The Movie Show

2011-01-14T17:29:00.003-05:00

Members,

Please excuse the formatting issues we had with this week's REALTOR Report.

Here is the broken link to the video we posted today.

We're working the bugs out of the system, and hopefully all issues will be corrected before next week's e-blast.

Have a great weekend.

Best,
Joe Scott,
Communications Director
GRRA, Inc.
23 Oak Branch Dr.
Greensboro, NC 27407

[PODCAST] Now in 3-D!

2010-02-02T08:05:00.003-05:00

Grab your special 3-D headphones because Joe and Mike spent Avatar sums of money to deliver this week’s episode of the Movie Show in Super Stereo Audiovision 3-D.

They also deliver a trilogy of stories about studios chasing 3-D dollar signs, an advanced review of Black Dynamite, this year’s Sundance winners, and the latest from Tiger Beat sensation Zac Efron.

Soundtrack Selections:  

“It Took a Long Time” by LaBelle from Precious;

“Help Yourself” by Sad Brad Smith from Up in the Air;

-and-

“Man with the Heat (Superbad)” by Adrian Younge from Black Dynamite.

Stream it!

[PODCAST] Bronson, Conan, and The Craig

2010-01-26T12:54:00.001-05:00

On the first ever Monday edition of The Movie Show, Joe and Mike hand over the turn tables to Screamin’ Craig Lidnsey of the Raleigh News and Observer and his friend Daniel Johnson from Film Babble Blog. Mike calls Craig out for dissing entire movie franchises after seeing only the worst of its sequels and Craig fires back by calling Mike out on being, well, Mike.

They also review “Bronson” and “Extraordinary Measures” while giving the latest news on Mark Romanek, Ben Stiller, and the “Conan the Barbarian” remake.

Stream It!

The Ten Best Films of the Geek Decade

2009-12-28T07:57:00.011-05:00

I'm calling it right now: In terms of film, the aughts (or 00's) were most definitely the Geek Decade of cinema.

Inspired by the 1999 release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, a truly boring movie that managed to pull significant dollars due to its geek demographic potential, studios began to consider other ways to harness the box-office pull of fanboys. The logic was sound. Online film sources like Aint-It-Cool-News, Dark Horizons, and JoBlo did an excellent job of whipping audiences into a frenzy while more and more print critics found themselves out of a job. And when a studio played a film like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, you suddenly had people hanging out in the parking lots dressed as characters from the movie, transforming it from a movie into an event, free of charge.

More importantly, filmmakers like Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan, and Sam Raimi fought to test the Geeks' loyalty if the films being made for them were actually good.

This meant that while 90's geek films like Batman and Robin and Mystery Men were total abortions, their 00's counterparts like Spider-Man 2 The Dark Knight made for some of the most memorable moments inside a movie theater. Meanwhile, "legitimate" dramas and indie films like 90's best of decade contenders American Beauty, Boogie Nights, and The English Patient languished over the last ten years. Partially because the print critics that would have supported them in local papers had been laid off, and also because of the studios' misguided notion that people over 35 have no interest in seeing movies.

So without further adieu, here are my top ten (or 14) movies of the decade. Not all of the movies here are "geek" films by any means, but they are the best films I've seen in the last ten years.

1) City of God

The true story of a photographer as a young man woven seamlessly into the history of the violent town where he grew up, City of God is fantastic storytelling on both an intimate and grand scale. Fernando Meirelles and his under-credited co-director Kátia Lund commanded amazing performances from a cast of child actors, many of whom were members of gangs like the ones presented in the movie. And while all of the films on this list are great, memorable cinematic experiences, none were quite as influential. The editing, handheld photography and color palette used in many of this film’s scenes have later reappeared in other movies trying to borrow part of the movie’s intensity, including The Bourne Supremacy and Quantum of Solace for starters.

When Danny Boyle won the Oscar last year for delivering a tidy, Walt Disney riff on City of God via the inferior Slumdog Millionare, the only part of me that wasn’t indignant knew it was merely latent praise for what was truly one of the best movies ever made.

2) The Lord of the Rings (trilogy)

To this day, I am still baffled as to how Kiwi director Peter Jackson - who was infamous for making z-grade schlock horror flicks - was able to convince a studio to risk its entire bottom line on a three-part epic fantasy trilogy. But the gamble paid off in spades – not only at the box-office, but with the overall quality of the films as well. What Jackson and his devoted team of writers, actors, crewmembers and technicians did was essentially craft a nine-hour ode to the importance of friendship that was punctuated by epic battles. Speaking of which, between Gladiator and Avatar, there were many filmed epic battles this decade, but none were more thrilling or operatic than the Battle of Helm’s Deep from The Two Towers, my favorite movie in the trilogy.

3) Lady Vengeance (aka Sympathy for Lady Vengeance)

Park Chan-Wook was my auteur discovery of the decade, and while many of my friends and colleagues favored Oldboy above the rest of the director’s films, this one gets my vote. The beautiful Yeong-ae Lee plays Geum-ja Lee, a woman wronged in worse ways than even Uma Thurman’s character in Kill Bill. Of course, Lee seeks revenge – albeit in one of the most cold and calculated ways portrayed on-screen - but in a twist that echoes the other two parts of Park’s revenge trilogy (including Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), comeuppance does not lead to the satisfaction or resolution frequently portrayed in movies. Beautifully filmed, this is a twisted story that shows heart in rather strange and unique ways.

4) The Royal Tenenbaums

The final installment of Wes Anderson’s youth cycle of live-action cartoons, this movie marks the one and only time in the filmmaker’s career when a movie he made was a box-office smash. And while it’s a shame his other films couldn’t net the same love, this broken family dramedy scores heaps of laughs via the most subtle of punchlines. Before “Tenenbaums” I never saw a movie make an audience chuckle at the mere sight of a bizarre painting (i.e., masked marauders on three-wheelers). Nor did I ever see one of Anderson’s characters achieve more redemption than Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), a displaced patriarch who must finally atone for the selfish and philandering ways of his past.

5) The Dark Knight

It took both of Bryan Singer’s X-Men films, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 as well as director Chris Nolan’s first stab at Batman in Batman Begins to get us here, but The Dark Knight is the first comic book film to transcend its source material and become a great piece of cinema. Lifting the compressed narrative style of comic book panels, this intricate, fiercely-edited thriller finds Batman as a hero that can’t win for losing. Vicious dogs – a motif throughout the film – chase him relentlessly; the love of his life dies horribly; and the methods he uses to fight crime appear worthless in the face of the Joker (Heath Ledger), a new villain that doesn’t believe in rules. There’s irony in the fact that one of the film’s Joker-inspired taglines was “Why so serious?” since the movie was nothing if not serious itself.

6) Kill Bill (vol. 1 & 2)

Quentin Tarantino is the great rap artist of cinema. Like all rappers, he finds discarded sources of media that most people find irrelevant – in this case, samurai and kung-fu movies from Asia – spins them together into a new beat and adds great lyrics (or dialogue) to create a song that everybody loves. So it only makes sense that Tarantino would collaborate with actual rapper and Wu-Tang member the RZA to craft this feminist manifesto of violent, bloody revenge starring Uma Thurman, who is by far the action hero of the decade. Let’s just hope that unlike other action heroes like John McClaine and John Rambo, she manages to dodge crappy sequels.

7) Amélie

Starring in a movie that’s genuinely sweet and warm as a fresh-baked cookie, cinema has given few protagonists more adorable than Audrey Tautou’s Amélie Poulain, a young woman who seeks to change the loneliness in her life by being kind to strangers. Some critics have regarded Amelie as a maladjusted sociopath, and to an extent, they could be right. But when the norm in life is to isolate people via boundaries and circumstance, can anyone really blame her?

8) Brokeback Mountain

In 2005, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave the greatest film released in the previous year a nomination for Best Picture. They then took that award and gave it to the grossly undeserving Crash. More than just ‘that gay cowboy movie’ scores of hack comedians mocked it for being years after its release, Brokeback Mountain is a film about the perils of living a lie, and the many casualties incurred from making that choice. My colleague Mike Compton was spot on when he criticized that while Heath Ledger got the most accolades of his career for playing the Joker, his best role was in this film as the repressed Ennis Del Mar. When society praises murdering psychopaths over gay men, it’s no wonder Ennis kept his true feelings secret.

9) Children of Men and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (tie)

I placed both of these films in a slot together because they accomplish the same goal perfectly: they take what are essentially science fiction stories and ground them in a realistic, contemporary setting. So many sci-fi movies strive to imagine a future more advanced and different than our own. But now that we’re living nine years after the date in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, it was refreshing to see directors Alfonso Cuarón (Children) and Michel Gondry (Eternal) realize that while we don’t have flying cars or cyborg cops patrolling the streets, the time we’re living in now is the future most people dreamed of decades ago. The tones and overall plots from both of these movies could not be more different, but if you ever watch these films back to back, I promise you’ll agree that these are the finest examples of the type of sci-fi movies the geek decade created for movie audiences.

10) Me You and Everyone We Know

With her quirky masterpiece of low-fi cinema, first-time filmmaker Miranda July bested an entire wave of digital filmmakers like Lars von Trier by proving that just because you shot your movie with digital cameras doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful. This film is about personal connections, and how difficult it is to achieve them at a time when people are constantly separated by formalities, technology, divorce, business and dying. ))<>(( forever, indeed.

Honorable Mentions:

Roman Polanski's The Pianist is yet another reason why we must consider the merits of art and the artist separately; The Orphanage scared me senseless while warming my heart, all at the same time; Friday Night Lights is the best sports movie ever made, this coming from a guy who typically hates sports movies; Spider-Man 2 was the best comic book movie ever until The Dark Knight came out; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is by far the best of the series; Up in the Air was my favorite of 2009, but has yet to stand the test of time; Donnie Darko is an immortal mind-bender of a flick, though stay away from that awful director's cut; "Superbad" was great; so was everything by those brilliant folks at Pixar (sans the still decent Cars); and May is one of the most hilarious and disturbing American movies ever made.

Worst Movies of the Decade:

1) Running with Scissors was the worst of the Wes Anderson knock-offs; 2) Star Wars: Attack of the Clones was officially where I abandoned all hope for the franchise; 3) Spider-Man 3 proves one can make a great movie followed by a very, very bad one; 4) Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen was long, dumb and racist; 5) Those '[BLANK] Movie' parodies might have cost nothing to make, but they were worth even less.

Review: "Sherlock Holmes" (2009)

2009-12-27T13:37:00.009-05:00

Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” is that rare piece of forgettable mediocrity not content with leaving the audience to guess how it could've been a better film. Instead, the movie chooses to one-up us by showing how it could be better in the first half.

As played by Robert Downey, Jr., the Holmes in this film is an uncouth and scruffier detective than the ones we’ve seen in previous adaptations. Some might complain he no longer wears that ridiculous deerstalker hat or the fact that he never says, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” That said, opening scenes are quite steeped in what really made Sherlock Holmes such a fascinating character – his uncanny sense of deductive reasoning.

Hot on the trail of a murderous cult leader named Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), he spots some hired muscle guarding a corridor. Then in an inventive sequence, we hear Holmes’ inner monologue as he sizes up the goon’s various weaknesses based on the way he walks. Meanwhile, Ritchie’s ever-anxious camera gives a slowmo, telegraphed demonstration of how the fight will actually go down, followed by a sped-up version wherein Sherlock bests his foe with almost phantom speed and accuracy. A similar moment takes place later on during a hilarious boxing match, but then this approach is abandoned for the rest of the film. This is a real shame, as it was a lot more fun to watch than the mindless fisticuffs that punctuate the latter two-thirds like exclamation marks in used car lot ads.

We get another great moment after Lord Blackwood is apprehended wherein Dr. Watson – played by Jude Law who walks away with the entire show – coaxes Holmes to leave his cluttered office for a change and meet him at a restaurant. Holmes obliges, arriving at the restaurant early only to lose his mind paying attention to the tiny physical details and tics he could use to identify every single person in the room. Again, this moment was a solid inclusion for a movie attempting to reinvent Sherlock Holmes for the Mountain Dew generation. If the good detective must become a scruffy action hero, at least let him be a thinking man’s scruffy action hero.

But then the movie ditches the point of view that powered the first act in favor of slap-happy double and triple crosses that make little sense in terms of both the characters and story, and worst of all, the film loses sight of Holmes. Oh, we still see him all right, but we’re no longer inside his head as he investigates a mystery that points to Blackwood returning from the grave after being executed for his crimes and attempting to put his pagan cult in control over London. And when it comes to movie villains, Blackwood is more of the dumb James Bond variety. He might be brilliant enough to invent the first remote control biological weapon, but he bungles important details like loading his bombs with enough explosives to kill his enemies when they detonate them.

According to the opening credits, “Sherlock Holmes” was scripted by three screenwriters – Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg – and while this is not unusual for a studio blockbuster, my hope is that the producers will realize which ones were responsible for the movie’s best parts (i.e. the beginning) and rehire them alone to pen the inevitable sequel.

