The Office: Middle Earth

Martin Freeman, star of The Hobbit trilogy hosted Saturday Night Live this past weekend so you knew there had to be a sketch related to that. But who knew the mashup would be with Freeman's first series, The Office in this brilliant parody. Joining Freeman are Bobby Moynihan's Gandalf which trends more towards David Brent, and Taran Killam as Gollum is as spot on as you can get. And kudos for using The Office UK theme! Makes me want to rewatch the series!

The Hobbit: The Last Goodbye

What a long journey it's been for the Baggins family. Peter Jackson's final movie about Middle Earth comes out December 17th, and the music video that will play over the credits of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has just been released, and it's a doozy. Titled "The Last Goodbye," it's performed by Billy Boyd who played Pippin in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. The song serves as both the last glimpse of Middle Earth and as a farewell to us, the audience. The video features shots of him singing and playing guitar along with plenty of clips from The Hobbit trilogy as well as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In addition to that, there are behind the scenes shots of the cast and crew having tons of fun on set. It makes me really want to go home and watch the Lord of the Rings again, and makes me excited for the last movie in the series.



Boyd has a beautiful Scottish voice, and you should remember him singing "Edge of Night" for Denethor in Return of the King. The song was used in a previous trailer for The Hobbit and here's the performance from Return of the King in case you forgot.

The Battle of the Five Armies Trailer Breakdown

It's only a few short weeks before we take our last trip to Middle Earth in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the third and final chapter in The Hobbit series of movies. And now here's the final trailer.



And how about a closer look?

"Thorin, you gave a promise." Were sneaky & greedy ever dwarves in fairy tales?

Air New Zealand Airline Safety Video

Do you ever get the feeling New Zealand's economy is based totally on the Lord of the Rings movies and tourism? Well this airline safety video from Air New Zealand combines the two in a clever and kinda cheesy way. They even go so far as to say it's the "most epic safety video ever made." Considering it contains the likes of Elijah Wood & Sylvester McCoy, I'd say the bar has been risen! Though the bar was only really at hobbit height to begin with.

Gandalf Gives Advice

While visiting Chew Valley School in Somerset, UK, Sir Ian McKellen gave the kids some advice on preparing for their examinations.



In case you're wondering, McKellen was there to talk about bullying and homophobia in schools. He has dedicated much of his time to promoting equal rights and if this doesn't make you a bigger fan of him, I don't know what will.

At Chew Valley School to talk to staff and students about gay issues. I learned about exceptional work they have done to eradicate bullying.
— Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen) October 19, 2014

You can read more about McKellen's visit at the Chew Valley School website.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies First Trailer

When we last left the Hobbit in Desolation of Smaug, the titular dragon had just taken flight when Bilbo and the Dwarves failed to kill him. Now we get to the true desolation of Smaug with the first trailer to the third and final movie in the series, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. And in a really nice atmospheric move, the music to the trailer is Pippin's song which he sings to Denethor in Return of the King.



And now, how about a trailer breakdown since it's been a while?

Weird Movie Tie-Ins

Lately I've noticed a very disturbing trend of really weird movie advertising tie-ins. It's one thing to have toys from your movie in a McDonald's Happy Meal. It's entirely something else when your movie is promoting something it has no business being connected with. I first noticed it in 2012 when The Hobbit was being promoted by Denny's.

Monday March 10, 2014 Catchup

Watch Dogs finally has a release date. The open world stealth hacking game comes out May 27th for all current and next-gen consoles. The fine folks at Ubisoft, who are responsible for the Splinter Cell, Far Cry & Assassin's Creed series are behind the game and it looks quite promising. It looks like a blend between Assassin's Creed and the Batman Arkham Series where hacking computers is a major feature of completing objectives. I'm not particularly a fan of open world games, but I might try this one out.