Myself and Anthony had a Good Friday trip to Citywest today to check out the press preview of the first Star Wars convention to be held in Ireland. Invasion is a three day event being held in one of the main halls in CItywest and features Star Wars artifacts, meetings with actors from the movies and trade stands. Check out the website here for more details.

We met with some of the original cast and John McDonald, the man behind Invasion, and he had this to say about the event:

Invasion Dublin

Here’s a few video clips that we took of John McDonald and original cast talking to the press.

I took a few pictures of the main hall to give you an idea of what to expect:

So pop along this weekend if you get a chance. It’s in City West and tickets are priced at €15 per person or €50 for a family. It opens tomorrow 3rd April and runs till the 5th April, Easter Monday. This one’s probably more for the kids, but I’m sure there are plenty of adults that’ll get excited by the event!

Check The Venntertainment Show this Monday at 12:00PM for exclusive interviews with Jermey Bulloch (Bobba Fett) and Kenny Baker (R2D2).

Something that I was interested in talking about here is the Vodafone World of Difference campaign. Vodafone Ireland Foundation have launched their “World of Difference” campaign where 4 lucky winners will be paid their year’s salary (up to 40K) to work for the charity of their choice.  The World of Difference is open to everyone and is a once in a lifetime opportunity. To find out more follow this link.

This would be an amazing opportunity for anyone interested in any sort of charity work. I was checking out last year’s winners and was particularly impressed by this guy:

Big news in the movie industry last week for all Superhero fans as we all found out that Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) was going to don the stars and stripes of the patriotic hero ‘Captain America’. Although the hero is hardly the most noteworthy, the casting process definitely warrants an examination as at one stage or another, dozens of celebrity A-listers were in contention for the role. In the aftermath of the casting choice, let us take a quick look at the considered candidates:

• Garret Hedlund (Tron Legacy)
• Mike Vogel (Cloverfield)
• Jensen Ackles (Smallville, Supernatural)
• Channing Tatum (Fighting, GI Joe)
• Ryan Philippe (Cruel Intentions, Crash)
• John Krasinski (The Office, It’s Complicated)
• Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, Half Nelson)
• Chris Evans (Fantastic Four)
• Kellan Lutz (Twilight, Nightmare on Elm Street)
• Sam Worthington (Avatar, Terminator Salvation)
• Will Smith (You all know him!!)

Looking at the list, I find it easy to pick the ones that were probably serious contenders and even easier to pick the ones which I would have liked to have seen.

Seriously??

I would imagine that Channing Tatum, Will Smith and Mike Vogel were the closest to nailing the role. Tatum and Vogel look every bit like you would expect Captain America to and they have both garnered enough popularity and are young enough to potentially get the role.

Will Smith is a different story altogether, he was at one stage almost confirmed to be getting the role and I think that Marvel would have gained a lot of attention for casting a black actor as Steve Rogers. If it weren’t for his age, I think he would have been a no brainer. He can really act, he has the athletic physique and his popularity will draw crowds anyway.

The Main Man

What I think of the choice: I am happy with the choice of Chris Evans, I know Rob disagrees, but I think that he could really come out and surprise everyone. I read an interview with Chris Evans in 2008 in which he talked about wanting to take Superhero movies more seriously and that seeing ‘The Dark Knight’ made him think about how well comic movies could be done. Well he is getting a chance at another Marvel hero, maybe he will really make this role his own.

What Rob thinks of the choice: Chris Evans!!! This is the man that had a hand in ruining the Fantastic Four. His roles to date have been consistently average funny/smart guy and how he’s supposed to pull off a heavy hittter like Cap, is beyond me. Aaron Eckhart, Will Smith or Channing Tatum would have been my choice, but maybe Evans is more All-American? I’m not happy about it, but it’s too late now…might as well give him a shot!

What do you think?

Let's hit the showers!!!

