Wow, I have a rather bad headache, and I was planning on just going to sleep. Yet, after reading on Cinematical that The Muppet Movie was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, I got so excited I couldn't resist. For those of you not in the know, the National Film Registry was set up by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, that allows the Library of Congress to select 25 films a year for preservation in honor of being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films". This year, heading up the list is Jim Henson's lovable felt creatures in their debut feature film, 1979's The Muppet Movie, directed by James Frawley. Other noteworthy additions this year is Michael Jackson's long form groundbreaking music video Thriller, directed by John Landis, Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon, Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, the 1959 romantic comedy Pillow Talk and the avant-garde 1949 short film The Lead Shoes.
I also cannot go to bed until I pass along something awesome that Geekologie posted, an amazing replica of the Back to the Future DeLorean time machine from eBay.
Usually I attempt to stray from pictures and videos of Star Trek fandom, as I feel pretty confident that most of our hardcore Trekkies were born out of the television incarnations of Gene Roddenberry's brainchild, making them feel quite unrelated to this cinema blog. However, this image of a few Trek fans donning nothing but body paint for some sort of bicycle ride that popped up on two of my daily reads, Geekologie and NerdBastards, beckoned my eye whilst posting.
On to something that fortunately, or unfortunately, doesn't contain graphic nudity, Hollyscoop reports that Sam Worthington could be up for another major blockbuster role. The actor was relatively unknown until he picked up a starring role in this summer's Terminator Salvation, followed by the hugely successful Avatar, and will star as Perseus in next summer's remake of Clash of the Titans. Now, apparently he is up for the titular role in a Flash Gordon reboot. I sincerely think that Worthington did a good job in Avatar, but I'm still unsure of pumping this guy to be a big box office draw. I mean, we don't want to see Jake Sully or Marcus Wright playing Flash Gordon. Then again, I personally don't think we will ever have anything comparable to the 1980 campy classic Flash Gordon, with Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless and the bitching Queen theme song.
Finally, the entire short film within the feature film Nation's Pride, the flick that plays during Inglourious Basterds, has been released to the Interwebs. The short is directed by Eli Roth, and despite not being a fan of his Hostel series, his performance as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz, as well as this little piece is quite admirable. The clip stars Daniel Bruhl as Fredrick Zoller, the star of this psuedo Nazi propaganda film. The Cinematical article I originally seen this on points out that the DVD version of this informs us that there are cameos from Basterds director Quentin Tarantino, as well as Bo Svenson, the star of Enzo G. Castellari's The Inglorious Bastards, the "macaroni combat" flick in which Tarantino's film got its name.
2009's final weekend box office returns may have been the most interesting this year, which says a lot coming from a year that contained Paranormal Activity's surprise success, as well as the tween domination with The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and the raunchy Todd Phillips' comedy The Hangover raking in enough money to make many critics question it being the final nail in the coffin of the Hollywood star system. Yet, we come to James Cameron's Avatar's second week, garnering $75 million, only dropping a measly 2% from last week, taking in the second highest second week of all time, just behind The Dark Knight, not to mention breaking the record for 3-D sales, as $57 million of the intake was for the 3-D showings. Of course, this may still seem a bit far from the estimated $500 million budget on the 3-D blockbuster, even considering it took in an additional $60 million over the weekdays. Yet, the worldwide success of the film has already hit the $623 million mark abroad, when added with the stateside totals. What is even more impressive about the feat is that it contended with the debut of the much anticipated Guy Ritchie reboot, Sherlock Holmes, which took in $65 million, and despite landing second place, broke the record for highest Christmas Day opening of all time. Also in contention was the family friendly Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel, topping out a little over $50 million, and despite not being confirmed, I cannot find any other film to debut that high in third place. Even more impressive, the weekend as a whole earned roughly $270 million. This makes it the biggest earning weekend of the year, and topping last year's top weekend by 34%, being the weekend in which The Dark Knight and Momma Mia! debuted. It is also worth mentioning that Oscar contenders Up in the Air and Nine both extended to wide release, with the Rob Marshall musical even receiving a 2,000+% change in sales.
