My favourite show of 2015 was Justified. As a amatuer writer I was unable to say what it was exactly about it that was so amazing, but I stumbled across this overview today and thought they hit the nail on the head:
Possibly the best "Cop" show in the last decade. It's actually dangerous watching this because it'll make you believe you'd look good in a stetson.
Olyphant and Walton Goggins are beyond amazing. Hell, the whole cast is. The show is effortlessly cool, badass, funny and just all round f***ing fantastic. It also has possibly the best ever series finale.
I'm a big cowboy fan. I love a good shootout (on TV) and the music and scenery tend to be pretty epic. Its why my favourite tv shows are Longmire and Justified, my favourite films Unforgiven and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
When I heard that they were going to remake a classic, I thought it would be a major fail. Like Ghostbusters, the reboot of which received the most dislikes on YouTube of any trailer. Ever.
It received 0ver 656,000 dislikes or thumbs down, in a few hours after release. They were ridiculed for racism, sexism, misogyny and generally being marketing fools.
And then I heard that his amazingness the Chris Pratt was going to be in it, and The Magnificent Seven looked truly Splendiferous:
Here are the original team for the Magnificent Seven:
Yul Brynner
Eli Wallach
Steve McQueen
Charles Bronson
Robert Vaughn
James Coburn
Brad Dexter
Here is a reminder of the original film:
Oh, and here is the trailer for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
The latest Star Wars film has come and gone. As far as I am concerned, it was just a poor revamp of previous episodes; someone lost in the desert, an orphan with no friends, an alien bar and a resulting fight, a death star. Nothing new there then, heck, the X-wings weren't even updated!
The three components of the opening sequence: the phrase "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....", the Star Wars logo and the opening crawl, from the beginning of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
But what if they changed the opening to be more like a Bond film? Would it lose it's cachet?
The video below is an awesome interpretation of what that may have looked like if they had done it for The Empire Strikes Back.
I was originally going to write solely about an amazing singer, Haley Reinhart, who has made many appearances on YouTube on a channel called Postmodern Jukebox.
She is pretty awesome, and with 10s of millions of views, I'm not the only to think so:
And then my favourite late night show host, James Corden had an EPIC Carpool Karaoke.
There has been a significant rise in anti-semitism in the UK recently, as well is in mainland Europe.
Finally one of the main political parties had to suspend a few of their Members of Parliament due to their anti-semitic positions.
I cannot understand this hatred of another religion for no obvious reason. As someone who is very pro-Israel, I cannot understand why it gets picked on so much in the UN and on campuses across the world.
Howard Jacobson explains why. A real eye-opener and fascinating to listen to.
You know what that means? Films and tv shows coming back. Oh yeah!
Unless you're on Netflix of course, in which case, just watch the whole season of whatever you want in one binge session. My recommendations for Netflix are: Sherlock, Longmire, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.
Films that I'm excited about are really just this one, because, hey, Bad guys v Bad Giys - does it get any better?
Here is the Game of Thrones latest trailer, just because I can!
When locked into my tiny cubicle at Work I tend to hide the aircon and peripheral noise with headphones. And what better way to listen to music and watch crazy vids than the Tube that is You?
My faves in 2015:
5. Crazy Plastic Ball PRANK!!
4. Lip Sync Battle with Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart and Jimmy Fallon.
3. Justin Bieber Carpool Karaoke - and why JB isn't as evil as we all like to say.
2. Dwayne Johnson's Shake It Off
Its another lip-sync, I know, but it's a chap called The Rock who is going to be singing a girlie-girlie-girl song.
1. The SuperBowl ads this year were rather boring, even for an advertising geek such as myself. Instead, as my pick for best video of the year, I pick a video that has made me smile, made me frown, made me think twice about life. You know, because that's what YouTube videos should be doing!
John Legend - All of Me
YouTube themselves have created a video which tries to capture the essence of the most popular 2015 YouTube clips
Personally, I think they fail. Don't get me wrong, I love Google. I live for Google! But this video just tries too hard. And thus fails. Its like they're saying all the punchlines to 101 jokes that we only know a few of.
And neither do you. He lives with a disease that affects everything he does, but his story and hopes for the future give us a new look at OneRepublic's hit 'I lived'.
'Don't give up' and 'live every day like its your last' are phrases we've all heard from teachers, gurus and parents.
'Hope when the water rises / You've built a wall' - strong words from a parent to a child, but even more resounding when they talk to a young man with Cystic Fibrosis.
OneRepublic's album of 2014 had a hit single with "I Lived". Their video for that song was rewritten to highlight the fight and struggle that Cystic Fibrosis sufferers go through.
The song, above, follows Bryan's life and the differences between it and a 'normal' childhood.
The message of both "I Lived" and Bryan's life can be summed up with his statement: "I want to make the most out of my life and have as most fun as I possibly can. My biggest fear is not being able to do that."
In the last few weeks there have been quite a few stories about social media in the news. I'm not even going to touch on the different police-based viral campaigns from the summer!
Yesterday was unofficially 'arrest a teen for carrying a clock day' in Texas, so they did just that. A kid called Ahmed said that he had made a clock at home and brought it to school to show his engineering teacher.
He said his engineering teacher had congratulated him but advised him "not to show any other teachers".
I guess he did.
Here is the clock:
Not much to it, and I guess I can see where the police were coming from. But taking him away in handcuffs? Really?
It wasn't only me who though that the local PD had gone a bit 'over the top' in their following of the law:
So James Cordon has been doing a marvellous job as the host of The Late, Late Show. I even mentioned the hesitancy I had about claiming he was the next best host in my blog post 'There's a New Kid In Town'.
Recently I have had a lot of time on my hands in the evenings. After crowdsourcing for data there were quite a few movies to watch.
The Hobbit trilogy was visually stunning, but plot-wise boring. Guardians of the Galaxy was fun, as was Spy. Glorious Basterds was odd, as was Edge of Tomorrow. Surprisingly for me, as they are such behemoths, were Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, specifically.
And now there is another in the pipeline:
With 5 million views in the last 2 days I think there might be a few others out there who are looking forward to it as well!
Being a child of the '70's I remember the original Man From UNCLE. It was a bit staid after watching my real uncle in 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold' but the truth is, that era really was very interesting, and chilling.
When there really was an obvious threat of nuclear attack the world's superpowers were definitely professional, determined and capable and that is what made UNCLE such a believable story. Today? I don't think the urgency or desperation can be understood as well.
Fast cars, loud guns and action sequences are always going to be hits at the box offices so I guess we'll hear good things about the film.
Personally? I like the chic aspect to the chaps from UNCLE - very James Bond...
Oh, and the original had Ducky from NCIS in it - always a crowd pleaser!