Really awesome Mahalo page about how to best appreciate beer. I don't consider myself a connoisseur or anything, but I think I know a bit about how to appreciate a nice brew...and I found this page very enlightening. Check it out:
The film has not been screened for a large number of gays for a reason. Throughout the many private screenings [the filmmakers] have had, the reaction from gays has been almost uniformally one of alarm. It is not a scathing depiction of homophobia -- but a grotesque satire of homosexuality. Brüno is a sickening mixture of narcissism, fetishism and shallowness - and he is virtually the only gay representation in the movie. The 'homophobia' of the various straight men who he encounters and propositions, seems only natural when faced with such an odious sexual monster.
Why don't people understand comedy?
Listen, this is VERY EASY. Sacha Baron Cohen's characters are not intended as direct insults to minority groups. CLEARLY. They are ridiculous over-the-top caricatures designed specifically to illicit a REACTION from people who don't know better. By playing to every stupid, backwards stereotype Americans have about homosexuals (particularly European homosexuals), Cohen teases out prejudices that most bigots would not typically reveal to a movie camera.
You don't even have to have seen the "Bruno" film to know this. (I haven't seen it). This is what Cohen's characters ALWAYS DO, and it's what Bruno did on the old (ingenious) episodes of "Da Ali G Show." It's PATENTLY OBVIOUS. In fact, what makes the movies so hilarious is that the character is SO OBVIOUSLY a joke, a silly collection of quirks that could only be created by a comedian playing a prank on dumbasses.
The same thing happened when "Borat" was released in 2006...Simpletons complained that it was offensive to American immigrants or people from Central Asia. It's not. Try to get jokes, people...It makes them more funny.
Seriously, is the "end of the world" really just going to be the collapse of a bunch of high-rises? Because that's about all that happens in this trailer. Apparently, if you live in Nebraska, you're going to be totally cool.
I think all these "Jurassic Park" dinos just wanted to hang out and chill for a sec. Perhaps we were being hasty trying to run away from them and destroy them and junk.
Holy crap this looks atrocious. Surprising coming from the director of "Swordfish" and "Gone in 60 Seconds." Oh, wait, no, that's not surprising at all.
The movie does discover a new rule for horror filmmakers of the future, however...Geographical facts about Antarctica? Not scary.
It's cool that Danny Trejo wants to give you his latest, erm, blockbuster for free...but why not just let people download it or stream it from his site? Charging $6 shipping and handling kind of hurts the whole "free movie" promotion. It's only a few bucks less than I can get discount movies at a Best Buy or other store. Also, I love how the site is called:
VENGEANCE - THE MOVIE!
"Man, how did they turn that abstract concept into a movie? Seems like it would work better as an HBO miniseries or something."
Your host Mark Jeffrey discusses the ins and outs of digital publishing. This week, he's joined by Otis Chandler, CEO of GoodReads.
Posted via web from LonHarris.com
If you haven't seen this Jay-Z/Cure mashup yet, why not do so right now? It's quite excellent.
This is, in fact, the worst thing I've ever read:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nia-vardalos/women-dont-go-to-the-movi_b_212888.html
Could she get any more self-serving and obnoxious? I actually don't believe any studio executive said "women don't go to movies" to her, at least not sincerely. And if they did, it was likely just to spare her feelings and avoid saying, "This script is the worst piece of shit I've ever read and you are to cinema what Sean Hannity is to astute political commentary."
I also don't believe her latest bit of claptrap, "My Life in Ruins," is "the highest testing movie in Fox Searchlight history." Other Fox Searchlight releases include:
"The Full Monty"
"The Ice Storm"
"Boys Don't Cry"
"Super Troopers"
"Waking Life"
"Kissing Jessica Stein"
"Bend it Like Beckham"
"28 Days Later"
"Thirteen"
"Napoleon Dynamite"
"Sideways"
"Garden State" (shudder...)
