Monday, November 30th, 2009

The accompanying image for today's blog comes from Racked New York and is pictures of Bergdorf Goodman Men's Store's holiday window in New York City. A nice tie-in to Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Kind of sad to realize that a claymation fox is more exquisitely dressed than I ever will be.

The Satellite Awards nominees were announced today, with Rob Marshall's upcoming musical Nine picking up the most nominations. You can check out the entire nominee list at the International Press' official statement here.

The Satellite Awards are, for all purposes, just a preliminary match for the Golden Globe Awards, itself just a stepping stone to the Academy Awards. The nominee list led me to the Oscar prediction site, In Contention. The big category to look for is Best Picture, as it will contain ten nominees this year. The top nine contenders the site lists includes Nine, the Coens' latest A Serious Man, Pixar's Up and James Cameron's highly anticipated Avatar. Then, if that wasn't good enough for most film nerds, the dark horses and rest of the field mentioned for contention include J.J. Abrams' chapter in the Star Trek franchise, Neill Blomkamp's District 9 and Quentin Tarantino's brilliant Inglourious Basterds. I do have to admit that I'm a bit upset that Watchmen didn't even make the cut for consideration, but all the same, I can't be all that upset about the picks the site has thus far. Also worth a mention is the incredibly low key success Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, which shockingly is also boasting Best Supporting Actress nod at the Satellite Awards, as well as being top contender for the Oscar in comedienne Mo'Nique. We also have Clint Eastwood's sports biopic that will probably be the most overrated flick this award season, Invictus.

Sunday, November 29th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: I Met the Walrus)

More than likely, you have never heard of Josh Raskin. In fact, when looking for an interesting short that I saw last year after reading it had been nominated for an Academy Award, I easily found the film I Met the Walrus. And despite the ease of finding his only body of work, finding any information on Raskin is difficult. What we do know about the director, interviewer, star, sound editor and animator of this unique short is that when he was fourteen, he had some interview equipment, and he managed to somehow score an interview with the legendary John Lennon at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto in 1969, catching Lennon at the age of 29, probably right before The Beatles' final studio album, Abbey Road, was released.

How long was this interview just part of Raskin's private collection I haven't a clue. Was it published somewhere? Did it even make a local news channel? Screen in a school classroom? With the limited information on Raskin and his film, I suppose we don't know. But whatever the case, the interview doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know about one of the more iconic musicians in history. Conversely, the entertainment wielded from this piece actually comes from Raskin, as the entrancing animation captures the scatterbrained fantasy that would be a fourteen year old boy's mind whilst interviewing a rock and roll god.

I mentioned that the flick was nominated for an Oscar, but lost out to Suzie Templeton's inferior, in my opinion, Polish stop motion animated Peter and the Wolf. The short did win the somewhat new Daytime Emmy category of New Approaches in Daytime Entertainment, which went to Sesame Street this year. Maybe more of an achievement in my mind than others. Still, enjoy I Met the Walrus...

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Strolling around the Interwebs and found this gem of a picture. Hope it brightened your day as it did mine.

The big news of the day comes courtesy of an MTV interview with Natalie Portman, in which the actress spilled the news that Kat Dennings was cast in Thor. Kenneth Branaugh's adaptation of the iconic Marvel character is already shaping up a nice cast and Dennings is just the latest name to be thrown into the pot, along with Portman, Anthony Hopkins and Chris Hemsworth thus far. The big question this arises is what character Dennings will play. The article ends with the speculation that she could step into the shoes of The Enchantress.

Finally, it should be no surprise to anyone how this weekend's box office returned. The Twilight Saga: New Moon easily took the number one spot garnering nearly $143 million. The teen vampire flick broke the midnight showing record set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince set earlier this year, and the opening day record set by last year's The Dark Knight. However, fortunately for all of us movie nerds, Chris Weitz' installment in the Twilight franchise fell short of breaking The Dark Knight's weekend record.

