I'm Lammy Nominated!

Hey! I'm a Lammy-Nominated blog yet again! Hopefully this will be the year I'm a Lammy-Award Winning blog. Make sure to go out and vote for me!









~Best Rating System!
~Best Blog Title!
~Best Podcast - The Demented Podcast!

It's My 3 Year Anniversary! + An Announcement.

Yup. Today marks the 3-year anniversary of my blogging life. Has it really been 3 years? How crazy is that! Just think of everything that's happened over the last 3 years...

-I started out as Boomstick Reviews after being inspired by Blog Cabins.

-I joined the LAMB and became a contributor.

-My blog became Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob.

-I became the Veep of the LAMB, working alongside Dylan.

-I wrote a few books.

-I graduated college and became a teacher.

-My work with the LAMB began to decrease due to a lack of time.

-My blog began to suffer a bit.

-I became the disgraced former Veep of the LAMB with Jason Soto taking the role.

-The LAMB created the LAMBcast, the official podcast of the LAMB, where I quickly joined on to become a regular guest/co-host.

-Podcasting became popular among LAMB bloggers.

-I created, along with Travis, The Demented Encyclopedia.

-After 17 episodes, The Demented Encyclopedia went kaput.

-I began guesting on a lot of other podcasts.

-Rachel Thuro unofficially overtook Jason's Veep status.

-I invented the Vlog, which had an amazing and well-recieved first season.

-I basically became an official co-host of the LAMBcast due to being on practically every episode.

-Dylan resigned as Shepard of the LAMB, and Rachel took over the position.

-I started up The Demented Podcast.

-I began the 60/60 List, a project which has been pretty well received and has even inspired others!

-I won NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, where I had to write 50,000 words within the month of November).

-I premiered Season 2 of the Vlog.

... wait, you're saying that last one hasn't happened yet? Well think again, dear readers. In honor of the 3-year anniversary of Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob, prepare to get your mind blown. That's right. The Vlog, Season 2, Episode 1 premiers this Sunday, December 5, 2010. Mark your calenders. Get a babysitter. Prepare to spend absolutely nothing and have one hell of a time.

But until then, thank ALL of you for your readership and comments and everything over the years. Thank you to all my new friends that I've met through the LAMB (I'm not gonna name names, because I'll inevitably forget somebody, and that wouldn't be good. But you know who you are!). And just thank all of y'all for sticking around, enjoying the blog, enjoying the podcasting, and enjoying the Vlog. It's been great, and I can't wait to do it a whole other year.

Podcast: The Demented Encyclopedia #10 - The One With That Guy.

For our tenth episode, we bring on guest host Dylan Fields of Blog Cabins and The Large Association of Movie Blogs. To compensate for such a long episode last week, we have a bit shorter of an episode this week.

After some quick plugs, in which Dylan plugs the LAMMY Awards, and I plug a scene from my movie-in-progress, we move on to the main topic. The topic this week is "That Guys." These are the actors and actresses who appear in numerous films and television shows, but usually as a secondary character and the common public can't really remember their names (hence "that guy"). We go over some of our favorites (actors and performances).

After that, we move on to Reality Round-Up and start off with our most detailed Survivor discussion yet, mostly because our guest host this week is actually a Survivor fan. From there we move on to a quick American Idol discussion where Travis and I actually have yet another debate and must agree to disagree.

Then, after a quick "Recommend A...", we get into our Mono-Dia-logues of the Week, where none of us are practiced/rehearsed--and you can tell, except for Dylan, who shows us up with a scene from True Romance.

And that's it for this week. Stay tuned after the closing theme for a bit extra!

Thanks goes out to Kevin MacLeod's Imcompetech Website for the music. As always, you can use the player above to listen to the podcast, or you can search iTunes, where we are also available for download. The earlier episodes are being removed from the player for space, but you can still always download them on iTunes. Also, please become a Fan on Facebook... then you can give us your input for the podcast and will probably end up on the show during the D-Bag segment. But as for now... enjoy!

Podcast: The LAMBcast #17 - Foreign Films.

Though I'm pretty much on the LAMBcast weekly (the podcast of the LAMB), I don't pimp it here as much as I should. However, I think that if you're to listen to any LAMBcast, it should be this one. It was frakkin' epic.