"Thank You For Smoking"
A little film no one saw or enjoyed called "Little Miss Sunshine"
"Notes on a Scandal"
"Juno"
"The Wrestler"
Something called "Slumdog Millionaire" I guess a few people were okay with
We're supposed to believe test audiences preferred some sitcom-level pabulum about a nitwit leading other nitwits around on a tour of Greece while bitching about how no man can tolerate her constant, shrill whining to several of the decade's most beloved and celebrated films? Where were they screening this thing, Nia Vardalos' parents' basement? I want to see some numbers!
But beyond the fact that I think she's lying, the author of this piece CLEARLY believes that she has a God-given right to have her vanity vehicles distributed by a major studio. Lady, you're talentless. The fact that it happened for you once is AMAZING. Just embrace it. Life doesn't owe you shit, and studio executives owe you even less. You want a big payday and a distribution deal? Write just one thing that doesn't make me want to claw my own eyes out and then use them to plug up my ears.
Clearly this is the most amazing website you'll see today. "Goths in Hot Weather." Just give these guys a book deal now already...I'm tired of waiting.
Wow, really? This is the baddie in "Iron Man 2"?
I hope this costume is more impressive-looking on film, because here he looks like a paraplegic hobo with a Masters of the Universe fetish. Jonny Favs...I trust you...don't let me down.
There have been a lot of comedies like "The Hangover," though very few of them are as funny. Director Todd Phillips has made some of them. His "Old School" mines similar territory - dudes get into trouble after overdoing it on a jag away from screechy spouses and unsatisfying lives. Not to mention movies like "Very Bad Things," about what can happen when rowdy trips to Vegas turn sour, "Bachlor Party," about guys trying to keep their significant others misinformed about the eponymous ritual, and "Dude Wheres My Car," about the difficulties of cleaning up after a night of particularly wild partying.
But though "Hangover" incorporates elements from all of these movies, and more, it nevertheless feels like something unique. I'd chalk this up to two elements:
(1) A few underutilized actors finally getting a chance to take center-stage and aiming for the fences
(2) A script that isn't just a clothesline from which to hang crass jokes, but actually unfolds as something of a skewed mystery-thriller
[Mostly #1. I'd go so far as to say that this is likely to be the best comedy of 2009 because of three men: Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Ken Jeong. More on that in a bit]
The set-up is pretty familiar to anyone who has ever seen a contemporary dude comedy. Doug (Justin Bartha, mainly known to audiences as Nicolas Cage's irritating sidekick in the irritating "National Treasure" films) is getting married. Two of his best friends, Stu and Phil (Helms and Bradley Cooper), take him to Las Vegas 2 days before the wedding for a raucous bachelor party. They take along Doug's creepy, socially inept future brother-in-law Alan (Galifianakis). Cut to the morning after the party, when Doug's friends wake up in a decimated hotel room with a baby, a tiger, missing teeth, killer headaches and...no groom. Hey-o.
Scott Moore and Jon Lucas' script starts out predictably. I will say that the female characters in this film, save one extreme example, aren't the standard dreary harpies you usually find in these movies, explaining away the male character's reckless behavior with the power of their bitchiness and their constant, shrill, nonsensical demands. Jeffrey Tambor even shows up as the understanding, compassionate father of the bride, who doesn't begrudge his future son-in-law a final night on the town. But otherwise, you know where this is going within 2 minutes, and I actually kind of felt disappointment settling in when I realized just how formula the premise really was.
But once the actual story gets going, and the guys wake up with their titular hangovers, the movie gets less conventional and more interesting. Usually, in a movie like this about an (off-screen) crazy night of partying, you get a lot of random things thrown in that don't make any sense. So many wild adventures happened during the black-out phase, they can't all be logically pieced back together the next day. But not "The Hangover." When I described it as an almost-mystery, I wasn't kidding...Structurally, the movie's not all that different from an episode of "Law and Order"...The characters find clues, interview witnesses, ask pertinent questions, and gradually, a picture of the bachelor party starts to come together. As the guys spend 24 hours trying to find Doug and figure out what the hell went wrong the night before, Moore and Lucas actually manage to EXPLAIN most of the craziness. We find out what that tiger is doing there, whose baby that is, where Alan's man-purse went and why Stu's missing a tooth.
