows and specials, and Halloween traditions on this episode of Thor's Hour of Thunder. Including: Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Silent Hill, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, Paranormal Activity, Paranormal Activity 2, 3 ,4, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Alfred Hitchcock, The Lady Vanishes, Halloween Town, Halloweentown, Pyscho, The Birds, House of the Devil, The Innkeepers, The Turn of the Screw, The Woman in Black, The Re-turn of the screw, Vampyr, Nosferatu, Cheers, Dick Van Dyke Show, The Real Ghostbusters, and much more!!!

 Listen to the awesome "Flicks that Church Forgot" podcast which we discussed here: http://theflicksthatchurchforgot.com/

(cover photo of this episode via: http://pellecreepy.blogspot.com/2009/10/when-real-ghostbusters-freaked-me-hell.html )

Download past episodes at hourOfthunder.podomatic.com

As seen on a parking meet by Jim's cheese steaks

The city of brotherly love

Podcast Episode 67

Thor's 67: The Return of the Shadow (comedy radio play) 

Hey folks Thor here, we got the gang who used to record our old college "Radio Theater" back together, as we did last Christmas when we recorded "A Christmas Carol" This time we recorded an parody of the old Orson Welles Radio show "The Shadow." This was a orginal script (written by Baldr) parodying the Orson Welles show. Baldr wrote this back from college. We are hoping to do more of these in the future, let us know what you think of that idea by email hourOfThunder (at) gmail.com


You can download episodes we did back in college here if you are interested: http://www72.homepage.villanova.edu/tyler.cunnion/shadow/index.xml (above link may come up as a rss feed subscription, here is the main page) http://www72.homepage.villanova.edu/tyler.cunnion/shadow 

Download the past episodes of The Hour of Thunder here.

Podcast Episode 66

Thor's Fall Movie Preview. Sort of.

So I, Thor managed to loose about half of the data for this episode so you will hear a five minute introduction from me where I try to go over what we had talked about that got deleted and then 30 minute of actual episode. Sorry about this folks. This week we talk about: The presidential debates, Pardon the Interruption, ESPN, Around the Horn, Tony Reali, Tiki, Judge Dredd, Dredd 3D, Monsters Incorporated, Monsters University, Django Unchained, movie, Doctor Who, Doctor Who fall finale. Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Sallah, John Rhys-Davies, Mola Ram, kate capshaw. The Fifth Element, milla jovovich Luc Besson, Resident Evil, Paul W. S. Anderson, Le Cinquième Élément, Ian Holm, derek jacobi, Angles Take Manhattan, Muppets Take Manhattan. The Weeping Angles. Balkr hates Amy Pond.(the rest of this paragraph is a spoiler) The death of Amy Pond, The death or Rory, The Angles send Amy and Rory Back in Time. (End Spoilers) (End episode Description.) Snape Kills Dumbledore.

Download all podcast episodes here.

Podcast Episode 65

Thor's 65: 

Star Trek Special 2012: 

The Search for Spock.

 

We had so much fun talking Star Trek in Episodes 38 and 39 last year, we decided it was time for more. We talk about all of the series, including what we actually thought was cool about the much maligned Scott Bacula starring Star Trek: Enterprise.

The pantheon members this time are: Thor, Njord, and new gods Tiki and Skaði.

Other things we discuss: First Contact, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Start Trek IV: the Voyage Home, Star Trek III: In search of Spock. Christopher Lloyd, Patrick Stewart, Jean-Luc Picard, William Thomas Riker, Jonathan Frakes, Troi, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, William Shatner, Bones McCoy, geordi laforge, Spock, Odo, Levar Burton, Brent Spiner, Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien, Colm Meaney, Avery Brooks, Captain Sisko, Rene Auberjonois , Cirroc Lofton, Jake Sisko, Alexander Siddig, Doctor Bashir, Stephen Hawking, Buzz Aldrin, Transformers, and more, including some non star trek related things which I am forgetting at the moment.

Download the show over at HourOfThunder.podomatic.com 






(You didn't miss anything, Episode 64 is not yet published yet, sorry any confusion this caused.)

Local advertisement in Baltimore

While visiting Baltimore, Maryland I saw this awesome ad for a local jeweler. The moustache man is the logo for National Bohemian, a local brewery made semi-famous through its inclusion in the HBO series "the wire". The lady, as you most likely are aware is the UTZ potato chips mascot, which also has a factory in Baltimore, though the brand appears to have originated in Hanover, Pennsylvania, based on the very little research I did before posting this.

