So the Oscars are over...I was definitely way off on my predictions, some that I'm glad about and some that I'm not. I like that The Hurt Locker upset Avatar all night, but I really didn't think either film deserved the hype that they got. The Hurt Locker is perhaps more deserving of the awards that it received, but I definitely wasn't blown away by it. The award that ticked me off the most was Best Original Screenplay. There's no way that The Hurt Locker should have won over Inglourious Basterds. The dialogue in Tarantino's movie was brilliant, creative, intense and definitely should have won that award.
But anyway, what's done is done. Another year, another new selection of films to see. If you're like me and you enjoy reading/watching upcoming releases and deciding what you think, you may want to invest in those predictions. Now you can with HSX.com, the Hollywood Stock Exchange. It's exactly what you would guess it is: you can buy shares of not only films, but also TV shows and actors themselves. For example, you can already buy shares of Avatar 2 (symbol AVAT2) for $242.04. Iron Man 2 (symbol IRNM2) is currently going for $367.69. You may want to jump onto Tron Legacy, which is currently at $168.65, but I'd guess that'll at least double in the coming months. Unfortunately, however, this site doesn't run on real money but on "Hollywood Dollars," which are basically worthless. I'm hoping this changes eventually. Regardless, it could be fun.
You can sign up for free and get $2,000,000 to invest with...as they say, the rest is up to you. I like the concept and might jump on eventually. As for you, don't blame me if you lose all your fake money on buying shares of Gary Busey.
This Sunday is the broadcast of the 82nd Oscars, the premiere award event for film, presented this year by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. It will be the first year in a long time that there are 10 nominations for best film and I've seen all of them except Up in the Air. Based on the 9 I've seen, I think this has been a great year in film to bring back 10 nominations. It's safe to say that, like it or not, Avatar, with its 9 nominations, will probably clean up. I just hope it doesn't cast a shadow over the other deserving nominations.
Here are my predictions for who/what will win in this year's categories:
- Best Picture: Avatar. Most people are thinking it's between this and The Hurt Locker but I think District 9 should get more credit here. Because it was freakin' awesome. What they should do is make an exception and enter director Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break instead of The Hurt Locker and just let it win everything.
- Actor in a Leading Role: Tough call here...especially since I haven't seen any of these films yet. I'm between Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth and Morgan Freeman. Interestingly, both Bridges and Freeman have been nominated 5 times between leading and supporting role...Freeman has won once for supporting...and this is Colin Firth's first nomination. Based on that, I'm narrowing it down to between Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth and saying that Colin Firth wins it.
- Actor in a Supporting Role: Another tough call since I've only seen one of these films (Inglorious Basterds). Christoph Waltz was fantastic in that role and I'd love to see him win but I'm thinking this goes to either Matt Damon or Woody Harrelson. Damon has one win under his belt for writing Good Will Hunting and I'm thinking he's picking up his second here.
- Actress in a Leading Role: I've seen all of these roles except Helen Mirren's. Sandra Bullock was surprisingly good in The Blind Side but it's easy to be surprised considering her past acting gigs. Meryl Streep did an amazing job as Julia Child but I'm going out on a limb and saying that Carey Mulligan steals this one.
- Actress in a Supporting Role: I've only seen one of these roles: Mo'Nique in Precious. And she deserves this win. I think she'll take it.
- Animated Feature Film: Don't yell at me, but I think Up is a little bit overrated. That said, it's the only nomination I've seen and considering all the buzz about it, it's safe to say that it will win.
- Art Direction: Avatar
- Cinematography: The Hurt Locker
- Costume Design: Straight up guess on this one, but it seems whenever there's a Victorian-era British nominee, it wins...so I'll say The Young Victoria.
- Directing: Here's the tough call of the night...James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow? I'm hoping Kathryn Bigelow but thinking it will be James Cameron.
- Documentary Feature: I've seen 2 of these, The Cove and Food Inc. I'd be happy seeing either of them win but think that considering the lengths that the crew went to in The Cove, that it should win.
- Film Editing: District 9 deserves to win something and I think this is probably the one it could take.
- Music (Original Score): Avatar
- Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker
- Sound Mixing: Avatar
- Visual Effects: Avatar
- Writing (Adapted Screenplay): I'm torn here. I like Nick Hornby's writing style (An Education) but I don't think it will win here. District 9 is one hell of a screenplay but I'm thinking Up in the Air might steal it.
- Writing (Original Screenplay): Give it to Tarantino!! Personal favorite aside, Tarantino knows how to write dialogue and I think he'll take this one unless the Academy gets all snooty about his violence. We'll see.
Enjoy the show...let me know if you agree/disagree.
Well it's Oscar season. Nominees are preparing speeches, picking our their outfits and if you're James Cameron, probably clearing off some shelf space. But I'll get to my Oscar picks tomorrow. For now, I'd like to dive into the new films coming out this month. There's a rather eclectic collection of films coming out this month and here are my impressions...
What to see:
Alice in Wonderland (Mar. 5) - The release of the month. People have been excited about this for a long time and rightly so because Tim Burton and a hallucinogenic-like fairytale go together like (cue the Forrest Gump voice) peas and carrots. Stoners across the country are preparing for their minds to be blown as this movie is being released in 3D. I have to admit that Johnny Depp as a kooky character (like in Willy Wonka) is a little weird to me but I trust the judgment of the long-associated pair of Depp and Burton.
