many of you might have noticed I haven’t updated for the last few days.  I had a ton of family here and with the holiday, I just didn’t have time.  Well I realize I made you all wait a LONG time for an update, since I have guilt over that, I have decided it is time to give you what I call the “Gratuitous Post”.  Most of you follow the blog for the hot guys, I know that, so here you are.  Our first gratuitous post guy is Derrick Davenport.  Derrick has been a regular with Mega Muscle since Mega Muscle photographer Steve Henry discovered him in late 2004.  Shortly after he joined us he had his first Playgirl cover which was followed up in 2006 with being Playgirl’s Man of the Year.  You can currently see more sexy shots and REALLY sexy video of Derrick on the Mega Muscle Member Site.

ENJOY!

Derrick Davenport, photo by Henning von Berg for MegaMuscle.com

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Derrick Davenport, photo by Henning von Berg for MegaMuscle.com

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry for MegaMuscle.com

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Charles Lindbergh compì il 20 maggio 1927 la prima traversata in aereo in solitario dell’Oceano Atlantico senza scalo. Partì alle 7.52 dal Roosevelt Field, vicino a New York, ed arrivò alle 22.00, dopo 33 ore e 39 minuti di volo, nel Champs de Le Bourget vicino a Parigi. Il suo aereo, lo Spirit of Saint Louis, era un monoplano leggero.

Quel magico volo, agli albori dell’aviazione, lo consegnò direttamente alla leggenda.

Il presidente Calvin Coolidge gli concede la Distinguished Flying Cross e lo nomina colonnello della riserva dell’aviazione degli Stati Uniti. Il governo francese per questo gli concesse la Legion d’Onore. Lo stesso anno viene eletto dal Time «Man of the Year».

Ivano Fossati ha composto una canzone per ricordare l’impresa, la potete ascoltare a questo indirizzo -> http://songza.com/~y12813

In 1969, Willy Brandt became chancellor as West Germany veered to the left with the Social Democrats. His main interest was foreign policy–Ostpolitik–which led to the rapproachment with the East; however, he was less successful in dealing with domestic matters. At the end of 1970 he signed a treaty with Poland that recognized Poland’s rights to the German territories Poland had annexed after the war. Brandt also visited Moscow that year to sign a treaty with the Soviet Union in which Germany agreed to respect the frontiers and territories of all states in Europe. By this act Germany renounced all claims to Polish and Czechoslovakian territory and recognized the boundary between West and East Germany. However, Brandt refused to recognize fully the claim of East Germany to be a sovereign, independent state, as this would put the stamp of approval on the partition of Germany. Both Germanys, however, joined the United Nations separately in 1973.

The gesture of humility was not favorably viewed by Germans but was welcomed by the West. Willy Brandt, on holiday in Kenya, finds himself named Time’s Man of the Year (1971). Later, he would win the Nobel Peace Prize. Eventually, Brandt’s Ostpolitik would help his reelection. 

BOOOOOOOOOO!

Just to warn you, I am angry, and this review contains spoilers. I don’t even care, I hate this movie.

I am seriously reconsidering revoking Nicolas Cage’s 2008 Man of the Year status. I know, however, that I couldn’t ever erase his past glory, but he is tarnishing his good name with the release of this utter piece of new-age born again nonsense that is Knowing.

The story deals with some end-times bullshit, and there are aliens which are really angels, and at one point a moose is on fire in some child’s hallucinatory vision. There are numbers that equate every major disaster, and somehow, Nicolas Cage walks through the flaming wreckage of an airline crash and survives, oh and he also is a passenger on the most deadly subway crash in history, which practically kills everyone in NYC, and he survives that too. The ending scene is such a low blow, with a family of “believers” affirming that even though they were “left behind,” they haven’t reached the end. And then some boy and girl are running through some Garden of Eden paradise, with, get this, a tree of life. It was all so subtle, I almost didn’t even get it.

With visuals straight out of Latter Day Saint’s Advocate, Knowing acts like a pompous prick who just told you how things are gonna be, and then stares at you all smugly like he just kicked you in the balls with the force of his information, but little does he know, he is totally wrong on all counts. This movie is a compassionateless piece of propaghandic tomfoolery,  whose morality is completely nonsensical.

I was and am so angry about this movie, it took me two weeks just to write this review. As a matter of fact and principle, I am seriously considering never, ever seeing another Nicolas Cage movie again for the rest of my life.

Seriously, Cage, I expected this from Kirk Cameron, but not from you, man. Not from you.

Starring: Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, Jeff Goldblum

Director: Barry Levinson

Genre: Drama

Cert: 12

Released: 2006

Sometimes things just don’t work.  Here in Ireland, for example, we bought and abandoned millions of Euros worth of electronic voting machines because they were found to be unreliable and could be interfered with so as to affect the outcome of an election.  And while that is fact, Barry Levinson (director of “Good Morning, Vietnam”, “Rain Man” and “Wag the Dog”) brings us “Man of the Year” – the story of a comedian wrongly elected President of the United States.

Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) is the Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert of this fictional tale.  Dobbs hosts a TV show where he pokes fun at the politicians he feels are letting down America.  An off-hand remark from an audience member prompts him to run for President as an independent candidate.  While seeming short on policies other than challenging the lobby group funding and affiliations of Democrats and Republicans, he charms America with his humour and calls for change (probably written before Obama trademarked the concept).  Incredibly, he wins the election.  

