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It’s December 1st. Time for the best of 2009 lists to start rolling in. We are going to start with the 10 most popular movie soundtracks of 2009 based on the number of people who’ve read each post on Reelsoundtrack since the start of the year (in parenthesis).

It’s a good list dominated by comedies.  I guess we were all in the mood for good tunes and lighthearted fun this year. In fact Transformers 2 and Seven Pounds were the only non-comedies in the top 10.

1. The Hangover – 21 lucky songs packed into the funniest movie of the year. Kanye, T.I., Flo Rida, The Donnas and Mickey Avalon are the perfect soundtrack for a raucus vegas vacation. (245,000)
2. The Ugly Truth – Radio friendly romance rock from Katy Perry, Nikka Costa, Natasha Bedingfield and the like. (201,000)
3. Seven Pounds – It’s a New Dawn, It’s a New Day with Nick Drake, Ruth Brown, Muse and the haunting sounds of Bird York in a perfect song, perfect scene. (170,000)
4. Paul Blart - Classic rock and 80s hair bands rule the roost with Survivor, KISS, Bon Jovie and Eddie Money. Just remember, lemonade makes every karaoke experience better. (169,000)
5. Transformers 2 – Rock and kitsch from Linkin Park, Green Day, Nickelback and Hank Williams headline the 14 songs for the second installment. (135,000)
6. Yes Man - Just say yes to the 48 songs from Yes Man, including 13 from the Eels, plus Bloc Party and The Bravery. And yes, the ring tone is Journey. (98,000)
7. Bruno – Only Bruno could mix Snoop and Soft Cell with AC/DC and the Village People. Alle 17 songs sind sehr gut. Ja woll.
   (89,000)
8. Bride Wars – Don’t fight it. You will love all 21 songs from Bride Wars, including The Submarines, Rick James, Technotronic, Eve and Natalie Cole (87,000)
9. Step Brothers – Kicking off with Vampire Weekend and rocking through GNR, Q-Tip and Dilated Peoples, with a bit of Billy Joel to boot. Drum solos please. (74,000)
10. The Proposal – I expected Michael Buble and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but not Rob Base, Lil John, MC Hammer or Living Colour. The music was as surprising as the movie itself. (51,000)

SORRY, BUT THIS IS TOTALLY CRAZY….

YOU CAN TRANSFORM THE ICE CREAM TRUCK INTO A TOY…

Convoy Dodge SRT10 mode features an opening hood as well as opening doors and tailgate. Convoy engine transforms into a gun. The BT-22 Convoy: Dodge mold represents one of the bulkier of the Binaltech robots.

Convoy commanded a defense force on Cybertron as the Autobots Earth counterparts were infected with Cosmic Rust. The beleaguered Convoy was unable to send reinforcements to Earth, although a number of infected Autobots were restored by the newly implemented Binaltech process.

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We all knew this was going to happen eventually but we are a bit surprised by that kind of speed. Only 5 months after the 720p videos started rolling on YouTube, here comes the 1080p support.

Obviously the rapid growth of Full HD devices available has sped up the upgrade process. So, starting next week, if you have a fast enough computer and a large enough monitor you can switch to 1080p for the best video streaming experience available online.

And if you happen to have already uploaded 1080p videos, those will be re-encoded automatically and become available in their native resolution.

To get a better feel for the advantage that Full HD gives you can check out some trailers:
Up, Transformers 2, Dark Knight, Ninja Assassin, 2012.

[GSMArena]

This is a high quality Japanese edition with Diecast parts and rubber tires! Transforms from 1:18 scale Corvette with opening doors to super articulated Decepticon robot and back! Awesome “Beast Wars” style ravage head!

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This is a high quality Japanese edition with diecast parts and rubber tires! This is the “yellow” edition which closely resembles Track’s Diaclone likeness! Transforms from 1:18 scale Corvette with opening doors to super articulated Autobot and back!

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We have just confirmed that Takara will construct these using die-cast metal parts! The BT-19 Bluestreak: Subaru Impreza WRX: Die-Cast is a blue and white revamp of the Silverstreak mold. Visually pleasing and extensively articulated, Bluestreak’s Subaru Impreza WRX mode features functioning steering and rubber tires, as well as opening doors, hood and trunk.

