The Pirate Bay Rises From The Deep (with an added “up you” to the Swedish Government)

The bit torrent site The Pirate Bay was shut down by the Swedish government yesterday but the highly resilient Pirate Bay showed once again that this is one ship that will not sink without a fight as it returned just hours later, due to a problem on the new server it was down again for almost a day.

What the Swedish Government really need to get their head around is every time they drag them through the courts or try to shut them down, it is splashed all over the news, not only online but newspapers and even the national TV news and every time this happens hits on the site go up and up. With people that would never have known about the site suddenly think “Hey I’ll check that out”.

Because the bay has had to deal with police raids and threats of shutdown many times before this time it was ready to be back up and running almost instantly.

The Pirate Bay is supposedly being sold by the end of the week to apparently become a pay site, but many people including myself belive that this will be the true death of the Pirate Bay. But until that time it is good to see that the people behind the scenes are still doing everything they can to keep it afloat in the final days.

In true Pirate Bay style the site returned with yet another triumphant come back message to all that are conspiring against them in the form of  brilliantly tweaked version of  Winstons Churchill’s  “fight them on the beaches” speech.

Riding out the storm

We have, ourselves, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our Internets, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

Even though large parts of Internets and many old and famous trackers have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Ifpi and all the odious apparatus of MPAA rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the ef-nets and darknets, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Internets, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the baywords.org, we shall fight on the /. and on the digg, we shall fight in the courts; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, the Internets or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the Anon Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in Cerf’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Signed;

The Pirate Bay Crew – Always when needed.

I will be sad to see the site go but if history has taught us anything, it’s that the second the powers that be get rid of an illegal site, something better and more awesome shows up. For example before The Pirate Bay there was Napster which also started off as an illegal file sharing site and once they turned it into a pay site everyone left it and went off to build the Pirate Bay.

So although Im sorry to see it go I cannot wait to see what the world wide web of free content lovers comes up with next.

Vist The Pirate Bay and show your support http://thepiratebay.org

GEEKY FILM COUNTDOWN|Film Review of “Spaceball’s

Ahh Spaceballs, Spaceball’s, Spaceball’s. I have just finished watching it and it’s the first time I’d seen it since the early 90′s. I was really worried that I would hate it after loving it so much before. But I didn’t I found very funny in fact I may have found it more enjoyable this time round, I think maybe because I was a lot younger the last time I saw it and some of the jokes may have gone over my head.

So If you have not seen or heard of Spaceballs where the bloody hell have you been for over twenty years? Spaceballs is basically one giant piss-take of the movie Star Wars and also makes reference to other sci-fi classics such as Star Trek and Alien, John Hurt (Kane from Alien) makes a brilliantly funny cameo towards the end of the movie.

It was written and directed my Mel Brooks and if you want to know what type of humor this film has then just think Naked Gun or Airplane! It is one of those films that take every joke they can possibly fit into a scene and then see how many more they can squeeze in. This film always has me laughing so much even after seeing it many times now there are still little things you notice that you did not notice before.

It has a huge cast of very well known actors such as the late John Candy, Bill Pullman and one of my all time favorite comedy actors Rick Moranis who plays Lord Dark Helmet a blatant rip off of Star Wars Darth Veda, although Moranis’ character is geniusly half his size which they use to brilliant comedy effect many times throughout the film.

In one scene Lord Dark Helmet and his right hand man “Colonel Sandurz” played by George Wyner actually use the un released VHS of the Spaceballs movie to find out where to go next the result is a video feedback loop another simple but brilliant sketch.

This film uses a lot of simple play on word gags and comedy timing ,which seems to be more and more dificult for films today to replicate, take for example films such as Epic Movie or  Super Hero Movie today’s equivalent to the 80′s Airplane! or Spaceballs they try and try to get the sort of laughs that the older films did but for some reason they just don’t get it right.

This film is funny for anyone even if you have never watched a sci-fi in your life this film has so much comedy in it would not matter if a few of the sci-fi references went over your head. Apart from the occasion S word it is a brilliant family movie that still holds it greatness even after all this time.

MY RATING 8/10

See the trailer here.

Please comment and I will always reply to any questions

GEEKY FILM COUNTDOWN|Film Review “The Pirate’s of Silicon Valley

So what can I say?

This must be the most controversial geeky films of all time. If you are a true geek you will know why but just in case you are not then simply type in Mac vs Windows into Google or Youtube and see what you get, I must warn you though some of the results are not pretty.

But anyway I am not here to get into the whole  Windows vs Apple argument im just going to review the film The Pirates of Silicone Vally.

The film is loosely based around the story of Bill Gates creator of Microsoft (played by Anthony Michael Hall) and Steve Jobs the Creator of Apple.(played by Noah Wyle)It follows the historical events that lead up to their current fame and fourtune. It tells of the style  and motivation of the two companies and also the problems between the two giants.

