tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170252982011-09-03T05:18:31.592-05:00The background blog for www.thereviewblog.comDarrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.comBlogger411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1142993222456332952006-03-21T20:56:00.000-05:002006-03-21T21:07:32.336-05:00

We continue with the top ten movie list of 2005, courtesy of renowned movie watcher, collector, and critic, Chuck Fournier. Here's Chuck's number 6 review:The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the WardrobeI've been waiting to see this movie for quite awhile. I had heard of the books before, but had never given them a chance until a special friend of mine talked me into reading them.

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1142992586246038392006-03-21T20:43:00.000-05:002006-03-21T20:56:26.276-05:00

We continue with the top ten movie list of 2005, courtesy of renowned movie watcher, collector, and critic, Chuck Fournier. Here's Chuck's number 7 review:Batman BeginsAfter the horrible failure of Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin, Warner Bros decided to do something unthinkable in Hollywood today - make an unusually smart comic book movie with a lot of depth. In other words, make the Batman

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1142991667657789252006-03-21T20:24:00.000-05:002006-03-21T20:42:32.950-05:00

We continue with the top ten movie list of 2005, courtesy of renowned movie watcher, collector, and critic, Chuck Fournier. Here's Chuck's number 8 review:King KongAcademy award winning Director Peter Jackson has wanted to make this film for a long time. Now, after making Hollywood millions of dollars with the Lord of the Rings trilogy and giving himself quite a name in the process, he's been

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1139954859610139522006-02-14T16:05:00.000-05:002006-02-14T17:07:39.683-05:00

We continue with the top ten movie list of 2005, courtesy of renowned movie watcher, collector, and critic, Chuck Fournier. Here's Chuck's number 9 review:Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the SithThe Star Wars films are the most profitable and most popular movies ever made, and years after the original trilogy was released in the late 70's and early 80's, George Lucas stunned fans by

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1139950884245482212006-02-14T15:47:00.000-05:002006-02-14T16:04:55.863-05:00

Courtesy of renowned movie watcher, collector, and critic, Chuck Fournier, we bring you his top ten movie list of 2005. We also apologize for the lateness of this post. Now, here's Chuck's number 10 review:The Exorcism of Emily RoseI'm not sure what kind of a movie I would call this exactly. There are some horror elements in the movie and I think some people would assume it's a horror movie

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1134563639150344192005-12-14T07:14:00.000-05:002005-12-14T07:37:06.180-05:00

If you've never heard of The Da Vinci Code, then you obviously don't read. The novel has been on best-seller lists long enough for Christians to read it, get upset about it, publish other books refuting it, have their refutations attacked, and then publish more refutations to the refutations of their refutations. Some people get a little upset when you start messing with the story of Jesus, and

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1133564815475093412005-12-02T17:28:00.000-05:002005-12-02T18:12:49.790-05:00

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe opens in North American theatres on December 9th, and for those of you who love movie soundtracks, you may be interested to know that there will be two versions available: One that is music taken straight from the movie itself, and one that is done by Christian music artists, and is listed as being "inspired" by the movie. You can find the Christian

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1133492317000675522005-12-01T21:45:00.000-05:002005-12-01T21:58:37.046-05:00

I have never listened to The Darkness, except what I've heard by them on the radio. With a band and album name like this, you'd expect them to be some sort of death-metal group, but their latest single (and also the title track from their newest album) is upbeat and catchy. I'm not about to do a review of their album here. Like I said, I've only heard what's on the radio. However, I do want to

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1132350218281141972005-11-18T15:44:00.000-05:002005-11-18T16:43:38.320-05:00

Is there anyone else out there who is sick of hearing Photograph by Nickelback on the radio every 8 minutes? I thought it was catchy the first 30 or 40 times, but now, it's become annoying. I don't want to "Look at this photograph" any more.I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that at least once per day, I hear this song being played simultaneously on more than one station at a time, and

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1132315117613826162005-11-18T06:47:00.000-05:002005-11-18T07:02:14.966-05:00

For those of you who have been looking forward to seeing the superpowered man in blue tights and a red cape on the big screen again, the new teaser-trailer for Superman Returns has been released, and can be found at the official site.I gotta say, my interest has been peaked for this film. The trailer shots look beautiful, and the names and budget behind this movie are BIG. Like a basketball

