True Grit: A Christmas Story

My family has some Christmas traditions. Most families do, I would assume. My friend Kate goes to Denny's every Christmas Eve. Your family has some sort of Christmas tradition, doesn't it? Of course it does. Well, for years, I've spent Christmas Eve with my dad. Some times ago...I don't know when, but probably close to 15 years ago, we started to go see a movie on Christmas Eve. The first one I remember was the Jean Claude Van Damme masterpiece Sudden Death. Star Trek:First Contact was another one. There have been many movies over many years. And, it started that the 6 of us went as a family to the same movie. Myself, my dad, my step mom, my brother, my half brother and my half sister. Over the years, this changed. We still go to the movies, but, like this year, we see different ones. My half brother went to see the new Tron, my step mom and half sister went to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, and my dad and I went to see True Grit.


It's worth noting a few things. 1) I don't generally care for westerns. No real reason other than they aren't my proverbial cup of tea. 2) I never saw the original True Grit. And it's likely that I never will. I don't care for John Wayne. The idea of sitting through one of his movies make me long for the dentist's chair. To the many John Wayne fans in the world: Sorry. That's just the way I feel. 3) My dad does like westerns, and he does like John Wayne. And while he would have been happy seeing Tron or something else, he was definitely excited when I mentioned that I'd like to see True Grit. It's more his kind of movie that mine.

In the end though, I kind of got the impression that I liked True Grit a bit more than he did. And while I can't speak for him, I can tell you a bit of what I thought about it.

I liked Jeff Bridges in it. I found his portrayal of Rooster to be gruff while still somewhat charming. I didn't particularly care for Matt Damon as Le Beouf. I just found him strangely unnatural as a Texas Ranger. Hailee Steinfeld, however, I found to be excellent as Mattie. My biggest problem with the movie, really, was the dialogue. It just felt so unnatural to me. I can't remember a single contraction. No 'didn't', no 'could've', it was 'did not' and 'could have', and people just don't talk that way. Outside of Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation everyone uses contractions. And I found this jarring at times. If that's my biggest complaint though, then I hardly have a complaint at all.

I know this isn't much of a review, and it isn't really meant to be. If you want a review, Alex over at Film Forager did a great job, and I'd recommend you read that. My intention was more to talk about my family's Christmas tradition. And on that note, Merry Christmas everyone!

A trailer on a Tuesday: Hanna

I know this is making the rounds today, but it looks damn cool.

So...that was Centurion

I'm going to preface this by telling you that I like Neil Marshall's movies. Dog Soldiers? Awesome. The Descent? Amazing. Doomsday? So much fun. So, going into the movie, good or not, I expected to like it.

It's also worth noting that I have more than a fleeting interest in Roman history. The Romans were, in a word, fascinating. Their history is littered with names and events that are recognizable to grade school kids; the wares with Carthage and Hannibal coming over the Alps, the rise of Julius Caesar and his assassination.Their history is full of heroes and villains that you wouldn't need to make anything up to keep an audience enthralled for a couple of hours.

Centurion is an almost entirely made up story. Things in the movie that are true: Titus Flavius Virilus actually existed and the 9th Legion was an actual legion that kind of sort of disappeared around 117 AD. Things in the movie that are made up: Pretty much everything else.

The movie starts in a Roman outpost. The outpost is attacked one night by Rome's enemy in what is today called Scotland, the Picts. The attacking Picts utterly annihilate the Roman troops in the outpost. One man, who happens to speak Pictish is taken prisoner. This man is Quintus Dias, the titular centurion.

The Roman response is to send in the 9th Legion. This is essentially the second century version of Shock and Awe. The assumption is that if they send in a full legion, the Picts will be put down forever.

Meanwhile, the Picts torture Quintus, hoping to get some idea of Rome's plans. Quintas, however, manages to escape his prison. He is found in the woods by the 9th Legion, which he promptly becomes a part of. After a brief stop, the 9th marches on only to be ambushed and decimated in the woods. And when I say decimated, I mean it. A legion could have 1000 soldiers in it! At the end of the battle, there are only 6 survivors among the soldier and the general of the legion, who has been taken prisoner by the Picts.

Quintus takes command of the 'legion' and leads them to try to rescue their general. However, in the process, they kill the Pictish king's son. This, naturally does not please the Pictish king. He sets their tracker, Etain, to hunt the soldiers down and kill them.

Now, I haven't mentioned Etain yet. So, let me tell you about her. Actually, wait a minute. Before I tell you about her, let's use an idea that I had almost two months ago. Consider this a warning:

Get it? Spoiler alert!

Etain is the tracker that the 9th Legion was given to lead them to the Picts to defeat them. However, she betrayed the Romans and led them into the ambush. She is the ultimate hunter and she HATES the Romans. See, when she was younger, the Romans attacked her village. They murdered her father, they raped her mother and they made her watch. Then, they raped her. Finally, they cut out her tongue. So, her hatred is understandable. It, however, does not change that she is the villain in this story.

Ultimately, Centurion is a chase movie. Quintus must try to lead his remaining troops home with Etain and the Picts trying to kill them. It's bloody, gory and very over the top. That's okay though. That's what you expect from a Neil Marshall film. If you pick this up off the shelf expecting an accurate historical drama, you'd be sadly mistaken.

There are problems with this movie. The characters are all paper thin. You understand Etain's motivations, but most of the characters just aren't very fleshed out. In fact, characters like Vortix and Aeron are not just undeveloped, but barely used. The actors themselves do a fine job with what little character they've been given to work with. Dominic West, Michael Fassbender and Olga Kurylenko are all fantastic in their roles and 28 Weeks Later's Imogen Poots was a nice addition to the cast.

Yes, it's a weak plot and has weaker characters, but that's not what you watch Neil Marshall's movies for. Frankly, it's a fun movie. It's entertaining. That has to count for something. Objectively, I would say it's not a very good movie, but subjectively it's pretty cool. I know I'll want to sit down and watch it again. Not to look for things I missed, or to look at it any differently, but to be entertained and enjoy watching a fun movie.