It's a nice touch, and it makes "Hangover" easily the closest Todd Phillips has ever come to making a real movie. Usually, I feel like he just hires some funny actors and kind of lets them loose, and tries to piece together something like a story while editing. (He essentially admits this is what was done on the "Old School" DVD.)
But even a pretty funny script with some good, unexpected set-ups wouldn't really be enough to elevate this material above the standard "entertaining summer comedy" level without Helms and Galifianakis, and Ken Jeong's brief but amazing turn as Leslie Chow. Galifianakis, in particular, is absolutely fearless here. Not just willing to perform an entire scene bottomless, hit a baby on the head with a car door or lean in to a punch by Mike Tyson, but to allow Alan to be unrelentingly, uninterruptedly creepy for 90 straight minutes. Most actors would be tempted to wink at the audience once or twice at least - hey, we know this guy is strange and kind of unsettling, but he's a good guy, right? Right? Well, I'm not really sure Alan is a good guy, and he's certainly not a guy I'd want around children.
Helms just hasn't ever had this much screen time in anything I've ever seen. Stu is actually a bit like Helms' Andy Bernard character from "The Office," if a touch less angry and mean. Stu's the emotional core of the movie - balancing Bradley Cooper's frigid aggressiveness and Galifianakis' whacked-out vulnerability - which makes it odd that he also gets so many of the best moments and funniest lines. Also, Helms and Heather Graham manage to sketch a pretty believable romantic sub-plot in like 1 and a half scenes.
Then there's Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow. The less said about this character, the better. This is one of those small supporting performances that just comes in and steals the whole movie for a few scenes. The magic of pairing a funny actor with the right role and just letting it play out naturally. Jeong's been funny in bit parts in a number of Judd Apatow (and Co.) films - including "Knocked Up," "Pineapple Express" - but he's never been used as well as he is here.
In fact, "The Hangover" overall is just more funny and entertaining than anything from the Apatow factory. I've been considering why this is. First off, it's shorter. All Apatow movies are overlong. Apatow, you sense, wants to make GOOD films, to tell relatable that a wide cross-section of the population - men and women - can enjoy together. Phillips is definitely less self-conscious, both in terms of his style and just attitude. He has more freedom to just make things funny.
But I also think Apatow may just insist on making us LIKE the guys in his movies too much. We always have to come to understand why they never grew out of being immature boys, and we always see them start down the path of maturity and responsibility by the end of the film. (Am I the only one who hates the "Knocked Up" montage where we see Seth Rogen give up smoking pot and start working at a cubicle in some bullshit, soul-sucking office as a way of proving that he has a right to father a child? "Hey, want a family? Give up and conform!" Fuck you, dude.)
Phillips understands that you don't need to really like someone all that much to laugh at him, and you certainly don't have to understand his particular angst or ennui. You just have to want to follow him around. Sure, a movie's protagonist should grow from the experience of the movie, but it doesn't have to suck all the air out of the room. Sometimes, growth can just be sobering up and heading back to LA to get married.
Painfully, hilariously accurate. I think this might be a bit BIG conceptually for a T-shirt though...unless you're sitting next to someone for a while, I'm not sure the concept would really sink in.
Mahalo's hard at work on our "Red Faction Guerrilla" walkthrough, and we've started posting some of the HD gameplay videos on our blog and site.
Game looks kind of fun, though I'm not sure if I'd go out of my way to get it. Seems like a game set on Mars would be more far-out and alien than this. This basically just looks like a red-tinted war game:
I already enjoyed a delicious Krispy Kreme this morning in commemoration. I'd suggest you do the same, unless, you know, you hate America...
This video is composed entirely of win. Why don't I ever go to stores where people are spontaneously doing the MC Hammer dance? Dammit!
Had a blast making this one today. Also, editing/directing savant Kenny Chen was able to turn it around in RECORD time. Epic.
Rather than proposing, for example, the elimination of the Education Department, as they have in the past, Republicans are suggesting killing a program that pays for building sidewalks, bike paths and crossing guards as part of the Safe Routes to Schools program. That would save $183 million a year.
