November 2010 - Izmovies - Watch Full New Movies movies Youtube

The Big Picture: "The Devil & Mr. Parker"

"Turn Off The Dark" reveals itself... kinda.

The first write-ups from preview-showings of "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark;" aka the 2nd most-likely-to-suck impending Spider-Man project - 3rd being "Death of (Ulimate) Spider-Man" and 1st being you-know-what - are starting to come in. A growing consensus: Not-awful, so long as you assume a certain level of self-parody.... though it sounds like they haven't come close to solving their infamous technical problems. Certain details sound garaunteed to give serious comic fans heart-attacks, but I'll say it right upfront... other details make it sound like something that might actually be pretty interesting as bloated spectacle goes. Not the same thing as "good," mind you, but it's worth remembering that while they are indeed perfect living-caricatures of pretentious twits, Julie Taymor, Bono and Edge are really good at what they do.

IO9's writeup handily sums up a lot of what I'm hearing about it (note: details may or may not qualify as SPOILERS to whatever degree you care.) AICN has more in-depth stuff, too. Discussion of said details after the jump:

So... yeah. These are the (supposed) elements that made me stand up and say "well, they certainly aren't phoning it in, at least;" in no particular order:

It's a meta-narrative... about Fan-Fiction.
That seems to be the biggest "huh?" of the overall production coming out of these previews: The story is structured around what may be called a "Geek Chorus" (oh, lord...) of fanboys brainstorming a Spider-Man story. That's actually kind of ingenious, though you've got to be a bit wary that they'll be some sort of obnoxious strawman caricatures - a "pre-emptive strike" against the people most likely to dislike the production on principle.

Swiss Miss = Red Herring?
Apparently, universally-derided new-for-the-show villainess "Swiss Miss" is an intentional bit of self-satire on the "Geek Chorus" attempt at inventing a character for the show.

Swarm is in it.
If true, this would be enough to get me in there all on it's own. For the unfamiliar, Swarm is a Marvel villain. He is made of bees. Yes, made-of. He doesn't dress like a bee, he's not a giant bee, he doesn't control bees, he's made of BEES. He is also a Nazi.

It's mythological.
Greek mythological figure Arachne, from whom spiders derive their scientific name, apparently turns up as a celestial guide (she may or may not literally BE "the spider" from whom Peter Parker recieves his powers) and mid-air romantic "hookup" for Spidey. This is the sort of thing you'd put in a PARODY of what a Julie Taymor "Spider-Man" production might look like.

Alright, sign me up. Assuming they make all the tech actually WORK, this is still supposed to open in about six weeks.

Hat-tip: Kotaku

Jenni Kallberg, aka Pixelninja, is half-Swedish, half-Japanese, and recreationally cosplays with alarming attention to detail as various video game heroines. That's not even a "triple-threat"... she's like the Turduken of hotness. Pictured at the right: Samus Aran. Yes, she also does the ~~Varia~~ Zero Suit.

...and here she is as Peach.

See her full gallery HERE.

Now, pardon me, I need a moment alone...

weird...

Didn't see that coming.

James Franco and Anne Hathaway, both expected to be Academy Award nominees themselves this year, have been selected to host the show.

Surface-wise, it has to be primarily seen as "youth re-branding" by The Academy - scooping up two actors more in the age, persona and career-phase one associates with the MTV Movie awards (Hathaway is a Disney-escapee branching out bigtime, Franco is basically the art-school-student-ironically-pretending-to-be-a-homeless-street-musician-to-stay-"in-the-real" of movie stars at this point) to headline what's increasingly seen as an older-audiences event.

What makes it more than a little unusual - and will come more to the forefront once the nominations solidify - is that both of them are very heavily-favored as serious contenders for awards themselves this year, he for "127 Hours" and she for "Love & Other Drugs." Sure, it "shouldn't" matter if the person hosting the show also wins if they gave the "best" performance... but everyone knows it will because "it'll look weird."

Honestly, I think that may be what The Academy is banking on, at least in-part: Deliberately going after a pair of likely nominees in order to generate interest via an "oh noes!! what's gonna happen!!??" drama to draw a bigger audience: "What if one of them wins!?" "GASP! What if they LOSE!? Will there be all kinds of bitterness to the jokes after that!" "GASP! What if only ONE of them wins!? Will the banter go all edgy!?"