PS: If you're interested in learning more about Roman history, and you like podcasts, I cannot recommend The History of Rome podcast enough. Mike Duncan does an amazing job of putting together an excellent show each week.

In which I'm okay with Heimdall being black

I've not watched the trailer for Thor yet. Not too worried about it, but I saw this article earlier:

'Thor' Early Buzz: Well, Racists Hate It - The Moviefone Blog:

"Elba, meanwhile, stated: 'There has been a big debate about it: Can a black man play a Nordic character? Hang about, Thor's mythical, right? Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his fingers. That's okay, but the colour of my skin is wrong?'"

Best.Quote.Ever.

Also, to the Council of Conservative Citizens: Fuck you.

And then Dead Woods had a trailer

Now that Dead Woods has a website, I can finally start to share more info about it with you! Specifically, the trailer, which has been floating around Facebook for a while now, is on YouTube!



Keep an eye on this space...I'm hearing some rumors that there might be something special from Dead Woods for xmas!

Also, because I always find this sort of thing fun, some behind the scenes action:



Yeah...none of us actually got paid with anything besides beer. And we were always paid before we started shooting...first time director's mistake number 1.

Song of the Day - Sukie in the Graveyard by Belle & Sebastian

No explanation for this one. I just like the song.

So, I was in this movie

You may remember me mentioning once or twice a movie I was in that my friend was directing, well, big news! There's finally an actual, sort of, website for it!

www.deadwoodsmovie.com

The website was my wrap/xmas gift to the director. There will be more coming to it soon (I would assume). There is also a twitter account for it @deadwoodsmovie

The Most Amazing Four Minutes of Nicolas Cage's Career

Movie Sketch or What the Hell Was I Thinking? I Can't Draw!

So, the other day, over on the twitter, Alex, of the awesome blog Film Forager, posted that she was having trouble coming up with something for this week's movie sketch (I guess it would be worth noting that she posts a weekly movie sketch). I look forward to this as she is a good artist as well as movie reviewer. I, however, am neither a good movie reviewer nor a good artist. Of course I volunteered to fill the movie sketch gap. And she accepted my offer! I have no idea why! She has seen one of my drawings!

This led to a bit of a problem. One bigger than my lack of talent. No, this lead to me A) not knowing what the hell to draw and 2) really wanting to do something good! I tried drawing William Powell from The Thin Man, but I can't draw faces, at all. So, then I was going to try a t-rex from Jurassic Park. That didn't work either. Next I thought that maybe I could draw the ship from Serenity (side note, as a kid, I *loved* drawing space ships!)...nuh uh. Finally, I fell back on Star Wars. 

Yup, me, a pen and a highlighter came together to produce something that looks reasonably similar to a clone trooper's helmet. Overall, I'm fairly proud of it. I've certainly done worse (this is why I'm NOT posting what I scrapped). It's nothing near as good as anything you will EVER see as part of Alex's Movie Sketch Project, but I hope it helps fill the void this week.

Song of the Day - Black Sheep by Metric (Brie Larson version)

I think that I may have to make a voyage to some sort of place where people can buy DVDs this weekend to pick up Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Where would one go to buy DVDs though?

Random Movie Line of the Day

Bring wood and oil.

Song of the Day - Cameras by Matt and Kim

I had no idea Matt and Kim had a new album coming out. None at all until today. Upon finding out though, I had to hear it. And it is pretty damned great. It's like when you put something amazing in your mouth and eat it...but for your ears.

Halloween!

Halloween was yesterday, and I spent it travelling. However, on Saturday, I went to a Haloween party. And I wore a costume!

Then, I got tired of wearing a costume. So, I took it off. Then someone wrote on my shirt and it became my new costume.

I can't explain the helmet.

Who Would You Cast In The Remake Of My Man Godfrey

As I was getting ready to write yesterday's post about remaking the brilliant 1934 file The Thin Man, I found this half finished post on a similar topic. I was working on writing this in June of 2009 and didn't finish it. I'm sure I got distracted by something much more important and interesting (not really, just lazy). So, I'm going to go ahead and try to finish it, a year and a half later. I'm not going to really change anything that was already done, so that's why a good chunk of it refers to things that happens last year as though they just happened to today. This is kind of like time travel. I'm not going to change the past, I don't want to be my own grandfather!

I don't know if you've ever seen My Man Godfrey. I saw it for the first time almost exactly one year ago. I was in a Los Angeles hotel room, unable to sleep and flipping through channels. I stumbled on a black and white movie starring William Powell. Now, that alone is enough to get me to stop flipping. William Powell was an amazing actor. And, I'll watch anything if he's in it. It was this silly comedy about a rich girl on a scavenger hunt looking for a 'forgotten man'. Someone who'd fallen through the cracks. It's set during the great depression and was a movie that was meant to show the divide between the two worlds. Rich vs poor. It's funny and amazing and I absolutely fell in love with this movie. The only problem was that I had no fucking clue what it was called!

It was two days later that I learned it was My Man Godfrey. I eventually bought the Criterion Collection DVD and have been listening to the commentary on it. It's really a wonderful movie that I just can't recommend enough. However, and I'm being honest here, I think it's ripe for a remake.

Credit where credit is due. It was Caitlin at 1,416 and Counting that left my mind open to this idea. She posted about remakes*, and I took a decidedly rational approach. I know, how dare I! This is the INTAWEBS! Look, I can be as petty and childish as anyone. There are blogs and bloggers that I just plain don't like, and I can be vocal about that. People can get me riled up. Politics can upset me. Remakes I'm okay with.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the original. It's a classic in every sense of the word. I think though, that it doesn't resonate in today's world. I think it could actually be remade successfully. You won't get an actor of Powell's caliber for it. And, I don't think you need it. Now, after some thought, I'd like to play a bit of a game. It's a game that I'm calling Who Would You Cast In The Remake? It's actually an old game that my friend and I used to play while watching Godzilla movies and drinking beers.

