Friday, December 31, 2010

Last GOTW of 2010

I wanted to come up with a really clever GOTW for today, but I could not think of anyone.  Then, it seemed like everything kept giving me signs.  Last night I watched Iron Man 2 and I saw Kate Mara playing the girl who serves Tony the subpoena.  Then as I watched Supernatural this morning, I kept seeing her in the promos for Shooter which is apparently on TNT tonight.  Yep, it must be a sign.  She is to be the GOTW.




Plus, she is the descendant of both Tim Mara (founder of the New York Giants) and Art Rooney (founder of the Steelers).  Hot?  Yes.  Rich?  Yes.  Football fan?  Yes.  Steelers fan?  Yes.  Perfect girl?  Just about.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Wrapping up 2010

Since last June, Blogger has been keeping pageview statistics, both of a blog in general and individual posts. I thought I'd share some half-year results.

Blogger will tell you what Google keywords brought people to my blog. A surprising number of people had searched for me by name and ended up on either my Finnish- or English-language blog. Alarmingly, in November and December, several people reached this blog by googling "is rape legal in Finland". They'll have reached my post "Rape is legal in Finland", where I discussed the alarmingly lax sentencing policy of Finnish courts, and if they read it, they'll have found that rape, in fact, is not legal in Finland.

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My three most popular posts, from July 2010 to the end of December, were:

1. The 10 most beautiful women of the 2000's, May 3 2010, with a little over 3,000 pageviews

2. Happy birthday Bianca Beauchamp!, October 15 2010, with 1,500 pageviews

3. I love Susana Spears, August 17 2009, with 1,300 pageviews

In other posts, Most beautiful women on TV also got over a thousand pageviews, and Best rock albums of the 2000's over 800.

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So over the last half year or so, these ladies got me a lot of hits. The beautiful Bianca Beauchamp:



And the gorgeous Susana Spears.



Quite a lot of people got here by searching for Kira Kener, too.


All in all, I think this blag thing is working quite nicely. On the back of people googling for porn, my post on lenient rape sentences got hundreds of pageviews, as did the one on pornography and feminism. They get free advertising, I get people to read my texts. The way I see it, everybody wins.

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On my Finnish-language blog, the most popular posts were the funny ones.

1. Piratismi on varkautta, August 30 2010. This Chick tract spoof on the Finnish Pirate party is overwhelmingly my most popular post, with a staggering 9,000 pageviews.

2. Vaalijulisteita, December 8 2010, came in second with over 2,000 pageviews.

3. Kukkahattutädin kunnia, August 4 2010, on the Kaisa Rastimo saga, was third with over 1,000 pageviews.

While my English-language blog was primarily reached through Google, the Finnish-language blog got its audience through both Google and linking; people Googled for topics I wrote about, but more often for me by name, and people linked to my posts from other blogs, and posted links on Facebook and on IRC. Blagging about the Finnish "masculinists" or whatever they call themselves got me hundreds of hits and referrals from other blogs, and of course, immigration-related topics were also popular.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vast majority of my Finnish-language blog's readers came from Finland, while this blog is read mostly from the US.

I'm contemplating adding a Blogger gadget for "most popular posts". As near as I can work out, that should just make my popular posts even more popular. Maybe I'll add it and consider it an experiment.

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Overall, I had almost 30,000 pageviews on my Finnish blog and 25,000 here over the last half-year or so. That's not exactly a lot, but hell, it's a lot more than I thought. With numbers like that, I guess I have to keep going! So on that note, everybody have a happy new year, and I'll see you here in 2011.

What's Playing? 12/31 Weekend



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This last weekend in theatres for 2010 is unfortunately bleak.

The drama Blue Valentine, about a volatile couple starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, looks interesting and great--- definitely my top pick.
The three remaining new releases: a war drama, The Way Back, the foreign Biutiful and drama Another Year--- all look pretty uninteresting, mainly because of their plot.


The run down of  new films opening this Friday in theatres is:



Blue Valentine
What's It About?
An unstable young couple.
 
Why See It?
For the talked about racy sex scene.

Why Skip It?
 If you dislike intense films.

Trailer:


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 The Way Back
What's It About?
A based on true events story of fugitive prisoners from a Serbian labor camp in the '40s .
 
Why See It?
If you're an Ed Harris or Colin Farrell fan.

Why Skip It?
 You don't think Harris or Farrell can save this unexciting looking film.

Trailer:


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Biutiful
What's It About?
The tale of a father amidst the underworld of Barcelona.

Why See It?
-If you're a Javier Bardem fan.
-Or a foreign film fan.

Why Skip It?
 You're not a Bardem or foreign film fan.

Trailer:


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Another Year
What's It About?
Story of the lives of a group of friends. 

Why See It?
The simple plot somehow peaks your interest.

Why Skip It?
You think it looks incredibly monotonous.

Trailer:




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E N J O Y
*the*
M O V I E S
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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

2010 At the Movies: The Best and Worst Films of the Year



2010 at the movies was a really good year.