Vinnie Jones is apparently putting together a remake of the 1980s far-from-classic Escape to Victory. The original film starred Michael Caine and a young Sylvester Stallone, as well as a host of famous footballing stars like Pele and Booby Moore. While the stars may have been of Premier League standard, their acting skills belonged in the Conference Division (nice!). The story involved POWs in World War 2 using a football match to stage an escape.

According to The Sun, Jones wants none other than David Beckham to star in the remake. I for one am not too excited about any of this, and think that the idea deserves the red card (nice again!). But it has got me thinking, there has never been a truly great soccer film, it being the most popular sport in the world, this seems strange. There are, however, plenty of other sporting movies worthy of attention which don’t need remakes, we love them just as they are. Now that we’re approaching the Summer and we’re all dusting off those boots and trainers, what better way to get you in the mood than a run-down of my top 10 sports films.

If I miss any that you believe deserve a mention, please do so!!!

10-Kingpin

An early offering from the Farrelly brothers. While not their best, it deserves inclusion for it’s many ridiculous and funny moments. Woody Harrelson is great as usual, but Bill Murray absolutely steals the show whenever he appears on screen as Ernie McCracken, the shady veteran bowler who acts as Harrelson’s enemy throughout the film. The plot, by the way, involves Harrelson’s hopeless one-handed character meeting a talented Amish man played by Randy Quaid. The two then go on hapless road trip which eventually leeds to a million-dollar bowling tournament.

Favourite Quote: Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray); ‘The world’s a small place when you’ve got big tits Roy’.

9-Happy Gilmore

OK, we know that Adam Sandler has way outstayed his welcome, but he did make a couple of funny movies way back in the day! Having not watched Caddy Shack any time recently, I plumped for this one to represent golf in the countdown. I did watch it lots of times when I was young, and I still say things like ‘tap it in, taaap it in’ when I actually get onto a golf course. Sandler plays the angry shouty part well, before it became all he did. Watch out for Ben Stiller as the nice but very very evil old folks home carer, brilliant. Sandler plays a failed ice-hockey player who discovers a talent for hitting golf balls very, very hard.

8-Touching The Void

A documentary re-telling the story of Joe Simpson and Somin Yates’ disastrous and near fatal climb of the Siula Grande in The Peruvian Andes in 1985. This film is gripping from start to finish and the recreations are impressive throughout. Simpson and Yates give emotional and detailed accounts of their incredible survival story. Directed by Kevin MacDonald before he started directing fiction films with The Last King of Scotland, this documentary is highly recommended.

7-Jerry Maguire

The first of a few American Football based films in the list, Jerry Maguire gets the nod because it is a great film from start to end. Tom Cruise flexes his acting chops and is brilliant in the lead role, Cuba Gooding Jr memorably shines as Maguire’s only remaining client, Rod Tidwell, and pretty much every other cast member delivers too. What happened to Cuba Gooding Jr by the way?! Somebody messed up his career along the way. Anyway, Cameron Crowe did a great job with this film.

6-Any Given Sunday

Oliver Stone delivered an engrossing behind the scenes look at the rough and tumble of world of American football with this powerful film. Al Pacino is great as the ageing coach, Jamie Foxx burst into the limelight as the new star ‘Steamin’ Willie Beamin, and Cameron Diaz pops up as the hard-ass owner of the team. A thoroughly rewarding watch, perhaps most memorable for the famous ‘inches’ speech given by pacino in the final scenes. Anyone looking for inspiration of any kind, find that speech on youtube.

5-Hoop Dreams

I watched this documentary a few months back after putting it off for a long time due to it’s length, it reaches 3 hours, but was so glad that I finally got around to it eventually. It tells the story of two Chicago kids who dream of playing in the NBA, following them from the start of high school all the way through to college, 5 years later. It’s an amazing achievement, and you can’t help but become engrossed in their differing stories over the years as they tackle abusive fathers, economic difficulties, pregnancy, injury etc…. It’s not a documentary about basketball, it’s a documentary about life’s ups and downs, about inner-city life, about sacrifice, and occasionally, about happiness. Highly recommended if you can get your hands on it.

