Ravings of a Cheerfully Angry Ranter- Reverse Discrimination

 David Hollingsworth is a friend of mine and a fellow member of the Cabbage Stack Kids. When he is not busy trying to save the world you can find him on his blog Flying Knees, Politricks, Cheerful Existentialism. Here is his first guest spot on my blog which I am going to title Ravings of a Cheerfully Angry Ranter. Enjoy!

Hello, readers of Ravings Of An Angry Ranter.  It is I, Punchline, the one responsible for Flying Knees, Politricks, Cheerful Existentialism.  You may be wondering why I would be doing a guest spot on this blog when neither of our blogs have a particular subject matter, and therefore there isn’t any particular subject that warrants me writing a guest spot.  The answer is that my blog has a more comedic and laid back style.  This blog is for angry ranting, and that is what I am here to do.

This post is dedicated to everyone who cries about “reverse discrimination” when called out on their racist, sexist, homophobic, or any other type of discriminatory bullshit.  This will not be like my last blog about “nice” guys, where my tone is more playful and constructive.  The tone of this one will be more along the lines of “fuck” and “you.”  And that’s why we are here on Nick’s blog.

More Fuck Less You

So, first and foremost, if you think when someone calls you out on your bullshit is “discrimination against the discriminator, and therefore equally bad,” a big, hearty “fuck you” is in order.  You are so inadequate at living that you feel the need to bring down the rights of others, and you are so inadequate at rational thought you think someone calling you out is them “oppressing” you.  Anthropologists will someday study you as irrefutable proof that we came from lesser beings.  And, speaking of anthropology, it takes an Australopithecus with a severe concussion to talk to you on your level, which is why I am not wasting my time.

You have the right to believe its okay to take away the rights of others, and should definitely have the right to express this- in fact, I wholeheartedly support this right because it lets me know whom I could still talk to if I ever got a lobotomy, was given a book by Glenn Beck, and wanted to find someone I could connect with.  But I’m supposed to “respect” this backwards ass opinion?  I’m supposed to smile and nod about the fact you want to deny the rights of people who just want equality and if I deconstruct what you say, I’m being rude?!

Clearly a Reasoned Argument

No.  To quote one of the wisest minds of our time, “eat a sack of baby dicks.”  If I explain to you why your racist bullshit is racist bullshit, why your sexist bullshit is sexist, etc, that is also my right to free speech.  Free speech means no legal consequences for your actions and your well being not being jeopardized by what you say.  It doesn’t mean you can say what you want without any sort of consequence or response from anyone.  In fact, wanting that to happen is infringing on their rights to free speech!

Continuing that train of thought, if other non-shitty human beings decide that, “hey, maybe we shouldn’t associate with someone who believes in this bullshit,” that’s not even close to the same thing as what you want to do to the people you hate for no valid reason.  This is for two crucial reasons.

The first is that by choosing to not associate with you, they are actually not taking away your rights at all!  You still have all the rights and privilege you had in the beginning.  None of that is taken, not even a little bit.  Nowhere in the law books does it say “you have the right to multiple state mandated friends no matter how shitty your outlook as a person is.”  You can still go outside without being arrested for what you said.

The second reason is because being a shithead is not an integral part of who you are.  Your skin color, whether or not you have a Y chromosome, who you are attracted to, etc, are integral parts of who you are that you can’t easily change and shouldn’t need to because there is nothing wrong with these things.  You being a bigoted dipshit, on the other hand, is very changeable.  You could decide not to be one this very instant!

Or wait till your secret comes out

As human beings we have some shitty tendencies hard wired into us, and making certain groups of people “others” is definitely one of those.  But we also have self-awareness, the ability to understand and evaluate ourselves.  We have the ability to be conscious of our beliefs and actions.  Notice how when we want to punch someone in the face, we have the ability to slow ourselves down and say “no, I want to, but this is a bad idea” and not punch them in the face?  You have the same ability to do that with your bigotry right now, tomorrow, or at literally any other point in your entire life!