Meh, it's an interesting choice either way. I don't think either of them are likely to actually win - "127 Hours" is pretty far outside The Academy's comfort-zone (plus Colin Firth is "due" and will be the frontrunner for his performance in "Dignified WWII-Era Upper-Class English Historical Drama #5,981") and Best Actress is looking like Natalie Portman's to lose at this point - but the "drama" probably will rope the People Magazine/"Dancing With The Stars" audience. On the brighter side, they're both fun - Franco is a real wild-card unafraid of playing chicken with his dignity, and I can certainly think of worse things to look at for four hours than Anne Hathaway...

RIP Irving Kershner

Irving Kershner, best known as the director of "The Empire Strikes Back," has died at age 87.

RIP Leslie Nielsen

Well, this sucks.

Leslie Nielsen had one of the most unconventional career paths of any actor. Born in 1926, the majority of his career was spent as a journeyman TV mainstay and character actor; with only the cult-classic "Forbidden Planet" in 1957 and "Tammy & The Bachelor" (which was very popular in it's day) in 1956 standing out; plus a turn as The Captain in the original "Poseidon Adventure."

All that changed in 1980, when the Zucker/Abrams/Zucker team cast him in "Airplane!" With the senatorial gravitas that made him a mainstay playing iron-jawed authority figures repurposed for comedic-deapan, he became the unlikliest comedy megastar of the 80s and 90s in the "Naked Gun" films; becoming synonymous with both the movie-parody genre and the Z.A.Z. films in-particular. He kept busy well into the New Millenium, and still had (at least) three films yet to be released when he passed away in his sleep this weekend. He was 84.

MST3K. Gamera. Collection.

Hat tip: Devin

I remain convinced that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" would have a MUCH larger present-day fanbase if it wasn't nearly impossible to see it without already being in search of it. The episodes were 2 hours long (with commercials) making it incredibly hard - but not impossible - to syndicate; but as the producers didn't actually own/license the films they riffed on (relying on the licensed-film catalogues of the cable channels the show aired on) a HUGE number of episodes can't even be released on DVD because the rights are spread out among so many different companies. Thusly, it's still a far-off dream of frustrated MiSTies everywhere to one day see Season Sets, or even a complete collection.

But as of yesterday, the wait will be a little bit easier; as five of the most sought-after episodes in the series' history finally return: MST3K: THE GAMERA COLLECTION.

YAAAAAYYYYY!!!

Not wholly unexpected - DVD outfit Shout! Factory (who've become to the Autumn Age of DVD what Anchor Bay was to the initial DVD Boom,) who own the DVD rights to MST3K, itself picked up the original "Gamera" movies and did a BIG release last year - prompting more than a few fandom-born campaigns to get them to do the MST3K episodes as well.

No word yet on release date or price, but still...

YAAAAAYYYYY!!!

Escape to The Movies: "Love & Other Drugs"

"Intermission" is about Green Lantern's trailer.

Wahlberg & Russell to waste year of lives, millions of dollars, on "Uncharted" movie

To the surprise of few and the joy of... someone, I'm assuming... Mark Wahlberg will rejoin his "Fighter" director, David O. Russell, in the incredibly unnecessary feature film adaptation of the "Uncharted" video games. For the uninitiated, "Uncharted" is a studiously "cinematic" (hence the "incredibly unnecessary" part) "Indiana Jones" knockoff. Wahlberg will take the lead role of Nathan Drake, the least-likable video game hero outside of Leisure-Suit Larry.

For those keeping track, this will mark Wahlberg's 3rd attempt at getting into the action-franchise rackett; following "Shooter" and "Max Payne."

I've already said my piece about the relative pointlessness of filmming "Uncharted," and I stand by my deep and bitter resentment at Nathan FUCKING Drake getting a proper movie before the nigh-endless line of more-deserving gaming icons, but at least it's interesting casting. Drake's monumental douchebaggery as a character comes from a "cool" obnoxiousness that's almost the total opposite of Wahlberg's usual near-comical earnestness - so maybe this is the first step toward making the character less hateful on the big screen.

Still not necessary, mind you, but less hateful. That's at least a start.

The Big Picture: "Once Upon A Time In The Future"

"Buffy" to join the reboot ranks

We're now approximately a little over a year and a half away from me being proven right about the wisdom behind "Spiderlight" (though it'll be an additional 2 to 5 years before many/most are willing to admit it...) and the "reboot" mini-trend is still ramping up. Next on the docket: Warner Bros. today announces that they're going ahead with a new "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie.

Without Joss Whedon involved. At all.

