You are currently browsing the archives for February, 2008.
I can only hope that somewhere in this generation of people we can make a profound step towards ending the need for moments like this. Big kudos to Ellen for once more putting herself on the line and using her popularity and social tuning fork to influence people towards being good to each other. [via PerezHilton]
Don’t mind him. I’ve got a pirate copy of Harold and Kumar go to Space right here. It’s not even in theaters yet. Now you want some?
Well, another independent studio falls into the gaping maw of the major studios. New Line will officially fold into Warner Brothers and they will compliment their release plates to form a more cohesive schedule. Supposedly the New Line brand will stay on an they will continue to release films that fit the genres they worked in, in essence becoming an indie arm for WB. I can only hope that they will let the studio do what it does best, which is make some really kick ass films, such as: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Evil Dead, Critters, most of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Pump Up the Volume, My Own Private Idaho, Glengarry Glen Ross, A Few Good Men, Menace II Society, Malice, The Mask, SeVen, Dark City, the Blade trilogy, American History X, Magnolia, the Final Destination trilogy (with another coming in super bloody 3-D), The Cell, Hedwig and the Angry inch, most of the Friday the 13th franchise (including the absolutely hilarious Jason X), Wedding Crashers and Domino. Those are honestly on a sampling of the enjoyment that New Line has brought in their forty years of service to the movie going audience.
So clink your glasses, raise a toast and swallow some popcorn in tribute to a visionary company and let’s all hope their name isn’t tarnished by big wigs and committee filmmaking.
From the moment I heard about the idea for this show I knew that we as a society fell one more notch down the evolutionary ladder. For those who don’t know, Moment of Truth is a game show on the hypocritical right-wing Fox network (do I sound biased?) where people go on and answer questions for money. The contestants are hooked to lie detectors and the more questions they answer honestly the higher amount of money they win. Obviously the questions are made to be embarrassing and awkward to answer in front of a live television audience, but wait, there’s more! They also bring on special guests from that person’s life, their whole family is there, best friends, basically anyone and everyone who could possibly be emotionally harmed by these skeletons in the closet. All those people are front and center so the contestant feels the pressure of destroying their relationships and we get to see it all in crisp clean high definition.
The original few episodes that went by were reported online to be rather tame and the viewing audience didn’t get their dose of permanent emotional scarring, but that all ended last night. Needless to say, I don’t watch it and I want even post the clip up here because it makes me nauseous, but you can find it on YouTube if you’re so inclined. The clip from last night shows a woman admit in front of her husband, family and best friend, that her ex-boyfriend is the person she thinks she should really be married to and she has cheated on her husband in the past. After all that, she is riding high on the possible winnings she accumulated, but she fails the last question when she answers “Yes” when asked if she thinks she is a good person. The lie detector set that straight.
So to recap, her marriage is over, her family is embarrassed and disappointed in her, oh, and she walks away with no blood money.
This is the one time in my life that I am praying a scandal breaks and we find that this is all scripted, but in the end, does it really matter? How high do we predict the ratings will spike after last nights dissolution of marriage? How many more people will rush to the set to ogle over someone tearing away their very morality for a quick buck? The Fox network, who politically stand behind the banning of gay marriage because it erodes the sanctity of marriage, should be ashamed of themselves, but so should the millions and millions of viewers that put heaping amounts of cash in that Fox executive’s pocket.
Please, for the love of human decency, find a rerun of Touched by an Angel or just read a book.
Go ahead, say one more thing about the haircut. Just get it out of your system already.
Another year has passed and another year of watching Jon Stewart polish off the Oscars like it was just another episode of The Daily Show. I swear the man cannot be fazed. As for the winners, I made predictions a while back, so let’s see how I matched up: (I’ll mark the ones I got right with a “*”)
* Best Picture: No Country For Old Men – Flocks of people left this movie confused about the ending, but I stand as one of the minority that enjoyed it, understood it (at least I think so), and was glad they didn’t try to wrap it up nicely in a Hollywood colored bow. A well deserved win for the Coen Brothers and I anxiously await their next picture, the adaptation of The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon.