Nicely done, gents. That's going to be an easy sell to the average American. After all, no one cares about the safety of their children What alternative is there to just asking kids to get hit by cars and take one for the team? I mean, we don't want to burden the super-rich with an additional 2-3% in income tax! Am I right or am I right?
Other dynamite cuts included in the House GOP's proposal include not maintaining and preserving historic sites and dropping retirement benefits for federal employees.
So...they want oil and meat packing tycoons to be able to pass along lucrative trust funds to their great-grandkids, even if it means abandoning the Lincoln Memorial and shipping off aging former mail carriers to the poorhouse. How did these guys manage to lose the last election with a platform as appealing as that one?
Sounds pretty impressive. I'm all for far-out sci-fi fantasy set in a wholly-original universe. Let's hope it can live up to several years of outsized hype...
Personally, I don't mind that the Nintendo Wii has essentially become a gimmicky nostalgia machine. I have an Xbox 360 for more contemporary games. I say, go ahead and remake all my old NES favorites. If there were a new Kid Icarus reboot, I'd buy the shit out of that too!
Somehow this video was made using time-lapse photography of Tokyo, but don't ask me how they actually did it. Looks like an intricately designed model city.
Such an accurate indictment of our collective failure to actually realize our ancestor's dreams. This would be depressing if it weren't so well-executed and funny.
Also, I love how EVEN THIS woefully obvious satire still inspire confused "is this real?" YouTube comments. Sigh...
Now that's a packed line-up. Stay tuned for the Easter Egg at the end. We've really been on an Easter Egg roll (hey-o!) as of late.
Has Drew considered that he may want to come off a bit less diabolically creepy if he ever wants to not live in a cell again? You're awaiting trial for MURDER, dude...MUR-DER. At least OJ waited until he got off on the murder charge before writing a book about how funny it would've been if he were guilty.
Is this just completely ludicrous, or some kind of mad stroke of genius? I'm not sure. But I will definitely be seeing it ASAP.
Was really bummed to hear about the loss of Jay Bennett, formerly of Wilco, this morning. Bennett was with the band during their creative peak, particularly "Summerteeth" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," and I've never really been as into the work since his departure.
This is a clip from the documentary "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," which unfortunately led Bennett to file a lawsuit against former bandmate Jeff Tweedy earlier this month. It gives a good insight into the band's creative process, as well as showcasing Bennett's intuitive sense for musical production and arrangement. The guy was a big talent.
I've never even heard of this "Asher Roth" guy but WOW...what a douchebag.
Kind of an interesting premise, although it invites comparisons to a LOT of other recent movies about androids.
Zack Braff has absolute power in the land of the “Swingles.” According to Variety, Braff will direct the romantic comedy, which will be his first feature since 2004’s “Garden State.” The project already boasts leading lady Cameron Diaz, but Braff isn’t content with merely directing her. He will also be co-starring and rewriting the film.
“Swingles” centers on a bachelor who is dumped by his wingman. Having studied his “Top Gun,” the bachelor knows that he can’t fly solo, and he decides that his next pickup companion will be a wingwoman. Sounds like a plan, right? Not so fast. The new winglady is a “sharp-tongued” sort, and our bachelor can’t stand her. Of course we all know where this is probably going: loathing turns into love and things wrap up with a little “happily ever after.”
For the love of all things holy...Words fail. The thought of a movie in which Zach Braff studies "Top Gun" for romantic advice and tests its lessons in the field alongside Cameron Diaz reminds me of every nightmare I've ever had, times 500. I would rather direct myself in a snuff film.
Animated movies are just getting more and more dystopian all the time. First, "WALL-E" was set on a future Earth covered in trash, now "9" is set on a future Earth covered in trash and monsters? By 2011, CG animated films will just be set in a pit filled with feces and jagged shards of glass. "The Legend of Shitglass: Chapter the First."
Not typically a fan of the political commentary on "The View," which tends towards discussions about whether or not the world is flat, but Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg's harassment of Glenn Beck is pretty glorious.
She also gets him to deny being a reporter and admit that he does not check facts. Sweet.