Green Zone (Mar. 12) - At first, I thought this might be part of the Bourne series since it's Matt Damon playing a Jason Bourne-like character and it's directed by Paul Greengrass who directed those movies. But it's not. Nonetheless, the two have obviously worked well together in the rogue agent action setting. I won't rush to the theater for this one but I'm sure it'll be entertaining.
Greenberg (Mar. 19) - [Insert corny "green" subliminal St. Pat's Day joke] Yes, another similar sounding film but certainly much different. The first thing that attracted me to this comedy starring Ben Stiller was that it's written and directed by a brilliantly talented man named Noah Baumbach, who wrote such films as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Squid & The Whale and the recent Fantastic Mr. Fox (obviously a friend/partner of Wes Anderson). In the same style, this looks like another dry, intelligent comedy about Ben Stiller figuring out what to do with his life. Plus the music is done by James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Mar. 19) - Can't say much about this because I haven't read the book yet but it's been a hugely popular bestseller from the late author Stieg Larsson, who left this as the first in a trilogy of books. The Runaways (Mar. 19) - I'd be a little more hesitant about this film, based on the all-female rock group that formed in the 70's and grew in popularity despite their lack of a y chromosome, however, this film received good reviews at Sundance and personally, I'd hate to see a film based on a rock group fail. Apparently Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning have great performances and best of all, it's directed by artist Floria Sigismondi who has created such dark works as the video for Marilyn Manson's "Beautiful People."
On the fence:
She's Out of My League (Mar. 12) - It's just really hard to tell how a comedy will do based on trailers these days. Based on seeing this trailer, I'd say it'll bomb. However, it's written by the 2 guys who wrote Sex Drive, which I also thought looked dumb when I saw the trailer but turned out to be pretty funny. I'll wait for DVD on this one.
Hot Tub Time Machine (Mar. 26) - See above...written by the same guys. Between the two, I guess I'd vote for this one. It'd be difficult to top this as the dumbest movie title of the year but I'm really pulling for Craig Robinson because he's funny as hell but hasn't had a breakthrough lead role yet.
Repo Men (Mar. 19) - Not sure if this has any relation to Repo Man starring Emilio Estevez. Haven't read much about this release in general actually. What I do know is that the director and writers don't have a lot under their belt so it's hard to judge how Jude Law and Forest Whitaker will team up. However, RZA is in the cast so that's automatic points right there. Plus, they've put out some pretty sweet posters for this film (click right).
No Thanks:
Brooklyn's Finest - Believe me, I'd love for Wesley Snipes to get back on the scene with a bang, but I don't think it'll happen despite the fact that he's accompanied by Don Cheadle, Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke. It's directed by Antoine Fuqua, of Training Day fame. Training Day was decent, but definitely overrated and it's been the highlight of his directing career (his other films include Tears of the Sun, King Arthur and Shooter).
I came across this website via NPR. Codeorgan was developed by a creative British marketing company called DLKW. The site allows you to enter any URL and through an algorithm, processes the body code of the site into music. Pretty slick idea.
The music is composed of three parts: key, synth and drums. The keys are in a pentatonic scale, depending on the most common letter of the source code that is part of the A-G musical scale: major scale if that number is even, minor if it's odd (so for example, if you have 164 E's on the body source of your site, it will process that into a major pentatonic scale). 10 synthesizer effects are available and this program chooses one based on the amount of content on the particular site. Thirdly, there are also 10 different drum loops and those are chosen based on the ratio of all letters to the number of letters in the musical scale.
This is one of those sites that you can find yourself playing around with for an hour. Some sites sound horrid; some are interesting. This blog sounds kind of like a broken grandfather clock with a drum beat (though that will inevitably change once I post this). It'd be interesting to intentionally create a page based on the algorithm in order to produce good music. If anyone plays with this and finds a cool site to use, please leave the site in the comments.
Pitchers and catchers are reporting to training in less than 18 hours; football fans are strung out across the country in serious withdrawal, waiting for the baseball season to start.
Meanwhile, gamers across the country are training for the inevitable pulled muscles, carpal tunnel development and getting ready to stay glued to their TVs come March 2nd...but for good reason. On March 2nd, MLB 2K10 is released for Xbox 360 and PS3. Many gamers have either reserved a copy or will certainly try to get their hands on a copy and start playing right away, striving to pitch a perfect game.
So what's the good reason you ask? 2K Sports, the creator of the game, is offering 1 million bones to the first person to pitch a perfect game in the game before May 2nd. Yes...$1,000,000. Gamers posted videos on YouTube last year of their perfect game performances with MLB 2K9, but this year's edition has upped the ante on pitching control and feel.
So you've gotta think...considering how many hours serious gamers dedicate to playing video games even without extreme incentives such as this, the perfect game must be virtually impossible to achieve if this company is offering such a bold contest. Well apparently that's not the case...2K Sports has essentially put aside a million dollars in anticipation of the winner. Chris Snyder, director of marketing even said "I would be shocked if someone doesn't get it."
Daft Punk is mysterious. The French duo is one of the most unique, eclectic groups and a huge contributor to the worldwide popularity of electronic/house music. Two of their albums, Homework and Discovery, are easily on my top albums of all time list. Without them, Kanye West would not be as popular (or hated, depending on how you look at it) as he is today. Not counting the live album they released in 2007, it's been almost 5 years since they've released an album. So they're due for a new album, right?
