James Horner 1953 - 2015

James Horner [61], one of the most prolific film score composers of the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s tragically lost his life yesterday in an aircraft accident.

He was best known as the composer for two of the world's highest grossing films, Titanic and Avatar - both of which earned him Oscar nods, a win in the case of Titanic as well as it's song “My Heart Will Go On”. He would receive another 7 Oscar and three BAFTA nominations as well as winning two Golden Globes, three Saturn Awards and three Satellite Awards throughout his career.

Horner had little issue composing scores for impressive works in the field of motion pictures such as Glory and Braveheart, family favourites like Jumanji and Casper, period epics like Troy and Legends of the Fall, balls-out action movies like Commando and Red Heat, for animated movies including The Land Before Time and An American Tail, comedy such as Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Hocus Pocus, thrillers including Ransom and Patriot Games and even for comic-book heroes The Rocketeer and The Amazing Spider-Man. With over 100 scores under his belt he was one of few composers who catered for everybody and any type of movie.

In an interview in 2010, Horner said that scoring Avatar was the toughest assignment he had taken on and he needed time to get it out of his system, so he had done little of note since but he was collaborating with James Cameron in providing music for the director's Avatar sequels over the course of the next few years.

Horner was one of the first composers whose work I listened to daily. His compositions along with those of John Williams, Danny Elfman and the late Jerry Goldsmith were the four cornerstones of my musical tastes for many years. Among my favourites from Horner are Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [‘82], Aliens [‘86], Willow [‘87], The Rocketeer [‘91], Braveheart [‘94], Apollo 13 [‘94], The Mask of Zorro [‘98] and Enemy at the Gates [‘00].

Horner was often mocked for lifting sequences and musical motifs - as well as almost entire segments from one of his own scores and adapting them to fit the musical scores of other movies he was assigned to. Throughout the years his audience became more accepting of this quirk and when recognised upon listening it can only bring a smile to the face of his true fans.

Many of Horner's detractors were critical of his use of the works of classical music composers such as Orff, Elgar and Wagner and labelled his works as derivative - but if anything he spotlighted the works of the classical greats he admired and cherished the works of, and helped them to be discovered by successive generations. I have no doubt that in the future, composers of scores will even use Horner's own cues in the same way he did, and make it part of their work as a homage and  as they take us on a new musical journey of their making.

Thank you James Horner for over 100 gifts to us over the years and may you rest in peace.

Fred's Dropped Dead! - RIP Rik Mayall 1958-2014

One may think that that first bit is somewhat callous for an obituary, but if you understood - or even believed you understood the comedic genius that was Rik Mayall then you'd agree that he'd find it quite hilarious, at home both as droll satire and schoolboy toilet-humour.

Mayall performed on stage in the early 1980's with long time comedy partner Adrian Edmondson whom he met at Manchester University. He co-wrote the TV cult-classic The Young Ones in which he starred as obnoxious, poetry-writing anarchist Rick alongside Edmondson before they both went on to star in their sitcom Bottom which also achieved cult status. Crass schoolboy humour, explosions, pyromaniacs and severe blows to the skull with frying-pans were the recipe for the majority of Mayall and Edmondson's slapstick comedy and they became famous because of it.

Mayall made some sporadic appearances elsewhere on television at the time. He is widely known as Lord Flashheart from Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder series shouting catchphrases such as "woof!" and "let's do-oo-oo it!". In contrast to his obnoxious and anarchic characters his last great TV character was Alan B'Stard a conservative backbencher MP for Haltemprice in The New Statesman, which ran on ITV for four series.

Mayall appeared in several movies including cult-classic Woops Apocalypse [1986] and in the final film in the Carry On series, Carry On Columbus [1992]. My post title is a pun on Drop Dead Fred [1991] arguably Mayall's most famous film role where he played the title character, an imaginary friend to Phoebe Cates. It was literally one of the worst British movies ever made probably because it was marketed as a children's movie but contained repressively dark black-comedy, profanity and themes of serious mental illness.

Mayall suffered a serious quad bike accident in 1998 and doctors had kept him on a life-support machine for five days. He began to show signs of life just before they were about to turn it off. He said the near-death experience changed his life and "the main difference between now and before my accident is I'm just very glad to be alive."

Mayall died at his home in Barnes, London on Monday from what is understood to have been a coronary event. He was 56. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Below is Mayall as Lord Flashheart in BBC's Blackadder Goes Fourth with Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, Tony Robinson and Adrian Edmonson as Baron von Richthofen.

Adrian Edmondson paid tribute to his friend, saying: "There were times when Rik and I were writing together when we almost died laughing... They were some of the most carefree stupid days I ever had, and I feel privileged to have shared them with him. "And now he's died for real. Without me. Selfish bastard."

Happy 238th Birthday USMC

"America keeps an insurance poilicy... it's called The United States Marine Corps"

Source: USMC/Youtube

Crowe captures UFO picture!

UNETIDA and UNPASID have to deal with approximately 25,000 hoaxes for every valid piece of intel they receive. Anything from a weather balloon to a Halloween costume in the wrong light can send a normally perfectly rational human into a state of blind panic screaming 'Aliens' or 'Zombies' depending on the stimuli.