So yes, your claims of “reverse discrimination” are utter bullshit.  Much like your entire world view.   Now go back to the comment section on Youtube videos and Yahoo! News articles.

Clearly the last beacon of freedom

 I would like to thank David Hollingsworth for his always fun opinion, and we hope he comes back for more rants in the future.

What Have We Learned?

Today is 9/12 which means it has been 11 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11. I like the rest of the people who will read this has not forgotten that day and will probably always remember what I was doing when I saw the news that day. The deaths of thousands of people are always tragic and when done for such a terrible reason just makes it that much worse. However it has occurred to me over the last eleven years that we tend to forget a few things when it comes to big tragedies, the most important of these being the “what did we learn?” aspect of the events.

As a man who has a great love of history, and it is always important for me to put events into perspective. Just think of every tragedy we have ever had, or better yet let us just look at the tragedies that have happened in this country.

No words for this picture

 I’ll start in chronological order:

1898- Sinking of the Maine

More fun then living in Maine

The Maine was a battleship commissioned by the US navy, after being sent out to protect US interest in Cuba during the Cuban revolution from Spanish control. Sadly the ship met tragic end when it was blown up (most likely this was done to create the outrage to go to war with Spain). In the end what we learned here is that the United States was ready to be a major player on the worlds stage and also that certain people in this case journalist had the power to sway popular opinion to war.

  

1915- Lusitania 

All the fun money can buy

I swear every major early tragedy took place at sea, but as it happened the Germans warned the people that if a ship entered British water where they had U-boats stationed they would get sunk. I don’t know if there was a major lesson here but it was the event that helped take us into another war in this case World War One.

1941- Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

I don’t need to explain Pearl Harbor I just need to point out that once again we are being taken into war. Also maybe we learned the consequences of not only blocking out Japan from resources but also moving in on their territory. Also I tend to think about in this time I think about when people tell us about all the rights we tend to have in America. This event lead to us seeing the US government taking the rights of the Japanese-American citizens taken away. Which is another sad reaction to tragedy, our rights being taken away.

You know the funny thing about Pearl Harbor is that it was the biggest tragedy for our country until 9/11 and it seems that it has long since been forgotten by some people. Also a strange pattern I have seen is that these tragedies tend to put us into a state of war. I bring up these three historical events because it shows how often history repeats itself. Also I have to point out that it seems we just never learn do we.

However I did not create this blog for the sake of a history lesson I want to now turn my attention to 9/11. I sit here before you and ask you what have we learned? I can tell you up to this point is seems that we haven’t learned anything. We never stopped and learned why the people attacked us on 9/11 (maybe over 50 years of western occupation of Middle East land), we never asked the questions of what to do next. We never how we should handle this situation, we already had the answer WAR. The only thing we have at the end of the day is what came about due to the events of 9/11. Two pointless wars that sucked out trillions of dollars, and I think most importantly the continuing loss of rights.

Carlin

The death of thousands will always be tragic, but I think in these situations we need to look at the whole picture and see that in the shadows of 9/11 what ended up being more damaging is the loss of rights. The Patriot Act, the Bush presidency using 9/11 to defend warrantless wiretappings, drone strikes without warning. We now live in a world where we have people to fear that the government is always watching them. Sadly though it might be true, we lost life on 9/11 we have lost lives in the two wars and for this struggle to gain revenge what we got in return wasn’t even the oil we were promised. No instead what we were given in return is a big fuck you the American people and the furthering of power for wealthy and the loss of rights for the rest of us.    

For a little more fun of a read please read my Review of Aladdin 

Also try David Zafra's blog on commonly misunderstood movies 

David Hollingsworth and his post about "Nice Guys" 

Finally two episodes of Daves of our Lives with me as the guest again

First, Kids these Days:

Finally Relationships part 2

 

At Least You Hate Your Life

Hello readers, in my world travels (really just Southern California) I notice a lot of trends but the ones that stick out to me the most are witty sayings or phrases. You see I have always felt that we as a species like to grasp on to catchy sayings and stuff cause they are easy to remember and hey everyone else is saying them. And even I over the years have got caught up in these catchphrases, hell you will still find me saying "dude" or "sweet" and when I know I have nothing intelligent to say I will also spout some catchy new age lingo to make someone feel better. But I am not here to talk about those phrases, I have noticed this recent trend by the older generation to say a bunch of seemingly good advice.