The only praise I could give the trio of writers collectively for their Frankenscript is that they had the smarts not to make Sherlock’s foes capable of actual magic. I spent much of the film dreading that this is what they were going to do. And while you can deprive the detective his hat and oft-quoted line, if you remove the logic as well, you might as well call it something else.

(** & 1/2 out of 4)

Best of 2009 (Part 9 of 10)

2009-12-24T11:02:00.004-05:00

2) The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment, dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
The very definition of a close second, The Hurt Locker might be the first movie about our current wars in the Middle East to present an American soldier as a genuine hero. Ducking the politics behind the conflict altogether, screenwriter Mark Boal gives us U.S. Army Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner), a soldier who must serve his country by disarming IED’s. James might suffer from a severe case of risk addiction, but regardless of what you might think about the war, his courage and nobility under fire are above reproach. On DVD and Blu Ray on January 12.

'Up in the Air': The film both of and about 2009

2009-12-24T10:25:00.008-05:00

Whenever I think of America circa 1969, I will remember the film Easy Rider, which was made in the same year.

This might seem absurd since I wasn’t born until 11 years after the fact, but the film demands a knowledge about the year it was made in order to be appreciated and understood. Strip away the historical context of an America that was undergoing a cultural revolution at the time - one which the two main characters were clearly fighting for by cycling across the country with their long hair waving in the wind like organic flags of rebellion - then Easy Rider becomes the movie a lot of uninformed young people see today: A couple of dudes riding motorcycles and taking drugs. And because it’s no longer a big deal for men to have long hair and dodge gainful employment by engaging in various recreational activities and pharmaceuticals, a lot of people my age think the film is no big deal as well.

Forty years later, I now believe that if I ever think about our country during 2009, the one film I will remember is Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air.

2009 was a year in which millions of Americans were laid off from their jobs. And they were most likely laid off by people like Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a professional hatchet man that companies hire to lay off their employees because they are too cowardly – or culpable – to do it themselves. And while his job certainly puts him at odds with the freedom loving hippies in “Easy Rider,” these characters share one thing in common: They find their home in a perpetual state of transience. For the “Easy Rider” characters Captain America and Billy (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper), their home is the road, a place where they find kinship, hope, love and ultimately death; Bingham, on the other hand, makes his home in the skies, where one could argue he finds all four of these things as well.

Where Bingham and the two Easy Riders differ is that Bingham’s life is far more complex. The drama witnessed by a professional hatchet man is considerable. In the span of the film, Bingham is accused of being various types of evil; he’s blamed for the possibility that an axed employee might no longer be able to afford his daughter's asthma medicine; and in one instance, a recently laid off worker threatens to commit suicide. To give viewers a real sense of what Bingham would have to endure each day, Rietman makes ingenious use of interviews with real Americans who were recently fired from their jobs.

Coping with this stress would be a challenge for anyone, but Bingham deals with it as best he can. First, by actually being great at what he does. After firing employees, Bingham recites a series of pre-prepared lines to help ease what will be a very difficult transition in these people’s lives. What’s more, it seems like he actually believes them. For example, the exchange between Bingham and a father of two played by J.K. Simmons actually ends with Simmons’ character potentially inspired and on the verge of a new direction in his life. Second, Bingham has made a philosophy out of avoiding personal entanglements. This includes relationships with his immediate family, a fact which renders him as merely a guest at his own sister’s wedding. Not missing anyone in his life allows him to travel more freely because of his job, and while his sister accuses him of being a lonely man via cellphone call, he looks around a crowded airport and says “I’m not alone, I’m surrounded!”

Bingham even created a self-help lecture out of his no-baggage philosophy, which he preaches during seminars around the country, a fact which only adds to the certainty he carries about this worldview. This certainty will later be challenged, however, by two women: Alex (Vera Farmiga), a fellow traveler who strikes up a casual sexual relationship with Bingham; and Natalie (Anna Kendrick), a young protégé at his company who has developed a way for Bingham and his co-workers to fire people from around the country via the internet. In a way, one might view both Alex and Natalie as essentially the same woman – just at two different points in her life. Alex is extremely worldly, and perhaps more like Bingham than even he is. Meanwhile the somewhat naive Natalie views life as a series of checkpoints, and will likely see the world just as Natalie does if her life stays in its current direction.

As Bingham falls for Natalie and both teaches and learns from Alex, the certainty he used to navigate his sometimes-volatile existence starts to crack. And after an episode where he helps his sisters solve a family crisis, this stone cold cynic realizes he has a softer side at a time when it might be too late. There is also a surprise in the third act that I refuse to spoil. But I will say it reinforces Rietman’s knack for changing the way we view his characters in the span of a brief scene.

The death Bingham finds at the end of the film is not physical like Captain America and Billy’s at the end of Easy Rider so much as it is a spiritual one. He keeps and achieves everything he wants in the movie’s first act, but the suave certainty he used to pursue these ends is shattered. The sole remaining comfort is travel, but like Bingham’s former life philosophy, this is impersonal as well. When the bikers sawed up and down the country in Easy Rider, it looked vast, wild and untamable. From Bingham’s perspective forty years later, the same terrain is much smaller and chopped up into geometric grids.

So if new audiences today have a problem understanding Easy Rider, will the same happen to Up in the Air? If this means that like men with long hair, mass unemployment won't be an issue in 40 years, I certainly hope so.

[PODCAST] Critical Mass 2009

2009-12-23T13:02:00.001-05:00

Which films, scores, and soundtracks were the best of 2009? On this week’s episode of The Movie Show, Joe and Mike invite Yes!Weekly’s Glen Baity for his final ride as a professional film critic as they count down the many high and low points of the year.

Stream it!

Best of 2009 (Part 8 of 10)

2009-12-22T14:29:00.003-05:00

3) Goodbye Solo (Roadside Attractions, dir. Ramin Bahrani)

Set in Winston-Salem, filmmaker Ramin Bahrani shares a part of his home region with the world that outsiders probably never knew existed – namely our burgeoning population of immigrants and refugees. Depressed and suicidal, the American-born William (Red West) is a man alone. Meanwhile, his West African cab driver Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane) radiates with the connections he shares with a community of expatriates who chase modest dreams while doing menial labor. Complications arise between William and Solo, but it was refreshing to see in a movie set in the South that race or nationality weren’t one of them. Available on DVD.

Best of 2009 (Part 7 of 10)

2009-12-21T18:02:00.002-05:00

4) “Observe and Report” (Warner Bros., dir. Jody Hill)
Because it was a movie about a mall security guard, this film got lost in the Paul Blart shuffle. A shame since writer-director - and UNCSA filmmaking grad – Jody Hill has transformed himself into the reining master dark comedies. I dare anyone to watch the hilariously bent finale of this film and not erupt with laughter. It’s impossible, I say. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Best of 2009 (Part 6 of 10)

2009-12-21T17:56:00.001-05:00

5) “Anvil: The Story of Anvil” (VH1 Classic, dir. Sacha Gervasi)
Mocking a duo of has-been heavy metal rockers from the 80’s would have been easy game for any documentarian, but it’s clear that director Sacha Gervasi holds the sometimes goofy members of Anvil in high esteem. More than just a real life Spinal Tap, Anvil is a hilarious love letter to anyone who’s made sacrifices to pursue their dreams long after they probably should have given up. On DVD and Blu Ray.

'Avatar' review

2009-12-21T17:46:00.010-05:00

With Avatar, James Cameron does for 3-D filmmaking what Vincent Van Gogh did for painting.

Like Van Gogh’s canvases, which were layered with thick strokes of paint, Cameron uses technology to enhance the texture of his film as well as contribute both perspective and depth to his fantastic, colorful universe. The result is that instead of numbing audiences to 3-D’s potential with poke-you-in-the-eye amusement park thrills like Robert Zemeckis, Cameron brings viewers closer inside the alien world explored by the characters in his film.

And what a world it is. It might take the human characters in the film six years to get there via spacecraft, but Pandora definitely seems worth the trip. It’s a lush planet with reduced gravity, glowing plants and a cluster of mountains and waterfalls that float in the air. Below the surface, there is also a highly coveted fossil fuel called unobtainium, which the humans are there to retrieve for their home world. Problem is the largest deposit of this precious mineral is located underneath the gigantic tree home of the Na’vi, a powerful humanoid race with blue skin.

To help harvest this cache of fuel, the humans employ Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic former marine who must wire his consciousness inside the body of a biologically engineered Na’vi decoy and learn what he can about the natives so they can be overthrown.

Of course there’s no way for this scenario to play out except for Sully to pal up with the Na’vi, who are noble savages just as Native Americans were in Dances With Wolves or the feudal Japanese in The Last Samurai, before engaging his own people in an epic final battle. But again, these broad, very simplistic strokes are yet another reason that Cameron is like Van Gogh, who seldom delved into intricate details when painting the cityscapes and countryside of France. To expect so much detail is to miss the point. And one need only look at the needless complexities of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels to realize Cameron made a wise choice to keep things simple while juggling the considerable nuts and bolts of this bold technological experiment.

There is also the matter of the film’s alien characters and creatures that were created with the most photo-real CGI I have ever seen. Unlike the supposedly photo-real characters in “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” that looked like lazy-eyed patients from a burn ward, the Na’vi are wholly sympathetic and able to convey the most subtle of emotions. I’m not so sure I will want to see Avatar again on home video (at least in 2-D), but I will probably buy the Blu-Ray just to learn how these characters were made.

Perhaps the only question I am still grappling with today is whether Avatar is primarily an accomplishment of art or science. My opinion currently veers towards the latter, but I’ll need to see the film at least one more time to be sure. That said, there are moments when Cameron does such a good job of using his technology to evoke emotional responses that both the art and science of his film could be intertwined.

Avatar might be more of a first step for digital filmmaking than one of its great destinations, but based on everything Cameron shows us with this film, I cannot wait to see where we’re going next.

*** & 1/2 (out of four)

Best of 2009 (Part 5 of 10)

2009-12-19T10:29:00.003-05:00

6) “Treeless Mountain” (Oscilloscope Pictures, dir. So Yong Kim)
There was not a more touching story this year than “Treeless Mountain,” which follows two young sisters from South Korea (Hee-yeon Kim and Song-hee Kim) as they navigate the scattered shards of their broken family. After a harrowing stint with their drunken auntie, they eventually find solace at their grandparents’ house in the country. But as industrialization creeps along the borders, director So Yong Kim shows that even this joy might be temporary. On DVD.

Best of 2009 (Part 4 of 10)

2009-12-19T10:19:00.003-05:00

7) “Star Trek” (Paramount, dir. J.J. Abrams)
A remake and a sequel rolled into one, this time-twisting space opera was the king of the summer’s popcorn munchers. The characters pop off the screen, especially Spock who is played by Zachary Quinto. My one and only regret is that we'll have to wait at least a couple of years for the next film in the series. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Best of 2009 (Part 3 of 10)

2009-12-17T11:50:00.005-05:00

8) “The Messenger” (Oscilloscope Pictures, dir. Oren Moverman)

One could view this as a cross between The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air as Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson play two U.S. soldiers who must inform the families of slain troops that their sons, husbands or fathers died while fighting in the Middle East. Hopefully, this film will turn into a breakthrough for Foster, who has been one of the most underappreciated – and thus underutilized – talented actors in Hollywood for quite some time.

Here's the trailer:

Awesome 'Iron Man 2' trailer is live!

2009-12-17T09:59:00.004-05:00

While I thought the official Iron Man 2 poster reminded me of the one Sony made for Spider-Man 3, the new trailer, which hit the net today is awesome:

You can actually see a better version of the trailer here.

The concept of a villain who thinks Tony Stark/Iron Man must still pay for the atrocities which took place before he became a hero is a good one. And Rourke's Russian accent isn't half-bad either.

Best of 2009 (Part 2 of 10)

2009-12-16T12:52:00.003-05:00

9) Bronson (Magnolia Pictures, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)

Just as the gritty, foreign crime dramas Romper Stomper and Chopper introduced us to future leading actors Russell Crowe and Eric Bana, Bronson does the same for UK native Tom Hardy. A 90-minute character study based on England’s most famous and incorrigible inmate Michael Gordon Peterson (a.k.a. Charles Bronson), Hardy’s riveting and frequently unclothed performance transforms what could have been an exercise in soulless filmed violence into genuine art.

[PODCAST] "Up in the Air"

2009-12-16T12:44:00.002-05:00

On this week’s episode of The Movie Show, Joe and Mike review two of the year’s best films, share a couple of stories about Mel Gibson, and engage in a late but lengthy debate on Roman Polanski. There’s also a discussion of this year’s Golden Globe nominees.

Note that this is the last regular episode of The Movie Show in 2009.

Soundtrack Selections:

“R2D2, We Wish You a Merry Christmas” by Brian Dewan (Cover) from The Star Wars Christmas Album;
“Goin’ Home” by Dan Auerback from Up in the Air;
-and-
“Today” by Jefferson Airplane from A Serious Man.

Stream it!

Best of 2009 (Part 1 of 10)

2009-12-15T17:10:00.004-05:00

Counting down to our Critical Mass End of the Year special wherein five movie critics from North Carolina share their top five movie choices of the year, I thought it would be nice to reveal one of my ten favorite movies of 2009 one day at a time.