Friday, November 20th, 2009

I was going to take off the day from blogging due to some school work and just consider it one proverbial long awkward pause in honor of The Twilight Saga: New Moon's release today, but then I read some good news at the hands of Cinematical to combat my rant against the local movie rental place I posted the other night. The article announces that Netflix will soon be streaming independent films for download while their still in theaters due to unavailability to most audiences due to the limited releasing. The new program will be implemented through IFC and their Festival Direct project, which shows the indie flicks that are making splashes at some of the bigger film festivals, including Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Toronto, etc. as well as the In Theaters + On Demand service, which begins streaming certain films on the day they premiere in limited release. A lot of possibilities there, and with the rental company coming soon to Play Station 3 and my growing dismay towards Movies to Go, I'm sure I will soon be able to give a firsthand review of this.

Speaking of disappointment in the movie industry (that is, if you can consider my local rental store to be the movie industry), the short list for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards Best Documentary Feature Award has been receiving more and more controversy. I included the story of the snubbing of Capitalism: A Love Story and Anvil! The Story of Anvil on my blog the other day, but I left one major contender that was snubbed out, that being the highly reviewed James Toback documentary on the infamously bizarre and misunderstood namesake boxer in the flick Tyson. Toback himself took notice of this, as he took to an interview with The New York Times to claim that the selections process borders close to "extortion". The article goes on to give the Academy's rebuttal of Toback's claims; however, I'm sure it will not quite squash the buzz and controversy as we move ever forward to the iconic award show.

And... today is Friday, so that means new releases. Among the films in theaters this week include what looks like one of the more overrated flicks in some time, especially in regards to Sandra Bullock's performance, which the trailer at least doesn't really wow me, The Blind Side, the true story of a mediocrely famous Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman. Also, The Rock's career continues to look sadder in the animated Planet 51. We also get a helping of Werner Herzog's take on Abel Ferrera's cult classic in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes, in a flick that most certainly has a better behind the scenes and back story than anything that will actually appear on the screen. And finally, yes, New Moon also made its debut last night at midnight. Instead of giving my take on how I feel about setting uncomfortably in a theater watching the only wet dream of Native Americans I've ever seen, I'll direct you to Roger Ebert's review, which includes the phrase "long pauses interrupt longer ones" while describing the plot. If that wasn't fascinating enough, to give a break of all the Twihard madness, here is a clip of Kevin Smith from this past San Diego Comic Con describing why we shouldn't hate the Twihards, and his feeling on the trailer of New Moon that debuted at the convention. Definitely worth a listen.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

This picture has been floating around all over the nerdy side of the Interwebs this week to coincide with the release of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek on DVD. The picture is Abrams updated version of the salt vampire that was made for a deleted scene that also contained a new version of Gorn, which you can see on io9.

Us Magazine, a periodical that I usually would refuse to read articles from, broke a story today that Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo will reprise their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold for a new HomeAway commercial for this year's Super Bowl, paying homage to the 1983 comedy classic National Lampoon's Vacation that will also feature the Wagon Queen Family Truckster.

It is a slow news day, and I am currently watching The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas on CMT, and I made a decision that the performance of "The Aggie Song" is the most unintentionally homoerotic piece of cinema in the history of the medium. Agreed?... Whatever the case, enjoy the clip.

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

There is never any shortage of arguments as the Academy Awards begin to loom closer. Although we are still about three months away from the 82nd annual ceremony's nominations to be revealed, the controversy cloud has already swirled up with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's official site's announcement of the fifteen films that have been shortlisted for the Best Documentary Feature Award. Why would this be controversial? Well, because the only film on the list that I'm really familiar with is Louie Psihoyos' The Cove. That may be a bad example, as I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about most films that have passed through the public radar during the past year, but it is easy to let some decent documentaries to slip under undetected. Still, two of the most prolific films of the genre this past year, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and the surprise hit Anvil! The Story of Anvil, which boasts quite a high Tomato Meter rating on Rotten Tomatoes, are not present on the list. Not saying that the fifteen movies the Academy included on their list doesn't sound interesting, but none of them compare to Anvil!'s rating, nor do some of them even register a rating.

The above rant isn't to say that the Academy hasn't done anything right for this coming ceremony. In addition to adding five more nominees onto the ballot for the Best Picture category, as I covered yesterday, the cult film director Roger Corman garnered an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards last week. Of course, the exploitation master's sometimes lacklusting career isn't without its naysayers. An argument between two Cinematical writers have been brewing today, and I'm taking the side of Scott Weinberg, the supporter of Corman's massive body of exploitive fun.