Of course, quality isn't always, and quite conversely usually opposite, on par with profit. Avatar is good, but it is overrated, while we have the debut of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus land in 26th place and in limited release, and despite over a year of following Terry Gilliam's latest flick, I have to let the critically acclaimed jewel float by unnoticed for the more mainstream flicks, at least until the DVD is released since I live in the middle of nowhere. In the same category of being looked over as Imaginarium earlier this year, was a British film called Bronson. Since Nicolas Winding Refn's bizarre biopic of famed prisoner/bare-knuckle boxer Charles Bronson didn't make a splash at the box office, or didn't stop the presses with any earth-shattering reviews, it floated underneath my radar quite easily. However, lucky to a few bloggers really pushing for Tom Hardy to receive some recognition for his titular performance, I did a good amount of reading and watched this fabulous trailer. Not only will the much quoted review comparing it favorably to Stanley Kubrick's masterful A Clockwork Orange catch your eye, but the trailer looks absolutely flawless and is definitely a must see once it is available. As a note, a higher quality version is available on YouTube, but embedding has been disabled.
For a lot of folks, seeing a movie on Christmas Day has become a time honored tradition, and unfortunately for everybody that does not live in New York City or Los Angeles, Terry Gilliam's latest flick The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was only released limited on the holiday. The new film is said by many critics to be a return to Gilliam's signature style seen up until 1988's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Not that the films that followed would not contain a hallucinatory style that couldn't be visually connected to Gilliam's previous works, as the "Americana trilogy" of The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas takes on its own Monty Python-esque surrealist moments at times. Still, with Imaginarium harkening back to the days of Time Bandits and Gilliam's first stand alone directorial effort Jabberwocky, themselves harkening back to his days as a member of the comedy troupe Monty Python, it just seems right to take a look at the animated shorts the eccentric director made even before his days with the influential British group.
Before Gilliam's fame took off with the likes of John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Eric Idle, he was featured on a British children's television show with the latter three called Do Not Adjust Your Set. Gilliam would not be a star of the show like his future Python cohorts, yet the show would heavily feature his animation, as well as giving him a chance to direct a few episodes. It would be this style that would show through in most of Gilliam's side project short films, and his animation work on Monty Python's Flying Circus and the films that would come to fruition from the group.
The first short would be the strange film entitled Storytime, from 1968, a year before Flying Circus would make its television debut. The short, no surprise, doesn't carry a linear, coherent plot. It starts off with a man telling a story of a cockroach, and ending with a scatterbrained series of events happening within a Christmas card. The film would of course lead to another short called The Miracle of Flight, which would lead to Gilliam co-directing the cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. From that point on, with or without the help of his fellow Pythons, his work behind the camera has become legendary with a huge cult fan base. So, if you are like me, and nowhere near New York or L.A. and are craving the first viewing of Imaginarium, here is Storytime to tide you over. Enjoy.
One final post for the day. Yes, that is Bea Arthur, as seen in the Star Wars Holiday Special. But to jump right in, I was hoping to feature it in a Short Film Sunday post, but they got away from me, so here is a link to the first of three parts of the 80's retailing of Charles Dickens' classic holiday ghost story, as told by Walt Disney's most famous creations in Mickey's Christmas Carol.
Also, here is a random scene (because I couldn't find a clip of the "... only one thing could tear me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window" scene) from A Christmas Story, and if you're reading this and it is actually Christmas Eve, for Christ's sake, turn to TBS and watch the 24-hour marathon of the most quotable movie ever made.
Finally, here is the best scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Have a great holiday season kiddos.
A happier post to reflect the normalized view of the yuletide season. So I will begin with one of the better rumors that I read this past week. Via Hollyscoop, bubbly country music superstar Taylor Swift has been reported to be in talks to star as the titular character in a new Supergirl film. For some reason, this works for me. First off, Taylor Swift already looks more like Kara Zor-El than Helen Slater did in full costume. Secondly, in almost every incarnation of DC's superheroine, the work is pure fluff. And in spite of all the "Yo Taylor, Imma let you finish..." Supergirl YouTube entries we would have to endure, Swift is undeniably likable. Nonetheless, we're still probably looking at a terrible movie here, just a reasonably casted lead in a terrible movie.
