Thursday, December 30, 2010

The year in review - Comics, TV and music

OK, here we go...

Best new edition/reprint: Blacksad, Dark Horse. The most amazing comic ever, now in a nicer, better version, one it deserves sooo much
Runner up: The Losers 2 book edition, Vertigo, DC

Best TPB: A God Somewhere, DC - A great take on the superhero genre, realistic, painful and gut wrenching.
Runner up: Planetary Vol. 4 , Wildstorm, DC. (Finally)

WTF Comics:
Batman, Return of Bruce Wayne, DC - WTF just happened? Did I miss something...
Brightest Day, DC - WTF am I doing still reading this? Is this going somewhere?
Ultimate X, Marvel - WTF is going on with this title? When is it coming out again? HUH?

Best new comic:
American Vampire
, Vertigo, DC. Great story and art and a new take on the Vampire genre, with Stephan King actually writing a horror comic, how can you go wrong?
Runner up: Mystery Society, IDW

Best Comic of the year:
Invincible, Image - Still just as awesome as always! This title, with great writing by Robert Kirkman, amazing art from the great Ryan Ottley, just keeps you guessing about what will happen, not letting you breath for a moment and keeps the action and fun to a maximum. This should be the new standard for superhero comics.
Runner up: Fables, Vertigo, DC; The Unwritten, Vertigo, DC; Thunderbolts, Marvel.

Best New TV Show:
Sherlock - Just awesome, great writing and acting, it is sad that it was only 3 episodes, but more are coming... soon....
Runner up: The Walking Dead

Best ongoing show:
The Venture Bros. - It just keeps getting better and better... One of the funniest, smartest shows, everybody should watch it!
Runner ups: South Park, Futurama, True Blood, Burn Notic

Shows that lost me this year:
Glee, Boardwalk Empire, Caprica, 24

My favorite albums of the year:
4. The Family Jewels, Marina and the Diamonds
3. Drink the Sea, The Glitch Mob
2. The Budos Band III, The Budos Band
1. Interpol - Interpol

The year in review - movies

Movies:

I tend to list my top favorite movies of the year not under the category of "best movie" because, hell some of them are not great movies at all... I don't care, I go to see movies for the fun of it, and if a movie managed to get me to have fun , that's exactly what I wanted, If I saw it more than once, and if I actually own it... that makes for a great fun flick.
Alas, this year it was harder than I thought, I have a bunch of movies that were fun and I enjoyed every minute of them, and then, there was a movie that was fun and good, better than the rest but not as fun as them all, I have seen it only once, and I do not own it yet (but I will) and yet I feel it deserves to get the best flick of the year, but I'll get to it...

Here are some other movie related bests and worsts of...

Best fight - Donnie Yen vs. Sammu Hung. The masters' challenge - Ip Man 2 - This fight was not only long, but also had the guys do some stuff I have never seen before. It is changes styles on the fly and the choreography by Sammu Hung is amazing. I have seen that fight over 5 times already.... kicks my ass every time.
Runner ups: France WWI battle - Legend of the fist. Shootout in the dark - Kick Ass.

Best Soundtrack - Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - With original music by Beck, Metric and more, how can you go wrong?
Runner up: Kick-Ass

Best Score - Daft Punk Tron: Legacy - The best combination of orchestra and electronic music. Fits the movie 100% and is just good old fashion big score, makes you feel like you're in the grid every time you listen to it.
Runner up: Clint Mansel - Black Swan, Hans Zimmer - Inception

Best Character: - Justin Hammer, Sam Rockwell - Iron Man 2 - he was just awesome every second he was on screen, just perfect
Runner ups: Marvin Boggs, John Malkovich -RED, Kieran, Jemaine Clement - Dinner for Schmucks, Murdock, Sharlto Copley - the A-Team

Hottest MILF: Mary-Louise Parker -RED
Best Duo: Will Farrell and Mark Whalberg - The Other Guys

Worst of everything:
Most disappointing: Predators and The Expendables - such good premise on both of them, with great casts and options for just about everything they could think of, and yet both movies were predictable, The Expendables was also lacking in the excitement department and the acting was just god awefull...
Most over hyped: Black Swan - again, predictable, predictable, predictable.... And the "Shocking" sex scene... come on!
"Why am I still watching these movies" movie: Harry Potter - yes, it finally had a plot and felt like a movie, but a boring and lacking one!
Worst movie, runner ups: Jonah Hex, Skyline, Legion, Macgruber
Worst of the worst: Piranha - I will say this first, I'm not into campy stuff, I think you don't have to make a bad movie if you don't have a lot of money. I don't think tongue in cheek means it has to have bad acting and a bad story doesn't mean you can't have fun. Well this movie had all of the above, bad acting, bad directing, horrible SFX, terribly stupid story, and over all just didn't merit being made at all.... ugggh....

So now the ones I Enjoyed:
Second Five: Tangled, The Other guys, Inception, Red, Get him to the Greek
Top Five:
5. Tron: Legacy - just what the doctor needed, but only if you saw and LIKED the first one. Better in almost every aspect (all but the breakthrough idea), amazingly beautiful, well acted, great CG, awesome music and a great new take on sci- fi action flicks.
4. Kick-Ass - Better than the comic hands down. Great casting, pacing, directing and action, was funny, exciting and just a kick to the balls!
3. Scott Pilgrim vs The World - yet another great adaptation of a comic book, best editing I have seen this year, amazing cast, dialogues and acting, awesome soundtrack... just so much fun!
2. Iron Man 2 - A perfect continuation to the first one. With bigger action, funner characters, more set pieces and just over all more. Without the need to introduce origins and too much background IM2 just kept adding to what was already there, and Justin Hammer was awesome!
1. The A-Team. Yes I know.... but this is the movie I had the most fun with. I saw it three times in one week. The cast just nails the parts, the action is great, the pacing is perfect and it's just the fun, light-hearted action that made the original show what it was, and somehow they managed to make it ever funner!

Yet still one movie was above the rest in being, fun, serious, amazing, touching and basically everything in one... TOY STORY 3. The best movie of the year, that I have seen.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

At the zoo

Went to the zoo, drew some animals... Hippos are so cool, and elephants are awesome!





Ho-ho-ho!

from another life drawing session, Xmas style!






it's magic!

From the new life drawing sessions