Join the Navy!

Long time no see! Well, finding content was difficult, but here's something to take into perspective.

The timing of the film I will mention is absolutely uncanny. It emphasizes my belief of how the US government loves to use Hollywood as a brainwash army recruitment agency. Now bear in mind that I have yet to watch this film, but seeing the trailer has made me want to write about it already. It seems the United States really is getting ready for a war with Iran.

If you've read my previous blogs concerning some films out there, you'll notice how I mention military propaganda in Hollywood movies; sometimes specific to contemporary issues. I believe that Hollywood uses military scenes (sometimes useless for the plot) in order to brainwash the youth into regarding the military highly and therefore make it a favorable move to join it. If we look at all the Marvel movies so far we can see the military involved in all of them. Even the past few Transformer movies have not been left alone. Mohammed Ali's draft evasion and public refusal signaled the path to ending conscription and army drafting. The United States needed a new way to keep people joining the army. This movie, 'Battleship', seems to do the same thing, except here it focuses mostly on the US navy.

Now probably the one thing that the US army flaunts is its marine corps, and then the air force. The navy very rarely get a focus in films. How likely is it, knowing the ideas I brought up above, that the United States is looking to recruit more people for the navy knowing it will need a large human capital to face the Iranian Navy that would allegedly block the Strait of Hormuz? "The Battle for Earth begins at sea" really? Make a whole movie about the US Navy fighting an Alien race? Aliens couldn't think of a better way to invade earth?

Let me know what you think!

Made us proud!

Last night's Arsenal performance was sublime! It's just real sad that they couldn't go an inch further and go through. Man of the match for me had to be Tomas Rosicky, he was the real engine in the midfield and every time he had the ball you felt something could happen. A very close second has to go to Alex 'The Ox' Oxlade Chamberlain. I just wish we could play with the same passion and focus at every game. 

The effort put in was stupendous and I couldn't believe there were no critics on that night. The players did us proud despite the exit. They must be ruing the performance they had away and it will be difficult to find the spirit needed for the next couple of days after an effort such as that. It's been a great past month for Arsenal. Let's hope they can keep it up til the end of the season; got to get on ahead of Tottenham.

Swans soar as Arsenal slump

Honestly, I don't know what to say. Going one-nil up at the 12th minute and the pressure that was being played showed that Arsenal might have a stroll in the park with this game. Maybe that was the problem. Arsenal ended up losing the game away to Swansea City 3-2 with a good display of football from the home side.

After a penalty for the home side, and by the time they were 2-1 up, Arsenal seemed to have some tired legs in midfield, which is astonishing considering they've had a week to prepare. Song was below par, and with the absence of Arteta due to injury, Ramsey was unable to shoulder the entire midfield. The men in front of the back four were exposed and made it difficult for the defence; especially considering our full backs are not accustomed to their positions. You can tell Ignasi Miguel was struggling with the pressure from the, not surprisingly, dangerous wingers that Swansea has. Ignasi's continuous clearing of the ball in simple situations showed he wasn't prepared to handle the ball under pressure. Arshavin's substitution with Henry was a mistake in my opinion, a man who has a "20 minute fitness" , as he put it, is not the kind of player you want to be pressing the ball up front, least not with a team that was running as if they had weights on. Even Walcott's goal for Arsenal seemed like he was struggling to speed up.

For the first time in my life as an Arsenal fan, I'm pissed off more than sad at a loss. Is it a question of the quality of the players? or is it just the problem of full backs we've been having? or maybe it all comes down to the management. If things don't improve for the next game, we might see another thrashing from Man Utd; this time at the Emirates. Credit goes to Swansea though, they were into the game more than we were and certainly played better.

New posts coming soon...

I know it has been a while but I just haven't been in the groove lately. Ranting about movies isn't cutting it for me. I'm trying to figure out how to start a proper podcast and place it here. I've ordered some of the equipment so let's see how it goes.

For those of you who keep coming back to check new stuff, THANKS ALOT! Really appreciate it.

For now, its a see you soon!

France bans all public prayer

It has become state law in France to ban all public prayers. As of Friday 16th of September 2011, no prayers shall be conducted in public. This move has brought up a lot of controversy in the country as the main religion affected is the Islamic faith; a faith that is widely believed by its followers to be targeted by right wing European governments.