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood – Was there anyone who didn’t see this one coming? I wasn’t a huge fan of the film, but his performance was the one thing that kept me interested. I still hold that this role felt a lot like a continuation of his character from Gangs of New York, but since he lost that year I consider it a dual win for him this time around. You might notice the star missing, because even though it was all going his way, I actually wanted Viggo Mortensen a little more for his role in Eastern Promises. I’m happy either way.
* Best Actress: Marion Cotillard for Mome La (or The Rose or La Vien Rose or whatever else they called it) – If she hadn’t won this I might have punched the nearest puppy. This was a monumental performance and when I saw her at a screening of the film there was a five minute standing ovation for her. Never before have I witnessed such an outpouring in person and I felt it could have gone on for even longer and been worthwhile. She was truly brilliant.
* Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men – Another shoe in for the award, even though his field was well stacked. In the end I think he just scared the living crap out of people who might vote against him.
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton – This was the biggest upset of the night. Most people had Cate Blanchett walking away for her Bob Dylan interpretation in I’m Not There, but again I was in the minority of people who liked Michael Clayton and I congratulate Tilda on her award. If you happen to see her winning it, you can tell she was also honestly shocked. She probably bet against herself in her own Oscar pool.
* Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men – I was thrilled by this. All the other movies were well deserving of nominations, but this film was a true work of art. Well paced, well acted and well shot. Overall fantastic work by these two geniuses.
Best Editing: Christopher Rouse for The Bourne Ultimatum – This is one of three awards the film took in surprising fashion tonight. I would be incredibly remiss to disagree with the choice though because the movie was thoughtfully and skillfully paced. Editing action is an amazing balance of quick cutting and specific holding and if you watch the Brazilian fight scene in this film, you will know why he won. Best use of a book in a fight ever!
Best Cinematography: Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood – Another well deserved win for this film. I might not have been one of the die hard devotees to it, but it was beautifully shot. The landscapes were picturesque and the intimate moments were kept close and meaningful.
* Best Art Direction: Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Any Tim Burton film is automatically a wonderland for an Art Director. The worlds are dark, ornate and yet lovely in their eccentricities. The morose canvas they had to play with was helped to create the playground for Tim Burton and his man-muse Johnny Depp to complete yet another in their list of superb collaborations.
Best Song: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for “Falling Slowly” in Once – The main reason I didn’t vote for this, when everyone in the world who saw it told me to, was because I honestly never heard the song or saw the film. It had a limited run here and I never made it out to see it, but it moved a nation of people and after hearing it played on the show I can see why it walked away the winner. I also want to give a hearty thanks to the amazing Jon Stewart for bringing Marketa back out on stage since she got cut off on her way to the microphone to deliver her thanks. Very classy.
Best Visual Effects: Michael L. Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood for The Golden Compass - The world of cyber-geeks was stunned by the passing over of Transformers and so was I. I saw The Golden Compass and I’ll give them credit for the amazing effects, but the movie itself lacked in so many other areas it was hard to come out appreciating anything about it. If I were them, I would make sure to hide those awards in something bomb proof because Michael Bay is comin’ for them.
* Best Score: Dario Marianelli for Atonement – I went for this no only because it is a truly wonderful collection of music, but it is also the best use of a typewriter in movie history. Clickity clack indeed.
* Best Sound Editing: Karen M. Baker and Per Hallberg for The Bourne Ultimatum – You could hear every piece of breaking glass when he jumped through the window and every bone that got bruised by being bashed with a book (YAY!) or a table leg or an entire cabinet. Amazing work done here.