As you can see, all I really got to was the setup. So, let's pick it up from there.

Let me set the scene for how this all started. Back in the year 2003, my friend and I used to spend our Friday nights watching Godzilla movies. One night, we were watching Godzilla 2000 and noticed something strange. It was uncanny how much some of the actors could be Japanese doppelgangers for American actors.One actor looked like Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation, one looked like Bruce Campbell, and so on like that**.

Long story slightly less long, I thought it would be fun to try to cast a remake of My Man Godfrey. Now, I'm just going to go for the lead roles, Godfrey and Irene. Let's start, not with Godfrey, but with with Irene Bullock, originally played by the beautiful Carole Lombard. I'm going to try to go with my gut feeling here. I'm not sure she'd be perfect, and it might be a bit unconventional, but I think she could play spoiled brat well in a romantic/screwball comedy. I'm thinking of Kristen Bell.

Of course, the most important role is Godfrey himself. Here you need someone who can exude the affable charm embodied by William Powell. This seems like it would be a tough choice. For some reason though, it's not. There's an actor out there whom I think would be ideal for the role. He's British, but does a perfect American accent and he's an excellent comedic actor. I'm talking about Hugh Laurie. Yeah, the guy who plays Dr. House.

The other great thing about My Man Godfrey is the excellent and eccentric supporting cast. So, play along! Who would YOU cast in these roles?

*Edited to update the link
**It's worth noting the Winona Ryder ALWAYS was always the leading lady.

Remaking The Thin Man

I'm going to let you in on one of my worst kept secrets, I don't generally have a problem with remakes. I'm not a huge fan either. I'd say I'm mostly ambivalent about remakes. Occasionally, they give an interesting and fresh new take on an old idea, more often though, they're a quick way to grab for a little cash. Don't get me wrong, I'd still rather see an original idea than a rehash of something I've seen before, but I understand the desire to play it safe and stick with a known quantity.

I bring this up because I read something earlier:

Johnny Depp May Remake 'The Thin Man' with Rob Marshall - The Moviefone Blog

The film is the four-time Oscar nominated 'The Thin Man,' and according to the rumor mill, Johnny Depp wants to remake it with 'Pirates of the Caribbean 4' and 'Chicago' helmer Rob Marshall.

According to Vulture, Depp is "aggressively courting" Marshall to direct him in a remake of the film with Warner Bros. As of now, there's no script, but they claim that Depp is in full pursuit of making this passion a reality.

Ok. Depp is certainly a fine and interesting actor, but is he the type that could play Nick Charles properly? And who would play Nora Charles?

As a big fan of both Dashiell Hammet's novel and the movie The Thin Man. It's gotten me to thinking. Who in today's Hollywood could play these roles. And that's setting aside the more interesting question of how you could even make this movie in today's politically correct environment. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that that could be a whole post unto itself!

William Powell was, really, an almost perfect choice for the role of Nick Charles.In fact, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for the role! This is where you fall into the remake trap though, these were iconic roles. Both Powell and Myrna Loy were perfectly cast and had great chemistry together (the two were a staple in the 30s and early forties staring in all 6 Thin Man films and 8 other films as well). There is no way to remake a movie like this without inevitable (and probably harsh) comparison to the original.

This is getting away from me here though. What actor in Hollywood today could exude the wit and charm required for Nick Charles? We need someone about the right age, late 30s to early 40s. I'll refrain from saying Keanu Reeves (though I would certainly want to see him try!). Hugh Laurie I think could do it, though he's just outside the age range I'm thinking of. You know who I think would be very good in the role though? Nathan Fillion. Captain Tight Pants himself. I think this would be right in his wheelhouse.

That gets us halfway there. It also gets us to the harder question. Who on Earth could play Nora Charles? In this case we need someone...around let's say 30. Drew Barrymore would have the right look, and she's only 35...not a bad choice, but not the right choice. Zoe Saldana would make for an interesting choice. Katie Holmes perhaps as well, but...still, no. Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway or Rachel McAdams maybe? No. Rachel Weisz would be a good choice, but if I'm eliminating Barrymore based on age, then Weisz is out too (sadly, since she's a large part of what made The Brothers Bloom so fun and charming, IMO). No, I'm going to go with Zooey Deschanel here I think. I'm just playing a hunch here, but I really think she could come closest to pulling the role off.

The question I now pose to you is, how far off do you think I am? And, more interestingly, who would YOU chose for the roles of Nick and Nora Charles?

Beer and the bottling of.

You may recall that a couple weeks ago, in this very spot, I was talking about making beer.

Well, last night it was time to bottle it. 48 bottles of beer plus a bit extra that I just put into a growler. I'm very excited about it. In about a week, I should be able to refrigerate it and drink my first ever beer made by me!

Star Wars 2D is fine by me

I'd like to tell you how much money I've spent in my life to watch Star Wars. I'd LIKE to, but frankly, I'm too lazy and too embarrassed to do the math!

The first time I saw Star Wars was actually on TV. We actually may or may not have taped it off of TV. I had those tapes until I was 18 and bought the Special Editions on VHS.

Naturally, I saw all three Special Editions in the theater. Of course I did!

When Episode I came out, I waited in line a week ahead of time to get tickets. On opening day, I saw it twice. Back to back.

I saw Episode II twice as well, though I didn't camp out for it. I did, however, pay extra to make sure I saw it in an all digital theater.

Episode III I only saw once in the theater. To be honest, I was unimpressed with it at the time (it has since become a favorite).

I bought the deluxe VHS edition of Episode I that came with all sorts of neat bonus stuff like a book and a frame of the film. And that actually reminds me, I also bought and read the novelization of Episode I!

Unrelated to actually watching the movies, my 19th birthday was the day they released the action figures for Episode I. I was there at midnight with the other nerds buying them up. It's also worth noting here that I never hated Episode I as much as the rest of the world seemed to. Previous discussions can be found here and here.

