Why the Geordie Shore is Great

 

Why The Geordie Shore is Great?

Nine articles in It’s time to go a bit rogue. Time to choose a topic that not everyone is going to agree on. That topic I have in mind? The Geordie Shore of course. In my ever so humble opinion, I think the Geordie shore is great TV and I hope that I can convince you the same with my amazing, great, adequate writing skills. 

I will be the first to admit that The Geordie Shore is trash television. Of course it is. I’m not going to defend the classiness of the show. Because to be fair, I think I would have an easier job teaching Professor X how to swim. The show is completely and utterly classless and tasteless. But it doesn’t stop it being great television.

The same can be said about the cast. Gaz, Jay, Greg, James, Holly, Sophie, Vickie and Charlotte aren’t exactly saints and I’m not going to say that I would love to be BFF’s with them all. Except from James. That man is just a God. But to be honest, I don’t want to watch a TV show that has well respectable members of society discussing Global Economics and whether or not we are all inside Plato’s Cave. 

I want to watch people who are loud, obnoxious, offensive, cocky and self centred. Why, I hear you cry? Because it’s damn entertaining to watch. In high school, I never wanted to be best friends with the loud, obnoxious, offensive, cocky and self centred people. But did I want to watch them make complete and utter tits of themselves? Hellz yeah I did. 

For two reasons. One, it was super funny and two; it made me feel so much better about myself. Yes, I may have not been super popular, but at least I knew that High School wasn’t going to be the pinnacle of my existence. 

It’s the same with The Geordie Shore. Yes, it’s damn funny watching Greg and James completely fail trying to pull and yes, it’s damn funny watching Jay and Vicki scream at each other for the one millionth time. But, it also makes me feel good about my life. OK, I may be jobless at the moment, yes I may have not much to do on a Tuesday night except from look at Facebook and wish I was a Dinosaur. 

But, at least I’m not these people. At least, my biggest concern is not whether my hair looks great. At least, I won’t cry if the local Tesco Extra runs out of Veet and at least, I’m not going to shit myself because Holly and Vicky are calling me behind my back. 

OK, no it’s not thought provoking and philosophical, no it won’t keep you up at night pondering the meaning of life and how we were all created an no it won’t  go down in history as a piece of world class television. But is it entertaining? Damn yes, is it funny? Damn yes and will it make you feel good about yourself?  Why-aye. 

Thanks for reading, I will hopefully have a few more columns up in the next few days. 

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Daniel Morris.

Review Recall: Tootsie

Retro Recall: Tootsie

Cast back to a time where perms where big and cell phones were bigger as the first trip on our cinema screen time machine is 1982 and Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie. 

The Plot: Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is a great actor. Maybe one of the best. The only thing that lets him down is his attitude. Nobody wants to work with him and I mean nobody. So Michael does what any self respecting Actor would do. He dresses like a woman to gain work and becomes Dorothy Michaels. Michael shows of his acting spots as Dorothy who rapidly becomes a successful character on a day time drama (don’t call it a soap opera or you’ll owe the producer a quarter). However, things get confusing for Michael when he starts to develop real feelings for his female co-star. 

The Film: Sydney Pollack’s 80s cross-dressing comedy is a well crafted story. Its witty script tingles with witty dialogue. But the movie isn’t just a comedy. Like most good comedies Sydney Pollack plays with a wider issue: sexism. Tootsie battles this issue with as much gusto as Dorothy battles her male colleagues. It highlights the problems of the time without getting bogged down with preachy messages. 

My only issue with Tootsie is the thought process of Michael before he decides to don the dress and become Dorothy. I get he is desperate, but what I don’t see is the idea of becoming a woman to get a part in show business manifest in his head. I don’t see the reason why he would become a woman and he doesn’t seem to debate the moral or ethical reprocussions for a second. 

The only other problem is the character of Sandy. Despite a good performance by Teri Garr, I just can’t quite believe there is a woman that downtrodden and vulnerable that exists and isn’t in medical care.

