Assorted miscellany that mix nicely with others. Tooth for a Tooth

The boys are back in town, albeit slightly later than anticipated due to a bumper, action-packed special, whizz bang edition.

According to rumour, what's contained is definitely worth wading through and is befitting for any conclusion.

The camera has begun to roll and seems this motley crew don't have unlimited film reel, I can understand their keenness to get proceedings underway.

If you like venturing here, there and everywhere, a treat will unfold.  The amount of avenues we'll visit will make any door to door salesman jealous.

After jogging a marathon, this is the result.

I best stand back and allow this storm in a teacup to get out of control.

It appears that zombies and a rock stars have quite different dietary requirements.

The White Album

My _ Is Pink

Metallica - Metallica

Rightly or wrongly, the White and Black albums will be unable to shed their colours.  As for Colormusic, it's their own fault that I'm calling it The Pink album, even if they stated in Ting Tings style, "That's not my name."

I present an assortment of winged heroes.

An Australian action film in 2007.

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'The Master' controls thee as seen in Actraiser 2.

The angel Wor must attack and save the day in the fantastic Mega Drive shmup Gynoug.

Paul Bettany assumes the role as Archangel Michael in this ridiculous action film.  Hey, the idea could be a rip off of Gabriel?

"My name is Legion, for we are many."  Red Dwarf has many classic episodes and this from the sixth series was no exception.

I'm here to provide the obscure and it doesn't come much worse than this 1990 PC Engine CD shmup by Telenet.  Even the writing looks a mess and could spell various other words instead of Legion.

Here are two examples when 'different' circumstances in film stills have similarities.

Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) in Con Air.

Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) in Hard Target.

The latter was George Lucas's 1971 directorial debut.

A triple-hit combo of cover art where eyes have gone missing...

"Are you talking to me?"

The psychotic Francis Begbie (Robert Carlyle) in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting.

Is it a case of a tribute or ripping off Travis Bickle (De Niro) and imagery seen in Scorsese's 1976 classic?  Incidentally, the English-remake of The Pusher, simply renamed Pusher was released in 2012.

I purposely left out Escape the Fate and The Verve as they also had a nibble at Queen II and/or Bohemian Rhapsody (as seen in CD Supper). 

Van Damme's not to dissimilar facial expressions extend from A.W.O.L and Bloodsport respectively.

Logo used for the technology series, The Gadget Show.

Standby button

This video game company was formed by ex-Taito employees and probably their most famous effort is arcade shmup Border Down (later ported to Dreamcast).  They also helped out with Treasure classics Ikaruga and Gradius V.  Anyway, it could be said that the 'G' in this logo was on standby.

Their Satanic Majesties Request was The Rolling Stones response to Sergeant Pepper's.  If you look very closely above each number, something will become obvious.

The latter game was infinitely better than the former waste of pixels. 

Selfishly, there was also The Duel: Test Drive II...

The titles of current affairs series World in Action used The Vitruvian Man.  The others are self explanatory.

Leonardo Da Vinci's 15th century drawing.

Scary!

But there's more...

So both albums share the same title but for very different reasons.  The former is because of her age and the latter was to mark the 21st anniversary of the band.  I suppose you could unofficially link Adele's choice to Ash's debut album 1977, so-called because it was the year that frontman Tim Wheeler was born.

A 2008 card counting drama.

Spoil sports...

Yes, a stupid title for a stupid film.

At least this was a comedy, unlike the other sham...

You don't need spectacles to get the next part. 

Both were given these 'titles' to differentiate them from other games already released.  C'mon now, we are not stupid.

For whatever reason, the home computer ports of the same arcade were known as this.

Whatever right?

Classics in their own right that existed in tape and the then futuristic CD era.  

The latter is Nirvana's smiley face logo and there are many stories in regards to the origin of how this came about.  The most plausible story is that Kurt Cobain based it on Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses.  Whatever, the former ripped it off.

Again, I could have also used an album by Incubus...

Although Jaws is one of the best films of all time, Spielberg's masterpiece was unfortunately responsible for the gradual decimation of this misunderstood predator.  Egotistical fishermen in a boat armed with the necessary weaponry failed to separate fiction from reality.

In 1978, Joe Dante released chomp 'em up horror Piranha.  The remake and 2012 DD sequel (unrelated to the 1981 sequel to the original) were a laugh and did what they had to do to attract the audience.  The girls exposed flesh, the blood flowed and Christopher Lloyd hammed it up as a so-called expert.

In the first remake, Richard Dreyfuss even sang "Show me the way to go home" but unlike Jaws, he bought it.

Shortly after in 1980, Lewis Teague's very respectable reptilian horror Alligator did the rounds.

Regardless of comedic interpretation, neither the 'dangerous' piranha or alligator population suffered a serious decline after the theatrical release of each film...

I would stamp Lake Placid as a rip off of Alligator.

Thankfully, more and more has been done to preserve the survival of this magnificent animal and extinction should be permanently on hold due to it officially been a protected species.

Here's some sleeve art with a bit more bite than most.  

Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart

The only thing worse than a terrible documentary spouting negative propaganda is a dreadful film.  Shark Attack, I don't salute you.