4-When We Were Kings

The story of the famous ‘Rumble in The Jungle’, when a so-called past his best Muhammad Ali took on the then world champion George Foreman in 1974 in the strange setting of Zaire. For those of us who didn’t grow up with Ali, this is a great chance to witness his talent up close, both in and out of the ring. The scenes featuring the build up to the event in Zaire are fantastic, and the film depicts the political and social tensions of the time brilliantly. Obviously not just for boxing fans!!!

3-Raging Bull

Often named as one of the greatest movies ever made, Scorsese’s biographical depiction of Jake LaMotta’s story is brutal and certainly pulls no punches (hmmm…), but it is rightfully regarded as a classic. De Niro, who pushed Scorsese to make the film, and gained a lot of weight for the part, is at his best as LaMotta. The film is stylishly shot in black and white, and tells the sad story of LaMotta with fervour. Nothing more to say, an out and out classic.

2-Murderball

I cannot say enough good things about this film. The top documentary on my list, this film tells the story of quadriplegics who play wheelchair rugby (murderball, as they call it). Shot on a low budget, the filmmakers have captured something special with this movie. We meet many characters who, for different reasons, have taken up the sport. There are all sorts of storylines and sub-plots going on throughout which I won’t get into, but suffice to say that the film is moving, informative, exciting, and at times really really funny. Please watch it if you haven’t already. Watch it again if you have.

1-Friday Night Lights

American Football inspires great movies it seems. It might seem a little bit strange to have this on top of the list, but I personally love this film for a number of reasons. I had read HG Bissinger’s book of the same name before the film was released. It tells the story of Odessa in Texas, and the town’s absolute obsession with it’s High School football team. With this comes the pressures on the young players backs, the circus that the coach has to put up with, the total dedication displayed by the town’s people year round, and the constant pursuit of glory. The film has since been developed into a not-near-as-good TV show, but watch the original, it won’t disappoint. Billy Bob Thronton is brilliant as the head coach, and a strong cast of young actors give life to the mishmash of characters that make up the team. Explosions in The Sky provide the beautiful soundtrack throughout, the film also doesn’t have that typical happy-happy everything’s great ending that we’ve all come to expect.

And so concludes my countdown, thoughts????

Did you say Kiss? I'm sorry, but Van Halen actually recorded 'Jump'. Now you must die.

‘The Game of Death’, as it’s being called, attracted attention in the media last week due to it’s controversial ‘experiment’ carried out on unsuspecting contestants who believed they were taking part in a TV pilot show.

The French documentary, which mirrored Stanley Milgram’s famous experiments of almost 50 years ago, showed that people were willing to administer electric shocks to other contestants, in order to advance further in the show. In Milgram’s original experiment, it was shown that 62% of people went along with the shock tactics when told by an authority figure in a white lab coat. However, when the contestants on ‘La Zone Xtreme’ were sat in front of a live TV audience who urged them on, and a pretty French presenter who gave the instructions, 82% of those involved happily took part!

Not to worry of course, it was all a hoax to examine the length that people will go to obey pretty much anything asked of them on reality TV, and all the poor unfortunates who were the ‘victims’ of the electric shocks were simply actors (no French people were hurt in the making of this blog post). Nevertheless, it does raise a number of questions; like how far will people actually go in the pursuit of fame/success? Are we becoming more and more suggestible and obedient as a society thanks to the influence of TV? Are reality TV participants actually this gullible?? Is there something fishy about the French in general???

Real full story here.

To hear what the Venntertainment team made of it all, listen to this week’s podcast.

There’s nothing like exams to concentrate the mind and make you focus on anything at all besides studying. My latest journeys through cyberspace attempting to avoid the inevitable have led me back to my childhood days — and some of the most horrifically frightening things I’ve ever seen. Deemed suitable at the time, they have actually resulted in severe emotional trauma and many years of therapy.