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1131923877765648322005-11-13T18:17:00.000-05:002005-11-13T18:19:09.420-05:00

"See the face of the shape of things to come"As a young child at the dawn of the 80s, I ravenously devoured any film or TV show that would show me space-fights. Star Wars had shown us what was possible, but with home entertainment generally being limited to television, the only shows offering space-fights on a regular basis were Buck Rogers, and Battlestar Galactica. Buck Rogers has,

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1131326497514940712005-11-06T20:08:00.000-05:002005-11-06T20:21:37.533-05:00

There are few bands from the 80s and early 90s whose music stands the test of time. U2 comes to mind, Bon Jovi never went out of style, and, in my opinion, there’s still Roxette.While the age of putting keyboards and guitar side-by-side in the mix has disappeared like hypercolor t-shirts, nobody can deny that for pure catchiness, Roxette had the formula nailed. And so, while I appreciate the fact

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1130908633797904182005-11-01T22:35:00.000-05:002005-11-02T00:22:41.326-05:00

This post is being contributed by my good friend Dave Lapsley. You'll see more of his writing once The Review Blog is up and running. Today, he brings us a review of the PC game F.E.A.R. Pictures have been lifted from Gamespy.Those who know me may recognize that I have, on occasion, spent the occasional decade playing video games. As the years have rolled by, I've noticed that even my video

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1130674328729293212005-10-30T06:35:00.000-05:002005-10-30T07:12:08.770-05:00

This news item is a little late in the delivery, but as they say "better late than never", or "better that Darren post something on this site soon, or he'll lose the 6 regular readers he has". Either one of those sayings will do for this post.The good folks over at Aint It Cool News put up a review last Wednesday for Harry Potter, and the Goblet of Fire. The review was submitted by a reader, and

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1130189054421917112005-10-24T15:24:00.000-05:002005-10-24T16:33:24.876-05:00

This morning as I was driving to work, Cindi Lauper was a guest on a local radio station, 104.5 Chum FM. I'm sure that many of you remember Cindi from her "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" days. I was just old enough to appreciate rock music back then, and just young enough for Cindi to freak me out with her crazy hair and accessories.It seems as though Cindi is stepping back into the modern music

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1130107946669356222005-10-23T17:39:00.000-05:002005-10-23T17:52:26.676-05:00

Sometimes I get dialogue from movies stuck in my brain. It's an added bonus of having a job that is done in solitude. Plus, it drowns out the voices of the leprechans who tell me to cut myself.Anyway, here is the quote that I had in my head the other day from Fight Club:Brad Pitt: Okay, [you can fight] any historical figure.Edward Norton: I'd fight Gandhi.Brad Pitt: [pause] ... Good answer!An

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1129930864187521002005-10-21T16:28:00.000-05:002005-10-21T16:41:04.196-05:00

Ho boy! The newest Narnia trailer has just been released! I found the scoop over at Ain't It Cool News. The more I see about this movie, the more excited I get. The effects look great, especially the animals talking (the effects for which haven't been matched since the movie Babe). I was concerned that Aslan would not sound or look as majestic as he's supposed to, but from this trailer, it

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1129894630287277562005-10-21T06:03:00.000-05:002005-10-21T06:40:04.773-05:00

It's amazing in life when two of your favourite things intersect somehow. Toffee and chocolate in a Skor bar. Video games and dancing in DDR. Beauty and personality in Larissa. And now, Star Wars and Gilmore Girls.On a recent episode of Gilmore Girls, there was this hilarious exchange between Luke and Lorelai about what happened at the end of the latest Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith. I

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1129750999033020562005-10-19T14:43:00.000-05:002005-10-19T14:43:19.043-05:00

For those of you who are interested in the new X-Men 3 movie, the official movie site has been launched, along with a very, very short movie teaser.Let me try to tell you about this teaser without giving anything away. The movie is going to feature a lake, and Wolverine. Or possibly just his hand and claws. Based on the teaser, that's all I can say. Having watched this teaser, I'm going to

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1129689100736374472005-10-18T21:19:00.000-05:002005-10-18T21:31:40.746-05:00

It was just the other day that I was telling a friend of mine that "we need more movies that combine schizophrenic depression, a love interest, sibling rivalry, and math". Lo and behold, here comes Proof.My knowledge of this movie came from having seen the trailer a total of once, and having thought to myself "This doesn't look too bad". I've generally liked the movies I've seen with Gwyneth

