Panda Movie Review, Blogfest, News... You know - cool stuff!

Happy Memorial Day! I have news, pandas, and games for you today. (And news of panda games…)

Emily White just signed a book deal with Spencer Hill Press! She’s holding a giveaway this Wednesday to celebrate, so swing on by and congratulate her.

Thanks to everyone who commented on George’s guest post this past weekend! Blogger’s “Followers” widget was down Friday and Saturday, so if you didn’t get a chance to follow CineMarvellous! you can do so now.

Kung Fu Panda 2

Po and the gang set off to stop an evil peacock who has created a weapon that will end Kung Fu. Po is also on a quest to discover his past and find inner peace.

The movie is like a building storm – what begins as just another sequel ends with an epic tale that really pulls at the heartstrings. The film retains all of the charm and innocence of the first story and throws in some great action scenes and funny one-liners.

The animation is incredible. In addition to the lush, computer style animation, there’s unique, cell-styled images that are used for flashbacks. The 3D blends well, adding a rich layer of depth to the movie.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is a worthy successor to the original – don’t miss this wonderful animated film. It WAS awesome!



And next Monday is the It’s All Fun & Games Blogfest!

On June 6, 2011, list your three most favorite games and why. Board games, card games, RPG, video games, physical games - even mind games! If it’s a game you enjoy playing, it’s worth sharing. Sign up below and join the fun!

Shall we play a game?

Marvellous Movie Time!!

The blogging world is full of cool people. Now and then, you happen upon someone with whom you really connect. George (Nebular) is one of those people. He runs an awesome blog called CineMarvellous! where he offers sharp, concise movie reviews. George lives in Europe, so I doubt we’ll ever meet in person. But if we did, we’d talk movies for hours, because we share the same taste in films.

I asked George to share a bit about himself, his former Rotten Tomatoes journal, and how he came to us here in the blogging world…

Hey there, Alex’s army!


When Alex asked me to do this self-introduction I was as thrilled as I was anxious, because I’ve never done anything like this before. At first I was like – OMG, so many people will read this! Am I interesting enough not to bore them all to death?! J But then I thought – What the hell, I’m doing it. It will be fun!


First things first, my name is George, and I’m a cinephile coming from a small country in south-eastern Europe. Being obsessed with movies since young age, and working as a video store manager for a long time, movies have always been a huge part of my life. I’ve been writing reviews since 2004, and though I’m just a regular guy who has huge passion for film and cinema in general, I’ve always wanted to be a professional critic.


So, it all began 7 years ago, when I came across the Rotten Tomatoes site by a lucky accident. My first reaction was WOW! I found all this fresh/rotten thing to be pretty cool, and I was so impressed by its editors’ creativity and imaginativeness, that I’ve started to visit the site regularly, spending hours a day on reading critics reviews and stuff. Soon after, I became a part of the RT community, and started my own RT journal called “A Journal Made of Bricks” /because of the bricky pattern I used as a background/. I knew it sounds ridiculous, but at the same time, I kinda liked because it was unusual and unique.


Sadly though, my English was pretty poor at that time, and my reviews were extremely short and mostly consisted of simple, lame sentences like “The cast was great.”; “The visuals were amazing.”; “The story sucks” and things like that - there was nothing insightful, or original, or even remotely witty about those reviews. LOL. However, after a year of regular writing, my English has improved vastly, and I got better and better at reviewing movies. I’ve posted every single day, made hundreds of new friends, got thousands of visitors, and as a result of all this, my journal became hugely popular - I was in a complete shock when I found out that it has reached No. 12 on RT’s ‘TOP 25 Most-Visited Journals Ever’ list, and remained there for a long time. My journal even appeared on the main page of RT for about a week /I’ve got a screenshot to prove it ;)/.


However, in 2008 the guys from RT screwed up pretty much everything, by changing completely the interface design of the web site, which made it unusable for most users, plus, it was full of annoying bugs. A year later, I said goodbye to Rotten Tomatoes, and joined Blogger. In August 2009, I ran a movie blog, called CineMarvellous! (Check it out, and I hope you guys like it). It covers all the genres of film, from martial arts and horror movies to art-house drama, animations and recent sci-fi blockbusters. In the beginning, I’ve started with more detailed movie reviews, but last year I’ve changed the course and began to write brief and to-the-point reviews, because of my busyness, and because I realized that almost nobody likes to read long and tiresome movie reviews. I bet you don’t either. J So far, my blog has been visited over 63,000 times by more than 11,000 unique visitors from 135 different countries. I’m truly grateful to Blogger for giving me the opportunity to write and post reviews for free, and to all my blog buddies, readers and visitors, who make blogging worth it.