Here are the worst five!

Number 5 — Dumbo

No list would be complete without the classic “pink elephants” scene. Dumbo drinks water spiked with alcohol and starts to hallucinate. It’s supposed to emulate the “delirium tremens” withdrawal symptoms alcoholics feel coming off the booze, an experience often likened to a really bad LSD trip. A fine idea. But why is it in a kid’s movie again?

Number 4 — The Go-Kids

This movie seriously upset me as a child, and for years I tried to forget it, so much so that when it came back to me recently I didn’t know the name of it, the actors, the story — in fact I had completely repressed the whole thing. Now that I have found it I want to share it with you.

To put it into context, I was about five years old, and the idea of this creature living in a lake and coming out when the wind blew absolutely horrified me. Later in the movie it’s discovered that the monster is actually a sunken JCB that is somehow attached to the windmill and is disturbed when the mill turns. But it was too late by then. The damage was already done.

Number 3 — All Dogs Go to Heaven

The scene I really want to share with you (from one of my favourite movies of all time) is the dream sequence, or rather nightmare sequence. Charlie is confronted by a horrible red demon in a pit of lava and little devils that bite him — before he wakes to discover his puppies chewing on his ear. Unfortunately that is nowhere to be found on the interweb, so instead I give you the scene with King Gator, equally disturbing in a completely different way and so damn weird that it spawned its own trope, the “Big-Lipped Alligator Moment”, or BLAM for short. Which, of course, describes a scene that comes from nowhere, has nothing to do with the plot, and confounds the audience. Just look at Charlie’s face. WTF?

Number 2 — The Dark Crystal

I still have recurrent nightmares from this. Jim Henson is a genius, and I do agree that dark films are good for children, but the corruption and decay of the Skeksis — their disgusting lifestyle and cruelty — well, it’s just a bit too much. And this deathbed scene really takes the biscuit.

Number 1 — The Adventures of Mark Twain

An excellent movie no doubt, debating complex themes of morality and religion, but for crying in my mother’s handbag! This is the scariest thing I have ever seen. First, the complete disregard for humanity from “the mysterious stranger” (who, if you’ve read Twain, you’ll know is Lucifer’s nephew), but then when you think it’s all over and are drawing a relieved breath… Aaaaaagh!

***COMPETITION AT END OF POST***

Slightly late with this post, but it is well worth putting up. We were kindly invited to the Kick Ass preview screening by Universal Pictures and Simply Zesty last week. The deal was that in return for a great night out, we would have to dress up as the super hero of our choice. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

The reality is that dressing up as a super hero, and doing it well, can be very difficult! Anthony Doyle, my Venntertainment Show co-host, suggested that we go as Mario and Luigi. It sounded like a great idea at the time, so we agreed.

My afternoon was then spent going through every single charity shop north and south of the Liffey looking for dungarees, which would be widely agreed to be central to a Mario Bros outfit. I had CAT boots and a green top, so it was dungarees and a green cap that was left.  There was nothing to be found south of the Liffey, so over to Penny’s on Henry street we went. Still no dungarees, but we found a green Ireland cap for 2 quid which would do.

I was beginning to despair, when I had a brain-wave. Pregnant women wear dungarees, to Mothercare! Sure enough, there was a rack devoted to dungarees. I purchased a pair of size 12s for €40 and we were ready. No, they didn’t fit, but Anthony and I did a swaparoo and we were ready. As a bonus, I got some white exfoliating gloves in Boots and we made our way back to Anthony’s to get dressed.

Here’s how we looked:

Thanks a mill to Lottie for taking the pic and I’d suggest you check out her post over on Culch.ie, she sums it all up very nicely indeed.

The night was a great laugh. We had a few drinks on the MV Cill Airne boat (which is a class little spot for some grub or drinks) and then we headed down the quays to the IFSC and watched a preview of Kick Ass on a mobile cinema. Great fun

Kick-Ass does indeed, Kick-Ass. We will be reviewing it properly in a week or two, but suffice to say that it is great. To top it all off, Anthony and I won one of the prizes for best dressed on the night! A limited Edition poster signed by the cast is on it way in the next while to Venntertainment Towers.