We discuss out favorite foreign (language) films, and on hand were a gang of fools, from Dylan Fields to Mike Mendez to Jason Soto to This Guy and myself. We laughed, we cried, we broadened our horizons. That's followed up by a couple games of Last LAMB Standing and some Trailer Talk, in which we discussed Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and the epic Weird Al biopic.

Warning: This episode contains more adult language than usual, so be sure not to listen around the lil ones.

If you're interested, you too can be a LAMBcaster - we love new blood! For more information on the LAMBcast, check out the topic at the LAMB Forums.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, why don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

It Has Begun.

Go to the LAMB. Participate. Have fun.

Can You Believe It? It's Been A Year!

About one year ago, I was browsing the IMDb homepage when I saw the daily poll about some guy known as Fletch from Blog Cabins who wrote an article on why old movies were basically overrated (at least according to him). So I checked out the article, then browsed the rest of the blog, as well. You see, I wasn't a big blog reader or anything (in fact, I never really did it at all). But I just wanted to check out what else this movie lover thought.

Then I found his weekly posts on what was then the current season of Survivor. They were absolutely hilarious and spot-on. Now, I don't know what went through my mind at that point, but something whispered in my ear (perhaps the voices... who knows) that I could start my very own movie blog! I knew nothing of blogging and never read blogs (outside MySpace)... but it seemed to be a fun idea.

On December 2, 2007, Boomstick Reviews was born. It was very basic, and my first post was a Top 10 that I had written before and posted on my MySpace. Five days later, I posted my very first movie review on Boomstick Reviews: The Golden Compass. From there, I began posting different movie reviews and articles and Top 10 lists, etc.


On December 9, 2007, Fletch inducted the blog into the Large Association of Movie Blogs (also known as the LAMB). I was just member number 17 back then, and now the LAMB has over 200 members. I'm glad to say I got in on the ground level and have been able to help out with it as much as I have.





Then, on January 15, 2008, I was really bored and made a post entitled "Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob" (also known as R2D2... no relation), because I had a bunch of different things I wanted to talk about that wouldn't fit under a specific topic. I, along with Fletch over at that 'Blog Cabins' place, mentioned how we really loved that title. In fact, I liked it so much, I began pondering with the idea of changing Boomstick Reviews to this better-sounding title.

So on February 1, 2008, I figured I'd give the place a bit of a makeover. With some counsel from Fletch, I changed up the ratings system, the title, the color scheme, and basically everything else. The ratings system put in place was similar to the one used over at Blog Cabins, with pictures and movie quotes to symbolize the particular rating.

The next big event to occur was on my birthday, February 20, 2008, when R2D2 hit the IMDb Hit List with my quite popular yet controversial article "10 Years, 10 Great Screenplays" (mostly controversial because I can't count, and it was actually 11 Years/Screenplays... and also because I hadn't actually seen all of one of the films I chose). Regardless, this event shot up my readership from basically nothing to around 14-20 (after the IMDb linkage went away, that is).

Over the next few months, I would introduce different article/review styles, some of which stuck, some of which didn't. The more popular of which included Little Known Movies You Need To See (LKMYNTS), DVDs Or Death!, Thoughts On..., Short Review, A Week Of... Blog-A-Thons, 2 In 1 reviews, and Pre-Emptive Strike Thursdays (AKA P.E.S.T.).

But on June 12, 2008, my readers decided that they wouldn't mind if I included book reviews on the blog, as well. Also, around that same time, I joined Unheralded Reviews, as well, posting what was essentially the reviews I posted here over there. But anyway, on June 19, 2008, I posted my first book review, a review of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I continued posting book reviews every now and then, and I also added in a special article type about Page-To-Film adaptation reviews. The Twilight book reviews brought up my readership a little bit more.

Then, unfortunately for my enraptured readers, I began student teaching in August, which took away a lot of time for movie watching and reviewing. But to keep everybody updated as to how things were going with me, I began posting The Student Teacher Chronicles. The months continued tiringly, but I kept at it as best I could. And now, finally, it is once again December 2, but now a year later. My student teaching ends tomorrow, as well, so you will be getting the final Student Teacher Chronicles then.