Thankfully unless a jaded reporter gets hold of the reported sighting and thinks there could be a story in it most of these cases are never even heard of. Occasionally however one hits the media and we need to create a counter-intelligence operation in order to convince people that there's nothing to fear and there's a perfectly rational explanation for what they saw.

Rarer still is the situation where UNETIDA/UNPASID don't even need to comment, let alone investigate a claim despite it gathering international media attention just like this one that an obviously deranged Russell Crowe attempted last week.

Apparently Crowe posted this video on Youtube claiming it to be a UFO:

He tweeted: "UFO? Time Lapse Photos Outside RC's Woolloomooloo Office (THESE ARE REAL!)"

"A friend and i set camera to capture fruit bats rising from Botanic Gardens,this was a big surprise"

"Canon 5D, No Flash, can't be a lens flare because it moves , camera is fixed"

Naturally, celebrity gossip sites and film buffs jumped on it. However it later came to light that the photos are taken using a telephoto lens centered on trees in a park separated by a body of water in the harbour through which yachts pass regularly and the red 'streak' is simply the safety light on a mast or other rigging as it would appear if the shutter on the camera was open for longer than normal.

It's clear from the opinions of the Internet that not a single person believes poor old Russell. General consensus is while the photos were taken 4 years ago, this "evidence" of UFO activity over Sydney is only coming to light now because the Aussie star's latest movie Broken City is a pile of shit and tanking badly.

Source: The Telegraph / Russel Crowe / Yahoo

Checking out the new digs

Video of a Bear playing the piano

Composer Bear McCreary, a student of Elmer Bernstein, composed the music for every episode of Battlestar Galactica after it went to series in 2004 until its finale in 2009.

McCreary has just published a piano book of some of his work on the show which includes "Prelude to War" from Season 2, my favourite track of his. He even made a video of it for his blog and it's well worth a listen [even if you don't watch] especially if you're familiar with the fully orchestral version of the piece.

If you're not impressed - take the time to realise he's not reading the sheet music!

Jack Bauer Interrogates Santa

Brian Cowan hits the big time on Jay Leno

Lets make a deal Jay, people here don't call the US leader an inept coon so you don't call the Irish one a drunken moron. Clear? Unfunny big-jawed talentless treacherous little rat!

For Star Wars fans who remember Magnum P.I.

Trailer - The Pacific

It's going to be extreamly dfficult for Steven Speilberg and Tom Hanks to produce something better than Band Of Brothers - easily the best miniseries of the decade. In 2010 we will see how they've directed their attention to World War Two's Pacific campaign in a new epic ten-hour miniseries which tracks the intertwined odysseys of three U.S. Marines, Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), Eugene Sledge (Joe Mazzello) and John Basilone (Jon Seda) across the vast canvas of the Pacific. The extraordinary experiences of these men and their fellow Marines take them from the first clash with the Japanese in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal, through the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester, across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu, up the black sand terraces of Iwo Jima, through the killing fields of Okinawa, to the triumphant, yet uneasy, return home after V-J Day. Produced by HBO Films in association with Playtone and DreamWorks Television, and scheduled to debut on HBO in early 2010.

Source: HBO

R.I.P. Karl Malden 1912 - 2009

Oscar winner Karl Malden has died at his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, three years shy of his 100th birthday. He was awarded the Best Supporting Actor in the 1951 Academy Awards for A Streetcar Named Desire and was later nominated for On The Waterfront in 1954.

During his early years, his theatrical career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served as a noncommissioned officer in the 8th Air Force. While in the service, he was given a small role in the U.S. Army Air Forces play and film Winged Victory. After the war ended in 1945, he resumed his acting career, quickly becoming an in-demand film star.

Malden also played the famous Army General Omar Bradley in Patton [Pictured] and was the spokesman for American Express during whose advertisments he coined the catchphrase "don't leave home without it!" However it is his protrayal of Lt. Mike Stone on the classic cop show The Streets Of San Francisco that he will undoubatedly be most remembered.

His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame can be found at 6231 Hollywood Boulevard.

V trailer

ABC's V remake may actually be good, according to some reports I've read from people who were test-audiences of the pilot. Like this one I saw on AICN:

"the CGI, at times, looks cheesy, but for the most part, this is a very expensive looking pilot with some beautiful shots of the interior of the motherships. It looks like a cross between a big budget Hollywood blockbuster and a high-concept TV show; the limited budget is obvious, but far better than anything else on TV. ... It does what pilots are supposed to do: provide a good core of lead characters, establish the storyline, and leave the viewer wanting more."

Source: AICN

Another missed opportunity...

While perusing through a favourite site of mine: Rebelscum.com looking at all the cool Star Wars toys that were released while I was in Afghanistan; I came across among other things, a Yavin hangar technician that bears an incredibly disturbingly accurate likeness of Neil - a bloke I know in Dublin and a new Lars Homestead playset.

I gleefully thought for a moment that the latter would be the oft-wished set for the collectors market - ie. the Lars Homestead that's a smouldering ruin after the Stormtroopers are done with their interrogation of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru! Alas it's just a depiction of a scene that was never on screen where a Sandtrooper arrives to begin questioning.