Bluestreak’s intercooler transforms into his beam rifle. Suffering from Cosmic Rust, Bluestreak was one of the earliest recipients of Binaltech technology; Bluestreak and a number of his fellow Autobots, led by Ultra Magnus, assisted the Earth Defense Command against the Decepticons.

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2012 Release Poster

Director:  Roland Emmerich

Producers:  Roland Emmerich
Mark Gordon
Harald Kloser
Larry J. Franco
Ute Emmerich

Cast:

CGI as Awesomeness (in the lead role)

Supporting Cast

John Cusack as Jackson Curtis

Amanda Peet as Kate Curtis

Thandie Newton as Laura Wilson

Zlatko Buric as Yuri Karpov

Oliver Platt as Carl Anheuser

Jimi Mistry as Dr. Satnam Tsurutani

My past reviews have been pretty long and boring, so I’ll cut this one short.

Review: Is there anyone in this world, who has not escaped the clutches of Roland Emmerich? Ever heard of Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 BC? Definitely. So here comes another one, 2012, which is also based on Roland’s favourite theme: destruction. Now there are several apocalypse theories ranging from a huge asteroid hitting the ocean to Jeremy laughing on Candace, but Roland chooses the Mayan prophecy of solar fires which happens once every 600,000 years.  Incidentally, that is also the time Kolkata Night Riders will take to win the Indian Premier League. Once.

John Cusack plays Jackson Curtis, who is a failed novel writer and a divorcee as well. He now works as a limo driver to earn money, and that must be the reason Kate Curtis left him in the first place. Now Jackson meets a maniac in Yellowstone, who tells him why the world is ending, and also that the US Government has arranged ships (or arks) for their survival in the ocean, via a splendid amateur Flash animation. But what is not clear is, that why the government is keeping all this secret.

And Indian (Jimi Hendrix) informs a White House executive about the end of the world, by calling him to boiling Calcutta. It is also that same Indian who saves the world in the end, telling the same White House executive that a huge tsunami was coming over.

Towards the end you’ll realise that the Earth’s geography has changed dramatically. The African continent is now extremely fertile, and the south pole is stuck in the middle of the United States.

Like all of his previous movies (such as Independence Day, which is widely regarded as the worst movies ever to become a hit),  2012 is a big pile of noise and action, with absolutely no proper story or screenplay. It’s a ridiculous film. A pathetic one. A failure. And nothing extraordinary at all. The acting is poor, which is probably because there is no scope of acting here. The dialogue is ridiculous, and so are the facts. Dr. Satnam speaks in the way Americans would speak Hindi, not the way a native Calcutta guy would. In fact, he should not even speak Hindi, but Bengali, as he’s living in Calcutta! Another one: In a particular scene, Jackson’s plane takes off with family and Russian boss Yuri with a huge ash cloud behind them. So much ash in the air would definitely cause an airplane’s engines to go kaput. However, special effects are flawless, nothing like you’ve ever seen before. But Roland, you must realise (along with Michael Bay), that gone are the days when the audience could be won only on special effects! We need a solid plot, screenplay and acting to go with it, something which District 9 achieved successfully.

You must have realised by now, that 2012 is a bad film. It has been panned by critics all over the globe. But you know what? Once you finish watching the movie you actually feel its good, completely knowing the fact that you really shouldn’t have liked it. Is the dialogue silly? Yes. But does it make you laugh? Oh yes. Is it stupid? Of course. But do you really care? NO!

There are memorable moments in the movie, especially the one in which Jackson is driving the limo with his family at a high-speed, when the road is cracking beneath the car. Buildings are falling down, and the limo jumps right through them. Oh, how can you forget the scene were Gordon takes off in a plane, when the runway is crumbling behind? And that scene, where Yuri and the others are sitting in a sports car (was it a Porsche?), and after Jackson’s failed efforts to start it, he says

Eeengine. Staaart.

at which it promptly revs up.

