Top 10 Hyper Characters

There's always the odd character in movies, games and tv that you just think, 'That character is mental.'

Having thought about some of my favourite hyper, crazy, slightly over-the-top characters I have compiled a list of my top ten.

10) Stitch - Lilo and Stitch   
                                                                      

Stitch is a very hyper blue alien armed with intergalactic laser beams - he lives in Hawaii disguised as a dog, and speaks in gobbledogook, likes listening to the king of rock 'n' roll with Lilo, eating furniture, and wreaking havoc pretty much any way possible. Nuff said.

9) The Black Knight - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

You'd think some people would give up after losing a limb in a fight, but not this guy. It's a surprise this feisty fellow wasn't missing anything to begin with, apart from his sanity of course.

'It's just a flesh wound!'

8) Bubbles - Finding Nemo

He's only in Finding Nemo briefly, but he instantly gets me giggling everytime I see it. If you haven't seen Finding Nemo (which, come on now, you must have), but if you really, seriously haven't, the aptly named Bubbles is a yellow regal fish who is obsessed with, well, bubbles! I wish I had a fish like him...

7) Daffy the hyper Gremlin - Gremlins 2

Daffy's laughter is contagious, and how anyone could mistake him for Gizmo is beyond me! Although he is the most hyper character of all time he just isn't the funniest.

6) Joker - Batman: Arkham Asylum

The eccentric arch-nemesis to my favourite superhero. With an extravaggant plot to break out every crazy and unleash them into Gotham City, the Joker never likes to think small time. And even with such dark motives he still has time for a joke. He follows Batman throughout the whole game taunting him with surprises and some pretty dark humour...but you just can't help but find some of it funny. And if there was no Joker it would be like having just the biscuit part of an oreo without the middle.

5) Zach Gallyfallyanakis - Hangover/Due Date

He plays Alan in The Hangover, The Hangover 2, and Due Date...no, wait, apparently he doesn't play the same character in Due Date...Are you sure? He plays a clueless guy who seems to get everyone into trouble wherever he goes. Unlike a lot of hyper characters he's not completely useless to the narrative, infact without him there probably wouldn't be much to tell! Although his character seemed to lose something in the second movie, Alan still cracks me up in Hangover 2 with his badly timed facts on 'Thighland' and completely deluded thoughts that he openly shares with the 'wolf pack'.

I've heard he is going to be a hobo in the new Muppets movie, and speaking of the Muppets...

4) Animal - The Muppets Show

The lovable drummer of the Muppets Show band, Electric Mayhem. He's simply known for his hilariously random outbursts on the drums and takes everything people say to him literally. Love it.


3) Max - Sam & Max

Max is a naked, violent rabbit thingy who works alongside a detective dog named Sam. He's deranged, loves guns and always asks Sam for permission to do evil things. The voice of reason - as the only one who seems to be able to control him - Sam, usually answers with 'I don't think so little buddy.' He also very worryingly becomes president of the USA in 'Sam & Max Save the World'.

2) Spacey the Space core - Portal 2

I have no idea if this little dude has an actual name or not...all I know is he is VERY enthusiastic about space. He doesn't say much apart from 'Space. Let's go to space!' and 'SPPPPAAAACCEEE'. Very random.

1) Barney Stinson - How I Met your Mother

Barney probably has some of the most quotable quotes, ever. He's a lazer tagging, suit-obsessed womaniser, with a never-ending cash flow. Barney's rules and theories are hilarious, from the 'Cheerleader effect' to his need to 'Suit up!' He certainly is legen...wait for it...

WonderOri's big up to: Dorothy Mills

Just a quick one - I've been thinking about a movie I saw a couple of months ago called Dorothy Mills. I'd never heard of it before, and I was surprised at how well it was made. If you are a horror junkie or thriller loonatic like myself then I suggest you try to find yourself a copy!


A psychiatrist from Dublin is sent to investigate a case in which a girl is accused of abusing a baby. She gets to know the girl, the autonomous Dorothy and realises there's something darker/eviler going on.

When I was first given this movie to watch by a friend I studied the cover, the pictures and the back synopsis, and concluded it was another exorcism movie. It isn't really, but I do find myself comparing it to The Last Exorcism.

They both come under the same genre and the narratives are similar - a young girl who is 'possessed', and someone is trying to find out the reason behind their actions.

However, Dorothy Mills has a really interesting and slightly quirky atmosphere which reminded me of The Wicker Man (1973).

I have to also mention that Jenn Murray (the girl who plays Dorothy) was fantastic in this movie and if she hadn't played the role so perfectly the whole thing would have fell short. I would really like to see her in more stuff in the future.

Insidious - Unscary..ous

Insidious. The posters, which we've all seen, have an evil looking boy on the front who has writing in his eyeballs. It says 'Insidious' in the left and 'is' in the right. Underneath is the tag line 'It's not the house that's haunted.' ....Insidious is what? I ask!