For those not "up" on how this all works behind the scenes, Whedon doesn't actually "own" Buffy. He wrote the original screenplay that was turned into a sort-of-okay movie back in 1992, but wasn't a fan of how it ended up. When given the opportunity to expand his concept into a TV series, he went for it and the rest is recent-history.Warners has been talking about doing another movie seperate from the show for years now, but apparently a "reimagining" pitch by a completely-unknown screenwriter named Whit Anderson, who thus far has offered up little solid information about the project other than the profession of being a "big fan" of the show and the now-mandatory namedropping of "Batman Begins" as a kind of preemptive defense of the reboot concept.

All in all, some really, really depressing news.

The story behind the story, of course, is that Warner Bros. is clearly still looking for a new stable cash-cow franchise. They've been able to rely on "Harry Potter" for a yearly garaunteed mega-hit for almost a decade now, and with that ship about to sail they've been scrambling for replacements. Hence, the sudden rush to get a Marvel Studios-style "machine" in place for the DC properties and now this.

Escape to the Movies: "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 1"

"Intermission" finishes off the discussion from last week.

This I can get behind

Conventional wisdom is beginning to coalesce that "The A-'Meh'-Zing Spider-Man" has, if nothing else, a better cast than it's predecessors. Conventional wisdom, obviously, does not know the difference between "better" and "more interesting;" but whatever. This was around the same point in the buildup that people started to think "Transformers" could concievably be good, too... but we'll all find out in 2012.

In any case, finally a piece of casting I can 100% say is pretty damn awesome. It says precisely jack about the rest of the production, but I think it's cool in and of itself - which, of course, can only mean that this will be the one that everyone else HATES: Denis Leary is Captain George Stacy, aka "Gwen's Dad."

I like it. Here's why:

Well, first off: I'm from Boston, so I'm sort of obligated to at least give Denis the benefit of the doubt on everything he does. But mainly, it's the first casting decision that actually seems to indicate an interesting character direction.

See, while Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben) and Sally Field (Aunt May) are both fine actors, their casting here simply REEKS of lazy, unimaginative thinking because we've seen them do these parts (Famous Quotation Reader and World's Greatest Mom, respectively) hundreds of times before. Contrast that with last time, where casting the same roles with veterans who were known but not "household names" (Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris) was an early clue that they were looking for performances.

Denis Leary, on the other hand, doesn't exactly take every role that comes along, isn't at the top of any agency's list and is far removed from the traditional image of Captain Stacy; which is an indicator that they have something interesting in mind for the character. Color me interested, in any case.

P.S. Let's not get into the Bill Hicks thing, huh?

Cowboys & Aliens

Yeah, that'll do.

Green Machine

Ladies and Gentleman, the (sort-of) live-action debut of the world's most-beloved color-oriented superhero NOT possessing a vagina... The Green Lantern:

Video after the jump (Blogger? Please fix this embed-code issue.) I like what I'm seeing. A lot:

I mean... could it be? A Warners/DC superhero movie that's not trying to pretend it's anything but a superhero movie? Bright and colorful, all the cosmic stuff and aliens and puffy-brained bad guys right up front, no tacit apology being made for how weird everything looks? It's about fucking time.

Yes, the CGI is obviously unfinished and they're trying to have it both ways with the tone (it wants to be a "funny" trailer and an "epic" trailer at the same time) but this is EXACTLY what they needed to turn the buzz around, i.e. a metric ton of "first looks" - The Ring, The Costume, Oa, Tomar Re, Kilowog, Abin-Sur, Sinestro, Hector Hammond ALL accounted for. Mission accomplished, fandom (probably) placated. NOW they need a "story trailer."

I maintain that part of the reason for the first "Iron Man's" surprise mega-success was that it had the best trailer EVER for a character most people had never heard of: It gave non-fans the ENTIRE first act and origin-story in condensed form: Awesome fun guy captured by Terrorists, makes a Robot-Suit to fight Terrorists, then makes BETTER Robot-Suit to fight MORE Terrorists. Boom. Ticket sold.

This, while solid, probably isn't gonna do that for people who don't already know who Green Lantern is. They need (and will probably "do" later) a trailer to give "regular" audiences a solid idea of what the Green Lantern Corps is, how the ring works, etc. Right now, if you're not already a fan, the takeaway from this trailer is: "likable actor can fly and shoot green stuff at aliens." Not bad... but it's not the "pre-awareness" that blockbusters are made of.

Big Picture: Who's Afraid of Captain America?

Max Bialystock has done it again!

Before you ask: Yes, that's supposed to be The Green Goblin. When people act incredulous at how protective comic-book fans get about costumes... THIS IS WHY.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but the existance of the forthcoming "Spider-Man Musical" - directed by Julie Taymor with music by Bono and The Edge, no really - really does seem like something that can ONLY exist as a front for something else... or an outright CON, like in "The Producers."