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1129264229976915642005-10-13T23:30:00.000-05:002005-10-13T23:41:28.086-05:00

I have a connection to Sheryl Crow. I used to be friends with a girl who got her hair cut by a lady who was married to Sheryl Crow's guitarist. I'm seriously not making this up. The only inside information I picked up about Sheryl through this connection was that "she's short". Admittedly, this info is probably not quite as "inside" as you'd expect with my almost-related-to-her connection. Still,

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1129262015197558402005-10-13T22:54:00.000-05:002005-10-13T23:31:16.936-05:00

During the last few weeks, I've been trying my darndest to find other blogs which are original, intelligent, and entertaining, so that I can begin networking within the blogging community, and also to find potential contributors for The Review Blog. After spending hours wading through streams of cyber-crap, I finally came across a blog worth reading over and over: www.dooce.com This is the

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1129170348351309422005-10-12T21:25:00.000-05:002005-10-12T21:25:48.356-05:00

There are not many men who will admit to enjoying Gilmore Girls as much as I do. It started with the simple (and manly) thought "Wow, those girls are hot", progressed to "Wow, this is one snappy show!", and settled in its present personal mental territory of "I must watch this show every week without fail, despite the fact that I have no television at the moment". My girlfriend tapes the

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128997839848638622005-10-10T21:31:00.000-05:002005-10-10T21:30:39.873-05:00

Before diving into this review of "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit", I should note a few things from the start. First, I had never before seen anything "Wallace & Gromit"-related, ever. Second, I have never seen Chicken Run (made by the same creative engine behind W&G), despite having heard that it was an amazing movie. Third, I have had very little experience with the horror genre of moviemaking,

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128811867856765732005-10-08T17:52:00.000-05:002005-10-08T17:53:54.056-05:00

Harry Knowles over at Aint It Cool News has posted an extremely interesting article, detailing his experience at a movie fest (Fantastic Fest) and his response to seeing 10 minutes of footage from the upcoming movie The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.Looks like this movie is going to be a winner, according to everything people have seen so far. Larissa and I are still in the process of working

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128718341852793482005-10-07T15:44:00.000-05:002005-10-07T15:52:21.860-05:00

It's hard to imagine that a black hedgehog could be classified as "The Ultimate Lifeform", but in the newest release of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series from Sega, this is the situation that is presented to us. The black hedgehog in question is named Shadow, and when he finds himself torn between two opposing factions in an all-out battle, he must decide if he's a "good guy who looks bad", or a "

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128685941522598592005-10-07T06:39:00.000-05:002005-10-07T06:52:21.526-05:00

I spent some time yesterday looking at the words "The Review Blog" through a whole wack of different fonts, and have yet to narrow down my choices to something that works well (maybe I'll post a picture of the different font options here soon). However, I still need to find some kind of logo that might work for a graphic on the masthead of the homepage.In the meantime, I thought that maybe I'd

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128639858178250782005-10-06T17:47:00.000-05:002005-10-06T21:43:01.490-05:00

I just finished typing up the information for what will be the support page for The Review Blog. For those of you just joining us, this post does not relate to the blog you are currently reading, but rather to the blog which I am in the process of designing. Feel free to let me know if anything sounds too kooky. Yes, kooky is a technical term.The Review Blog: SupportIf you enjoy frequenting our

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128599015036847592005-10-06T06:24:00.000-05:002005-10-06T06:43:35.043-05:00

Let it never be said that I don't accommodate the wishes of my fans. Or, if not fans, at least whiny friends. In response to Joel's comment, found here, I've decided to make a quick post about this fine gentleman.I first met Joel, appropriately enough, in cyberspace, before we knew anything about this "interweb" thing, and had to geek-off using other means. The means, back in those days, was

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128541817833603482005-10-05T14:36:00.000-05:002005-10-05T14:50:17.840-05:00

This is the longest and most amazing-looking trailer to come out yet. The more trailers I see for this movie, the more I'm convinced that it was crafted out of pure awesome. A high quality version of this trailer (in Quicktime format) can be downloaded here.This was by far my favourite book, and I'm happy to see that they've spared no expense in producing this movie to the hilt. In fact, this