A lot of new walkthroughs going up at Mahalo this week...We've got a writer started on this new game, "Bionic Commando," which was originally an arcade game from '87 that was turned into an NES game in '88 This new game is a direct sequel to the classic game, and the first full BC game for any next-generation system. (There was an enhanced remake of the NES game available on Xbox Live Arcade). I'm not really familiar with the originals...
Haven't had a chance to play it yet, though I've heard the controls are kind of sluggish. The graphics look pretty cool though, and I'm curious to see what that arm cannon thing does...
You can check out the full walkthrough here on Mahalo:
http://www.mahalo.com/Bionic_Commando_Walkthrough
We're also working on "Velvet Assassin" and "Terminator: Salvation" at the moment. More to come on those...
2 Girls, 1 Sub? Are they kidding? Quizno's is now purposefully associating their brand with eating poo?
http://gawker.com/5261151/quiznos-taste-the-poop
You know Don Draper would not stand for this kind of thing.
Dick Cheney is getting a nuclear bunker. Or a spy tunnel. Or a helicopter landing pad. Or maybe nothing at all.Rumours are rife in Washington about the nature of building work being carried out at the Naval Observatory, which includes the official residence of the vice-president of the United States.
But though regular blasts and construction traffic show that something is going on at 1 Observatory Circle, no-one will say what it is.
Yeah, I'm not saying that Joe Biden isn't prone to making stupid absent-minded gaffes. He does it all the time. In fact, Joe Biden says hilariously silly things so often, you don't need to invent them when they don't really happen.
Everyone has known since 2002 that Dick Cheney had a bunker built under his house. Because Dick Cheney was a paranoid motherfucker, and he was making a huge crazy racket under his house in 2002 when the thing was built. This is an article from the BBC back then...The first sentence of the lede is "Dick Cheney is getting a nuclear bunker."
Getting angry at Joe Biden for revealing this is like getting upset at Leonard Maltin for revealing that "Shakespeare in Love" beats "Saving Private Ryan" for Best Picture. That shit already happened...
Not bad...Sort of Sherlock Holmes as a superhero...Downey Jr looks fun.
Tina Fey says Grizz and Dot Com are real friends of Tracy Morgan...And those are their real nicknames? Amazing...So amazing, in fact, I'm not sure I believe her.
Today's must-read is Robert Draper's article for GQ on the fall and even further fall of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It's almost too surreal to believe. As Smithers once said, Rumsfeld went moved from ordinary villainy to cartoonish "super-villainy."
Take that, people who play as bards in D&D! Ha ha!
You can hear this album - a collaboration between DJ Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse mastermind Mark Linkous, director David Lynch and gusts including Frank Black, Iggy Pop, the Flaming Lips and Grandaddy's Jason Lytle - streaming on NPR. I'm listening right now...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104129585
A Republican state lawmaker hoping for his party's nod to run for Senate reportedly referred to Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer as "that Jew" during a recent appearance before a Republican group.
State Sen. Kim Hendren told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was wrong to refer to Schumer's religious affiliation during a Pulaski County Republican Committee meeting last week. Hendren said he doesn't remember the exact wording of his comment, but he was quoted by conservative blogger Jason Tolbert as calling Schumer "that Jew."
"I ought not to have referred to it at all," Hendren told the AP. "When I referred to him as Jewish, it wasn't because I don't like Jewish people."
Diamonds, Daisies, Snowflakes,
That Jew
Chestnuts, Rainbows, Springtime...
Is That Jew
He's tinsel on a tree...
He's everything that every Jew should be!
Sable, Popcorn, White Wine,
That Jew
Gingham, Bluebirds, Broadway...
Is That Jew
He's mine alone, but luckily for you...
If you find a Jew to love,
Only one Jew to love,
Then he'll be That Jew too...
That Jew!
Can't wait to see this one...I should probably read the book first. Looks downright frightening...
