Ok folks, after a whole month being smashed under piles of course notes, it's now time for me to take a well-deserved break. Don't worry, I'll come back soon to tell you about the beginning of my holiday and supply you with dozens of silly videos! Meanwhile, don't hesitate to go into my post archives (scroll down and look on the bright side of life, er, no, right side of the blog…). See you!

Batman saves the day

What if Batman decided to join the Rebel forces to blow up the Death Star?



The best bit is, according to me, when Vatman (the Val Kilmer version of the hero) saves the day, and then gets shot! Good riddance!

Alles kan beter (5)

Alles kan beter explains how to shoot a carjacking scene:



Some driving lessons, if you want:



"Links en rechts… de termen betekenen niets voor mij…"

"Gas geven, meneer Mortier!"
"Gas? Ik heb er zelf last van!"

Never blast a door

Luke really fucked up this time:

Bush's new target: zombies

500

Yep, that's it: I've made it to my 500th blog entry… Time flies. I was wondering what I would post for that special occasion, but I had no idea. My back up plan was of course to google "500" on YouTube and here's what I found: a guy whose challenge put to himself was to impersonate 500 facial expressions. You'll be awazed to see that he succeeds!



Another impersonator:



"It's not a tumour!" (Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop)

I found another nice video related to 500, actually the review of the Mercedes S500 (aka S-Class) by old-timer Jeremy Clarkson the Great:

Alles kan beter (4)

Let's watch a couple of other fragments from the tremendously hilarious show Alles kan beter. The first extract is evidence that French-speaking students of Dutch are not the only ones who make mistakes when saying the plural form of a noun:



Waw! The former rector of the K.U.Leuven, André Oosterlinck, had a combover! Gotcha!


"Na de maaltijd begaf minister-president Van den Brande zich naar de toiletten. Daar zag ie drie lavabi. Hij deed pipo in de middenstens.



"Blind date?"
"Een 'Braille-afspraak'."

"Hoe noemt men Vlamingen in Benidorm, bijvoorbeeld? 'Paellatievepatienten'?"
"Baignoren."
"VTM-ers?"

Alles kan beter (3)

The team of Alles kan beter hasn't forgotten old people who are a bit deaf: they've created a special newsprogramme for them:



"Met een beetje geluk, tot morgen!"

A comparison between the VRT and VTM news programmes:

Alles kan beter (2)

Did you know that the human body is controlled by a kind of small room where engineers determine what the body does and says? In the following video, Alles kan beter (with Mark Uytterhoeven, Guy Mortier and Tom van Dyck) guides us through the meandres of former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene… Beware: it's absolutely hilarious.

"Aaakes! Degoutant, onz' nagels zijn ze zwart als [?]"

"Dju!"
"Wat is er?"
"Geblokkeerd, he! We zijn geblokkeerd! De rechteren arm, he."
"Harder trekken…"

"Hij zit te lachen?"
"Ja, 't is een nieuwe functie."
"Zet dat toch af!"
"Sorry, mannen, voilà voilà!"

Sorry for not being quite able to transcribe tussentaal correctly…

And once again for those of you currently studying taalvariatie and some things about Dutch and Flemish dialects, they could be interested in watching this other video featuring Jean-Luc Dehaene:



I won't transcribe anything: I'm definitely not able to do so.

Wanna see something stupid? (Once more…)

Let me show you the stupidest fight scene ever, from a "movie" called Undefeatable (which, surprisingly enough, was not directed by Alan Smithee):



It's even more ridiculous than Jean-Claude Van Damme. vs. woman in penguin suit fight in Sudden Death…

Can you do this on a PC?

It seems silly to be able to do that, but it's really useful: the rare times I have to use a PC, it's a kerfuffle because you can see just one window at a time…

Alles kan beter (1)

This fragment from the popular VRT programme Alles kan beter (with Mark Uytterhoeven, Guy Mortier, Rob Vanoudenhoven) is dedicated to those of you who are currently studying the subtilities of Afrikaans:



"Dankie!"