But WHAT would the con be? Is someone at Sony funneling money into this to make "Spiderlight" look better by comparison (it's working...)? Is Marvel Studios trying to kill their own character's brand so they can buy his movie rights back cheaper? Does Julie Taymor, or maybe Bono, hate superhero movies and this is all an elaborate gamble to kill the genre off a'la "Batman & Robin?"

Vogue has an Annie Leibovtiz fashion shoot up based around the shows costumes, and they look... wow. Now, firstly, the whole premise of this shoot is stupid: Broadway stage-show costumes like these aren't meant to be viewed either this close up or static. But even taking that into account... Holy Crap.

In any case, here's a picture of thoroughly-useless, inexplicably-popular villain Carnage as he appears in the show...

If nothing else, will anyone who still hasn't come to term with The 90s sucking please just take a moment and drink that trainwreck in, at long last?

"Heh HEH! Alright!"

Dig this damn-near flawless "Unstoppable" spoof from SNL, built mostly on newbie Jay Pharoah's previously-lauded note-perfect, almost uncanny Denzel Washington impression:

Cat beats up two Alligators

CAPTION A: "World's Bravest Cat Defends World's Dumbest Humans from Alligator Attack."

CAPTION B: "Cat Selfishly Deprives Alligators of Meal, Humans of Darwin Award Victory."

So... who comes off WORST here? The two Alligators backing down from a fight with Garfield, Captain FlipFlops, the dumbshits letting their kid run over to the giant wild carnivores, or the guy filmming this spectacle?

Zombie Odyssey

#1 question/critique offered every film critic: "Why don't you make your own damn movie?"

My general response: Does PARTICIPATING in one count?

This was made back in 2004, directed by my friend Tim and co-starring myself and multiple other friends and aquaintances. My brother and I produced, edited and did the optical effects (no CGI) Kristen Juliano did the really, really impressive makeup. The basic idea is "The Odyssey" reworked as a Romero-style Zombie Apocalypse saga.

That's me with the axe, and Tim as the lead zombie. This is the first time a "full uncut" version of this has been online, thanks to YouTube's time extension of recent.

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN!!??

Wait... Disney is doing a new "Winnie The Pooh?" In traditional hand-drawn 2D? As a proper follow-up to - and in the same style as - "Many Adventures?"

How am I only learning this NOW!? Um... I mean, that is to say... "Oh. Interesting. I have vauge memories of having enjoyed that, as a lad..."

That's ~~Peter Cullen returning as Eeyore~~, BTW, and Craig Ferguson as the new Owl. Tom Kenny (not heard) is the new Rabbit. Apparently, Disney is so confident in this they're opening it against the 2nd part of "Deathly Hallows" this coming Summer.

EDIT: I am informed that that's not Cullen as Eeyore, but rather Pixar animator/voice-actor Bud Luckey, a legendary figure to animation buffs for his 1970s "Sesame Street" shorts and the movie adaptation of Russell Hoban's "The Mouse & His Child."

"Green Lantern" looking... better

"Entertainment Tonight" has your first look at Ryan Reynolds in motion as Hal Jordan.

We'll all get a better look when a REAL trailer is almost-surely in front of "Harry Potter," but I took some screencaps for a (somewhat) closer inspection:

(See the clip and more after the jump)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RrBwKMxhtXQ

Pretty sure that's Kilowog at 00:26. Awesome.

First thing a lot of people are noticing: Either "Entertainment Weekly" got a really bad shot of him for the infamously poorly recieved "cover debut," or there's been some significant redesign since then because the CGI-suit costume looks A LOT better than it did previously: You can distinctly see the black (darker green?) arms and legs seperate from the green upper-torso, closer to the source material and more "superhero"-looking, and the "energy vein" thing doesn't seem to be constant.

Otherwise... look, trailers are trailers and trailers are usually misleading in one way or another, but with that in mind I'm not loving the "tone" here - they're obviously going for "Iron Man" re: featherweight macho flippancy, but this character and "world" - what with the galaxy-spanning scope, space-opera backstory, etc - would seem to call for something more in the vein of "Avatar"... y'know, something conveying a "you will be amazed" sense of cosmic-AWE. The brief glimpses we see of space, Oa, etc. would seem to suggest that, so hopefully that's closer to what we get.