But, unknown to him, a computer glitch within a new electronic voting machine system by a company called Delacroy, has wrongly elected him.  Days prior to the election, computer programmer Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) accidentally discovers the problem and reports it to her boss James Hemmings (Rick Roberts).  Hemmings ignores the warning as he knows it is too late to make modifications without seriously damaging the company’s credibility.  He brings in Stewart (Jeff Goldblum) to help silence Eleanor but she is already worming her way in to the affections of President-Elect Dobbs.  Can she get the truth to Dobbs before Delacroy get to her? 

Maybe it’s the eternal question of whether or not someone finds Robin Williams funny.  I don’t.  And he’s not helped here by a very uneven script where his frequent digs at politicians range from mildly amusing to amateur.  He does fire the occasional solid one-liner (“I had sex with a prostitute when I was 21, I was so bad, she gave me a refund”) and makes well-delivered observations during a political debate where his retort to his opponent declaring his support for hydrogen cars is “that’s weird, because you’re backed by oil companies.” 

But this is basic stuff and as you watch this very average comedian become President of the United States you are hoping there is something a little meatier to get your teeth in to.  Unfortunately that won’t be found in the parallel plot line involving Eleanor and the computer bug that has devastated democracy.  I don’t think a film like this needs to be overbearing in its technical jargon but the specific glitch she discovers is eye-rolling in its simplicity.   

Christopher Walken goes through the motions as Dobbs’ agent and Jeff Goldblum (who doesn’t seem to age) is so much better than this minor role as a sort of corporate “fixer”.  

There’s little here to raise the pulse and if I were you I’d rent “Bulworth” instead.  As I said, sometimes things just don’t work.

Last night at trivia, we blew it.  We blew it big time.  Out of a possible 73 points, we had 65 – and that’s a rarity (high 50’s are usual).  We could have actually scored higher if I would have went with my gut instincts of Applebee’s (“Where did Plaxico Burress say he shot himself?”) and goat (“From what animal does cashmere wool come from?”), as opposed to Denny’s and sheep.

But the last question… it’s all political correctness’ fault.

Prior to President Barack Obama, who was the last African-American to be recognized as Time Magazine’s Man Person of the Year?

Person of the Year? As opposed to alien?

We put: Nelson Mandela. 

We even thoughtIdi Amin.

We didn’t think of this guy, because we didn’t go back in time that far:

But in reality, African-American has become so synonymous with Black in this country, we didn’t even consider the American part.

Oh well.  We didn’t win even though we were in first place before the final question (you wager your points à la Final Jeopardy).  But I did steal a cool NFL glass from the bar.  It had all the team logos covering it.  Suckas!*

*KARMA SIDENOTE: When I was dropped off at home, I realized my wallet was missing.  I figured I had left it at the bar.  Since I planned on taking the glass pretty early in my drinking, I focused mostly on that task, and found it fitting I abandoned my Billabong billfold at the scene of the crime.  Turns out I dropped it in my friend’s car.  But for a second, I learned my lesson.

After two weeks ago was awarded by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Legion of Honor medal, Clint Eastwood was named “Man of 2009″ by U.S. GQ magazine.

Director and actor, aged 79, managed to beat celebrities like President Barack Obama or fashion designer Tom Ford, and at the GQ party, he was literally “hunted” by journalists.

Clint Eastwood was named Icon of the Year and will appear on the first page of a special edition in December.

Among other men of the year are actor from Star Trek, Chris Pine, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis from The Hangover, but also American football player Tom Brady.

Not bad for an octogenarian…

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Every once in a long while, an amazing model and an amazing photographer connect and what you get is pure MAGIC!

Such is the case with Mega Muscle model Derrick Davenport and Mega Muscle photographer, Steve Henry.  As much as I would love to take the credit, the model you all know and love as Derrick Davenport was Steve’s discovery. The two worked together months before either was working with me here at Mega Muscle when Steve discovered Derrick right out of the Marines.  Steve and I knew each other after I he had photographed some amazing shots of bodybuilder/model Dave Nathan.  Steve called me up and was just going on and on about how he had met the most amazing model and that I needed to sign him as soon as I could.

I saw the images and was amazed.  I had actually just been contacted by another photographer who had seen Derrick and was wondering if I knew how to contact him.

Well, we signed Derrick, a few months later he was in Playgirl and the following year he was Playgirl’s man of the year.  As much as I love many of the images I have seen of Derrick, the many, many shots I have seen of Steve’s just take my breath away.  It is for this reason that we are in development of the “Derrick Davenport” photo book — all featuring Steve’s images.

More images (and some video!) of Derrick, by Steve Henry and by other photographers, can now be seen in the Mega Muscle Members Site.    You can also see more of Steve’s work at his official web site http://stevehenryphotographer.com and more of what he calls “big dick shots” on the all new AllDude.com.

Here is a peak at some of the images being reviewed for the upcoming book!

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry for MegaMuscle.com

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry for MegaMuscle.com

The American author and chef, best known for his book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly and the TV show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, is my pick for man of the year. We are all looking for role models subconsciously, and this guy is the coolest one out there. Ladies and gentlemen, Anthony Bourdain. Man of the year.