I bought each prequel on DVD as they came out. When the original trilogy box set came out, I bought that. When they released the movies as individual two disc sets, I bought those. I had to! The second disc was the theatrical cut of each movie! Star Wars sans 25 years of meddling!

I'm done.

Why on earth do I need to spend one more dollar on these movies? Do I care about seeing them in 3D? No. Do I want to see them on Blu-Ray? I don't even want to get a Blu-Ray player!

I just cannot justify spending any more money on these movies. It doesn't mean that I like them any less, it just means that I've reached my limit. There's nothing else that can be added to these movies that will make me want to spend another dime to watch them.

I'm sorry, George. I just can't do this.

Song of The Day - Fireplace by Lost in the Trees

Today I learned that Lost In The Trees was recently featured as part of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Series. Sadly, they didn't do Fireplace, which may be my favorite song from the new cd All Alone In An Empty House. I had the opportunity to see Lost In The Trees this past summer. It was the most intimate show that I could imagine a band playing. I can't say that there were more than two dozen people there to see them. They played upstairs at the Crofoot in Pontiac, MI after CocoRosie had played downstairs. Almost everyone left, but my friends and I stuck around to check them out. Sadly, I was getting tired and wanted to go home, so I did not enjoy the show as much as I could have. I did, however, buy the cd and quickly fell in love with it.

Way off topic, kind of, but BEER!

Well, maybe not. I mean, you drink beer when you watch movies, right? I do. Hell, that may be part of my ultimate goal! By Halloween, I could actually be drinking a beer I made while watching a movie that I'm in!

One of the things I've wanted to do for...well, as long as I can remember, is brew my own beer. I like beer. I'm no beer snob, but I enjoy a good beer. As I've learned to do more and more things, acquiring more and more 'homemaking' skills (canning, preserving food, that sort of thing), home brewing has always been the endgame. It's been the goal. Everything has built up to it.

Today, I took the second step in realizing this goal (the first step was on Saturday when I bought all the equipment). Today I made a batch of wort (unfermented beer). Ultimately, in a couple weeks, it should become actual beer. Of course, I could have screwed the whole thing up and may need to start over. I have no idea. I've never done this before!

I kept everything as sanitary and sterile as I could, which is the biggest thing. And it's just a malt extract beer. Both of these should ensure some level of success. In my mind though, I will fear that this whole endeavor will be a failure until I bottle. And even then, it'll be a while after that before I'm 100% that I've made a drinkable beer. So, fingers crossed. If all goes well, I should have a nice amber wheat beer in about a month!

My kitchen...not a mess! (for a change)

I have Electric Six running through my head, which has NOTHING to do with this post.

It wasn't that long ago, only a couple of years now, that the channel formerly known as SciFi debuted a show called The Dresden Files. You may not remember it since it didn't last very long. I, however, do remember it, kind of. If I scour the recesses of my memory, I can recall watching an episode or two during it's original run. The idea of a mystery solving wizard is fairly appealing, as it should be. Especially a wizard who uses a drumstick for a wand and a hockey stick as a staff.

A mystery solving wizard is the basis for the show. Harry Dresden lives in a world of magic known to most as Chicago. Here, the magic is hidden from most people. Besides running a business as a wizard for hire, Harry is also a consultant for the Chicago police department, helping out when cases get weird.

I recently rented the first (and only!) season from Netflix. It's only 12 episodes, and the set itself is fairly devoid of any special features. The show itself was fairly weak in the early episodes (which never helps when you're trying to find an audience), though everything got much better near the end of it's run. By the end, all I wanted was for there to be a few more episodes. Does Morgan begin to trust (and maybe even like) Harry? What becomes of Harry and Lt Murphy? Does their relationship continue to progress? 

The series was based on a series of books written by Jim Butcher. I've only read the first one so far, and it shows some promise as an interesting series of books. From what I understand, the TV series only loosely had anything to do with the books, basically being an alternate universe with some of the same characters.

I would really like to see them do more with the premise and the characters, but I know that's a lost cause at this point. Still, it was an interesting show, and I'm excited to read more in the books!

I swear it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I've seen so many great movie related drawings and artwork over the years. I really have. And, I felt inspired the other night to contribute some of my own artwork. So, I decided that I would draw something. I wanted to draw something awesome. Something like the t-rex from Jurassic Park fighting the shark from Jaws. That would be pretty epic (at least by Syfy movie standards). When I finished, it felt like it was missing something, so I added a comet striking the Earth.

Sadly, since I can't draw, it looks like Barney is fighting a penis with teeth and there's a muffin top flying through the background.

I title the piece "Exhibit A in why I didn't pursue a career in art".

Song of the Day - Banditos by The Refreshments

Sometimes I forget how much I love this song.

Song of the Day - Home Sweet Home by Those Dancing Days

Ok, so I was putting together a playlist in iTunes. Inevitably, when I do this, I stumble down a rabbit hole of songs I love but haven't listened to for some time. This time it was Those Dancing Days, one of my favorite Swedish bands (Yes, I listen to enough Swedish bands to have a favorite that is NOT ABBA (if anyone tells you they don't like ABBA, they are most likely lying to you)). So, I went over to the YouTube, and I never knew that Those Dancing Days made a video for any of their songs, let alone four videos! I picked Home Sweet Home for a couple of reasons. Mostly because it's a good song and a fun video, but also because there's a shout out to the airport I spend so much time in, Detroit Metropolitan Airport!

I really wish I could find some recent news on the band. I'd really love for them to make another album. Linnea Jönsson has such a great voice that I'd love to hear more.

Song of the Day - Talk on Indolence by The Avett Brothers

Here's the thing, Talk on Indolence is not my favorite Avett Brothers song. I like it, it's a good song, it's just not my favorite. It is however the one I would most enjoy singing at karaoke.

I have karaoke on the brain. Karaoke and goats.

Song of the Day - Black Sheep by Metric

This is mostly as a follow up to yesterday's Scott Pilgrim post.



Black Sheep was provided by Metric to be the song played by the fictional band The Clash at Demonhead in the movie. I might add, the under utilized fictional band.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World is the best movie I've seen in the theater this year*!