Based on a few things, I'm thinking (and hoping) yes. The first thing is their recent contribution to the "spin"-off of Guitar Hero, DJ Hero (yep...I just punned). I haven't gotten my hands on this game yet, but they apparently contributed about 11 new mixes for the game and appear as playable characters. They appeared in promotions for the game, such as this one:
The second item to support my belief that Daft Punk is coming back is their work on the score for the new Tron: Legacy film. If you're the least bit geeky, you heard about this movie in the works. If not, this sequel to the 1982 Tron will be released at the end of this year. Daft Punk has apparently composed 24 tracks for the film and rumors speculate that they make a cameo in the film also. Some tracks were leaked out which is a testament to Daft Punk's popularity; when else have tracks to a film been sought after over a year before the film even comes out?
The third Daft Punk sighting I experienced was for a recent Adidas campaign. This awesome campaign is for Adidas' Star Wars line. Just recently, Snoop Dogg and a storm trooper marched through the streets of New York to the Adidas shop, where a guy had been waiting since 1 am to get the first pair of Luke Skywalker sneaks. Anyway, this promotion came out online last month, showing a glimpse of the helmeted French duo:
So what's the deal Daft Punk? Rumors have been spreading about a 2010 tour but there were false rumors about a tour last year; apparently, they stick to Myspace (yuck!) for official tour news, so I suppose we'll all have to eagerly await.
The opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is tomorrow night. Personally, I'm more of a fan of the Summer Olympics but I should also mention that if there were such a thing as "ESPN Ocho," I'd definitely watch it. What I mean to say is I'd even watch rock-paper-scissors competitions if they were on TV, so I'm pretty lenient on the types of competitive sports that I'll watch. I've caught myself watching juggling, cheerleading, table tennis and even darts.
The last time the Winter Olympics were on, in 2006, I was studying abroad in Ireland. The TV stations seemed to show nothing BUT curling, easily the most boring of all events (did that stop me from watching hours of it? of course not)
Now that I'll have exposure to more than curling, here are the events that I'll look forward to:
-Biathalon [Day 7 (Thur, 2/18)]: The Women's 15 km and Men's 20 km individual medal competitions are on this day. I don't think I've ever actually watched the biathalon - it's the one where you ski with a gun on your back, stopping at intervals to shoot targets.
-Bobsled [Women's Team (Day 12-13); Men's Team (Day 15-16)]: Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled time! Unfortunately, Jamaica is not competing this year, but I suppose I'll watch it anyway.
-Freestyle Skiing - Aerials [Medal Rounds: Women's - Day 13 (Wed., 2/24); Men's - Day 14 (Thur., 2/25)]: I've more or less competed in a similar event to this. It takes a lot of guts to fly off a huge ramp about 5 stories into the air. I've only sustained minor injuries competing in the Wii Fit version (more of a Ski Jump actually), but I suppose this is a little more realistic.
-Freestyle Skiing - Ski Cross [Men's - Day 10 (Sun., 2/21); Women's - Day 12 (Tues., 2/23)]: This is the first year of this event, which is similar to the snowboard cross - four riders at once racing down turns and jumps to the finish. I watched some of the Snowboard and Ski Cross from the recent X-Games; should be the most intense event.
-Hockey - USA plays Switzerland on Day 5 (Tues., 2/16), Norway on Day 7 (Thurs., 2/18) and Canada on Day 10 (Sun., 2/21). I'm kind of scared to see any of the Women's Hockey.
-Snowboarding - Half Pipe/Snow Cross (Days 4-7) - Check out all the stoners catch some wicked air and hopefully Shaun White won't land on his face like he did at the X-Games.
Other events to check out:
-Luge (Days 2-6) -Skeleton (Days 7-8) -Speed Skating (Pretty much every day)
Forget marathons. Forget triathalons. Forget Iron Man competitions. Dare I say it...even forget Ninja Warrior competitions. They should all bow and pay homage to...Tough Guy.
This year's main event was held a couple weeks ago, in South Staffordshire, UK. Though it's only about 8 miles, this event is far from a level race...it's far from a race full of hills...Tough Guy has underwater tunnels, barbed wire fences and fire walks. There is even an electric fence called "The Tiger," which comes after a long, steep-hill filled run including a slalom portion which forces competitors to run up and down an extremely steep hill. But after the Tiger comes the worst.
There are a series of walls to climb over, after which is "The Behomoth," a series of 4 towers which you have to climb up and walk a rope across, under which is a patch of nettles, a plant that would cause discomfort to say the least if you were to fall. After this comes the fire...then a tire crawl...then a swamp...then the "Vietcong tunnels"...then a rope climb...(are you getting the picture yet?)...then a rubber slide with firemen spraying hoses at you...then underwater tunnels...and so on and so on...until you climb another hill to run to the finish.
But my description doesn't come close to doing it justice. Check out their website (you can sign up for the next one if you want!) and take a look at this video:
Ok, so who else saw Dear John last weekend? Anyone? Just me? Don't judge me.
No, I didn't see the most recent release from Nicholas Sparks' arsenal of testosterone-reducing book to film adaptations (excuse me one second, I need to do 100 pushups, chug a beer and smash the glass over my head), but part of me is happy that it finally stole the box office from the domination that is Avatar. Sidenote: Amanda Seyfried, the woman in this movie, is from Allentown, PA, which I just learned this week. I preferred her role in Jennifer's Body though.