So now this blog (for all intents and purposes, as everything from Boomstick Reviews is still here) is one year old! Over the past year, I have reviewed and scored numerous films (130, I believe). 99 of them have been given above-average scores, 13 have been given average scores, 15 have been given below-average scores, and 3 couldn't be given scores due to particular peculiarities (Those three being Sunshine, George Washington, and North). Needless to say, I apparently enjoy more movies than I dislike (either that, or I just watch films that I'm nearly positive I'll enjoy).

In conclusion, I would like to thank all of my readers who have stuck around this long or who are brand new and are just beginning to get use to the randomness. And I want to specifically thank Fletch over at Blog Cabins for helping me out so much in the beginning stages of my blogging adventure, for getting me into the LAMB and letting me do everything I have for the LAMB, and for just being a friend.

And now that the sappiness is overwith, let's eat some cake!... What? There's no cake? What the hell kind of party is this? Oh well. Anywho, happy one-year to the blog and a big thanks to everybody who constantly keeps up my readership count to around 30. Now let's try to at least double that for this next year!

(By the way, you might notice a couple new things on the sidebar... primarily, scroll-boxes that include all of the reviews I've done for both books and films in alphabetical order... they were a pain to put together, so you better enjoy them!).

Short Review: EuroTrip.

This is for the LAMB Movie of the Month, but I couldn't find a better way to review this movie than for a short review, so here we are.

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Premise: After getting dumped by his girlfriend and drunkenly sending hate mail to his German pen pal, who he mistakenly thinks is a man trying to get with him, a guy travels to Europe with his friends in finding his pen pal and telling her that he loves her before it's too late.

Starring: Scott Mechlowitz, Jacob Pitts, Michelle Trachtenburg.

My Reaction: This is seriously one of my favorite comedies. No matter how many times I see it, it never gets old. It has a very memorable and original song, "Scotty Doesn't Know," which really is as catchy as it's meant to be. There's also some great and memorable cameo appearances, including David Hasselhoff and Matt Damon. But it's the Matt Damon cameo that's the most memorable, because he's made up so out-of-character that it's hilarious. In fact, I didn't even realize it was him until toward the end of his scene. I can't say enough about this movie, though because I love it so much, it makes it hard to do a full-out review for it, which is why I took to this format. From Robot-Mime street fighting to "You made out with your sister!," this movie is great.


Royale With Cheese

LAMB MOTM: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

So, this movie was chosen as the next LAMB Movie of the Month. But not only has it been picked there, but it has also appeared in a couple different other LAMB events, such as Sirens of the LAMBs and The LAMB Action Hero. So when this was chosen for the MOTM, as an anime fan, I had to check it out (as I hadn’t seen it, though had heard of it numerous times, even prior to LAMB events). I love Miyazaki’s films, and I think the man is one of the greatest in the field, but I have to say… this one wasn’t one of his best.

First, the story was jumbled and rather all over the place. It just felt as if it didn’t know what it wanted to be about. Did it want to be about finding a cure for the poisoned Earth? Did it want to be about two feuding nations? Did it want to be about stopping one of said nations from resurrecting one of the monsters that ruined the world a thousand years ago? Did it want to be about stopping the giant insects from destroying the valley and/or world? Did it want to be about finding the one prophesied hero who would save them all? Who knows? Apparently the movie didn’t.

For the animation, I’m taking into account that this was made back in 1984 (which is ironic, as it has some slight dystopian undertones). Some of the animation was pretty good, and some of it was only decent at best. There were some great, epic shots at times (usually in moments of action or ‘suspense’), but then there was some rugged, awkward animation. The best moments (of the whole movie), though, as I said, were the action scenes.

As for why I put ‘suspense’ like so, I am brought to one of my big issues of the movie: I didn’t care for any of the characters. Nausicaä was naïve and oftentimes annoying. All the other characters were just shown intermittently. None of them really had any kind of character growth. So when it came to the action sequences and such, while they were usually interesting (at the least) to look at, I never cared about the outcome, which just made the whole movie quite dull.

The dialogue was incredibly annoying, as well. It seemed like every character spoke in exposition (and/or their thoughts). Especially in the first 15 or so minutes of the movie, when Nausicaä continually talked to herself in an incredibly unnatural way, as if obviously explaining to the audience everything they needed to know. This kind of thing also happened quite a few times throughout the movie, as well. But it wasn’t just that about the dialogue, either. Just the dialogue in general was stiff and unnatural.