So, I also missed the week of Avatar. Well, the film, as predicted by everybody, took the weekend box office, and has raked in the incredible reviews that many had counted on. Still, I saw the film in 3-D and I didn't see it as a game changer. In fact, I left still hoping that the entire 3-D phase would fade back into an exploitation gimmick that we would see maybe once or twice a decade in a decent film. But, the good things about the movie outweigh the bad (including Leona Lewis' atrocious love theme), considering that James Cameron is a much better filmmaker than the typical post-William Castle user of the 3-D medium. First, the effects are stunning. Pandora and the creatures that inhabit the land are unusually breathtaking. Second, Sigourney Weaver. Third, Sam Worthington, whom I have generally considered a sub-par actor puts on a hell of a performance, considering he is competing with one of the more impressive backdrops in cinematic history. Giovanni Ribisi is also in there. Also, can you imagine the cosplay based on this thing come convention season? The movie was far from the best though, as the plot involves way too much Native American allegory in a world where we have already and unfortunately been acquainted with the Quileute tribe. Not to mention the uncomfortable scene where (*SPOILER ALERT*) the two blue cat people fuck in the holiest place in the movie. Still, I would highly recommend it, just with the warning that you will not take a full on nerdgasm as promised by Harry Knowles and the rest of the Internet blogging elite.
Another thing that crossed my radar this week was this seven part review on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I've not finished the entire thing yet, but thus far it is very entertaining.
Finally, the newest trailer for Kick-Ass is out, featuring the character Hit-Girl, making it my most anticipated film of the next year. Young Chloe Moretz saying cunt may be the highlight, but the entire trailer is, for lack of a better phrase, truly kick ass.
'Tis the holiday season, and I've been busy readying myself for festivities, therefore I have not been blogging as much. So it is with a heavy heart that I catch up with a bit of bad news to begin with today. First off, Brittany Murphy passed away at age 32 of natural causes. Murphy's career was up and down, and most recently she had been bound to several direct-to-Lifetime telefilms that were ultimately forgettable. However, she will be best remembered as Shellie in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's Sin City, as well as the offbeat Tai in Clueless. Her on again, off again filmography also contains roles in Girl, Interrupted and voice parts in Happy Feet and the direct-to-DVD favorite of the Adult Swim crowd, Futurama: The Best with a Billion Backs. Her voice talents will also be emblazoned into all of us adult animation fans' minds forever, as she was featured in a twelve year run of Mike Judge's King of the Hill as Luanne Platter.
Also departing our world since my last post is science fiction legend Dan O'Bannon. The 63-year-old jack of all trades in the sci-fi medium passed away after a bout with Crohn's Disease. O'Bannon is best known for his writing, pumping out screenplays for Dark Star, Ridley Scott's classic Alien, Heavy Metal, Lifeforce and Total Recall to name a few. He also dabbled in special effects, most notably providing computer effects for Star Wars. O'Bannon would also occupy the director's chair for The Return of the Living Dead.
We would also lose the real life inspiration for Rain Man, due to a heart attack, this holiday season. Kim Peek, dubbed a megasavant in most psychology circles, was born with agenesis of the corpus callosum, commonly referred to as simply and erroneously autistic, despite the similarities between the two diseases. Peek gained fame from the bit of television other than Adult Swim that I frequent, being a few Discovery Channel specials and an appearance on Ripley's Believe It or Not!. However, Peek may be known eternally as the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman's Raymond Babbitt in Barry Levinson's Rain Man.
Finally, despite my unnatural emotional closeness to cinema and pop culture as a whole, the above names pale in comparison to the recent loss of a co-worker, John Fields. In fact, today, on Christmas Eve, he was laid to his final resting place. The saddest part of all, the night before he died of an asthma attack, I had stayed a little late to work with him, where we mostly talked about other co-workers, the lack of Willie Nelson Christmas songs, and our month long dissection of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. So, in honor of the fallen, here is the "Bear Jew" scene from the flick. Rest in peace John.
Wow, I have a rather bad headache, and I was planning on just going to sleep. Yet, after reading on Cinematical that The Muppet Movie was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, I got so excited I couldn't resist. For those of you not in the know, the National Film Registry was set up by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, that allows the Library of Congress to select 25 films a year for preservation in honor of being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films". This year, heading up the list is Jim Henson's lovable felt creatures in their debut feature film, 1979's The Muppet Movie, directed by James Frawley. Other noteworthy additions this year is Michael Jackson's long form groundbreaking music video Thriller, directed by John Landis, Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon, Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, the 1959 romantic comedy Pillow Talk and the avant-garde 1949 short film The Lead Shoes. 