The Spider-Man 4 rumors keep piling in. Monday, I wrote about how Rachel McAdams shot down the rumor that she would be filling the role of Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat. Today, Deadline Hollywood has already replaced McAdams role in the rumor mill, claiming that Anne Hathaway has been approached to take on the villain, or misunderstood love interest, or Marvel's answer to Catwoman or whatever the hell you want to call The Black Cat. There is no denying that Hathaway does look the part, but as many of the rumors coming in, I highly doubt there is any truth in this.

Finally, my patience is wearing thin with our local movie rental store, Movies to Go. There are a few others, but they're not even worth mentioning. Anyhow, void of newer releases Anvil!, Away We Go and Gigantic, but stocked with about twenty copies of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, as well as a few other flicks that make the second attempt at the video game franchise adaptation look like Citizen Kane, such as Sasquatch Mountain, several Girls Gone Wild selections and the straight-to-Nickelodeon George Lopez movie. Not only that, but I could spend days talking about how wrong the categorizations are, such as the Classics section, which is actually period pieces, or the fact that I noticed Into the Wild in the Comedy section. Also, we have the inability to alphabetize correctly, and the blaring sounds of The Pussycat Dolls emanating from the back, while the gaggle of harlotry that operates the cash registers have zero knowledge on basic movie information. Being a small store, I don't expect an academic lecture on Fellini or a section of exploitation rarities to rival Something Weird Videos' archives, but come on, I'm seriously thinking about committing the sin of starting to rent off of the Red Box. Come to PS3 Netflix.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

I have yet to jump aboard the Blu-ray fad. I know that it is supposedly better quality, but really, I'm doing the majority of my at home movie watching on a 90's Magnavox television set that probably couldn't differentiate the difference between the platform and its predecessor of DVDs anyhow. Also, I like to be consistent, and seeing that there are still movies out there that I want to see that have yet to make the jump from the VHS platform (John Waters' Multiple Maniacs for example), I just feel that the time to jump ship on the DVD train has yet to come. Still, the District 9 release may be the first Blu-ray that I purchase. Not only is Neill Blomkamp's feature length directorial debut a fantastic film that comes with the regular run-of-the-mill featurettes and extras that usually comes with a home release, but the Peter Jackson produced science fiction flick, according to SciFi Squad, will be making history by including a playable demo of a video game, this one happening to be to the highly anticipated Play Station 3 game God of War III. Also, enticing gamers to play the demo before the game is released, once the demo is completed, a featurette for the game is unlocked. And one final reason that this is becoming a must buy, in honor of the rapidly approaching Christmas shopping season, Amazon is already pre-sailing it for just $19.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave out the Governors Awards a few days back, and it would of went completely under my radar if I hadn't of noticed a Cinematical article on the topic. Among those receiving the honorary Oscar was actress Lauren Bacall, acclaimed cinematographer Gordon Willis and one of the original true cult directors Roger Corman.

Spider-Man 4 casting rumors has become one of the more common topics on here, and today Entertainment Weekly shot down one of the bigger rumors, that Rachel McAdams was set to play Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat during an interview to promote Sherlock Holmes. So does this put Dylan Baker as The Lizard back at the top of the runnings for the film's villainous lead? Also, when will we find out Bruce Campbell's role?

Monday, November 16th, 2009 (100th Post!)

My 100th post here on the Blogger account, and a decently busy day for interesting movie tidbits, so off we go. First off, The Mirror was one of the many blogs posting the accompanying screen capture of R2-D2's cameo in J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek film coming courtesy of the special effects crew from Industrial Light and Magic as a calling card that the article also claims popped up in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The article goes on for a few videos that will make your day in the cameo department, including Orson Welles in The Muppet Movie, Tom Cruise's bizarre appearance in Tropic Thunder and a compilation of Alfred Hitchcock cameos.

Variety has reported today that the rumors of MGM's financial troubles are all too true, as the iconic film company has put its assets up for sale today, which among many other important things includes half the ownership to the upcoming The Hobbit films. This is possibly panic-worthy news for any cinema fan as the entire library of films tallies in above 4,000. The article also names Time Warner, News Corp. and Lionsgate as interested buyers. In short, I'm sure this will pop up in plenty of future blogs.