The reason Anthony Bourdain has been chosen man of the year is because he’s cool, and I couldn’t come up with anyone cooler. I imagine women going nuts over him. He’s got the chiseled looks and he definitely knows his way around the kitchen. As a straight man in this homophobic world, you’re always walking on thin ice when talking about another man’s looks. Alls I’m saying is that the man looks like a tough mother fucker, and I want to look like him when I’m 53. The book from 2000, is a racy memoir of the culinary world, and of Bourdain’s professional life as well. Bourdain has been known for being an unrepentant drinker and smoker, a man’s man. He wrote about his experience in a trendy SoHo restaurant in 1981: “We were high all the time, sneaking off to the walk-in [refrigerator] at every opportunity to ‘conceptualize.’ Hardly a decision was made without drugs. Cannabis, methaqualone, cocaine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms soaked in honey and used to sweeten tea, secobarbital, tuinal, amphetamine, codeine and, increasingly, heroin, which we’d send a Spanish-speaking busboy over to Alphabet City to get.” He lives his life traveling around the world, experiencing cultures and filming it for television. He has also written books like: A Cook’s Tour (2001) and The Nasty Bits (2006). TV shows include: A Cook’s Tour, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and various other shows, like Miami Ink, where Chris Garver tattooed a skull on his shoulder.

In July 2006, while filming an episode of No Reservations in Beirut, the Israel-Lebanon conflict broke out. After the airport had been bombed, Bourdain and his crew were stuck with no way out. They had only filmed one restaurant when the fighting began, but the episode was nevertheless shot. Instead of tasting local dishes, the show included footage of their encounters with Hezbollah supporters, waiting for news in a Beirut hotel, and their escape aided by a man whom Bourdain dubbed “Mr. Wolf”, after the character in Pulp Fiction. The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2007.

Anthony Bourdain has received numerous awards, such as: Food Writer of the Year in 2001, Food Book of the Year in 2002, Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Programming in 2007, Webby Award for best Blog – Culture / Personal in 2008 and In 2009, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming.

Bibliography:

Non-fiction
(2000). Kitchen Confidential
(2001). A Cook’s Tour
(2001). Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical
(2004). Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook
(2006). The Nasty Bits
(2007). No Reservations

Fiction
(1995). Bone in the Throat
(1997). Gone Bamboo
(2001). Bobby Gold

Obama eindigde 2008 met de benoeming tot “Man of the Year” in Time magazine en deed de wereld uitkijken naar een jaar van verandering. In 2009 zou de wereld Amerika opnieuw zien als een tot samenwerking bereide natie die de diplomatie hoogtij laat vieren. Maar in hoeverre is de jonge Amerikaanse president hier in het begin van zijn woelige ambtstermijn in geslaagd? Terwijl de goedkeuring van zijn beleid in het Amerikaans binnenland zienderogen daalt, lijkt internationaal de zwaarste economische crisis in 80 jaar grotendeels bezworen, mede dankzij het baanbrekende economische beleid van de nieuwe president. Ook het charme-offensief dat samen met Secretary of State Hilary Clinton werd opgezet ging niet onopgemerkt voorbij.

Rusland en China

Gezien het toenemend belang van Azië in een wereld na de crisis en de gedeelde economische afhankelijkheid van China en de V.S., zijn goede wederzijdse contacten onontbeerlijk. De Obama administratie zendt echter tegenstrijdige signalen uit: enerzijds wenst ze een constructieve dialoog op te zetten en stelt ze een onderhoud met de Dalai Lama uit om de onderlinge vrede te bewaren, anderzijds tracht de Amerikaanse senaat de economische reus steviger aan te pakken en werd reeds eind januari 2009 gedreigd met diplomatieke sancties. Terwijl vriend en vijand met argusogen toekijken, zoekt Amerika haar plaats in een vernieuwde wereldorde.

Aangezien Amerika vaak moet opboksen tegen een diplomatieke alliantie tussen China en Rusland, zijn ook de contacten met de voormalige vijand uit de Koude Oorlog van primordiaal belang. In een snel veranderende wereld probeert Rusland als grootmacht te herrijzen, terwijl Obama een sterk partnership wil vormen met de heren van Moskou en daarom ook het raketschild in Oost-Europa voor onbepaalde duur in de ijskast plaatste. In het thuisland wordt gevreesd dat Obama, zoals Roosevelt met Stalin na W.O.II, de tweespan Medjedev-Poetin onderschat.

Kostbare evenwichten

Een goede relatie met deze twee BRIC-landen is onlosmakelijk verbonden met het Midden-Oosten, waar Obama zich verwikkeld ziet in twee netelige oorlogen, een zware erfenis van de Bush administratie. In Washington beseft men dat een goede relatie met de buurlanden van cruciaal belang is wanneer men Afghanistan stabiliteit wil brengen. Zoals aangekondigd tijdens Obama’s verkiezingscampagne, zal deze oorlog er één van lange adem worden. Van de beloofde steun voor economische ontwikkeling in arme Afrikaanse en Aziatische landen is echter nog weinig te merken.