I still don't know what this poster is on about, am I missing something?

The title sequence featured a black and white tour of each room in 'the house' accompanied with a dark but simple piano score. It whispered in my ear promises of a continuous spooky atmosphere and seductive cinematography.

We are introduced to a family who have recently moved into our newly acquainted title sequence house. There isn't much in terms of character development before the narrative catalyst event. Dalton, the youngest son doesn't wake up one day. The parents find out that Dalton is in an unexplained coma.

Up to this point the movie leans towards the idea that he might become evil or possessed and start doing some freaky shit. But no, this isn't what happens. It's not as obvious as you think, which some people are probably thankful for. It turns out that he wandered off somewhere in his sleep and now his subconscious mind is being held hostage by a demon. Ok...so are you really happy with it not being obvious now?

My fright meter was unfortunately not satisfied enough...I don't know, maybe this is just because I am a fearless hero. Maybe it's different for civilians like yourself. It just came across as one of those horror films that is perfect for thirteen year olds to watch at a sleepover in order to scare themselves silly and show off about it the next day at school.

You're probably thinking right now that I must be one of those people who prefers gore horror to the psychological sub-genre. Well, you are incorrect. There are the odd scares in the movie which I enjoyed, I would have liked to have seen more spirits and had less of the demon talk.

And what was with the Darth Maul demon-lookalike? I was half expecting to see Darth Sidious pop by in demon land seeing as his name is in the title.


Considering this film seems to be about demon land 'The Further', I would have loved to have seen more of it. There was potential for some of those promises I had been given in the beginning to have finally been granted. But no, this is why I am not satisfied, even the climax of the film was weak. If Insidious had been a potential mate it would have been rubbish in bed. The end.

If you like this film WonderOri recommends: Sinister, Paranormal Activity....Star Wars?

In the cinema no-one can hear you...

It all began with a scream over 911...apparently.

We all remember the days when we used to go around asking people what their favourite scary movie was, you couldn't go out at Halloween without seeing at least one Ghostface.

Ten years have passed since Sidney last visited her hometown Woodsboro. As soon as she's back not even one day passes before Ghostface is after her again.

The thing I love about the Scream franchise has always been attitude and irony, which the new installment, Scre4m is definitely not lacking in.

"What's a four letter word for courage?" One policeman asks whilst doing his crossword. "Guts." Replies the other.


There are brilliant moments in the film. I realised at one point the tension had made my shoulders raise up so high that I looked like I had no neck. Then a few minutes later I was spraying my popcorn all over the place from laughter.

We are reminded of the 'rules' behind horror movies (luckily there's a movie geek to fill us in, although he's not Randy!...I mean, Randy the character from the previous Scream movies). However, Ghostface isn't playing by the rules this time and recreates some of the previous murders. Literally, people can say 'Be right back' and sure enough, they come back unharmed!

The film doesn't stray far from the original, but adds aspects of modern day life. Needless to say iPhones, Facebook, Twitter and webcams are all incorporated. This is done quite subtly in places and not enough to take over the movie and ruin what it's all about. There are also countless mentions and tributes to other cult horror movies to look out for.

Having not seen Neve Campbell in anything since Scream 3, I couldn't believe how little she has aged. Considering it has been ten whole years since we last saw Sidney I was also hoping to have a bit of a background story to what she's been up to all this time, but it all seemed pretty vague and mysterious. I even expected her to suddenly bring out some legendary martial arts moves that she might have learnt whilst she was away so she was prepared to kick some Ghostface butt.

Dewey and Gale (David Arquette and Courtney Cox) returned as the other two 'originals'. Their relationship was rocky in the movie and I'm sure I'm not the only one who couldn't help but sense that the tension between them was a bit too realistic.

Along with the three originals making their appearances, Ghostface was also voiced by the same actor as in the first three movies (Roger L. Jackson). It sounded completely different to me, it was like the transition from Christian Bale's voice in Batman Begins to Dark Knight.

I am more than certain there will be another addition to the Scream franchise in the next couple of years, I can only hope Arquette and Cox will both opt in, and it had better not be named 5cream. Otherwise I will ask for a ticket to see Five Cream. And I can't wait to see the look on Sidney's face when the next Ghostface turns up. Let's hope she never puts two and two together and leaves Woodsboro for good!

You're High-ness

The first time I saw the trailer I didn't have high hopes, the main character Danny McBride came across as a Tom Green wannabe...Or a potato which was brought to life by a mad scientist, only fed sugary foods and fizzy drinks and then pumped full of some sort of super-adrenaline...same difference either way.

This picture I'd painted in my mind of some mental-hyper potato jumping about on screen was then completely transformed (to an optimus prime extent) when I came across a review on imdb where someone had compared it to one of the best movies ever made within the adventure-comedy genre, The Princess Bride.