The voice acting, on the other hand, wasn’t too bad. I watched the 2004 dubbing that included the talents of Edward James Olmos, Chris Sarandon, Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, and Shia LaBeouf. Mr. Olmos and Mr. Stewart were especially good. I could barely tell it was Uma Thurman doing the voice. Chris Sarandon seemed to be channeling Prince Humperdinck from The Princess Bride (and, oddly enough, looked like Christopher Guest’s Count Rugen of the same movie). The only voice that was distracting was Shia LaBeouf’s, mostly because he has such a distinct voice and has been in every other movie these days, so I would always picture him instead of the character. And I know anime rule #1 (as well as any foreign movie, really) is to never watch it dubbed… but I didn’t have much of a choice, here, in my viewing options.

But another thing that bugged me was the music, though not all of it. Some of the music was actually quite good. Other times it sounded as if it would belong in a Final Fantasy game (which is not bad… those games can have some great music). But oftentimes, it sounded as if it would better belong in some campy, old-school video game, and it was really distracting. The weird mix of orchestral music with weird techno-keyboard-type music was an odd choice, in my opinion.

Overall, even though I like anime (and Miyazaki), I couldn’t get into this one. And it wasn’t because of the environmental message either, which I really didn’t mind, except for the awful dialogue that it brought on (and the message was really in-your-face. Seriously, this movie would make anybody who hated the “green” message in WALL*E find it suddenly easily tolerable. I was also reminded of the recent The Happening with its trees of doom and such). Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be watching this one again… at least not anytime soon.

The Zed Word

R2D2... The One With More Blog News.

Alright... it's time for more random blog news!

-I decided to just go ahead and end the poll, because it's only had 3 people vote on it (one of which was me) since I put it up. The scores show that people like my R2D2 (much like this one) and DVDs Or Death! posts the most, each with 3 votes. All tied at second place with one vote each were Thoughts On..., LKMYNTS, Regular Reviews, and P.E.S.T. (which I missed this Thursday, sorry). Thanks to the two of you that voted.

-I would like to give another shout-out to the LAMB. I know there's a few new viewers to my blog, and I know at least one of you isn't a LAMB member yet, but you do have a movie blog. I really recommend joining up! It's pretty cool and fun being a LAMB member.

-I also wanted to give a shout out for fellow-LAMB Piper over at Lazy Eye Theater, who is about to start his Bizarro Blog-A-Thon on Monday. It should be fun.

-I've already gotten some good feedback for my first book review posted, so thanks guys and gals for the support!

-Speaking of books, now that I've decided to do book reviews here, I turned my The Missing Page blog from a book review blog into a blog about my own personal writing. If that interests you, you can check it out there. Also, I've added links on my sidebar to the left here that will take you to specific pages on that blog that will either give more information on specific novels, or will give a sample chapter for a specific novel. If anybody wanted to check any of that out, that's cool.

-I am now officially (and have been for a few days) a contributing member of Unheralded reviews. Though there's nothing over there of mine that you wouldn't find here, they also have plenty of other movies that they've reviewed with either different opinions than mine or movies that I have yet to cover. Check us out!

I think that's about it for now. Sorry I missed this week for P.E.S.T. but I had a huge teaching certification test this morning (Content English 8-12), and my mind has been elsewhere this week. So thanks to everybody who reads!

R2D2... The One With Site News.

Alright, so I have just a few random tidbits of news and such to give:

-Voting is officially over for the poll. The results? People want book reviews. So I'll give them book reviews! But how about this? I'll try to connect them to movies somehow. That'll make it interesting, huh?

-There's a new poll up now! Now that we have new types of reviews, I'd like to take an introspective look on the site as is. I have quite a few types of articles and review methods for this blog. Which ones are your favorite? Or do you not even care? Feel free to leave me comments of explanation if you feel the need! I do like comments! I won't bite, I swear! And it's up for multiple choices, in case you can't decide. Or if you have a clear-cut winner, feel free just to choose one.

-After this weekend, whenever it gets all set up, I'll also officially be a contributing member to the review site, Unheralded. But don't fret! All of my reviews there will still continue to be put here, as well. And some of them might even have minor differences, as my 2 In 1 themed reviews sometimes correlate with and expand on each other. And, generally, my Thoughts On segments aren't the typical format for Unheralded, so those will be specialized for here, as well.