Not sure why this video of Leo DiCaprio and Kevin Bacon cowering in fear at their near-creaming in the front row of the Laker game the other night is so funny...but it is. Enjoy.
http://www.tmz.com/2009/05/13/rockets-get-crushed-take-it-out-on-dicaprio/
LisaNova did this same bit a while back, but it holds up. Casey Wilson reads YouTube comments...(Watch until the end!)
http://jezebel.com/5252587/casey-wilson-reads-internet-comments
Meet Masanobu Sato, world masturbating champion. Actually, don't meet him. Cause that will just encourage him.
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/05/masturbate-a-thon_champion_spe.php
I am amused by the World Masturbatory Circuit's firmly (ahem) held belief that, if you speak about it formally, in terms typically used to describe track meets or athletic challenges, a masturbate-a-thon does not sound like a whole bunch of dudes whacking off together for an entire day.
I also love that this is what it took to outdo competitive eating. First, guys compete to see who can eat the most. Then, guys compete to see who can jerk off the longest. And we all know what comes next...Competitive pangs of regret and sadness, followed by competitive fitful sleep.
Yeah, Internet? I'll take way more insane spittle-flecked Kanye West rants, please...with a side of Blingees. 'Preciate it.
Facebook's failure to ban groups that promote Holocaust Denial has created something of a stir on tech blogs this week. Brian Cuban makes a passionate argument against Facebook's policy here, and Michael Arrington takes up the discussion here.
These guys thoughtfully argue that Facebook has set a dangerous double standard. The company censored a group dedicated to breastfeeding, but refuses to censor a group that actively promotes antisemitism. They are correct. This IS a ludicrous double standard. There is nothing wrong with breastfeeding - it's an entirely natural activity that women should be allowed to openly discuss in any public forum - but there are many things wrong with Holocaust Denial. The main one being, that it's totally wrong, and the Holocaust happened, and it needs to be discussed and remembered.
But I think Arrington, Cuban and others are approaching this argument from the wrong perspective. In essence, this double standard exists because Facebook SHOULD NOT have censored discussion of breastfeeding, not because it SHOULD censor discussion of Holocaust Denial. BOTH discussions should be allowed to take place on the site, to my mind.
In my opinion, Facebook shouldn't censor speech unless it's absolutely vital. The discussion should only even come up in extreme cases...Essentially, anything that could cause direct, immediate harm to another individual or group of individuals. Instructions on how to make a weapon or commit a violent crime, requests or orders for group members to go out and commit crimes, private information such as Social Security numbers that must not be made public...That kind of speech would understandably be removed from Facebook.
But, like it or not, a massively-popular website dedicated to free and open discussions will, eventually, attract some odious and repellent contributions. There are a lot of sick people out there who use the Internet say horrible, untrue, offensive things.
The best antidote to something like Holocaust Denial is not censorship...Quite the opposite. There is no evidence supporting Holocaust Denial. Anyone armed with THE TRUTH should be able to outsmart its proponents. Shine a light on these sorts of pernicious lies rather than trying to hide them. The cover-up only grants them unearned legitimacy. Intelligent people who feel strongly about pushing back against hateful lies like Holocaust Denial should confront their real enemies - Holocaust Deniers - publicly, pointing out their factual, logical and moral errors for all to see. Why cover up something that can be so easily refuted?
Facebook has now painted itself into a corner by censoring the breastfeeding stuff. Now, they have no choice but to go around censoring any material that a considerable majority of the site's users might find objectionable or offensive. This is not an enviable position. Far better to be very very permissive about what can be discussed on Facebook, limiting censorship ONLY to those discussions which present a direct and immediate threat to the safety and well-being of individuals or groups. (Holocaust Denial, while offensive to Jews, does not put us in any kind of immediate danger. People have hated Jews for millennia and we're still here.)
This looks amazing. I cannot wait to see it. Larry David plus Woody Allen...How could it not be genius? Already one classic Woody-ism in the trailer:
"I'm dying!...Not now, eventually!"
Enjoy. I'm very proud of all the TWIYT episodes, but feels like we're really hitting a stride the past few weeks. Much credit to my amazing co-hosts and editor-director double threat Kenny Chen.
The post, reportedly written by a teenager from Chambersburg, Penn., said: "I'm killing Ovechkin and I don't care what happens to me."