2012 easily brought in the top spot at the box office this weekend with a little over $65 million. However, the biggest story may have been the success and 213% increase of the indie drama Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire that landed in the third spot this weekend, tailing the heels of Oren Peli's amazing showing of the ultra low budget horror flick Paranormal Activity as two of the more financially successful indie films to come out of Hollywood in some time. In further box office news, Deadline Hollywood has reported that The Twilight Saga: New Moon has already broke the record for advanced ticket sales, beating out The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the previous owner of the record.

Mail Online has an interesting story up about some controversy stirring up in Britain, due to the promotional poster to the comedy Couples Retreat, as the UK poster erases Faizon Love and Kali Hawk, the black couple, from the poster. Yeah, probably not the best idea.

Cinematical has a story posted on a new casting call for Spider-Man 4, referred to only as "Toddler Boy", in which among all the speculations, Cinematical even includes Cletus Kasady, better known in the comic world as Carnage. An odd estimation, but intriguing all the same as the rumored and speculated villain list continues to grow.

Edward Woodward passed away yesterday. I didn't know the British actor from a lot, other than his appearance in Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz, so therefore I will direct you to Wright's personal site and his little tribute to the actor to find out more.

Finally, in honor of my 100th post, here is Liquid Generation's 100 Best Movie Quotes in 200 Seconds. I know that the second is Rob Schneider from The Waterboy, but trust me, 95 to 97 of the ones that follow are pretty fucking fantastic.

Sunday, November 15th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Hotel Chevalier)

I've been slacking on blogging again due to school *sigh*. I know, I know, I need to get my priorities straight. Anyhow, to be quite brief tonight, in honor of Wes Anderson's new film The Fantastic Mr. Fox debuting this past weekend, although nowhere remotely close to my home theater, I thought I would take a look at Anderson's beautiful short film Hotel Chevalier.

The film acts as a prologue, and had its theatrical debut alongside Anderson's most underrated film of his career, 2007's The Darjeeling Limited. The storyline of the film is simply the character Jack, whom is called and visited by his ex-girlfriend, in which they engage into a tiny bit of non-explicit promiscuity and we assume it is the end of their relationship, ending with the couple taking a view of Paris. Jack is played by Anderson regular, the incredible Jason Schwartzman and his ex is portrayed by the stunning and amazing Natalie Portman. It's minimal, offbeat, beautiful and perfectly coupled with the feature film that follows. The only thing in my opinion keeping Hotel Chevalier from gaining the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is that the Academy disqualified the film for being released on the Internet before its theatrical run, as Anderson first released the films as an iTunes exclusive. Anyhow, please enjoy, unfortunately in two parts, Hotel Chevalier.

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

A month or so ago, I read an article on Cinematical stating that J.J. Abrams had bought the rights for Stephen King's epic series, The Dark Tower, and would begin preparing for the adaptation after the series finale of Lost. When I read the article, I was searching for a new series to get involved in, and right now I'm reading the second book, The Drawing of the Three. Completely drawn in to the story thus far, it saddens me to report a new article from Cinematical that quotes an MTV interview with Abrams and Damon Lindelof, stating that the pair have decided to pass on adapting King's epic meta-fiction/fantasy adventure. The comments for the articles tend to think that longtime King collaborator Frank Darabont (most famously The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile) should take the reins. Just to the second novel already, I can already tell that whomever does take it on, they have a nearly impossible task in front of them.

Another cancellation today, this one a little more welcome. Coming from Latino Review, the remake of Oldboy, that was set to be directed by Steven Spielberg and star Will Smith is now considered a dead project. Probably for the best.

With Christmas just around the corner, the collector/child in me is on the prowl for toys, so a few awesome movie geek toys...

Firstly, Japanator has a gallery of this incredible LEGO sculpture of Sophie's castle as seen in Hayao Miyazaki's beautiful Howl's Moving Castle.

Secondly, without even being a diehard fan of Akira, I am gravitated towards this amazing replica of Kaneda's motorcycle on Big Bad Toy Store.

