A1 Commercial...the Car, not the Steak Sauce

Living in Downtown Los Angeles can be interesting. When walking around the area, you run into all kinds of people - from your local area merchants to tourists to transients. One of the more interesting things you can run into are film shoots/production. With most of the major Hollywood studios nearby, a lot of television, major motion pictures and commercials get filmed in the area.

For example, the final battle in the first Transformers movie was shot in Downtown Los Angeles by 9th Street and Broadway. The new FlashFoward television show on ABC is based in Los Angeles. Although in episode 10 where the two agents traveled to Hong Kong was just shot in L.A.'s Chinatown...quite cheesy if you ask me.

Last night, one of the European car brands was shooting their latest commercial near where I live. It was an Audi (much to my delight) and it was the new Audi A1.

I couldn't get any up close pictures. The crew had the A1 in camouflage; then when they removed it, I couldn't get close enough to get a good shot.

I did however get some shots of them filming the commercial which are below. Not the best pics (since I only have a point and shoot camera), but hopefully you'll enjoy them.

The premise of the commercial is that when the A1 pulls out of the parking garage (pics 1 & 2), it gets pulled over by the police (pic 3). The A1 stops, but then makes a break for it by speeding away (pic 4). I hope Audi isn't trying to imply that Audi drivers are criminals! D'OH!

I can't wait to see the finished product. I hope this means that the Audi A1 is coming to the States, because there are reports that it may not come to the US market.

Hollywood Is Fucking with My Childhood

I don't know about you, but I have fond childhood memories of the following:

• Transformers
• GI Joe
• Street Fighter
• Speed Racer
• Dragon Ball

Today, all of the above share a new trait - Hollywood has fucked them all up! Is Hollywood so devoid of talent, that they have to raid my childhood memories only to serve up crap where I actually LONG to see the 'brillance' of 70's and 80's cartoons?

When did Hollywood get into the business of selling manure? How else can one explain the crap coming out? My major gripes:

• Transformers - Bumble Bee is supposed to transform into a VW Beetle (not a Camaro), Megatron is supposed to transform into a Walther P38, and Shia LaBeouf (or is it LeDouche?) is the lead actor. Enough said.
  
  
  
  
• GI Joe - when did Storm Shadow start dressing like he was going clubbing? The Joes are soldiers doing their duty, not a bunch of turds in terrible-looking superhero outfits.
  
  
  
  
• Street Fighter - Could Hollywood not find an actress a little more Chinese-looking rather than someone with "exotic" looks who can pass for Caucasian? Oh wait, that's because most of America thinks all Asians look the same and Hollywood would rather have a Caucasian-looking lead! Was Lucy Liu not available to play Hollywood's white-washed version of Chun Li? I can't believe that I'm longing for Jean-Claude Van Damme's Street Fighter film from 1994. At least they had the presence of mind to cast Ming-Na as Chun-Li. (Hint to the Hollywood execs - you could do a casting call in the San Gabriel Valley and have found someone better than Kristin Kreuk).
  
  
  
  
• Speed Racer - this was a movie that made me long for ANY one of The Fast and The Furious movies, let alone the greatness of the anime.
  
  
  
  
• Dragon Ball - where do I fucking begin with this one? Almost all the main characters are Asian, you fucking Hollywood dumbasses! Anyone who would be interested in seeing a Dragon Ball movie would have been fans of the anime. And the idiotic casting only served to drive the fans away! Did Hollywood really think they could bring in new viewers for this movie? Who's the genius who did the market research and focus groups on this idea? And having Chow Yun-Fat play Master Roshi doesn't quite make up for it.