I'm a little confused about what was supposed to be released this past Saturday, February 6th. On what would be Bob Marley's 65th birthday, a documentary was supposed to be released which was rumored almost 2 years ago to be directed by Martin Scorsese. The only information I can get now is that it was instead directed by Jonathan Demme, whose last directorial work was Rachel Getting Married. However, I can't really tell if it was released or not; based on the utter lack of information available, I'd guess not.
Anyway, moving on to the rest of this month's releases...a short month but I have a good pick for each of the three remaining weekends of February...
Starting with this weekend, I gotta go with The Wolfman. Benicio Del Toro really hasn't been in anything bad and has mostly been awesome in his acting gigs, going all the way back to his role as "Duke the Dog-faced Boy" in Big Top Pee-Wee (though if he truly does take the role in the rumored film of The Three Stooges, that streak may end). Anyway, The Wolfman looks like it'll be a good flick. It looks like Benicio as a wolf could kick all the asses of those shirtless whimps from Twilight.
The following weekend will bring us what I think will be the best movie of the month: Shutter Island. I've read a few of Dennis Lehane's novels, this one included, and was merely satisfied with the two that were made into movies: Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. This one, however, I think will blow those two out of the water, especially with the Marty/Leo team-up. I'm usually not that impressed with a film after having read the book and think that may come into play with this one as well, but I also think it has potential to be an exception.
Bringing us to the last weekend of the month, I'm going to split it between two releases that have potential but probably could wait until DVD. I saw the trailers for Cop Out (Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan) and immediately thought it was going to crash and burn. Pretty much the only thing that's keeping me from continuing that mindset is that, believe it or not, it's directed by Kevin Smith (I know, I was surprised too). The other release that I'm on the cusp about is the horror/thriller flick The Crazies. It's a remake of George Romero's film from 1973 and I'm basing my opinion on seeing the trailer only once or twice, but it looked like it had some creepy potential.
New Orleans won the Superbowl last night, upsetting the Colts but making most of the country happy for a city that could use an ego boost like a football championship. I'm glad it was a good game, but I certainly was not dazzled by the millions of dollars spent on advertising. First of all, it's tough to think about any company spending millions on a 15, 30 or 60 second spot when our economy is in the toilet. You would think that if one did though, they'd come out with some big guns.
Bud Light is known for being one of the more humorous collections of advertisements and they more or less continued that reputation, though most of them fell flat: the voice box one, the house made of bud light, and the asteroid coming at Earth. However, one of my favorites all night was this one:
Monster.com had a very bizarre spot (the one with the beaver playing violin) which wasn't very memorable. Alternatively, their competition, Careerbuilder, had the other favorite of mine:
Most of the other spots were either very bizarre, subpar or just not good. One or two of the Doritos ads were pretty good, but overall I thought the collection was just OK and found myself questioning why Doritos is pushing advertising so much. The Snickers ad was good but personally I liked their "play on celebrity names" campaign better (Kick your hunger with Adam Nougateri, Get dunked on by Patrick Chewing, etc.) The Google ad was heart-warming of course. The E-Trade ads were good, but not as good as in the past.
So overall, I'm glad the game was good, I'm happy that the Saints won but I definitely was not as impressed with the commercials as I've been in the past.
Vincent Vega is dead to me. It's hard to believe that a single role among over 40 has managed to demand me to respect John Travolta over the years as he's progressively taken on worse roles. Those days are long gone though. I was able to turn my cheek as John dressed as a large woman for Hairspray, but this latest addition to his repertoire is the final straw. Here's a line graph to demonstrate my point...
Now, for "this music video"...I should warn you; what you are about to see is disturbing.
If you're finished vomiting yet, I'll proceed. I don't mean to knock a sentimental production between a father and daughter but...well, actually, yes, that's exactly what I mean to do. I didn't think anything produced today would send people begging for Bobby Brown, but congratulations John...you did it. The least you could have done was made it humorous, busted out a jacket with big shoulder pads, a sweet spandex/suspender get-up, a couple back-up dancers, a new hair-cut and some of the original dance moves. In an attempt to erase that video from your mind, I bring you Bobby Brown in his prime:
By now, you've probably heard about the situation with Jay Leno's time slot. If not, you probably know that last year, there were speculations of Jay Leno retiring since his contract with NBC was up and Conan O'Brien would take over his spot. As it turned out, Jay Leno did not retire and NBC took a bold step to create a 10:00 time slot for him, saving money from what used to air at the time, drama shows such as Law & Order. Conan took over the 11:35 slot and Jimmy Fallon started a show in Conan's old spot, at 12:35. Before all of these moves, Leno was the #1 late night talk show host in ratings.
Since the move, however, Conan's ratings are almost half as high as Leno's used to be. And Leno's ratings in his new time slot are about the same, not nearly as high as previous 10:00 shows. This caused complaints from NBC-affiliated programs, particularly 11:00 news programs who saw a drop in viewers apparently due to a weak lead-in by Leno.
So news dropped this past week that Leno may move back to his old 11:35 slot and speculations are that it would be cut to a half-hour, moving Conan to 12:05 and Jimmy Fallon to 1:05. Naturally, and rightly so, stories are empathizing for Conan. He has a contract with NBC but rumors are circulating that he could change networks, possibly to Fox. Amidst all of this, I haven't heard anything about the effect this has on Jimmy Fallon.
