Monday, March 30, 2009

Unlock And Unload

Trying to get around the clocks going forward to welcome in British Summer Time was bad enough, this morning I woke feeling like I had been kicked in the head by a mule. Trying to work at the computer or watch any of the reference material only made it worse, so for most of the morning I carried on with the clear out that started pretty much as the year began then continued in fits and starts around the current project.

Between clearing up and getting things squared away, one thing I found I don’t have to deal with anymore are magazines. Some time back I used to plough through a wide variety of titles voraciously. Now I either read their articles online or have simply let them fall by the wayside. In fact the only magazines they enter the flat now come with the weekend newspapers.

That said, amongst the deskside pile of papers I did find an issue of Empire from a couple of months back in what I can only deduce was bought during a moment of weakness. Picking up a magazine about upcoming movies when I hardly go near a cinema nowadays seems to be deliberately obtuse. Buying one that revels in regularly sucking up to George Lucas and Tarantino is an exercise in utter stupidity.

Still, skimming through that issue proved that it would be the last. What turned me off wasn’t its feature pages typically awash with the latest fangasm but something written to describe a portion of the monthly competition prizes. Obviously a certain amount if hyperbole is expected to make the selection of DVDs sound tempting, but I realised their opinions were no longer worth a damn when I read:

This collection features the hysterical antics of some of the biggest names in comedy past and present, including Will Ferrell, John Candy and Steve Martin.

3 Comments:

At 11:00 am, Blogger Brian Sibley said...

A worthy and utterly deserved kick in the balls for Empire! Well done! When they aren't caught with their pants down tossing off over some piece of over-hyped garbage they are filling up empty pages with empty-headed lists of the Greatest Ever Movie Garbage We Haven't Thought of Listing Before!

 
At 2:09 pm, Blogger Riddley Walker said...

Gotta say, I hadn’t been anywhere near a copy of Empire in years, but when I last saw one a couple of months back, I immediately thought “Is this supposed to be for adults? Who the fuck is writing this crap?”

Not impressed.

 
At 9:31 pm, Blogger Good Dog said...

I’m probably not surprising anyone by saying that I’m not that impressed with most contemporary mainstream cinema. Then again, the poor bastards are up against some of the best years of television drama ever. But just because the movies are juvenile, should the magazine copy mimic that?

When Will Ferrell and John Candy are labelled as big names in comedy... What the hell? I would mention Steve Martin but I’m trying to remember the last time he was funny. Still, at least they didn’t put forward bloody Ben Stiller.

That said, it really is only the tip of a very toxic iceberg. Very, very unimpressed.

 

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