So I got out my paintbrushes and painted a new picture of Your Highness - giants, revenge, true love, pirates, swamps, R.O.U.S's? Yes please!!

Fabious (James Franco) is a warrior prince, loved by his country and favourited by his father. When he returns from a quest with his new bride the celebrations are abruptly interrupted when the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux) kidnaps her. Fabious has to convince his lazy slacker brother Thadeous (Danny McBride) to join him on a quest to save his princess-to-be.

I was slightly disappointed. It IS funny in places, I'll give it that. It has enough charm to just be able to get away with having a cheeky humour. If it had lacked said charm there was definitely the danger of it having some mental potato moments.

I would say this film was not without 'stoner humour'. The film was written by the minds behind Pineapple Express (which Franco and McB were also in) and reflects a similar style of comedy. Some of it verged on crude, but most of the banter was very witty and full of memorable quotes. They chucked a few swear words in every now and then which surprisingly didn't get old...there's something funny about a knight swearing. The only part of the movie that I didn't find funny was pervy yoda...awkward!

Apart from that, Dan McB was more toned down than I expected (to around about Jack Black's level of insanity). The actors performed to a high standard and the effects were made on a big budget scale.

I personally can't compare this to Princess Bride, just like I wouldn't compare it to Monty Python and the Holy Grail - they are similar in genre, but the style and humour is more reminiscent of the themed spoof type comedies such as Tropic Thunder, Kick Ass and probably anything that Zack Galifi...something or other has been involved in.

If I had to sum up Your Highness I would say it is perfect at not being a masterpiece (in a good way).

If you like this movie WonderOri picks: Pineapple Express, This is the End, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Superbad.

Heroes - It's the way of the future

I've been thinking about how the superhero genre has made such a comeback in recent years, maybe even too much of one.

Although some might say Superman (1978) pushed the superhero movie genre onto its feet I think it's safe to say that if that wasn't enough, Tim Burton's Batman (1989) shoved the genre into the air placing it in a completely different direction.

The superhero genre took a while to grow in the 90's (the only notable movie I can think of right now being The Crow following suit with the 'dark and moody' tone of Batman '89).

Batman's rep was then destroyed a little when Joel Schumacher took over the franchise in 1995 and gave us Batman Forever, followed by Batman & Robin two years later. The superhero genre went quiet and no-one spoke of it until the new millennium.

A century of superhero blockbusters and super-rubbish flops has brought us to the present. This year alone we have Green Hornet, Green Lantern, Thor, Captain America, X-Men First Class and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. With the change in technology quite a few of these will probably be exploiting the use of 3D (having things fly towards us, people punching the camera and all that).

Next year we also have The Avengers, Batman: Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-man, Nick Fury, Superman: Man of Steel, The Wolverine, Venom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek 2, Ghostbusters 3 and Mad Max: Fury Road. Yes, I know the latter three aren't exactly superhero movies, but they are worthy of mentioning due to their cult statuses.

Then we even have Justice League: Mortal, The Flash, Deadpool, Ant-Man, Darkchylde, Iron Man 3, Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall, Green Lantern 2, some Fantastic Four threequel, maybe another Batman movie thrown in somewhere, Wonderwoman, Silver Surfer and probably many more lined up in the future.

With expectations running high and sooo much choice, I can only imagine they are going to over-do it with all these superhero movies in such a tiny space of time. Some of them are bound to aim for the skies, only to flop back down to the ground.

Who knows, maybe one day when they've made a film about every possible superhero (or villain!) they might even end up with a movie where they are pitted against each other (DC Vs Marvel anyone?)

Octopuses covered in marmite. Yum.

I would like to talk about the movie Monsters, which I saw at the cinema last year and I hear is being released on DVD and blu-ray next week.

Where I live the posters seemed to give very little away towards the storyline with just the title, a bit of shrubbery and a warning sign. It gave me the impression it would be a similar to the movie Cloverfield, but at that point I didn't know what the film was about.


A journalist is demanded by his boss to escort his daughter out of Mexico. This might sound like a simple task, but just to mix stuff up a bit the part of Mexico they have to get through is actually now quarantined due to an infestation of aliens aka 'Monsters', the result of a NASA space probe mission gone wrong. The US and Mexican armies are fighting to contain the aliens within the 'Infected zone'.

I don't like the title of this movie, it bugs me. How many other titles out there do you know that plopped an 's' onto the end of an already well-known, well-made, phenomenally acted movie? Yes, it is simplistic and ambiguous...but they aren't JUST monsters. They are Freaky Giant Octopuses!...Let's call it that instead of Monsters.

In Freaky Giant Octopuses we only really get to know the two main characters throughout the whole journey. Andrew, the male journalist, seems very shallow initially and like many struggling protagonists he is given his own personal redemption along the way.