Which brings me to my opinion on this matter...
Jay Leno is not funny. I can't understand America's obsession with him. Sure, I've watched him occasionally, more times than not for the guests on his show. Ironically, I've probably watched more of him at the 10:00 slot because I hardly ever watched him at 11:35. However, his writing is weak, most of his segments are lame and Kevin Eubanks is probably the worst of all tonight show/late night accompanying musicians (and Craig Ferguson doesn't even have one). I've heard his group play the same stuff over and over, including a horrible rendition of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody."
Conan, on the other hand, is funny. However, he was much funnier in his previous time and place. I'm glad that Andy Richter returned, but Conan's writers are also often weak and some of his new segments are just annoying. That said, he doesn't deserve to be jerked around like this because ultimately, he's funnier than Leno and ratings don't disprove that.
Which brings me to Jimmy Fallon. I was a little skeptical when he was announced as Conan's replacement and watching his nerves get the best of him his first week on air worried me a little bit. However, he's quickly become my favorite of all of the talk shows. His writing is actually good and even when it's subpar, he finds a way to deliver it well. He interacts really well with all of his guests and you can tell that he's just a genuinely nice guy. He's developed some great segments such as "Lick it for 10," "The Real Housewives of Late Night," and "Wheel of Carpet Samples." He plays beer pong and board games with his guests such as charades and taboo. He interacts with the crowd, getting them involved in games and other segments. Plus, he books quality musical acts, a lot of whom are indie groups and celebrities that you don't see on the other shows. And oh yea...his band is the freakin' Roots!
Point being...Jimmy Fallon needs to get a little more respect amidst all of this time shift controversy. He's already topped Conan's average viewers at that time slot multiple times and I'd watch him over Leno every day of the week. Our country needs to improve its average taste for entertainment.
Print publications are dying. Most of us know it. A lot of us have already rid it from our lives. More of us are taking that process a bit more slowly.
I can't see printed books ever going away, even with the recent technology of Amazon's Kindle and the subsequent competitors.
Newspapers are probably the low man on the totem pole. Many of us get our news online now.
Magazines probably lie somewhere between. Personally, I may be in the minority these days but I enjoy the feel of reading magazines occasionally so I still have a handful of magazine subscriptions, one of which is Esquire.
I'm fascinated and in admiration of an idea that was launched in Esquire's December 2009 issue which links their print publication to people's computers. This idea is what is called "Augmented Reality." With a quick (free) download of software from their website, this "Augmented Reality" uses your web cam to detect markers throughout the print publication to show you additional content. David Granger, editor-in-chief of Esquire explains this concept further in the following video:
There are 5 content icons in the December 2009 issue: the cover with Robert Downey Jr., the Funny joke from a Beautiful Woman segment and the Style segment with Jeremy Renner as David Granger exemplified. There is also an icon for a blurb on jazz musician Robert Glasper, which gives you a listen to one of his new tracks, and there is an icon for a rather creative photographer which gives you a slideshow of some of his work. Also, there is a 6th icon for Lexus, which demonstrates some of the capabilities of one of their new models. This demonstrates that Esquire can make money off of using this technology while advertisers can present a very unique concept to potential customers.
Altogether, it only took me about 20 minutes to go through all of this in my issue but I found it very interesting and think this is just about the best idea that a print magazine could come up with to compete with online content. Augmented reality is not a new concept; it exists in such things as the yellow first down marker in football games. However, Esquire took it to a different level making it fun, engaging, interactive and obviously (or hopefully, for their sakes) encouraging for people to pick up the magazine to see it for themselves.
Not surprisingly, there was no AR in the January issue of Esquire. I wouldn't expect them to use something involving complex algorithms that inevitably take a lot of time to create for every single monthly issue. Yet, I definitely think (and hope) that Esquire will be using this again in the future.
Another month brings more movie releases. We're into November now if you can believe it and get ready because the Twilight sequel comes out this month!!!! Sorry, I just transformed into a 12 year old girl for a second, what was I saying? Oh yea...November movies. There are a few releases that I'm looking forward to and a few that I'm not...
What to see:
-Disney's A Christmas Carol (11/6) - The feel-good holiday movie of the year. I enjoyed The Polar Express so I think this one will be just as entertaining, especially with the inner child of Jim Carrey doing voices. However, I don't start getting into the Christmas spirit until Thanksgiving is over...
-Pirate Radio (11/6) - Philip Seymour Hoffman, or as I like to call him, "PSH," is in the cast of DJs who fight the man and take to the seas to broadcast a little rock and roll for Britain in the 60's. Also in the cast are Nick Frost and Bill Nighy (from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). This will be the second film for director Richard Curtis, the first being Love Actually, which I will confess is a guilty pleasure of mine - definitely the best "chick flick" I've ever seen.
-The Fourth Kind (11/6) - A movie about aliens based on truth...call me a geek but that's all I need to know. I like how they appear to use real archived footage and how Milla Jovovich warns you in the trailer that "some of what you are about to see is extremely disturbing." This really looks like it could be one of the best alien movies to come out. My only concern is that it can't be THAT disturbing if it's rated PG-13, but sometimes you don't need violence to get creeped out.
