About The Site

TCB, right here, right now, taking care of business. The sixes, that process of elimination is really cutting things down and there are some things that will be left with a spot, and some that will not appear at all. It’s go time!

Top Ten Movies
6. The Thing – remake – Why don’t we just wait here for a little while… see what happens…
For years this movie sat as the pinnacle of what movies should be for me. It was my favourite for so many reasons. Firstly, the effects just rock the shit, pure and simple. People melt and explode in all different forms, with no set piece repeated. Then the other main reason was Kurt Russell’s MacReady, one of the coolest guys to ever walk across the Antarctic ice, possibly even the coolest. No one is safe, not even the dogs, and you can’t help but feel trapped with these guys with no rescue and no way to know what’s going on. The blood testing scene shows that once upon a time John Carpenter really was a master of his craft. This remake was such an improvement on the original, but I don’t see this ever possibly being remade better. It is just a shame that the movie got shitcanned by critics at the time, as this was clearly better than the other cinematic alien of 1982.

Top Ten TV Shows
6. Arrested Development
I got onto this show very late, a by product of living in Australia where good stuff like this just takes way to long to get to us. It did not take me long to catch up as I smashed every season in a matter of weeks. It is just so bloody well written, with some jokes being so perfectly placed and timed. I think that Jason Bateman was a great choice, as I have always been a fan of Teen Wolf Too! Bateman nails it, as do all of the supporting cast. It was a shame that the yanks couldn’t keep this thing afloat. This has to be one of the funniest things I have seen in years!

Top Ten Books
6. The Long Walk – Richard Bachman
I can remember reading this for the first time a few years back. I was floored. The idea is just so good. A large group of chosen teenagers take place in a long walk. A very long walk. It will take days and they must keep a certain pace. Drop below the pace and you get a warning, three warning and the armed troops who have been accompanying you will shoot you. It’s a pretty brutal thing to have to do, but the person who wins will have anything they want. We follow Ray Garraty, who is just an every day kid with a girlfriend that was willing to sleep with him if he didn’t go. Ray just talks to the other kids as they go through. The book crafts such great characters and you get a real sense of them, and sense of dread as they slowly tire out and get shot. It is sad to see that they all have to die as the walk must continue until there is only one left. It’s a great journey and I always loved the ending. This book is going to make a fine film one day.

Top Ten Comic Books
6. Iron Fist
Iron Fist was a character created in the 70’s to cash in on the kung fu craze that was going to last all of about 3 days. He was then put into a comic as the partner to the black Luke Cage: Power Man. Seeing a gigantic and unbreakable ghetto black guy becomes best friends and partner to the unbelievably rich and mystically powered Danny Rand was such a kooky idea that it had to work. At least for a little while. So they had a run but it was always going to end. It just wasn’t one of those timeless ideas. But now Iron Fist is back. He’s got a place in the real world, he’s lost the capri pants and the little booties, but he still has that pimp outfit. He’s facing off against his nemesis, he’s discovering the very long legacy of the Iron Fist throughout history and he’s fighting in a mystical kung fu tournament. And he’s being very well written by Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker. This character now has a reality to him and a complete mythos that doesn’t have as many holes in it from years of previous writers not really thinking about the big picture. This run now is completely tying it all up. And his ex-partner, well he’s the leader of the New Avengers and has a baby who may or may not be the seed of an alien invasion. A long way for the Heroes For Hire who never used to get paid and lived above a cinema with a post-Beatnik wannabe named D.W.

Top Ten Songs
6. In The Waiting Line – Zero 7 - There doesn’t seem to be anybody else who agrees with meEvery time I hear this song I picture the scene from Garden State that it is in. It just works so perfectly in it, but overall this is just such a lovely song. The girls voice in it seems so peaceful and the whole melody is just soothing. This would be the perfect song to go to sleep to, or just completely wreck out on drugs to.

Just like my Mormon friend’s father said at his son’s wedding, “Five down, five to go!” Man, they had a big family. I would hate to pay for all those weddings.

Posted on March 15th, 2008 by ryan
Filed under: books, comics, life, movies, music