Two New Reviews: Iron Man and Underfist

Its been about a week since I saw both of these movies, but the powers of procrastination slowed it down considerably. That being said, lets start with Iron Man.

When I was ranting about the republican-ness of the titular character of Iron Man as displayed in its trailer several months ago, I reached the right (no pun intended) conclusion for the wrong reasons. While Iron Man is definitely a republican film, it does its best to seem as democratic as possible, including the section shown in the trailer. Tony Stark is essentially a republican hero, who's solution to everything is to blow it up real good and then pretend that he didn't blow it up (except for the agonizing "joke" taking place in the last few seconds of the film). Despite the fact that after presenting Stark as a right wing war fanatic the director has him go through an experience that supposedly makes him liberal, he merely makes a transformation from a bold faced military man to an apologetic and secretive vigilante. This changes him from extremely dislikable to mildly irritating in a slightly charming way. Now of course, that doesn't change the fact that there are in fact people in this world who agree with Tony Stark's politics, but the problem is that those people aren't the target audience. Iron Man has managed to infiltrate the other side's choir, seem like he's preaching to them, and in fact be preaching to the other side. So the film's flaw is not that it is essentially right wing, but the fact that it quite effectively pretends to be left wing. However, the other problem is that as a film, it is well paced and well made, and incredibly entertaining, with generally well constructed action and character development, and a plot that successfully manages to build tension. Technically its an incredibly well made film, with excellent pacing and special effects (although it lags a bit in the beginning and becomes a bit implausible at the end). The special effects, filmmaking and writing make Tony Stark far more likable than he should be, and I don't know if that's a good thing. Technically its a four star film, politically a two star film, so I give it 6/10

And now for something completely different.

The other film I watched last week was Underfist, an hour long cartoon spinoff of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Obviously, I'm not going to review it in the same way I did Iron Man, so I'm introducing a new rating scale. Generally I rate movies on a scale of one to ten, but my new Guilty Pleasures rating system only goes to five. I will use this scale to rate cartoons and other films that I seem to like for no particular reason other than it appeals to my personality. As such, these reviews will be much more biased.

To be honest, there is very little plot to Underfist. Its something to do with candy trying to take over the world, but that doesn't especially matter. What does matter is that there's a guy with a chain-saw for a leg and a hand that can be virtually any weapon, a talking, singing, spider, "The One Eyed Weirdo", a kid who somehow manages to be "half mummy, half vampire, half nerd" and Fred Fredburger, who likes to spell his name real good and say "YES". If that sounds good to you, than we're on the same page. If not, well, you're probably missing out on either some pretty big laughs or some pretty strong migraines. That being said, theres plenty of action and name spelling, and just enough plot to make it comprehensible (but I totally didn't understand it the first time watching it, but I think that had something to do with the fact that I taped it from TV and put said tape into my barely functional VCR). Underfist is perfectly suited to the Guilty Pleasure scale, because I love it, but I don't know if you will. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I give it 4.5/5

Viacom Sucks, This Video Rocks

This is incredibly wrong, and I'm sure glad I didn't waste my ticket money on Indiana Jones 4 and Kung-Fu Panda. Check out this video at its source and be sure to add your comment to the growing list on YouTube. As for this video, it's a well crafted argument, and I'll be curious as to what Viacom has to say for themselves. Until then, let the boycott begin.

Selling reality, and selling image: the Frito Lay campaign.

Frito Lay has a new ad campaign: "We grow the best snacks on earth." Some of the main points of this campaign are:
1. Frito Lay chips are made with potatoes and corn.
2. Corn and Potatoes are grown on farms

NO DUH

Oh thank goodness that the chips I eat are grown on a FARM! AMAZING! ITS LIKE I'M GOING BACK TO NATURE! No longer shall I settle for factory manufactured corn. No longer shall I eat styrofoam chips. Hooray! Frito Lay is growing plants!