Ook aan de oorlog in Irak lijkt niet onmiddellijk een einde te komen. Ondanks zijn verkiezingsbeloftes, staat Obama niet langer achter een snelle terugtrekking. Hij verkiest het land geleidelijk te verlaten, wederom bouwend op regelmatig diplomatiek overleg met de buurlanden. Daarnaast lijkt ook de, in de eerste dagen van zijn ambtstermijn beloofde, sluiting van Guantanamo in het gedrang te komen. Ondanks zijn idealisme en goede bedoelingen, zorgt Obama’s wispelturigheid ervoor dat hij zowel aan linker- als aan rechterzijde de steun in eigen land verliest. Het Amerikaanse volk wil “Realpolitik” en de vergelijking met president Carter klinkt steeds luider. Zeven jaar na de Amerikaanse oud-president won ook Barack Obama de nobelprijs voor de vrede.

Barack Obama wint de Nobelprijs voor de Vrede 2009

Ook in het Israëlisch-Palestijns conflict zijn akkoorden en vrede nog veraf. Obama lijdt zowel onder interne als externe omstandigheden: thuis dient hij de beloftes aan de joodse lobby uit zijn verkiezingscampagne recht aan te doen, maar ondertussen grepen extremisten aan beide kanten van het conflict de macht. Ergo lijken opgestarte onderhandelingen en diplomatie meer kwaad dan goed te doen.

De uitzichtloosheid van dit conflict heeft de hele regio van het Midden-Oosten in een houdgreep. Zoals beloofd in 2008, biedt Obama Ahmadinejad, de immer onvoorspelbare president van Iran vandaag een partnerschap aan. De Amerikaanse president kent het aandeel dat dit land houdt in de stabiliteit van de regio, maar controversiële uitspraken van de Iraanse president op internationale conferenties en openlijke experimenten met nucleaire energie doen steeds meer stof opwaaien, wat ook Obama in een lastig parket brengt.

Obama, die via internationale samenwerking tot een algeheel kernwapenverbod wenst te komen, beseft dat de nucleaire ambities van Iran en Noord-Korea de nationale veiligheid bedreigen. Hoewel hij in de zomer van 2009 in een interview met Gorbatsjov een groeiende bewegin in de richting van een kernwapenvrije wereld beklemtoonde, zit de situatie vandaag muurvast. Ook hier hoopt Obama met economische steun en constructieve diplomatie het isolement te verbreken. Vraag blijft echter of zijn woorden zwaar genoeg wegen.

Ondertussen in Brussel…

Air Force One

Ondertussen wordt vanop het Oude Continent sceptisch toegekeken hoe het zwaartepunt van de Amerikaanse diplomatie verder naar het Oosten verschuift. In Parijs, Londen en Berlijn doven de lichten, terwijl Air Force One van Moskou naar Peking reist. Het pad van de diplomatie is lang, smal en vol gevaren. Ondertussen pakken donkere wolken echter samen boven het Witte Huis: Obama kiest er voor de Gordiaanse Knopen te ontwarren in plaats van door te hakken, maar zijn tijd tikt.

Naar: “Barack Obama vs. John McCain, “Barack Obama en het Buitenland” en “Het buitenlands beleid van Barack Obama”, Faucompret, 2008-2009

Movie Trailers are something I’ve had to learn to take with a grain of salt over the years. In learning that the director’s don’t generally make the trailers, I’ve learned they don’t always portray the movie in the way it’s supposed to be taken. And the fact that much of trailer’s footage is taken from deleted scenes makes me lenient to expect everything from a trailer to appear in the film itself. But there have been a slew of trailers that are just incredibly misleading, to the point where they make you think you’re seeing a completely different movie than you signed up for. In fact, a popular thing to do on youtube is to create ‘recut’ trailers for classic films making them seem like something else entirely, such as The Shining made to look like a comedy or Mary Poppins made to look like a horror film.

Here I’ve made a small selection of the ones I can remember being the worst offenders, whether they are misleading on purpose or just shitty marketing strategies.

10. The Road (2009)

This is a preemptive strike, as this film isn’t actually out yet. But as a fan of the book, I can tell you that this trailer is incredibly misleading (unless they stray from the book A LOT). The trailer makes this story out to be an action film rather than the slow, relationship driven story of a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world. It also has several shots of news reports, and the wife/mother of the story who, in the book, died long before the story takes place (I’ve heard those scenes are ‘flashback’ scenes but the trailer makes it seem like they are happening simultaneously with the father/son stuff). In addition there is a focus on explosions, gunfights and a Wilhelm scream so I wouldn’t be surprised if people go to see this movie in droves expecting another shoot em up and end up hating it. Which sucks because I think it will be a wonderful film.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbLgszfXTAY

9. Black Christmas (2006)

This is a more notorious example of a misleading trailer, something actually pretty common with trailers in general. It seems that the majority of what is shown in the trailer is actually not in the film at all. This happens all the time, in comedies especially, and usually it’s because the trailers are cut before the final version of the film is done (so footage for the trailer could still be cut before the release date). This trailer however is almost ENTIRELY absent from the film itself. So while the tone of the trailer is right, the footage is not, and it left a lot of people disappointed that some of the ‘cool’ shots were not in the movie.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l2qxzJWKXs

8. Primeval (2007)

The trailer is pretty terrifying. It talks about one of the world’s most prolific serial killers, who has claimed over 300 victims, and is still at large. It was also ‘inspired by a true story’ which, while usually bullshit or stretching the truth A LOT, is kind of cool. Then of course it says that the killer is ‘not human.’ Woah. Shit. This sounds creepy. Some supernatural killer who still exists and has killed 300 people? Why isn’t this something I’ve heard of before?

