Will Bill Murray be there?

My favorite bar/Mexican Resturant in Philly is having there own Groundhog's day celebration.  I dig this ad for it.

(sent via cellphone)

Podcast Episode 46

Thor's 46: Jason Statham is about to tackle you from behind!

Seriously! Turn around right now!

This message brought to you by the foundation for a better life.

We discuss more TinTin, Spielberg, Sci Fi and horror movies. And a bunch of more specific stuff that I don't have time to right down right now.

The photo for this episode is some silliness I (Thor) made in homage to a joke I really dug from the podcast
"The Flop House" found at http://www.flophousepodcast.com/
You should give it a listen, it is a awesome podcast about bad movies.

To explain the P2 poster further: In Episode 77 of The Flop House, Dan mentioned the low grossing horror film "P2" to which Elliot explained, "Yes the movie 'P2: Pudgement Day' and Stuart went onto explain that it was about a shape changing robot from the future made of liquid chocolate.

(I find very silly things very funny, as your probably noticed from listening to the podcast. Which is why the Monty Python skit "The Silly Party" is one of my favorites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU )

Nazis on the Moon movie has a release date

The movie "Iron Sky" put out a great teaser trailer what seems like couple dozen years ago, but now its finally complete and will be premiering in February at the Berlin International Film Festival. (Which I personally have always thought was clearly the coolest film festival out there since it has a motherfucking bear as its logo.)

The new footage from it is pretty cool:



Though I still like the teaser trailer better, it uses no footage from the movie, but does a great job explaining the concept without dialogue and works great as a stand-alone short film, aided greatly by the awesome theme song that plays throughout:







New Trailer via: Filmdrunk

Listen to Mark Hamill narrate this horror movie trailer as 'The Joker'

No offense to the amazing late Mr. Ledger, but Mark Hamill will always be my favorite version of "The Joker." Just as the animated 90's animated series Hamill starred in will always be my favorite version of the Batman story.

So I was pretty excited to see Mr. Hamill has the only dialogue in the trailer for the virus horror movie on a plane film "Airborne":



Though the trailer is pretty mysterious and effective, (as is the campy-clever B movie style slogan on the film's posters "Come DIE with me"),  I don't think this trailer is as this trailer for the film Airborne:



The main thing I don't get about the trailer for this 1993 children's film I have never heard of is why the lead seems angry (based on the narrator's lines) to hang out with Seth Green. Seth Green is the fucking man, and early 90's slacker Seth Green is the second coolest fictional Seth Green you could hang out with. Ranking below "turns into a werewolf Seth Green" from the "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" Television series but above ridiculous hair Seth Green from this Nerf advertisement.

I also like that the font for that the 90's teen fish-out-of-water comedy "Airborne" chose for its title, looks way more like the font for a horror movie than the 2010's horror movie "Airborne" chose for its title.

Airborne: sometimes RollerBlading can be... MURDER!

slogan found via Filmdrunk.com

"FDR: American Badass" beats "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" at its own game

I like real, historical Abe Lincoln, I love fictional Abe Lincoln's role in the steam punk animated short from Mignola and Del Toro "The Amazing Screw On Head." However, something about the upcoming film "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" keeps me from being too excited about it. I don't tend to get very into exploitation concepts being exicuted with high budgets. And the tone, at least from the trailers and other promotional material seems way too serious for my liking. A movie called "Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" needs to have the tone and budget of "Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter" not the tone and budget of "DayBreakers."

This is why I am doubly excited about this trailer for "FDR: American Badass." I hadn't heard about it till just now, but it stars President Franklin Roosevelt and Nazi werewolves. 

It has the following advantages over the Lincoln picture:

1.  Werewolves. Werewolves are way cooler than vampires, though they have been not portrayed as well or a frequently on film.

2. The campy, but still cool, tone a film like this needs and deserves.

3. An endearingly low budget.

4. Barry Bostwick, the awesome actor who played "Brad" in "Rocky Horror Picture Show" the Mayor of New York in the Michael J. Fox sitcom, "Spin City", and hosted the Washington, D.C. Fourth of July fireworks for a while (he may still, Barry if you are reading this let me know if you do.). Barry seems like the perfect choice to play Roosevelt a talented and big name enough actor to lend this ridiculous project credibility but still enough of a character actor to blend into the role and fit the recognizable features of FDR.