Besides RT and Blogger, I’ve done some writing for a local lifestyle magazine called “My Life”. Last year, they’ve contacted me and asked me to do an article for their St. Valentine’s issue – a list that features the ten greatest love stories in history of cinema. To be honest, I’ve struggled a bit with it, simply because romantic movies have never been my cup of tea, /I’m more into horror, sci-fi, fantasy and martial arts/, but I decided to do it nevertheless. The editor in chief loved it, and that’s how I got published for the very first time. J Furthermore, I’ve done some paid reviews, and won several awards, including 2010 TOP MOVIE REVIEW BLOG, which I consider a great achievement.

Thanks for sharing, George!

Now, my awesome army – go visit CineMarvellous! and see how a pro really reviews movies.

And my wife and I are taking off for a few days, so everyone have a safe Memorial Day weekend!

Science Fiction-Fantasy News and My Odd Answers

First, a little science/fantasy fiction news for you…

During a recent interview with Jewel Staite (Serenity, Stargate:Atlantis) she revealed she’s working with former S:A castmember, David Hewlett, on a secret project. She also revealed that if given the choice between Simon and Mal, she’d select Inara. Crap, I guess I know where I stand...

From the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly: “Skip I Am Number Four, see Starman instead. They’re both about hunky aliens, so why bother with the cruddy one?” (Sorry, found that rather funny!)

And Jason Momoa is already talking about Conan 2 and 3. Let’s hope 1 lives up to the hype!

And my odd answers?

Summer Ross at My Inner Fairy tagged me with this meme, and I decided to have some fun with it…

Do you think you're hot?

Is molten lava hot? Is the center of the sun hot? Is the middle of an inferno hot?
Eh, I’m all right.

Upload a picture or wall paper you are using at the moment


Kate...!
Okay, not really. This is my wallpaper, because it motivates me to finish the damn sequel!

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?

I like to start off my day with a protein based breakfast consisting of Cocoa Puffs and BBQ chicken. Oh, and a sliced banana.

The Song(s) you listened to recently?

The entire new While Heaven Wept CD
Amon Amarth’s song, “War of the Gods”
Oh, and, the J.G. Wentworth 877-CASHNOW jingle (Someone please help me get it out of my head!)

What were you thinking as you were doing this?

Maybe I’ll add Hot Tamales to my Cocoa Puffs…

Do you have nicknames? What are they?

Captain Ninja Alex!

Tag eight Blogger friends

Eight? I don’t know if I could find eight who haven’t already been tagged. Damn, I don’t want to be responsible for a dead rabbit. So, I shall tag Bossy Betty and let the rabbit die with her!

I know - that's not right!

Heard any odd news lately?

Pirates Review & Some Guest Post Tips

Saw the new Pirates movie this weekend (of course!) so thought I’d offer my views on the latest installment.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Our fourth journey with Captain Jack Sparrow is a stand alone adventure, although it references events before the first movie ever occurred. Everyone is after the Fountain of Youth – the Spanish, the English (led by Barbossa), and Blackbeard – with Jack along as his guide.

The movie is not without issues. It has some slow moments, especially in the first half of the film. The second half really picks up the pace and tension, throwing jungles and killer mermaids into the mix. Add a thick layer of lies and Jack’s squirrelly antics, and you have a fun romp of an adventure.

Depp is Depp. Geoffrey Rush is captivating and likeable. Ian McShane is evil in a subtle way and as cold as hell.

On Stranger Tides is ‘loosely’ based on a Tim Powers book of the same name. It’s been years since I read the novel, which did feature Blackbeard, the Fountain of Youth, and zombies, so I don’t remember how accurately they followed the book. But I feel confident saying that it's loosely (oh so loosely) based on the book.

This Pirates movie isn’t perfect, but it’s fun and worth a trip to the movie theater as long as your expectations are not sky high. It’s in 2D and 3D – I saw the 2D version and don’t feel I missed anything. Go – enjoy!

Guest Post Tips

I have some awesome guests appearing here over the next few weeks, which is really cool. This community has been so supportive of me, and I’m honored to feature my blogger friends.

Everyone has a different view on this, so I’ll just offer my own personal tips for acquiring guest spots.

* Contact me at least a month in advance. And please send me your book information (or whatever) or your guest post idea. Give me time to fit it into my calendar and know what I’m saying yes to!

* My focus is science fiction and fantasy, but I'm open to other ideas. Humor is a must, movie-related a bonus! And my blogger buddies get preference.

* I set my posts two – three days in advance, so I need your post a couple days before it’s supposed to go live. And I prefer short guest posts to interviews.

* I’ll Tweet your post and entice my Ninja Army to comment – but I need you to do the same. And while my Army is huge, I can tell when they are the only ones leaving comments...

* I don’t require a free book or anything. Really! I would rather support you by purchasing my own copy.

* Please have the courtesy to thank me when it’s over.  And you really need to thank my Ninja Army. Cases of Hot Tamales always welcome.

Do those rules sound fair? What are your guest post rules?