Oh yeah, cause it’s a crocodile.

Yep, the ‘non-human serial killer’ is actually a regular old crocodile. Not as scary anymore huh? I guess that’s probably why they left that little tidbit out of the trailer. People went to this movie expecting Texas Chainsaw Massacre and instead got Lake Placid. It’s kind of a shame.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RARfk8cXPeg

7. Red Eye (2005)

This trailer actually starts out purposely misleading you. It shows Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy meeting each other, with a lighthearted music undertone, and it seems like it’s going to be a romantic comedy of sorts. Then it changes it’s mood and you find out it’s actually a suspense/horror film by Wes Craven! Which is all fine and good, except for some reason they digitally altered a shot of Cillian Murphy so that his eye glowed red (like the title! get it?). This does not happen at any point in the movie, and there are no supernatural aspects to this film at all. Cillian Murphy is a human being and it’s more of a suspense film than anything (and not a bad one, actually). But the combination of the glowing red eye immediately before Wes Craven’s name pops up (who is known for horror films, specifcally Nightmare on Elm Street) makes you think this is some supernatural thriller, and Cillian Murphy is a demon or something.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAFDHyH8buQ

6. Snow Dogs (2002)

Here we have a very clear example of trying to draw in audiences with a misleading trailer, in this case children. Snow Dogs is about a Dentist (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who learns that he is adopted and goes to Alaska to find out about his real parents (and inherits a pack of sled dogs). The story is essentially about Cuba Gooding Jr. learning about his roots and his parents – but good luck finding that in the trailer. They name all of the sled dogs in the trailer, making you think the story focuses on them, and digitally makes them wink and raise their eyebrows throughout. Then at the end of the trailer it shows them all sipping drinks in beach chairs and talking – something that is actually a dream sequence in the movie itself. Most kids who saw the trailer assumed it was a ‘Look Who’s Talking This Time! It’s Huskies’ movie which, being Disney, wouldn’t have been surprising. How disappointed they must have been when there was NOT a jive talking dog, a sexy lady dog, and a heroic male lead dog they could buy toys of afterward.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6bEmVJefc

5. Gremlins (1984)

The studio doesn’t seem to agree with Steven Spielberg’s career choices. He started out doing suspense/horror films like Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so when he made E.T. the trailer almost made it look like another scary alien movie. When that did well, and he produced this Joe Dante helmed film, they again messed up the trailer. They make it seem like another E.T. about a boy and his cute little pet Gremlin. In reality, this is a (admittedly very campy) horror movie with evil Gremlins that actually scared me as a kid, and if I had seen this trailer back then I would not have expected to be scared. Unfortunately, yet another marketing strategy is to play up to people’s love of previous films, as you’ll see in the next example.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h24CFZqSEAA

4. The Village (2004)

M. Night Shayamalan is very hit or miss with me. But I do appreciate that he’s actually made a pretty varied assortment of films, even if the trailers would say otherwise. After making it big with The Sixth Sense, and then Signs, his name became synonymous with ’scary’ and ‘twist ending.’ So just announcing that this is his film in the trailer automatically makes people think it’s going to be scary (when I saw Lady in the Water’s original teaser, there was a collective gasp in the audience when it showed his name). But this movie, which does have some suspenseful moments (he’s actually pretty good at suspense, at least until the Crap-fest The Happening) is primarily a love story – something the trailer gives very little indication to. There are actually several ‘twists’ in the story but they are revealed a lot less Sixth Sense/Signs-esque ‘Here is the twist now here are some clips from the movie that supports that twist’ and more methodical and paced throughout. I actually think the biggest reason people disliked the film was because of the misleading marketing campaign, which is too bad.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB55bv4B8LQ

3. Kangaroo Jack (2003)

Like Snow Dogs before it, this trailer uses a very small part of the movie itself and plays it up heavily in the marketing and trailer in order to attract a younger audience. In addition to making the Kangaroo the title character, they include a dream sequence where the Kangaroo speaks and raps in a thick australian accent to make it seem like this is the main focus of the movie. In reality, the movie is a buddy comedy filled with sex jokes and things unsuitable for children, which makes it a much worse offender than Snow Dogs, in my opinion. Jerry Bruckheimer should be ashamed of himself.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuhkz4iluSc

2. Man of the Year (2006)

Robin Williams movies seem to love misleading trailers. Bicentennial Man, Jack, The World According to Garp, even Patch Adams. All the trailers make it out to be a hilarious comedy filled laugh fest starring the zany Robin Williams, but turn out to be something completely different. In my opinion, this was the worse offender. It was about a comedian running for president and winning, and seemed like it could be funny. But it turns out it was a pretty slow moving drama about a corrupt voting system or something, and he wasn’t president for long and then the movie just fell on it’s head. It was pretty disappointing.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX4tvZnnmt8

1. Bridge To Terabithia (2007)

I absolutely loved this book when I read it in school. I remember hearing they were making a movie of it and got pretty excited to see it. Imagine my disappointment when I saw this trailer, which was filled with CGI creatures and fantasy elements that I did not remember from the book. As it turns out, the fantasty element is very minimal in the movie and the film is grounded in reality much more than the trailer lets on. Now the director said he undersood the marketing decision, as it was done deliberately to draw in an audience who had not read the book, but for me it was something that stopped me from seeing it. I feel that in trying to reach a wider audience they alienated the fans of the book, which I guess I can understand, but it’s still kind of a shitty thing to do.

Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SvqEIKP4t8

- Alan

WOW!  You have one day less in the work week and Hump Day really sneaks up on you!

Today’s Hump Day Hunk is Julian Fantechi!  A lot of you probably recognize him from being Playgirl’s Man of the Year in 2007 and his 4 other appearances in the magazine.  Julian wasn’t always so recognizable though.  Before he came to shoot with Mega Muscle, he had only worked with a handful of local photographers and never had a national appearance.  Recognizing the potential in him, I booked him as a model at the Mega Muscle Photography Workshop in Los Angeles and the rest is history!

Enjoy!

Julian Fantechi, photo by Aaron Cobbett

Julian Fantechi, photo courtesy of Playgirl

Julian Fantechi, photo courtesy of Men Magazine

Julian Fantechi, photo courtesy of Flesh 4 Men

Julian Fantechi, photo courtesy of Mandate

Julian Fantechi, photo by Serg Studios at the Mega Muscle Photo Workshop in Los Angeles

Julian Fantechi, photographed by Ryan Boyd at the Mega Muscle Photo Workshop in Los Angeles

Julian Fantechi, photo by Ryan Boyd at the Mega Muscle Photo Expo in Los Angeles

Julian Fantechi, photo courtesy of Playgirl

Alright, I admit it – I almost missed it.  I am in Palm Springs this week preparing for the Mega Muscle Photography Expo in October and I completely spaced on Hump Day until just now.  Luckily it’s still 7:00 pm on the West Coast and Hawaii and Alaska still have several hours of Hump Day left.

To mak up for the tardiness, I decided to share some HOT shots of sexy Derrick Davenport – ENJOY!

Derrick Davenport, photo by Ryan Boyd

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry for MegaMuscle.com

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry for MegaMuscle.com

Derrick Davenport, photo by Ryan Boyd

Derrick Davenport, photo by Ryan Boyd

Derrick Davenport, photo by Steve Henry for MegaMuscle.com

Derrick Davenport, photo by Ryan Boyd

Barak Hussein Obama entered the Office of President of the United States as the solution to all that ails the country. The new President was anointed the Messiah, the new MLK, JFK, Ronald Reagan, and Malcolm X, all rolled into one; quite a stature to live up to…

When my children were young they used to chant: The bigger you are the harder you fall! In simple English what they said was that the larger the expectations, the more severe the failure.

Expectations from President Obama are enormous. Some are due to promises he made, and some simply because of his political stature, and oratorical skills. Reasons notwithstanding, the level of performance expected from President Obama is unprecedented.

Even if the high bench-mark set for Obama is ignored, in his scant seven months in office the young President was able to set a number of records in incompetent governing, or even in the simple management of the Office.

The increase in United States national debt since Obama took office dwarfs the national debt by all forty some Presidents before him. Not only is the level of debt out of control, it is debt that the Unites States will not likely be able to pay withing Obama term(s) in office, and well beyond Obama into the future.

The uncontrollable debt is not only an economic issue, the debt has significant national security implications.

Before examining the debt further, let give credit were credit is due. George W. Bush, with the housing bubble, and two unfunded wars, and Bill Clinton with Enron, the e-commerce bubble, and the start of Madoff, handed President Obama a situation that is very difficult to manage, but not one that is unmanageable.

The fact that Obama was handed a bad hand does not excuse the President from doing the job for which he was elected.

In the area of national security, Obama has been failing by seeming not to understand the implications of out of control debt to foreign nations, of an ever shrinking manufacturing economy, and for the need of overwhelming force in Afghanistan. President Obama failures in this area are compounded by campaign promises that perhaps should not be kept (such as pulling US troops too completely, and soon, from Iraq.).

Adding to President Obama’s failures, may be a characteristic that has its roots in his Islamic birthrights. The President unrealistic and condescending overtures toward the Islamic world did not only make him appear as a toothless tiger, it created a nearly insurmountable chasm between the United States and its only dependable ally in the Middle east, Israel. Obama’s dealing with Iran (which ridicules him,) the Arab nations (that, at best humor him,) and Israel, is a case study on how diplomacy should not be conducted.

Obama’s dealing with the economy, national security, the Islamic world, and Israel, coupled with broken promises (such as those to gay in the military,) political expediency over personal commitments (i.e. Wright, Ayers,) and the sacrificing of allies to boost his image (such as Israel,) suggest that the President may be joining the list of worst Presidents of the United States.

Unless Barak Obama is able to fly to Jerusalem, identify a location of a United States Embassy to Israel in East Jerusalem (with PA/PLO blessings,) drives to Ramalah and get the PA to formally accept Israel’s right to exist (while George Mitchell, his emissary, does the same in Gaza with Hammas,) then on to Tiberius and walk across the lake water down the Jordan river south to the Sinai, where he gets new tablets from the Creator suggesting that there is only one Creator (even though man made references to three [Jehovah, God/Jesus, and Allah],) get all monotheists religions to accept the new tablets as a legitimate message from the Creator, and because of those accomplishments, also getting Iran to cooperate with the family of nations and stop its nuclear activity. While, at the same time, get the Muslim nations to collectively agree to sell all the oil the United States needs for an acceptable price so it (the US) can return to being a manufacturing economy; unless such miracles are performed, Barak Hussein Obama is likely to earn the position of Co-worst United States President (tied with George W. Bush, and Jimmy carter,) and in 2012 relinquish the job to the likes of Mit Romney, or another savvy Republican candidate. 

An blog with closer analyses of the economic, security, and general character issues will follow soon.

It should come as no surprise to you that I had several birthday parties when I was younger at the movies.  Here is what I remember about each of them.

Age 5 – 1997: The movie was “Rocket Man,” which I have seen snippets of since and I now realize is one of the dumbest movies ever made.  I don’t remember specifics about the party itself, but I do remember that we had it at the now defunct Meyerland Cinema in Houston.

Age 7 – 1999: The movie was “Toy Story 2,” which is still one of my all-time favorites.  We hosted it at the AMC Studio 30 theater, and I remember that we got to go upstairs, which is restricted to the general public, to the special party room.  The only other thing particularly memorable was that one of my friends had to leave in the first five minutes because he was terrified by Buzz Lightyear on his own planet (which turned out to be Rex playing a video game).  And he was one of the tough kids,

Age 8 – 2000: The movie was “The Grinch,” which disgraces the name of Dr. Seuss.  It was our first party at the new Edwards Greenway Palace 24 theater, and we organized the party through them.  It turned out to be a very bad decision.  They promised to reserve us a row, but they didn’t tell us it would be the FRONT ROW in front of a large rail.  And to make things worse, there was a screaming baby next to us.

Age 9 – 2001: The movie was “Monsters, Inc.,” another classic.  We did the party at Edwards Greenway Palace 24 again, but we didn’t organize it through them.  I remember having a fit because I wanted to have the party on the movie’s first day, but someone else sent out invites for a party that day before I did.

Age 13 – 2005: The movie was “Man of the Year,” a pretty bad one.  I was 13 and dying to go out and see a PG-13 movie despite the fact that anyone can get into one without being 13.  I had 4 friends to my house, and against my better judgement and their will, I made them leave fun in my backyard to go see an awful movie that only I had any desire to see.

I have been watching a lot of movies lately, and noticed that a lot of movies incorporate magazine covers into the storyline to make the fiction less fictitious. All major American publications’ frontpages are subjected to this ‘fair use’, but the magazine that is seemingly hijacked the most by the filmmakers is TIME magazine. With 3,400,000 per week within the U.S. only, it seems to be the media a lot of people can identify with.

According to the magazine itself, the first prominent mention of TIME in Hollywood was in 1932’s Murder on the High Seas, when the main characters read the magazine during a voyage to Europe. The first manipulated mock-up cover came in 1950’s A Woman of Distinction. In the movie, Rosalind Russell plays Susan Manning Middlecott, the dean of a small women’s college named Benton whose face graces the cover of TIME. Russell, a TIME magazine collector herself, had the make-believe-cover painting framed, and hung it in the lounge of the bathhouse beside her swimming pool in Beverly Hills. When friends would drop in and remark, “Oh. I didn’t know you were on TIME’s cover,” she would answer casually “Sure, look, there it is.” She was finally given her own cover in 1953.

In 1983 film The King of Comedy, Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) kidnaps a famous talk show host to have his “big break”. During his act, Rupert noted, “Better to be king for a night, than schmuck for a lifetime.” The line was immortalized in a news report of Rupert’s release from prison at the end of the movie, as well as on TIME’s cover:

The next year, in the film 2010, the magazine was seen again. The cover was about the U.S.-Soviet tensions, in which the U.S. President is represented by 2010’s author Arthur C. Clarke and the Soviet Premier by 2001: A Space Odyssey director Stanley Kubrick.

In 1992 movie Bob Roberts was set earlier before the Gulf War. It depicts a fictitious senatorial race between conservative folk singer (and anti-Bob Dylan), Bob Roberts (Tim Robbins) and the incumbent Democrat, Brickley Paiste (Gore Vidal). Roberts was shot by a would-be assassin and paralyzed from the waist down, but he eventually won. Although TIME had covered Huey Long and George Wallace quite extensively, never since the 80s did the magazine pay substantial attention to regional elections let alone put it on the cover.

Also in 1992, Kim Basinger plays TIME magazine reporter Vicki Vale, who has come to Gotham City to do a story on Batman in Tim Burton’s Batman. She covered ‘Corto Maltese’ Revolution, which in the Batman canon was an island at the centre of an incident not unlike the Cuban missile crisis. Her pictures on the cover and throughout the magazine show a desert war zone strewn with dead bodies. In the 80s and the 90s, TIME magazine indeed put international news story like crises in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Yugoslavia on the cover, but the magazine would never misspell their photographer’s name as they did below:

In 1996, Al Pacino made the cover as Mayor John Pappas, an idealist New York mayor who fought against big city neighborhoods, mafia and crime. Five years later the movie City Hall, Mayor Rudi Giuliani made the cover as Man of the Year.

Simone, short for SIMulation ONE, was the name of 2002 movie starring Rachel Roberts. A desperate director makes a computer-programmed actress and she became an instant superstar in a movie that makes the viewers think about our celebrity-obsessed world. In the movie, Simone won the Oscar for Best Actress and become TIME magazine Person of the Year. Ironically, no entertainer has ever been chosen for that honor (Bono won it for his humanitarian work) but ‘computer’ was once chosen as the Machine of the Year.