The Performances: The performances range from good to pretty great. Dustin Hoffman carries the Movie on his ever so reliable and Masculine/Feminine shoulders. He is brilliant mix of sleazy and desperate as Michael and he is ever so feisty and loveable as Dorothy. His performance as Michael Dorsey/ Dorothy Michael’s is so good that it’s such a shame that he was up against Sir Ben Kingsley as Ghandi as he would have been a shoe in for the Academy Award. 

More or less everybody else is pretty good, with Jessica Lange being completely believable as the love interest. Bill Murray is his usual delightfully dry self and George Gaynes is superb as the senile sexpest John Van Horn 

The Verdict: Perfect it is not but a damn smart comedy it is. Writers and directors should take note as Pollock’s Tootsie would teach people a lesson or two on how to make a movie just as thoughtful as it is funny. I give Tootsie a solid 7.5/10 

Well that's my first issue of Review Recall. I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to comment in the comments section. All Feedback is good Feedback. 

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Daniel Morris

I'm Just Jok(er)ing:

I’m Just Jok(er)ing

It’s no surprise that I’m a Batman nut. I just love everything about The Dark Knight and the grim world he occupies. There are many reasons for this, but one of the most important is not the good ol’ Bat himself, but his pale faced, green haired, ever so smiley nemesis. Yes, I’m of course talking about that sinister stand up, the clown prince of crime, The Joker. 

Over the years, several men have all stepped in to the purple suit and became The Joker. In this article, I’m going to explore the main four actor’s portrayal of the mad man himself. I’ll take a look at their performances and in the end conclude on who my favourite Joker is. The performances I will be looking at will be Cesar Romero from the original 60s series and the 1966 film. Jack Nicholson’s from Tim Burton’s Batman, Heath Ledger for his performance in Nolan’s reboot and Mark Hammil, who leant his voice to the Batman cartoon and the Arkham Asylum game. So let’s not fool around, we’re not Joking around here, OK that was the last bad joke. I promise. 

What a better place to start than the beginning? And the first clown prince of crime on our list a Mr Cesar Romero. Cesar played the Joker opposite Adam West’s Batman in the TV show and the 1966 movie. Batman then was a completely different beast than what it is today. Today Batman is a dark portrayal of vengeance and retribution. Quite different to the 1966 camp crime fighting spree. Different doesn’t always mean worse though and despite it being seriously OTT and ridiculously farcical the original Batman is exactly what it’s mean to be: fun. 

Cesar Romero plays The Joker as a camp mastermind with an even camper laugh. He would often spout English catchphrases (pip pip to you sir?) and let out a high pitch giggle afterwards. Cesar’s Joker doesn’t strike fear in to the hearts of many or chill the bones of the masses, but just like the TV show it works and its fun. 

Next we have Jack Nicholson, Jack donned the famous smile in Tim Burton’s 1989 revisioning of Batman. Tim Burton’s Batman was the start of how the mainstream audience will perceive Batman in the future, it was dark, it was bleak and it was great. On top of this great world that Burton created, he populated it with a menace. A menace with a wicked smile. The Joker. Who better to play this new twisted Joker than Hollywood big hitter and local crazy man Jack Nicholson? 

Jack’s Joker was as twisted and sinister as you could get. He stole every scene he was in and The Joker oozed evil. However, he also kept a little bit of camp in there. Maybe a homage to Cesar or maybe Jack realised that even though The Joker is evil, he still has a sense of humour. From his callus killing to his hilarious hi-jinks (you wouldn’t hit a man with glasses wudya?) Jack’s Joker was a perfect fit for Burton’s revisioned and revolutionary Batman. 

Talking about the perfect fit for a revisioned Batman, we move to Heath Ledger. Everybody on the planet knows the controversy of Heath Ledger and the joker so I’m not going to dwell on the events surrounding the performance, but the performance itself. And what a performance it was. An Oscar winning one I may add. Whereas Jack was the perfect balance of camp and evil Heath took it to the edge. 

