As most of you already know, we in Bankai Crew will host a new VAFFANCULO party in Norrköping April 24th. The lineup is set and the webpage is soon to be launched. Tickets will be out in a couple of days – and they are limited, so be on your toes!

http://bankai.tomfury.se

A kind of christmas special. After a derelict Santa Claus is fired on Christmas Eve, he finds a mysterious bag that gives out presents. With this bag he sets out to fulfill his one wish – to see the less fortunate inherit the bounties of Christmas.

Not really the season (when I’m writing this) for such an episode, but it was quite ok anyways. The moral of the story may however been a bit too obvious…

In this episode, a couple of small-time criminals get hold of a mysterious camera that takes pictures of things to come. They try to exploit it by taking pictures of the horse track results. But it isn’t always good to know too much about the future; a fact that these criminals soon will be familiar with.

I liked it. Go see it.

In The Trouble With Templeton, a nostalgic actor revisits his late wife and friends at their old haunt, only to find that he is now out of place there. Uninspiring, boring, hard to follow episode. One of the worst, I think.

“When our world ended, their mission began”.

After an apocalyptic war between human and machines, the world is completely destroyed and without human life. The burlap doll 9 awakes without voice and finds a weird object in the middle of the debris that he brings with him. While walking through the ruins, 9 is attacked by a machine called Beast but he is saved by another doll called 2 that fixes his voice. 2 brings 9 to meet his hidden community, leaded by the chickenshit 1. When 2 is captured by a machine, the newcomer 9 convinces the other dolls to go with him to rescue 2. However, 9 places the device that he found in a slot and activates a lethal machine called Brain. The burlap dolls are chased by Brain and despite the advices of 1 that they should hide, 9 organizes an attack to destroy Brain.

9 is one of the better animated movies I’ve seen in a while. I really love the post-apocalyptic, junkyard-ish style that is used throughout the movie. The characters are a bit shallow and the dialogue is often lacking credibility. But even considering these two (usually major) flaws, I still enjoyed this 1 hour and 15 minutes show.

Give it a shot. The scenery and playfulness in animations make up for the flaws in character depth.

In New York, the drug-addicted Syd is consumed by drink and drugs – missing his girlfriend London (what the hell is that for kind of name for a girl, really…), who broke up with him six months ago after a two-year relationship. When Syd finds that London’s friends throw a going away party for her, he decides to go to the party without an invitation. But first he meets the banker and drug-dealer, Bateman (not the psychopath. Statham plays this role), in a bar to buy coke, and he invites his new acquaintance to go to the party with him. While locked in the bathroom with Bateman snorting coke and drinking booze, Syd recalls moments of his relationship with London, inclusive that he had never said “I love you” to his girlfriend despite her countless requests. Bateman also “open his heart” under the influence of cocaine and tells his impotence problem to Syd; in the end he convinces Syd to talk to London.

So, a whirl of flashbacks and a bit Jessica Biel (playing London) half-nudeness, with a Statham with hair on his head for once and not whupping ass like a manial (well, some in the end but that isn’t much) and a lot of drugs you’re in for a drama. A drama. Yes, Magnus, I’m talking to you. You may actually appreciate this movie (even though Hugh Grant isn’t appearing anywhere). Oh yeah, and Dane Cook has a minor role too. That’s kinda funny.

London was kind of boring I’d say if it weren’t for the drugs and how nicely they did the cutting from present time to past time and back again. The only reason I wanted to see this was because Statham was starring in it. And I must say I was a bit disappointed. But for you drama-loving, coke-snorting nuts out there you might find something of value. I don’t know.

In The Lateness of the Hour, The daughter of an inventor objects to their “perfect” home where they are waited on by mechanical servants. You sense already from the beginning that something isn’t quite alright with this family. The truth about their daughter who’s the protagonist of the episode is revealed to be a bit more obscure than first suggested…

I loved the (somewhat disturbing) ending. So this one gets a thumb up for me.