Best Documentary: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner for Taxi to the Dark Side – A definite shock since Sicko by Michael Moore made a ton more money along with the fact there were two other Iraq war documentaries nominated so the thought was the votes would be split, but I have read that this was extremely well done and hopefully more people, like myself, will see it now. In fact, I’m issuing a challenge to everyone out there to watch at least one documentary a month, just one. So much is out there to learn about. It’s not all people being beat up with books (Can I mention that fight scene some more? It was awesome!)
Best Foreign Film: Austria with Falscher, Die (The Counterfiters) – I actually didn’t even cast a prediction in this category, along with the short film nominations, because I know nothing about them, but congrats to them all the same. I’ll try to see if I can find this on Netflix or somewhere and give it a spin in the ole’ DVD player.
Best Live Action Short Film: Phillippe Pollet-Villard for Mozart des pickpockets, Le (The Mozart of Pickpockets) -They showed a clip of a little kid hiding himself in a duffle bag so he could steal someone’s wallet. I give him the award just for the sheer ingenuity.
Best Animated Short Film: Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman for Peter and the Wolf – Again, I didn’t see it, but the animation looked cool. Kid hung upside down from a tree branch and caught a wolf in a rope net. Sweet move.
* Best Animated Feature: Brad Bird for Ratatouille – This was one where I actually felt bad for the other nominated films. I’m sure they were good, but Pixar is a beast and cannot be stopped by ordinary means. They will continue to dominate the Animated Feature world until someone comes up with a whole new form of CGI. Until then, I’m perfectly fine sitting back and laughing like a little kid in front of their cartoon worlds.
* Best Costume Design: Alexandra Byrne for Elizabeth: The Golden Age – Put Cate Blanchett in that role and those clothes, sign yourself up for the post-Oscar party and save a chair for your statue.
* Best Makeup: Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald for Mome La (or all those other names) – They took a gorgeous actress and made her look not only plain, but aged her nearly forty years. The transformation throughout the film was staggering and I was convinced that three different actresses were playing the part. Stunning work done here. Absolutely stunning.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men – What can you say about these two. This was their year. I was pulling for Sarah Polley for Away From Her, which is one of the most tender films of the year, only second to Lars and the Real Girl (almost completely passed over in my opinion by the Academy), but I can’t be sad about the Coen’s winning anything this year. Tremendous work and they deserve it all.
Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody for Juno – Yes, I loved Juno. Yes, I didn’t vote for it. This goes back to my absolute infatuation with Lars and the Real Girl and this was the only category it was nominated in, so I hoped beyond hope that it would get something. But Juno was another steamroller in the hearts of the voting public and I agree (just take out the uber-cutesy first scene and the movie is scripted flawlessly). Also, kudos to Diablo for a touching acceptance speech.
Best Sound Mixing: Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis for The Bourne Ultimatum – Yet another blow by Jason Bourne and his third film in the franchise against those big spiky, nasty robots.
Best Documentary Short Subject: Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth for Freeheld – According to her speech the film is about the discrimination of same sex couples. Most likely she was on the “give them equality side” of the argument, so I’m happy she won then. Like her, I don’t have that discrimination against myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support those who have to deal with it on a daily basis. Were all human, so we should only fear one thing and that’s big spiky, nasty robots. And if you give them a book to fight with, oh hell no, I’m leaving this place right quick.
In the end I got 10/24 right, which isn’t too bad considering there were a handful I didn’t even try for. All the movies this year were outstanding and I can only hope that we keep having Oscar shows where I don’t care who wins what award because they are all so damn good. Those are good days for a movie fanatic such as myself.
I can’t stop reading the Warren Commission Report. This is entrancing!