The crazy part about my list this year is that more than half the films on my list this year are already available on DVD. So rather than wait for them to come out in theaters, you can hit up Netflix, Blockbuster, or a RedBox inside a local grocery store and see most of these films whenever you like.

10) World’s Greatest Dad (Magnolia Pictures, dir. Bobcat Goldthwait) – In the same year that Robin Williams’ career sunk to new lows with “Old Dogs,” the same actor rises to the occasion of his first good movie since “One Hour Photo.” This dark comedy is loaded with surprises, so without giving too much away, I’ll just say it’s the a suitable response to the ghoulish cash grab that was Michael Jackson’s This Is It.

Here's the trailer:

[PODCAST] "MERRY GREMLINS!"

2009-12-02T10:24:00.002-05:00

As the Movie Show guys prepare to celebrate the holidays with a screening of Gremlins at the Carousel, Joe dispatches reviews of the films Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Blind Side.

Then Mike delivers some major stories on the news front including a significant casting announcement for “The Avengers,” the planned remake of a remake from four years ago, and why Bourne 4 might not make it to theaters as planned.

Soundtrack selections include:

"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home" by Darlene Love from Gremlins;
"Let Her Dance" by Bobby Fuller Four from Fantastic Mr. Fox;
-and-
"Hearing Damage" by Thom Yorke from The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Stream it!

"A Mixed Tape Testimonial" by Kirby Lewis

2009-11-13T06:57:00.003-05:00

The Carousel runs a series of old movies throughout the year and during the 2009-2010 season, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one of those films. Partly filmed in Wilmington, NC, it remains one of the most reminiscent movies of my generation's childhood.

When I came to the showing this summer, I knew I was going to enjoy it, but I was not prepared for how much the viewing was going to affect me. Showing in Theater Eight of the Carousel ('The Big One'), I had plenty of seating options; I chose the middle, 2/3 up. As people filed in, you could sense the anticipation rising. Suddenly I felt my attention shift, and I was viewing everyone in the room 20 years ago. I saw an audience of five and six-year-olds, oversized shirts swallowing them whole, the magnetic jewelry and temporary tattoos barely visible as the inner child broke free of the adult shell.

As the movie started, goose bumps washed over my skin as the years melted off. I've seen 'Ninja Turtles' so many times over so many years, but no viewing was like this. The gasping, the cheering, the laughing; these all serve as a bond. You realize how many people grew up feeling the same way you did about the same thing.

There then exists an unspoken, unacknowledged connection between strangers that goes beyond conversation. It reaches inside all of us, to the child we were and the way we saw 2 decades ago.

Thank you, Joe Scott, for making this happen.

--

And thank you Kirby, for writing. It takes a lot more folks than just me to make Mixed Tape happen - Rachel, Mike, Ian, Nathan, Kelly, and Chris for starters - but I am extremely flattered all the same.

Actually, your letter reminded me of a scene from the lesser sequel to Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Big Top Pee Wee, which takes place at the 4:20 minute mark below:

A spanking for the senses: James Cameron's "Aliens"

2009-11-05T05:44:00.007-05:00

If you listened to the show this week, you might remember that I mentioned Roger Ebert's somewhat puzzling review of James Cameron's 'Aliens.'

He bows to the film's many technical accomplishments, but what makes Ebert's take on the property so unique is that he is essentially faulting it for being such a taught, well-made thriller.

"Aliens" is absolutely, painfully and unremittingly intense for at least its last hour. Weaver goes into battle to save her colleagues, herself and the little girl, and the aliens drop from the ceiling, pop up out of the floor and crawl out of the ventilation shafts. (In one of the movie's less plausible moments, one alien even seems to know how to work the elevator buttons.) I have never seen a movie that maintains such a pitch of intensity for so long; it's like being on some kind of hair-raising carnival ride that never stops.

I don't know how else to describe this: The movie made me feel bad. It filled me with feelings of unease and disquiet and anxiety. I walked outside and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I was drained. I'm not sure "Aliens" is what we mean by entertainment. Yet I have to be accurate about this movie: It is a superb example of filmmaking craft.

Because of this, the Eeb gave the film three and a half stars instead of the four it so clearly deserves. But I guess if one would ever find fault with a film for being intense, it is Aliens.

As I described it to an old buddy of mine back in high school, the movie is a "spanking for the senses." Whether it's through lighting, editing, special effects, or the score James Horner wrote for the film, the second half of the movie does everything it can to scare the crap out of the audience. I was reminded of this while playing James Horner's score in the background of our last show. I'm the only one who can hear the audio due to the fact that there's one set of headphones in the studio, and while Horner would attempt to lull my attention with tubas and violin there were a few moments where he would suddenly POUNCE my ears with a shrilling blast of woodwinds.

It made me jump, throwing me off my script, and I can imagine Cameron would be glad to know that even the audio portion of his film still has that power.

--

The Mixed Tape Film Series presents James Cameron's Aliens tonight at 7:30 and 10 p.m. at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas on 1305 Battleground Ave. in Greensboro. Tickets are $4 each and are available here.

[PODCAST] The Second Amendment of the World

2009-11-04T13:37:00.002-05:00

On this week’s episode of The Movie Show, Joe and Mike get viewers ready for Thursday’s (Nov. 5) screening of Aliens at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas (tickets here). Also, they review Michael Jackson: This Is It and Amelia before dishing on the potential demise of Miramax, a sequel for ‘Roger Rabit’ and Bronson star Tom Hardy’s big break.

Stream it!

Happy 10th birthday to 'The Iron Giant'

2009-10-29T08:55:00.004-04:00

Over at Aint-It-Cool, the writer who calls himself Mr. Beaks did a fantastic piece for a special 10th Anniversary screening of The Iron Giant that recently took place in L.A. His opening line truly nails what makes this film so special and unique:

Stirring in its simplicity, bold in its depiction of humanity's capacity for violence, ruthless in its ability to make grown men cry, THE IRON GIANT endures because, once upon a time, its visionary director Brad Bird refused to treat his audience like imbeciles.

Y'know, the last time I cried while watching a film was when I saw this one on video six months ago with my wife. She had never seen the film before, and was quite doubtful of its qualities, but she teared up a bit, too. That's a good thing, because I am of the opinion that if a person can watch The Iron Giant and not cry when the Giant says "I am Superman!" then they truly lack a human soul. Good to know I didn't marry a Cylon.

Beaks goes on to share some interesting tidbits gleaned from a Q&A with director Brad Bird that took place before the screening, only to demand that Warner Bros. re-release the film theatrically.

After the way it was treated during it's first go-round in 1999, I don't see that happening, but rather than moan and complain, I took a chance to do something about it myself. That is why I convinced the Carousel Luxury Cinemas (1305 Battleground Ave. in Greensboro, NC) to play a 35mm screening of The Iron Giant at 10 a.m. Saturday, November 7.

Definitely attend this screening if you can, and bring as many of the little ones as you can (they stand a pretty good chance of winning PRIZES if they show up). It's one of my all time favorite movies, and deserves a huge audience next Saturday that it never had in 1999.

Tickets are only $3 each, and you can purchase them here.

Remember that 'Avatar' trailer I wrote about yesterday?

2009-10-29T08:50:00.002-04:00

It's finally online, sorta.

Trailer Addict has the online scoop on the international version of the trailer.

See what I mean? This looks like a much more enticing than the last 'Hey look, it's James Cameron making a film with HUGE special effects' trailer we got in September.

I'm so there, dude.

Cameron a 'Man of Extremes'

2009-10-28T11:06:00.002-04:00

If you haven't read last week's issue of New Yorker, then you should check out Dana Goodyear's wonderful profile of filmmaker James Cameron.

You can tell that Goodyear really got to know Cameron during the many years it has taken him to make his newest film, Avatar (due December 18). She got a fantastic quote by Cameron as well as clips from Steven Speilberg and George Lucas. And it's clear that while it might not help Cameron as a person very much, one of the things which makes him a great filmmaker is the fact that he doesn't waste a lot of time being nice. He has a habit of being terrible to his crew - who refer to him as "Mij" when he's on an angry kick - and even worse to his producers.

Here's a couple of choice quotes from Cameron during his so-called Mij spells:

“Hiring you is like firing two good men”
-To a crew member.

“Do you want Paul Verhoeven to finish this motherfucker?”
-To Arnold Schwarzenegger, an inch away from the actor's face on the set of True Lies.

He is definitely a shouter, but he's also the most skillful director whoever lived on a technical level. The article goes on to portray Cameron's risk addiction. While making these mega-blockbusters like Terminator 2 and Titanic he burns bridges and stokes the ire of critics and detractors, only to save himself at the zero hour by producing films that audiences love.

Will the audiences come through for Cameron again with Avatar? Only time will tell, but I think the likelihood of this happening has increased greatly after the release of the new trailer, which is still not available online in a non-bootleg version. Rather than attempt to lure audiences with the facts that the movie is directed by James Cameron and has some revolutionary special effects, we're starting to get a better idea of story elements and who the main characters are.

In other news, don't forget that during November, The Mixed Tape Film Series will be playing two Cameron films at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas in 35mm, both of which were sequels.

First up, at 7:30 & 10 p.m. Thursday, November 5, we'll be playing Aliens.

Featuring Sigourney Weaver (who also appears in Avatar), here's what co-host Mike has to say about the film:
"In 1986, writer/director James Cameron laid the groundwork for how to properly make a summer blockbuster sequel. Keeping the claustrophobic terror of Alien, but abandoning its survival horror minimalism in favor of space marines and waves of xenomorphs, Cameron fused genres to create this action horror classic. As Bill Paxton says in his career defining meltdown, 'It’s game over, man.'"

Then at 7:30 & 10 p.m. Thursday, November 12, we'll be playing Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

From Mike again:
"Easily one of the best summer blockbuster films ever made, Terminator director James Cameron cleaned up the tech-noir sci-fi of his breakthrough film and crafted an epic that owned the summer of 1991 and stands today as an example of what big loud summer movies can do if handled properly."

I can't wait to watch both of these films with an audience, and you can buy your tickets for these films here and here.

See you at the movies!

[PODCAST] Is Will Smith a liar?

2009-10-28T10:53:00.002-04:00

On the final, 2009 Halloween-themed episode of The Movie Show, Joe and Mike relate a truly horrifying weekend at the cinema with reviews of The Vampire’s Assistant and Astro Boy. Also, they uncover why theater owners are mad with Paramount, the details behind Wes Craven’s hopes for redemption, and remake news for one of cinema’s all-time great masterpieces.

This week’s Soundtrack Selections:

“Digital Versicolor” by Glass Candy from Bronson;
“A Nightmare on My Street” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (not?) inspired by A Nightmare on Elm Street;
-and-
“Let Her Dance” by Bobby Fuller Four from Fantastic Mr. Fox

Stream it!

Bill Murray: 'McG deserves to die.'

2009-10-22T09:09:00.002-04:00

During an interview with Times Online to promote Fantastic Mr. Fox, Bill Murray dropped the kind of bomb most celebrities can't say these days because of publicists and star-wranglers.

Writer Kevin Maher asked him about a statement his Charlie's Angels director Joseph McGinty Nichol - or McG - had made wherein the filmmaker claimed the actor headbutted him during a creative dispute on-set.

Murray's response? Epic.

“That’s bulls***! That’s complete crap!” says Murray, flushing slightly yet maintaining composure. “I don’t know why he made that story up. He has a very active imagination.” He pauses. The subject seems closed, but then a minor eruption. “No! He deserves to die,” he says, coldly staring, without breaking deadpan. “He should be pierced with a lance, not headbutted.”

You can read the rest of the story here.

No wonder Murray was replaced by Bernie Mac in Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle.

P.S. Have you seen the new 'Critics Say' trailer for Fantastic Mr. Fox? If not, check it out.

[PODCAST] Like 'Navy Seals' only good.

2009-10-21T07:49:00.003-04:00

Why is Jon Favreau not directing The Avengers? Will Warner Bros. recoup the $85 million they spent on Where the Wild Things Are? And can horror movie news get any scarier than the Trilogy of Terror that Mike delivered this week?

Also, Joe and Mike review Where the Wild Things Are, Paranormal Activity, and Law Abiding Citizen.

Stream it!

REVIEW: 'Where the Wild Things Are'

2009-10-19T09:50:00.003-04:00

Where The Wild Things Are is not so much a kids’ film as it is a film for adults about being a kid.

The filmmakers state this clearly by opening with a scene wherein young child protagonist Max chases the family dog around the house with a fork. All adults - and dog owners - should be upset if they witnessed a kid doing this in real life. For this reason among others, I’m not too jazzed about the idea of impressionable kids under the age of eight watching this film. On the other hand, as someone who remembers my own childhood, I would be a liar if I said the portrayal of such dangerous and manic behavior in a young person was not accurate.