The beginning of the year started off slow (Dear John, Extraordinary Measures) with some promising movies as the months moved along (Wolfman, Robin Hood). By the summer, some exciting blockbusters (Inception, Salt) really sped things up followed by a slew of great end of the year films (Tron, True Grit). 

Top film critic Roger Ebert names his number one movie of the year as: The Social Network, about the founding of the popular social networking site Facebook.
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine, Owen Gleiberman and Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly Magazine lists The Social Network as their number one 2010 movie as well.

I never got around to seeing it (it looked interesting but not that interesting enough I ran to theatres to see it) so I will have to disagree.


My top films of the year list looks a lot different (with the exception of one of the most buzzed about movies of the year, the mind-bender about dreams, Inception being on every critics "Best" list pretty much) than most critics.

In compiling my "Best" list, I took in consideration everything from films that stuck with me in some way, good or bad--- from the plot, the casting, the acting, the script, the music, cinematography--- and lastly, how a movie made me feel after it ended.


Without further ado, I present:


Cinemanista's Best and Worst Films of 2010


BEST:




FOR COLORED GIRLS
Amazing cast. Amazing acting. Amazing script. Amazing movie.
The beautiful, sad, touching and inspiring story of 9 African American women dealing with hardships in their lives.
"I still think about certain scenes and characters and am disturbed to the the core at the rawness of it."




INCEPTION
Mind-boggling. Brilliant. Thrilling. One-of-a-kind plot perfectly executed. Excellent cast. Gorgeous music.
The story of a group of people who dream the same dream and enter that world mixed with reality.
"The trailer was my top of 2010 and the ending is still a puzzle for me."



TRON: LEGACY
Incredible, spectacular, stunning, unbelievable visually.
The story of a hidden world inside a computer.
"My eyes were wide and jaw dropped for most of the movie at the amazing visuals."



HEREAFTER
Beautiful, subdued and sensational. Great storytelling.
The story of three people whose lives intertwine because of one thing: death.
"The flawless ending is what was so amazing about it."



TRUE GRIT
Gritty yet sometimes sweet, wonderful cast and great cinematography.
The story of a young girl who hires a marshal to capture her father's killer.
"Teenaged newcomer Hailee Steinfeld without a doubt stole the whole the movie from big named stars, Bridges, Damon and Brolin."



LET ME IN

Dark and beautiful storytelling.
Story of a loner boy who meets a vampire girl.
"The scariest movie character of the year surprisingly was a little girl."





WORST:




BURIED
Absurd. Absurd. Absurd.
Story of a man who is trapped in a coffin underground with a cellphone.
"The best part of the whole film was seeing the credits roll."



SKYLINE
Horrible acting and too many plot holes.
The story of aliens invading L.A.
"This had so much potential to do better. A better script and actors was needed big time."




SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
 Cheesy acting, awful setting and plot.
Story of zombies infiltrating a thought to be zombie-free island.
"One of the baddest, boring zombie movies ever made."




CYRUS
 Tried-too-hard-to-be-funny, plot.
Story of a loser man who meets the girl of his dreams and her eccentric son who hates him.
"If this was a comedy, how come I didn't laugh?"




Other Categories:





COOLEST:



TRON



INCEPTION



STEP UP 3D




JONAH HEX


The Wolfman



THE WARRIOR'S WAY




ORIGINAL:




INCEPTION





DISAPPOINTING:




CLASH OF THE TITANS




EAT, PRAY, LOVE




THE A-TEAM



IRON MAN 2



CASE 39




SCARIEST:





THE CRAZIES



LET ME IN



NIGHTMARE ON 
ELM STREET



DEVIL




FUNNIEST:




 WHEN IN ROME


DEATH AT A FUNERAL



EASY A



THE LOSERS




VIOLENT:




I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE


THE EXPENDABLES


 SAW 3D




ACTION-PACKED:





THE EXPENDABLES


SALT



THE TOWN



 TAKERS






ROMANTIC:



 THE TWILIGHT SAGA:
ECLIPSE




THE BACK-UP PLAN



CHARLIE ST. CLOUD




SEXIEST:



BURLESQUE

Sex & The City 2




SADDEST:



FOR COLORED GIRLS


 CONTROVERSIAL:




I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE




BEST CAST:



THE TOURIST




THE EXPENDABLES



FOR COLORED GIRLS


 
TAKERS




STONE




WALL STREET:
MONEY NEVER SLEEPS




DEATH AT A FUNERAL







WORST CAST:




SKYLINE



SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD



WHEN IN ROME



BURIED




Overrated:




AVATAR



Underrated:



All GOOD THINGS


THE NEXT THREE DAYS



STONE





EDGE OF DARKNESS




Hopefully 2011 at the movies will be even better than 2010!



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 Roger Egbert's Best Films of 2010:
Peter Traver's Best Films of 2010:
Owen Gleiberman's and Lisa Schwarzbaum's Best Film of 2010: