Alan J Moore's Film Music Chat

It just wouldn’t feel like the Christmas season without TBS running “A Christmas Story” 24/7 leading up to the big day. The Bumpkiss hounds are running through the house eating roast turkey, Ralphy is wishing for his Red Rider BB Gun, the leg lamp is shining in the window and a blanket of white snow has quieted the neighborhood bullies, if only for Christmas Day. This is just one of many nostalgic movies that light up our hearts this holiday season.

Christmas classics seem to reign supreme for the baby boomer generation. The black-and-white nostalgia of “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) captures the innocence and the good will of a nation struggling to regain a sense of optimism following World War II. James Stewart and Donna Reed give compelling performances in a heart-wrenching tale of a suicidal man’s realization that he meant so much to so many people. Another old Christmas season classic from the same era is “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947), which was remade in 1994. A department store Santa finds himself in court when he professes to be the real deal, which captures the heart of a six-year-old skeptic. Lastly, White Christmas (1954), starring Bing Crosby, where dance, romance and hard economic times take center stage.

If you’re a family who likes to laugh together and your kids are a bit older, then perhaps Christmas dysfunction is more your motif. In addition to the ever-popular “A Christmas Story” (1983), don’t forget “Home Alone” and “Trapped In Paradise” (1994). A 2008 dysfunctional Merry Xmas tale is “Four Christmases,” starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn who try to race from place to place to see all their divorced parents. Then there’s always the reliably hilarious “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989), starring Chevy Chase. “He wants a wonderful experience with his in-laws, who turn out to be creeps. He wants a close relationship with his kids, but it is stressed. He considers his decorating a grand achievement, but it’s mocked as a disaster,” explains Gary Hoppenstand, a professor of American Studies at Michigan State University. “The holidays can be a depressing time. Comedy can help us laugh at ourselves and realize we are fallible, too.”

Some Christmas movies re-visited later in lfe may strike you as quite odd the second time around. “Babes in Toyland” (1986) is definitely one of those movies. Suddenly you recognize Lisa Piper as a young Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves as “Jack Be Nimble.” At its heart, it is a story about a child who grows up too fast, but on the exterior there is an evil villain bowling his home down the streets of Toyland, bizarre minions fighting toy soldiers and a rather fantastical setting. Of course, there were many other versions of this tale as well, most notably the film featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

With todays modern technology, the spy gadgets of fictional spies such as James Bond and Jason Bourne are in reach to those of us not employed in her majesty’s secret service -here are afew examples that will allow you to listen in.

The ‘usb spy cobra’ installs a secret monitoring programme onto thecomputer, which will remain undetected by the computers firewall and anti-virus software, recording emails, keystrokes, IM conversations and websites visited on the computer.

MobileMaster’s job is to allow you to listen in to mobile phone.

Got to follow that car? The GPS Maptracker will send the exact location of the car its planted in to your mobile phone on a full coloured map. With an optional magnetic casing to attach to the bottom of the car.

With its concealed microphone and transmitter, the UHF ballpoint pen is great for recording discretly and quietly.

With a range of 15ft and 37 hours worth of recording time, the Tube keychain voice recorder is one of the more powerful (and smallest) on the market.

Other interesting spy equipment that could come in handy.

The smallest and lightest pair of night vision goggles on the market at 9oz, the Viper goggles are easily adjustable and water and fog resistant for those missions on the moors.

The pocket sized bug detector known as ‘Laserscan’ will scan the room and inform you of how bugged your room is, detecting all wired and wireless devices.

the ‘air freshner full system’ can be placed in any room to give you both audio and visual information of whats going on, whilst disgused as an airfreshner.

Textspy will find all the deleted SIM card contents on a mobile and send them to you quickly and quietly. For when you know shes hiding something from you.

with a 20ft radius and 2gb of memory, the Covert USB datastock voice recorder can record upto 5 hours of audio information and 33 hours of storage capacity.

Everyone loves a good spy movie. It’s great to just lose yourself in the mad action and adventure, and imagine what it would be like if you could really have all those cool spy gadgets and drive around in one of those amazing customised cars. Here are five of the best movie spies, and a few of the reasons why we love them so much.

5. Austin Powers (Mike Myers, the Austin Powers trilogy)

Austin Powers is the ultimate James Bond spoof, mixed with a bit of bizarre 60s eccentricity and a whole lot of ‘mojo’. He thinks he is the essence of spy-movie cool, and is oblivious to the fact that he’s really nothing but a funny, if slightly disturbing, parody. As for gadgets, if it’s possible to imagine it, Austin Powers most likely has it. Forget hidden cameras, tiny guns and secret voice recorders. Here we have giant lasers meant for blowing up the planet, ‘fembots’ with machine guns in their nipples and even a time travelling car!

4. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible)

In his quest to prove his innocence over the murder of the rest of his team, Tom Cruise’s Hunt proves himself to be the perfect sleek, efficient secret agent. He has the right skills, loads of gadgets (including camera-glasses, exploding chewing gum, and who could forget those awesome masks!) and that annoying ability to get through anything, including a spectacular high-speed chase involving a train, a helicopter and the channel tunnel… and still look like he’s just stepped out of the hosue at the end of it all.

3. Charlie’s Angels (Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu, Charlie’s Angels)

These three femmes fatales are the ultimate team of secret agents. Working under the direction of the mysterious Charlie and with the help of his assistant, they go around fighting crime and, well, kicking ass. They may seem all sweetness and innocence ar first but when these girls get angry, you wouldn’t want to be on their wrong side. And with the help of Charlie’s technological genius (they can plant voice recorders and trackers in people’s teeth!) there really is no stopping them.

2. James Bond

The ultimate movie spy who needs no introduction. Bond, in all his guises, sets the standard for spy movies in every way.  He’s suave, sophisticated and has a seemingly neverending arsenal of inconceivable gadgets and awesome cars. And of course, he always gets the girl!

1. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon, the Bourne trilogy)

Bourne is maybe the best spy of them all. After he wakes up with amnesia he has no idea who he is or why he’s there, but he still has the skill and cunning to stay alive and work it all out. He may not have many cool spy gadgets but it’s not like he needs them, he’s an expert at using everyday objects in unusual ways and he can fashion pretty much anything into a weapon!

The musical film, Mamma Mia! has broken on o the biggest records of all time in the UK. The film has become has become the United Kingdom's biggest selling DVD of all time according to official figures. It is the first disc to sell more than five million copies - placing it in one in four UK households which is just incredible to comprehend! The film was the number one DVD of 2008 with its closest rival ‘The Dark Knight’ making 1.5 million sales in total.

The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is the closest rival for all time DVD sales as it has sold a total of 4.7 million copies of the DVD in total. It is followed by third and fourth by Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Other top ten all time sellers include, 'Casino Royale' staring Daniel Craig and Shrek 2 which was the fastest selling animation during the last decade.

The latest landmark further underlines the popularity of Mamma Mia which is now the UK's official favorite film of all time. Yet it is not just the film which has done well, the soundtrack to the film also became the biggest selling soundtrack compilation of 2008 as they shifted over one million copies in total. The film became the fastest selling DVD when it was released in the middle of November, 2008 and has continued to sell over the festive period like hot pancakes! I myself had bought a copy for my mother and it appears as though everyone in the United Kingdom had the same idea! I have not seen the movie myself but I have heard it is something not just for women but for everyone to enjoy which is good. Personally, I can't imagine Pierce Brosnan dancing around with in a dress with old women instead of being James Bond but that is neither here nor there. This film is something nice for the whole family to enjoy and I would recommend it to everyone!

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