Tim Burton's alive bride

No, the above is not the title of a shiteous remake to the classic Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. Instead, it refers to the best wedding cake I have ever seen. Ever.

Check it out below.

I got this picture off Facebook from a friend of mine who went to Nikki and Steve's wedding on the weekend. Now I don't know Nikki and Steve, but my conclusion is they must be pretty awesome people to have a Tim Burton's Corpse Bride themed wedding cake. It is so cool!

From the crooked cake-tiers and colours to the Victor Van Dort and Corpse Bride figures on top - the detail is incredible.

I used to write the wedding column for a local newspaper and out of the hundreds of wedding cakes I have seen, this has to be the most original (and delicious).

Kudos to them!

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All men aren’t created evil

Well, well, well. Just when I was about to give up on animated movies, someone pulled the switch and threw this gem in the mix! Alright, you know that’s an outright lie. The truth is I doubt I will ever be able to give up on animated movies as long as people keep making little beauties like Igor. Unfortunately this film hasn’t been promoted well and, given it’s dark nature, is screening in limited release despite appealing to kiddies and adults alike. John Cusack voices the main character of Igor in this animated fable about a cliché hunchbacked evil scientist's assistant who aspires to become a scientist himself, much to the displeasure of the rest of the evil science community. Molly Shannon, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Coolidge, Jay Leno, Eddie Izzard and Christian Slater also lend their voices to make up the rest of the characters. Written by Chris McKenna, one of the writers of American Dad, Igor is hilarious, witty and dark in a way similar to Tim Burton classics such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. The animation isn’t as beautiful as a Tim Burton film but it’s still great to look at. I’d go as far to say this is too dark for kiddies and most of the jokes will go straight over their head. It’s brilliant none the less and by the end of it I was left wondering how I could have so many favourite parts. Steve Buscemi is perfect as Scamper, a suicidal bunny invented by Igor and his attempts to kill himself (despite being indestructible) are a hilarious running joke throughout the film. He also has the best lines along with fellow side kick Brain.
There are so many genre jokes and inside puns on the monster film you’re barely given a second to recover before you’re hit with the next line. Politically incorrect in too many ways to count but cinematically correct in sheer entertainment value. This is an intelligent animated film somewhere between the sheer brilliance of Wall E and side splitting humour of Madagacar 2: Escape to Africa. I would go as far to say this is the best animated film I’ve seen since The Incredibles. A lot of the credit has to go to director Anthony Leondis who started out as a writer and animator with Disney and has now moved on to directing as well. He also voices a minor character in the film. In conclusion, how can you NOT love a movie that closes with 20 blind orphans singing the Johnny Nash classic “I can see clearly now” on stage? Answer: you can’t. Igor is at selected cinemas now but be quick before they chuck it on DVD, given the dark quirky nature of this film I doubt that will take long. SEE THIS!
Watch Igor trailer here.

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Hungry for Hunger?

There’s been a lot of hype in the critical circles that count surrounding Steve McQueen’s latest venture Hunger. Heard of it? You probably have considering its had the best reviews of any film all year, excluding The Dark Knight and There Will Be Blood. Hunger is about the experiences of prisoners and prison guards during the 1981/82 hunger strikes in Belfast, Ireland. This film is raw, real and quite unsettling. I was surprised at how much main stream appeal this picture has had considering how avant-garde it is. The shots are long and linger on seemingly insignificant aspects of every day in a bid to underline how depressing the situation is for everyone involved. McQueen uses everything in his arsenal as a director and weaves a delicate web incorporating every aspect of life for the prisoners and the motivations behind their actions. Be warned: this film is not for the light hearted. For majority of the film there’s no dialogue besides a sentence here and there and maybe the odd scream. The living conditions the prisoners had to endure were disgusting and McQueen doesn’t skimp on the details. In the last third of the film you watch a man starve to death step by agonizing step. Personally I was disappointed. Hunger isn’t supposed to be entertainment, it’s supposed to be a message film and deliver the audience with McQueen’s message on the situation in Ireland in the 80s. But I think there’s dozens of message films out there who deliver their specific political message in a more effective manner. I mean, did we really have sit through a five minute scene where we watch a prison guard sweep piss and bleach down a hallway? All the way down the hallway? Don’t mistake me, I think Hunger is a powerful film and has a valid message. I just don’t think it’s as good as everyone has made it out to be. I felt like McQueen was trying to manipulate the audience with some of the camera angles used and overall Hunger is a very one sided affair. Hunger has flaws. You should still go and see it though for no other reason than to catch what I thought was the pinnacle of the film: a 21 minute dialogue exchange between a prisoner and priest. The scene is a straight shot with no cut aways and the audience is drawn in to a heated discussion between the prisoner and priest as one tries to justify his intentions of going on a hunger strike and the other begs him to have some regard for life. Undoubtedly this is one of the most powerful scenes in any film all year and the dialogue is incredible. However, one scene (no matter how long) doesn’t make a good film and Hunger falls well below the bar.

On a completely irrelevant note I saw Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa and it was a joyful, hilarious, adventure! It’s not as good as other animated releases from this year like Wall E and it may not trump my all time favourites (The Incredibles, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride) but it was seriously funny. There are more than enough jokes to please the kiddies and parentals but it’s the characters who steal the show. The penguins and king Julius are amusing to no end. If you’re looking for something light and not about people starving themselves to death then this is a worthy alternative.

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