 You see there is an issue with a few of these words though, not only are they not really helpful, but they are also are kinda mean spirited and sometimes just downright stupid. Listen we understand that some of you elders have led shitty lives and are now just bitter but hey you still in all your lives could have come up with something a little better to say. I am talking about phrases such as...

1. At Least you Have a Job

We never complained about our low pay either

 This particular phrase tends to follow someone telling another person that there current place of employment sucks Ron Jeremy's dick. The elder statesmen will come up to you and tell you that in this time and age you should just be happy you have a job. Really you maybe saying Nick, this really isn't all that bad really you shouldn't be complaining when a lot of people don't have a job. To that I say hey stranger how did you get into my room, and that's not the point. For the point I will give the floor to Chris Rock:

No witty comeback here

It's not that we are upset that we have to work for a living, and its not that we just want a free handout its that we for the most part are getting paid really nothing to serve assholes all day. It's the fact that we know our job sucks and that we hope that this is motivation to do something better with ourselves. Telling each other that are jobs suck is not hurting anyone its just releasing some frustration on the shitty situation we are in now.

2. Back in my day when something was broke we didn't throw it away...

And look how happy its made them

It never ceases to amaze me how often I find this quote spamming my Facebook. It's almost as if they think that by making there current shitty relationship situation better by looking at the 50s and using social trends of that time to make them feel better. You know at the time divorce was while legal not looked on with any kind of reverence. And its not that I am saying that when a relationship goes sour that you should just brake it apart, what I am saying is that this advice is kinda faulty at best. The people who post these things still think that the quality of something is based on how long it last, be it life or relationships. Sometimes you have a good run with someone things go south and then you go your separate ways. Why would you argue for keeping something going longer then you know it should last. Think people sometimes what works for that aging couple up there is not whats best for you so really stop thinking that your relationship should be bulletproof and just play things by ear.

3. we had ____, they have____

The Depressing Past

The Sad Future

 There seems to be this revisionist history when it comes to pop culture from the past in comparison to the future. A few weeks ago I saw a post that seemed to be bragging that Aaron Carter was vastly superior to Justin Bieber. We will ignore the fact that both of them make terrible music and instead just focus on the stupidity of this argument. Listen we all had stuff from are childhood that we look on with fond memories. Off the top of my head I can list a few; Pokemon, Batman, Star Wars, McDonald's with standards. 

What we tend to do is ignore the fact that not everything from back then was all that great, for every new Pokemon game we still had to deal with Superman 64, and for every time I saw The Empire Strikes Back I have to be reminded that Attack of the Clones exist. And yes I had to listen to Aaron Carter when I was growing up, and now I have to listen to Justin Bieber but here is the thing they both SUCK. The only thing you are saying when you make the claim that one is better then the other is that your taste clearly hasn't changed much over the years. And much like Aaron Carter the only thing we will remember about Justin Bieber is what drug he got addicted to during his inevitable downfall.

Till next time

And after you are done reading this please read my good friend David Zafra's new post about Actors that aren't as good as we think they are. 

And you should still be watching our customer service video on Daves of our Lives

And for more things about about relationships here is this old Daves of our Lives video

F**k you Paul Ryan

Well everyone we are in the swing of things when it comes to the upcoming election and just when you thought that all of the reasons to dislike Mitt Romney had been all used up he went and picked Paul Ryan to be his running mate. Ladies and gentleman there is but one rule when it comes to picking a Vice President, when you are a douchebag you don't pick another douchebag to run with you.

off screen they are laughing at the poor

You see my loyal readers that when it comes to politics most people involved are totally unlikeable assholes. And really for the most part I can not blame them for that, their job involves taking it from behind from big business you tend to understand why these people are hateful bastards.