A pair of newlyweds stopping in a small town are trapped by their own superstition when playing a fortune telling machine in a local diner. The dude interpret too much in the machine’s answers, and his wife is getting the creeps when he seems to be completely lost to this thingy.

Event hough you have William Shatner in this episode it isn’t really that good. The characters are just too hysterical all around and you just want to smash their faces with a giant metal bar or something.

A young woman lying in a hospital bed, her head wrapped in bandages, awaits the outcome of a surgical procedure performed by the State in a last-ditch attempt to make her look “normal”.

The Eye of the Beholder was actually very good. You knew already from the start you were in for a surprise since you don’t get to see any faces at all; but exactly what the surprise would turn out to be wasn’t as sure.

I liked it.

12 Oz. Mouse. 21 episodes or something spanning over 2 seasons, this is one of the most fucked up shows I’ve ever seen in my life. Take David Lynch, mix in some (more) LSD, dip in some randomness and the artistic talent of a 7-year old, add some cursing and there you go. 12 Oz. Mouse.

Fucking brilliant I’d say! The main character is Fitz (Mouse Fitzgerald) who is a green, beer-swilling, chaotic neutral mouse. He lives in a violent, nihilistic town made out of cardboard. Yep, cardboard.

Our mouse takes on a series of oddjobs for Shark (literally a shark). What more we have a (two) giant eyeball(s), a one-handed corndog farmer, a wealthy square and his trusted side-kick Skillet – a chinchilla.

It is totally crazy and everything is like a big W T F – but that is the good thing about it. Here, take a look at this clip and decide for yourself if this is mindfuck enough for you.

Also known as Attack Girls’ Swim Team Versus the Undead. Another badass movie I’ve borrowed from Mark at work. Thank you very much!

A teenage girl named Aki is transferred to a new high school just as a virus starts spreading among the students. Luckily, Aki has convinced her friend Sayaka to join the swim team, since a chemical in the swimming pool effectively neutralizes the virus. Unfortunately however, the other students have received their own inoculation—one that turns them into mindless, flesh-eating zombies. Now Aki must draw on her secret past as a trained assassin to fend them off and protect her swim team friends.

Mark warned me that this wasn’t as good as the others I’ve borrowed from him. But I must disagree. It really kicked some serious ass!

Let me just point out a few good things:

• Badass rock’n'roll music at various scenes
• Tight japanese school girls in school uniforms. And swimsuites.
• Tits. Although they’re not big since they are japanese – they are still tits.
• Lots of upskirt and lesbian fetischism.
• Several complete sex scenes too. Almost thought I’d got my hands on a porno tape for a while there. It sure seemed like that.

And then some bad things:

• Chlorine as the antidote for the zombie virus? Come oooon…
• Zombie teacher speaking Engrish => NOT good. Should kept her mouth shut instead or stuck to her native japanese language. (Besides, japanese is a way more badass language anyways).
• I’ve learned that a flute can sound like a music organ. What the hell did they really think?

But the seriously most fucked up thing is the girl who’s shooting laser beams with her pussy (!). Yep, you heard me. Laser beams. With her pussy. That’s wicked. Look at the picture below and you’ll believe me.

Of course y’all already have seen the blockbuster masterpiece movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas starring Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson himself. This book does not only contain the original Fear and Loathing story, but also Strange Rumblings in Aztlan and The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.

What I like with Thompson’s Gonzo journalism (not only his escapades with all kind of drugs, which is really entertaining to read) is his use of the english language. It’s straight-forward, it’s full of cursing and twisted and put to print in a most awesome way. You never get tired of reading. Not just because of all the stories are just amazingly interesting, but as I said – the inventive way of using the language is one of the best I’ve ever seen.

I enjoyed savoring each and every page, every sentence, every word. This is one of those books you wish wouldn’t end. Not a single boring chapter or passage (at 304 pages long [short] it isn’t at all enough) gets boring or making you wish you could fast-forward-read (as in the case of many other books I’ve read).