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128532159817062762005-10-05T12:21:00.000-05:002005-10-05T12:21:10.863-05:00

In keeping with my development goals, I just finished writing up the philosophy of The Review Blog - That is to say, the guildelines which the website will adhere to. It's not short, but I think (in keeping with the philosophy itself) that it's entertaining. Enjoy!Philosophy of The Review BlogLet's face it - Now that we can use the internet to access billions of kilobytes of information about

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128527197312406082005-10-05T10:34:00.000-05:002005-10-05T10:46:37.316-05:00

It's amazing how much I can get planned in my head as I walk around reading meters every day, but how little of that I can retain until I get home from work, and still less that I commit to paper (or text file). The Review Blog has been taking shape in my head for over two months now, and while I have narrowed down the ideas and design to where I want them to be, I still need to write this all

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128512119451576612005-10-05T06:22:00.000-05:002005-10-05T06:45:38.880-05:00

I found this product while checking out a website called Boing Boing. The concept and design of this device is so simple, but the results (from what I've read) are amazingly fun! All that this device does is beep, about once every 3 min. You hook it up to a battery, hide it somewhere, and watch as people agonize over where the sound is coming from! This situation occurs spontaneously, incidently,

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128477791654686032005-10-04T21:06:00.000-05:002005-10-04T21:05:30.016-05:00

I came across this trailer on Twitchfilm.net earlier today, and I had to share it with anyone who likes a good laugh. It seems as though someone decided it would be a good idea to re-work the classic Stanley Kubrick/Steven King movie "The Shining" and create a trailer for it as a family movie.I'm astounded by how well this trailer is put together! It's amazing what taking a few things out of

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128394470561373472005-10-03T21:54:00.000-05:002005-10-03T21:57:56.396-05:00

I just spent the better part of two hours browsing through information about website designers, specifically designers who specialize in blogs. As usual, Problogger was a great help in this regard.After looking at numerous portfolios, there was one design company that seemed to stand above the rest, not only for the design of its own site, but for the cheerful, engaging manner of their

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1128311034777228972005-10-02T22:32:00.000-05:002005-10-02T22:43:54.783-05:00

You'd figure with a title like "Serenity", this movie would be like riding on the back of a gentle swan, as it glides across a placid stream towards a flower-covered riverbank. And that would be true, if you change the words "gentle swan" to "flaming jetliner", "glides" to "hurtles", "placid stream" to "gorge of rabid cannibals", and "flower-covered riverbank" to "hell". And that would be a good

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1127944990469061082005-09-28T16:39:00.000-05:002005-10-05T06:49:33.006-05:00

As I was wandering through Hagersville today, reading meters and running from dogs, I started to dreaming about the future of the Review Blog. How I would love to have a segment where I join a few others (Chuck and Larissa?) and interview people at movie theatres about how they like the movies. The idea started taking shape more and more, as the day progressed...We could interview people before

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1127790264807553092005-09-26T21:47:00.000-05:002005-10-06T13:42:54.550-05:00

I decided today that I will use this page to log my journey in creating my future website, The Review Blog. I've been doing a lot of research online about professional blogging, and though I am by no means an expert, I have learned a lot these past few weeks.A major part of the process is simply becoming familiar with all the lingo, and catching up on what other people have learned already. One

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1127577554224918242005-09-24T10:48:00.000-05:002005-10-05T14:35:19.173-05:00

Larissa and I are currently in the process of watching every episode of Babylon 5 on DVD. I used to be obsessed with this show, and while the obsession has died down lately, it's still nice to be able to share B5 with someone I love, who is seeing everything for the first time. It all feeds into my show-and-tell complex.

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1127445014019358372005-09-22T21:35:00.000-05:002005-09-22T22:10:14.023-05:00

My beautiful girlfriend. She's uber hot.

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17025298.post-1127437049387905292005-09-22T19:47:00.000-05:002005-09-22T20:41:02.693-05:00

Hi Everyone!This is a test post to see what this blogging thing is all about. My actual blog will appear in the near future, and will look much cooler than this one, since I'm going to get some web-savy designer to slap together the coolest collection of html and java that you've ever seen!In the meantime, you can look at this snappy picture of me, and watch as I experiment with this medium and

Darrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12884893566493101105noreply@blogger.com1