Tom Butler's Day Off: August 2008

New Jobs

Well it feels like ages since I last did this blog, nearly two week now, but that’s because I’ve been insanely busy working my nuts off in 3 (almost 4) jobs. So why is it that I’m still virtually broke? Oh well. Suppose that’s the price you pay for living in one of the priciest cities in the world (behind Tokyo and Moscow I think). So news on the job front…

Basically I’ve landed the ultimate student job (well for me anyway) at www.rottentomatoes.com which is part of Fox Interactive Media. So basically my new MD is Rupert Murdoch (though I’ve not seen him in the office just yet, probably bump into him with wet hands coming out of the loo, you know how it is). I responded to an advert on www.gumtree.com whilst I was pinging CVs off left right and centre, in a mad scramble to get a job following the post-glasto economic black cloud that had gathered over me. I sent them a CV never thinking I’d get a response, but lo and behold, I did, so following a phone interview, and then a face to face interview, I’d got the gig. So for me, working on a movie review website with the kudos that RT has is just immense. I mean I don’t really get to review any movies myself, but it’s a cool office to work in, and a pearl for the CV. For anyone that doesn’t know, RT is a critics forum, where we compile all the reviews for that weeks movie releases, so you can get an overall picture of whether a movie is any good or not. If a reviewer thinks its good, it’s rated Fresh. Bad – Rotten. So the reviews and ratings are totted up, and the Tomatometer tells you how good the film is supposed to be. Have a look here for an example…

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dark_knight/

So you can see that Dark Knight has been universally praised giving it a tomatometer score of 94%. Certified Fresh!

Here’s an example of a bad movie…

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008689-make_it_happen/

So this has got a score of 17%. Certified Rotten!

So my job is only one day a week, every Friday, and I compile and input all the reviews for all the movie releases, onto the site so you can see what’s fresh and what’s rotten. It’s data entry really, but is quite a laugh reading all the different reviews. Find out new ways of slagging things off from the bad reviews…

“The Mummy franchise now really is dead, dead, dead. It is so dead, it could win gold at the Dead Olympics, establishing a new British and Commonwealth record in the 400m decomposition event.”

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, talking about The Mummy 3.

But also reading reviews for movies that you might not have heard of. The best two movies, according to the reviews, from the last two weeks have been documentaries would you believe.

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/blindsight/

and

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/man_on_wire/

So looking forward to seeing both of those.

Through RT I got to see a preview screening of the new Simon Pegg film “How To Lose Friends and Alienate People”, unfortunately, due to the nature of the business, I can’t actually talk about it in length just yet on here. Lets just say I liked it for now. Shame about the stupid ‘plasticman’ poster!

So to my other job…

I’ve just started working in a very very cheap (drinks and food) pub in East London. I enjoy the job, because its always busy, and I like the people I work with but…

I am a bit conflicted about the nature of the pub. The prices are unbelievably low, probably the cheapest pub I’ve ever been in. You can get a pint of beer for £1.64 in there. It’s that cheap. Now anyone who may know me, knows I have a chequered history with the booze. I am a walking statistic after breaking my foot in a drunken haze last year, and I have a very close family member who struggles with a drinking problem. So it’s a love hate thing. I do enjoy a drink, sometimes too much for my own good, and probably should cut down in a alls honesty. It’s not always a good look for me. My mates and long suffering girlfriend can attest to that. So that’s where my problem lies. I think the drinks are too cheap. There are people who drink in there every day. Behaviour like that just isn’t healthy, and I’m sure the prices pay a part. If the drinks were pricier, they might cut down on drinking, but really they’re just drinking themselves to death. So I feel a bit hypocritical, but what can I do. It’s just a job really I suppose. But I really think this country as a deep ingrained drinking problem. Its widespread, and is damaging on so many levels. We need to have a better educated attitude towards drinking, and I think the government should do something about it. What that is I don’t know, but surely there should be a cap on the price of drinks for a start, and I don’t think raising the drinking to age to 21 would be a bad thing either.

That’s probably the only time I’ll be talking even vaguely politically on here, so make the most of it!!

Batman – Where next?

If you recall, in my Dark Knight review, I lamented the underusage (is that a word?) of Two-Face in the new Batman film. I thought he would have made the ideal choice of villain for the inevitable third movie in the new franchise, and I asked where next? Well it seems all the big movie websites are asking the same thing, with varying suggestions, so I thought I’d chip in my two-penneth.

The Penguin

The general consensus is that Philip Seymour Hoffman is a shoe in for this…

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/895/895689p1.html

I love Hoffman, especially his work in Boogie Nights, Big Lebowski and Magnolia, and there is no doubt about his acting abilities, but is he right for The Penguin? I don’t think so. I also don’t think the Penguin would be that great for the third movie either. His umbrella based crime lord buffoonery just doesn’t sit right with me, and would seem out of place in Nolans Gotham. But if we were to see the Penguin, my shout would have to be…

Har Mar Superstar?

Really only because he totally looks the part, I don’t even know if he can or even wants to act. I just thing he would fit right in, in the sleazy, grimy and crime ridden Gotham of the new Batman franchise.

The Riddler

The Riddler, although a fairly preposterous villain, has great movie potential, obviously with a bit of tweaking here and there. The reports are that Johhny Depp is being lined up for this. Again, Depp is one of my favourite actors, but honestly, I think his output since “Fear and Loathing…” has been weak, my favourite being “Finding Neverland”, and maybe the first Pirates movie. Just too many kooky Tim Burton movies for me. He’s become a cliché go-to guy for quirky roles, so for him to be linked with the Riddler, is fairly predictable. But can he pull off dangerous and threatening? I don’t think so. They might as well just have Jim Carrey back. So who would I like to see? I think it needs someone who can do nerdy/kooky/threatening and edgy all at once, so I’m going to suggest…

John Cusack?

or Sam Rockwell?

Both have the talents to pull it off, and would be good casting decisions in my book. If I had to root for one though it’d be Rockwell. He can do no wrong in my eyes.

The Catwoman

I like the character of Catwoman in Batman. She’s edgy, dangerous, and a good romantic foil for Bruce Wayne and Batman. As a thief though, it’d be tricky to pin a whole movie on her, so as a secondary villain I think it would work. Empire is rooting for Emily Blunt, who I think is a good choice, but a bit too classically pretty for me. There is talk of Angelina Jolie, who probably has the looks, but I don’t think is right for it at this time in her career. I think a good choice would be Rosario Dawson, but she’s already done the hard hooker role in Sin City, so probably a bit obvious. So I’m rooting for…

Zooey Deschanel

She’s got the talent, and the looks, and think would make a good foil for Bales Batman.

There is talk of other characters, and probably it’ll end up being someone else completely different, but for now there are my choices.

Other stuff…

Adam & Joe

Loving Adam and Joe’s BBC6 music Saturday morning show as always. If you’ve not heard it, it’s brilliant, and now award winning too. Check it out next Saturday to hear if our Meatballs video gets a mention. You can listen online, on digital radio, or they offer ‘listen again’ all week on BBC iPlayer. There is a podcast too, but I’d recommend the whole show, because the music is so good too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/adamandjoe/