The Penguins immediately informed local police, as well as the NHL and the Capitals.
"We were notified of the message and immediately turned over all information to the authorities," the Penguins said in a statement.
It is not known if criminal charges are pending, but officials don't believe Ovechkin was ever in any real danger. Ovechkin was aware of the threat, but did not comment when the incident was first reported by a local television station in Pittsburgh.
You've got to be kidding me...According to the latest research I've made up, Internet users threaten to metaphorically "kill" celebrities on the web at least 500 cajillion times per second.
I don't know, before you report this to the news media and get them on the case, maybe you ought to investigate a bit and discover whether this kid, is, like, living in his own filth and carving a pistol out of plastic...or if he's just an angry hockey fan ranting on a message board somewhere.
PETER O’BRIEN
Shh, it’s alright son. You’re safe now, back in Canada in 1845.
YOUNG HUGH JACKMAN
Wait, what? Canada wasn’t even a country until 1867. Has Hollywood managed to not discover Wikipedia yet?
It's smarm-tastic!
I would pretty much pay to see "Slaughter Shack" if it were a real film, for the cast alone.
Brilliant, as always. Galifianakis deserves to be America's most beloved talk show host...Networks, make this happen!
I've just spent the last hour or so on the phones, tracking down a rumor I heard, and HitFix can exclusively report that Bradley Cooper is now one of the guys most likely to don the suit and slip on the power ring as The Green Lantern for director Martin Campbell.
Blech...Something about this guy just bugs me. I'm not sure what it is. Just feels like he was a bit TOO well-cast in "Wedding Crashers" as the world's most oversized douche...
Interesting that adversaries in Vince Vaughn movies are always played by guys who are big douches in real life, as well as films. Jeremy Piven, Craig Kilborn and Cooper...The list goes on and on...
I say...maybe. I know a nice big screen probably makes for more comfortable reading...but at this point, you might as well just carry a book around with you. Isn't the whole point of a Kindle that you can take your reading material with you easily wherever you go? Lugging this thing around is like having a laptop, which you can already use to read books if you so choose.
Am I missing something?
Mahalo's new "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" walkthrough is coming along swimmingly. Follow our progress here:
http://www.mahalo.com/X-Men_Origins_Wolverine_Walkthrough
I like Hugh Jackman in these films, but the movie was not great. Felt really scattered, like an attempt to just rehash information about Wolverine's past that had already been established in "X2," and then distracting fans with lots of extraneous mutant fighting. (A scene in which Wolverine faces off against Blob for no good reason is the most obvious offender, though Gambit is also awkwardly wedged in there unnecessarily).
If these fights were really epic and brutal, I'd probably be willing to forgive the overall lack of coherency, but they're choppy and largely unexciting. Often, you feel like most of the best individual shots and moments, such as Wolverine actually taking out a helicopter, are being edited out of the scene, so all you see is build-up and no pay-off.
Anyway, the game looks more fun, but after teh disappointment of the "Iron Man" tie-in, I'm going to wait and see what the public verdict is before investing.
Mahalo's guide is going to be VERY thorough. Where to find all the hidden costumes, action figures, dog tags...you name it. Which is good, because I hate when the game is easy but it takes forever because you have to find all kinds of dumb hidden crap.
JJ Abrams' new "Star Trek" film succeeds by negating all the films, TV shows, novels and other outlets for compulsive fan obsession that have come before. That's not really a knock on old "Star Trek," necessarily, but it is something of an acknowledgment. The way, it seems, to make a really kickass "Star Trek" film is to stop trying to make a "Star Trek" film and just make a science-fiction adventure with phasers and Vulcans.
Abrams, co-producer Damon Lindelof and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman clearly have no interest in exploring the high-minded, contemplative, ponderous tone of classic "Trek." Likewise, patently refuse to wade through the years and years of backstory, exposition and technical explanations that would make it difficult for new writers to invent any fresh, original narratives. So what we have here is a painstaking, delicate bit of cinematic surgery...All of the fun, pop culture aspects of "Star Trek" with none (and I mean NONE) of the features that distinguish it from any other science fiction franchise.