It had to happen eventually, Scott Pilgrim vs The World has finally been released. I've been eagerly awaiting this for some time now. So, since I had the day more or less off of work, I went to go see it.

A few things you should know about the movie.
-It's the oldest story: Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy must defeat girl's 7 evil exes. I know, it's been done to death.
-The movie is based on a collection of 6 graphic novels written by Bryan Lee O'Malley.
-The comics are better than the movie. Of course they are. It's six books condensed into about two hours.

It's worth noting here that the movie was made before the sixth and final book was written and released. The end of the movie and the end of the books are pretty different from each other. By all other accounts though, it's a pretty faithful adaptation of the story.

Some quick thoughts.
-Most of the cast was dead on perfect. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was amazing as Ramona Flowers. Jason Schwartzman was awesome as Gideon Graves. Michael Cera was average as Scott Pilgrim. He worked for the role, but just barely.
-Kieran Culkin basically stole every scene he was in.
-The fights were so kick ass!

All in all, it was a fun movie. The characters are great, the story was coherent and the acting was overall very good. I cannot recommend the movie enough. Especially if it gets you to read the comics.



*Scott Pilgrim vs The World is the only movie I've seen in the theater this year.

I do enjoy a good werewolf movie.

I enjoy bad ones too, so this should be right up my alley.



Red starring the internet's Felicia Day. I'm in.

Song of the Day - Jenny by The Mountain Goats

Hi diddle dee dee. Goddamn. The pirate's life for me.



I'm *IN* Monahans, Texas. Something off of All Hail West Texas just seemed...appropriate.

Song of the Day - Danger! High Voltage by Electric Six

So, not so long ago, I thought it might be a fun idea to post a Song of the Day from time to time. It's hardly an original idea, but I'm not exactly known for my originality around here. I may or may not introduce it. I may just end up infrequently posting it and moving on. We'll see how this goes. If nothing else, I'm establishing a precedent so it's not so random in the future. To start the whole thing off, we'll go with a band from my hometown of Detroit. Enjoy!

Movie Magic

Yup. That's what I did today.

Firefly Intro... The Awesome Edition

I love this!



Via io9

A few quick thoughts on Hot Tub Time Machine.

 When I signed up for DISH Network recently, I received a few promo codes for free pay-per-view movies. I used one today to watch Hot Tub Time Machine. I don't have a whole lot to say about it. I mean, it's a simple premise; a hot tub transports four guys back in time to 1986. It was funny, kind of gross in a few points and Crispin Glover really stole every scene he was in.

Mel Gibson might just be a world class dbag

I'm not someone who can easily separate the actor from the performance, so to speak. If I don't like an actor or an actress or a director or a band on a personal level, then I won't have any interest in that person's work. For example, I find Tom Cruise and the rest of the Scientology sect in Hollywood to be bat shit crazy, as a result, I try like hell not to watch their movies or TV shows. This includes Cruise, John Travolta, Jason Lee, etc. I just...refuse to allow my money to support that. Another would be Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game is supposed to be an excellent sci fi novel but I'll never know because Card is a bigot and I won't read his work as a result.

Or, the way I can't look at Vince from the Slap Chop commercials without thinking of how he beat up a hooker.



I think we've all kind of suspected that Mel Gibson was a little off his rocker as well. his drunk driving incident a few years ago started to make people suspect that he was a little...off. This new thing though, this recording...wow. I don't think I'll be able to watch Braveheart again. Or the Lethal Weapon movies. Suddenly those movies are just going to be associated with Mel Gibson's racism. And, if he's going to mouth off like this, I won't support him. Not in any way.

Let Me In, maybe not.

It's no secret that I loved Let The Right One In. I thought it was an amazing movie and the book was amazing as well. So, it's with some trepidation that I approach the remake. It's just...not a film that needs to be remade. There is little that could be done to improve upon it.

And, I have been trying to give the remake a fair chance. I've been trying to keep an open mind, but...the trailer just...scares me. Not the way a horror movie should scare me, but the way you get scared when you know something is not going to be very good despite hoping it would be.

I *LIKE* the new Wonder Woman costume

Ok, I'll admit that, dispite my four comic book related tattoos, I'm a pretty casual fan of comic books. Especially mainstream titles. Especially mainstream DC titles. I'm just not a fan. Batman and Superman do nothing for me. Not a fan of the books, not a fan of the movies.

That said, it was recently annouced that DC was changing up Wonder Woman's look. Fair enough. She always did look kind of silly fighting crime in her underwear.

At the left is the new design, and I really like it. Will it get me to read the comic? Probably not. Will it get me to take the character a little more seriously? Possibly.

It would seem, however, that liking the new look puts me pretty firmly in the minority. However, umong nerds and geeks, liking change USUALLY gets you put in the minority. It didn't matter what DC did with the character, the fanboys (and girls) were likely to bitch and moan. So, kudos to DC for taking a chance, and, in my opinion, making the character look more respectible.

The end of The Descent & The Descent 2

First off, a big thank you to Caitlin of 1416andcounting.com for the great review of The Descent 2 yesterday. I like to think she had fun writing that review, and I know that I had a blast writing my review for her site. So, again, thank you (let's do this again!).

One of the things that I really shied away from in discussing The Descent 2 was it's ending. And today, that's what I want to talk about.

So, you know, you've been warned.

As you may recall, at the end of The Descent, Sarah sacrifices Juno to escape the cave monsters. Now, of course, by this point she's seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate... No. That was someone else. Sarah has seen her friends die in the caves She's seen a terrible side of her friend Juno; she learned that her husband had cheated on her with Juno and watched Juno kill one of the group. In order to survive, Sarah went through one hell of a traumatic experience, culminating in turning on Juno and leaving her to be devoured by the cave monsters.