Monday, November 9th, 2009

I've been following the rampant rumor mill that is speculating on whom will be Peter Parker's next villainous foe in Sam Raimi's looming Spider-Man 4. First, after it was announced that Bruce Campbell would return to the film franchise with a bigger role, fans instantly expected/wanted him to portray Mysterio. Next, Dylan Baker announced that the role of Dr. Curt Connors would return, giving many fans reason to believe that he would finally get to take on the transformation into The Lizard. However, Mania has thrown another villain into the pot today, saying that Rachel McAdams is up for the role of the Black Cat. The article also goes on to say that Raimi and company are currently looking to cast another male villain, possibly debunking the aforementioned two rumored, or at least adding a bit of confusion as the general consensus has been that a scaling down on the amount of villains occupying screen time would be cut back after the clusterfuckedness of Spider-Man 3's ending. Also, it was rather hard to get an image for the Black Cat, as Google Image returned back more pornography tributes for Felicia Hardy's alter ego than any other comic femme on the net. So, yeah, if you're into that, knock yourselves out. Anyhow, the picture I eventually found is courtesy of Kevin Smith's product site, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, as an avatar used for a signed copy of Spider-Man/Black Cat.

Three films debuted in the top five at the box office this week, with Robert Zemeckis' 3-D holiday film A Christmas Carol taking the top spot, and The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Fourth Kind garnering third and fourth respectively. This week also serves as the first time that Oren Peli's smash sleeper Paranormal Activity dropped in sales, landing at the five spot.

Fellow Blogger account Entertainment Web posted a massive gallery of a LEGO diorama of the ice planet Hoth as seen in The Empire Strikes Back.

Finally, with the ridiculous hysteria of The Twilight Saga: New Moon surely to take over the blogsphere in the coming weeks, it was refreshing to see a decent parody (replacing vampires with Frankenstein's monster[s]) of Twilight on Saturday Night Live the other night, that has been posted all across the Interwebs, our link coming the way of I Watch Stuff. Also, a decent job by Taylor Swift spoofing Kristen Stewart's constant lip biting.

Sunday, November 8th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: The Diane Linkletter Story)

When it comes to bad taste, no one does it as well as the trash cinema king, John Waters. However, when looking over the filmography of the great Baltimorean filmmaker, possibly the most harshest, and most overlooked, is the 1970 short film The Diane Linkletter Story.

The flick was the fourth short film from Waters, and according to Wikipedia, as well as what my memory can take away from reading Waters' autobiography Shock Value, it was an accident. Waters, along with three familiar actors to aficionados of Dreamland Studios (Divine, David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce), was just attempting to try out a new camera that he purchased, that would be later used on the feature length Multiple Maniacs. As for the bad taste aspect, the description doesn't come at the hand of language and taboo acts depicted in the nearly ten minute short isn't comparable to what Waters would later become known for, as in the films Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living and Female Trouble, but rather the inappropriateness of the plot.

Based upon the real life suicide of Diane Linkletter, the little known 20 year old daughter of television personality Art Linkletter, the short features Diane (depicted by the one and only Divine) go on an LSD trip, get angry at her parents and jump out the window to her death below. The comedic look at the tragedy could almost play as a serious biopic it plays so closely to Art Linkletter's actual recounting of the event if not for the ingenious quips of Divine and Lochary. The film was actually shot as an ad lib for the camera the day after Diane's death. Still, if you find this a little too offensive, I would point to the first comment on the flick's IMDb page, as the author points out that it couldn't be as in bad taste as Art Linkletter releasing an album containing the Grammy Award winning "We Love You, Call Collect", exploiting the event as much as Dreamland had done.

As for the legacy of the film, it isn't very well know, having only one home video release to my knowledge and research, being on a VHS released in 1990 entitled A Divine Double Feature, coupled with a live showing of Divine's off-Broadway show The Neon Woman. It would also be the last short film Waters would do, as following Pink Flamingos, his career would take off as an auteur of depravity. It may be appropriate that the only way you can currently see Linkletter is by a rare find on eBay or from this low quality Veoh video. Still, a must watch. Please enjoy The Diane Linkletter Story.