Now for those of you who are presently studying Dutch idiomatic expression, I found a video showing native speakers creating new expressions:



"… gewoon de koppen in elkaar moeten slaan…"

"We weten het allemaal: 'hoge bomen vangen veel vis.'"

And I know that you can see my underwear / And you can joke about it I really don't care

Yet another movie theme turned into a song: John Williams's Superman theme revisited by Goldentusk:



"Let me be at peace in my Fortress of Solitude"

"Water, no thank you sir. Fish make love in it"

Please watch one of my favourite scenes from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) is talking about the Grail's diary written by Henry Jones (Sean Connery).

Elsa Schneider: He's given them to Marcus Brody.
Henry Jones: Marcus? You didn't drag poor Marcus along, did you? He's not up to the challenge.
Walter Donovan: He sticks out like a sore thumb. We'll find him!
Indiana Jones: The hell you will! He's got a two day head start on you, which is more than he needs. Brody's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan. He speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom. He'll blend in, disappear, you'll never see him again. With any luck... he's got the Grail already.
Marcus Brody: Does anyone here speak English? Or even Ancient Greek? Water, no thank you sir. Fish make love in it… (…) My reputation precedes me.

Some of you may have recognized the late Denholm Elliott, who played in The Signal-Man, the television adaptation of Charles Dickens' eponymous short story.

Dummy prince

Please watch this account of an interview of prince Philippe that was broadcast on Koppen, a VRT één programme. We get a sharp analysis of Philip's (un)ability to become king of our country when King Albert II dies.

"Is de prins er klaar voor? Het antwoord is: "Ja". De koning moet gasten ontvangen en met zijn foto op koekendozen kunnen staan, en dàt is meer dan in orde. Als België blijft bestaan, zal Filip er koning van kunnen zijn, maar of hij echt zal wegen, dat moet nog blijken."

"Information through infiltration"

Please enjoy the James Bond theme song (originally composed by composed by Monty Norman) made by Goldentusk:



"And yet I neveeeeeeer seem to sweat!"

"I have a way with gadgets, all of the ones I can choose
I don't have any permit for anything that I use"

Black Knight: Lego version

I promised you several days ago to show you more stop animation movies made with Lego so as to re-enact scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Today, enjoy the Black Knight scene (I show you first the original version):





"None shall pass!"

"Now stand aside, worthy adversory."
"It's but a scratch!"
"A scratch?!? You arm's off!"

"It's just a flesh wound!"


P.S. Today, Professor Vandelanotte, referring to our History of Linguistics exam, said: "If you have problems, wave at my general direction." This was clearly a hint to John Cleese's sayings in the same movie, in the French Taunter scene: "I fart in your general direction". As Mr Romero pointed out: "I think nobody's got it." Then he looked at me (I was smiling), saying: "Yeah, of course…" I think Waldorf would have liked it, had he been there.

Alternate Endings: Independence Day

If you happen to read this blog regularly, you'll have noticed that I love alternate endings. I love them even more so when they're about films I like. Take the case of Independence Day, about alien ships trying to invade the Earth after destroying all of its most important cities, causing chaoes, destruction, collective hysteria and such nice things. You have probably seen this classic alternate ending by EditingRoom, with the heroes stupidly crashing and putting an end to the movie a bit sooner than expected:

Now a crossover with Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi:



I found another crossover, but this time based on Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope:

"Who is this? What is your operating number?"

And now, Will Smith welcomes the Apollo 13 spaceship that's just landed:

"Welcome to Earth! That's what I call a close encounter!"

Good riddance!

Have I already told you I hate PCs? Kurt Russell loathes them as well. Check this out:



This scene comes from John Carpenter's The Thing, a film that I have to see someday.

Star Wars Kid Strikes Back… again

Star Wars Kid is everywhere, as you can see by yourself:



Luke: "WTF?"

SWK has also appeared in South Park:



"Oh my God! He killed Kenny!"