Director Spike Jonze and his co-writer Dave Eggers take bold chances like this throughout the film, starting with the casting of Max Records as the lead. More natural and plucky than cute or marketable, Records does a fantastic job of portraying the raging id of a child. He pitches a most realistic fit while giving his mother grief for spending time with her boyfriend instead of admiring the lava-proof fort he built in his room via sheets and bedposts. When she tries to calm Max down, he growls, bites her and runs away into the woods nearby. Alone with nothing to keep him warm but a tattered wolf costume, the boy finds a small dinghy boat, and sails to an island inhabited by a small troupe of wild, ten-foot monsters who call themselves “Things.”

Voiced by James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker and Chris Cooper, critics have described these monsters as being “too scary,” “depressed” and even “whiny.” At times, all of these statements are true, but more than that, these monsters represent Max’s inner turmoil and childish character flaws that will cause him many problems as an adult if he doesn’t start to wise up by the end of the film. His biggest flaw of all is represented by head Thing, Carol (Gandolfini), who is incredibly selfish as all children can be, and because of his enormous size and strength, is prone to destructive behavior if he feels threatened or ignored. By embodying these flaws in such large creatures, the effects of Max’s real-world behavior is amplified. So much so that he can observe the ramifications of his own behavior and leave the Thigns’ island in the final act with the hope that he is en route to becoming a better person.

On the same note, the film takes a grave misstep by allowing Max to leave the Things – especially Carol – before they achieve the same closure that he does. Perhaps Jonze was simply out of money by this point, but this choice makes the already somber film a little bit sadder than it needed to be. Abandoned, the Things look to Max while howling and on the verge of tears. Sure, they’re probably sad because their new friend must return home, but I was sad as well because they lacked same resolution that Max achieved.

Critics have made a big to-do about how director Jonze and Eggers attempted the impossible when adapting this film from Sendak’s original book. Yes the book was 38 pages with fewer than 350 words, but where Jonze and Eggers earn their kudos is the fact that instead of filling the feature length gap with dirty jokes or pop culture references, their additives consist of unspoken insights into their personal interpretation of Sendak’s brief text. With questions instead of forced answers and bogus sentiment, and many scenes devoted to child’s play instead of screenwriting contrivances and poop-humor, Where the Wild Things Are is a much better adaptation of a short children’s book than the dreadful recent films based on the works of Dr. Suess and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

If it should have been adapted at all, that is.

Favreau ain't directing 'Avengers.'

2009-10-16T08:45:00.002-04:00

When The Avengers assemble for the tentpole blockbuster planned for Summer 2012, it looks like they'll be doing so without Jon Favreau -- in a director capacity at least.

Favreau recently told MTV's Movies Blog that while he's on board to produce the film, he won't be available to direct.

See for yourself:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

His reason?

"It's going to be hard, because I was so involved in creating the world of Iron Man and Iron Man is very much a tech-based hero, and then with 'Avengers' you're going to be introducing some supernatural aspects because of Thor," he continued. "How you mix the two of those works very well in the comic books, but it's going to take a lot of thoughtfulness to make that all work and not blow the reality that we've created."

In terms of adapting Iron Man from the comic books to the big screen, Favreau's asset was always his thoughtfulness. He wasn't the most visually compelling filmmaker, but he made sure that Iron Man made sense in a live action world, and that the entirety of the first film centered on a solid theme. He also did a lot of groundwork to court the fanboy community and get them revved up for the project. I'm not saying he's the best man for the job of directing The Agengers, but considering the way Marvel Films lowballs their creative talent, of the directors who would make themselves available for this project, who else could do this project any justice?

Maybe Martin Campbell, if the whole Green Lantern movie fizzles out, that is.

Symalan too busy to write or direct his own stories.

2009-10-16T08:13:00.003-04:00

While I feel that M. Night Shyamalan's The Village was one of the most unfortunately maligned films of all time, the dude's career has definitely taken a tumble with Lady in the Water (a film Mike enjoyed, btw) and The Happening.

So with that in mind, I am not sure how to react to Empire's story on "The Night Chronicles," a film project wherein different teams of writers and directors take on stories concieved by Shyamalan, who is currently busy turning a Nikelodeon kids' series into a live-action film. There's supposed to be three films in three years, the first of which, Devil, will be directed by Quarantine's Drew and John Erick Dowdle and written by 30 Days of Night scribe Brian Nelson.

Chris Messina will play the lead.

(Messina)

Empire suggests that Shyamalan could be attempting to turn his name into a franchise the way that Hitchcock did with his beloved TV series years ago. Could be true, but definitely not deserved as of late.

I've always felt that Shyamalan is a better director than a writer, even though he has created some compelling characters and decent scripts in the past. But the worst elements of his more recent and very terrible films has always been his stories. Now he's planning to take these stories, which are getting progressively worse with each film, and hand them off to not-so competent directors and writers?

I'm not sure this is going to work.

My advice to Shyamalan is this: Try to direct someone else's story. Stories have been the weakest parts of his more recent films, and who knows, maybe he'll actually get better at telling his own stories again after spending two years planning, lensing, and editing someone else's. Film is a collaborative art, and not everyone must be the great auteur. At least not all the time.

One could argue that that's what he's doing with The Last Airbender, but don't even get me started on that one.

P.S. Messina was pretty awesome as 'Mr. Syrup' in Away We Go.

I'm a bad blogger....

2009-09-30T08:47:00.002-04:00

I've been so busy writing for the News & Record, planning movie screenings, and promoting, that I have seriously neglected this poor blog. If it were a digi-pet, I'm afraid it would be sick, dead and/or surrounded by its own poop.

Will address this situation immediately.

[PODCAST] "When there's something strange...."

2009-09-30T08:38:00.002-04:00

On this week’s episode of The Movie Show, Joe and Mike review both of the science fiction films that managed to come out on the same weekend (“Pandorum” and “Surrogates”). They also have updates on the “Cowboy Bebop,” “He-Man,” and “Ghost Rider” moves.

Stream it!

NOTE: Don’t forget to attend the Mixed Tape Film Series screening of “Ghostbusters” at 7:30 & 10 p.m. Thursday, Oct 1 at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas on 1305 Battleground Ave. You can buy your tickets here.

[PODCAST] Definite articles.

2009-09-02T08:35:00.002-04:00

On this week’s episode of THE Movie Show, Joe reviews THE Final Destination, Mike has THE final word on Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, and they also discuss what might be THE biggest news story of the year.

Among the Soundtrack Selections this week is THE newest single from Spike Jonze’s Where THE Wild Things Are.

Stream it!

Everything you ever wanted to know about 'TMNT' but were too afraid to ask.

2009-09-02T07:17:00.002-04:00

"No special features? No problem!"

That's all I had to say after the recent and very disappointing release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) on Blu Ray.

So I grabbed an international phone card, called English director Steve Barron, and got answers to some questions that have plagued me for decades. The result is this comprehensive radio documentary that explores not only how this exceptional comic book film was made, but also unmade by studio interference.

You’ll learn of deleted scenes, the origin of the movie’s soundtrack, plus the inspiration behind the movie’s dark and gritty tone.

Stream it!

[PODCAST] Anne Hathaway vs. a dolphin

2009-08-05T11:46:00.002-04:00

On this week’s episode of The Movie Show, Joe and Mike discuss whether or not Judd Aptow and Seth Rogen are still Funny People before Joe gladly locks himself inside The Hurt Locker. They also discuss Spielberg’s next remake attempt, what’s up with ‘Pirates 4,’ and how Danny Trejo got creative with the DVD distribution for his latest star vehicle.

This week’s Soundtrack Selections:
“Dead Flowers” by Townes Van Zandt from The Big Lebowski;
“I Am Young” by Coconut Records from Funny People;
-and-
“Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” by She & Him from (500) Days of Summer.

Stream it!

Greensboro to ‘Rock n’ Bowl’ with ‘The Big Lebowski’

2009-07-29T13:12:00.001-04:00

GREESBORO, NC – Get ready to laugh, bowl and rock n’ roll with “The Big Lebowski.”

On Wednesday, August 26th, the Mixed Tape Film Series and WUAG 103.1 FM will present the Big Lebowski Rock n’ Bowl, a city-spanning event that will be a celebration of bowling, White Russians and one of the most beloved comedies of all time.

The Big Lebowski Rock n’ Bowl kicks off at 7:30 p.m. with a 35mm screening of the Coen Brothers’ cult-classic “The Big Lebowski” at the Carolina Theatre on 310 South Greene Street. Immediately after the film, Lebowski fans can knock some pins and make some friends at the Brunswick Triad Lanes on 21 Oak Branch Road, where there will be unlimited bowling and a dance party featuring records spun by WUAG’s greatest DJ’s.

Released in 1998, “The Big Lebowski” follows the life of Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, a man of simple pleasures and questionable means who finds himself in a world beyond his comprehension after an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. Jeff Bridges shines in the lead role, reacting to brilliant supporting turns by John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi and a very young Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Film critics and audiences originally shunned the film upon its release, however, due to a series of midnight screenings across the country as well as DVD sales, the film has become the greatest cult success of the last decade. Rolling Stone even went so far as to call the film “the most worshipped comedy of its generation.”

Other events in the Big Lebowski Rock n’ Bowl include a costume contest for people who dress like one of the characters from the film and bowling tournaments.

Brunswick Triad Lanes will serve patrons discounted White Russians until they close at 1 a.m.

Tickets for the movie and all-you-can-bowl event are $14 and are available at any Mixed Tape Film Series event or online at www.wuag.net.

For more information, e-mail movieshowjoe@gmail.com or call (336) 662-5691.

###

[PODCAST] "Ladies' Work"

2009-07-22T08:34:00.002-04:00

On this week’s episode of the Movie Show, Mike and Joe declare two actors and a whole mess of zombies who are getting a second chance in Hollywood, just like Mike Tyson. Speaking of, they also review Tyson as well as Sugar, before delving into a new and very emasculating film project starring Hugh Jackman.

This week’s Soundtrack Selections:
“Us” by Regina Spektor from (500) Days of Summer;
“Legendary” by Nas from Tyson;
-and-
“Blues From Down Here” by TV on the Radio from Sugar.

Stream it!

Wes Anderson's 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox' -- our first look!

2009-07-17T07:14:00.003-04:00

A couple of pics hit the net last night from Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox, the director's first stop-motion animated feature based on the novel by Roald Dahl. I actually read this book to my after school students, and realized that the casting of George Clooney as the voice of the lead was a brilliant move. After all, Mr. Fox is rather wily, and something of a Danny Ocean in animal form

But now we get a chance to see how the film looks:

Fantastic, indeed. I especially like the detail in the first picture. It's obvious Fox is standing in Badger's house with all those books and a painting of badger soldiers. Also, Anderson is working with actual fur, creating characters who very much resemble the original sketches from the book.

While it's sad that we've lost one and a half live-action Wes Anderson films so that he could take the time needed to make this project, I am glad that he and other quality directors like Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are) are looking at children's entertainment as an avenue for quality filmmaking. Just because you're under 12 doesn't mean you deserve to only watch crap like Alvin and the Chipmunks and because the Pixar guys have been alone in this belief for so long, Brad Bird has became the most profitable cinema auteur by a long-shot.

If Anderson or Jonze's films are successful, I see a New Wave of children's filmmaking coming along.

[PODCAST] Harry Potter Week!

2009-07-16T10:12:00.004-04:00

It’s Harry Potter this week on The Movie Show as Joe Scott shares his views on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Mike chimes in on the jokes, homophobia, and limited social commentary of Brüno.

And they both dive into seven news stories including casting on WB’s Green Lantern film, Will Smith’s next potential project, and Sony’s new pitch hitter for Brad Pitt’s Moneyball.

Stream it!

REVIEW: 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'

2009-07-15T06:24:00.003-04:00

For the last five films, the Harry Potter series has always been a subtle dance with innocence. Whether it’s innocence about the nature of death, which could very well claim boy wizard Harry Potter and his friends in one of their many devil may care adventures, or innocence about love, and dare I say human – or muggle – sexuality as well.

But in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the movie’s sixth and newest installment, Harry and beloved confidants Hermoine Granger and Rod Weasly engage in their usual dance, only this time they walk away before the end of the song leaving innocence standing in the corner.

With only two more years left at Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry’s got a lot on his mind. Girls mostly, plus there’s the sneaking suspicion that Professor Dumbledore, the school’s venerable headmaster who always bailed Harry and his friends out in the past, is starting to look frail and not as powerful as he used to be. But the biggest concern is Draco Malfoy, the Aryan-haired foil from the previous films. Now that Draco’s father has been locked away after the crimes he committed at the end of The Order of the Phoenix, the dark lord Voldemort has requested a difficult task of Draco. As Harry snoops around to investigate, he realizes Draco’s plan involves more than a panty-raid or shooting spitballs during potions class.

Played by Tom Felton, the previous films went out of their way to make Draco look like a despicable fascist, but I must credit director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves for making him appear sympathetic during a time when he considers his most vile deed ever. Felton especially deserves kudos for rising to the task, portraying his character as disgraced, conflicted and angry because of evil forces that are beyond his control.

Best part is that Felton’s not the only one. As Harry, Radcliffe shines during a moment when he drinks a magical potion that increases his luck. Ruppert Gint who plays Ron continues to prove he is the most hilarious part of the series, pinning over various women at his school despite the dismay of the lovelorn Hermoine. And at his character’s darkest hour, Michael Gambon adds a human touch to Dumbledore, which was sorely needed if what is to happen to him in this film is supposed to have any meaning.