Worth noting: This is actually supposed to come out a month AFTER "Thor," which means that the two most "out-there" superhero movies in a long time will be out within weeks of eachother, with "Captain America" a month later. This means that, at a certain point in the summer of 2011, I will be able to walk into a movie theater and choose from any one of THREE superheroes I never, ever would've expected anyone to make a movie out of.

Escape to the Movies: "Unstoppable"

It's about trains.

Intermission asks: "Where are all the toy/game/comic blockbusters for women?"

Supermen Seeking Women

More estrogen for the next "Batman" movie, and you can (maybe) soon add another good actor to your list of arguments as to why I should be pretending the "Spider-Man" reboot is a good idea. Details after the jump...

First-up,: Actress, singer and living trope Zooey Deschanel is apparently playing Betty Brant (J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, played by Elizabeth Banks in the previous 3) in "Spiderlight" - at least so-sez not-terribly-reliable gossip site "Showbiz Spy." Deschanel had the title role in director Marc Webb's prior film, "500 Days of Summer." File the casting under plausible but not terribly likely; but if any of this is true to fact that Betty Brant is A.) in the film at all and B.) has an important role with "big plans" is the real story. In the comics, Brant was the first (short-lived) love-interest for Peter Parker, so if this pans out maybe now we know who's "Jacob" now that Mary-Jane is off the table. Also, her eventual boyfriend turned out to be Hobgoblin, which would be an elegant (if predictable) way for them to do the Green Goblin again without actually doing it again.

Analysis is... egh, why am I bothering at this point? Yes, she's a good actress, yes it'd be good casting. Y'know who else was good casting? Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy... and then the movie came out. At this point, yeah, it's clear that they're assembling a cast of good actors for this thing - albeit in not terribly surprising/interesting ways (Sally Field as an advice-giving matriarch? Gee, that's outside the box...) - but that really does very little to dispell how moronic the notion of the reboot is in the first place, how bad the "new" angle is (Spider-Man: The Degrassi Years) and how unlikely it is that a cheap quickie rights-holding production is ever going to be any good. Yes, it could work out. Yes, it'll get a fair shake. Am I holding my breath? No. Sometimes you really can, in fact, see a disaster coming a mile away - I didn't need to see or hear a single thing about "Transformers" other than the godawful mecha-designs and Michael Bay to be pretty damn sure that it was going to be just as bad as it turned out to be.

Meanwhile, back at Stately Wayne Manor...

Deadline sez that Christopher Nolan is casting TWO major female roles for "The Dark Rises" - one a love-interest, the other a nemesis. Whether or not they're being "cute" and the roles are actually one and the same is left unsaid. Shockingly "the list" of candidates looks an awful lot like the "the list" of candidates for every other major female role in existance right now: Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Blake Lively, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway and Keira Knightley.

So... female bad guy and a new romantic interest. Obviously, everyone's first thought is "Catwoman" and... fine, whatever. It make sense, it's kind of a "must do," they'd all be varying degrees of hot in The Outfit and everyone but Lively is a good actress. If not.. who knows? Harley Quinn? Probably not. Poison Ivy? Maybe, but unlikely to be very interesting in Nolan's fantasy-free Gotham. Entirely new character? Wouldn't that be something...

There's also the dark horse candidate: Talia al Ghul, daughter of Ras al Ghul - the Big Bad from "Batman Begins." That'd be the one I'd most like to see, from a story perspective: TDK was great, but it's also about as far into "regular crime drama guest-starring Batman" as I'd prefer to go for awhile, and I'd enthusiastically support the series veering back into Batman Vs. Quasi-Magical Ninjas territory. On the other hand, it'd be FASCINATING to see how the Nolan Bros. handle Catwoman, a character based 100% on sexuality - the subject that thus far gets the least attention in their ouvre (nevermind the fact that having a multitude of stronge female characters would be new territory for them in general - let's face it, thus far The Nolanverse is a serious sausagefest.)

Dino De Laurentiis: 1919 - 2010

We have lost one of the most important movie producers of all time.

To film geeks of my generation, Dino's name was basically an opening-credits signal that you were about to see something unique, strange, not necessarily "good" but hard to forget: Danger: Diabolik!, Barbarella, Mandingo, Death Wish, King Kong/King Kong Lives!, Orca, Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian, Dead Zone, Dune, Cat's Eye, Manhunter, Army of Darkness... his career from the late-60s to the early-2000s speaks for itself; but he'd lived a lifetime before that.