Not really related, but important to note is the fact that Bostwick at one point had an 80's business executive beard that rivaled Ellis in "Die Hard" for its ability to make the owner of it look slick, high powered, and coked out of their skull all at the same time. *

Bostwick's beard may have been only surpassed on the "coke-up executive" scale by Kenny Loggins in the video for "Danger Zone"

via: this HuffPost article and Filmdrunk.com

Footnote(s):

*IMPORTANT: Not trying to say anything disparaging about Barry Bostwick, who is the man, he grew the beard for a role, and I don't think he was a coke fiend in the 80's. I'm just saying the beard makes him  look like the coke fiend business executive from every single 80's movie.

All news should be puppet news.

Actual awesome local news cast in cleveland:



Puppets Court is currently every weekend on Action News at 10 on channel 19.

I'm moving to cleveland so I can watch this more easily.


Watch all the episodes of puppet court so far on the station's website.

Real life Chris Pine from Bottle Shock has an awesome new year's video

Avi Denovitz's trip to France went way better than
his trip to London.

The excellent Winery Chateau Montelena, which was depicted in the sweet and fun film Bottle Shock that I dig quite a lot, has a mailing list that sends out specials on their wine every few months.

I dig their wine but its a bit pricy (I mostly buy it as gifts for my mom whose tastes buds, unlike mine, are not fried from drinking well tequila so she appreciates good wine), so I dig their mailing list so I can be aware of sales.

I'm not sure if they had gotten complaints about their mailing list or something, but with the new year I got an email from them linking to a video by Bo Barrett, who was played in the movie by Chris "Captain Kirk" Pine in a cheap long haired wig.

Bo clearly should be in the next movie Chris Pine does because he is pretty awesome and funny in this video. If you are short on time just fast forward to 53 seconds in, which is the funniest part:



Considering how often I highlight completely terrible ads from huge billion dollar companies, its nice to see that this small family owned winery is able do such a good job at connecting with customers.

The best ad I have seen trying to get a blank billboard rented

evan stone is funny as fuck

star of Pirates: the porno

Colbert/Stewart 2012

I don't talk about Daily Show and Colbert much on here because they are good at what they do and I try to only post things that I have more to say about than just "This is fucking rad" but this was too good not to post:






This is so fucking rad.

Check out this article for more on the awesome satire* of our election season from the Colbert Super PAC including the video of Mario Batalli being paid by with Super PAC money to feed John Stewart eggs.



Footnote(s):
*I can't see that word now without think of Andy Zaltzman's pun "I'm sa tired after that joke."

Why does the UK get a much funnier title and trailer for the new Aardman animation film "The Pirates!"?

So once upon a time Gideon Defoe wrote a hilarious novella about a group of ridiculous pirates in Victorian London to impress a girl he fancied (hear more about this from The Hour of Thunder's pirate expert Heil in Thor's Episode 36).

And low I read it and thought it was good. Then he came out with the weaker but still funny books: Adventure with Ahab, Adventure with Neopolean and the fantastic "Adventure with Communists"

Now Aardman, the awesome claymation studio behind Wallace & Gromit and Chicken run is adapting the first to book into a claymation movie starring clay Hugh Grant.

I was so excited when I read this was happening and I have to say when I first saw the american trailer for it*, I will still excited but it seemed a little more aimed at a younger audience than the books were or than Wallace & Gromit is. I believe these is a major difference between making a movie appropriate for all ages and making one that appeals to children and the trailer was definitely going for the kids movie tone. I was also sad they changed the title to the less funny, "The Pirates! A Band of Misfits".

I just today found out today that in the U.K. the film is called "The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists" so I decided to watch the U.K. trailer, and found it hipper and funnier and much more in line with the tone of the books that i love.

The UK Trailer I like better:



The American trailer:



The American trailer wasn't a terrible trailer and I was excited to see the character designs, and the "Fish I've dressed up in a hat line is great. but dispite having way more dialogue from the film I don't think it captures the tone of the books or sells the movie as well as the UK trailer. Maybe I just like everything better with sea shanties.