And then, a mere day or two later in movie time, after her amazing escape with her life, if not her sanity, she's tossed right back into the caves. She's already scarred, but Deputy Rios isn't. Rios' journey is very similar to Sarah's from the first movie. It's Rios who has to sacrifice her colleague to save Sarah. It's Rios who has the child she may lose as a result of this ordeal. And there are times where it's easy to think that Sarah realizes all of this, too. And I think that Sarah realizes that she lost a big part of herself in the caves, and doesn't want that to happen to Rios. So, while Rios had to do some awful things, like hack someone's arm off with a pick ax, you get the feeling that her humanity was intact. Rios' first instinct may have been to leave Juno to die, but it wasn't out of selfishness, it was just pragmatic. By that point, she was willing to make the same decisions to escape, but for much more rational reasons. This mirroring is evident even in the clothes that they wear. Rios' outfit is nearly identical to what Sarah was wearing when she escaped.

Watching the movie, you can't help but feel good when Rios escapes the cave. When Sarah escaped in the first movie, you just had this feeling that she'd never be  the same, that the trauma had just gotten to her, not so for Rios. When Rios runs out of the cave, there's a sense that everything is going to be fine. She'll go back to her kid and everything will work out ok for her, which is why the sudden blow to the head with a shovel is such a WTF moment.

It's not the only reason though. There is a complete lack of foreshadowing. The old man that hits Rios is the same guy who Sarah found on the road at the beginning and brought her to a hospital. Why didn't he feed Sarah to them? How on Earth is he just WAITING for someone to escape the cave, and also just happens to have a handy shovel with him? It's ridiculous and poorly executed. I understand that they're trying to use it to launch into a third movie, and that's fine, but the whole thing has no context and just makes you with that the movie had ended about 120 seconds sooner.

When the movie ended, all I could think was 'What the fuck??? I need to talk to someone about this!'. It's just that kind of a thing. I mean, here I am, days later, still trying to figure it out. I'm still trying to make sense of the whole thing.

If you've seen The Descent 2 as well, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the ending, or in general, in the comments.

Oh this is going to be AWESOME

Debbie Gibson vs Tiffany in a new Syfy Original Movie - Mega Python vs. Gatoroid! How awesome is THAT? The answer: Very.

[Via Cinematical]

#1570: The Descent 2

 Let's be honest: There's no way to talk about The Descent Part 2 without spoilers, so please, beware.

I'm not Shawn, I'm Caitlin. I know it's all topsy-turvy to read Shawn's blog and get me, but he'll be back before you know it and you won't have to put up with me anymore. Shawn hatched a nefarious plan for us to watch the same movie, review it, and cross post on each other's blogs, so it's his evil genius plan, I must say.

Anyways, so The Descent Part 2 picks up pretty much where The Descent left off. (If you're considering watching Part 2, I'd highly recommend just watching Part 1 and Part 2 back to back.) Sarah, the apparent sole survivor of a caving trip gone horrifically wrong, is found and brought to the hospital, where she has no memory of her ordeal in the cave. Watching your friends get eaten alive by mutant cave monsters will do things to a person, so Sarah's mind is a little shaky.

The local sheriff (who really deserves an award for being an incredibly dumb asshole) forces Sarah to go back into the cave with him, his deputy and a group of cavers after he begins to suspect that Sarah had something to do with the murders. Sensitivity is not this man's strong point. After they head into the caves, Sarah's memory is jogged and escapes from the clutches of the sheriff. Remember how I said the sheriff was dumb? He fires a shot in the cave system, causing a cave-in. All hell breaks loose and the mutant cave dwellers come out to eat.

The Descent Part 2 isn't nearly as good at fleshing out all of the characters as The Descent was, but given that a few of these characters are grist for the mutant cave people mill, that's forgiveable. Part 2 retains the confusion and claustrophobia that made The Descent so terrifying in the first place, with some of these tunnels being so small you wonder how they got a camera in there. More than a few horror sequels fail miserably at adequately picking up on continuity but Part 2 does a solid job of maintaining that aspect.

Juno is still alive and fighting like a madwoman in the cave system, so that is a bit of a surprise in a way. The three final girls battle it out to exit the cave, where Juno bites it and Sarah makes the ultimate sacrifice to give the sheriff's deputy, a mother with a little girl, a chance to escape the mutants. Up until this point, The Descent Part 2 is a sequel that lives up to the original, a sequel that moves well in the construct of the first movie. After this point, The Descent Part 2 falls a couple of notches in my estimation, due to a bizarre ending involving an old man bashing the deputy in the face and dragging her to the hole to be consumed by the freakin' Morlocks.

There is no rational explanation for this, no sensible reason. Normally this sort of "gotcha!" moment is reserved for sequel setups, but there's something so random, so bizarre, an ending that's never telegraphed or made clear that it's ultimately confusing and leaves you ruminating on that instead of the good parts in the movie.

While I'm looking forward to seeing how they ultimately play this one out in the next movie (I understand from Shawn that The Descent Part 3 is in the works), if you have no knowledge that there will be another sequel, the ending is puzzling at best. This bit is really the only negative to The Descent Part 2, so if you can stomach the fact that the ending feels like it doesn't belong there, then The Descent Part 2 is equally worth invested time and a well-made follow-up to a great first movie.

Happy Birthday Bruce Campbell!

Great idea, or greatest idea?

Syfy lets fans create a Saturday night schlockfest

I'm so in.

Happy 600th post!

Holy shit. 600? Really? That sounds kind of significant. I should do something. Something movie related. Hmm...what could I do that would be interesting and celebrate my 600th post properly? A review you say? Nah. Too cliche. You'd be expecting me to do a review. What's that? I never do reviews anymore? Who invited you? I'm done taking questions from the press.

I have some hobbies. Hobbies that are not movie related. I read. I'm learning to play the ukulele. And I play with my cameras. Well, one of my cameras, I like to use for making time lapse videos. I find it fun to do. And, as an added bonus, once it's taking pictures, I can take my short attention span and go do something else. Like read! Or play the ukulele! Woo!


