Well into the story of Space Chimps, one of the eponymous primates, a stuffed-shirt, by-the-book, NASA-trained chimp named Titan, expresses his doubts about whether a makeshift spaceship rigged together from a planetary rover by three apes and a host of primitive aliens can really make it back to earth. Our protagonist’s glib reply: don’t overthink this. That may be Space Chimps defining moment; if you can avoid overthinking it, this movie’s third-rate animation and first-rate casting make for an enjoyable diversion.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Lost Boys.

Pixar’s movies have all revolved around a single idea: the fish out of water who learns to grapple with a new situation.  Woody is displaced by Buzz in Toy Story, Flick the unconventional ant trying to fix his mistakes, Mike and Sully trying to get rid of the dreaded Boo, Mr. Incredible forced to live the life of a normal human, Lightening McQueen stranded in hick-ville, Remy a rat in the kitchen, and of course Nemo and Marlin each take the idea of the fish out of water literally.  Despite this seemingly repetitive simplicity even their two weakest films don’t come across as recycled despite the fact that both are remakes (Bugs Life is Seven Samuri and Cars is Doc Hollywood).  What is behind this ability to make simple concepts entertaining?  It seems to me that the answer is craftsmanship.  Pixar puts an amazing amount of work into each picture.  Unlike other CGI houses they aren’t just churning this stuff out for a quick buck.  They’re in the business of crafting classics.

On the surface Wall-E is just the next variation of the theme: an outdated, quirky robot taken out of his element and placed in a situation that he doesn’t even understand.  Yet the difference here is that Wall-E doesn’t grow so much as find what he’s looking for.  It is everyone, both man and machine, that he comes into contact with that must now rise to the occasion and defy their programming.

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Brilliant. Slapstick.

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Great story up at Wired on Nolan shunning digital effects for doing it for real. The Dark Knight is sounding better and better each week. Especially after having to deal with Lucas (yet again). (Although truth be told there were only a few places where the CGI bugged me in The Hulk and Iron Man)
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I’m horribly unqualified to do a tech review, but I have to tell you I love this thing. (more…)

Shit sandwich.

The first scene of Indy IV is so shockingly awful that you wonder whether it was intended to be so. I suspect they filmed it right at the end knowing that the pile of crap they had in front of them might as well stink from the first frame onwards. That way you at least know what you’re going to expect. Hopes immediately crushed, you can then concentrate on snogging your date or enjoying silent popcorn burps. I suppose we should be grateful.

I’m not going to describe the particular abomination in question because some things should be experienced in their full, unanticipated splendour. Let’s just say that Lucas and Spielberg have opened their bladder over the Indiana Jones of yore and should both be arrested for a display of public immorality that even Binks rose above. Yes, you heard it right: Phantom Menace was better. Indy IV is a leaden, dull, dimwitted, tiring piece of cinematic Scheiss. If you are on the fence about seeing it, please don’t go. Do not reward their sorry arses.

Just kidding. I haven’t seen it. What, you think stupid bloggers get passes to see sweet bigtime movies like this? No, I got a pass to see Don’t Mess With the Zohan instead.

Anyhow, if you’ve seen Indy IV, post about it in the comments. My prediction: people will call it “pretty good.”

OK. So I’ve been reading all the reviews at various places like AICN. I’m scared. I really, really want the new Indiana Jones movie to be good. I don’t want it to be like the Star Wars prequels. It’s a fantastic summer for movies. (Iron Man, Batman, etc.) But Indiana Jones just holds a special place in my heart. Last Crusade was a bit of a disappointment to me. Not bad, but just lacking something… It just didn’t place it straight somehow. The way the first one did.
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As we left the theater, my wife said to me that Paranoid Park is a film about the moments that other films pass over. As usual, she’s on to something. (more…)

Jon Favreau’s Iron Man belongs in the pantheon of great superhero movies along with Spider-Man 2 and Batman Begins. It doesn’t talk down to its audience, it respects the fanboys and includes strong performances. What more do you need to know? (more…)

Some of my fondest memories of my childhood involve staying up late with my father and playing Space Invaders on our Atari 2600. For some reason, Dad loved that game. We figured out the cheat where if you held down the reset button while you powered up the console, the game would give you double missiles. But when we weren’t playing Space Invaders, we were usually watching really bad movies on late-night television. As we sat there, we’d mock the shows we were watching and die laughing. To us, alone, late at night, it was hilarious. Years later, when I first saw “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” I knew immediately what was going on. The show captured the mood of our experience exactly, along with a goofy sci-fi premise. The show was both legitimately hilarious, no matter what time of day you watched it, and about ten times more clever than expected. Random, often obscure, pop-culture references were peppered throughout. It was immediately familiar and yet unlike anything I had seen before. I loved it.

So when I recently had the chance to interview the creators of MST3000, who have revived their shtick for a project called Cinematic Titanic, which will be released in individual episodes on DVD and direct downloads, I jumped at the chance.