Heath immersed himself in the role so much that it’s hard to think of it being Heath on screen and not The Joker himself. The best thing about Heath’s performance was there was method in its madness. Everything Heath’s Joker did made sense in that world, every horrifying smile to every blood curling lick of the lips. Did it deserve the Oscar? Probably? Do I think he would have got the Oscar if he was still alive? Probably not. But that’s a different article for a different day. 

Lastly we move on to Mark Hamill. Mark Hamill has never played a live action version of The Joker, but too many he is the true voice of the clown prince of crime. Mark has voiced the animated version of The Joker for years and couldn’t do a better job. Maybe a shock choice at first, Mark took reign of one of the most sought after characters in history and made it his own. Mark’s Joker is simply sinister. For a TV show aimed at kids, Marks Joker is voiced beautifully. 

That brings us to the end, my friends. I could go into much more detail on every performance as The Joker is only behind Buzz Lightyear as my favourite on screen character. The great thing about a great character like the Joker is how vast of a character he is. Because he is such a vast character, an actor’s performance of him can be completely different, but still great. That’s what I believe all these four performances are. Great. Each performance is totally different from the other but captures the Clown Prince at his wickedly best. 

That said, I do have a favourite. And the winner is? Jack Nicholson. Jack’s Joker is not only my favourite Joker performance, but one of my all time favourite performances by an actor. Jack juggles Joker’s many attributes perfectly. Whereas Cesar embellishes The Joker’s camper side, and Heath captures The Joker at his most manic, Jack balances both with utter ease. He is truly the best of both worlds, and the ultimate Gotham Madman. 

Enjoy this article? Think I’m pulling your leg? Feel free to comment below. All feedback is good feedback. Until next time my friends, keep smiling.

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Daniel Morris

Daniel Morris on Edge

 Authours Note: This is an old article I wrote aroound april time. I thought I'd wack it on here. Enjoy.

Daniel Morris on Edge.

January 8^th 2011 I sat down to write my first wrestling column. The topic of choice? My favourite wrestler, Adam Copeland. Known by many as the WWE superstar Edge. I decided that Edge would be my column of choice not just because he was my favourite wrestler, but because he is one of the main reasons I have been a wrestling fan for thirteen years. 

I also, decided to write a column on Edge in January because I thought it would be at least another year until he retired so I had plenty of time to perfect it and amend it as a fitting tribute for when he did bow out. Boy was I wrong.

Just three months later and Edge retires as an in ring competitor. So a new article was to be written. My first column was more of a career breakdown with my opinions (worthy or not) thrown in. This one is going to be different. This is my initial reaction to the shocking news; this is my opinion on a man who is a big influence in my life. This is Daniel Morris on Edge. 

 My initial reaction? Complete and utter shock. Like many other people the news was completely out of the blue for me. I knew Edge was beat up after years of putting his body on the line, but I didn’t see it coming. I thought he would at least wrestle (or should I say entertain) up until Wrestlemania 28. When I watched Raw on Tuesday, I was convinced it was a work. 

Of course I immediately changed my mind when Edge started to speak. The emotion in his voice, the tear in his eye. This was a guy baring his soul to the people he loved to entertain. It was a speech straight from the heart and it was immediately evident that this was really happening, Edge was retiring. 

I was devastated, selfishly so. I have been lucky to see Edge perform live, but only once way back in 2005. The realisation that I would never see Edge wrestle again, never mind perform live, was a huge blow to me. I just couldn’t believe it. I know it’s in completely different context and I don’t mean to be offensive when I say this, but I felt almost the same as when I heard Eddie had died. Just the realisation that I would never see him wrestle again was hard to take. 

However, that feeling of devastation disappeared quickly as Edge started to speak. The line that really grabbed me was: ‘The doctors have told me that I got no choice. And thankfully they found out because I’m not going to end up in a wheelchair now.” – (Edge 4/11/2011). I immediately felt relieved that Edge had quit before the worst happened.   I kept thinking of Edge’s career and it made me smile. Edge had given his life to wrestling and to see him speaking to the crowd he loved was just great. You could see that ultimately Edge was happy. He loved to perform and he loved to be in front of the crowd. He was happy to have just been there, so if he was happy, I should be happy. 