-Fantastic Mr. Fox (11/25) - One of my favorite stories growing up by Roald Dahl and I'm really excited to see how Wes Anderson puts it together. Most people either love or hate the work of Wes Anderson, but I think he could blur that line with an animated film like this. The animation looks unique and creative and the voices come from what seems to be the click of Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, along with some pretty recognizable additions in George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Willem Dafoe.
-The Road (11/25) - A great read from Cormac McCarthy if you get the chance. Set in a mysteriously apocalyptic world, the story creates some extremely dark and barren imagery as it follows a father and his son in their struggle to survive and avoid the few dangerous cannibalistic humans that they encounter. Viggo Mortensen plays the father, an excellent actor. Often when I read a book prior to seeing the film, I'm disappointed with the film; I have a feeling that this one may be an exception.
On the cusp:
-Ninja Assassin (11/25) - I love ninjas. The thought of a ninja movie gets me excited. However, I found the trailer to be a little disappointing. It looks like it might be a little too over-the-top and considering it's produced by the Wachowski brothers, that's pretty much inevitable anyway. I did read that the lead actor/ninja trained something like 8 hours a day for 10 months for this film, so that's pretty impressive. For the sake of ninjas, I hope my hesitation is proved wrong.
-The Men Who Stare At Goats (11/6) - Superstar casts don't always make for great movies. I think this film will be entertaining and receive good reviews but it just looks too bizarre for me. Grant Heslov is directing, a guy you might recognize from acting; this is definitely the biggest directorial work he's done. The screenplay was adapted from a British author, which explains why it has a bizarre feel.
No thanks:
-The Box - Let's take a basic philosophical question and make an entire film about it: would you push a button to kill someone you don't know for a million dollars? I loved Donnie Darko, I like Frank Langella and Cameron Diaz, but this plot just looks a little too cheesy for me. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this married couple's decision is tough and doesn't end well.
-2012 - Yeah, yeah, the world's gonna end...we get it already. I'm just a little burnt out on the apocalyptic imagery and cheesy conspiracy themes that constantly get recycled in Hollywood.
-Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - Aside from a horribly long name, Nic Cage is this so-called "bad lieutenant." A review states that it's his best performance in years, but that sure as hell doesn't say anything to me. Bad Lieutenant was a 1992 film starring Harvey Keitel, a cop that spirals downward with drug addiction. Apparently this isn't supposed to be a remake though. The original director, Abel Ferrara was quoted as saying that directors who make remakes should burn in hell; the director of this film didn't even know who Ferrara was. So it begs the question, why the hell did they name it Bad Lieutenant? I should also add that Xzibit has a substantial role in this film...rappers, can you stick to rapping?
As we dive further into fall, the Halloween season is one that I truly love to celebrate, especially with horror movies. One comedy-horror came out this past weekend: Zombieland. I wish the whole phenomenon with vampires would carry over more to zombies, because let's face it: zombies are way cooler than vampires (especially those whimpy ones from Twilight). Sure, they're much dumber generally, but that's why they're great: killing zombies is now an artform. This artform has been communicated through Zombieland, a comedic film set in an apocalyptic world run over by zombies stemming from mad cow disease. With some laughs, some romance, plenty of epic zombie kills and an amazing cameo (you'll have to see it to know), Zombieland is very entertaining.
Appropriately, there are some horror movies coming out in the next few weeks, however, there are also a handful of other releases to look forward to as well...
What to see:
-Where the Wild Things Are (Release: Oct. 16) - Two words: wild rumpus. Interestingly, Spike Jonze, who is best known for his work in music videos, is directing. The cinematography looks pretty amazing as it should be for paying tribute to such a wonderful children's book that many of us grew up with. Plus, the kid who plays Max...his actual name is Max...how great is that?
-Ong Bak 2 (Release: Oct. 23) - Hell to the yeah. Tony Jaa makes most martial arts stars look like choir girls. I've seen Ong Bak about 10 times and I'm still amazed at the fight choreography and stunts. This release is somewhat of a prequel to Ong Bak but rather than being set in modern Thailand, it's set in ancient Thailand...it could be set in Hoboken for all I care as long as I can see Tony Jaa wreck house.
-Antichrist (Release: Oct. 23) - This looks like it can scare the bejesus out of you...artistically. The writer/director has gained international acclaim for his work. The story is basically about a couple looking to solve their problems by staying in a cabin in the middle of the woods, but the woods turn evil on them. And if there's anything you don't want to turn evil on you, it's the woods.
-The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (Release: Oct. 23) - Sure, this movie came out about 16 years ago, but I still love it: I love the animation, I love the story, I love the music and I love Tim Burton. And we all know that 3D makes everything better, so if you're with me, you'll have to go catch this one while it's out.
-Gentleman Broncos (Release: Oct. 30) - There are some films that I need to see strictly based on the director. This is one of them; Jared Hess, director of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, brings his directing and writing back with this film starring Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame. This one looks way more drug-induced but it looks hilariously creative.
-The Boondock Saints 2: All Saint's Day (Release: Oct. 30) - Finally, the rumors and discussions of a sequel to the cult favorite The Boondock Saints can be laid to rest this month. Normally, with a release like this that's been so built up in anticipation and expectations, I'd feel pretty pessimistic but other than my hope that it will do so, I do feel that this one will not disappoint. In fact, I think this will be A FIREFIGHHTTT!!!!
