Entertainment

The movie Beetlejuice (1988), nearly three decades later still has an ongoing debate about the correct spelling of the title character’s name. (Because that’s what the internet does.) Is it Beetlejuice, Betelgeuse, or- Better stop before summoning the ghost with the most. In the film, which is accepted as being called Beetlejuice, the spelling on Michael Keaton character’s tombstone is Betelgeuse, so perhaps the maker of the tombstone was the one who misspelled it? Although the character is a ghost, and this is probably overthinking it. It also doesn’t account for the spelling in the ad for the “freelance bio-exorcist” himself. The explanation offered here, is that the difference of title between the movie’s name Beetlejuice and the character’s name Betelgeuse, was largely a studio-driven marketing decision (and artistic compromise, better than the studio-suggested House Ghosts and Burton’s tongue-in-cheek counter of Scared Sheetless, which was apparently seriously considered by the studio). ...

The Cheese Wheel returns! In its time away, it has matured. Hardened. And now has even more bite. Or it has gone crumbly, is a bit on the nose, and probably should simply be thrown away… Yet as any good barrel searching resident of Tamriel will tell you, in the early stages of the game, survival is the key. Launching back on the ominous date of 11.11.11, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim still to this day has an active community of modders. Plus Bethesda recently lifted the cap on the size limits of mods. Time to break out the skooma in celebration, or maybe something a little less addictive. Now, once you’ve survived the initial game stuff, absorbed the souls of a few dragons, and not taken an arrow to the knee, you can remain an adventurer and start to do more interesting things. Things like acting out a Gloucestershire ...

Tongue Not in Cheek Miley’s Video Music Awards (VMA) performance seems to have poked and pointed more tongues into talking about a Cyrus than the days when there was an achy breaky heart on the scene. Not that Miley’s performance was completely inconsistent, after all she did have blonde hair.  So maybe she was just playing the character of Hannah Montana, you know, all grown up. It was just that she may have blurred the lines between family friendly entertainment and perhaps showing what a wholesome upbringing on Disney can do for you. A link to the ‘show’ is provided, but the video isn’t directly embedded here.  Because things are kept tasteful on uthinki;  however questionably so.  (Or videos of that much twerking simply take up a lot of bandwidth!) Cyrus’ moves have sparked all sorts of comments, not in the least because she did more twerking than an anthology of ...

Daily Planet and Wayne Enterprises, of a Sort When the news broke that Ben Affleck would be the next Batman, the next one to don the cowl of the Dark Knight, it was met with mixed and divisive reactions. It seems that everything burns. Rebooting so soon after the Nolan trilogy, maybe it is not about the message and all about the money? Baffle Me This Gothamites have weighed in, knowing that if the new Batman vs. Superman vs. Batman (it should be two out of those three, in some order) movie set to be released in 2015, is no good, the punishment must be more severe than mere flame wars on Twitter. “Holy three letter acronyms Batman!” They may be some of the nicer things said. Of course the conspiracy theorists out there – of which there may be a few on the internet – will have noticed the ...

The Eleventh Doctor to Leave Matt Smith, the actor behind the current Doctor Who (and the Eleventh Doctor) recently announced that he will be quitting the show. Series 7 ended with a cliff-hanger and the caption: INTRODUCING JOHN HURT AS THE DOCTOR Will John Hurt be the Twelfth Doctor? Probably not, but that’s travelling ahead in time anyway. Given that the show began running back in 1963 on the BBC, it has needed a means to shift between the actors playing Doctor Who. However, this is accepted because as a Time Lord, Doctor Who has the ability to regenerate when near death.  Each time he is effectively reborn, there is the retention of the past personalities, the memories and the shared consciousness, yet the new incarnation will have its own characteristics as well. Whether it is that Time Lords can only regenerate the suggested 12 times remains to be seen. ...

Enter Angelina Since first stepping into the spotlight, Angelina Jolie was been many things to many people. From Hollywood wild child, with her various oddities such as an interest in knives to wearing a vial of blood of her then husband Billy Bob Thornton (a much older man) in a necklace.  Perhaps channelling some of these quirks or even art imitating life, she became a celebrated actress.  Including winning three Golden Globes; and winning an Oscar in 1999 for her portrayal of the sociopathic Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted.  Plus the Tomb Raider movies, although perhaps far from the most respected acting she has done, playing as Lara Croft served to place her truly in the public eye. Seen as incredibly beautiful, she has consistently ranked in FHM’s list of the 100 Sexiest Women each year since 2000 to now; peaking at third place in the year 2005.  Similarly Esquire magazine ...

Gloucestershire, England, a place that truly understands The Cheese Wheel.  And also cheese!  Not only do the good folks understand cheese, but they are willing to roll a wheel of it down Cooper’s Hill and chase after it. Sure it may be an unofficial event, but that didn’t stop around 3,000 people turning up for it this year. Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling dates back to the 1800s.  More official times you see, at least up until 2010.  Then, fearing for people’s health and safety the event was officially cancelled.  As if those things should get in the way of chasing a wheel of cheese down a hill so steep that most can’t even normally stand on its side without falling over.  It’s just a plain fun idea. Too much fun in fact. Police warned local cheese-maker Diana Smart against supplying her Double Gloucester Cheeses.  She has made the 3kg wheel of ...

Abdellatif Kechiche’s film, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, won the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The film, is a three-hour drama, telling the story of two young French lesbians played by actresses Adèle Exarchopolous and Léa Seydoux.  Blue Is the Warmest Colour sweeps across the emotive, yet familiar, spectrum of young lust and love, anger and sadness, closeness and distance. Much talk has been made of the bold, explicit, and lengthy use of the lesbian sex scenes. Cinematic use of graphic sex scenes – always in the name of art – have often been talking points of films, from Klute to the more recent Black Swan.  (The latter also sharing a lesbian sex scene between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman; arguably giving males an excuse to enjoy a film about ballet.) Critics have generally favoured Blue Is the Warmest Colour, believing the awarded Palme is well deserved.  ...

The Cannes Film Festival, a scene of glitz and glamour.  Another place for the stars to shine, and also a place for some of the less mainstream, outside of Hollywood, films to maybe do the same. Amongst those was director Roman Polanski, there to premiere his latest film, Venus in Fur.  The film stars Polanski’s wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Mathieu Amalric.  Adapted from the play by David Ives, it tells the story of an actress and theatre director rehearsing Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novella Venus in Furs.  Examining the roles of gender, as the actress overshadows the director. Not that Roman Polanski is any stranger to controversy, his 1979 conviction of having sex with a minor, saw him flee the United States to avoid further legal issues.  (Maybe playing out vaguely somewhat like Lolita.)  Polanski has again courted controversy with his comments at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. Whether ...

A time about now in a world on the 4th, 4th May… Scrolling Star Wars text starts here.  Sure John Williamson will do the musical score for it. Star Wars, it’s the cultural phenomenon that has launched such things as: Moves to make Jedi an official religion in censuses worldwide The metal bikini, as comfortable as it is sexy. Generations of folks that have tried to use the Force to do everything from opening their doors in the morning to choking someone with a closing hand gesture from afar. It hasn’t all been good though.  There is a dark side to it.  Beyond Caravan of Courage (it wasn’t ‘that’ bad), beyond the whole confusion with the introduction of midi-chlorians (as if mitochondria weren’t already confusing enough), and even beyond Jar Jar Binks, there have been some clangers along the way. Including plot holes big enough to fly the Millennium Falcon though.  If the Rebels blew up ...