The supporting cast was solid as well, especially newcomer Jim Broadbent, as the star struck professor Horrace Slughorn.

As both a fan of the books and the films, I could be part of a minority who doesn’t care that the filmmakers left out the epic battle from the final act. What they chose to do instead was focus on both Harry and Draco, two characters who will look upon the campus of Hogwarts, their shared childhood home, and realize that nothing will ever be the same again. They also omit the funeral scene of a major character, opting instead to show the students of Howarts raise their wands in the air to banish the dark clouds from the sky – one of the most magical moments of the film series to date.

This Friday is 'Dress like a Zombie Day'

2009-07-13T12:25:00.005-04:00

As most of you probably know, we'll be hosting a special midnight screening of Lucio Fulci's seminal horror classic Zombie at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas on 1305 Battleground Ave.

In honor of this, we thought it would be cool to host a special promotion called "DRESS LIKE A ZOMBIE DAY"

(ZOMBIES!)

How does it work? Basically you just dress up like a member of the walking dead and show up at the Carousel on Friday night before the movie. If you know your zombies, this isn't too hard. All you need is a bit of fake blood, torn clothes, white makeup or an avacado mud mask of some sort.

(Zombie couples are welcome)

The first ten Zombies to amble up to the theater will win a prize. We might also have a couple of other contests that night as well.

('Sexy' zombies are welcome, too)

So remember when you're getting ready to see Zombie this Friday, don't just see the movie, live it!

Death Racers, start your engines!

2009-07-09T13:43:00.002-04:00

The movie is ready, the retro trailers have been spliced. Now all we need is the wildest movie audience in North Carolina (i.e. you) to make tomorrow night a rocking awesome time at the movie theater.

Friday, July 10 at Midnight, David Carradine will ride across the screen once more in the cult Roger Corman classic "Death Race 2000."

Tickets will be on sale Friday morning when the theater opens at noon. You can also buy them online here.

I would suggest that no one wait on this. I pretty much get into all of my shows for free, but made the decision to purchase tickets for me and my friends to guarantee we got into this show. You cannot say nobody warned you. It's going to be the coolest show in town, and there's a slight chance that only 100 seats will be available unless my fellow year-round GSO peeps can show their numbers.

I'll see you at the movies.

P.S. Winston-Salem film critic Mark Burger gave us a nice write-up in
Yes!Weekly. Apparently, Night of the Comet gave Burger more action than what the rest of the audience saw on the screen.

[PODCAST] "The Worst of the Worst"

2009-07-08T07:22:00.002-04:00

Hollywood decided to commemorate the anniversary of our nation’s independence with some of the worst movie ideas of all time, leaving Mike and Joe to decide which idea is “The Worst of the Worst.” Needless remakes, sequels, prequels, and adaptations of ridiculous toys and video games -- the studios clearly left no corner unturned. When the guys aren’t wading through a veritable garbage week of movie news, the mull the future of N.C. native Zack Galifianakis and review Johnny Depp’s Public Enemies and the wonderful documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil.

This Week’s Soundtrack Selections:
“High Noon” by Tex Ritter from High Noon,
“Ten Million Slaves” by Otis Taylor from Public Enemies,
-and-
“Metal on Metal” by Anvil from Anvil: The Story of Anvil.

Stream it!

[SURVEY] The Worst of the Worst

2009-07-07T14:56:00.002-04:00

We're having trouble deciding which movie idea presented in today's news stories was the worst of the worst.
Can you help us to decide?

Let the Right One In remake: Don't break out the pitchforks and torches just yet

2009-07-04T09:12:00.007-04:00

News of the remake of one of last year's best films, Let the Right One In, has started trickling out (If you haven't seen it, you're in for a treat. But beware the crappy subtitles on the American DVD).

The L.A. Times checks in with director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and comes back with some faintly reassuring news: He's not planning to turn it into Twilight.

"There's definitely people who have a real bull's-eye on the film," Reeves said, "and I can understand because of people's' love of the [original] film that there's this cynicism that I'll come in and trash it, when in fact I have nothing but respect for the film. I'm so drawn to it for personal and not mercenary reasons, my feeling about it is if I didn't feel a personal connection and feel it could be its own film, I wouldn't be doing it. I hope people give us a chance."

Well, fair enough.

I actually really liked Cloverfield (working title: The Adventures of the Incredible Indestructible Camcorder), and I'm glad to hear that Reeves seems to have the same reverence for Let the Right One In that its fans do. Having read the novel -- a page-turner, incidentally -- I'll say that the source material gives him some wiggle room. There were entire subplots that were either truncated or cut out of the original film (necessarily, but still), so if he wants to distinguish Let Me In (the American title), John Ajvide Lindqvist's book has plenty of uncharted territory to explore.

The danger, of course, is distracting from the sweet, unsettling central story. Maintaining the emotional weight of Eli and Oskar's relationship while introducing something new to the U.S. version would be quite a balancing act. Maybe Reeves can pull it off, but I'm keeping my optimism in check.

New kid in the Goon Docks

2009-06-29T18:23:00.001-04:00

Hello, reader. I'm Glen.

A while back, Joe -- somewhat unwisely, I'd argue -- extended an invitation to me to become a blogger here at TheMovieShow.org. After more than a year of hemming, hawing, wishing and washing, here I am.

You might know me from my film reviews, which are read and enjoyed by literally tens of people across the Triad, many of them directly related to me. For those of you who don't know, I've written the Flicks column in Yes! Weekly for a few years now, and I have loved most of it.

Joe and I have been friends since sometime in '06, and I can honestly say I'm honored that he'd ask me to share his little corner of the Internet. I cannot tell you what to expect as far as post frequency and content, but I get space in Yes to write about one movie per week. If absolutely nothing else, this will be a good place to prattle on about my Netflix queue, my burgeoning dislike of Ryan Reynolds and my seasoned-to-perfection hatred of Michael Bay. I hear at least the latter is a welcome sentiment around here.

Anyway, good to be with you. Back with some actual content soon.

The Triad's Two to watch instead of 'Transformers 2'

2009-06-26T08:59:00.005-04:00

This weekend, Michael Bay has squeezed out a racist, metallic turd into theaters across the country.

And while most Americans wanting to see a brand new movie have few choices beyond the 'Fallen' Transformers sequel or the no less horrible-looking My Sister's Keeper, we Greensboro residents are actually quite lucky.

We got two new movies coming out today, and not only are they much better than Bay-formers 2, but they were both made by filmmakers from the Triad.

First up, we got Goodbye Solo.

Directed and co-written by Winston-Salem native Ramin Bahrani, the film was not only shot in and around his hometown, but unlike many of the films made in the Piedmont Triad area, the movie also takes place there as well.

Unlike most films set in the South, "Goodbye Solo" is one of the very few to acknowledge that our region has changed quite a lot since the days of Andy Griffith. Bahrani tells the story of Solo, a Senegalese cab driver and member of our thriving immigrant population who befriends a grizzled, older man named William. William might have been born in North Carolina, but it's clear he is more of an outsider than his immigrant friend.

The movie is centered around William's desire to end his life and Solo's attempt to change his mind. You could guess how this movie will end, but I promise you will be wrong. This is a subtle, touching drama that is neither cloying or patronizing, and anyone who wants to learn a thing or two about effective, low-budget filmmaking should look at Bahrani's film as the Bible.

As a bonus, there's probably a chance that most people will recognize at least one person in the film. For instance, the fellow selling bootleg DVD's to Solo and his stepdaughter actually worked the security desk with me during my summer break from college.

Many are calling Goodbye Solo one of the year's best films and I am certain that few films - if any - will unseat it from my top 5 list of 2009.

But in case you're in the mood for an action movie instead of a drama, another group of Triad filmmakers have you covered as well in Dogs of Chinatown.

Greensboro filmmakers Blake Faucette and Micah Moore had a smaller budget than Bahrani - and to be fair, smaller ambitions - but with a shoestring budget, they completed a far superior action film than Michael Bay did with Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. Slight praise, yes, so allow me to go a bit farther. In terms of films that were both locally made - and funded - I haven't seen a completed feature from Greensboro that tops Dogs of Chinatown.

Moore is a whiz at low-fi scene compositions, and the scenes enhanced by digital and coloration effects are top notch.

And not only will Dogs of Chinatown give you the chance to see local actors and actresses get punched, kicked and shot at, but the movie is a time capsule for our city with cameos by local buildings from two years ago that have been either renovated or completely demolished. The best part is, that if you see this film at the Carousel this week, you will be supporting the people who made it directly.

The choice is a simple one. You can either watch a boring, 2.5-hour exercise in racist android porn from a man who doesn't seem to care about humanity, let alone the Triad. Or you can watch the locally made Goodbye Solo or Dogs of Chinatown, both of which are superior films for different reasons.

Review: 'Transformers 2'

2009-06-25T07:55:00.009-04:00

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of his classic film Do The Right Thing, Spike Lee did an interview with Entertainment Weekly where the filmmaker denied the existence of our so-called post-racial America that many feel was minted on the day Barack Obama became president. And after watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I am inclined to agree.

The movie keeps nearly all of the characters from the first movie - even though none of them really mattered all that much - then offers us two new protagonist robots named Mudflap and Skids. These characters, also billed as "the twins," are a pair of jive-talking androids with ridiculously huge lips, despite the fact that very few of the movie's robotic characters have mouths. They also have wide eyes and pull an Amos and Andy, firing off such brilliant nuggets of comedy like "I'm gonna get up in that ass!" and "I hate readin!'"

How many people did it take to tell such a racist joke? It at least required the efforts of director Michael Bay; writers Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman; a whole fleet of producers which includes Steven Spielberg; and gobs of CGI and special effects artists. Then to top it off, you have Caucasian voice actor and former Mr. Show alum Tom Kenny (a.k.a. Spongebob Squarepants) who provided the voice-work for both of these characters.

I wonder if there was a point in production where at least one of the white folks involved with the production had the good sense or consideration to ask, 'Isn't this a bit irresponsible?'

But no, and I'm not too sure that anyone involved with the production asked other important questions either, like, 'Is it okay that Megan Fox can't act?' or 'Does a movie about giant robots really need to be two hours and 40 minutes long?"

Speaking of the movie's running time, you'll really feel the seconds crawl as the movie ekes from one poorly executed set piece to the next. Michael Bay shoves his camera in a ridiculous number of angles and the worst part is that none of them are beautiful or effective. Long outed as a director who lacks both confidence in his work and competence Bay's films have been getting increasingly worse since Armageddon. Sadly, it's starting to look like he's never going to pull up from his steep, downward trajectory.

The movie's only saving graces are two scenes where beloved Autobot leader Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) fights off a horde of evil Decepticons near the beginning and ending of the film. Between these two thrilling moments, there's a 'plot' wherein the evil robots are planning to destroy our sun for some reason or another. Sadly, the story is so flimsy and pieced together that John Turturro was asked to recount what was happening just before his character found himself staring directly at a robot's testicles.

So yeah, you've got those two cool Optimus scenes for old Transformers fans like myself, but they are only slight bookends in a long and joyless cinematic library of crap. I recommend that you keep your fingers crossed that someone will upload both of these scenes onto YouTube very soon so you won't have trouble yourself the way that I did.

'Transformers 2': The Facts

2009-06-18T06:45:00.003-04:00

Because of the show, I get a lot of e-mails from studio reps letting me know about release dates, trivia for new movies, and the occasional screening. And while my usual response is to hit the delete button and go about my day, when I got the following list of 'facts' surround Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen, some of them were too strange or cool not to share.

COOL FACTS

14 robots last time, 46 robots this time.

If you had all the gold ever mined in the history of man, you could build a little more than half of Devastator.
Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.

Devastator's hand is traveling 390 miles per hour when he punches the pyramid. (Note: What did they do, clock Devastator's fist with a policeman's radar gun?)

The pyramid destruction simulation was 8 times bigger than the old rigid simulation all-time record holder at ILM.

All robot parts laid out end to end would stretch from one side of California to the other, about 180 miles.

Devastator's parts stacked tip to tip would be as tall as 58 empire state buildings.

If all the texture maps on the show were printed on 1 square yard sheets, they would cover 13 football fields.

DISK SPACE

Trans1 took 20 Terabytes of disk space. Trans2 took 145 Terabytes. Seven times bigger!

145 terabytes would fill 35,000 DVDs. Stacked one on top of the other without storage cases, they would be 145 feet tall.

RENDERING TIMES

If you rendered the entire movie on a modern home PC, you would have had to start the renders 16,000 years ago (when cave paintings like the Hall of Bulls were being made) to finish for this year's premiere!

A single imax shot in the movie (df250) would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop.

IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!

IMAX

Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.

Imax frames take about 6 times longer than anamorphic to render.

IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!

ILM SCREEN TIME

ILM Screen Time is about 51 minutes.

DEVASTATOR

Devastator is as tall as a 10 story building.

Devastator has more than 10 times the number of individual parts found in an average car.