When it ends (rather too stereotypically, with the hero getting lost and resurfacing when presumed dead), you feel happy. It’s global cooperation that saved the day. Which will save the day any day, even today.

2012 is a flawed, worthless and too long at two hours and forty minutes, it is an becomes edge-of-the-seat thriller with some brilliant moments, which makes it one of the must-see movies of the year.

Detailed Ratings (out of 10)

Rating: 6/10 (Good)

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been reading lots of books (magic & non-magic) and watched lots of DVDs. Inspiration and creative stimuli is essential in a period where I’m planning, designing and developing projects.

I enjoy listening to audio commentaries of TV shows and movies as they give a lot of writing, producing and directing background insight. Many apparantly indiscrimminate things are actually written or designed with intention and purpose which gives depth and texture to the show.

Gosh, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve watched 30 Rock Season 3, The Mentalist Season 1, How I Met Your Mother Season 4 (I love this show), Transformers 2, Twlight and a whole bunch of magic DVDs.

Some time I also watched a movie called “The Great Buck Howard” starring John Malkovich and Colin Hanks. It is a story about a stage mentalist past his prime. Great for magic geeks!

I designed a new version of a classic illusion invented by Chuck Jones, called the “Mis-made Girl”. I’ve redesigned the look of the illusion and part of the method to create a fresh twist to it called “Multi-Divide”. I’m not sure if we will build this for ourselves but it will definitely be included in my next book (whenever that will come out).

I’ve also developed a brand new “Multiplying Bottles” routine that is a radical departure from the standard routines. It is completely different from the routine we currently do and performed in “Ultimate Magic” for 13 months.

The plot and premise is completely different from anything done before and is a breakthrough in presentation plot and part method. It requires a custom table which has already been fabricated. You can see this routine at “Sexy Magic/ Urban Illusions” in Jan 2010. I will be releasing an ebook on this routine and my previous routine as well as other ideas. The main motivation to release the ebook so soon is really to protect the ownership of this presentational plot.

Look out for it!

Durante la giornata di ieri sono stati rilasciati nuovi capi d’abbigliamento per gli avatar sul Marketplace a tema con il gioco di Transformers 2. I nuovi capi d’abbigliamento inseriti sono magliette ma sopratutto caschi di 3 tipi di robot molto belli. I costi sono sempre di 240Mp per i caschi e da 80 in poi per le magliette.

Visita lo store

From the Transformers Binaltech Series only released in Japan comes Argent. Fully detailed and primarily diecast. Brand new and comes sealed in full color packaging.

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Bloggade aldrig igår eftersom jag hade allt för mycket att göra. Bakade en tårta till Mor och Plastpappa som fyller år samma dag, 83 år sammanlagt. Detta tog mig ungefär fem timmar och var det jobbigaste jag någonsin gjort i matväg. Inget gick fel dock, vilket var jävligt skönt. Receptet hittar du HÄR. Min tårta är som vanligt när jag lagar mat/bakar inte ens i närheten av det färdiga resultatet. Mitt i allt kommer en leverantör till dörren med mina skor och lite andra grejer jag beställt från Asos.com. Och kvällen avrundades med Transformers 2 på BlueRay via projektor hemma hos Anders.

Japanese Transformer Alternator BT-12 Overdrive Red Honda S 2000

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Customer Review

Just like Beast Machines!
If you liked Jetstorm from Beast Machines, you’ll love Skywarp. This is the same as the Jetstorm toy released during the Beast Machines days (except with different colors). Jetstorm is one of the best Transformers I’ve ever owned, so Skywarp should be just as cool.

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I made a mistake this week. Against all of the advice of my friends and respected critics worldwide I watched Transformers. That wasn’t the mistake I’m referring to though. It was thinking that surely the second film couldn’t be as terrible as the first.

How wrong I was. Over the course of two evenings I have lost forever nearly five hours of my life.

The warnings were all there. A film that begins with the words ‘A Michael Bay’ film and follows quickly on their heels with in conjunction with ‘Hasbro’ could never be a worthwhile use of time.