I don’t think it’s derogatory to say that Edge didn’t expect to have as prestigious career as he had. Despite him always being my favourite, I never expected it. So to look back and think of him as one of the most decorated superstars of all time, then it’s amazing. Edge was truly a superstar and will be seen that way in annals’ of sports entertainment. A reputation he fully deserves. 

Why did one superstar evoke such a reaction? Well as wrestling fans we are akin to picking favourites and even though I have had several throughout the years, there has always been one who has stood out from the pack. That one superstar that reeks of Awesomeness. 

I started watching wrestling religiously when I was ten years old. When I first started watching wrestling in 1998 I would have to say the Rock was my favourite. That’s mainly because like most children I was rather fickle. In my school, wrestling fans were divided up into Austin fans and The Rock fans (apart from one person who’s favourite superstar was Billy Gunn, needless to say nobody liked him). 

However, there was one superstar who I immediately took a shine to as soon as he appeared on the sceen. That superstars name was Edge. Even from Edge’s early days, I thought he was damn cool. I can’t really put in words why I liked Edge right from the beginning, but there was just something unique about him. I liked the charisma he bought to the ring and the mystery surrounding him. I don’t think it was because of his wrestling ability at the time because I was only ten at the time, but it was safe to say that almost from the start, I was an Edge head. 

In the following years Edge developed into my favourite wrestler by far. He and Christian were the first heel tag team that I actually liked, which says a lot. I personally thought he was brilliant in E and C as they proved each night that they were almost the perfect package. They were the perfect blend of funny and serious. Their promos were hilarious, but what’s more, they could back it up in the ring. My favourite tag team of all time and in my opinion, the greatest. 

Edge and Christian split up in 2001 and they both started to pursue single careers. It was evident that WWE were quite high on Edge, letting him win the 2001 King of the Ring. However, injuries always seemed to get in the way of his push. The pessimist in me thought that due to Edge being injury prone he would never capture the big one. I was happily proven wrong. 

I have never marked out as much as I did in January 2005 when Edge won his first WWE championship against John Cena. This was at a time where Edge was a fully fledged heel. He was  great at that. However, he lost the title a month later and I personally thought that was it. 

Six years later and Edge retired an eleven time champion, A Royal Rumble win and one of the biggest names the company has seen. I personally never thought that would happen. Why do I think Edge got such a big push? Mainly because he deserved it. Edge will never be as good as Bret Hart in the ring or as good as The Rock on the mic, but what made him stand out from the pack was that he was good at everything. He was a good to great in ring competitor, he was damn funny on the mic and could also cut a great serious promo when he had to, he was one of the best heels in the last ten years and good as a baby face. 

I think there are very few WWE Superstars past or present who can claim to be as consistently as good at everything as Edge was. Also, there is one thing that Edge is unparalleled by anyone in. That is his passion for the business. There is no one in WWE history who has been willing to do anything the company wants, whether that is jumping off ladders, being set on fire or washing his dirty laundry in public (his affair with Lita). Edge has been prepared to do anything for the business. He is the ultimate company guy and he was rewarded justly for it. 

It’s sad that we never got that Edge vs. Christian feud that WWE had been recently teasing. Despite them no longer being brothers it’s definitely something I really wanted to see.  I’m sure Edge is gutted that he never got the chance to put his best friend truly over. I do hope though the WWE push Christian in the wake of Edge’s retirement. Not for me, not for Edge, but for Christian himself, because he deserves it. 

Seeing Edge pour his heart out on Monday and Friday made me realise how important dreams are for people and their desire to follow them. Here is a man who only wanted to do one thing in his life, wrestle. Here he is years later and he has accomplished that dream and then some. It must be a great feeling. A feeling which has inspired me even more to follow my dream of becoming a screenwriter. As his theme song states “you think you know me” and I think in every match he had he showed us a little more of himself. I think we do know you Edge and I’m glad that we do. 

Hope you enjoyed the article. Follow me on Facebook

Daniel Morris