PS:
Happy Birthday from
Aardman Animation, unless you live in DVD region 1:


Footnote(s):
*Actually I saw the trailer in front of "The Muppets" which I had a similar "this is good but I was hoping for something better" opinion of that I have of the American trailer. So I will go on record as saying "The Muppets" needed less of a focus on the human characters and more sea shanties.

Podcast Episode 45

Thor 45: Captain Haddock's drunken bar brawl against Andy Serkis

official site still waiting to rock your world at: HourOfThunder.podomatic.com 

Thor, Balder, Loki, Frayja and Njord talk the new TinTin movie, including how it compares to the orginal comics, the animated TV shows and "Rin Tin Tin: canine cop".

We also talk: War Horse, debate the merits of motion capture, the academy award buzz for Andy Serkis in "Raise of the Planet of the Apes", debate whether or not James Franco is a fucking asshole (See if you can guess which side Thor, who writes these summaries falls on.)

Also for a change we actually discuss norse mythology at the beginning of the episode.

Along with: the upcoming Avergers movie, if Digital 3D is a fad and the fact that Thor's personal favorite incarnation of Thor is the marvel comic run written and drawn by Walter Simonson.

Also I think esperanto, William Shatner and the daily show comes up at one point.

Photo is of the recording studio where Thor summoned the thunder this week. This episode powered by Espolon Tequila. (pictured)

Llamas!

So for reasons not entirely known, even to myself, I woke up one day and decided to start a twitter from the perspective of a Llama. It is called @aRealLlama. I try to only tweet things that would be interested in if one was on the internet but was an actual llama.

I only mention this because in doing research for this twitter, (yes I do research for my tweets), I discovered what I am already declaring the  Official Strictly Commercials Convention of 2012.  I say this bearing in mind there are conventions for comic dooks, and Star Trek, and Steam Punk, and the Muppets and all the other things I think are the coolest things ever (see any episode ever of Thor's Hour Of Thunder to hear me talk about how awesome these things are.)


But none of these conventions have this:






Your eyes do not deceive you. That is a dog show, but with motherfucking llamas instead of dogs.

The "Fashion Show" looking thing in the video after the llama square dance is assumedly British people showing off clothing they made with Alpaca fur. However, all of the clothing featured appears to have been designed by and for members of Arkham Asylum

"And everything you see here was knitted using locally sourced material from the Arkham Alpaca"

source:

http://www.britishalpacafuturity.com/

Ready for some football? Ready for an obscene number of cans of pepsi?

Seen at a Tops super market outside of Elmira, New York.

I'm not sure if this mosaic of boxes was done as per instructions from Pepsi's in store marketing division, or if it was just the creation of an awesome clerk with too much time on his/her hands at the end of a shift.

I prefer to assume it was created over the course of dozens of visits to the store by a customer who is excited as fuck about the super bowl.

podcast episode 43

Thor's 43: Everything we forgot to mention in 2011 all at once

Thor, Baldr, Loki and Frayja talk about our favorite parts of 2011 in terms of cinema, plays and our hopes for the pop culture of 2012 (Dark Knight Rises, Avengers, Amazing Spider-man)


Official website still rocking the casbah over at:
HourofThunder.Podomatic.com

Strictly Commercials declares best ad of 2011

This ad is as funny as anything I have featured on this site*, but instead of selling cars or shampoo its from the British Heart Foundation and it teaches you "Hands only CPR"



Vinnie Jones was the best part of "Snatch" and "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", and unfortunately has since then mostly been in much shittier movies than those two, such as the R rated horror with the title of an X rated porno, "Midnight Meat Train."

Its nice to see Vinnie using his Badassary for a good cause. Definitely the best PSA where a tough guy tries to save your life since Clint Eastwood told me not to do drugs in this real PSA:




Or When Clint Eastwood and Alice Cooper told you not to do drugs in my fake PSA:
 (at 4 minutes and 5 seconds into this stop motion video I made back in 2007):





Thanks to Christian and Arthur for making me aware of the Vinnie Jones PSA


 footnote(s):
*Old Spice Guy excluded, its not fair for mere mortals to get to compete with him

The trailer for the movie "TiMER" makes me want to see it, which should happen all he time with trailers but often doesn't

A friend of mine  mentioned a year or so ago that he had watched a very small sci-fi rom-com called "TiMER" from 2009 about a device that allows people to know the exact moment they will meet their "one true love"*. Though the description of the movie sounded cute, I didn't really give it much thought until now, when I stumbled upon the fact that the star of the film is the actress who played my favorite character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Emma Caulfield, who played Anya on the show. Most of what you need to know about that character can be found in this clip:


I showed that clip once to Baldr (the co-host with me on the Thor's Hour of Thunder podcast) and he said, "That clip somehow, in less than 30 seconds, highlights everything I find annoying about Joss Whedon as a writer and director ".  But I think that character is awesome and hilarious and her never explained fear and loathing of rabbits just ads to her charm.