Laid out end to end, Devastator's parts would be almost 14 miles long.

DEVASTATOR TOTALS

Number of geom pieces: 52632

The total number of polygons: 11,716,127

The total length of all pieces: 73090 feet

The total length of all pieces: 13.84 miles

--

A lot of these tidbits seem to belong to a video game instead of a movie, which might be the point. I hated Transformers, and while I don't think Michael Bay has too good of a chance to pull it off with his second attempt in the franchise, the rest of this summer's movie slate appears bone dry.

Kinda sad that they condensed the release of so many potential tentpole flicks in May and early June.

[PODCAST] Paramount's 'G.I.' woes and the remaking of 'Pelham.'

2009-06-17T07:28:00.004-04:00

Is the seemingly lackluster G.I. Joe movie the result of a Cobra plot? And who - if anyone - should direct the remakes/reboots of Conan the Barbarian, Alien, and Predator? Joe and Mike contemplate these questions and more on this week’s episode of The Movie Show.

They also review The Brothers Bloom and The [Rem]aking of Pelham 123 and dish the latest Darren Aronofsky news.

Soundtrack Selections include:
"Put to the Test" by Pyramid from Foot Fist Way;
“Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” by Bob Dylan from The Brothers Bloom;
“Let’s Dance” (Bowie cover) by M. Ward from Eagle Vs. Shark;
-and-
“Thirteen” by Danzig from The Hangover.

Stream it!

[PODCAST] The Waldo Supremacy

2009-06-14T08:55:00.003-04:00

On this week’s episode of The Movie Show, Joe and Mike help Universal plot their upcoming “Where’s Waldo” movie. They also review The Hangover and find it to be less of a headache than Land of the Lost.

This week’s soundtrack selections:
“Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” by Nancy Sinatra from Kill Bill Vol 1;
“In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins from The Hangover;
-and-
“Bad Days” by the Flaming Lips from Batman Forever.

Stream it!

"Attack of the B-Movies!"

2009-06-09T06:51:00.003-04:00

Just because most college students left town for the summer doesn't mean the year-round Greensboroites have to wait until the fall to have fun at the movies.

That's why the folks who programmed the Mixed Tape Film Series and Midnight Madness have teamed up with NC film archivist Matt Pennachi to present "Attack of the B-Movies!"

This special series of midnight movies is four weeks of white-knuckled, unrelenting B-Movie greatness in 35 mm!

Audiences will laugh, scream, and cheer as vintage reels from cinema's yesteryear unspool tales of cyborgs, zombies, bad-ass valley girls, and monstrous beings from hell. And if that wasn't great enough, we're also playing no less than 15 minutes of zany retro trailers with each film!

Tickets are $4 each, with beer, pizza, soda, and popcorn on sale for $1.

NOTE: Because so many people have asked for it, the Carousel will now offer beer via a cash bar until 2 a.m. Now audiences can drink until Blue Laws force them to sober up.

Below are dates, titles, and film descriptions:

Midnight Friday, July 10 - Death Race 2000
Best described as "Gladiator" meets "The French Connection," David Carradine (R.I.P.) races Sylvester Stallone for a chance to destroy a corrupt U.S. President in this Roger Corman exploitation classic.

Midnight Friday, July 17 - Zombie
Zombies! Released stateside in 1980, this is Lucio Fulci's classic zombie movie. Banned in Germany, Norway, and the UK, this film is one of the hallmarks of the genre.

Midnight Friday, July 24 - Night of the Comet
Two valley girls survive Earth's annihilation and must battle hordes of the the walking undead and evil government scientists.

Midnight Friday, July 31 - Demons
A brand-new movie theater transforms the audience into murderous demons as the remaining human guests battle for their lives! Directed by Lamberto Bava and produced by horror legend Dario Argento, this is one of the greatest unsung horror films ever made.

Oh, and here are some trailers:
Death Race 2000

Zombie

Night of the Comet

Demons

2009-06-04T08:35:00.002-04:00

More Than Meets The Eye
By Robert V Aldrich

Looking back, the mid-80s was a great time for cartoons; a veritable golden age. There were so many zany ideas that made it to air. It turned Saturday morning into a sheer smorgasbord of awesome. You had dinosaurs, you had video game characters, you had elite military units. And you had robots. You had robots that looked alien and you had robots that looked like humans. You had robots who were actually holograms and you had robots that looked like tiny, cartoon knights. And then you had robots in disguise.

When Transformers came on the air, it was like nothing we had ever seen before. It was a noticeably more complex and intense show than much of the animated fare around it. It had more unique and interesting characters, it had more action, it had a more developed premise. It was everything a person, child or adult, could want in a show.

In the twenty-five years since Transformers first appeared, its popularity and fandom have only grown. Countless websites are devoted to Transformers. Multiple conventions exist solely around Transformers. Parodied and mocked, celebrated and admired, Transformers has endured and it’s endured because of its fans.

For a show that started out as little more than a thirty-minute commercial for a toy line, it’s earned a loyal fanbase. New fans are discovering it, and old fans are coming together to rediscover it. It’s a part of our childhood and a part of our lives. Whether your a diehard geek with your own Transformers collection at home and a raging debate over G1 Optimus Prime versus the live-action movie Optimus Prime, or just a casual fan who, with a smile, remembers watching the show after school, Transformers has a place in all our hearts. So sit back, know you are amongst friends, and smile as you reconnect with the show that transformed your life.

And don’t feel bad if you get a little weepy when Optimus dies. He comes back in season three.

--

NOTE: Robert Aldrich s a published novelist, but more importantly, he's an old friend who could very well be the nation's leading scholar in all things Transformers. I'm hosting a round of trivia at tonight's screening of Transformers: The Movie, and some of the questions that were prepared for me are very, very hard. That said, I guarantee that Robert could answer every single question.

My Adam Ross article.

2009-06-04T05:14:00.003-04:00

Producer took chance on new filmmakers

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2009

By JOE SCOTT
Special to Go Triad

The first time I interviewed Greensboro film producer Adam Ross, my assignment was to write a story on his low-budget sci-fi action film "Children of the Hunt."

Sitting in a lawn chair a quarter-mile from the set his family owned in the woods, Ross was this scruffy, wild-eyed scarecrow of a man. My assignment was to write 600 words, but our recorded interview lasted nearly two hours as Ross talked about 3-D filmmaking, transcendental meditation, Richard Donner's original Superman movie and the realistic potential of human time travel. I asked maybe two questions.

And although there was no way that even a fraction of what Ross said could fit into a 600-word feature on his film, I didn't regret a single moment of our conversation.

On May 24, Ross died of a heart-attack after contracting spinal meningitis. He was 37.

That Ross would die as the result of a rare bacterial infection was cruelly ironic, for he was a severe germaphobe.

He didn't share food, would only buy shoes straight off of delivery trucks to ensure other people had not worn them and removed the laces from all of his sneakers and boots so he would never have to touch them for fear of contamination.

"I can almost see him now saying, 'I told you so!' " says Matt Pennachi, a friend of Ross' who lives in Durham.

Click here for the rest of the article.

[PODCAST] Adam Ross, R.I.P.

2009-05-28T07:45:00.005-04:00

Joe and Mike pay tribute to a friend and ally to Greensboro filmmaking on this week’s episode of the Movie Show.

They also discuss the casting choice for the actress who will play Mark Wahlberg’s mother in The Fighter, Zack Braff’s first directorial effort after Garden State, and the winners at this year’s Cannes.

Reviews: Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian and Terminator: Salvation

Soundtrack Selections:
“Sunday Sun” by Neil Diamond from The Kid Stays in the Picture;
“The Only Living Boy in New York” by Simon & Garfunkel from Garden State;
“Son of a Preacherman” by Dusty Springfield from Pulp Fiction;
-and-
“Instruments of Destruction” by NRG from Transformers: The Movie

Stream it!

Trailer Park!

2009-05-26T10:54:00.002-04:00

These are the trailers we'll be talking about on tonight's episode:

Moon

Sam Rockwell chilling out all by his lonesome on a space station. Kinda feels like MST3K, only the movie we'll be getting to watch this time looks good. Definitely my favorite trailer of the bunch.

Nine

A nice runner-up to Moon. The fact that someone convinced a studio to finance this lavish musical remake of Fellini's 8 and 1/2 earns director Rob Marshall huge props in my book. Probably had to do with the fact that he got Daniel Day-Lewis to play the lead. I wonder if Day-Lewis can sing as good as he acts?

The Road

We had made a big to do last fall about this film getting delayed by one year. Reason being Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is one of my all-time favorite novels, and a superlative example of what genre fiction can be when writers stop using their subject matter as an excuse for cliches and weak prose. This trailer is totally busted - an action-packed trill ride that feels nothing at all like the film and stupidly explains the unexplained disaster responsible for the bleak events in the novel - but I still hold hope that Viggo Mortensen and director John Hillcoat managed to pull this bad boy off. The lingering sense of dread is still there, but the editing needlessly amps it up to an 11. Guess they want to fool audiences into thinking this will be an action-packed thrill ride so they'll be sorely disappointed? Not too wise in my book.

Surrogates

Just in time for Terminator: Salvation, we got the trailer for Surrogates, the newest film from Jonathan Mostow, director of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Interesting concept, but we'll see how it plays.

In an Aptow world.

2009-05-26T09:04:00.002-04:00

Great music video for a song that's both funny and true.

Watch In An Apatow World and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

Terminator: Salvation review.

2009-05-20T08:44:00.003-04:00

When filmmaker James Cameron made The Terminator in 1984 - and its exponentially larger budgeted sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, in 1991 – he essentially raised the bar for action filmmaking so high that few filmmakers have come close to touching it.

Unfortunately, the few who came close does not include the guy who calls himself McG, director of the newest Terminator outing called Terminator: Salvation. He lacks the almost scientific calculation Cameron used to generate thrills, and there are a few beats in McG's film that are no less goofy than the name he insists people call him.

Terminator: Salvation is the first outing of the Terminator franchise, which also includes a TV series and a theme park ride at Universal Studios, to completely address humanity’s war with the machines in the future.

Played by Christian Bale, freedom fighter John Connor leads the resistance against the machines that, like all mechanical creations in movies, turned against humanity shortly after they became self-aware. The resistance has discovered a radio signal that has the potential to stop the robots dead in their tracks, which Connor intends to use so that he and his fellow freedom fighters can level Skynet’s base of operations located in a bombed-out San Francisco. However, before Connor can allow the destruction of Skynet, be must discover the location of Kyle Reese, the man who would ultimately become Connor’s father after he sent him back in time in the first Terminator film to protect his mother.

This brings us to another character named Marcus Wright, who is played by Australian actor Sam Worthington. A man of mysterious origins, Marcus knows that Reese has in fact been kidnapped by Skynet, and will be executed unless they attempt a last-ditch rescue. There is of course a secret about the true nature of Marcus that anyone who’s seen the movie’s trailers will know about (i.e. that he is in fact a robot-human hybrid), and the film uses this to explore the notions of what makes machines like humans and vice versa. That said, the most recent incarnation of TV’s “Battlestar Galactica” handled the same topic in a far more engaging and thoughtful way.

But Terminator: Salvation has about as much to praise as it does to criticize. McG is not a confident action film director like Cameron, but he is competent one. He uses his skills to essentially mount action scenes from the first shot after the prologue until the credits in the end. He also packs in enough references to both the original and second “Terminator” films, that no fan of the series can watch the movie without smiling once or twice. The film could be best described as a gigantic-budgeted internet fan film. Or better yet, the cinematic equivalent to karaoke.

Sure, it doesn’t push for high artistic value like the original films, but for those who know all the lyrics, there are moments when it can still be a lot of fun. And if you're one of those people like my buddy Mike who thought Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was 'good' or even 'okay,' you'll probably feel the same way about this movie.

Price of admission to Terminator: Salvation will get you...

-Sam Worthington slipping out of his character’s American accent into his native Australian one during the scenes where his character whispers -– an odd flaw, since he is a fairly capable actor otherwise.

-One machine communicating to another in English as opposed to binary.

-John Connor rocking out to the same Guns n’ Roses song he used to listen to when he paled around with the red-headed kid from Nikelodeon’s “Salute Your Shorts.”

-and-

-A couple of inventive cameos by original “Terminator” stars Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schawtzenneger, both of whom got to appear in the film without spending a single day on the movie’s set.

This won’t be the film that turns new audiences into fans of the Cameron-spawned franchise, but I can’t deny that the film wasn’t an action packed-spectacle made for, and perhaps by, fans of the original films.

(** & 1/2 out of ****)

[PODCAST] Fake IMAXes and the Stupidest Quote of the Year

2009-05-20T08:34:00.000-04:00

On this week’s episode of the Movie Show, Mike tells listeners whether Tom Hanks’ newest movie is an ‘Angel’ or a ‘Demon,’ Joe gives the advanced word on Terminator: Salvation, and together they ponder what a Battleship movie might do to director Peter Berg’s career and which actor should play Ol’ Blue Eyes in Scorsese’s Frank Sinatra biopic.