OK, now that the sarcastic rant is over, time to look at the facts. I went over to the Frito Lay website, which states that Frito Lay has stopped using hydrogenated oils, and is decreasing their waste. They are doing good things. My question, what does this have to do with their campaign? Although there are some very solid facts, there are also some weak ones. What's weak about their campaign, is that they mix in solid facts with total crap. The following text is from the Frito Lay website, and I give them credit for writing this, so please don't sue me.

"Our snack chips are made in healthier oils like corn and sunflower oil. These oils are low in saturated fats and are higher in polyunsaturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids, which can help to support a healthy heart as part of a healthy lifestyle." (Frito Lay)
OK, so they've stopped using those bad oils. Good. Now check this out. This is on the same page as the oil blurb.
"Portion Control
To help you in choosing your portion size, Frito-Lay offers our snacks in Single serve and 100-Calorie Packs."
So basically, what they're saying here is: to help you eat less, they offer their chips in small bags. However, a couple years ago, they released, mega grab, which is a bigger small bag than the big grab small bag. (What a mouthful.)

But deconstructing these chip ads isn't the point. Why? Because I LOVE DORITOS. I LOVE THE ARTIFICIAL CHEESE. I DON'T CARE IF THEY ARENT ORGANIC, I JUST LIKE THEM BECAUSE THEY TASTE GOOD!

Remember when cereals used to actually include the word sugar (pardon my french) in their name? Back then ads probably made a lot more sense. Like this: "you should buy this cereal because it has sugar in it and sugar tastes good" (sorry, I sure used the "S" word a lot in that ad.)

It doesn't matter to me, or probably a lot of other people if Doritos or Funyuns are grown on a farm, or if they come in bags with pictures of Sunflowers on them. We're going to buy these chips because they are REALLY FREAKING GOOD! If you are munching on a bag of Doritos and thinking to yourself "boy, these sure are healthy" then, I'm sorry, you are a moron.

Because people are so aware of their health nowadays (That's a good thing) advertisers don't think people will buy something that doesn't pretend to be healthy. But, even if Lays were made with organic potatoes, they would still be potatoes fried in a huge vat of fat.

What I'm saying is, whatever way you look at it, potato chips just arent good for you, and so Frito Lay shouldn't try to sell them like they are.

It is good that people are becoming more aware of their health, but every good thing has a dark side. Mabey that's how it is for fatty chips and sugary cereals. The fact is, that since people care so much about healthy stuff, Frito Lay is promoting itself for something it isnt. So it's your choice, what is better(or worse): That Frito Lay has to adjust their image to the health trend, or that they have, but because of it are promoting their products as something they are not.

The Next Level of Republican Propaganda

To war..oops, I mean peace. More Samurai Jack coming soon.

Iron Man's Blatantly Obvious Agenda

Often, movies have thinly disguiesed propoganda. Sometimes, they have undisguised propoganda. But if you look at Iron Man, the agenda is apparent even in the trailer. Take a look and see if you can spot some pro-war influences. Believe me, they're not hard to find.

Cartoon Coverage, but No Election Coverage

Commenting on the election will be to cliche for this blog! I've decided to save my election coverage for 2009! In the mean time, in addition to super tuesday coverage I saw a new episode of Chowder: The Puckerberry Overloards/The Emelons. It was O.K. I don't know, I'm just not up to posting much today. Mabey I'm too worried that a republican will become president. OOps...sorry!

Micheal Moore

Whether you like him or not, Micheal Moore is a true patriot. He recognises the flaws in his country, but instead of moving to countries like Britain or Canada, which he so clearly views as way ahead of us, he uses his talents to help solve the problems in our society. P.S The Sicko review is still coming soon, just not that soon.

How George W. Bush ruined my patriotic spirit.

They always say that you are lucky to live in America, and that the odds are that you'll end up being born to a poor family in Africa. I know that I live the good life, in a good, albeit flawed country. I feel proud of the life I live, and I wish I could feel proud of the place I live in, but it keeps getting harder and harder thanks to the man that is ruining the white house with the stench of his rotting brain: our very own, George W. Bush. When people talk so fondly of America and wear the red, white and blue colors, it makes me wonder if they know what's really going on in this nation. So yeah, I love living in America, I just hate living with the awful things that have been done in her name.