How I imagine the meetings go

 But just to prove how much of a douche Paul Ryan is lets do a little commentary on what he stands for because really me just telling you this would piss you off so lets have some fun with it.

1. His budget plan that was meant to counter Obama's would allow people like Romney to pay no income tax and pass the burden on to people like us. And really when you get right down to it you kind of understand why he feels this way, he wants to make life a bit easier for the assholes that have led this country to recession. Hell when he took this plan to his district in Wisconsin he was booed. If you can't convince the people that vote for you to go along with your obviously horrible plan then maybe its not a good idea.

2. He once called the Generals that stated they were OK with Obama's defense cuts that they were liars. Which really is like the pot calling the kettle black. Listen if you are ever in a situation where a known liar calls you a liar then you must be doing something right. This really is more about the fact that these people, these Republican assholes are only concerned with the way they view the world, any one who even questions this is a liar or as we have heard in the past not a member of Real America.

Real America from the last election

 I could go on about this guy but I feel that you as the reader can go along and find millions of other blog post and articles about this guy and you would all read the same thing. He is a terrible awful person, if you even considered voting for Mitt Romney before this, then I am sure this selection is not going to change your mind. I didn't even go into the fact that he wants to replace medicare with a voucher program that would not keep up with rising medical cost and would most likely cost us more money in the long run. And that and one point he voted to prevent gay couples from adopting which is an evil on a level I can describe. Mitt Romney has proven time and time again that he just doesn't know how to relate to us on any kind of level. He is a rich dickhead who thinks that the only rule that matters is who ever has the gold makes the rules. He is going to surround himself with like minded assholes who will only further the big business, pro evangelical Christian agenda to the detriment of the rest of us. I am not saying that Barrack Obama is the best man for the job but it seems that at this point we have discovered that Obama may just be the lesser of two evils. Till next time.

Oh and for those who would like to see here is Paul Ryan being Booed:

Also you should check out my guest blog on my friend David Zafra's blog where I review Beauty and the Beast.

Finally check me out on a guest Vlog on Daves of our Lives where we discuss customer service:

Didn't read but I hated it

This isn't really going to be a long article but its something I really need to get off my chest. Recently I did a blog about people who claim that there religion is less a religion and more a relationship with god. For the most part the people who read it gave me so good feedback, along with some interesting responses. However I also got some people who either were pissed off because of what I said or flat out said they were not going to read it. Listen I understand that when it comes to a persons beliefs people can be really guarded and defensive. That's fine and trust me I am not trying to take anything away from those people, but for the people who said they wouldn't read it just because of the title or the description what the Hell?

Truth be told I really didn't attack a specific religion just the way we frame our beliefs in a way that doesn't make sense to me. Every time some one tells me that they have a personal relationship with God I ask what that means and I never get a satisfying answer. That's all I want really someone to give me a decent answer. If you disagree with me fine, that's good, hell that's what I am looking for a good argument. However if you are going to run in fear every time someone says something you don't like then you have stopped listening and have just accepted one version of what you think is the truth. So the next time you read something you don't like instead of just saying you don't want to read it just based on the title, how about not getting offended and read it. You never know you might just learn something.

Personal Relationships with Who?

You know when I discuss religion with people and before you even say it I know you are thinking "oh Jesus he isn't gonna talk about religion again is he" and it is of course followed with "oh Jesus I am sorry for taking your name in vain" but when I bring it up one of the biggest points of contention I get is me calling Christianity a "religion" they prefer to call it a relationship with god. Its almost as if they are saying hey what Muslims worship is a religion but what we do man that's just something special. It really just makes me think about the concept of personal relationships, hell the way Christians would have you believe going to church is really just a more spiritual form of couples therapy.

