Mind of a Fennec

In case you haven't heard of it yet, myself and the Frozen Oasis team are putting together the mother of all apocalypse-themed furry conventions: The End of the World Convention, to take place on the weekend of the Mayan Apocalypse.

It begins Thursday December 20 and goes until Sunday December 23 (so long as the world doesn't end, anyway!) It will be the largest Frozen Oasis event ever, and I hope that all of you decide to come.

Our website is: https://www.furryendoftheworld.com/
And you can register at: https://www.furryendoftheworld.com…
And you can book your room at: https://www.furryendoftheworld.com…

For social media, check us out on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/furryendofworld
Or on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Furr…

Anyway - Please come out! It may very-well be the last furry event EVER!

-Jaspian

Sorry for posting this so late. I've been so busy that even though I wrote this months ago, I never got around to posting it. Here, I rectify the issue...!


In other news: Don't forget what time of year it is! FOXmas time, of course! If you haven't already contacted Soron, please do so. We're trying to expand the party space now, and you don't want to miss out on the new spots when they open up! For more info, check out our website: http://www.foxmas.com

And see you there!

I was confused when I heard that the film adaptation of Rock’em Sock’em Robots, aka “Real Steel” was going to be released in IMAX. It didn’t look all that interesting, despite the high-budget talent and high-budget special effects, and didn’t seem like it would warrant porting to IMAX. It just didn’t look like it would be capable of drawing the kind of crowds that a Suckerpunch or Harry Potter can draw.... and I was right. “Real Steel” is an attempt at manufactured popularity... or at least it seemed that way to me. That is; it seemed like the kind of film where the studios said “Lets throw a ton of money at it and it’ll do great”.
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-Jaspian

So, I'm sorry for not posting any movie reviews lately. I've just been so busy I've kinda been neglecting it. Sorry everybody who reads these and likes them... so please bear with me, I've got a few reviews which I'm gonna put up over the next couple days. I don't mean to spam you all too badly... so I apologize in advance.

Anyway... on to the review...!

What is there to say about Conan? I expected ultra-violence, bad-assed-ness, a touch of magic, hilarious callousness, shirtless studs with swords... and this is exactly what I got. What I didn’t expect to get was for it to be a good movie - and once again my expectations were right on target. But then again, when you go to a Conan movie, only an idiot would expect Shakespeare.. and its not Shakespeare. Its unsophisticated, violent, brutish bad-assed-ness. I was never a huge fan of Conan, but I made some art for the release, which can be found HERE ... less because I am a fan of Conan and more for the fact that in all the artwork of him he's stereotypically standing over a pile of the bodies of his enemies with a hot feminine thing clutching his leg.... and I thought that would be a fun image for Jaspy to be in.
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Thanks for reading!

-jaspy

Jaspian the Fennecritic Presents...
A review of
Cowboys and Aliens

Its such an absurd notion - how can you not be excited about it? With a title like that, one imagines a really hokey showdown between a grizzled old sheriff and a grey alien with a raygun. One does not tend to envision a high-budget film produced by Steven Spielberg (although these days, its less of a surprise, considering the swill he’s helped create lately).

So, when I saw this movie’s trailer during the superbowl commercial-a-thon, of course I knew I would have to see it. And of course I knew it probably wouldn’t be very good. But considering the cast (good actors tend to agree to good scripts) and the producer (the name “Steven Spielberg” still evokes a sense of reverence with me, as undeserving as he is of it with his recent films, one can’t forget his past glories), and the tantalizing concept, I believed that this movie could have actually been good... perhaps even the film of the year.

But I was mistaken, and should have stuck with my gut instinct. For the most part, I enjoyed it, but it was mediocre in virtually every sense, and suffers from many technical flaws and a little bit of cheese.
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Anyway, thanks for reading!

-jaspy

Ultimate Victory for the Gold Bugs?

I'm a little behind in my news coverage so please bear with me...