Of the thousands available, this is probably the most famous image as the beast proudly smiles for the camera.  It's therefore interesting that Surfer Blood decided against using it.

I suppose Nicole can't be blamed or control her facial expression for sleeve art...

Now we have four DVD fronts that are different but the same.

The principle of fingers leaving blood trails and transparent imagery remains.

Now this is purely down to personal opinion but do both girls look the same?

Two totally different people due to date of album release but there's definitely something about them...

Caffeine Nicotine from SNK's Samurai Shodown II.

Dakuan from 1993 Japanese action animation feature Ninja Scroll.

SNK were clearly inspired rather than a blatant shoplift. 

Namco X Capcom remains as one of the more obscure crossovers as it isn't a one on one fighting game.  Instead, it's a strange tactical/action RPG hybrid that was only released in Japan on PS2 back in 2005.

The spin-off pseudo sequel, Project X Zone is coming to the 3DS and the language barrier won't be an issue and Sega is also throwing its char roster into the ring.  Namco, Capcom and Sega forming one major mash-up surely sounds fantastic, right?  We shall see.

Another one of those 'is it the same woman' cases?

Okay, the first two are zombie films so that's plausible but Salvage?

I don't wish to blow on ones trumpet but I'm not too shabby.

Tom Hardy as Bane in the disappointing The Dark Knight Rises.

Jeep Swenson played the baddie first in the camp and terrible Batman and Robin.

Batman did not go horror but in 2009, we got this.  It was okay but when the explanation of events is finally given after nearly 2 hrs, it felt like a waste of time. 

Game Over!

Same name, different geezer.  This is how disfigured gangster Billy Rossoti (Dominic West) looks in Punisher: War Zone.

A naughty but nice set of my old friend - generalistion.

Escape the Fate - Dying Is Your Latest Fashion.

This 2005 superhero spin-off from Daredevil stars Jennifer Garner as Elektra Natchios.  This immediately reminds me of...

...Mileena, first seen in the hugely successful 1993 sequel to Mortal Kombat.

Yeah, Raphael's chosen weapon of Turtles fame was not appropriate...

I needn't say nothing more. 

Why are chums of Gen-An cooking an iconic movie monster?

Poster idea stealing...

Silent Hill Revelation used exactly the same idea.

More generalising...

The iconic design for the unforgiving 1989 Amiga classic Shadow of the Beast.  Have I told you about Beast II?  Well along with others, check out 'exasperation' for more...

Blue Desert.

English artist Roger Dean is responsible for both of the above works.

The Great Leonoteryx from James Cameron's blockbuster Avatar.

Now please feast your eyes on another piece by Roger Dean.

Morning Dragon.

I find it hard for anybody to argue that this flying creature could be misconstrued as an unused design.

I also like this from fantasy artist Rodney Matthews.

This is a Harvester, attempting but failing with the awe factor in Terminator Salvation.

In the hugely inferior 1990 sequel to Robocop, Cain's brain orchestrated eventual mayhem.  I compute that 19 years later, an unsubtle steal was performed.

Meet Zeus, the end boss from Rocky with robots sci-fi yarn Real Steel.  His pose looks 'vaguely' familiar...

Usain Bolt displaying his now famous 'Lightning Bolt'.

Hulk Hogan doing practically the same thing...

Although he is clearly older in the above image, there is no doubt that he's always used this stance, as reproduced in 1991 Technos arcade WWF Wrestlefest.

So did Bolt half inch this?  Possibly, but this could have been 'invented' by somebody else (sports or otherwise) years before.  To play it safe, I'm calling it 'something that you might not know' and/or coincidence.

Netherlandish Proverbs - Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1559).

Fleet Foxes used the painting for their debut album.  You will note that this is missing some detail from the original work.

Without sounding arrogant, I am confident in saying that many instantly believed this was by fellow Dutch artist Hieronymous Bosch.  When challenged, Sergeant Apone from Aliens would holler "Err, that's a negative."

A snippit from Bosch's most famous piece, The Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1504).

The featured work by Bruegel rips off Bosch as the defecation of coin proves.  Could this have been a symbolism of Dutch artistry?

Whoah, it's been a hell of a ride and the end is nigh but I'll conclude with this.

Viz is a famous British adult comic that has been doing the rounds since 1979.  In 2007, Issue 1 sold for £950 at auction and despite countless cases of controversy, Chris Donald's creation (along with brother Simon) still thrives today.

Success attracts imitation like a fly to the proverbial substance and crude wannabe Zit was off colour in terms of character and humour.

Anyway, at some point in 2005 as a response to violent video games, the char Rex Box was brought.

There were only two stories but here they are, in all their satirical glory.  For what it's worth, I still find some parts rather funny and gamers can relate to most 'pokes'...

I've fixed it so the text is definitely legible, but not OTT.

He executes moves quoted as 'Flying Bird Kick' and 'Fireball'.  These of course should be 'Spinning Bird Kick' and 'Hadouken'.

Well that's it and regardless of the man hours, it was worth it.

Until next time ladies and gentlemen.