We have been inundated recently by fantasy movies for children all due to one little boy and his magic wand and another little man and his ring. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and the multi-billion franchise blockbuster of Harry Potter made every movie studio want to jump on the fantasy bandwagon, which comes complete with a wise-cracking imaginary creature at the helm and a menacing arch enemy biting at your heels. There are even more films to add to this list, but let me get to the task at hand, talking about this new little boy and his own recent brush with the supernatural. Once again, this is an adaptation of a popular series of children’s books, but this film has a very tidy and complete ending, so I walked out not feeling a franchise was in its future. Maybe for once the studios felt that one was enough, or more likely they were just waiting to see how the audience would react to it. Since this review is coming out a whole week after its release, you might already know by now that it is not the blockbuster the studio was hoping for. Let’s try and figure out why…
The movie stars Freddie Highmore (greatest work to date: Finding Neverland), Mary Louise Parker (greatest work to date: according to people who have watched it, Weeds), David Strathairn (greatest work to date: Sneakers), a cameo by Nick Nolte (greatest work to date: The Prince of Tides -or- his mugshot) and not to be forgotten, even more Freddie Highmore. Yes indeed, it’s double the childhood innocence because Freddie plays the twin brothers, Jared and Simon Grace. I fully admit being utterly confused in the first five minutes of the movie because I wasn’t sure which one was him until they were actually standing side by side on screen together, then I put one and one together, to make one. The roles did stretch Freddie more than his previous films because he got to play outside that safety zone that we have pigeon holed him into as the wide-eyed all-heart yearning-for-total-joy little boy. In Spiderwick he plays two extremes, the totally passive and introverted Simon and the anger-ridden rebel Jared. I think this is where people will finally start to see him growing up and spreading those artistic wings, maybe not to the best of results, but at least he’s going for it, which is a commendable step. The rest of the cast play their parts well enough, but no one steals the show here. The cameos of Nolte and Andrew McCarthy (greatest work to date: Less Than Zero -or- Mannequin) as the shifting human form of the arch-enemy, the ogre Mulgarath, was amusing, but the idea that a shape-changer would become Nick Nolte in order to ease a child into trusting him is beyond laughable. There also were a couple of notable voices for the fully animated characters done by Seth Rogan (greatest work to date: Superbad) and Martin Short (greatest work to date: Three Amigos).
The story itself has all the standard elements of children’s fantasy fare: little boy stumbles across great power, evil baddie wants great power, little boy must grow up and outwit the great evil to save everyone. Somehow even with all the right points, this film just misses the beat. The only real emotional punch the movie has is towards the end between the character of Jared and his mom, played by Parker. There was a lot of nice work done in that moment and if the rest of the movie had been as charged with excitement or wonder, this would be a wholly different review. The other disappointing thing I found was that this all surrounds the power of a book that catalogs all the creatures in this mystical world just beyond our eyes, but so little of it is actually ever introduced in the film. I wanted more creatures, more magic and certainly more enemies, which was made up of mainly the ogre and his goblin minions.
So there you have it. This might be one case where the old adage holds true: Read the book. (can’t say for sure, since I haven’t yet, but maybe one day, when I’m old enough)
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Continuing his quest to become the most prolific horror writer in history, Stephen King unleashed a new tale of heaven meets hell on the sandy beaches of an island called Duma Key. The story follows a sturdy Midwestern man named Edgar Freemantle who has worked long and worked hard to have the good life. On the far end of middle age he has built his construction company into a multi-million dollar empire, kept his wife happy and healthy and raised his two wonderful daughters. Retirement plans weren’t nearly on his mind yet, but other plans, more devious and more red plans were already in action. A crane on his work-site backs into his truck and just misses taking his life. What it did succeed in taking was his right arm, a crack out of his skull, the mobility of his right leg and lastly, the happiness of his marriage. Edgar begins to have rage issues when he wakes up in the hospital and after numerous therapy sessions it is decided that maybe he needs what is referred to as a “geographic cure”. Time to pick up and move on. His doctor also suggests a hobby, “something to build hedges against the night” as King put it. Edgar sees a brochure for Duma Key and knows it is the place he will start his new life. The hobby he digs up from his past is drawing, which leads to painting, which leads to things he never could have dreamed of in his worst nightmares.