On July 14th during the US Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy hearing in the US House of Representatives... the hearing where Subcommittee Chairman Ron Paul announced that he'll be retiring from his political career... the Congressman asked Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke,( Collapse )

 Jaspian the Fennecritic Presents...
A review of
Captain America

In what was certain to be a terrible film, produced solely as a stepping stone towards an Avengers film where they wouldn’t have to retell any origins stories, filmmakers try to force us to like their cardboard cut-out propaganda hero. But when it comes down to it Captain America is about as cheesy of a superhero as one can get. I mean... just take his name - Captain America? So cheesy. Such propaganda. But then again, its not like this is a new IP. Honestly I didn’t know much about Captain America before the film, but it turns out that his cheesy-propaganda self was justified. Captain America was created in response to World War 2, which was sweeping the globe at the time. Surely it was an attempt to stoke the fires of Nationalism here in the US, and regardless of how we feel about that kind of ultra-patriotism today, I think its important to take the context of the world where he was created into account before judging the idea of Captain America too negatively. However, it makes perfect sense that he’s a Nazi fighter... but the irony shouldn’t be lost that Captain America is a Nationalist icon fighting a Nationalist party (Nazi = National(ist) Socialist Party). Kinda sends mixed messages. :P
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Anyway - thanks for reading!

-jas

… the (supposed) final installment of the highest grossing film franchise of all time. And if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge for sale just for you … on sale, even! Not to belittle the significance of this film, but they’re never going to be done - so don’t worry Harry Potter fans. There are already rumors of another story already in the works, this time starring Harry’s son Albus. And even if this is just a rumor, you can be sure of a Harry Potter remake in 15-20 years.... not that it would even be unwarranted. The first two Harry Potters were incompetently directed. In hindsight its clear that the film industry didn’t know what they had until Azkaban. They treated it like any other pop-kid’s-story-turned-film. It wasn’t until after that when they realized this was the real-deal. Honestly I would like them to remake the series without the drastic shift between the first two films and the rest of them - they simply don’t seem to fit together. Anyway...

The popularity of this film shocked even me, as I found myself staring at a sold-out screen when buying my tickets for opening-night IMAX theater only minutes after the tickets went on sale. Thus, to my incredible sadness, I was not able to get a sneak-peek at the film. But that might change....

My group’s dedication to film hasn’t gone unnoticed by the IMAX theater staff, and as we waited in line to see Dealthly Hallows part2, six days late, but still arriving three hours before the film was to start, the manager came over and spoke with us, telling us how surprised she was to not find us in line for that first showing! We told her what happened, and she gave us her business card. At the very least, I think we now have an “in” to get Tickets for all future IMAX films before they go on sale, thereby allowing your fennec friend to henceforth always see IMAX sneak-preview... but better still... she hinted that we might be able to get into the employees-only advance-pre-screening, typically a full 5 hours before the sneak preview.
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Thanks for reading!

-jas

I loved Kung-Fu Panda. It was not only entertaining because I am a furry, but it was actually a good movie. The flow was excellent. It was fun to watch (the fight scene choreography was brilliant), and the writing and voice acting was impeccable. So... it could really only go down from there...

I’m not being fair. Let me correct myself: its not precisely true that it could only go down from there, but there isn’t much space for upward mobility. Kung-Fu Panda is “up there” in terms of competent execution no matter how you look at it, and it gets extra points for being a furry film (although some points are lost on the lack of foxes!) Lets just say that I didn’t have much of a positive expectation for Kung-Fu Panda 2. The story arch of the “Dragon Warrior” is already completed at the end of the film... for it to have a similar feel, he would have to … what? Lose his powers and then relearn them? Essentially - yes. So I wasn’t sure how they would be able to pull off a similar feeling for Kung Fu Panda 2. The only way that I can think of where they could do it and not make it cheesy would require them to have a new lead character - perhaps with Poe as the sensei - passing on his experiences once he gets old. But from the previews I didn’t think that this would be the case... and it wasn’t.
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Anyway - thanks for reading!

-jasp