Yeah I just don't think the Good Lord listens that well

The thing that gets me all the time is really the idea of saying you have a personal relationship with someone you never met. And before you bitch at me for say that you may have not have met God but you have felt him, guess what? It doesn't count. You know why because you can really only form interpersonal relationships with people you have had contact with. Clasping your hands together and talking to the sky doesn't count. Furthermore you really need to have a conversation with the person you are claiming you have this great relationship with.

Let me ask you this my superstitious friend, how many times has god called you in the last week? How many times has he sent an e-mail to you? Has he sent you any Christmas time family photos with a family newsletter? If you answered yes to any of these then please I have a excellent therapist you have to call now. Really though relationships are built through mutual understanding and through working out differences and forming bonds through things you share in common. I have a relationship with my girlfriend built through an almost year of being together. I have a relationship with fellow bloggers David Hollingsworth and David Zafra due to years of mutual interest. Also helps that I can see them and know that they are real.

At the end of the day really when you say that you have a personal relationship with god you are trying to push away the label of religion. You want what you believe to be so much more then a system of beliefs but really its no different then when I say I have a personal relationship with Batman.

Batman on his way to my house

Its nice to say and its a nice concept to think about but really what we are doing is making ourselves feel better about our beliefs making them bigger then they should be. It goes with out saying that its hard to have a personal relationship with someone that can't be bothered to show up when you really need it. Unless of course you got money then he always seems to be on line one.

Same-Sex Marriage: Really America?

You ever notice that when ever someone talks about same sex marriage in this country we are always willing to give the side of obvious bigotry the same amount of air time as the people who are basically saying hey whats wrong with equality. Originally I myself who had a socially conservative upbringing didn't have a problem with telling off people that I felt were of obvious lower moral standing then myself. However much as how we have evolved for generations as a species so too has my thoughts on this very topic.

To be honest with you when I think about what I used to say and think when it came to same sex marriage I have nothing but disgust for myself, I mean who am I a heterosexual male to tell a homosexual friend that I am somehow superior to them. To be honest when I really sat and thought about it, it made sense that people want to be treated equally, I mean hell as it is right now marriage has a 50% chance of survival from the get go. Yet I see all of these twice or three times divorced "conservative" politicians claim that they hold moral superiority to us when it comes to love and marriage.

This guy above is one of them men who is claiming that his 3 marriages are more sacred then a gay couple who wants to try and make one attempted marriage to work. This asshole who left one wife who was sick for a "better" wife. Yeah forgive me if I don't defer to this guy for advice on family raising.

American Tofu up here is another guy who will claim that marriage is a sacred union between a male and a female. The big thing with Romney is that he like all the others in this country who claim this increasingly outdated belief will state they don't have a problem with gays, its due to there bible which claims that homosexuality is wrong. Funny because they didn't seem to believe the old testament to continue following it. Its just now that they need to selectively pull bible verses to suit their own bigotry.

As you have already read by now President Obama has come out in favor of same sex marriage. Is it a political move, most likely, but at least now the president can finally say he was on the right side of history, because eventually all couples regardless of orientation will gain the right to marry as they should. And when the story is written and the movie is made and the villain is chosen the Social Conservatives will again be vilified for the petty assholes they are increasingly showing us that they are.

I can only hope that in the near future when we have moved on to our next civil rights issue we can look to this as we look to the civil rights movement and finally look at the issue and say hey that's not right. And this time instead of fighting for far too long on "morality" we instead just do whats right.

Till next time.

My Tribute to Rick Santorum

As always my friends and readers who accidently stumbled acrossed this page, I am always a little late to the game. So as you all should know by now Rick Santorum has decided to end his bid to be president of the United States. Now I know what you are thinking, Nick why would you want to give this guy more attention, he is old news, why not bring up Mitt Romney since he won. The anwser imaginary audience is that when you get right down to it Mitt Romney is just so boring

Look at this poor bastard, this man is the human equivalent to Tofu, he has no flavor unless you add some other pieces to it. This I think is a wonderful analogy to his political career, because in Massachusets he was a moderate, but now he feels the need to run away from any history where he has helped people. However I don't want to talk about him I want to talk about Rick Santorum.

