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JJ Abrams Is Working On His Next Mind Tease
Posted on August 12th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Movies.
JJ Abrams, the producer behind Lost, Cloverfield, Felicity, Alias among others, is about to unleash his latest tease, known as Fringe on the Fox network. I have such a love/hate relationship with much of JJ Abrams work. He consistently follows the pattern set by M Night Shyamalan - ie. He starts out strong with a mighty story that tempts you with excellent potential, then like James Dean, that potential vanishes. Let’s take a peek at Lost. Season one sucked in everyone with so much potential, everyone I worked with planned their weeks around Lost. The reviews were wonderful, the online forums were buzzing, and it would seem that JJ Abrams was so busy partying that he forgot most of the threads he’d started, so he just pretended the faithful audience had the memory of a goldfish and just started more and more threads without following through without tying up any of the previous side stories, or main stories. This left me feeling unfulfilled and annoyed that the potential had been replaced with lazy writing.
That fact, and the addition of the unsteady camera work similar to Blair Witch Project, made sure I was never going to watch Cloverfield. However, JJ was able to crank his hype machine to a fever pitch on Cloverfield however,based on word of mouth from several co-workers, he failed to deliver.
Now JJ Abrams is teasing the audience again with Fringe, it seems to be a a solid concept close to the formula that made the original X Files work. An FBI agent explores cases involving the paranormal while bringing in influences of Altered States, X-Files, and some Twilight Zone thrown in also. I’m mentally preparing myself for a solid start that will end in a fizzle, so JJ Abrams can keep his signature game plan intact. Read more at Variety.
Star Wars shines brighter in my soul than Star Trek, but I’m still very afraid of the fact that JJ Abrams has been unleashed to do the next Star Trek movie. Will he have the respect for the well developed time line of the Star Trek universe? I doubt it because he’s taking the story back to a very young Kirk and Spock with a new crew boldly going where no man has gone before. I expect fall out from the hardcore fans, much like the turmoil created when George “Toy Boy” Lucas felt the need to re-edit the scene in the original Star Wars with Han Solo in the cantina shooting Greedo in cold blood into a more politically correct scene of Greedo having Han at point blank range for an extended period of time, then Greedo fires and misses by a mile so Han can shoot in self defense. Han Shot First will be a small issue compared to JJ Abrams walking all over the beloved Star Trek franchise.
Chaos Theory Review
Posted on August 4th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Movies.
I liked the trailer for Chaos Theory, but I wasn’t sure if Ryan Reynolds would be able to pull of the more mature part, partly because he’ll always be Van Wilder to me. Within the first five minutes, Ryan had won my heart as Frank Allen and already pulled me into the story. Emily Mortimer, as his wife, Susan Allen, does her usual magic to transport the viewer off the couch, past the screen and into the story. Sarah Chalke (the hot blonde from Scrubs) makes an appearance in a suprising role. Stuart Townsend also does another performance that’s exactly what the roll called for, if you like him here, then check him out in Shade. It’s nice that Hollywood can actually manage to make a character driven movie - but it seem the marketing jerks didnt’ have a clue on how to market a film that wasn’t a sequel, based on an old TV series, or had come from the pages of a comic book - in other words with no marketing directive already made for them, they had no clue what to do.
Frank is an effiiency expert that is highly organized… maybe too orginized. He keeps his life on track by making notes on little note cards, he knows he needs to the leave his house by eighteen minutes after the hour to have time to catch the ferry. The real tale is when his life begins to unravel and the journey the audience takes with him as he falls down the rabbit hole. While watching this at my house with a living room full of friends, there were more then one syncronized gasp as the plot twisted in unexpected ways.
Please, take my advice - buy this one, make a large bowl of popcorn (sprinkle with Bacon Salt), knock the phone off the hook, shut off the laptop, leave the cell phone in the car, lock the door and enjoy this gem.
Review of (part of) 30 Days of Night
Posted on August 3rd, 2008 by William.
Categories: Movies.