This week’s Soundtrack Selections:
“Brain” by The Action from Observe and Report;
“All My Days” by Alexi Murdoch from Away We Go (trailer);
“You Could Be Mine” by Guns N’ Roses from Terminator: Salvation;
-and-
“Dare” by Stan Bush from Transformers: The Movie (1986).

Steam it!

Mixed Tape presents 'Transformers: The Movie' (1986)

2009-05-11T06:58:00.003-04:00

Whether or not you care for what Michael Bay has done - and will continue to do - with the series of live action films, all fans of Transformers can agree that the original 1986 film was pretty awesome. After all, it was the first U.S. animated feature since Bambi or Charlotte's Web where a major character dies. There's actually a good chance that the film introduced many children of the 1980's to the concept that death is absolute, and can claim anyone -- including the beloved Autobot leader Optimus Prime.

So it brings me great joy to announce that the Movie Show's Mixed Tape Film Series along with Acme Comics, is hosting this rare presentation of Transformers: The Movie at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas (1305 Battleground Ave.) on Thursday, June 4 at 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.

This is the 1986 film that, surprisingly enough, was the final cinematic bow for writer, director Orson Welles as the voice of the planet devouring robot Unicron. You've also got Star Trek's Leanard Nimoy, The Breakfast Club's Judd Nelson, Monty Python's Eric Idle, and as the voice of Prime himself, Peter Cullen.

As with all Mixed Tape screenings, there will be $1 beer, pizza, cookies, popcorn, and soda, but there's one thing we're going to be doing differently. Because of the new movie coming out, there's a high chance that Transformers will sell out. So instead of simply offering advanced tickets online, we're also letting fans duck the surcharges by heading over to Acme Comics on 2150 Lawndale Dr. where a limited number of advanced tickets will be available. Again, the number of advanced tickets is limited, so you might want to head over to Acme ASAP.

Acme will also have a table set up in the lobby filled with Transformers memorabilia, and before the film, I'll be presenting a special, hand-picked collection of video clips that should leave all Transformers fans cheering.

The "4 minute clip" from 'Terminator Salvation'

2009-05-11T06:49:00.002-04:00

First I just want to point out that is is not a 'clip' so much as an extended trailer.

Check it out:

Rewind by about a year or two on our podcasts, and I am sure there will be plenty of audio from me badmouthing this project. After all, I am one of those Terminator fans who holds Cameron's films in the series as two of the greatest films ever made. But now that I've seen the trailers for the film, and have some idea as to what this film will be about, I've got to say I'm excited.

Mike actually said that he's benching the entire 'salvation' of movies in general on this film. My enthusiasm or hope for the project doesn't go that far, but I do believe we got a good summer movie on our hands.

Where I have been.

2009-05-10T07:28:00.004-04:00

About four months ago, I found this amazingly powerful magnetic marble lying on the ground at the school where I work.

In terms of magnetism, you could roll this baby down a wall and watch it stop wherever there was a nail.

So one day, I rolled said marble across my table - the same table where I had left my MacBook running - and instead of going straight across the table, the marble decided it liked the metallic parts inside my computer and made a detour.

At the very moment the marble kissed my MacBook, all digital files, information, and programs I had accumulated for many, many years were gone. This includes about 40 gigs of music, including my impressive soundtrack collection and $500 worth of iTunes files I never backed up. This includes podcasts, celebrity interviews, and screenplay drafts that are most likely gone for good.

I'm working through the problem right now. I have this wonderful program called Data Rescue II, which among other things, seems pretty good at retrieving corrupted data files that were fubared by large magnets. I've saved about 15 gigs of data, but considering there were almost 100 gigs that I didn't retrieve, I still have little reason to see light at the end of the tunnel.

I am going to make another pass through my computer today before uploading a new OS onto the computer. Guess this is the perfect excuse to upgrade to Leopard.

At any rate, I promise to have something up by tomorrow. Sorry for the lengthy state of incommunicado.

-Joe

Ramin Bahrani cover story.

2009-04-23T04:53:00.004-04:00

Movie set in Winston-Salem winning rave reviews.
By Joe Scott

The first time I interviewed filmmaker Ramin Bahrani in 2007, I asked him what I refer to as the “$100 million question."

If someone gave you a $100 million budget, what kind of movie would you make?

Without hesitation, the Winston-Salem native said he would never make a $100 million film. Instead, he would make 100 smaller films for $1 million each.

Two years later, his response has changed, but only slightly.

“I have three projects I want to do,” Bahrani says by phone from his New York home. “One of them I can make again for $1 million, but two of them are period films so they might cost between $5 million and $10 million.

“So now, I would probably say I would divide it up and make anywhere between 10 and 20 films.”

These last two years have been kind to Bahrani. His debut film, Man Push Cart, a low-budget drama about a Pakistani rock star turned push-cart vendor scraping to get by in New York, earned praise from major critics around the world.

And although most indie filmmakers strike out with their sophomore efforts, Bahrani did the opposite with Chop Shop. It won an Independent Spirit Award and a spot on many top 10 lists for 2007.

Chop Shop also solidified Bahrani’s place at the heart of a national filmmaking movement dedicated to portraying the lives of low-income Americans enduring financial crises. Other examples include Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy and Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River, which, like Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, are character studies about people living paycheck to paycheck.

With Goodbye Solo, Bahrani’s third American feature, he takes the plight of the working class and sets it in his hometown. The film was shot and set in Winston-Salem, cast locally and presents a depiction of the urban South that challenges outsiders’ views of the region.

North Carolina audiences will get their first chance to see Goodbye Solo Saturday and Sunday at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem.

Early response to Goodbye Solo has been positive. Roger Ebert even called Bahrani the new great American director and declared to filmgoers, “Wherever you live, when this film opens, it will be the best film in town.”

(Click here to read the rest.)

UNCG Theatre gets 'Grooovy' with 'Evil Dead: The Musical.'

2009-04-22T10:12:00.003-04:00

Want to know where I'll be on October 31?

All hail to the king, baby!

Funny how the listing says "broomstick" instead of boomstick. Guess the latter word doesn't come up in conversations too often.

Tickets go on sale July 1.

One day, your movie wins the Oscar - the next, your father tries to sell you to a guy pretending to be a sheik.

2009-04-22T09:57:00.005-04:00

Father of girl in 'Slumdog' denies trying to sell her.

It's times like these where the only response is, Holy Hell.

Sad thing is, stuff like this happens all the time in India to little girls who will never have the benefit of a media outrage to save them.

Why didn't someone do this to the casts from Crash and Titanic?

[PODCAST] Old people don't like movies?

2009-04-22T08:20:00.002-04:00

Old people don’t like movies? That’s what Hollywood is saying this week.

Also, Joe and Mike discuss a couple of real-life behind the scenes brawlers who’ve decided to work on the same movie together, Sophia Coppola’s long awaited follow-up to Marie Antoinette, and yet another sequel to The DaVinci Code. Mike reviews State of Play and Joe shares what he learned from The Class.

Soundtrack Selections:
“Help Is On It’s Way” by Little River Band from Observe and Report;
“In Dreams” by Roy Orbison from Blue Velvet;
“Plainsong” by The Cure from Marie Antoinette;
-and-
“Knock Yourself Out” by Jon Brion from I Heart Huckabees.

Stream it here or subscribe

The worst trailer of 2009.

2009-04-16T16:35:00.002-04:00

See for yourself.

Based on the trailer, here's the pitch for the film:

A biologically engineered kid sues her parents in order to donate vital organs to her cancer-stricken sister. How they got anyone beyond the stable of Lifetime Movie of the Week performers is beyond me. And the cancer jokes were a laugh riot.

If that movie does well, the studio heads are right. American audiences do need 'escape' - escape from higher brain function and films that do not insult the grief of the misfortunate.

Article: Jody Hill interview

2009-04-16T16:26:00.002-04:00

'Observe and Report': 'Blart' with violence
By Joe Scott
Special to Go Triad

When N.C. filmmaker Jody Hill premiered his feature debut "Foot Fist Way" at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, it didn't win any awards.

But the low-budget comedy about a tormented redneck martial-arts instructor got a prize far more coveted than any award: a distribution deal from Paramount Vantage.

Then the flick languished on the studio's shelf, unreleased for two years.

"I don't know what the studio was trying to feel for, but I am sure they were waiting for some sign that this would be a hit," says Hill, a native of Concord and a graduate of UNC School of the Arts. "But I don't think anything was achieved by waiting."

That sign came in the form of Hollywood's comedy elite. DVD screeners of "Foot Fist Way" found their way into the hands of several A-list laugh-makers, including Will Ferrell, uber-producer Judd Apatow, and then-budding star Seth Rogen. Their interest jump-started "Foot Fist Way," landing the film in a few theaters.

The movie became more of a cult hit than a box-office smash, but it helped launch the career of Danny McBride, a friend and fellow School of the Arts filmmaking graduate, who went on to play parts in "Tropic Thunder" and the upcoming Will Ferrell comedy "Land of the Lost."

As for Hill, who played a small role in "Foot Fist Way," he managed to nab a cameo in the Rogen-scripted comedy "Superbad." After that, the two decided to collaborate again on "Observe and Report," which opens in theaters Friday.

(Click here to read the rest.)

The Movie Show: The Animated Series

2009-04-16T16:17:00.002-04:00

People are always telling me, "We know what it's like to hear the movie show, but what's it like to see it?

Okay, so no one's ever told me that before.

But in case you want to know anyway, I've made the following computer animated short via XtraNormal. Pixar it ain't, but perhaps it's the beginning of an ongoing animated series?

Trailer Park: 'Away We Go'

2009-04-14T17:27:00.002-04:00

Not exactly sure how he did it, but American Beauty director Sam Mendes will be releasing Away We Go only six months after Revolutionary Road. Based on Revolutionary's box-office, I'm sure a lot of audiences will be relieved to find out it looks nowhere near as depressing.

You can see the John Krazinski and Jim Gaffigan indie rock goodness below:

[PODCAST] Leaky Wolverines and Cars vs. Women

2009-04-08T06:04:00.001-04:00

Fox’s control on the workprint for Wolverine might be leaky, but this week’s episode of The Movie Show is anything but. Mike ventures to Adventureland where things are a bit slower than expected, while Joe gets Fast and Furious on Vin Diesel’s newest film. They also discuss the woes of film critic David Friedman vs. the cult of copyright, the identity of Michael Bay’s brand new Freddy Kruger, and the next comedy to feature a broken-hearted Steve Carell.

This week’s soundtrack selections:
“Satellite of Love” by Lou Reed from Adventureland;
“People Are Strange” by The Doors from The Lost Boys;
-and-
“Ninja” by Europe from Hot Rod.

Click here to stream it, or here to check out our page at the Itune's store.

Essay: 'Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky'

2009-04-01T08:16:00.004-04:00

GLASS EYES FILLED WITH MINTS:
THE STORY OF THE STORY OF RICKY

By Craig D. Lindsey

As always, it starts with a story. A personal story.

I was driving one Saturday night in Houston, my former place of residence, to interview a budding rapper or musician or producer or whatever at the recording studio he uses. I don’t remember anything about this guy’s music. I don’t remember if I wrote an article on him. Hell, I don’t even remember his name — both stage and government. But, I do remember one thing quite clearly: he had a box full of VHS tapes next to the couch where he was sitting. And The Story of Ricky was sitting right on top of them.

I asked him if I could borrow the film. “That’s cool, man,” he said — I think.

Later that night, as I popped the tape into my VCR, I didn’t so much as watch it as I skimmed through it. I was well aware of the movie’s extremely violent nature. Its most outrageously graphic scene, a hulky man smashing a guy’s head with his bare hands, was used on “The Daily Show” as the title sequence for then-host Craig Kilborn’s “5 Questions” segment. (Incidentally, that came to be because the authors of the book “Baked Potatoes: A Pot Smoker's Guide to Film & Video” appeared as guests on the show and showed that clip, declaring Ricky to be an ideal movie to watch while you’re getting blunted. It’s also great to watch when you’re wasted, too.) And much like when guys used to peruse through porn videos, I fast-forwarded through all the talking to get to the really nasty stuff.

In some ways, I skipped to all the graphic parts so I wouldn’t be caught off-guard when I eventually viewed the film in its entirety. As I learned, the head-smashing scene is not the most insane thing Ricky serves up. Based on the Japanese manga Riki-Oh (which also became a couple of straight-to-video animes), the movie version of Ricky lives up to its comic-book counterpart by presenting violence that’s just as cartoonish, over-the-top and gruesomely absurd as you would see in any R-rated funny pages. (When it was released in 1991, the movie itself earned a Category III rating, the Hong Kong equivalent of an NC-17, making it one of the first non-erotic films to earn such a rating.)

Set in the dark, distant future of 2001 (you can tell it’s the future by the quasi-John Carpenter/Escape From New York music), Ricky virtually trumpets the graphic, brutal unpredictability that will soon come by taking place in a prison. (Any “Oz” fan will tell you the most creative ways to maim or kill a person usually happen in the big house.) As the title implies, it’s the story of a man named Riki-Oh (Terry Fan Siu Wong), who does a ten-year manslaughter stint for literally punching a hole in the head of a drug-dealing gangster who caused his beloved girlfriend to jump off a building and commit suicide. While he’s supposedly a quiet man who just wants to do his time in peace, this dirty, stinking, corrupt jail won’t let him be.