View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Friday, November 6th, 2009

As an anecdote to the week that has preceeded us, Geekologie offered up the accompanying image to the blog, that I thought would be a nice place to begin... Carrie Fisher and her stunt double, Tracy Eddon, sun tanning clad in the legendary metal bikini on Jabba's sail barge during taping of Return of the Jedi. Now then, on to some actual movie gossip and whatnot...

In one of the more amazing stories I've read in some time, The Guardian is reporting that an antique dealer, Morace Park, bought an old film, sealed within its original tin off of eBay for roughly three euros. Eventually, the dealer opened the tin and realized that it was actually an unknown seven-minute lost short from Charlie Chaplin, entitled Zepped. What peaked my interest the most in this article is Park's description of a typical silent Chaplin film, mixed with Monty Python-esque animation sequences of terror. The Guardian also interviews David Robinson, author of Chaplin: His Life and Art (which is one of the books given a writing credit in Richard Attenborough's biopic Chaplin by the way), in which the Chaplin scribe gives his estimation of what the film is actually worth, and how it came to be lost. My big question though, as a huge fan of Chaplin, is will we, the general public, ever get to see this?

There is nothing that can make me cringe more than news of another one of my favorite childhood television series being bastardized with CGI. So, my first reaction when I read the title of this Variety article, was disappointment that Yogi Bear was next in line. Still, a little hope crept up when I read that the voices of Yogi and Boo Boo would be Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake respectively. This doesn't mean that I will enjoy it, just that it will pass without the anger that will surely accompany the newest Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel.

MTV has an interview with David S. Goyer up on how he plans on making Ghost Rider 2 darker. I know Goyer has done plenty of good, including the incredible The Dark Knight, but I don't really think darkness of tone was the problem with the last incarnation of Nicolas Cage's flaming skull. Sam Elliott was good, but that was about it.

A decent movie weekend begins today. The Men Who Stare at Goats is at the top of my must-see list. Close behind is Richard Kelly's intriguing The Box. A Christmas Carol also debuts tonight, but it just seems a little too early to be celebrating Christmas, but knowing how long this flick will stay out during the yuletide season, I'm not feeling stressed to see it before the aforementioned two. Finally, The Fourth Kind is also out today, which will probably be awful, but the trailer just barely raises enough eyebrows with its claims of being based upon true accounts, to put me in the seats.

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

'Tis late, and I wasn't blogging due to being engrossed with The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. I will very openly admit how much I hate the NBA, but with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird being guests, the little boy in me was entranced. Anyhoo, instead of boring you, dear readers, with news for another night, since I am anxiously looking forward to tomorrow, as we are going to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day with a bonfire after I get off work, I will leave you with a scene from V for Vendetta... it's A Christmas Story for Guy Fawkes Day.

P.S. Since I will most likely not be blogging tomorrow, at least if the day goes anything like I am hoping, I will also leave a bit of a parting gift. Christopher Walken, he's an actor so it is relevant to the blog in my mind, recently recited the lyrics of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.


Also, because I'm giddy, and in that rare, crazed Walken mood, here he is in one of the greatest music videos of all time, "Weapon of Choice"... directed by Spike Jonze (director of Where the Wild Things Are and Being John Malkovich)... further relevance for the blog.

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

The accompanying picture for today's blog is quite possibly the most normal image to ever grace the screen on PictureIsUnrelated. Of course, there is no current news on Hayao Miyazaki's much revered animation classic My Neighbor Totoro, whose main character is taking center stage in the photo, but any chance I can get to direct people's attention to that site, I'll take it.

Yesterday, I reported on a interview done with Eduardo Sanchez of The Blair Witch Project, speaking of Paranormal Activity's recent success. As inevitable as this was, it is quite a shock that it took this long for rumors of a sequel to start brewing around, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter. The article says that Viacom's CEO Philippe Dauman is the instigator of the rumor, stating that it could be a possibility during the earnings conference call earlier in the day. At least it goes on to state that an analyst has serious doubts that a follow-up could garner the critical and financial success as its predecessor.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released in a statement today that Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin would host this year's Academy Awards. The only thing that worries me is the amount of time in the statement dedicated to promoting the hell out of Martin's banjo career.