In 2001, Smallville, a TV show about young Superman premiered on the Warner Brothers. The first season contained two TIME covers, one honoring Dr. Virgil Swann as Man of the Year. Virgil Swann, a scientist who was able to translate the Kryptonian tongue, was played by Christopher Reeve himself. In the pilot episode, Superman’s eventual first girlfriend Lana Lang made the cover after her family was killed by the meteor shower that brought Superman to our planet. (In real-life, both Swann and Lang won’t make it to the cover, their fame being to localized and narrowly defined; however, Lang cradled by her (later) adopted aunt can made an iconic image).

The next year, 2002, came the movie Reign of Fire, probably one of the most ridiculous sci-fi/fantasy movies of our time. During London Underground construction, a huge, hibernating dragon is discovered. It springs to life and creates havoc all over the world. Time was there to cover it too:

In 2004, Pixar joined the TIME magazine bandwagon in The Incredibles. The cover logo was a tribute to the 40s and the 50s, but the magazine itself never used the following format, and the phrase ‘The Weekly Magazine’ was retired in the 50s. But, it is perhaps the first animated TIME magazine mock-up:

The magazine was used twice in 2006 movie, Man of the Year, where Robin William plays a comedian Tom Dobbs, who was erroneously elected the President of the United States. The movie title itself was based on the magazine’s tradition to name whoever won the presidential election as their Man of the Year. The Man of the Year cover is a little funny because the producers not only copied the magazine, but the pictures of Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson on the right were the drawings that appeared on TIME magazine’s covers previously.

Alan Moore himself have used TIME magazine as a prop in his 1984 graphic novel, Watchmen. The movie adaptation in 2008 used the magazine in what is perhaps the most authentic-looking mock-up I have ever seen (which is ironic because of the subject matter):

Kate O’Hare – The Oklahoman

On Tuesday, a popular cable network gets a new name and opens the door to a passel of mysterious artifacts and enigmatic relics.

With the two-hour premiere of “Warehouse 13,” SCI FI Channel becomes SYFY and shakes up its on-screen image, hoping to expand its audience even further beyond science-fiction fans.

“Warehouse 13” focuses on two Secret Service agents — Peter Lattimer and Myka Bering (Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly) — who save the life of the president and wind up transferred to a facility called Warehouse 13.

Located in South Dakota, the top-secret bunker houses a collection of bizarre objects, all under the care of Secret Service agent Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), who answers to Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder).

“Everybody is a closet conspiracist,” says Jack Kenny, who executive produces with David Simkins. “We all want to think, ‘Oooh, there is all this stuff going on that we don’t know about.’

“And there probably is a bunch of stuff we don’t know about and probably don’t want to know about. We like the idea that there’s a warehouse out there that houses everything the government doesn’t know what to do with but needs to safeguard and protect.”

He also emphasizes that we’re not talking about alien bodies from Roswell or anything of that sort.

“We don’t want to go into alien stuff because it stretches the point of believability,” Kenny says. “Every one of these artifacts, we want to be absolutely viable.”

“The artifacts come from history,” Simkins says. “They come from science. They come from strong-willed individuals (like) Lucrezia Borgia. All the artifacts are based in reality.

“You could go to Wikipedia or Google and look this stuff up.”

Luckily for science-fiction fans, while the artifacts may not be from outer space, a few guest stars have worked there.

Among them are Tricia Helfer and Michael Hogan from “Battlestar Galactica” and Joe Flanigan from “Stargate Atlantis.” Others include Ivan Sergei (“Charmed”) James Naughton (“Gossip Girl”) and Erica Cerra (“Eureka”).

The show also promises a sense of humor. For example, there’s the purple goo.

“We get purple goo squirted all over us,” McClintock says. “The purple goo is a big story point. When we put an artifact into the purple neutralizer, it takes all its power away and makes it easier to transport.” 

The Special Effects Crew

Michael Innanen (Max Payne, The Incredible Hulk, Jumper) is the special effects supervisor

Laird McMurray (The Incredible Hulk, Dawn of the Dead, Cinderella Man) is the special effects coordinator

Shane Million (Assault on Precinct 13, Dawn of the Dead, Man of the Year) is the key special effects artist

Marcus Rait (X-Men, 16 Blocks, Chicago) is the special effects foreman

Robin Williams spelar komikern och programledaren Tom Doobs i den här politiska satiren. Efter att ha häcklat politiker under lång tid, ramlar han handlöst in i en presidentkampanj som han sedan kommer att vinna – mycket tack vare humorn. Frågan är om han är redo för vad ämbetet kräver…

Tyvärr är den här filmen lite för seg och utdragen för sitt eget bästa men den glimmar stundtals till. Williams, som jag i vanliga fall upplever lite grann som ett kräkmedel, passar bra i huvudrollen och lyckas leverera en hel del smarta och vassa skämt. Filmens kritik mot det amerikanska politiska systemet, med lobbyister och kapitalet som styr, gillar jag förvisso och många bra skådisar i biroller (Christopher Walken, Laura Linney och Jeff Goldblum) förhöjer upplevelsen. Kan dock inte komma ifrån att det blir lite tråkigt.

Betyg: 2