Now I am not going to recap this guys whole run, nor the fact that he proves the idea that when America has the choice between Boring and Evil they will always pick boring. But Nick is it fair to call Rick Santorum "Evil." Yes this is a guy who wanted to be our leader, but was living in a reality that fit more the 12th century as opposed to modern times. This was a man who believes that government should stay out of the lives of Americans, but has no problems telling women and homosexuals that their rights are a threat to our way of life. This is a man who doesn't believe in the theory of Evolution, do I need to elaberate on how stupid that is. If you are in a dilema and the choice to get out of it is picking a thoroughly researched solution or "god will save me" then you deserve what's coming to you.

But I think the most telling part of the Evil of Rick Santorum is the fact that even though he claims to be a Christian, but supports the wars in the Middle East, he supports the death penalty, he would rather go to bat for the super rich then help the poor like Jesus would do. If you are sitting at home and wondering how I can call this a tribute save your breath, I gave you the positives of Rick Santorum, this man is and always will be a giant reminder of the people who still run this country, ignorant politicians who steer the ship of state not with a compass but with a belief. The very idea that this man could have gotten elected scared me more the any other thing out their right now. Now we can only hope that boring gets shot down soon too.

Btw you can see yours truly on an episode of Daves of our Lives with fellow bloggers David Hollingsworth and David Zafra visit this link to see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acoN6P8_Des&context=C4e9e02aADvjVQa1PpcFP1EKC28g2vBNRFs2QfIj9HlcAnoHKaE3k=

Till next time

Religious Persecution

You know if there was ever a topic that we can ever agree on its that every one always feels like a victim in this world. Also if there was one topic on this planet that we all have some kind of opinion on is Religion. Well honestly its the topic that we try to mostly avoid and I really don't know why, well I do but hey we should be able to talk about religion like I am able to talk about Batman. This being said I will be the first to admit that in this world we have a lot of religious persecution, Muslims in America can't get around with out being branded terrorist for instance. There is also the fact that Atheist can't get elected into public office due to belief that what someone believes is the most important thing in vetting there guy for office. Cause you know who needs to consider things like qualifications and if the person isn't a crook, cause when I think of a qualified person for office I think the Pope.

Now if you are wondering where all of this is going, I got a story for you, but first a minute for everyone to get comfortable.

So I was sitting in class the other day, speech class to be exact, but in this case we were talking about picking subjects for speech when we got towards the end we had a guy who wanted to talk about Christianity. Now as a long time atheist when this comes up I tend to block it out but this guy insisted on going on and on about how he can argue about the truthness of Christianity and when asked if he recognized other religions he said I do but that they were WRONG. You know there are so many things that could be said but lets move on. The next guy said he wanted to talk about the United States becoming a country that persecutes Christians. I knew then that I could never talk about movies again and that this was always going to be my calling.

Listen you want to talk about religious persecution in our country thats fine but don't for a minute assume that just because we don't want to live in a theocracy that tells us that if we don't convert we die, you know like Iran, that doesn't mean we are trying to keep down Christians. You want to know the number 1 indicator that the christians are going to be just fine in this country? When these guys:

Are still allowed to preach their kind of hate and get away with it then Christians are doing just fine. And trust me we know that in places in the world where Christians can't talk freely about their beliefs but America is not one of those places. Hell you guys make up 80% of the population of the country and anyone who wants to be in politics has to say they are a person of faith.  I guess what I am trying to say is you guys run the show, enjoy it and stop bitching. Till next time

Academy Award Rant: with guest blogger David Zafra

 Good Day ladies and gentleman. Two weeks ago the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science released the nominees for the Academy Awards. Well not all of us were really happy and no person personifies this hate the David Zafra of the blog philm-with-dzafra.blogspot.com who has been so nice as to rant for us on the Academy Awards.

Here we are ladies and gentleman our first guest blog.


Unfortunately for me I ranted before, and didn't save it. Since then my anger has slightly dissipated, but all I have to do is look at that shity list of best picture nominations to feel angry again.