Finally, I was directed to Walmart's buy page of a new Pink Label Barbie set, modeled after Edward and Bella from The Twilight Saga, from Cinematical. I suppose that the onslaught of New Moon advertising is unavoidable, but it still creeps me out to know that the marketing of pale disturbing paranormal stalker sex appeal keeps targeting younger and younger. Anyhow, since I resorted to toys that I didn't like, I have to include one that caught my eye a while back that I really want. Sideshow Collectables has released an awesome new action figure of Harrison Ford's turn as Indiana Jones in the already infamous "nuking the fridge" scene from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Oh, that darned economy. It has claimed a new victim, this time the rights of ownership to the Terminator film franchise. Sky News reports that Halcyon, the company behind the production of the latest in the series, Terminator Salvation, is going to auction off the rights to the popular franchise for future films or television series, but will not cover ownership of the royalties from the previous Terminator entries. I personally was one of the few that actually enjoyed Salvation, but I'm sure with the fans that was disappointed, this piece of news comes as a double-edged sword. On one hand, the fate of future films is out of Halcyon's hands, although on the other side, anybody, including Uwe Boll could win the auction. On a comical note, Joss Whedon has written an open letter to DeadlineHollywood about his possible plans for Terminator.

Well, you didn't think I mentioned Uwe Boll without reason, did you? I just read an article on Cinematical about Boll's latest film, Darfur, a serious film about the genocide situation in Sudan. To see what Boll does with a serious film, the article must be read, especially on his technique of filming a realistic rape scene. The flick stars Edward Furlong (the undisputed good Terminator films), Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, some of us found it entertaining), Matt Frewer (Moloch and Max motherfucking Headroom) and Billy Zane (Titanic), which makes me sad for all four of those actors. Cinematical also provides the trailer if you dare to set through it, I have not yet made the call.

As to have been expected, due to the shocking success of Paranormal Activity, and the seemingly endless line of comparisons towards the other indy handheld camera horror flick from a decade ago, The Blair Witch Project, somebody, TheStar.com in this case, has tracked down Eduardo Sanchez, one half of the directorial team for Blair Witch, for an interview. Also expected, Sanchez reveals plans for a possible third installment of his film series.

Finally, the Michael Jackson documentary This is It, debuted at the top of the box office charts this week by a hefty margin. Coming in at second was another solid week for Paranormal Activity, racking in on some Halloween moviegoers. Luckily, Saw VI continued to disappoint in sales as, despite it being Halloween weekend, placed below the fifth week of the negatively reviewed comedy Couples Retreat.

Sunday, November 1st, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: The Big Shave)

The day after Halloween. Feels a bit empty, doesn't it? Horror films are slightly less relevant today than they were yesterday, and I am bordering from the second day in a role of severe migraine headaches due to high sugar intake. Even though we are leaving much of the horror film discussions in the past week, the countdown of the most horrifying scenes in film history that I included on the blog from Total Film last week is still swimming in my head, as it was my inaugural viewing of Martin Scorsese's 1967 short film The Big Shave, as the entire 5 minute short was number four on the list.

The film stems from Scorsese's tenure at New York University's film program, and was originally titled Viet '67, which has caused many critics to compare the nameless lead character's titular shave to America's involvement in the Vietnam War. The dark flick is considered by many the most famous of the shorts Scorsese made during his school career, and would definitely pave the way for some of the darker movie tones he would deal with later in the iconic reign over the cinematic universe that would follow. The plot may not be thick, as it is just five minutes of a man shaving his facial hair, and eventually, his skin, but in his only film appearance, Peter Bernuth, plays the stone faced role perfectly.

Most of the time during my Short Film Sunday post, I speak of what the director went on to accomplish, but I think it goes without saying that we are all familiar with Scorsese's work, as he is arguably one of the greatest directors alive or dead in the history of cinema. Some of his works include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed and the upcoming Shutter Island just to name a few of the masterpieces. Anyhow, without anything additional to say about Scorsese that has not already been uttered thousands of times previously, enjoy The Big Shave.

P.S. Please don't go to YouTube to watch the video, as for some awkward happening beyond my reasoning ability, a plethora of extremely graphic taped vaginal exams are in the related video list to the side.