Stephen hawkings bathroom graffiti

I hadn't thought about Stephen Hawking's awesome book "a brief history of time" for a while. It is pretty cool to see someone graffiti a bathroom stall in Rochester, New York with a reference to one of Hawking's best anecdotes from that book.

Podcast Episode 63

Episode 63: It's 7 times 9 (rather than "of")

 Thor, Baldr, Loki, Frejya, Himdale, Nyord, and Vidar (he's new! add him to your norse family tree at home game!) tackle the tough issues this week:

The Stephen Colbert Toilet on the International Space Station, Family Guy meta-reference, Fallout 4, Idris Elba, Baldr's irrational rating system, Freudian slips worn in 50 Shades of Grey, Atlantis, Suicide Squad and Batwoman, The Dark Knight Rises, Katie Holmes, Thetans, Scientology, Loki eats pizza, Aquaman, Jack McPhee LOOKS JUST LIKE Captain Jack Harkness, John Barrowman might be gay, Who's the Better Rachel Dawes?, siblings on film!, John and Joan Cusack, Justine and Jason Bateman, Django Estevez, Sherlock Season 2, Away We Go, Donnie Darko, Spiderman, Dana Carvey, Forbidden Planet at Union Square, Midtown Comics, How Maybe Extension Packs ARE THERE For Settlers of Catan? Scream, Kevin Williamson, Felicity, Felicity is for boys and Dawson's Creek is for girls, Murder She Wrote, Godzilla vs Shield, Nick Fury, Rugrats, Reptar, Stupid Things I Did Last Week, Iran Hostage Crisis, Argo, The Argo, Travis Pastrana, Nitrus Circle (?), Jackass 2, things Steveo (?) is sick of, stapling male genitalia to other parts of male genitalia, Dark Knight Rises, The OTHER Sunshine State, BronyCon, John de Lancie, Arthur, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (for reals... again...), Aquaman (thanks for that transition, Thor), Jim Calafiore, Starship Troopers 3, Denise Richards, Casper Van Dien, Man of Steel trailer, The Great and Powerful Oz trailer, Fred Willard, Magic Mike vs Groupon Pole Dancing Classes, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter vs Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Olympic Opening Ceremonies vs #tennanttorch2012, 1940s Radio Hour

Download this and every episode of Thor's Hour of Thunder here:
http://hourofthunder.podomatic.com/

photo of Tom Hardy on set via

Would you like 50 tons of fries with that?

I have no idea what there is a three story high bottle of ketchup in the park outside of City Hall in Manhattan. Or if Daddy's is a real brand of ketchup.

More details as the story develops.

(sent via cellular)

Being Flynn Malkovich

(I wrote this while falling asleep so there may be more typos than usual. I'll try to go back and clean this up when I get some sleep. Really internet. I promise.)

So every website I have gone to in the past few weeks has a banner ad for the DVD release of the Paul Dano and Robert DeNiro drama Being Flynn. I'm sure part of this is simply because I spend a lot of time on movie websites, but since this has also been occuring at random websites I've been on, I can only assume my consumption habits have led google ad sense to decide I am the exact target demographic for this movie.

Google Ad Sense apparently doesn't listen to my podcast or it would know how rarely I can motivate myself to actually sit through a thought provoking movie these days. I see movie in theaters that take advantage of the big screen (Promethus etc) I used to watch good movies at home in my free time, but I've spent most of the last decade watching stuff like Hardcastle and McCormick instead.

Besides all this, the main reason these ads for Being Flynn don't work at making me want to watch this movie is that they advertise the film by incorporating crappy stock images of the two actors in it, while showing that these exact same stills are also mediocre-ly photoshopped onto woefully generic looking DVD cover.

I get that having Deniro in your movie is a selling point, but there are artful ways to show your star's face front and center in the promotional art.

 (The awesome poster above was drawn and designed by Drew Struzan, who I recently discovered was the illustrator behind pretty much every poster I like ever.


The thing that really bums me about the cookie cutter DVD art for Being Flynn is that it had such a fantastic theatrical poster.

To be fair, the DVD art doesn't look as bad on its own as it does in the banner ads, but when you compare it side by side with the poster are you realize the DVD art is the simplified paint-by-numbers version of the same composition (Deniro and Dano waking in new york.)

