Happy New Year! It’s the time of year when we make resolutions for the things we’re going to accomplish in the year ahead and the things we want to avoid. I prefer to focus on the accomplishments, so here is what g14 is aiming to accomplish for the big…the awesome….2007!

1) Fucking Famous in ‘07

2) Make Rudy, Son of Jor-El, kneel before us

3) Bury Cancer Rainbow

4) Get Jeff Laid (even more. In fact, all the time, I’m looking out for you Jeff.)

5) Did I mention Fucking Famous in ‘07?

Cheers to everyone! Let’s get to work!

Hey all. So, it’s time to talk about something close to my heart… editing. Most people here know that I come from an editing background before everything else. So, I’m going to do a quick experiment. I could spend days telling you what film/video editing means to me, but I’m really curious about what people think of when they think of editing. So, give me your thoughts. I’m especially curious about the non-film people’s thoughts.

Fire away.

Hey all!

Just wanted to let everyone know that there haven’t been any new entries lately as we are working hard (and by ‘we’, I mean Brian) to bring you a spiffy new type of g14 blog. Blog 2.0, as it were. Now, I’m not going to tell you the new blog stuff, as I’m sure you can guess what it might be, but it’s going to be cool…

So, in the meantime, until the new blog goes up, I wanted to give a shout out to some of our long lost peeps that have helped out with g14 through the years.

First up…Red. A beautiful young girl whose name I can never spell correctly, Corinne was one of the first big supporters of g14. She was in the very, VERY early g14 production Strangers In Paradise, and did a wonderful job that the creator of the book to a liking to. Every once in a while she’ll pop up and say hi and I know that we all look forward to the day that we’ll be able to work with her again. Red, come on here and tell people what you’re doing, and when you’re going to come back and be in something again!

Okay…everybody say hi to Corinne! Also, if you get the chance, I had the opportunity to play an extra in this weeks episode of Galacticast! I have no idea what the scene is about…but I am very man pretty in it. And I know that’s what makes the ladies swoon…

Commence swooning now…

Matthew

Hey all,

Just wanted to post a quick thing and let everyone know that this year marks the 25th formal anniversary of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Although it is considerably less visible now, AIDS is still a major problem, not only in the United States, but especially around the world. With literally thousands and thousands of new infections each year in the US alone, it is a problem that is tragically prevelant.

Now, if you know me, you know that I am generally not very preachy. I hate with a fury the idiot forwards that people send out, rallying for some movement about this, that, and the other. Also, I tend not to promote stuff outside of the g14 work that I do, because I’ve just never really been a, “Gooooo, Company I’m working for!” kind of person. And I’m trying not to do that too much with this post. However, if you are so inclined, please visit:

http://aids25.ogilvypr.com/

Now that I’ve broken one of my rules, let’s go ahead and break the other. I’m not asking you to give money, I’m not asking you to go to a rally, I’m not asking you to do anything at all. I’m offering you the chance to share your stories. You can share your stories on the Ogilvy site, or you can share them here. Just…talk about it. Don’t ask for people to do anything, just talk. One of the greatest opportunities I think that we have with g14 is to give people the chance to tell stories. So please, tell your story.

Don’t ask for people’s support, don’t try to have people sign a pledge, don’t try and convince people of political views, none of that. Just tell your story. When the story is powerful enough, people will make their own decision to do what they can do.

Tell your story.

Matthew

Wow. So that was X-Men 3: The Last Stand. And this is my review.

To start with, when it comes to the X-Men, I’m your worst nightmare. I can barely remember my middle name most of the time, but I could probably tell you the content of every single one of Chris Claremont’s original run on Uncanny X-Men. I still remember a lot of events in my life by what issue of X-Men I bought that day. Seriously, some scary shit. So, I was really pretty delighted with the way Bryan Singer handled the first two X-films (that’s films, to the X-Treme! SNIKT SNIKT! BAMF!).

I’m going to warn you up front– Matthew is going to disagree with me on this, so I’m going to make an effort to write an intelligent, mature review. So I’d like to start out by saying “THPPPPT!!!!” to Brett Ratner.

X3 could have been a decent film. It was rushed to market in an apparent effort to beat DC comics new Superman film (helmed, oddly enough, by Bryan Singer) to market. And it shows. The script needed a big old polish– the dialogue was piss-poor and the plot lacked subtlety. Things happened, just so they could happen.

Okay, now on to the spoiler portion of this. So, if you intend to see this film, and want to be surprised by what’s coming, don’t read any more.

If you consider the X films to be a trilogy, then I actually applaud the balls that Marvel had to kill off some major players (sort of) in the X-Men pantheon. Cyclops death at the hands of Jean Grey should have a GREAT deal of emotional resonance, yet they barely even touched on what impact that had on her character, much less on the rest of the X-Men.

The death of Prof. X was one of the more emotional points of the film to me, and I actually think it was probably the high point of the whole thing. I just wish they had capitalized on it a little more.

So, that’s the positive part of my review. Now on to the rest. Remember how I said that the movie was rushed to market? Well, it shows. A great example is a scene where Magneto has just ripped the Golden Gate Bridge in half and used it to go from the mainland to Alcatraz so that his mutant army can cross and get to the Maguffin. It’s broad day-light. In the VERY NEXT CUT, it is full night. No indication of anything having held up the mutant army crossing the bridge. Nope, it’s just night-time. So, in an effort to help “bridge” this continuity gap for our loyal readers, I’d like to propose the following scene for the Director’s Cut:

MAGNETO (to Phoenix): You know what? These X-Men have kind of fucked with us in the last couple of films. Let’s do something to mess ‘em up just a little.

PHOENIX: How about… you know, in the comics, I ate a sun orbitted by a planet populated with people that look like broccoli, so how about I…

MAGNETO: Jesus Christ, woman. Just make it night or something. Wolverine will piss himself. The best at what he does, my ass.

PHOENIX (grumbling to self): I knew I should have stayed dead. I got better treatment from Chuck Austen.

Awwwww… sweet continuity editing.

On to other things: a number of friends geekier than I (I’m looking at you, Ho) have pointed out some differences between the comic and the film. Such as Juggernaut isn’t a mutant in the comic. Leech should actually be a GREEN bald kid with little lighter green warts all over his head and a pink buddy who can’t talk but projects his thoughts as pictures in the comic, and is just a bald kid in the movie. Or that… wait a minute. I think we have bigger problems than all that. Like the dialogue for example. Pretty heavyhanded, you say? Who am I to disagree, old friend?

And the music? Usually, I only take note of good music, and mediocre music just washes over me and I forget it before the movie is even over. Surprisingly, this really stuck with me. It was baaaaaaad. If you have any questions, reference the scene where Angel flies away after leaving daddy-dearest’s evil clutches. I’m not actually entirely sure why Angel was in this movie. It kind of felt like fluff.

Ok. I’m done ranting now. Matthew, please bring a counter-point to the table. Anyone who has seen the film besides myself, please chime in. Dave, be funny. Kelli, pretend you’ve seen it, and make something up.

The End…Or is it?

That’s right, stick around after the credits and you’ll see the most gratuitous little piece of film that’s been around in a while. Remember where I said that killing Prof. X was the most emotionally resonant bit in the film. Well, I guess not. Or is it…?