He was a true independent - at once a profit-minded businessman and a bizzarely-visionary risk-taker with a love for garrish, overblown spectacle; an Italian renegade with the energy and style of a Golden Age Hollywood mogul. Along with his more infamous features, he also produced "art-films," war movies, historical epics and romances. He put big budgets and studio support behind a diverse selection of filmmakers from Ingmar Bergman to Frederico Fellini to Sam Raimi to John Milius to David Lynch. He backed John Wayne's last film, and produced the Wachowski Brother's first screenplay (AND their debut feature.) He brought us "Nights of Cabiria," "La Strada" and "Transformers: The Movie."

If pressed, I don't think anyone could name a modern equivalent to him in the current film world - that volatile mix of ruthless mogul businessman and art-lover of "questionable" artistic taste isn't much seen these days. In his ever-expanding producer role, Guillermo del Toro MAYBE comes close in terms of vision... but in terms of actual triumph it's likely we'll never see another like him.

De Laurentiis was 91, and lived a life the way one ought to be lived: Fully. He is survived by a small army of children and grandchildren, including Hollywood producer Raefella and Food Network personality Giada.

"A mythic flight of the imagination!"

Had an absolute BALL of a "bad movie night" with friends a few hours ago, watching the 1983 Lou Ferrigno version of "Hercules." Exactly why this film, which was regarded as a fairly-notorious "what the hell happened here!?" trainwreck in at the time, hasn't become an ironic cult-classic like "Troll 2" I don't know, but it ought to be. Check it out:

Yes, that is a Rainbow Flaming Sword the bad guy is using at 1:14.

The trailer doesn't even do justice to how GONZO this thing is, a bizzare hybrid of "classic" Italian swords & sandals muscleman epic juiced-up with some weak "Chariots of The Gods" scifi reimagining to justify the awkward inclusion of "Star Wars"-style space scenes and giant robots. A lot of the visual logic appears cribbed from Kirby/Ditko-style Marvel Comics renderings of the esoteric, i.e. every "magical" place appears as a floating chunk of expressionist art hovering somewhere in an unidentified starfield - regardless of where it's "supposed" to be.

It's also garaunteed to drive anyone with even a cursory familiarity with classical Greek Mythology into a psychotic episode. Just as a sample: Hercules' chief enemy is King Minos (!), who rules the futuristic city of Atlantis (!!) and commands robot monsters built by his minion Daedalus (!!!) - appearing as a beautiful female space-being in "Barbarella"-style costuming (!!!!) Oh, and you get an endless prologue in which the Universe is formed from the exploding fragments of Pandora's Jar.

For whatever reason, you can actually see this on Netflix Instant - I very much reccomend that you do, preferably with as many unsuspecting fellow viewers onhand as possible.

Below, Jon Stewart responds to "liberal" critics of The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear; specifically Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Congratulations to Conan O'Brien

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Rally to Restore Sanity

Stewart is scheduled to be a guest on Maddow's show this Thursday, which should be incredibly interesting: Will it be a tense-but-genial thing like when he's on O'Reilly, or a collapse-of-the-other-guy's-credibility like Jim Kramer or "Crossfire?"

"The Big Picture"

And here we are. The innaugural episode is about "Halo."

NEW SHOW debuting tomorrow at The Escapist!

Big news, everybody!

I've got a BRAND NEW video series making it's debut at The Escapist tomorrow: "The Big Picture."

I'm pretty excited about it. This is be a show with an entirely different style and vibe than "Game OverThinker" or "Escape to The Movies" - there's no "set" subject other than no-punches-pulled commentary on the broad nerd-ephemera, so various installments will delve into everything from video games to comics to politics to pop-culture to whatever else strikes my fancy. If pressed, I'd describe the approach as Walter Winchell meets Randal Graves.

The debut episode should be up tomorrow (11/09) around Noon ET. I'll put up a link as soon as I can (aka once it exists) but check out The Escapist tomorrow and it should be there. I hope you like it.

Dubya: Explained

Part of what will sooner-than-deservedly be seen as former President George W. Bush's "quirk" was that his backstory seemed to fit so neatly into a classical template: The late-blooming WASP blueblood screw-up who rose high and fell hard trying to live up to the dynastic standard.

All the pieces were there: Cold, distant relationship with patriarch, prologned adolescence, supplementing of religious-devotion for alcoholism, mangetic-pull toward daddy figures... and now, thanks to his book and pending interview with Matt Lauer, we have the final one: Traumatic experiences with seemingly-derranged mother that he doesn't seem to realize were borderline-abusive.

Seriously... that's the sort of thing you see in the "origin story" flashback in a slasher movie. Ick.