So to tie in with the launch of Kick Ass, we have a nice little competition. FCUK have developed a t-shirts campaign for Kick Ass, and have some great designs for sale on their site. We have these two to give away.

All you’ve to do is leave a comment below telling us who your favourite super-hero is and why, and you could be in with a chance to win one of these very limited edition tees. Competition closes Wed 31st March 2010.

I read an article over on the Guardian’s website this morning, giving us a look at a new website that lets musicians pay to get their music in front of journalists. The website is called ‘The Men From The Press’.

It raises the age-old question of whether it is correct to be essentially paying money for column inches. There seems to be a bit of a hoo-haa about the site. Apart from it looking slightly tacky and unprofessional, should there really be a price next to a journalist’s name?

My feelings are that it takes the problem of the music industry’s obsession with impressing the men with the pens to a new level. Being in a few bands myself, and from a young age, I have been through the various obsessions of the budding musician. I know how it feels to want to get noticed, and I know how it feels to be ignored. I’ve been screwed over by many a cowboy in the industry and I’ve seen how successful bands do it.

How do they do it? They ignore everybody. It’s so simple, and it’s a point that has been described brilliantly by Hugh MacLeod in his book, ‘Ignore Everybody and 39 other keys to creativity’. I would be the first to admit that there are many books out there that one could buy in order to study the art of creativity, but this book sums it all up in a simple and very clear way.

Anybody that has spent any time promoting their art knows that the various industries (music, film, art) are small, insular and cliquey. Particularly in Ireland. There’s also only a certain amount of space for new bands or film makers or whatever it is that you do. What do most newbies do when they want to get themselves out to a wider audience? They obsess about who they know, who they want to know, how they can get to know them and what press they can get for their work.

My advice is scratch that plan. Focus on the quality of your art. Be remarkable (as Seth Godin always says). Put the time that you would have spent writing and mass emailing press releases into improving your lyrics, honing your sound and upping your production values. Get the right people on board. Make sure you’ve got a decent website and a nice image, and gig, gig, gig. Do not promote yourself in a big way until you are absolutely certain that what you’ve got is the shit. If you’re doing these things right, you will get noticed. Eventually.

Am I being naive? I want to hear your thoughts please. Oh and check out Hugh MacLeod’s blog, it’s the business.

We’re often told by governments and councils and boards of this and that that we should park up our cars. That we should reduce traffic, reduce fossil fuel consumption and get a bit of exercise. It looks good for elected officials to push cycling as modern, green solution to a modern, grey problem.

So we take up the baton. We do what we’re told. We pump a few hundred bucks into the economy by buying a bicycle and accessories and what do we get for it? Well, in most places, not a lot really. On a good day, there’s token infrastructure – poorly surfaced bike lanes which run you through filter lanes and bus stops and two bike loops where you could accommodate ten. That’s on a good day. Often you get nothing.

I’ve been sitting over the past couple of days watching, like cyclists the world over, the uproar surrounding the opinions expressed by Tony Kornheiser and his colleagues on US sports radio station ESPN 980, the full extent of which can be heard here.

The rant was in response to a proposed bike lane down the centre of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC – the road leading up to the White House.

We’re going to be dominated as if this was Beijing by hundreds of thousands of bicyclists. […]

It’s all you can do to not run them down. […]

They don’t share the road. They dominate the road. They dare you to run them down.

…but a selection of what can be heard above. For the record, this is what the proposal looks like:

[Photo by Joe Danielewicz]

A two-way bike land running down the median of one of the most politically significant streets in the world. It would be separated from traffic by removable plastic barriers and would reduce the number of car lanes from four to three.