A buddy loaned me his Blu Ray version of 30 Days of Night. What a steaming pile of crap!! After 40 minutes, I finally just turned it off. It’s clear that anyone driving a Chevy will be just fine, of course, as there is a gratuitous shot to make it clear that first person that was killed had a Ford parked outside. When the vampires show up, the director uses the cheap ass trick of altering the framerate to make the action jerky. *yawn* The product placement is really heavy handed, when in the first 40 mintues, I saw three computers and all of them are the same model of HP small form factor desktops - oddly enough - they each of LG LCD panels. The directing is so heavy handed, it makes after school specials seem like high points in film. After just 40 minutes, I was soooo *edited* tired of how many times I was beat over the head that the sheriff (Josh Hartnett) used to date the blonde that’s he’s trapped with. Josh was WAY TOO YOUNG to pull off the role he was cast in. Tommy Lee Jones would have been great for the role of a rough sheriff with lots of experience, but that would have meant his love intrest would have been mature and the target audience would have precieved that as ‘old’. The story wanted to make you believe there was a lot of history between the sheriff and the blonde, but I couldn’t buy into it at all. Then the sheriff has a MUCH younger brother that is *bleep*in’ idiot and having grown up around law enforcement, seems to have be able to grow up with ZERO common sense. I guess this would have been a good move IF (and only IF), it was the first and only horror film I’d ever seen, and grew up as a pigmy in the rain forest so I’d have no clue about any of the over used cliche’s that lazy writters use to fill the pages when they’d rather be smokin’ a bong. This review would be summed up as a ‘Skip It”.
Hulu Expands TV Show Offerings, Leaves Schedules In Yesteryear
Posted on April 14th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Movies, TV.
Hulu.com has been gaining momentum online and creating plenty of buzz as the place to go to see TV shows and movies as opposed to the endless low quality videos on You Tube and Break. At first glance, I wondered why we needed yet another online video site, but what sets Hulu apart is the deals it has with the various networks and studios to legally have those shows on the site with high quality videos. The only thing that I don’t care for is the high number of clips of shows, I personally want to see an entire show. There’s the ability to edit any show down to your favorite clip and to embed the entire show or clip into your social networking page of choice - Myspace, Facebook, etc - or your blog. Of course there isn’t (yet) a great way to drop the shows onto your portable devices, say your iPhone, video iPod, Sony PSP, or laptop to watch when you’re *gasp* out of reach of the mighty Internet.
The amount of shows on there seems to increase by the minute and when I first checked it out the day it officially launched, the movies were a very limited selection, but that’s turning around nicely. Also, the timing of the shows is pretty impressive, as typically I’ve been able to catch shows fairly quickly after the official airtime. There’s typically a short (15 seconds) ad at the top of the show, and often no ads in the break for the ad, only a second or two of black before it gets to the show again. Very cool indeed. If Hulu ever comes out with a hardware device that allows people to watch Hulu on thier TV from their couch and control it via remote, then both cable and satellite execs should be worried - very worried. So far the only thing I don’t like is being tethered to the computer to watch Hulu, but a wireless laptop does a fine job of erasing most of that burden. This morning, I was watching Hulu at the kitchen table on my laptop while having my morning cereal.
Hulu doesn’t require registration for most of the videos, but some of them, like The Onion News and a few of the movies do require a log-in before you can watch, in an attempt to keep the kiddies away from bad influences, but if that were true, then the nightly news would require registration also. Since it’s still fairly new, I’d recommend going ahead an registering so you’ll have a better chance of getting the username you want.
Movie Review: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Posted on April 7th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Movies.
Judd Apatow has made a name for himself with the comedy hits Superbad, Knocked Up, Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The 40 Year Old Virgin and now he brings us Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Dewey Cox is a comedy take on the musical biopics such as Walk the Line, Ray, I’m Not Here as well as a general send up of just about every musical genre from delta blues to 60’s pop to psychedelic Beatles through to early rap. I should take a moment to mention that this is NOT a Disney family film, so if you’ve got kiddies in the audience, get whatever Hanna Montana is peddling this month, (they wouldn’t get the Bob Dylan and pre-American Idol references anyway). Some of the comedy is raunchy, there’s nudity and tongue in cheek drug references all over the place. The story isn’t exactly new, it’s the same basic story arc from any biopic or any ‘Behind the Music’ episodes that VH1 used to play. You’ve got the typical first wife, the cheating that leads to the second wife, the addictions, the self indulgence that comes with fame and being surrounded by ‘yes men’, and the typical downfall. The jokes are quick, there’s plenty of wit and sometimes they can’t resist some of the low hanging jokes or the just plain obvious, but you’ll find something to make you chuckle along the way.