For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to do a time lapse video of my apartment tonight. Ok, I'm lying. It was an idea for sure, I just don't know that it was a good one. Anyways, I took almost 800 pictures. And cleaned. And did normal stuff. Is it an interesting video? Eh. It is, however, set to music. And THAT I find hilarious!



Admittedly, the music is the work of Tyler Bates from the 300 score, which I feel is used in a parodic manner and allowed as fair use. Perhaps my interpretation is wrong, I suppose YouTube will let me know.

I'm one post away from 600...wow

These are just way too cool

In a somewhat rare (for me) act of attribution, these were done by Yair M. and seen on Flickr.

Futurama's first 90 seconds.

As you may know, Futurama is returning to television. I'm pretty excited about it. That's really all I've got.

Scott Pilgrim's 7 evil exes line up to save summer movies

Scott Pilgrim's 7 evil exes line up to save summer movies

Nathan Fillion's Hair

This might just be the best search term that ever brought someone to 7dp:


nathan fillion's hair

Seeing that, it occurred to me that there is a niche that needs to be filled. Someone out there wants to see Nathan Fillion's hair. And they came here! And I was unable to fulfill their need! The poor soul! I'm sorry. I really am. So just for you, internet stranger, here it is. Nathan Fillion's Hair:

Enjoy!

I'm not going to stop talking about it

This clip, more than anything, might actually be why I'm really starting to feel that Michael Cera can play Scott Pilgrim.




It's really the turning to actually ask how it feels to get sloppy seconds that really makes you, or at least me, feel like it IS Scott Pilgrim. It just feels right.

Syfy Original Movie Titles

Have I mentioned that I'm now a cable subscriber? Well, no, not really. It's satellite. And it's the cheapest package I could get. I mean, I really only watch a few channels. I like Discovery, I watch some of the rare non-law and order shows on USA and, as you may already know, I <3 Syfy Original Movies. Instant classics. Now, I know that not everyone agrees. Frankly, I feel that they fill an important niche though.

Movies to drink to.

No one wants to sit around with a bunch of beers and friends making fun of Children of Men. It's just not going to happen. On the other hand, if you hear that some low grade celebrity is starring in this weeks Syfy original train wreck of the week, hell yes you want to tune in. There's nothing better than watching some former household name appear in the worst movie you could imagine them in and wonder how they've sunken so low.

And let's be honest here, if someone says that there is a movie called Mongolian Death Worm, why the hell wouldn't you want to tune in? The titles are just fun. Which led to author A. Lee Martinez having a Create Your Own Original Syfy Movie Title contest on Twitter. You may notice that my own idea for Rhino Virus was an honorable mention (btw, if anyone from Syfy reads this, I'm willing to sell the idea for Rhino Virus pretty cheap. Seriosuly. I just want to see it get made).

The beauty of these movies is that you know what you're getting with them. You know it's going to be a low budget, kind of cheesy movie. And you know, there are many of us that love these kind of movies. You can have your big Iron Man and Transformers movies, I'd much rather see Sharktopuspocalypse (if anyone from Syfy made it this far, I'll throw in Sharktopuspocalypse with Rhino Virus. It's a 2 for 1! Haw can you lose??).

I expected better.

I have some friends who absolutely LOVE The Hangover. They quote it all the time and they keep telling me that I HAVE to watch it. That it's such a great movie and blah blah blah. I'm sure you've been in the same situation. So, after months of hearing about how AMAZINGLY AMAZING it is, I crawled out from sleeping underneath my friend's car to watch it.

By now, I'm sure you know the story. 4 guys go to Vegas for a bachelors party, because that's what guys do in movies. Probably in real life, too, just not the guys I know. So, there they are, in Vegas toasting to their friendship and then the movie cuts to the next morning. No one remembers anything, the groom to be is MIA, there is a tiger in the bathroom and a baby in the closet. Now they have to find their friend and figure out what happened the previous night.

The Hangover has some funny moments in it, but, I don't know. The way some people talk about this movie, you'd think it was the second coming of Jesus. Now, I will say that it could be that all the hype around the movie made me expect something much more out of it. Frankly though, the friends who recommended the movie to me..well, we don't always have the same taste in movies, so I tend to take their suggestions with a grain of salt.

It certainly isn't a bad movie. It's just not a good one either. I don't feel like my time was wasted watching The Hangover, but I feel like the movie could have been so much more. Over all, I just feel very 'meh' about it.

Just makes me want to see this even more.

New Scott Pilgrim vs The World trailer.

I wasn't exactly a Dennis Hopper fan

Dennis Hopper passed away. I wasn't a big fan. In fact, I can only think of two movies I liked him in. This was one of them.

Another Great Shirt!

I have to say, I disagree with the premise that SharkShark would be impossible. Personally, I see SharkShark as a Jaws 3 type movie, set in a Chinese circus/freak show/aquarium filled with bizarre and terrifying oddities of the oceans. Among these sickening creature is a siamese shark! Two heads, two tails, one body, twice the carnage!

Shirt available from HijinksEnsue [via io9]

A to Z Blogathon: D is for Day Watch (Revisited)

You probably don't remember this, but a few years ago I took a look at a poorly subtitled, import* version of the movie Day Watch. At the time, I was greatly perturbed by the poor subtitles, and found the idea of the Chalk of Destiny to be at least a little silly. However, I feel that I've grown since then, and have also bought the official US DVD of the movie. It's one that I've been wanting to revisit for some time. I recently re-watched Day Watch's predecessor, Night Watch, and also the book upon which the two movies are based (also called Night Watch). On top of all that, I never really felt that my original review** of Day Watch really did the movie justice***.

So, since it was a movie I was looking to revisit right about now anyways, it seemed to me that it would be the perfect contribution to 1416 and Counting's A to Z Blogathon. In more ways than one, really. For one thing, if you read 1416 and Counting, you'll quickly realize that the blog's author, Caitlin, seems to have a thing for all things Russian. On top of that, Day Watch star Konstantin Khabenskiy is 1416 and Counting's Hot Old Man for the month of May. It really does seem as someone used the Chalk of Destiny**** to make sure I stopped playing Puzzle Quest for a while and wrote about this movie sooner, rather than later.