Fucking brilliant journalism. You did well, Mr. Thompson. Really fucking well.

ISBN: 0679602984.

Me and Carina had a movie night the other day, but we had hard time deciding what to see. I suggested Attack Girl’s Swim Team versus The Undead that I’ve borrowed from Mark at work – but she just looked at me in a strange way. Didn’t  really understand why.

So the choice fell upon either The Spirit, V for Vendetta or the Perfume. I chose The Spirit (already seen V and The Perfume looked pretty gay). However, she’s a woman of strong will and she totally dissed my suggestion of The Spirit – thus, we settled for The Perfume since I’ve already seen V for Vendetta. Like three times.

Anyways. I was prejudiced. I didn’t understand how you could make a whole fucking movie about a perfume (!) That’s ridiculous. So anyway, we’re watching this dude getting born in Paris with an extraordinary sense of smell. He can smell like everything and deduce what the smells consist of. He meets this girl that smells wonderful, but accidentially kills her in his hunt for her smell. When she dies her smell fades away. So he devotes his life to gaining knowledge of how to preserve scents.

Carina is the girl that dislikes unrealistic movies. Considering that in the end of this movie there’s a giant naked orgy with 750 people and our main dude escapes the executioner just because he’s got a perfume on his skin – well, that’s something I would definitely call unrealistic. However, it seems like her notion of ‘unrealistic’ is a bit biased.

Anyways, I wouldn’t say that The Perfume is a total waste of time. I was prejudiced, and I was right in my preconceptions. It was gay and really a movie for women. Furthermore, I really dislike that they didn’t speak the language of the country they were supposed to be in (France). I do however understand the decision to make all dialogue in english since french is like the most obnoxious, gay language ever in human history.

But, for being a kind of tacky story the performance was still good. This is perfect for you to put on when you’re bringing home a woman for a movie night. Cause your goal should be to get her in bed – not watch a good movie together. Then this is it.

He does this with his perfume on a handkerchief and then suddenly everybody just goes crazy and fuck eachothers brains out.

I’ve been back at my old university (Linköpings University) to represent Ericsson on LARM (Linköpings Arbetsmarknadsdagar). Two days of constant talking to students and a banquette in the evening. It was fucking kickass! See the pictures here. Some are shown below.

For several years this movie has been on my gotta-see-sometime-list. I finally did see it. What I didn’t know was that there’s a Broadway musical from 1979 with the same name. Thus, I was in for a lot of singing. Like in The Nightmare Before Christmas – but worse. Cause there’s actually just one thing I dislike about this Tim Burton movie – and that is all the fucking singing.

If the whole thing would’ve been made like a regular movie instead without the actors ranting around singing, I would endorse it fully. Anyways. Sweeney Todd. The plot:

Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), a skilled barber, is falsely charged and sentenced to a life of hard labor in Australia by the corrupt Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who lusts after Barker’s wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly). Now under the assumed name “Sweeney Todd”, Barker returns to London with sailor Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower). At his old Fleet Street lodgings above Mrs. Nellie Lovett’s (Helena Bonham Carter) pie shop, he discovers that Lucy, having been raped by Turpin, has poisoned herself, and his teenage daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) is now Turpin’s ward, and like her mother before her, is the object of his unwanted affections. Todd vows revenge, reopening his barber shop in the upstairs flat. And boy does the blood flow.

As I’ve said in previous reviews I’m really fascinated by that typical Burton gothic esthetics – and you get plenty of that in this movie too (as you may already tell from the poster).

Even though all the singing and everything is annoying in the start, you get used to it and don’t mind it as much as the movie proceeds. Some people would say that the musical part is the charm of the whole thing. Those people don’t know what the hell they are talking about. Anyways, good story of revenge and how it isn’t always sweet. Johnny Depp and Sascha Baron Cohen (yes, he’s actually playing a major part in the first half of the movie) perform excellent as always.

If you feel that you can take a little (well, maybe not so little) singing for seeing a lot of people get their throats slit – then you’re in for a really good movie.