The theatrical poster is memorable and daring, and grabs the audience's attention much more than just sticking a generic photo of DeNiro on your cover and calling it a day.


For a contrasting opinion on the theatrical post, I thought I would quote the writer of Filmdrunk.com making fun of it: "Hey, camera guy, what is this, a Monet painting? Try hitting the backlight button, I can't see shit. If this picture showed up in my digital camera, I'd delete it."

Podcast Episode 62

Thor's 62: "Well, you did cheat on him with a stuffed animal."

The entire episode is a half hour interview with porn director Lee Roy Myers. After the positive feedback we got about our interview with porn director Seymore Butts, I'm excited to bring you an other interview. We talk about Myers' career, the art of making a porn parody, and the future of big budget porn in the age of downloading.

Keywords: Hansel and Gretel the porno, Porn, Pornography, Porn Parody, Lee Roy Myers, The Office - A XXX Parody (2009) Writer, Director - New Sensations, Scrubs - A XXX Parody, Seinfeld - A XXX Parody, Friends - A XXX Parody, 30 Rock - A XXX Parody, WKRP in Cincinnati - A XXX Parody, 70's Show - A XXX Parody, Entourage - A XXX Parody, Cheers - A XXX Parody, Man VS Pussy, Katy Pervy - The XXX Parody, Facts of Life - The XXX Parody, MilfBusters - The XXX Parody, The Honeymoaners - The XXX Parody, A Wet Dream on Elm Street - The XXX Parody, Tom Byron Pictures, Horizon, Wicked Pictures, Romeo & Juliet, DreamZone Entertainment, Adam and Eve, Family Guy, Cafe Amore, Sailor Moon - The Interactive XXX Parody, Popporn's Pink Lips, Buffy The Vampire Slayer XXX - The Parody, The Valley, The Godfather - The XXX Parody, Maid for Love This week's cover photo via: http://theqit.com/%E2%80%98buffy-the-vampire-slayer%E2%80%99-gets-the-porn-parody-makeover/

Podcast Episode 61

 Episode 61: If You Like This, Than We Have No Idea What You Like 

Keepin' it real with just Thor, Baldr, and Loki as they break down (without much rhyme or reason): Chinese Gruman Theatre, Brave, Aruba, Dutch, This American Life, a plethora of Pixar films, The Klumps, Bambo the Avenging Dear, the short list of things Emma Thompson can't do, Walt Disney frozen in carbonite, Robot Chicken, Nightmares from a Damaged Brain, Saving Mr. Banks, American Splendor, David Lettermen, George Burns, Stanley Tucci, Hunger Games Books, Stephanie Meyer's approval, Alien, Rocky, raw egg shits, Boca Burgers, Epic Meal Time, IMDB's People Also Liked, Star Trek Next Generation Season 7, Facebook, Instagram, Aaron Sorkin, The Newsroom, Colbert Report, Sam Waterston, The Bugle (shocker...), Dish and The Hopper vs Cable vs Amazon subscription vs Netflix, Kim Kardashian Makes Sex Tape with a Unicorn, Parks and Rec, specifically Ron Swonson and Aubrey Plaza, Guam AND Puerto Rico, Jason Statham fest - Killer Elite, Ghost of Mars; Bad Lieutenant, I, Claudius; Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson, J.D. Salinger, The Hot Chick from The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Magic Mike, Channing Tatum, Stephen Soderbergh, and, as promised: http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/cultist/2012/06/insane_kardashian_lawsuits_cla.php

(Thanks to Loki for editing this one)

Podcast Episode 60a

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Fernet-Branca: the official wine of drunk mermaids

Drink your fernet-branca quick before it gets jacked by an eagle!

How to correctly pander to dudes

This Clear Men dandruff shampoo ad features hot women wearing little clothing, which I often find too on the nose and insulting to be effective in ads such as those for Ax body spray and last summer's Miller Ads with Bikini clad life guards. It features a suave dude looking cool in a suit, which often comes across like Kettle One's TV ads were the message is so obviously, "You will be cool as this mother fucker if you use our product". Ketel One's print ads from the 90's however, were genius in there minimalism.

The point of all this is, it is really hard to sell the image of classy and sexy effectively to men without it seeming forced and phoney. The two examples of "products" I can think of they do this best are  James Bond Films and Dos Equis's "Most Interesting Man in the World" Ads. 