Here's how they do it...Time Travel! I know, I know, you're shocked...The creators of "Lost" are trying to escape a tricky narrative dead-end by artfully employing a gimmicky time travel device? NO WAY! But it's true. The set-up...A portal through time has opened, allowing the evil Romulan captain Nero (Eric Bana) to travel into history, to the time when Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the Enterprise crew were still trainees. Stuck in the past, and filled with rage at an encounter with the Federation he had in his own time, Nero starts creating all kinds of trouble for the Federation. When he abducts Commander Pike (Bruce Greenwood), who was captaining the Enterprise, he puts Spock and Kirk in command for the very first time.
Fans of "Back to the Future II," of course, will realize that, because Nero has gone back in time and is screwing with past events, he has created an alternate future. So Abrams, Lindelof and Paramount can, from here on out, pretty do whatever they want. All those old stories with the original cast happened in a now-forgotten second reality that was erased the moment Nero and Co. were sent back in time. Very crafty...
Hardcore fans may be offended by this attempt at what comic book readers call "retconning," the altering of established facts in a fictional universe to allow for new and different narratives. I don't mind it so much. Abrams' "Star Trek" is a very well-made, exciting summer popcorn film, and that's enough for me. I was more entertained by "Star Trek" than any film in the series since "The Wrath of Khan." It's fun. You get the amusing banter between likable and familiar characters, phasers, catchphrases, Romulans, cool effects and photon torpedoes. It's like a "Star Trek" film designed exactly for people who were vaguely familiar with the shows through cultural osmosis, or because they've watched a few of the movies on TBS while playing hooky from work.
The young actors are well cast, and generally resemble their Original Series counterparts, but only Quinto as Spock and Pine as Kirk seem to have really internalized the performances of their predecessors. Pine has Shatner's vibe down so immaculately, on the other hand, I half expected him to get me an awesome deal on a hotel in San Francisco. It's actually kind of amazing how seamlessly he incorporates classic Shatner-isms without resorting to the hacky "pause after every five words" routine immortalized in countless bad impressions. John Cho, on the other hand, plays Sulu solely by being Asian and occasionally by steering the ship. Simon Pegg has a few funny scenes in the film but makes absolutely no effort to "play" a character named "Scotty." He just does his usual routine with a Scottish accent.
Aesthetically, everything's where it should be. The inside of the Enterprise looks brighter and crisper than it ever has before (it is, after all, a brand new ship this time around), but it's not over-designed or made to look self-consciously "futuristic." Abrams has also improved significantly as a director since "Mission: Impossible 3." That film's big set pieces were choppy and flat. "Trek" has at least 3 really large-scale, epic and memorable action sequences, including a very fast-paced, compelling opening battle and a pretty incredible sky diving scene that works in everyone's favorite "Star Trek" trope - the doomed red-shirted ensign. It's just all reinvented to be snarky instead of sincere, and visceral instead of philosophical.
I've never been a huge Trek fan precisely because I find it a bit austere and over-serious. Take Gene Roddenberry's basic aim - of creating a science-fiction series that grappled with weighty, metaphysical and socio-political themes - combine it with with syndicated TV-level acting and low production values, and you have a recipe for camp. But still, I don't know if that means you just throw it all away..."Wrath of Khan" managed to be both Star Trekky and fun at the same time.
I'm reminded of "Quantum of Solace," an above-average James Bond film that nevertheless dispenses with nearly everything that makes James Bond James Bond. Yes, there are tuxedos and martinis and a few gadgets, but at what point do you stop even making a James Bond film and just start doing a Bourne adventure with a British guy? Abrams takes this question and explodes it - what if you took "Star Trek," invalidated everything that ever happened in it's universe, made all the characters significantly younger and forgot all about the show's major themes? Would it still be "Star Trek"? Well, what if you had a guy say he was "givin' her all she's got!," threw in some of the spaceships and occasionally played a riff on the theme song? And if you have to change SO MUCH just to make it watchable, maybe it's time to leave "Star Trek" to the devotees and just start fresh?