"But David, didn't you like Moneyball, The Artist and Midnight in Paris"?

Why yes I did "imaginary guy", but we have a much larger probllem at hand and that problem is: the Academy is regressing! You may be asking

"Why do you say that"? To which I respond with the question,

" What did the subsequent two years have that no other year has had"?

To which I answer,

"AWESOME MOVIES"!

Every year has some really good movies, but the last two years had a great range of different genres and styles. Nothing delighted me more than seeing the critics putting Inception in the same list as The Kings Speech or District 9 vs An Education. As Peter Travers stated in his most recent rant on the Oscars, the new number of nominations were supposed to made to add popular movies to the mix.

What doesn't make sense to me is that the Academy seemed to want to try something different in an attempt to either a) try something new to catch up to the times or b) attract a different audience. I assumed "b" was the reason they hired James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host last year.
"This is what the kids are into, right"?

The list of best picture nomination would have been fine if they had stuck with 5 movies that were expected. Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris, Hugo, The Artist, and Moneyball, were all movies that the critics had been talking very well about, and would have made an acceptable list; give or take The Descendants. Even add The Descendants, (which I didn't like, but the critics did) and make 6. However the last 3 or 4 nomination should have been given to films that actually mattered. The Help did well, so it makes sense, though other movies did much better. And The Help would be fine, if it wasn't clear Oscar bait. But then add two other Oscar bait movies? War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close were not popular enough with viewers or critics to be nominated for a best picture award. It really doesn't make any sense. I loved Moneyball too, but it was enough of an Oscar bait movie, that we didn't need the other ones when they could have been replaced with something DIFFERENT.
I hate you

It's like the Oscars stopped trying to avoid the stereotype and chose to accept it instead. I don't get why. I ignored the Golden Globes the best I could and assumed that the Oscars would come around and do much better. Boy was I wrong. I know I'm repeating a lot of the same complaints that have been going around, but the real disappointment is not that the Oscars are bullshit, because we always knew that. It's that they picked a bunch of stupid movies to TRY to impress us with how relevant they were, but ACTUALLY ruined their credibility. There's plenty of movie-smart-non-critics that would rather see Drive nominated than Extremely Loud, and that's the audience that is being pushed away. So fuck you Oscars. Fuck you for picking movies you THOUGHT people liked, instead of picking movies like Drive, 50/50, Harry Potter or Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I don't much care for the other categories either, but I feel like I made my point.

Beauty and the Beast in 3D

You know every now and then in my rants I like to pause my Incredible Hulk anger and talk about movies that I like. You may be asking but Nick you haven't really been angry since Transformers. To that I reply how did you get my email address and then you tell me I have been following you on Facebook. We have all be there, man makes blog, girl reads blog, girl falls for man, man tells girl he has a girlfriend and then you have a stalking incident.

We have all been there guys. That is not what we are here to talk about today though. I have just returned from seeing Beauty and the Beast in 3D and while I have issues with 3D I am going to forgo that today and instead focus on the content.

Now again for a little honesty I love this movie, for me this is the greatest traditionally animated film that has ever been made. The music, the story, the colors, the atmosphere and really what else could you want from an animated film. I really was afraid that going into this movie that it would start to show its age. For instance when I left the Lion King I really felt that this movie that I had loved so much was less an amazing spectacle and more a stardard childrens movie. I am glad to say that this movie 21 years after its orginal release it is as amazing as it was when I first saw it when I was 6. The 3D was not distracting and mostly used to bring out the background .

It really is great on Disney's part to instead of adding a bunch of useless new scenes and stick to the classic (I'm looking at you George Lucus). I really could go on and on about this movie but really I don't need to. If now you haven't seen Beauty and the Beast you have no right to judge animated films. Its on of the few animated films that can hold its own against the new Pixar CGI films. If you have a night to spend with a date or with Family go and see this movie, or do what I am going to do and go buy it.

Original Score: 10/10
Todays Score: 10/10