The Clean Men shampoo ad isn't in the same league as Bond or Jonathan Goldsmith* but they did a go much better job at making there product seem cool and classy than any other ad I see aimed at the Males age 25 to 36 demographic. This ad isn't the best I've seen this year but is clever and fun.

Footnotes:

*

Goldsmith, the may who plays the Dos Equis guy is an America actor best know before those ads for being on pretty much every show on TV in the 70's His actually speaking voice is really cool but sounds nothing like the voice he uses for the Most Interesting Man character. According to wiki the voice of the character is based on his long time friend, deceased actor Fernando Álvaro Lamas (father of Lorenzo Lamas.)

Here is a video of Goldsmith using his normal speaking voice in an interview where he promotes a charity that helps tigers. (Yes even in real life he apparently pales around with live man eating tigers).

Podcast Episode 60

Thor's 60: Aliens Vs. Engineers Vs. Noomi Rapace Vs. what looks like a small version of the stupid squid thing form the end of Watchmen


 We saw the new Ridley Scott film Prometheus and discuss the fuck out of it. Along with these other things:

 Iceland "only in Scandinavia" Iceland Air ads, "Stay over in iceland for no additional airfare" Hot Tub, Conan, Hot Tub Time Machine, Connecticut ads, Tourism ads, Ridley Scott, Alien, Aliens, 1979, sequel. prequal, chest buster xenomorph. The most prostitutes per square foot! Watermelon! The Beach. Locust Abortion Agent, Haggard, Bruce Willis, Shirt, Die Hard, Die Hard: with a vengeance, Magic Mike, Steven Soderbergh, FilmDrunk.com, Gender Swapped "Show Girls", the script for "Show GIrls" matthew mcconaughey. Ripped Guys with boobs.

Photo of Ridley scott and Rutger Hauer on the set of Blade Runner http://www.extrahype.com/its-official-ridley-scott-will-direct-the-blade-runner-sequel

B-movie-riffic

I've said before that Colbert was right, a lot of movies this days are perfect in their 3 minute short film trailer form, and can't live up to the promises of awesome provided by the trailer.

I am pretty sure the upcoming film Savages will be one of those. The trailer features:

-Pretty much the plot of Commando, except its it is two dudes rescuing the girl they both sleep with, instead of Arnold rescuing his daughter and saying awesomely corny lines like"Boy George, more like GIRL George"

-Selma Hayek acting like the crazy fascist chick  from Turkey Shoot.


-The heros getting their revenge on while wearing rad as hell looking masks painted in the style of Dead of the Dead Sugar Skulls

-Narration by Blake Lively that is so overwrought and on the nose you could insert it over the trailer of any Jean-Claude Van Damme movie and it would not seem out of place.

-the always awesome Benico Del Toro as some kinda mafia heavy/ assassin who says no lines in the trailer but just lears at people and blows a bunch of weed into Blake Lively's mouth in a shot that seems to go on for half the trailer's length for no apparently reason.


Savages Trailer From Trailerpulse

Since this is directed by Oliver Stone who wrote Scarface but seems to think of himself as some kind of social commenting auteur, I fear this won't be the all action and melodrama roller coaster ride I'm promised from the trailer. I think Stone, despite all his pretension, would have been a much more successful director if he had realized that he is at his best when he takes B movie elements and films them with ten times the budget and everything cracked up to 11. He could have been a great (though still a racist dick)  Renny Harlin/Michael Bay type of filmmaker if stopped spending the majority of the runtime of his films trying to show how clever he was by making ham fisted observations about society.

Hopefully this will actually be fun, and match the movie I've already imagined based on the trailer where Benico Del Toro's character doesn't talk at all and comes across as the most hardcore and menacing baddie since Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men.

If not, hopefully it will bring about some B-movies involving hardcore looking dudes running around shooting stuff while wearing cool looking custom painted masks.

Angry sign!

I like this restaurant a lot more because of how exasperated this sign is.
(sent via cellular)

(sent via cellular)

New James Bond trailer is awesome.

Holy shit this trailer has me excited. I may just watch this continuously until the movie comes out in November.

Podcast Episode 59

Thor 59: Lady Death and Jon Hamm are having sex in your mind.

(Or at least you are probably picturing that after reading the title. If not you should give it a try, nothing like a real person doing the nasty with a super sexy cartoon character. I think that is at leasts 20 percent of the reason Who Framed Roger Rabbit is so popular.)