-The House of the Devil (Release: Oct. 30) - Another limited release (booooo!) which makes me even more eager to see it. As you can guess from the title, this is another Disney release that'll be great for the whole family. With an old school feel, this movie looks like it's begging you to beware of the lunar eclipse. Just check out the trailer:
The likely disappointment of the month:
-Couples Retreat (Release: Oct.9) - Believe me when I say I'm a huge fan of Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Jason Bateman. However, that doesn't mean I'll automatically love this movie. Vince Vaughn's last two movies were Christmas movies (Four Christmases and Fred Claus) and they both disproved what I thought to be a fact, which was that there's no such thing as a bad Christmas movie (and that's based on the fact that I've merely heard HORRIBLE things about Four Christmases without seeing it). The thing that gets me about this one is that it's PG-13; I envision most of the good lines are ones that we've already seen in the multiple trailers.
I'm obviously a bit late with this post, but better late than never, right? I only saw 3 of my top picks from August so far, two of which I'm glad I had as top picks (Inglourious Basterds & Final Destination 3D), the other not so much (The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard).
This past Friday brought us a few releases, none of which I've read reviews of yet. I intend to see Extract because Mike Judge is awesome, but realize that it can't possibly top Office Space. Gamer came out with Gerard Butler, who plays a human controlled by others in battles...a somewhat interesting premise but I'm far from sold on it. All About Steve also came out...is anyone remotely "all about" this one? Bradley Cooper, dude, what are you thinking?
Here's what I'm looking forward to for the rest of the month...
Top Picks
- Jennifer's Body (Sept. 18) - No, I'm not advocating this just because Megan Fox is in it; she's just an extra bonus for what I think will be an amusing horror flick. Diablo Cody wrote the script so it should be full of wit and sarcasm.
- No Impact Man (Sept. 11) - No rush for this one but most documentaries are worth watching over Hollywood releases. I'm no hippie but I could certainly make a better effort with my "carbon footprint." No Impact Man is about a man, his wife and daughter and their year in living extremely green: no electricity, no buying products with disposable paper, plastic, etc., no using elevators, taxis and so on and so on (in NYC no less). The "Man" seems like an average Joe-type and the trailer exposes how the New York Times writes about it being "part change the world, part gimmick for his next book" so collectively, those two things dispelled most of my skepticism about how genuine the documentary will be.
- The Informant! (Sept. 18) - I don't see how this can't be good. It looks like a good role for Matt Damon, giving him a chance at being humorous without being in a goofball comedy. It's directed by Steven Soderbergh who has a pretty impressive resume in directing and producing.
I'd like it to be good but it won't be...
- I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell - If and only if you're a male, do yourself a favor and read this book by Tucker Max. The guy's real life stories make Charlie Sheen's character on Two and a Half Men look like a 40-year old virgin. Congrats to Tucker for getting a movie deal out of his lewd, alcohol-induced sex addiction and aptitude to recount it in words, but there's no way in hell that it can translate well into film, especially after seeing the trailer. But hey, I'd like to be proven wrong in this case.
Honestly, that's about all that I got for the rest of the month...I'm curious about "Splice" but can't seem to find any trailers for it. I'm not really blown away by anything else, but let me know if you feel otherwise...
Slow down summer!! It feels like I just posted about June movies, but today is the last day of July and so one last month of summer blockbusters are coming our way. I previously mentioned that I'd be posting only for this summer's movies, but I think I'll be extending this posting trend every month from now on. So what do we have to look forward to in August? I think it's overall the best month this summer in terms of releases. Let's see...
My top picks (yes, there are a lot)
-Paper Heart (Aug. 7) - Michael Cera has a pretty good filmography so far and it'll be interesting to see the other lead of this movie, Charlyne Yi. She had a couple of the best lines in Knocked Up, but she's not playing a whacked-out stoner in this movie...she's playing a love-skeptic. And I think there'll be a lot of fun cameos in this one too. -Julie & Julia (Aug. 7) - I probably won't rush out to see this one but you can definitely tell that it's going to be good. Meryl Streep is obviously very talented and Amy Adams is definitely making a name for herself.
-The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (Aug. 14) - People will go see this solely because Jeremy Piven has created one of the best personas in TV history. Jeremy Piven plays a blue-collar Ari Gold in this one with a backup of other comedic actors. I hope and truly think that this will be better than The Hangover. -The Final Destination (Aug. 14) - This is in my top picks solely because it'll be in 3D. I've yet to see a 3-D movie outside of Disney world. Grotesque death scenes in 3 dimensions is worth paying 9 bucks for. -It Might Get Loud (Aug. 21) - This one probably won't be showing near me unfortunately, but it looks interesting. It's a documentary (by the director of An Inconvenient Truth) about Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page, their guitar styles and a get together that they have.
-Inglourious Basterds (Aug. 21) - You either love or hate Tarantino. I love him. I'll go see his movie even if I don't see a trailer for it (which is unfortunately almost unavoidable). Love him or hate him, you gotta love the premise: a troop of Jewish men killing Nazis in WWII. -Five Minutes of Heaven (Aug. 21) - Liam Neeson is a badass. This story is badass. Enough said. -The Marc Pease Experience (Aug. 21) - I have not heard nor seen anything about this movie yet, but it stars Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman and Schwartzman plays a guy 8 years out of school who is living in the past when he was a high school musical star. It's a bit reminiscent of the characteristics of Max Fischer, Schwartzman's character in Rushmore. -Taking Woodstock (Aug. 28) - It's about time they made a movie about Woodstock (aside from the documentary). Woodstock is a magical piece of history, for people who lived through it, went to it and even people like me who weren't even born yet. And Demetri Martin is cool. -H2 (Aug. 28) - Kind of like Tarantino, people probably either love or hate Rob Zombie. I love him. I was generally pretty pleased by the first Halloween remake he did so I'm looking forward to this one.
