vinyarb

Even Sony staff hates Adam Sandler films

By now, you must have heard of the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack back in November. Sure, a lot of personal information like salaries, social security numbers, and very very personal emails were leaked.

But enough of the superficial stuff. Here at vinyarb, we’re concerned with the hard hitting, impactful news, like how Adam Sandler is universally disliked, even by the very studio that ships his films.

In a file innocently titled “Soney_2012_Comments”, a raw dump of employee feedback contains these gems about Adam Sandler, and the movie making decisions backed by the Studio in general:

“In TV and Theatrical, I hope management looks closely at the money spent on development and term deals to ensure efficiency. There are a lot of term deal personnel as well as creative personnel, yet http://thehistoryhacker.com/th1s_1s_a_4o4.html we only release a dozen or so Columbia Pictures a year, for example. And will we still be paying for Adam Sandler? Why?”

There is a general “blah-ness” to the films we produce. Although we manage to produce an innovative film once in awhile, Social Network, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we continue to be saddled with the mundane, formulaic Adam Sandler films.

Ouch.

Here are more details on the hack.

Also, if the Sony staffer thinks that films adapted from novels represents innovation, I think we all have the answer on why Sony is on the outs.

Entertainment Comments Off

Happy Father’s Day!

Nov

I celebrated Father’s Day on the 28th October, 2014, as we welcomed our little bundle of joy, Oliver, into this world.

Even penning this down, two weeks into parenthood, I’m still awed with a flood of emotions, ranging from elation, bliss, fear of being responsible for an entire human being, pride, and of course relief at discovering that hey, I too can wrap a mean swaddle.

Exhibit A – A Mean Swaddle

It’s a whole new phase involving lots of sleepless nights, tired bodies, and yet, it’s something that enriches me more than anything I’ve done till date. Watching his every emotion and facial expression as he sleeps, is more exciting than X-Men: Days of Future Past!

Feeding him, changing his nappies (incidentally, this naughty boy constantly poops when we are changing him), and then patting him to sleep has become a routine, and even though it’s been less than two weeks, I feel myself improving exponentially and getting much better at handling him. It’s like I’m living Edge of Tomorrow, PG version.
Feed. Sleep. Repeat

It’s been a thoroughly exciting ride so far, and we’re only two weeks in! Stay tuned for more updates!

Being Daddy, Musings Comments Off

ALS Ice bucket challenge

Aug

Thanks to all the celebrities doing it the past few weeks, you must have heard of the ALS Ice Bucket challenge by now. Celebrities have taken the challenge by storm, and in the process, helped raise awareness and fundraise for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), a progressive neurological degenerative disease for which there is currently no cure.

A quick search on ALS ice bucket challenge will yield you videos ranging from Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Chris Pratt, Jimmy Fallon, Taylor Swift, Chloe Grace Moretz and many more taking the challenge, and in turn issuing their challenge to keep the viral factor going.

Here’s Chris Pratt

Bill Gates (as challenged by Mark Zuckerberg)

And here’s Lady Gaga doing the challenge the only way she knows how (creepily)

I think using the power of celebrity to raise awareness, and raise funds to fight ALS is brilliant.

Not to take anything away from this campaign, and I may be (or probably am) totally off-base here, but I’d like to bring to your attention another deadly and rare disease.

order Aurogra online no prescription Multiple System Atrophy (MSA)

Multiple System Atrophy, like ALS, is a neurological degenerative disorder. Like ALS, there isn’t currently a cure, and likewise, the prognosis is poor. ALS affects roughly 2 in 100,000 people. MSA roughly 4.6 in 100,000 people. It’s been almost 2 years since my mother was taken by MSA, and experiencing firsthand how debilitating this disease is, I really hope for a breakthrough in finding a cure for this horrible disease.

Taken apart, they’re both considered rare, but together, their fatality rate makes one sit up and take notice. I may be simplifying things, but since both are neurological degenerative diseases with similar symptoms and conditions, will a breakthrough in one study help with research in the other?

Is it worth thinking about pooling efforts, sharing research and working through this together?

Update: Here’s a bonus. Lotame’s very own VP of Client Success Zach Boisi getting iced!

Musings Comments Off

All the Google search ads you’ve clicked

Jul

Google remembers everything. Even the search ads you’ve clicked on in the past.

All the Google ads you’ve ever clicked: https://t.co/7YjvyBHsik

— Dan Frommer (@fromedome) July 3, 2014

Sometimes, it’s interesting to look back on the ads you’ve clicked, and see the kind of story it paints your life, as you search for your answers through Google. Here’s my ad click history over the past year.

I started the year planning a trip to Margaret River, hence the rental car. Post the awesome trip, I started wondering what a home would cost me there. I then became interested in COE prices, as I started taking note of car prices and insurance costs.

What’s your ad-click history?

To see yours, simply go here, and sign in.

Digital, Marketing Comments Off

NCPG loses

Jun

National Council on Problem Gambling Singapore bets big against Germany in a banner to warn against excessive gambling.

Loses.

Yay! Daddy say tonight go W Hotel Staycation!

Musings Comments Off

Edge of Tomorrow

Jun

Live. Die. Repeat.

Sounds like something a FlappyBird player goes through every other minute. But this is the tagline for Tom Cruise’s latest sci-fi actioner Edge of Tomorrow. Playing against stereotype, Cruise stars as Major William Cage, a United Defense Forces PR man, who spends his days speaking and recruiting young men to join in the 5 year fight against an alien species known as Mimics.