NEW EPISODE UP ON Thor's Classic, the much referenced Valentine's Day Special, Episode 4, from 2011. Download here:
http://hourofthunder2.podomatic.com/

(Thor wrote this episode description obviously.)

Thor, Hiemdale, Njord, Hell, and Baldr discuss:

Death, Lady Death, Spider-woman, Spider Woman, Thanos, The Avengers, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Thor 2, Thor 2 villain speculation, Loki, Kryptonite, Kevin Spacey, Superman Returns

The Avengers, Joss Whedon, Hawkeye, Thor, Loki, Black Widow, Hulk, Mark Ruffalo, Iron Man, Tony Stark, Samuel L Jackson, Nick Fury, heliport, The Cabin in the Woods, Mad Man, Jon Hamm, sterling cooper draper pryce, Peggy, Don Draper, Superman, Superman Returns, Sin City, Buffy, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 3d, Michael Bay, Camera Work, cinematography, direction, directing, writing, screen writing, Matthew Weiner, Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, vincent Kartheiser January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Jared Harris, Bryan Batt, Michael Gladis, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, maggie Siff, Kiernan Shipka, jessica Paré, Christopher Stanley, Jay R. Ferguson, Robert Morse, john Slattery, pornography, porn, pornography

Podcast Episode 58

 Thor's 58: Don Draper defeats the Avengers using only his raw sexuality Thor, Hiemdale, Njord, Hell, and Baldr (who joins us about 45 minutes into the episode) talk: The Avengers, Joss Whedon, Hawkeye, Thor, Loki, Black Widow, Hulk, Mark Ruffalo, Iron Man, Tony Stark, Samuel L Jackson, Nick Fury, heliport, The Cabin in the Woods, Mad Man, Jon Hamm, sterling cooper draper pryce, Peggy, Don Draper, Superman, Superman Returns, Sin City, Buffy, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 3d, Michael Bay, Camera Work, cinematography, direction, directing, writing, screen writing, Matthew Weiner, Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, vincent Kartheiser January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Jared Harris, Bryan Batt, Michael Gladis, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, maggie Siff, Kiernan Shipka, jessica Paré, Christopher Stanley, Jay R. Ferguson, Robert Morse, john Slattery

illustration of jon hamm as superman via: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/GraphicCity/news/?a=55825

Great low budget ad

though my favorite low budget local ads are still the ones made buy these guys:




via filmdrunk. again

Kiefer Sutherland's interior decorating service.

from the music documentary  I Trust You to Kill Me

Great ad for Jack White's New S&M service.

I assume if you buy enough shit with your American Express Card, they will pay to have jack white come to your house and wrestle you.

Then you have to pay AmEx even more to have Gary Oldman come to your house and stop Mr. White.

"I've been in resturants all night. All I got served was lead"

This trailer is not quite as full of badass moments as the trailer for Guy Pierce's Lockout, but what it lacks in quip-y dialogue it makes up for in Jason Statham-ness.

 I firmly believe Statham proved he is an genuinely talented actor with his performances in the Crank films, though obviously he is mostly cast in movies that show off his physique rather that his acting chops.



This trailer overall is very strong. Though I'm biased since I think most of Statham's movies, even the ones that are totally by the numbers like War, are still a good time. I plan on seeing this so look for a review in an upcoming Hour of Thunder Podcast. 

So, as you may have guessed Statham is the Bad Ass of the Week for this week.


Trailer via Safe's official website.
Photo is of Jason Statham on the British National dive team before he became an actor via this Ottawa Sun Article, which is awesomely titled "Jockstrap Thespians"

Podcast episode 56

Thor 56: Hunger (Games) Hunger (Games) Hippos

Hey folks, Thor here, sorry for the month delay between episodes, Loki used magic to cause myself and Chris Hemsworth to trade bodies and I spend the entire month I was in his body staring at myself in the mirror. Damn that man has fine abs.