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How to scare the crap out of people, but still maintain your integrity (take note, oh ye torture-pornographers):

Take a kid wearing a holy-frak-that’s-horrible hood. Add nasty old lady. Have a little boy talk to imaginary friends. Show very little, imply a lot. Set movie in Spain in an creepy house which makes all manner of gawd-awful noises. Stir.

The Orphanage is like The Others but without the cloying annoyingness of Nicole Kidman. Rookie Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona has cooked up a real chiller while simultaneously avoiding the gore and banality of recent Hollywood horror. The genius of the film is that it’s only a ghost story to a certain point. I don’t want to give anything away, but when it’s over you’ll be wondering what was supernatural and what wasn’t. Watch it before the American remake.

Like many people, I’ve had an idea for a screenplay knocking around in my brain for quite a while. Despite the best of intentions, I’ve never committed it to paper. Cue Script Frenzy. Like its sister event, NaNoWriMo, its reason for being is to inspire novice writers to produce an entire draft by setting an arbitrary deadline and time constraint. Script Frenzy participants are challenged and encouraged to produce a 100 page draft of their screenplay, teleplay or stage play between April 1 and April 30. The website also provides helpful tips and basic instruction, such as this introduction to screenwriting or this guide to the basics of screenplay formating.

For mostly superstitious reasons, I’m reluctant to share the basis for my screenplay, but I will represent that it’s based on a true (though relatively unknown) story, has memorable characters, and might make a great movie. If someone can ever get it written, that is.

Wish me luck. Anyone else want to join me?

I got this purely on a whim the other day. I was browsing the documentary aisle at Best Buy and the pickings were slim. I ended up buying this for two reasons. One, I grew up as a teen in Seattle and used to see Nirvana play at small all ages shows. Two, there was a list of bands on the back whose music are featured in it, including Bad Brains, the Melvins, Butthole Surfers…my kind of stuff. When my husband saw it, he said, “I wonder if there’s any footage of us in it?” I figured chances were slim, but maybe there might be some footage from a show we were at.
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Another quick post: the final trailer for Wall-E has been put up at Apple. Pixar looks seriously back on its game, and I would not be surprised if this turns out to be one of the best movies of the year. I can already tell it will probably be better than Indy IV — and this comes from an Indy fan.

Here’s the new trailer (in Spanish subtitles) for the Ed Norton Incredible Hulk. Hulk still looks CGI, only now he’s battling another CGI Hulk. Disappointing, frankly. Ang Lee’s Hulk was ponderous, but it was also beautiful and thoughtful. How will this movie compare, if the effects/action aren’t superior? Ed Norton’s acting prowess is amazing — but I am not confident that this alone would be enough.

And you Ang Lee haters can stick it!!

 

I have now seen this movie three times.  Aside from the fact that this makes me something of a freak, I discovered the following: (more…)

I’m late to the party, but that’s the price I have to pay for only seeing movies in the dollar theater. I don’t think KB ever had a discussion about the movie. Anyone see it?

If you haven’t and you’re waiting for the DVD, ignore this thread. Spoilers galore. Actually, that may not be true—I don’t think there’s much about the movie to spoil.
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In case you were thinking about doing something else that night, here’s the new Indy IV poster. (more…)

OK, back in the Newman thread the issue of plays made into movies came up. Now this is one I’m probably not qualified to make a list for. I’m just not a huge play guy. Mainly because it seems like nearly every play I’ve seen has 2-3 good actors and then a bunch of terrible ones that are so jarring that I just can’t enjoy it. However my business partner loves plays and before we got so busy used to go up to the Oregon Shakespearean Festival every year to spend several days watching plays. (They do a lot more than Shakespeare there)

But that’s neither here nor there. Here’s my question. What’s your favorite list of plays made into movies. Need some crib sheets? Here’s the wiki of plays made into movies.
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Of course, it’s always funnier to fall off the couch laughing when someone is sitting next to you. This one made me and my son completely lose it—seriously, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on a TV Show:

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This brilliant documentary purports to be about the elusive high score on the classic arcade game, Donkey Kong, but is in fact a classic tale of Good vs. Evil, Weak vs. Powerful, and Trimmed vs. Mullet. Billy Mitchell is widely recognized as one of the greatest classic video game players of all time as he recorded the high scores on games such as Centipede, Donkey Kong Jr. and the notoriously difficult Donkey Kong, a record which stood for nearly twenty years. Steve Wiebe is a normal dude who got laid off from his job at Boeing and with his extra time decided he’d like to beat that record.

But beating it wasn’t the problem. (more…)

Is it really that difficult? And yet so often our expectations are ignored and scorned. Remember the Fantastic Four movie? Bah.

Well, Jon Favreau knows how to win over this fanboy’s heart. Check out the new Iron Man trailer. 2008 is going to be a great, great year for comic book adaptations. I predict this will be a winner.