The Party

From now on, when anyone asks which "party" I affiliate with, this is what they're getting as a response.

(anyone who wants to borrow this, feel free)

Legitimately interesting "Spider-Man" news

I am not biased against the idea of rebooting "Spider-Man." I'm biased against movies that sound like terrible ideas, or movies made for dubious reasons primarily by people for whom quality is waaaay down low on the list of priorities. That a remake of a movie that's not even ten years old, less than two years after it's most-recent sequel, which only exists in the first place because shortsighted producers screwed over a creative team twice, fits into that category is hardly something I have control over.

ALSO not my fault or problem: The fact that there hasn't been a shred of news since it was announced that hasn't ranged from bad to irrelevant - good talented being scooped up doesn't mean much when the film is being largely driven by people seemingly bound and determined to make a bad (but profitable movie.)

But NOW, finally, one piece of actually interesting, quasi-positive news. Buried in TheWrap's reporting about Martin Sheen and Sally Field being sought for Uncle Ben and Aunt May is a fairly big reveal: Who's playing Mary-Jane Watson? Nobody. She's not in it.

This isn't an indicator of anything, but it's significant for two reasons. Firstly, people who followed the development on the original films will recall that oldschool-Spidey purist Sam Raimi had wanted to use Gwen Stacy as the love-interest since the first one but was "encouraged" to use MJ because she was the more "known" character. Of course, that was before Marvel spent three years (and counting) of stories to get her largely OUT of the franchise, so... whatever.

More significantly, it calls into question what "form" the film is taking. It was an open secret, when the reboot was announced, that the new pitch was "Spider-Man by way of Twilight," with heavy focus on a teenage love-triangle as opposed to superheroics. It had been assumed (and reported) that that meant Gwen and MJ as Edward and Jacob, but if that's not the case then... who? People would've been all over it already if it were Felicia Hardy (The Black Cat) and if it was a "reimagined" teenaged Eddie Brock (Venom) people would've been all over it and annoyed already. So... Harry Osborn, maybe? Flash Thompson, probably?

Bill Maher fails at life. Again.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are more popular and talented at a genre of TV comedy Bill Maher likes to think he created. On some level, America's 2nd favorite vaccination conspiracy theorist knows this...

...and he ain't happy about it.

Memo to MSNBC

Below, Rachel Maddow's statement vis-a-vi Keith Olbermann. The relevant/implicit "bigger picture" comes in at about 5:25...

MSNBC? Yes, including you Rachel - although I still maintain you run the best show on cable news. Guys? This is getting SAD.

Everyone gets it. You didn't like Jon Stewart putting clips of you in the mix with clips of Beck and Hannity at the Sanity Rally. It stung, it hurt your self-esteem, you probably do sincerely think it was a "false equivalency."

Get the fuck OVER IT.

You're still "better" than Fox because Fox outright lies and you only "spin." You're still "cooler" than Fox because you're dialed-in to the sensibilities of college kids, movie stars and the rest of the world - which are cool; while Fox is dialed-in to NASCAR and Branson - which are not cool. The writers and stars of The Daily Show still like you better; they basically HAD to put you in there or risk losing the point of their own rally and damaging their own "firing at all sides" reputation. Most of the kids at the rally, and in TDS's audience, still love you. Take note: Mattering enough to be goofed-on by TDS means you are doing something right - notice who WASN'T in there as much? CNN. Because nobody gives a damn.

Someone told a joke about you. It happens. Deal with it. Stop acting like a two year-old (or Sean Penn) about it. Put on some tea and toast, have a popsicle, watch a John Hughes movie...

And get the fuck OVER IT.

...oh, and then get rid of Ed Schultz, quietly shuffle a browbeaten Olbermann into his late slot and give Maddow "Countdown's" old timeslot. There, now you're lineup sucks at least 40% less ;)

Olbermann is out

As you've no doubt heard by now, MSNBC has suspended Keith Olbermann "indefinitely and without pay" when it was discovered that he donated money to three political candidates in the recently-concluded election.

Supposedly, this was in violation of NBC corporate policy, i.e. journalism-division employees are supposed to ask permission about donations and maintain a sense of impartiality. But then it get's tricky...

According to some, MSNBC's openly-partisan editorial-commentators (Olbermann, Matthews, Maddow, etc) have been "exempt" from that rule for some time. So... what's going on here?

The shortest and simplest explanation is likely to be that MSNBC wants to get rid of Olbermann, and this was the opportunity his bosses decided to take to do so. Also, if the rest of the staff gets "on message" about it it's a potentially GREAT "big move" to differentiate themselves from Fox: "When our guys screw around, they're GONE - so why are you still employing Beck, again?"