King succeeds continually at creating characters that not only are believable, but likable as well. I instantly felt I knew Edgar Freemantle, along with Jerome Wireman, the wise and painfully genuine gentleman who lives down the beach, and Elizabeth, the elderly woman who’s past is not only hidden from others, but from herself as well due to the onset of Alzheimer’s. In classic King form he sets up a relaxed and easygoing pace, steadying the reader for the roller coaster they are strapped into. Then with a soft turn of the page and a quick hidden scream you find yourself tearing through the final 250 pages at breakneck speeds (I actually finished the book at 2:30am this morning, no rest for the wicked or those who imagine it). Beyond the storyline, just underneath the surface, this story is also about the muses, the voices from those hidden places that speak to all people who create, artists, writers, builders, musicians, etc. We read in here the dangers that lie beneath the ebb and flow of what we safely refer to as “inspiration”. King asks if you really know where that great line came from, how that picture in your head got so clear, and what would you do if you realized their was power just lurking out of focus behind those ideas.
I’ve been a fan of King’s for most of my life, in fact it was with him that I really gained my appreciation of literature as a whole. He was an author passed down to me by my Mom and I initially read him as something else her and I could talk about, but soon enough I found myself diving from one strange and haunting world to another. I can’t seem to get enough of King’s talent for twisting the simple and ordinary into mesmerizing and terrifying. Yes, he can be called a “pop author”, but you can never call him lazy. The man is a writing machine and even through his own personal declarations of retirement, he shows no signs of slowing down. To that, I say, “Thank goodness.”
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Umm, what the hell is that in our fridge?!
There are times when the track record of a director can set the bar too high even for themselves to reach. This weekend brought the release of Jumper, which was helmed by Doug Liman (Swingers, Go, The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith). That is a hell of a wake of well thought out, well executed and well liked films and this is what Jumper wanted to tag itself onto. Unfortunately it falls directly to the bottom of the totem pole. Doug Liman now gets to rest comfortably in companionship with other directors like Joel Schumacher and John McTiernan who have brought us some amazing and amazingly terrible films.
Jumper boasts a talented cast of actors, but none of them get to rise to the level of previous works. Hayden Christensen (greatest work to date: Life as a House) starts out rough in the film leaning a tad bit too far on the emo scale. He does have an arc where he learns to care about someone more than himself, but it happens too fast and never gets truly explored. Rachel Bilson (greatest work to date: One Last Kiss) plays the small town crush that has grown up to be the too-cute-to-be-working-in-a-sports-bar bartender. She gets swept up by the mysterious Hayden when he returns into her life, but she flip-flops continuously through the film on whether to trust him or not. At one moment she buys into everything whole heartedly, the next she is demanding explanations. Jamie Bell (greatest work to date: Billy Elliot) grew up and bulked out for this role and definitely shows the most promise in the film, but again he is never allowed to fully explore or explain where his character is coming from. Also, note to future directors, if you are going to give someone expositional diologue to explain who the villains of the film are, don’t put those words into the mouth with the strongest accent in the film. The movie was mostly over before I heard someone else pronounce the name of the enemy in a way I could understand. Samuel L. Jackson (greatest work to date: Pulp Fiction) gets a role you love to hate in the religious zealot of Roland. He charges the part with a true sense of a one track mind, but his deeper issue is left off screen and therefore the audience doesn’t get to feel anything besides annoyance towards his mission. Diane Lane (greatest work to date: The Outsiders) gets completely misused in a small cameo role as Hayden’s disappearing mother. She gets a total of four minutes of screen time and rushes in and out like an audience member with a bladder problem.