When I first heard about this film I really thought that the film would basically make Steve Jobs look like a saint and Bill Gates look like a total dick, but after watching the film I really don’t think either of them came out looking too good, there was Steve Jobs a power mad dictator that acts like a spoilt ten year old that refuses to take responsibility of his new born daughter and then you have Bill Gate who comes across as some sort of evil scheming villain. As you watched you could tell that a lot of the confrontations between the two were obviously just fabricated for dramatic effect but in the films defence it doesn’t claim to be total fact and does have a disclaimer at the end explaining that some scenes where basically made up.

The basic story (of the film anyway) is that Apple stole allot of the ideas from Xerox and then Microsoft stole alot from Apple. All in all I think what this film was ultimately trying to say was that the two companies where as bad as each other. But really they are not that bad because that is how all business works its just people stealing off of other people to make as much profit as possible. This is the reason that the film is called the pirates of silicon valley.

I thought all the characters where brilliantly cast and they actually looked like who they were supposed to be and as you watched sometimes you had to remind yourself they were not the real people.

The story is an excellent story to tell and I think that the creators of this movie brought it to us in an exciting and interesting way, that kept me watching to the very end. It’s not a movie for everyone I think this is one of the hard core geeky films out there and would probably bore some viewers, but if you are into computers or just basically a giant geek like me then this is the film for you my friend.

MY RATING 4/10

So all in all definitely not the best on my list but it definitely makes it on to my top geeky films.

If you want to see the trailer then here it is.

My next geeky film  is the 1987 film Spaceballs and I should have my review of it up in a day

Like I always say I would really like to see your views on this film or any questions in the comment section.

GEEKY FILM COUNTDOWN|Film Review “War Games”

The second film on my geeky films coutdown is John Badham’s 1983 film War Games.

It’s stars a very young  Matthew Broderick from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , He plays a high school student who accidentally hacks into the missile defence network believing he is hacking into a computer game company and sets off the missile launch sequence.

What I really like about this film is that it really shows how far in computer technology we have come from the 80′s and it is the main reason it is on my list of geeky films. Back when computers were the size of houses and the bigger the machine the more cool and stylish it looked. But way back then there were no films about computer hacking and this film was the first film to use computer terminology such as finding a way into a computers security system by using a “back door”

This film set a bench mark for sci-fi and it played on the fears of the people at the time, normally the threat in science fiction comes from outta space or a huge fictional monster, but back then in the 1980′s people were not afraid that they would be invaded by martians or monsters they were afraid of the nuclear threat and that the Russians were five seconds away from destroying the entire world. This film knew this and not only scared people shittless but also reiterated just how stupid nuclear war is and that there can never be any winners.

Throughout this film you have that intense feeling of is it all going to end or isn’t it? While I was watching this film I could not help but be reminded of Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr Strangelove, this film also follows a situation in which earth is facing total annihilation because of a nuclear bomb and this film also gives you that feeling nearly all the way through and also plays on just how stupid the atom bomb really is.

As always Broderick gives a perfect performance and was the ideal person of the time to play the nerdy but lovable teenager and with just one eyebrow movement orthe slightest smile can make any situation seem hilarious. I think its this mix of comedy and tension makes this film a great film for anyone and tells a story that will be relevant for many more years to come.

I have watched a great many films in the past week for this countdown and although I will pick my favorite one after reviewing them all at the moment this film stands firmly at the top.

MY RATING 8/10

You can see the trailer here

The next film I will be watching is The Pirates of Silicone Valley, expect a review on this site by tomorrow.

As always I would love you to comment or ask questions in the comments section below I will always respond to your questions.

GEEKY FILM COUNTDOWN|Film Review “pi”

So I cannot for the life of me figure out how to put the mathematical “pi” symbol onto WordPress, that’s a good start to my first ever movie blog.

But the film I am talking about is the 1998 Darren Aronofsky film “Pi”.

I have just finished watching it and I must say I enjoyed it very much, it is hard to say to much about it without ruining the film entirely, so I will just give you the basic plot and characters. (Some Mild Spoilers)

It’s about a man named Maximillian Cohen played by Sean Gullette who is a genius mathematician, that by using a massive homemade super computer  is studying vast amounts of code  to try to crack the secrets of the stock market. As the film moves on you notice more and more that Max is a social recluse and spends nearly all his time just running numbers through his head. One day when he is using the computer it crashes and prints out a final apparently random 216 number. Then while at a coffee shop he meets an Hasidic jew named Lenny Meyer played by Ben Shenkman who tells him he also is into mathematics but for a different use in religious text.

Max throughout the film becomes more and more obsessed with the fact that numbers are behind everything in the universe, he is also being chased by Wall street officials that want him to crack the code to give them the power to predict the stock market.

So that is the basic plot of the film but what pulled me in was the brilliant black and white cinematography and I also thought what little music they used fitted perfectly using a very modern musical score over very grainy and dark video. I was hooked on this film from the moment it started to the very end I think mainly because of the performance given by Sean Gullette.

This is defiantly on my list of  favorite Darren Aronofsky films, the two others that I love are the  2008 film The Wrestler and the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream.

I do not think this film is for everybody but if you are a Darren Aronofsky fan or just a true film love then I defiantly recommend you check it out.

MY RATING 7/10

See the trailer here

Please let me know in the comments section what you thought of this film, I will always respond to any questions too.