Day Watch picks up about a year after the end of Night Watch.That's not entirely true. The movie starts by telling the story of Tamerlane and his retrieval of the Chalk of Fate*****. You see, using this magic chalk, you can rewrite history, as well as doodle some sweet shit on the sidewalk. That's not important at the moment. What is important is that Anton is training Svetlana to be part of the Night Watch******. They show up to investigate a crime that it turns out was committed by Yegor, Anton's son. Anton tries to cover this up and gets framed for a murder as thanks. So, he and Olga switch bodies and...and, the more I think about it...it's very difficult to sum this movie up in just a handful of words. Especially if I'm going to be choosing words that make sense. There's a lot going on, and not a ton of explanation.

I'm going to be brutally honest here. You don't have to read Night Watch for this movie to make sense, but it helps. There are a lot of things that the movie expects you to just kind of 'get'. It expects that you've seen Night Watch and read the book and already have an idea of what's going on and who everyone is and what their place in this world is and...that's probably a bad thing. While the story is interesting, and the movie itself is captivating, I could see many people getting lost pretty easily with it. And, I think that the fault for that falls squarely on Timur Bekmambetov.

I will say, what I like about Timur Bekmambetov and his films (Day Watch, Night Watch and Wanted)...the guy knows how to create interesting action sequences. There's always something you haven't really seen before, or at the very least, something you've seen but now with a bit of a new twist on it.That might be a bit of a fault as well though. So much effort is put into these exciting and unique action sequences that the stories themselves tend to be weak.

All in all, I liked Day Watch. If you've seen Night Watch it's worth seeing as a continuation of the story. In itself, there isn't much setup to make a third movie, so this is probably all you'll ever get as far as the movie adventures of Anton Gorodetsky. Which is too bad as Anton is an interesting character and Khabenskiy does an excellent job of playing him. I couldn't imagine anyone else playing the character now. Even in the book, I picture Khabenskiy. In fact, if someone else HAD played Anton, I don't think either film would have been as good.

*bootleg
**I hate calling what I do 'reviews' sometimes. I feel that it gives reviews a bad name in general.
***That was a joke. I know you're sitting there thinking "I couldn't tell. Usually jokes are funny"******. What can I say, I like to defy expectations that way********.
****This one won't either.
*****The name of the Chalk is slightly different in this translation.
******The movie assumes you've seen Night Watch, so I will, too.
*******Fuck you*********.
********My favorite joke is 'Two guys walk into a bar. The third guy ducks.' It's admittedly not funny at all, but I love it all the same.
*********Yes, I'm adding footnotes to the footnotes. I'm recursive like that.*********
**********I hope I got all my asterisks in the right places.

Quite possibly the most amazing 2:12 of your life.

This is all kinds of awesome. This is beyond awesome. This is simultaneously awesome AND every synonym for awesome.

So awesome

Seriously, I love this shirt. This might be the coolest t-shirt I've ever seen. If I ever see someone wearing it, I may have to give them a high five and a hug.




Clever Girl T-Shirt | Snorg Tees

Go Ninja! Go Ninja! Go!

I'd like to apologize* in advance for this, but it keeps coming up lately and must be posted.



*I'd like to, but I'm not gonna.

Professor of archeology, expert on the occult, and how does one say it? Obtainer of rare antiquities.

If you read movie blogs, and if you're here it's a good bet that you read one or two, you may have seen a meme going around. Basically, people have been writing 10 movie based facts about themselves, and then tagging other to do the same. I was not tagged. I'm not surprised by this as I write pretty infrequently these days. And besides, if I really cared all that much, I'd just do the damn meme anyways.

Now before you start yelling at me to 'quit your whiny whining whiner', let me explain something. The whole point of that last paragraph (other than linking to 3 other blogs) is because something came to mind this evening and, well, it made for a good lead in.

I have one movie related thing about me that I want to tell you. One thing that I want to write about tonight. See, I was looking for a movie to watch tonight. I'm bored. That's all there is to it. So, it occurs to me that I could watch a movie. Ok, sounds like a plan. I'll put a movie in. Well, I don't want to pay too much attention to it. See, I almost want background noise as much as I want anything. So, whatever movie I pick, it has to be something I've seen before. And it can't be Evil Dead 2 since I just loaned it out. It's been a long time since I saw Amelie and I've been wanting to watch it again for some time.

So I pull the DVD out of the DVD drawer. I put it in the DVD player. The menu comes up. I press play. I wander off momentarily. I come back. I press the audio button on the remote. As much as I love the sound of the French language, I know less than 30 words any more. And besides, like I said, I don't really want to pay that much attention. There is no dub on the DVD. French audio and English subs only. Now. This wouldn't normally bother me. Not even a little. Like I said, I love the sound of the French language. Subtitles don't bother me, not even a little. I just didn't want to pay much attention.

See, this happens to me a lot. I want to watch a movie, but not something new. Something I've seen before. Something that I've seen many times. Something that, if I leave the room and come back, or turn my attention from for a little while, I'll know just what's going on when I come back in the room.

This brings me up to the real reason for this post. My assumption is that I'm not alone in this. That other people do this with movies as well. And, well, I thought that it might be fun to share some favorites. I don't really have a good name for the list, but I'm going to list a few that I always fall back on, and if anyone else is so inclined, comment, or write about it on another blog and let me know.

My List Of Movies I Like To Watch When I Want To Watch A Movie But Don't Want To Watch Something I'm Unfamiliar With (in no specific order):

• Raiders of the Lost Ark (tonight's choice (Temple of Doom and Last Crusade are just as likely))
• Star Wars (any of the six)
• Lord of the Rings (any of the three)
• Shaun of the Dead
• Serenity
• Doomsday
• Event Horizon
• Hellboy II
• Planet of the Apes (the Chuck Heston original)
• Resident Evil

Alright. What have you got?