The concept of the film is solid and served as the original reason why I wanted to see it in the first place. The special effects are also well done, but become almost a bit too common by the end of the film. The real downfall, the smack in the face from this movie, is its pretension that we will automatically want more. Many movies are left open for the possibility of a sequel, which is fine because every studio loves a franchise film, but the first movie has to be good enough to stand on its own and let the box office decide whether a second or third film is warranted. Jumper doesn’t seem to care what we think and plays itself out like the pilot episode of a long running series. Nothing is wrapped up, nothing is solved and some characters are just left completely hanging in midair without any explanation. I exited the theater not feeling like I had seen a well done sci-fi/action feature, rather a commercial free first episode to a Sci-Fi channel mini-series. The fact that this was left so open without even a shred of doubt that they want to make more is almost offensive to the viewing audience. Let us tell you whether we want more, let us decide if the story warrants continuing. That’s our job (that and funding the theaters with massive purchases of over-priced gourmet chocolates).
Maybe my hopes were too high, but the concept was strong and the director had my trust from previous works, but now the slate has been wiped clean. Next time, Liman, I go into your film with no expectations of greatness. Just open eyes and a pack of Rasinettes in my hand.
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1) INDY TRAILER! INDY TRAILER! INDY TRAAAAAAAIIIIIIIILERRRRR!
2) Phew, now that I have woken up again after passing out from sheer joy, let’s continue with the day. Happy Valentine’s Day to you, yours and theirs.
3) I’m a huge fan of Guitar Hero, but after seeing this kid play the game, I might hang my guitar shaped controller in shame. Or I could film a crazy training montage as I build myself into the greatest player in the world! Only time will tell…
http://view.break.com/422526 – Watch more free videos
4) Kathleen Turner has responded to Nic Cage’s lawsuit by saying she’s sorry. In her words, “Those were my thoughts at the time. I never meant to hurt or damamge anyone.” So it was only in her thoughts that he was drunk driving all the time and only in her thoughts that he stole someones dog. That all makes perfect sense.
5) The WGA is back to work and the shows are getting their seasons figured out again. A good number of shows will only finish the scripts that were in production when the strike hit and start building for next season now, but some are just going to wait it out and come back fresh. Life, Chuck and Heroes seem to be in the latter category. I would love to see more Chuck as soon as possible, but I’m glad that Heroes is staying off the air and NBC is planning to “relaunch” the series. Anything that can erase the awful aftertaste of last season is a smart move.
6) The pic is really nothing new in the form of how Wolverine is going to look, but my inner comic book geek is still tweaking out over this on set shot from the upcoming X-Men prequel.
7) I wonder if these dudes saw the grocery store version of this last week? In a battle of one versus the other, I give it to these guys for incorporating the wind-up frog in the bathtub. MacGuyver would be proud.
I only made it through about 4 verses of this before starting to cry laughing. Some wonderfully insane people have decided to try and translate teh Bible into LOLCat language. This could be the beginning of a one-world-religion.
9) Casting Alert: People are whispering about a possible cameo from Al Pacino in the next Bond film, Quantum of Solace. I have no idea in what fashion this will appear, but if Pacino gets into a gun battle with Bond I might just have to forgive the whole franchise for casting Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist. Maybe…
10) With the WGA heading back to work, many movies are trying to figure out if they can stay with their original release dates. JJ’s Star Trek is the first major movie to get pushed back from its Christmas release date to May 2009. I wonder if they are thinking to themselves, “Do we have time to recast this thing? What the hell were we thinking!?!?!”
Welcome to the new and improved daily blog of yours truly. It’s been great writing for everyone over on MySpace, but I have decided that the limitations on the blogging platform are just too much now. I want to expand, I want to explore and, of course, I want to express myself in ways that platform won’t allow. So here I am over at WordPress. For now this is a free blog hosted on their site, but if the demand reaches a necessary point I’ll rent a host and move it over there. But to get to that point, which would be an incredibly happy problem to have, you need to keep reading, keep commenting and tell your friends to come over and do the same. Thanks once again to all my wonderful and avid readers! Let’s head down this road together and see where it takes us.
DandyID
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