In both films every scene begins five seconds after it should and ends five second too early in order to move along (for hours!) at a frantic pace, pummeling the viewer continuously with closely framed images that never dwell for too long for fear you may see how ridiculous those images really are. They jump from scene to scene without bothering to inform the viewer where they might be dragged along to next and not pausing for even a moment to allow them to try and adjust to the shift.

It’s as if whole pages of script and dialogue were tossed aside in the edit suite because they were deemed to slow down the pace.

Which is a shame because it is only when the characters actually open their mouths to speak that the film(s) deliver anything close to entertainment (and I’m being incredibly kind by saying that). Sam’s relationship with his parents for example occasionally points towards an attempt on the writers part to inject humour and pathos into the mix and highlights the writing talent that is sadly not on display elsewhere in the films(s).

If I could be bothered I could quite happily detail all of the plot machinations and exposition but only because it is so simplistic and childish as to be almost totally transparent. NOT because that information shone through as a result of Mr Bay’s heavy-handed intelligent film making.

I imagine that Michael Bay was one of those children who played with his toys making up stories and adventures for them that he acted out in his bedroom or in the garden. Hell we all did. Thankfully not all of us were inspired to craft a career from the experience.

Who isn’t looking forward to turkey this Thanksgiving?  We all are, especially the Tryptophan induced coma that comes from eating too much of it.  Here at The Devil’s Advocates Movie Reviews, we don’t always have a choice when turkey might be forced upon us. In fact, we’ve consumed our collective weight in turkey at the theaters this year.  So, we decided to bring you The Worst of ‘09, with a Thanksgiving theme.   3 Turkeys (bad films), 2 Jive Turkeys (bad performances), and 1 Turkey Stuffed With Gym Socks (the worst of the worst).  See what we thought, and chime in with your own list.    

Rene Alvarado

Turkeys:

1. Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen
2. Paranormal Activity
3. 2012

Jive Turkeys:

1. Michael Cera in Year One.
2. Flavor Flav Robot Impersonators in Transformers 2:  Revenge of The Fallen.

Turkey Stuffed With Gym Socks:

1. 2012

Veer Naveen Toor

Turkeys:

1. Saw VI
2. GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra
3. Gamer

Jive Turkeys:

1.  Megan Fox in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
2.  Gerard Butler in Gamer

Turkey Stuffed With Gym Socks:

1. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

 Spencer Diedrick

 Turkeys:

1. My Life in Ruins
2. The Unborn
3. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Jive Turkeys:

1. Channing Tatum in G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra
2. Kate Hudson in Bride Wars

Turkey Stuffed With Gym Socks:

1. My Life in Ruins

Dave Bartik

Turkeys:

1. Where the Wild Things Are
2. Monsters vs. Aliens
3. Taken

Jive Turkeys:

1. Kristen Stewart, Adventureland
2. Eric Bana, Funny People

Turkey Stuffed With Gym Socks:

1. Funny People

Joe Wilhelm

Turkeys:

1. The Box
2. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
3. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

Jive Turkeys:

1. Cameron Diaz, The Box
2. Chris Klein, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

Turkey Stuffed With Gym Socks:

1. The Box

Patrick Newson

Turkeys:

1. Gi Joe:  Rise of Cobra
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
3. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

Jive Turkeys:

1. Channing Tatum, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
2. Chris Klein, Street Fighter:  The Legend of Chun-Li

Turkey Stuffed With Gym Socks:

1. X-men Origins: Wolverine

Mike Pampinella

Turkeys:

1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
2. G-Force
3. All About Steve

Jive Turkeys:

1. Megan Fox, Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen
2. Ali Larter, Obsessed

Turkey Stuffed With Gym Socks:

1. 2012

Tread Bolt is a ghost. Though he is an aerial ace, his real talent lies in stealth. Special sensor refractive armor renders him invisible to all but the most sophisticated detection technology. Silent, super-precise lasers let him take out enemy spotters before they can shout a warning.

More than a few Decepticons have been blown to pieced before they even heard him coming. He has alienated a lot of his fellow Autobots, because when he’s not sneaking up on Decepticons, he creeps around scaring the heck out of anyone he can find.

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