See how Owen is raising his hand to the Imperial? This is blatant disrespect! I always knew the Lars' got what they deserved! Actually, come to think of it - this scene is more in keeping more with the events in Kevin Rubio's hilarious Cops parody in the Star Wars universe - Troops! I'll see if it's on Youtube.

***UPDATE***
It is! Enjoy....

Sources: Douglas Kastle, mcmorran.org, Rebelscum.com

Something to uh... rattle your saber :)

Joaquin Phoenix is off the deep end

Joaquin Phoenix is apparently quitting acting and becoming a Hip-Hop artist [I don't make up these posts]. I have a youtube clip of an interview he did last Wednesday on The Late Show with David Letterman. It's very painful interview to watch. It's hilarious but tinged with sadness.

SUPERBOWL TRAILERS

I love the Superbowl. I may never have watched a football game in my life, but I still love the Superbowl. Why? Because the networks pull out all the stops and put their best shows and especially we see new TV-Spots for upcoming movies like these:

Star Trek


G.I.Joe: The Rise Of Cobra


Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen


Fast & Furious


Land Of The Lost

Sometimes these trailers are removed, do a search on YouTube to find mirrors.

Ricardo Montalban 1920 - 2009

The death took place in Los Angeles during the week of one of the greatest Latino actors of all time, Ricardo Montalban. He was 88 and died of natural causes. Montalban's greatest fame came from his hundreds of Television appearances and starring roles such as the enigmatic Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island. Soap watchers will most remember him as Zach Powers on The Colbys, the Dynasty spin-off. He will also be remembered for his 1970's advertisements for Chrysler in which he coined the phrase "Corinthian Leather."

Montalban's early work made use of his Latin charisma as the romantic lead in many films and musicals but one his first roles in the US was in the brutal war movie Battleground. He also starred in the cultural taboo drama Sayonara, two of the Plant Of The Apes sequels and the first Naked Gun movie among many others. His greatest movie role however is undoubtedly as Captain Kirk's ultimate true nemesis - the superhuman Kahn Noonian Singh in the 1982 Star Trek movie The Wrath Of Kahn in which he reprised a role from the original Star Trek series in 1967.

Montalban made few live action appearances after the turn of the century instead lending his unmistakable voice to the animated movie The Ant Bully as well as episodes of Dora The Explorer, Kim Possible and Family Guy. This was due not to his age but to his disability.

Little known was that Montalban suffered from a rare spinal disorder since birth that only began manifesting itself after he fall from a horse during a movie shoot in the 1940's. This left him in great pain all this life but he never showed it. Director Robert Rodriguez expressed concern that he had begged his idol - to appear in his Spy Kids sequels when he saw how much pain he was in on set. But when he yelled "Action", Montalban would show no signs of pain. He said later "I cannot think two things at once." Montalban was recognised with the first Easter Seals lifetime achievement award.

It's true to say he was one of the first Hispanic leading men to break into Hollywood, and throughout his career he was an advocate for creating opportunities in America for Latinos in the entertainment industry. In 1970, he even founded a non-profit organisation, The Nosotros Foundation, dedicated to improving the Latino image. Stars such as Antonio Banderas and Edward James Olmos credit him with paving the way for their own careers.

Rest In Peace.

The three links take you to Youtube to view three 7-minute parts of the show awarding Montalban with the first Easter Seals Lifetime Achievement Award: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3.

Montalban's famous Chrysler commercial from 1975


Parody of the Chrysler commercial using The Wrath Of Kahn

Dumbass Iraqi Journalist Flings Shoes At Bush

The training that I personally gave President George W. Bush to dodge missiles such as knives or eggs etc. paid off today when some dumbass Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at him during a press conference. The conference, part of the outgoing president's secret tour of Iraq was being held with with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to mark the signing of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement.

Bush had been finishing his remarks in which he said the security agreement was made possible by the U.S. surge of troops earlier this year, when the journalist, one Muthathar al Zaidi pulled off his shoes and hurled them at the president shouting "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog"*. Bush dodged the shoes and was not struck, mostly because of the comprehensive training I gave him in 2005 after watching the Ben Stiller movie Dodgeball, where I emulated the training given by Patches O'Houlihan, a character in the movie. Bodyguards quickly wrestled Zaidi to the floor and hauled him, kicking and screaming, from the room.

I must say that I'm extremely disappointed that the man didn't receive two 9mm's into his skull and instead was merely "subdued" before being carted off - but perhaps he will have an accident in custody. If this is the gratitude that people show for being liberated from tyranny - Obama may have the right idea to begin getting out of there and letting God sort 'em out. Anyway, while I can take credit for his Jedi-like reflexes, I can't take credit for Bush's razor sharp wit - "All I can report," he joked of the incident, "is a size 10."

*Different news sites are all reporting variations of what the moron was shouting as he threw the shoes

Source: Youtube,FoxNews, MSNBC, AP

Dear Mr. Obama

This has become the most watched Youtube video of the US Presidential Election '08. Listen and understand, but wait until the end...

New Trailer for Max Payne