On the cusp:
-A Perfect Getaway (Aug. 7) - Weird casting. Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich? As a couple? It's a thriller about a honeymoon couple (Steve and Milla) who get dropped off on a tropical island to go backpacking and run into some trouble via 4 other people. It looks like Steve and Milla might throw down in this movie, so it could be entertaining.
-GI Joe (Aug. 7) - I just get the feeling that this one is going to be a CGI-headache with dumb jokes surrounded by explosions and rock music...but I guess that's the point. I'm probably in the minority in my hesitation toward this one, but there's a lot of hype surrounding it, and I just don't think it'll meet that hype. I think GI Joe would have been better made as a movie in the 80s or early 90s.
The one topic that I've followed up on over a few times on this blog is a TV show called Three Sheets, a travel show about drinking customs and hangover rituals. Based on that fact alone, it's obvious that I'm contributing to the formation of geniuses.
In short, the show was solely on an HD-network called MOJO which ceased operations, thus ceasing the operations of the show itself. However, it was easily the most popular program on that network and through rallies to save the show and get it signed to a different network, it found a new home. Back in April, I posted about that good news.
This month, starting July 20th the fourth season of the series with the amusing, fun-loving host by the name of Zane Lamprey will begin airing on its new home, the Fine Living Network. Lamprey has gone from sharing a network with gambling addicts, technology fiends, and demolition enthusiasts to one with a Martha Stewart show. So obviously he's more at home on FLN. Joking aside, I'm definitely happy that Zane Lamprey found a new home to continue his career of getting tipsy on TV and hope that it continues for seasons to come.
Tune in July 20th if you have FLN! This season includes trips to New Zealand, Tanzania, Lithuania, St. Martin, Cape Town, Hawaii, Iceland, Poland, Barbados, Panama, Namibia, Tuscany, Barbados, Tahiti, New Castle, Hamburg, Lesvos, and Amsterdam.
Billy Mays, famous for yelling at us to buy things that we don't really need, has unfortunately passed away according to reports that his wife found him dead in their Florida home this morning. The police found no break-ins and suspect no foul play. If there were foul play though, I'd know who to blame...let me elaborate...
Billy Mays and fellow pitchman Anthony "Sully" Sullivan appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien just 5 days ago, largely to promote their new show on the Discovery Channel called Pitchmen.
Conan humorously brought out some of the products that the two guys had pitched and had them demonstrate their use. Conan also fueled some fire by bringing up the ShamWow, knowing that Billy Mays had a bone to pick with the annoyingly hypnotic pitch of fame done by an odd-looking fellow named Vince Shlomi.
Why "a bone to pick" you ask? Well because Billy Mays pitched the "Zorbeez" before the "ShamWow" came onto the scene and they're both pretty much the same product. Watch below and see the Zorbeez vs. the ShamWow:
Obviously this Vince character is a sham (*cue the rim shot*) Basically the only difference between the two pitches is that Vince is wearing a headset...but why?? Looking into the end-all be-all truth that is Wikipedia, it turns out Vince has had his fair share of legal battles...
Shlomi made a comedy of sorts called The Underground Comedy Movie which was met with horrendous reviews. Vince accused the Farrelly brothers of stealing scenes from his movie for There's Something About Mary, to which the brothers basically said "We don't even know who you are." Vince also sued Anna Nicole Smith for not committing to the movie.
More recently, Vince was arrested in Florida for felony battery against a prostitute (see frightening mug shot at above-left).
My point is that this ShamWow guy doesn't have his morals in check and looks pretty damn sketchy. It turns out that the Zorbeez and ShamWow are distributed by the same company, which led to Billy Mays and Vince Shlomi sharing a box at the most recent SuperBowl. Mays was on Adam Corolla's radio show soon after the game and challenged Vince to a threatening pitch-off:
A long audio clip, but of most importance is the end, around the 4:00 mark or so, when Billy gets real heated and makes the challenge.
Did Vince Shlomi accept the challenge and take it too far? Did jealousy and greed escalate in this battle of absorbent towels?
Obviously, I'm exaggerating and don't seriously believe that there was any foul play. Ultimately, however, I'm sure this whole incident added some unneeded stress to Mays' life. My sympathies go out to his family and may he rest in peace. The world will never have a television pitchman of his caliber ever again.
Also, don't buy anything that's pitched by Shlomi.
So the Oscars are over...I was definitely way off on my predictions, some that I'm glad about and some that I'm not. I like that The Hurt Locker upset Avatar all night, but I really didn't think either film deserved the hype that they got. The Hurt Locker is perhaps more deserving of the awards that it received, but I definitely wasn't blown away by it. The award that ticked me off the most was Best Original Screenplay. There's no way that The Hurt Locker should have won over Inglourious Basterds. The dialogue in Tarantino's movie was brilliant, creative, intense and definitely should have won that award.
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