A coward at heart, he tries to excuse his way out of combat duty when ordered to cover Operation Downfall (their latest and final salvo against the aliens) from the frontlines.

Forced into combat, he dies within minutes of being airdropped, right into a mimic ambush. Right before he dies, he kills an unusually large Mimic, in the process getting acidic Mimic blood all over him. Instead of reporting to the Pearly Gates, Cage finds himself waking up the morning before, and having a really dreadful sense of de javu.

He tries to warn the rest of the soldiers of the ambush, fails and dies. He tries to save another soldier from being crushed by a plane, succeeds and dies. He does this a few more times, getting the hang of rebooting each time he dies, gets a little farther each time, and comes into contact with Rita Vatraski (Emily Blunt).

even though we’re in the midst of losing a 5 year battle with an alien species, my hair still looks perfect

She seems to know why he is afflicted with this ability, and they start training, making use of his new found ability against the Mimics.

Just like playing a game, they learn things the hard way, and improve stage by stage until they complete the tasks required. And just like playing a game, many times when we get to the end, we go “that’s it?”.

Yes, unfortunately, this rather awesome film has a super “meh” ending, which mars an otherwise enjoyable flick with great pacing, humour and action sprinkled throughout.

Rating: 8/10

He ain’t heavy, he’s my battle suit

The battle suits you see Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt wear, weigh an average of 39kg! Between takes, the actors needed to be suspended by chains to help take the weight of the suits off their shoulders.

You don’t happen to have a kitkat, do you?

Movie Reviews alien invasion, all you need is kill, emily blunt, movie reviews, tom cruise Comments Off

Godzilla (2014)

May

I’m a huge fan of monster movies. Cloverfield, loved it. Pacific Rim, stupid actors, awesome sequences, loved it. The trick to watching these kaiju films, is really to just embrace the fact that there will be things out there that we can’t explain, and when the time comes when these things come out of hiding, run.

There is no explaining, there is no plotting, there’s just enjoying seeing what monsters do best. Destroy stuff. Stomp on stuff. Without a care to any humans whatsoever.

There are times in the movie where you’ll feel like it doesn’t make any sense. Questions like “Why does Godzilla not eat the MUTOs?”, “Wait, is he really just killing them for us, and then jumping back into the sea?”, and “Is he the… hero?”

There are no heroes and there are no villains. There are just… monsters. And watching it this way makes the movie better.

Sorry, need to floss

Watch Godzilla like we’re ants watching a dude hunt a lion

Now let’s put us into the perspective of ants. There we are, walking in and out of our ant mounds, doing what ants do all day to keep busy, harvest nuts and food and aphids, and basically going about securing the mound from what we ants call “floods”. Now, all of a sudden, a monster appears, galloping at high speeds, and destroying many of our surrounding and cities. It bellows a deafening roar, shakes its monstrous head, plonks it’s huge mass of a body down, and destroys 3 more mound entrances. The science ants nickname it a “lion”.

Us ants are all panicky, and totally out of our depths in dealing with this disaster. We can only run and burrow and hope our loved ones somehow make it, and we’ll find one another someday. When from the distance, we spy another strange monster, this one with only two legs and taller. It approaches pointing a long antenna at the “lion”. The antenna emits a searing blast, and the “lion” falls on its back, grunting its last breath.

The new monster doesn’t come forward to eat the “lion”, but instead utters a triumphant roar. It then proceeds to turn its back, make its way into the mouth of yet another mechanical looking monster with round shapes for legs, and goes off into the distance together, never to be seen again.

See, it didn’t make any sense to the ants neither.

Would have loved for it to have more Bryan Cranston though.

Rating: 7/10

Movie Reviews godzilla, movie reviews Comments Off

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Apr

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the second to last film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before they bring down the curtains on Phase II with Avengers: Age of Ultron.

As the slate of marvel films go, this is definitely one of the better films. Capt assimilates into modern life while catching up on the last few decades with the help of the internet, by checking off a list including Star Wars / Trek, Apple, Thai food, Moon Landing and I Love Lucy. Cute.

Scarlett Johansson has a lot more lines in this movie. A lot more dialogue too!

In between catching up on history, he also takes time out to complete missions for S.H.I.E.L.D, and engaging in idle chatter with Black Widow on potential hot dates within the agency. Alas, this isn’t a romantic comedy, and evil lurks just around the corner. As S.H.I.E.L.D prepares to launch 3 new top of the line helicarrier with pre-emptive strike capabilities (think Minority Report’s pre-cogs, except each pre-cog is a fully weaponised helicarrier), able to predict using algorithms when anyone might turn rogue, or pose a threat to the establishment.

With the possibility of S.H.I.E.L.D compromised, the new weapons landing in the wrong hands become a very real possibility. When Nick Fury is taken out, and hands Steve Rogers with the heavy responsibility of finding out the truth, who can he trust? More questions get unearthed as old friends and foes arise. Who is the winter soldier? What forces are hiding behind S.H.I.E.L.D? Where the hell are his Avenger friends when he needs them?

At least 2 of these questions will be answered by the movie’s end.

And as usual, stay back for 2 stingers after the credits roll.

Rating: 9/10

Winter Soldier, Easter Egg!

Remember the scene where Steve Rogers whips out his notebook and we see the list of cultural references he means to catch up on?

Well, this list is different in different countries!

Check this out.

This is the US version with I Love Lucy.

And this is the UK version with Beatles and the 1966 World Cup Sean Connery instead of Steve Jobs.

Apparently, the Korean version of the film has the legendary reference to “Old Boy”.

Movie Reviews Comments Off

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