I'm getting off topic, the point is Emma Caulfield is apparently in this movie, and it has a trailer that does a good job of selling the film. Too many trailers either don't give the audience enough of an idea of what a film is about and why they would like it, or go the completely opposite route and reveal every damn aspect of a film, to the point where you give the audience not reason to need to see more.

This trailer isn't amazing, none of the jokes are hugely memorable, but it does a great job of making the film seem to be very endearing. In two minutes it paints the characters to be better drawn and less sit-com-y than our average romantic comedy character. It gives you the plot in a very clear and concise manner but leaves you with a desire to see more and gives the audience questions which they will have to see the film to learn about.

 This may seem like the very basic idea of what a trailer should be. But so often trailers fall short of thisI have talked before about the Stephen Colbert clip where he talks about how much he loves watching trailers and how he doesn't need to watch movies anymore because trailers are so much more fun and have better pacing and editing, and even though it is obviously a joke, that does often end up being the case.


This trailer on the other hand, actually  has me thinking about watching a film I had little interest in before i saw the trailer. Which, unless I am forgetting a movie, is more than I can say for any trailer for a 2011 movie. Most trailers I see these days are for movies I already know are my cup of tea like The Muppets or I already know I will hate, like anything involving Katherine Heigl.

The Daily Show - Trailer Hitch
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Footnote(s):
*Not to be a huge downer,  but personally, I think the idea of soulmates and people who are "meant for each other" is a silly fantasy, but I can except it as the reality of a movie that is also science fiction. Sorry this footnote wasn't funny.

To make up for it, here is a second great clip of Colbert talking with Jon Stewart in the early 2000's back when Colbert was on the Daily Show. The clip from comedy central's website (which unlike every other clip I found is both able to be embedded on my site and is not grainy as hell) for some reason cuts in after Jon Stewart explains what is going on so before you watch you should know that:

The clip is making fun of how libel laws in England caused the British media to heavily imply that sources and rumor said Prince Charles had a gay experience with an employee, but the British media was unable to actually state this outright.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Prince Charles Scandal
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Podcast 40

I fell behind posting the podcast here. Sorry.

If you want to find out the second these go onto the internet, please subscribe via iTunes here or check out the official site at hourofthunder.podomatic.com 

Thor's 40: Live from Thor's Bathtub!

To celebrate the 40th episode of this foolish-ness Thor does the episode while drinking egg nog in the bath. Baldr and Loki are here as usual. We talk: Sherlock Holem: A Game of Shadows, Christopher Walken, Chris Cooper. Catch Me if you Can, Fountains of Wayne, Adaptation, A View to A Kill, David Bowie, Labyrinth, The Bowie Ball, Thin White Duke, The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Holy Grail, Old New England Egg Nog, Reduced Shakespeare Company.


(Thanks to Dolan for his generous gift of egg nog that made this epsiode possible/more ridiculous.)

Podcast 41: Baldr gets scrooged.

Thor's 41: A Whole Bunch O' People Act out "A Christmas Carol"


Official website is still sexy and still at hourofthunder.podomatic.com

Thanks to impawards.com, I now know that this poster was designed by the same graphic
designer who created the poster for Mighty Ducks 3, which was probably the only
good part of that movie.

Back in college Balder and I (Thor) used to be part of a merry band of men and women called the "Radio Theatrical Kaleidoscope." We produced, acted in, and wrote parody episodes of "The Shadow." After a 5 years, we finally got the whole gang back together and recorded a reading of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." This script for this is the entire script for an Orson Welles directed production of "A Christmas Carol" which was performed by his Mercury Radio Theater in the 1930's. It originally starred Lionel Barrymore (pictured.) This episode generously and awesomely edited by Tyler Cunnion