The broader story at MSNBC is that the network is having a difficult time getting everyone on the same page as they transition from "flashier version of CNN" to their new identity as "Left-Wing version of Fox" - not all of their employees are going to be as comfortable as others in being seen as "commentators" rather than "journalists." Did you see how angrily/humorlessly they reacted to the "false equivalency" of Olbie's rants mixed in with Beck's at the Daily Show rally?

Ironically, Olbermann is pretty-much the guy who "engineered" his network's transformation; but it hasn't done anything to change his reputation in the business - his ego and short temper are the stuff of legends. One senses that this writing has been on the wall ever since Rachel Maddow guest hosted his show for a month or so, did a better job of it and got her own show right afterwards. You only need to see the two "acts" side by side to see the problem: Maddow is easily the most "partisan" person on the network, but she runs the LEAST blowhardy show (with the added bonus of being one of the best interviewers on Cable, period.) It also doesn't help that "other new guy" Lawrence O'Donnell does the "mournful sanctimony" bit better, too.

It'd be too early to "put money on it," but this seems like it might be the end for Keith, at least as an MSNBC contributor. If so, I can't say I'm broken-up about it: His show had become both obnoxious and redundant... though it'll be a REAL loss if Maddow or others "follow him out" in protest.

Escape to the Movies: "Four Lions"

"Intermission" is also about "Lions" (link on site currently broken, use this one)

Somber, Authoritative Voice to Recite Famous Motto in Tremendously Unnecessary Film (UPDATED!)

Or, to put it another way, Martin Sheen is the new Uncle Ben Parker in "Spiderlight."

The "cute" angle on this, of course, is that both Uncle Bens will now have been played by men who also played JFK. That'll be a trivia question that endures much longer than the film is likely to...

UPDATE! Deadline says they want Sally Field for Aunt May. That's... on the nose and completely uninteresting, honestly. She'll essentially be playing Forrest's Mom again.

Honestly, this is really the only bit of casting that I'm willing to call "pretty cool" on this. It's not really "good" casting, there's nothing about Sheen that screams "perfect for it" other than the fact that "With Great Power..." is going to sound really, really good in his (very, very familiar) voice in all the trailers - which, let's face it, is what they've hired him for; he'll probably also score the voiceover gig for the innevitably crappy video-game tie-in, too.

This particular turd is still scheduled to be floating in the superhero-movie punchbowl sometime in 2012.

girls in cages

New trailer for "Sucker Punch," from Zack Snyder, aka "Michael Bay with talent and taste."

Near-universal truth of modern moviemaking: The absolute worst filmmakers are guys who never aged past 22 (see: Bret Ratner.) The BEST are the guys who never made it past 15. Snyder is the second type.

what is best in life

Behold President Barack Hussein Obama. A good man. A nice man.

A man of compromise, who believes in the Middle Path - that by making concessions, seeking the humanity in enemies, and working toward common ground one can get opponents to meet you halfway.

Behold a man who loses.

A first-year poly-sci student with a C+ average could've told him that the mere presence of a young black liberal in the White House was going to cause legions of rural/white/Christian-nutcase folk to lose their shit and treat him like an "extremist" no matter what he did. Doubtless, some of his advisors must've told him the same thing (hey, did professional ass-kicker Rahm Emmanuel just up and quit? Hmm...) but he didn't listen.

To be "nice" he didn't simply tell the Pentagon to go fuck itself and rip down DADT when he had the power (re: both houses) to do so. To not seem "extreme" he compromised Healthcare into a toothless near-nothing. What was the response? The Teabaggers - a whole army of organized-idiocy who regarded anything he did as "extremist" and mobilized accordingly. His prize? Gridlock - two years (and counting) of legislative stalling tactics. That's what comes of playing "nice." That's what comes of bringing an olive branch to a knife fight.

The president has been noted to be, amusingly, a fan of Robert E. Howard's "Conan," at least as a comic book. Too bad, it would appear, that he never saw the movie...

Lesson over.

Halloween

Pix/vids will be up sooner or later, but for now the rundown is things went pretty good for mine.

My weekend schedule was attending a friends' wedding Saturday (congratulations, guys!) followed directly by a film festival from midnight to noon Sunday, then all day in Salem MA for Halloween itself. So... about 30-32 hours awake and in a Mario costume for me.

Good times.

Best movies

Labels

Popular Posts

BLOG SAVE

Template Information

Template Information

Test Footer 2