Podcast NEWS: I've decided to start uploading old episodes which we had to take down, due to the space limitations of podomatic, onto a new podomatic account. Episode ten is already up there with more to come. Which "lost" episodes do you want to hear first? let us know at hourofthunder (at) gmail.
Access "Thor's Hour of Thunder CLASSIC" here:
http://hourofthunder2.podomatic.com/

Official Website for the new episodes is still
http://hourofthunder.podomatic.com/

Listen to our old college scripted comedy parody "The Shadow" here:
feed://www72.homepage.villanova.edu/tyler.cunnion/shadow/index.xml

This episode we talk about:
Hunger Games, Ender's Game, Battle Royal, Influences of the book "Hunger Games". Thor's review of the book Hunger Games, Bladr and Loki's review of the movie Hunger Games, Loki's review of the book Enders Game,

saoirse ronan, hit girl, chloe moretz, bieng a teenage girl, Ru, Katniss, Jennifer Lawrence, dark shadows, adam west, wheat thins, johnny depp, tim burton, hunger games, evil dead II, evil dead 2, Shakey cam, Book versus movie, Ender's Game, Producers of show have causing deaths, bait, series 7: the contenders.

Cover Photo this week via Deviant Art
http://woodwose.deviantart.com/art/Freyja-s-chariot-126114709?q=gallery%3Aavaloncommunity%2F26566262&qo=6

End song provided by friend of the show Alan. It is him covering Mark Hamill's cover of "Only You" at the character "The Joker" from the end credits of the video game "Arkham City"

PS I Really want the adaptation of the Hunger Games book "Mocking Jay" to have the end credits music be Carly Simon and James Taylor re-recording their ridiculous cover of the nursery rhyme "Mocking Bird". Just picture it: mock YEAH ing YEAH bird YEAH!. YEAH! (Yeah!)

This is how you market a movie

Someone awesome at Lionsgate Films* found out that the ridiculous beard actor Wes Bentley sports in The Hungar Games has become a viral sensation, and even has its own facebook page. So they wisely had Wes film a short promo calling out his beard:   

Just wanted to take a moment to put out the Wes Bentley was awesome in American Beauty, and I am excited to see back in major motion pictures.

footnote:

*If I was running Lionsgate Films my first act would be to fix grammar in the name by making it two words and added an apostrophe after the s.

Source: Uproxx.com

The Strictly Commercial Award winner for best ad of 1963

Before Jim Henson was able to tell stories with his muppets on "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show" he paid the bills by making advertisements and industrial videos. His ads for Wilkins Coffee are relatively well known, and mostly feature a muppet who doesn't like Wilkins Coffee getting injured by a Kermit-esque muppet Really:


However I had never seen any of Henson's video he had made for major companies. Sometimes these were produced for internal marketing, sometimes he was making instructional videos.

This one below is surprisingly hip considering it was for a meeting of Bell Telelphone owners:



I love the design of the robot and my favorite line is "Correction. (blows up a butterfly) The Machine. Does not have a soul. It has no bothersome emotions."


(Photo at top is of what appears to be that same robot puppet being fixed by Jim Henson and Henson's longtime head writer Jerrry Juhl while guest on the Jack Paar's talk show.

Photo via Jim Henson Company clip via filmdrunk.)

Bad Ass of the week: Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly is the man.


Here is early footage of a concert in which the line-up included:
1. Buddy Holly
2. Johnny Cash
3. Carl Perkins
4. Jerry Lee Lewis
5. Elvis Presley





If you invent a time machine please bring with you the following list:


To Do:
1. June 3rd 1955. Lovett, Texas
notes: Best concert ever. If there is time bring along Musican Lyle Lovett, travel back to 1855 as well and get town re-named "Lyle Lovett, Texas"


2. April 20, 1985 Courthouse Square set at Universal Studio
notes: last day of filming for Back to the Future if your time machine happens to be a deloren just appear hear midday and everyone will assume it is part of the special effects.




Buddy Holly revolutionized Rock and Roll, if he hadn't died at age 23 a lot of folks who know way more about music and history than myself think he was close to making the kinds of innovations in album structure and instrumentation that instead have to wait a decade to be made by the Beatles.
(So the Marlow to the Beatles' Shakespeare)

Want more Buddy Holly, someone made the awesome decision to make a 25 minute youtube video which compiled all publicly available footage of the best thing to come out of Texas before the Alamo Cinema and Drafthouse. (the first couple minutes are that same footage of the concert in Lovett since it is the earliest known film footage of either Elvis or Buddy Holly.)

Really England?

NOTE:
 This article gets really political really fast. I didn't mean for it to, its just late and night so I'm more ornery than usual and this ad that i am talking about is really poor quality. If you don't think the BBC TV license fee is stupid and do thing that Ireland should always be two countries this might not be the article for you.