A link to the Al Jazeera coverage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ne-pT9XjnE&feature=feedu

Muslims gather to pray 5 times a day, their maximum numbers are often during Friday noon prayers; the numbers which exceed the capacity of their masjids and thus pray outside in public. The move is seen by many to be targeting those who over-flood the masjids and pray outside, many feel the move is trying to prevent people from praying. Many "religious leaders" have asked the government for more space as the worshipers would not be flooding the streets should there be enough space to pray in. This brings up the notion that if the government does not provide the space nor allow prayer outside then they are effectively preventing people from praying. This along with other moves such as the banning of 'burkas' "for security reasons" is creating a feeling of defensiveness against Islamophobia.

In my opinion, I don't believe that the Muslim community should be bothered too much by this just as they were not bothered by the Burka ban. The move has been placed on all forms of worship and thus should be assumed that other religions must comply. Also, the move is not a direct prevention of prayer. I feel the same sentiments that my brothers and sisters feel: "they're trying to stop us" or "they hate that they see us praying in numbers", this may well be true, but we should not let it get to us. Simply follow the proper procedures and ask for more space, wouldn't it be great to get a grand masjid in the middle of Paris? That seems far-fetched but if that is blocked the true intentions would be clear. European governments as a whole need to understand that Muslims are part of Europe now, the governments are the ones that invited the immigrants! Live together or turn into the Nazis and treat Muslims like they treated the Jews.

It's really just about aliens...

Although a very late release here in the UAE, Cowboys vs. Aliens was the hot movie to watch this week. Unfortunately it was another example of 'Good trailer, Mediocre Movie'. The trailer really gave me a completely different impression about what the movie was going to be like. It was as if the trailer was about a completely different movie. It was such a great concept that was ruined by either bad screenplay or directing; sad to see Spielberg's name on the crew list.

A lot of times in the film you would be led on to believe that some things are going to be important in the movie. For instance, at the beginning we realize that the protagonist (Daniel Craig/Jake Lanargan) is checking the hammer of a gun he picked up, this shows that he knows his guns, but whats the point of showing that if he hardly ever uses the gun in the movie. The movie lost its western element as soon as the Aliens arrived. I was really enjoying the movie up until they began to track the runaway. Craig loses the aura of his character, other characters also lose their initial first impressions, for example, The Colonel was portrayed in the beginning to be a hard and ruthless cattle herder that practically reigns over the town, by the end of the movie ,although ever-present, there is absolutely no sign of that perception in the movie.

I have to say I was disappointed with this movie. I've always told myself to never judge a movie by it's trailer, but I let this one get to me. If you're looking to watch this movie don't keep your expectations high, and if you're not looking to watch it, you're not missing out.

Space Monkeys

So the title is clearly not the perfect one for the movie 'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes', but honestly, when you hear the real title isn't that what hits your head? Monkeys on a planet in space?

Two reasons why my chosen title doesn't fit. Firstly, because the movie is clearly about 'Apes' and not 'monkeys', the movie states that out so people don't get confused, they want to get technical about these things. The second reason is that nothing happens in space; absolutely nothing, the setting is completely on Earth. Now although the prequel (or sequel?) to this movie can more or less carry my proposed title it still wasn't about monkeys. Unfortunately, I was a little lost as to how both these films' story lines were connected and there were clearly a lot of things that were placed to keep audience in a wow state; clearly illogical though.

I don't care how smart a monkey, sorry, ape can get, even if somehow it manages to get a virus like the one in the movie, it can't learn to be an ace disk thrower, javelin thrower, and pro horse rider, in a matter of minutes. Contrary to the principle of the movie, that the apes are smarter, jumping through windows is not a very smart thing to do, especially if you're jumping from stories high. I understand that apes are capable of landing safely from high places but honestly I don't think they'd make it from 7 stories high.

A final note: the concept of the film was believable, monkeys would be capable of a lot of things had they become much smarter, but I personally believe that no matter how smart an animal can become, there is no way it could overcome instinct. Although apes do move in packs (chimps hunt in packs), I don't believe gorillas are able to overcome their dominant instincts and follow the lead of chimpanzees. It's also hard to believe that there wouldn't be any internal struggle among the chimps.

Also the movie slogan sucked... 'Evolution becomes Revolution' come on, really?

12/9/2011 Edit: I forgot to mention that I still thought it was a fun movie to watch : P