I’m a big fan of Karl Pilkington.

Earlier this year Karl broke free from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and made his own show.  Based on his highly successful and lucrative Idiot Abroad, Karl undertook a new around-the-world adventure in The Moaning of Life where, instead of visiting exotic locales to see the sites, he’s going to understand some of the most universal and basic concepts of humanity: Marriage and Love, Happiness, Vocation and Money, Children, and Death.  In the five part series he takes an interesting look at each topic and gives his very Karl views on all of it.

Here are my thoughts on each episode:

• Marriage: Possibly the most uncomfortable of all of Karl’s adventures he is involved in an arranged marriage (her family was interested in him once they learned of his fiscal status!) and even goes to a “pheromone party” in California. Even Karl admits he forgot completely about Suzanne during some of his interactions, and his honesty actually pretty refreshing.  He shares many of my thoughts on marriage: the end result is the same whether you invite 5,000 people and spend 200,000 grand or invite two people and pay the license fee alone.  He even comes up with a pretty unique marriage concept!

• Happiness: One of the best episodes of Karl’s adventures ever. He visits different people to see how others find happiness.  From pain parties to Raramuri runners and from plastic surgery to life without money, Karl does it all, and surprisingly declares the simple things that make him happy.  It’s nice to see Karl with a smile.

• Children: Karl isn’t into kids. I can understand.  His face with a crying baby is priceless.  Karl’s attitude even rubs off on others, such as a Japanese artist at a fertility festival.  His reaction to childbirth is incredibly genuine.  One of the best segments is something he brought up on an old Ricky Gervais Show, the “dwarf kid rental” where a couple of little people actors go to a couple who want kids and they behave as children for a day.  The couple was really affected and it would make people think hard before diving into parenthood.

• Vocation and Money: Karl’s needs in life are shown to be as down-to-earth as ever. He sees fantastic wealth and asks why a watch would need to cost 70 thousand pounds.  How a rich man can buy a McLaren and then be on to the next thing without enjoying it, and who needs a butler in this day and age.  He tries jobs from hustling to modeling and tries to define what a true “vocation” would be.  In the end Karl’s summation that everyone wants to “sit on their arse” and wealth only allows people to do so in better surroundings is about as good an indictment of capitalism as there can be.

• Death: Karl explores grief, funerary customs, and even comments on religion. Again Karl gets right to the point, it’s the living who need our consideration, the dead aren’t bothered anymore. Possibly as moving as the Fuji episode of Idiot Abroad, Karl shows what he feels is a good send off for someone, how he’d like his burial to be studied by future archaeologists, and even gives a complete stranger an unironically touching memorial.

I was skeptical that this show would live up, we’ve see Karl go around the world, and now he’s not being tortured long distance by Ricky and Stephen, but The Moaning of Life I feel is more Karl being true.  He’s more himself, he’s chosen what to participate in, and it’s all about his opinions, not on sites he’s seeing or achievements he can gain, but on some of the most intrinsic and basic elements of human life.

It really is terrific and though it took it’s time to get to US audiences it was worth the wait.

Here’s hoping for Series 2!

Karl XFM

Karl Ricky Gervais Show

Karl’s the Author

Karl’s Wit and Wisdom

Idiot Abroad Season 1, Season 2, Season 3

Karl’s Books: Idiot Abroad, Karlology, Idiot Abroad 2

I’m a big fan of movies.  Bigger than most probably.  Due to my OCDs I tend to get stuck in a loop and watch and rewatch films over and over, so I can say without a doubt I’ve seen hundreds of shoot outs.  I can probably sit down one weekend and spend about 36 hours typing out the best 50 shoot outs I’ve ever seen and why they’re great.

Sometime during the late 80s and early 90s a trend began to become more common mocking great shootout scenes as being  “unrealistic.”  From the great westerns of Clint Eastwood and to the cartoon blast ups of Rambo and Commando scoffs of “how stupid look how fake that is” started to be heard in living rooms and theaters all over the country.  Then this sentiment spread to the internet.  Though this mockery has many facets one theme tended to overshadow the rest: guns use ammo, this ammo is limited, they never reload the guns so the movie is saying that six shooter hold 50 bullets.

I personally think this is a misunderstanding.  Just because we never SEE a gun reloaded doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.  The filmmakers have just decided that watching someone reload a gun isn’t as exciting as watching them shoot said gun.  I’m not sure who wants to see Josey Wales placing bullets in chambers, priming the caps, and cocking the hammer.  Not when we can see him taking out Kansas Red Legs with abandon.

As I said at the top of this post I’ve seen so many great shoot outs I can’t possibly count them.  I have seen only TWO scenes ABOUT reloading I’d consider to be good though.  Both worked into the story of the scene and both were used for tension.  Furthermore only one was in a really good movie!

1. The first good reloading scene I’ve seen was in A Fistful of Dollars, Sergio Leone’s take on Yojimbo, when Joe and Ramon Rojo face off with pistol vs rifle.  One bullet each.  Who can load their weapon and get the other guy first?  Using music, short shots, and timing this scene made the reloading of those guns seriously effective.  It made sense to see it as it added to the scene and made for a great climax to some already fantastic shooty action.
2. The second good reloading scene was in the Mel Gibson American Independence fantasy fiction The Patriot where Gibson’s film son, Heath Ledger and the movies Banastre Tarleton copy have a single-shot musket reload fight.  This tension was caused by the time it took to reload those 18^th Century guns.  The best scene in the film, the two duelists miss their first shot then race to reload to get their second shots at close range.  Also tied into the story of the scene and integral to the tension, it was important to see them reload because who was first was going to get the other guy.

So why is reloading NOT important to see, despite the calls for “realism” in a movie?  Because it can be implied.  Yes that gun holds 16 rounds and one in the chamber.  It doesn’t mean we have to see every time they change the clip.  Yes that peacemaker holds 6 shots but they were remarkably dull to reload (open gate, expel spent shell, load new shell, one at a time) so why do I need to see this on film?  Filmmakers I think should stick with entertainment over the rallying cry for “realism” because movies aren’t real.  Don’t stop the action so we can see our hero put new bullets in his or her weapon unless it’s essential to the story or tension in the scene as above.  Otherwise it should be done as “stage business,” added in during a lull in the action.

That being said, I don’t need to see action heroes reload their guns, bows, or quivers any more than I need to see them go grocery shopping, fill a PEZ dispenser, or get gas…  Let’s use our imaginations to assume it happened and just enjoy some cordite-fuelled violence.

Now let’s forget how many bullets each kind of gun can hold and watch the kick-ass shoot out at the end of Hard Boiled.  This is the greatest shootout in history.  Any reloading done is incidental.  You DO see it, but those guns keep shooting long after they should but who CARES.  One of the best action runners in history…  Here’s how it’s done people…