As an urban cyclist I can’t look at that photograph without a big smile crossing my face. Such a proposal is too good to be true. I can only hope that DC follow through and make it a reality. However, as you can see above, the idea is taking a lot of criticism from motorists. The claim being that the city is already congested, and that turning a traffic lane into a bike lane on Pennsylvania Avenue and a number of connecting streets will only worsen the problem.

That’s missing the point, of course. In theory, better bike facilities (and the above is a dream bike facility) equal more bikes and fewer cars. Mr. Kornheiser also says in the above piece, “Why do these people think that these roads were built for bicycles?”. Well, they weren’t. That’s why you’re sitting in traffic for however long each morning.

On Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard, an equivalently significant thoroughfare in the famously bike friendly city of Copenhagen, 25,000 bikes can be seen each day traveling to work, school and whatever else [source]. That’s 25,000 people who would otherwise being using the same roads in something quite a lot bigger than an Electra Cruiser. True, there is a “bike culture” in Denmark which the States pointedly lacks. But this culture didn’t materialise out of nowhere. It is the result of large scale, integrated, and ongoing infrastructure changes. In Copenhagen, since 1990, distances traveled by bicycle have increased by 50% while distances covered by car have increased by only 20% [source]. An equivalent statistic for Washington DC is difficult to find, but figures suggest that around 9,000 of DC’s 600,000 population commute by bike [source] compared to Copenhagen, a city with a similar population, where more than 200,000 people use a bicycle as their primary means of transportation [source]… so we can assume the ratio is rather different.

Mr. Kornheiser rightly got taken to task by the bike riding public and got a first-hand look at why, in a social media world, those with a platform need to choose their words carefully. The backlash was deftly spearheaded by cycling legend Lance Armstrong, who was in contact with ESPN soon after and delivered a very authoritative and restrained brow beating on the show the next day. You can listen to that here.

The Pennsylvania Avenue proposal and the level of support it received in light of such an irresponsible and ignorant attack shows a great deal of promise for a realistic move to urban cycling culture. Unfortunately however, the world is full of people who share Mr. Kornheiser’s opinion, and few of them would be quite so quick to give a cowering apology. It was disgracefully only last week at the National Bike Summit, bang in the middle of DC, that US transport secretary Ray LaHood formally stated that bicycles would now be treated as equals in future road planning [source]. I just hope he’ll hold firm on that.

From now on, when the government tells us to get on our bikes, it is up to us to tell them what they should do to facilitate that. It’s up to us to make sure they follow through. But most significantly, it is up to us as cyclists to stick to our convictions more strongly than Tony Kornheiser did. We don’t ride bikes for a joke; we don’t do it to annoy motorists. We do it because it’s an intelligent alternative to an outdated system. We do it because we enjoy it and it is because we enjoy it that we have the conviction to make changes stick, despite the opposition.

So, a few months from now, when you’re hopefully riding safely down the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue, give a thought to Tony Kornheiser – as you pass him stuck in a tailback.

A couple of weeks back, I wrote here about us being shortlisted for an Irish Blog Award. It was great for us to see our name on a list of some of the best pop culture blogs in the country. I did not expect us to move forward to the finals, so you can imagine my surprise when I read this post on Friday night.

Yes, that is correct. We have been included in the Top 5 pop culture blogs in the country and go forward to the awards in Galway next Saturday night (27th March 2010) with great hope

We’d like to congratulate our fellow finalists:

• Culch.ie
• E-Dublin
• the m0vie blog
• Panti’s Blog Job

All fantastic blogs and well worthy of the position they find themselves in.

We’d also like to thank the people over at the Irish Blog Awards and the sponsors, in particular Insure.ie (sponsors of the pop culture category) for their belief in the medium of blogs and for encouraging and fostering the continued growth of the medium over the last few years.

Finally, to the Venntertainment team and our readers, you rock! Here’s to another year of pop culture madness.

Myself and Anthony will be at the awards on Saturday night in Galway and we’d love you to come over and say hey if you see us! Here’s to a great night