Then we have the lady character, Samantha, who seems to instantly fall for Andrew even though she is getting married to her fiancée some time in the near future. Oh Samantha, are you really that fickle or are you supposed to be complex in some way?

Samantha is the catalyst for the narrative and yet she constantly demonstrates she has the least control of it by having the inability to take lead or even think for herself. Why is she even there?! She's left her fiancée at home to go on vacation to a country that's partially invaded by aliens, yet it's never explained for what reason and why it's necessary for her to get home at the most inconvenient of times. The only reason they go through the infected zone is because they miss the DAILY ferry which takes a safe route back to the US. I'm guessing they have to get back for the wedding or something...haha!

For a low budget movie I have to mention that the cinematography was actually immense. It created a beautiful atmosphere that needed to be appreciated in order for the movie not to feel like it was some shallow sci-fi docu-horror.

Let's just say that Freaky Giant Octopuses is very much a marmite movie - you either love it or you hate it. And unfortunately for me, this movie didn't satisfy my taste buds. It's not a movie I think I'd like to lick again.

2007: A Space Portal-sey

Since Portal 2 is being released in two weeks' time a buddy of mine recently urged me to play the original Portal on the PC so I could understand what all the fuss was about.

The game starts off with a female computer system named GLaDOS who equips you with a magic portal-shooting teleportation device. She runs you through a series of test rooms with the promise of cake at the end as encouragement.

I was extremely impressed with the portal gun. The idea of teleporting from one specific place to another was then further enhanced with the aspect of gravity, which allows you to jump from a high place into one portal to create a high velocity so when you come out the other portal you go flying forwards.

It's the type of invention that would be perfect for me to use against bad guys and it's such a realistic way of portraying the first generation of teleportation. Unfortunately, I don't have the extensive funding that Batman has so he'll probably create this before I do.

After a while I could tell something was definitely not right with this GLaDOS computer system as the test rooms and problem solving elements of the game became more complicated and dangerous.

That's when I realised she was actually evil and I had to put a stop to this new enemy.

The game doesn't feel very long, unless you take your time and play it in bits you can easily get sucked in and end up playing the entire game within a couple of hours. However there are extra advanced courses and challenges to try out afterwards and you could always take a break to reward yourself with a slice of Victoria sponge (yeah, I didn't want to say cake there because it rhymes with break, I know you noticed that!) Oh, and with the credits there is song! I've always found that having a little diddy in the credits is an epic way to end a game.

Since I seem to be five or so years behind everyone else having just played this, I have vowed to buy Portal 2 the week it comes out, take advantage of its meme-ious phrases and defeat GLaDOS once and for all...or see if there is an upgrade of HAL on the market and hook them up...they would make a great couple! Aww.

At first it's all fun and games...

Last night, after a long and tiresome heroic evening I decided to relout (alternative to chillax?) to a little movie called Splice, made back in 2009.

Two scientists who produce new creatures decide to splice together some creature genes with human DNA in secrecy. The different genes of species that they squished into their new creation are introduced as if they are superpowers at different stages throughout the mutant's lifecycle. Thus an alien-like supermonster which they name Dren (Nerd backwards) is born.

So, I was watching Splice 2009 happily enjoying it as I played that game (which I call 'The Goiler Game', you can also have a 'Goiler' who is that odd person when you are watching a film in a group who puts it upon themselves to guess the spoilers out loud), so you shout out what will happen next, and I seemed to be winning all the time (which is great, I love winning :D).

Then it suddenly occurred to me, 'Wait a minute WonderOri! People don't like it when they win this game, this is what film reviewers call ''PREDICTABLE!'' '

I don't 100% agree with this idea, it wasn't predictable in an incredibly mega-cliche way and further towards the end I started to enjoy the game less and less as it became more of an awkward 'Oh no, this isn't going to happen next is it..?' This, as you can imagine, complicated my relationship I had built with Splice and by the time I got to the end we were in a love-hate relationship.

I can't even begin to explain some of the events that took place in this movie, plus I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it! I can only imagine the riot some of the scenes probably caused over at the Imdb forums when this film was released.

*Warning - may contain little spoilers*
After our little fall out Splice and I went our separate ways and we have decided not to see each other again, it's probably for the best.

At least I never slept with a mutant-human....although I can't say the opportunity hasn't ever stared me in the face with its three eyes.

And so it begins...

As someone who probably knows not-so-much about blogging and how to write articles that flow smoothly, like the calmest of rivers...no that sounds rubbish.

Anyway, I have put off going on this little journey for a while, very aware that there will be many foes that I will face such as the grammar goblins and deadly obstacles I must pass like writer's block.

I have already stumbled onto my first dilemma on this venture into the unknown - do I write an introduction or do I jump right into action? Will this define what type of blogger I really am? *Sigh* It's like choosing between good and evil all over again...