Avatar – Thumbs Down

I loved Avatar.  Right now, it is in my top five favorite movies of all time.  However, the reason I loved it so much was because of the great 3D and visual effects.  The storyline was very simplistic and left a lot to be asked for.  Gregg Easterbrook, Tuesday Morning Quarterback columnist at ESPN.com, had some things to say about things getting left out of the storyline.  (click here to read all his thoughts on the film)  He points out many of the plot holes, such as:

• Why wasn’t horizontal drilling used?
• Why didn’t the humans get Unobtanium from the floating mountains?
• Why would the humans, obsessed about profit, want to fight expensive battles with the native Na’vi?

Also, The Huffington Post posted a picture detailing how the storyline of Avatar parallels the story in Disney’s Pocahontas.

Avatar will stand the test of time by being remembered as groundbreaking technologically.  It will soon be surpassed by movies with equally great effects with better constructed, and more original, story lines.

Awful Clients – Thumbs Down

Clients From Hell is a collection of interactions that graphic designers have with their idiotic clients.  I can relate to some of these stories from my job at an online marketing company, but I am so thankful I am not dealing with clients that are as bad as the ones in the blog.  Many of the problems come from clients who think they know how design or marketing works, but really have no idea.  Here is one example:

Client: Can you un-blur the background on this photo?

Me: Unblur?

Client: Yeah, I want the whole image to be super sharp. I don’t particularly care for that whole deep field thing you keep telling me about.

Me: You mean depth of field?

Client: Yeah, whatever. Just unblur it.

Me: That’s impossible.

Client: I’ve seen it done on CSI.

Check out the blog here.

Breaking Bread – Thumbs Up

Panera ran this ad by Mullen in USA Today. It asks different feuding people to reconcile by breaking bread.  There are some expected feuding couples in the list, but also some chuckle-worthy obscure ones. Which one is your favorite? Mine is: those who install toilet paper over vs. those who prefer it under.

Comcast OnDemand Descriptions – Thumbs Down

I’m not sure who Comcast is paying to write the descriptions for their OnDemand programming.  I wonder if Comcast even knows, because if they do know who is writing these, I’m surprised the writer(s) still have their job.  Here are a few examples of the awful descriptions:

It’s hard to tell if the comedy is intentional or unintentional.

Check out http://wtfcomcast.tumblr.com/ and judge for yourself.

DJ Steve Porter – Thumbs Up

DJ Steve Porter threw together this remix of the Slap Chop infomercial.  I think the infomercial is much more interesting with some autotune.

He also put together this remix of famous press conferences which any good sports fan should enjoy.

Autocomplete Me – Thumbs Up

You know how Google has an autocomplete function – so when you are typing in your search, it tries to help you out by giving you popular searches?  Well there are some crazy autocompletes out there and they are collected at www.autocompleteme.com.  Here are some examples of the comedy you will encounter there:

 

 

  

Citrus Soldier – Thumbs Up

Citrus Soldier describes itself as: A daily webcomic randomly snatched from the good people at Flickr™.  The guy that runs the site, picks a random photo from the photo sharing website Flickr, and writes a caption for it.  Although he has stopped updating on a daily basis, there are over 300 funny archived photos to browse through.  Check it out when you have a few minutes to spare (or especially if you have some procrastination to do).  Here are some examples of his work:

 

Microsoft Trying To Be Cool – Thumbs Down

I’m sure you have seen a YouTube video of a cool flash mob.  Even some “flash mob” type commercials, obviously for a brand, are still entertaining (the T-Mobile video of people singing in London comes to mind).

I bet you have also been inside an Apple Store to try out or buy some of their products.

Well, Microsoft decided to put these two things together (an Apple store and a “flash mob” type of event with their employees) in an uninspiring display of song and dance at the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo:

This is what the original poster of the video said on his blog: Mid way through our visit the entire store broke out into song. Now I have seen this gimmick before at Coldstone Creamery and I know how they have been criticized in the media for it, but here it did not seem forced nor contrived, I would honestly say that this was the staff letting go, having some fun and not taking the brand all to seriously.

Really?? I think it looks both forced and contrived.

He also said this about the look of the store: I guess I have been disconnected from the platform for quite a while because I did not even realize that Microsoft had store but I have heard so many great things about Windows 7 I just had to check it out. I half expected the store to be a bland uninspiring cheap knockoff of an Apple Store, but WOW was I in for a surprise.

Really?? To me, the store looks exactly like an Apple Store.  If I didn’t know it was a Microsoft Store, I would think it was selling iPhones and MacBooks.  All the details seem the same – right down to the t-shirts and lanyards the employees are wearing.

In summary and in conclusion, the video of the Microsoft employees breaking out into dance has a 1.5 star rating on YouTube.  I’m surprised it isn’t lower.

(Check out the original blog post, and commentary on Engadget)

Haircuts – Thumbs Down

I got a haircut last night and this graph sums up how I feel about its look:

Thumbs Up – Twilight: Three Wolf Moon

I have never seen or read Twilight, but I still find this parody trailer based on Three Wolf Moon internet sensation pretty funny.  It also stars one of my new favorite comedians/actresses: Aubrey Plaza from Parks and Recreation.

(via Mashable)