I am trying to bear in mind that this ad for "Holidays at Home" (designed to convince the people of Britain  to vacation in their own country as opposed to someplace where it isn't cold and rainy 90 percent of the year) is made by the same inept British government who still drives vans around pretending they can somehow use "secret technology" to tell if you are using the antenna attached to your TV to pick up the radio waves of the BBC without playing the stupid TV license;* But even with me looking at it from that level of marketing stupidity this ad is still so bad it makes me angry

Enjoy:



Why do I dislike this ad oh so very much? Part of the reason is because it features celebrities I actually enjoy, like the classy Stephen Fry the adorable Rupert Grint and worst of all, dead brilliant (and Spanish) Salvador Dali's lobster telephone sculpture.


Part if it is the fact the ad seems very well produced visually, but that despite all this effort, it somehow fails photograph or describe a single damn thing worth seeing the United Kingdom, despite the fact that the British Museum alone contains enough mind blowingly cool stuff to occupy a person of a fortnight.

The only sight which they photographed it a way that showed off its beauty was the Giant's Causeway. And even this was ruined by bad writing "You won't find rocks like these." Calling the Giant's Causeway "rocks" makes it seem pedestrian and stupid, who goes on vacation to hang around rocks?

Also from a personal stand point, including the Giant's Causeway while very carefully not mentioning the word Ireland, even to say "Northern Ireland" pissed me off. I don't want to get into my opinion's on Ireland's relationship with England, but I personally would have liked to have seen both Ireland and Scottland specified as such instead of them all being lumped together. 


Footnote(s):
*Just to reiterate that point, these stupid vans is BBC's primary method of convincing everyone who accesses over the air broadcast TV in England (the kind that is FREE in the US) to pay the government the BBC.  You have to pay this fee for owning a TV which picks up broadcast signals, even if you don't use it for watching broadcast signals or if you use it to watch broadcast but just watch stations like ITV who are not part of the BBC and therefore do not get any money from this license.

I don't want you to think I am against funding for the arts, and I love doctor who as much as the next guy, but I think both this licensing system and the goofy roving detector vans are antiquated and not something the government should be spending their time on when there are more pressing issues at hand. Like the fact that some members of the British military are allowed to steal military helicopters and use them to pick up their girlfriends to go on dates.


Also as long as I am complaining lest us for get that the government their still has censorship laws in place against movies and TV Shows, which are strict enough that an episode of "The Daily Show with John Stewart"  was banned outright in England last year for showing footage of parliament for use in satire. Which is apparent an actually crime (really) in the United Kingdom


via WarmingGlow, who just talked about how cute the corgi dog with Stephen Fry in the video is. This statement is accurate, though I would argue limited in its scope. 

Bad Ass Month 2012

It takes a real man to rock rouge and a hat fit for Aretha Franklin 

This photo of Sting looking really cool and somehow pulling off this outfit reminded me that I forgot to have a "Tough Guy Month" this year on the blog. I did this last year where I highlight Advertising featuring Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, and William Shatner

This month I'll still have stuff like that, and am planning on doing an article about the best and worst James Bond movie posters if I get my act together, but I always want to highlight folks like sting, who are undeniable badasses because they don't feel the need to assert themselves or their masculinity at all times. (Let us bear in mind that still is able to have sex for five hours straight). That why this year it is gonna be not "Tough Guy Month" but "Bad Ass Month" high lighting both men and women who are really damn awesome, and the ads they make better by appearing in.

That being said, I do need to be petty for a minute and point out how much hotter Sting is dressed up like a girl that GaGa dressed up like a girl. Honestly, I recognized Elton John* looking incredibly old and Sting in a dress right away, and spent the next few minutes trying to figure out which male celebrity was also in drag in the middle.

I have made fun of Lady Gaga for looking like a member of Twisted Sister before. And I hope people don't get the wrong impression. I think she is really talented. Bad Romance might literally be the coolest most cutting edge music video I have ever seen, with its ability to seamlessly combine performance art and  pop music, with rubber and latex fetish garments.  And I don't think all celebrities need to be beautiful.

But seriously, Sting is much hotter in bad drag than GaGa is on her best day.

Picture via this awesome site

Footnote(s):

*Another under the radar badass is Groucho Marx, who when he couldn't sleep used to call people up in the middle of the night and insult them.

Groucho Marx apparently met Elton John and accused him of having his name backwards, calling him "John Elton".