-Speaking of other blogs, everybody should go check out the LAMB! I've been a member for quite a few months now (I was member number 17. We now have over 100 members). It's a super secret society (or not) of movie bloggers of varying degrees. We're a really friendly bunch (or are we?). So if you have a movie blog, and aren't already a member, head on over to the LAMB and join up! And if you don't have a movie blog, there's a bunch of good movie blogs there to choose from. Just don't leave me for them... please?

So I think that's about it! Thanks to all of my regular readers (and don't be shy! I love them comments!). So... yeah!

New Poll!

I've decided to put up a poll over yonder, one to question my current audience.

I currently have two blogs (and contribute to the LAMB). I have this one, of course, as well as a book review blog, The Missing Page.

But because I can't read nearly as many books as I can watch movies in my limited amount of time... I was wondering if I should merge it with R2D2 and do both movie and book reviews all here on this blog.

Personally, I have no issue with it... but it's a question as to whether my (relatively small) audience cares about reading about both books and movies.

So what do y'all think?

From the Heart: Best/Great Movies and the Oscars.

The Large Association of Movie Blogs (LAMB) has pulled its members together, myself included, and made up what we believe to be our top 5 movies of the year. Reading through the winners and the picks has made me think a lot about something, so I would like to make a little shpeel of my own onto what I believe makes a great and/or Oscar-worthy movie (which might more explain my list, especially when juxtaposed against some of the others). For instance, a lot of people picked movies like In the Valley of Elah, Michael Clayton, The Assassination of Jesse James, and No Country for Old Men. There is only one major reason as to why I didn't pick these or any of the other 'Oscar-worthy' picks: I live in a small city, so it's very, very rare for movies like that to even show their face in these parts. Hell, even Sweeney Todd is skipping out on us (damnit).

I'm not going to say anything against these films. They actually might be super awesome, and probably are. But even if I had seen them, I still may or may not have included them as my favorite of the year. Why? Because, honestly, most Oscar-worthy pictures are BORING (at least after one viewing). That's right, I said it. But I also said most, not all.

To me, a great movie doesn't have to be made by Eastwood or Scorsese and star Swank or DiCaprio... which too many recent winners have. I'm not saying these guys are awful... no, FAR from it. These people are great in their own respects. But when I watch a movie, I want to be both entertained and want to watch it again. I don't want to be like "Oh my God, that was the most depressing thing I've ever seen... never again." *pause* "THAT WAS OSCAR GOLD!" My brain doesn't really work like that.

That's why I'm ecstatic when movies like Lord of the Rings and Little Miss Sunshine are nominated, and even happier when they win. But don't get me wrong, I'm not against the depressing masterpieces. I love Pan's Labyrinth. It should have been nominated for best picture, though it obviously wasn't going to be, as it was foreign. Again, one of the biggest reasons I'm not all up and for these movies is because I haven't seen them. I just don't think that movies like The Queen would be my cup of tea (bad joke). I'll see it someday eventually anyway... I just believe there are more entertaining movies out there. Because that's all a movie is meant to be, entertaining. If it's not entertaining you, it's not doing its job. And if it isn't doing its job, then why should it get this high praise?

Of course, story isn't the only thing that makes a movie great. Acting, direction, cinematography... they all play their part. A movie can have an enthralling story, but if it looks and feels boring, then it will be. And before you jump on me, I'm not one of those people who just likes the blow-em-up blockbusters that have no depth. I love movies with depth, as well. I love all kinds of movies... almost any and all, for that matter.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that when it comes to Oscar noms, the littler guys should be given a bigger chance than they're ever given, instead of just focusing on all the Scorsese's and such. There's other great movies out there, and they don't all have to be violent and/or depressing to get best picture, as a lot of the winners these days have been. Because honestly, movies are for the average movie goer, and the average movie goer is a lot more likely to see Superbad and Enchanted over Eastern Promises and The Darjeeling Limited. And in the end, it's the people's opinion that matters, not a snob in a suit who sees 30 second clips.

Finally, as to not take up a load of room, here is the link to the winners, which I'm happy to say I believe is a great list and more true to form than what the Oscars are likely to say.