Bottom line: This isn’t the absolute best comedy ever made, but it’s still worth a look, especially if you like music and have a great sense of humor.
Movie Review: Shade (2003)
Posted on April 4th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Movies.
In the current Hollywood where only sequels get any ad campains and ‘buzz’, I had to search a bit to find this over looked little film. The cast is great with Sylvester Stallone, Melanie Griffith, Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton, Jamie Foxx and many other faces that will be familiar. The film takes place in the seedy side of the poker world filled with mechanics and grifters trying to make the next big scam work while trying to stay out of the trouble they stirred up with the last scam. Sure, there’s nothing particularly new here, however I still liked the atmosphere that the director created and each of the characters were well done, with the lone exception of one of the thugs that wasn’t very intimidating and seemed to be doing the role as a gay heavy for no apparent reason.
Bottom line: Hollywood finally gets a good movie and had no clue what to do with it. Grab this one, you’ll like it if you have any appreciation of crime, grifter, and seedy underbelly of the city movies.
Movie Review: The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007)
Posted on April 3rd, 2008 by William.
Categories: Movies.
When the trailer came out for The Seeker, I dismissed it as a wannabe Harry Potter knock off. Sure, there’s similarities between the two, but The Seeker is far from a rip off of the Harry Potter franchise. In fact, the care taken for the making of this film is wonderful, there could be an entire class written around the cinematography of this movie - it’s beautiful. The soundtrack uses the surround sound capabilities when it will enhance the story, the recording is very clear and isn’t filled with terrible songs in inconvenient places just to fill a companion soundtrack CD - as so many of the movies aimed at the younger set seems to do now. The story is from the second book of the series so there’s an occasional gap where I’m sure it was explained in the book, but I still enjoyed the film. If you have a new big screen LCD with a good surround system and want to show it off, grab this film and use it as a demo disc - I’m sure you’re already tired of the Transformers disc by now.
Bottom line: A great family movie that might be a bit much to comprehend for the under 7 crowd, but if you’re into Harry Potter, then add this to the collection. As a bonus, it’s a great disc to demo your system.
100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers
Posted on December 21st, 2007 by William.
Categories: Movies.
Click Here for additional information.
For those that just HAVE to know:
The list:
100. Night of the Living Dead
99. Laura
98. Dead Poet’s Society
97. Bladerunner
96. The Lost Weekend
95. Ocean’s 11
94. Star Wars
93. Midnight Run
92. It Came From Outer Space
91. The Right Stuff
90. The Fugitive
89. The French Connection
88. Back to the Future
87. Castaway
86. Quiz Show
85. Silence of the Lambs
84. Titanic
83. The Magnificent Seven
82. Rainman
81. Galaxy Quest
80. Harold and Maude
79. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
78. The Day The Earth Stood Still
77. The Apartment
76. The Great Escape
75. The Hustler
74. Ed Wood
73. The Jerk
72. Raiders of the Lost Ark
71. When Harry Met Sally…
70. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn
69. MASH
68. The Breakfast Club
67. The King and I
66. Gentleman’s Agreement
65. The Princess Bride
64. Yellow Submarine
63. Network
62. Mr. Roberts
61. Singles
60. Gone With the Wind
59. The Awful Truth
58. Goldfinger
57. The Manchurian Candidate
56. It’s a Wonderful Life
55. The Blues Brothers
54. The Remains of the Day
53. Midnight Express
52. Waking Ned Devine
51. Roman Holiday
50. Cool Hand Luke
49. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
48. The Adventures of Robin Hood
47. The Big Sleep
46. On the Waterfront
45. The Hudsucker Proxy
44. Dirty Harry
43. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
42. Finding Nemo
41. Ben Hur
40. Superman
39. The 39 Steps
38. Aliens
37. Men in Black
36. Clerks
35. Harvey
34. Marty
33. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
32. All About Eve
31. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
30. The Wild Bunch
29. Young Frankenstein
28. The Bridge Over the River Kwai
27. The Usual Suspects
26. North by Northwest
25. Sunset Blvd.
24. Escape from NY
23. The Wizard of Oz
22. Casablanca
21. The Lion in Winter
20. Boogie Nights
19. The Shawshank Redemption
18. Almost Famous
17. The Maltese Falcon
16. The Natural
15. Being John Malkovich
14. The Professionals
13. Lawrence of Arabia
12. Ghostbusters
11. This is Spinal Tap
10. Citizen Kane
9. 12 Angry Men
8. Office Space
7. To Kill a Mockingbird
6. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
5. The Godfather
4. Fargo
3. L.A. Confidential
2. Once Upon a Time in the West
1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
DVD Sales Are Down, Studio Idiots Baffled By The Obvious
Posted on December 4th, 2007 by William.
Categories: Soap Box, Movies, Humor.
ARS Technica has an insightful article titled “Movie fans saying “bah humbug” to DVD purchases has studios concerned“, I recommend you click on the link and read the entire article.
I guess the greedy bastards running the studios don’t realize that trying to raise the price of DVD’s while the working family’s budget is being beaten up by the higher gas prices, which leads to higher food prices, and price hikes in general, is just going to lead to people putting off the purchases of the non-essential purchases, such as DVD’s.
I’ve slowed my DVD purchases to a very slow trickle since prices for new releases have risen to the $20 mark, more than I’m willing to pay for a stripped release when I know that there will be a Special Edition, Collector’s Edition or Ultimate Edition in a few months. The last DVD I purchased as Bender’s Big Score, the Futurama movie. It’s a rare purchase at the $18 price point, but I wanted to show my support for Futurama and vote with my wallet for them to complete the remaining Futurama movies and hopefully bring back the series. The rest of the semi-recent DVD purchases have been used titles from Movie Trading Company. I feel that ‘correct’ price for a non-high def DVD is much closer to the $10~14 price. After all. the studios want the public to pay top dollar to be called thieves - with warnings like the “You wouldn’t steal a handbag, You wouldn’t steal a car…. ” videos,
YouTube DirektParody of “Don’t Steal Movies”
This is a clip from The IT Crowd that’s a parody of the warning.
I guess raising prices didn’t help, putting out remakes of every movie we’ve already seen and not even attempting to give the viewer a better experience hasn’t helped the bottom line, I guess next will be a $50 DVD that’s delivered to the door and the delivery person will wait around for you to watch it and beat you with a stick while playing clips of Cartman yelling “Respect my Authority!” -
Some possible solutions:
Lowering the prices of DVD while releasing a nice package with plenty of extras.
How about taking in the original release and getting a nice discount off the collector’s edition? This way the true fans can still be there on day one to pick up the latest release, and when they get a discount on the ‘real’ release - the one with the extras and the better audio tracks, etc.. they will feel special and like an insider, thus even more loyal to the franchise.
Putting out an actual new idea, one that isn’t from TVland or a remake of other films, Even Bourne Identity was a made for TV movie in 1988 with Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith - Look it up here. How about a movie that’s not a sequel - sure, instead of Rocky VI, the name has changed to Rocky Balboa but we all know it’s part of the franchise, like we really needed the final two Matrix films to completely tarnish the greatness of the first film.
Where are the risk taking films like Apocalypse Now!, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, American Graffiti, Edward Scissorhands, Easy Rider - the movies that gave us a new experience, and took chances ?
Bladerunner : The Final Cut
Posted on November 30th, 2007 by William.
Categories: Movies.
Friday night, Eric and I went down to the Inwood Theater to check out Bladerunner: The Final Cut. It’s the same place I went to see Control, the bio-pic about Ian Curtis of Joy Division, but this was the first time I’d been in the larger downstairs theater. I’m impressed with the Inwood Theater because it has the feeling that it’s run by people that love movies, the trailers before the movies are over long before my patience - unlike the Cinemark monstrosities that nearly killed my desire to ever see a movie on the big screen again. There was a great turnout for the film, far more than I expected, maybe 80% of the large theater was sold out. The sound was clear and great, the screen was flawless and bright, very well calibrated for the film, the detail in the dark shadows (ok, that’s most of Bladerunner) was great. Ok, so I don’t completely agree with some of the editing decisions made to this version of the film, but I’m still happy to see my all-time favorite film get the attention it deserves and a nice box set in mid-December.