The people who run this place are bigger thugs and criminals than the actual inmates. (I’ve never seen a movie with such a sorry bunch of jailbirds — are they all doing time for jaywalking or something?) The assistant warden is a one-armed, gluttonous sadist who wears a glass eye filled with mints (huh?). The wings of the prison are ran by the “Gang of Four,” a quartet of lethal henchmen who also guard the prison’s illegal opium stock. (It’s worth noting that famed Japanese actress/martial artist Yukari Oshima took a “trouser role” as the gang’s most dangerous — and male — member.) And let’s not forget the actual warden, who shows up halfway through the movie, complete with a mean, tyrannical streak and a portly, spoiled brat for a son.

With all these psychopaths around, it’s obvious that Riki-Oh won’t be doing his time peacefully. It’s a good thing he spent his youth getting trained by his cackling uncle, who taught him to control his temperament and work on his strengths by having him smash tombstones his unc threw at him in cemeteries. Eventually, Riki-Oh becomes a reluctant hero to the inmates, as he stands up to these mercilessly evil superiors and fights his way toward freedom. So, it’s basically like “Cool Hand Luke” — if Paul Newman knew how to hit people so hard, their eyes would pop out of their sockets.

Ricky is a movie that certainly takes advantage of the whole superhuman-strength concept. Hey, if you have the strength of a hundred men, which our main protagonist inexplicably has, wouldn’t you put it to good use and really destroy some bad guys? Riki-Oh has enough power in his fists to obliterate men’s midsections, knock the top of a guy’s head off and uppercut a dude’s jaw out of his mouth. Director Ngai Kai Lam takes almost nutty glee filming close-ups where Riki-Oh’s fists of steel destroy the fake, stage blood-filled heads and torsos and limbs that come one after the other. Ricky is a movie that practically never lets up on its extreme nature. Just when you think it’s ran out of body parts to decimate, it finds yet more ingenious ways to awesomely make your stomach turn.

Ricky introduced me to a form of Hong Kong cinema I was not yet familiar with. It’s not like the acrobatic popcorn flicks of Jackie Chan, the slo-mo, crime-noir shoot-em-ups of John Woo or even the stylish, beautiful, art-house films of Wong Kar-Wai — Hong Kong movie auteurs I already knew and admired. No, this is Hong Kong exploitation at its most low-low-lowdown. The kind of movie Quentin Tarantino saluted in the first Kill Bill volume. The kind of movie where the blood gushes like water fountains, a man’s intestines can serve as his secret weapon during a fight and even dogs can get the stuffing kicked out of them.

These days, I have seen enough Hong Kong action flicks to be mostly desensitized by whatever viscera-hurling action comes my way. (Although, once in a while, a movie does come along and surprises me, like the recently-released Tokyo Gore Police — Jesus, that was a messed-up movie!) I even find the violence in “Ricky” quite meh these days. If anything, with its gory ludicrousness and high levels of camp, watching it now reminds me just how laughable and redonkulous this movie truly is. Even if it didn’t have the bad English dubbing — the movie’s most hilarious asset — the lazy performances and tacky special effects would guarantee that this is still one cheesy movie. One bloody, shocking, bugnuts crazy, cheesy movie.

However, The Story of Ricky will always be the first to show me how outrageous — and even fearless — Hong Kong cinema can get. I always knew Asian cinema had us beat in several areas. But, they can even make better exploitation flicks than us.

I feel sorry for all you poor bastards who will be watching this for the first time this evening. You have no idea what you are in for. (I’m sure people who’ve seen it will have the extra kick of watching who stays and who flees the auditorium in horror.) As for me, I’ll probably be at the house, watching it once again, on the VHS tape I never gave back to that rapper/producer/musician/whatever dude.

Craig D. Lindsey is the film critic and reporter for the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. You can read his reviews here and his not so recently updated blog here.

Karma's a bitch: 'Wolverine' leaked to the nets a month before release.

2009-04-01T06:27:00.004-04:00

NOTE: This is not an April Fool's joke

There's a lesson in all of this.

After the way Fox yanked a significant amount of funding away from Bryan Singer's first X-Men film, due to a lack of faith in the property...

After the way they completely botched Fantastic Four...

After the way Fox caused Singer to leave X-3 despite the fact he built a hugely successful franchise for them...

After they turned Galactus in FF-2 into a friggin' cloud...

After the way they treated Wolverine director Gavin Hood like a dog, repainting his sets behind his back and making his life a general hell...

After the way they legally muscled their way back into the Watchmen franchise when it looked as if the film might make a little bit of money...

After they developed a reputation for being the most unfriendly company towards writers and directors...

And after Fox studio head Tom Rothman said of comic book fans: 'Who cares about them? We already got their money!'...

...Someone has uploaded a pristine workprint of X-Men Origins: Wolverine onto the Internet.

Rothman might not care about fanboys, but I've got news for him: With few exceptions, pretty much everyone who has opened a comic book knows how to work a computer. Most of these guys are probably finding a way to see this film right now as I type this post. These people are not going to buy a ticket to see this movie.

By Friday, Wolverine will be on sale at flea markets and barbershops across the country, essentially being sold to the other half of the audience that would have made Wolverine a box-office hit. These people are not going to buy a ticket to see the movie.

As for the rest of the people, the ones who don't shop at flea markets or comic book stores? Well, when they hear about how much the movie sucks - and let's face it, folks, we know that it will - their interest in seeing a film about a guy who has claws that pop out of his hands will greatly diminish. Needless to say, these people are not going to buy a ticket to see the movie.

Is Karma a bitch? Yup.

Can Fox recoup the funds they lost via their upcoming slate of 'quality' titles: Night at the Museum 2, They Came From Upstairs, All About Steve and Tooth Fairy? Nope.

Hopefully Rothman and the rest of the stooges at Fox can blow their noses on the money they skimmed from the Watchmen grosses.

The bad news for fans is that they can probably kiss any future X-Men, Wolverine, Fantastic Four, or Daredevil movies goodbye. Then again, if they are being made by Fox, that's probably a good thing.

There will be blood, gore, and more when "Story of Ricky" plays tomorrow!

2009-03-31T09:20:00.002-04:00

In case you were not already aware, online tickets for "The Story of Ricky" are now available.

Also, those who attend tomorrow's screening will be playing an integral part in selecting the films we play during next year's Mixed Tape Film Series. We've got a shortlist of films we are selecting from, and we'll be letting the audience tell us about the ones they want to see the most.

So show up, vote, and drink $1 beer. You'll be glad that you did.

RE: EW's 'Top 20 Heroes' list and my response.

2009-03-29T10:13:00.002-04:00

Entertainment Weekly devoted an entire cover story to the "Top 20 Heroes and Villains of All Time." You can see how the heroes were ranked here, or you can save time and modem strain by reading their infuriating list here:

1. James Bond
2. Indiana Jones
3. Superman
4. Harry Potter
5. Ellen Ripley
6. John McClane
7. Han Solo
8. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
9. Robin Hood
10. Spider-Man
11. Mad Max
12. James T. Kirk
13. Foxy Brown
14. Will Kane
15. Dirty Harry
16. Jack Bauer
17. Nancy Drew
18. Batman
19. Atticus Finch
20. Sydney Bristow

...

So let's get this straight, of all the heroes on the list, Batman was ranked number 18?

Blasphemy!

For starters, there's not a single person on that list Batman couldn't beat in a fight.

James Bond?

Bats would easily give that martini-swilling, product placement whore of misogynist what for.

Superman?

I got two words for you: Kryptonite ring - Batman has one.

Spider-Man? He would spray the web-head with Pam so he couldn't stick to walls anymore and give 'ol Spidey a wedgie and a lesson in true heroics.

Nancy Drew?

Batman would swiftly convince her that the two of them don't need to fight, and tell her to go do her homework.

This poorly ranked top 20 list ruffled my feathers to the point where I actually wrote my first angry letter to an editor.

Here it is:

Editor,

That you would deny Batman number one status on "The Top 20 Heroes" - let alone salt the wound by ranking him number 18 under Superman (#3), Spider-Man (#10), or Nancy Drew (#17) - is an insult to the concept of heroes. The modern day equivalent to Arthurian legend, the Caped Crusader has penetrated our nation's consciousness more than any other character in contemporary literature. More hours of TV have been devoted to Batman, including the seminal "Batman: The Animated Series," and with only seven movies, the character is but a mere $200 million shy of eclipsing the amount James Bond earned in 23 flicks, none of which are half as good as "The Dark Knight." And while Superman fights for the American way, it is Batman who represents America's spirit by pushing himself beyond his limits to preserve hope and restore justice in an increasingly bleak world.

Most lists are a matter of opinion, but in this case, it's a matter of fact: When it comes to heroes, Bats is best, and those who disagree are fools or liars.

Joe Scott
Greensboro, NC
www.TheMovieShow.org

You MUST Watch This Trailer: 'Where the Wild Things Are'

2009-03-25T16:19:00.003-04:00

I've made it a personal editorial rule not to use swear words on this site, but HOLY SHIT does the trailer for Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are look amazing.

See for yourself:

My anticipation for this film has ecclipsed that for all others this year. The only way I could possibly be more excited right now about a film project is if Paul Verhoeven announced he is making an official sequel to Robocop, but even then I would have to flip a coin.

We all know that Spike went through studio hell with WB to get this film made the way that he wanted. If the movie is half as good as this trailer, we are in for a treat.

Now I must look for a time machine that can zap me about seven months into the future.

Through the eyes of a child: 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure'

2009-03-23T12:05:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I let the 1st and 2nd grade students in my after school class watch Tim Burton's Pee Wee's Big Adventure. They loved the film from the opening dream sequence at the Tour de France all the way to the drive-in movie finale. One student loved the film so much that he wrote the following synopsis of the film as a writing assignment for his regular 2nd grade class.

Thought you might want to take a look at it:

"Piwi Herman and the Wonderful Bike"
By Josiah

(Josiah)

Once upon a time there was a man acting like a child. His name was Piwi Herman. One ight, Piwi Herman had a dream about his bike. He was in a bike race. He is number zero. He was on that bike going fast. he won the race. Piwi Herman wins.Ring Ring! Ring Ring! Time to wake up. When he got up he said "Good morning sun."

He taped his dog [Editor's Note: A deleted scene?]. He went vrom vrom with his firetruck in his pj's. He went over his cho cho train and slide down the pole. He had many inventins. When he got down and was ready he pushed a button and sereal went n a windmill basjen it whept around and arond it pored in to a bowl and a hand reached and put it in to a nother hand with milk the milk pored and the hand pulled the milk up. It put the milk in the revrostrator and his crevid was ready when he was. When he finished, he whent to his back yard and pulled sertaht branches wich mode doors. The last one was the one to his wonderful bike when he got on the front porch his rich next dor naber said, "Today is my birthday and I can have anything I want and I whand your bike," said the rich boy. "NO!" said Piwi. The rich boy took his bike to a show, when he found it, then he had a cool bike performans. It was on TV where people can watch it and thats the end.

'No Retreat, No Surrender': The Aftermath

2009-03-21T08:32:00.002-04:00

I wanted to shoot a quick thanks to everyone who attended last night's screening. Hope that "No Retreat, No Surrender" was the stupifying white man kung-fu experience that we promised it would be.

Van Damme shined in a role that probably took a couple of days to film; Bruce Lee's ghost looked nothing like Bruce Lee, but that didn't stop him from hawking Coke products; R.J. got the ride of his life while licking a fudgescicle; and yes, Fatass ate a whole goddamned cake on the side of the road.

If you've had a great time at any of our movie events, don't thank me. Thank the gang at the Carousel who have given us fans of questionable cinema a venue where we can enjoy crappy films and lots of beer.

The best way to thank the Carousel is to vote for them in Yes!Weekly's annual the Triad's Best poll (click here!).

You don't have to nominate someone in every category, but the gang at the theater sure would appreciate the props. And since they are in fact the best theater in the Triad, why don't we let everyone else in Greensboro know that?

-Joe Scott

P.S. The officer on duty last night said he wanted to thank you guys for being such an excellent crowd. He's had to deal with his fair share of knuckleheads at the Carousel, but never at one of our events.

[PODCAST] St. Patty's Movie Show

2009-03-18T08:06:00.002-04:00

An early review of the Nicholas Cage film Knowing is but one of many reasons you should tune in to this week’s episode of The Movie Show. Joe and Mike also talk about the future movie projects for two of this year’s Oscar winners. A trio of horror films make their way towards Development Ave. in hopes of a greenlight. AND can 20th Century Fox somehow manage to save their dead in the water Fantastic Four franchise?

It’s all on this week’s show, plus music by Joanna Newsome, Vampire Weekend, Rufus Wainwright, and the Velvet Underground.

Stream it!

Spike Jonze's "Where The Wild Things Are" gets a poster.

2009-03-18T07:51:00.002-04:00

Behold:

When I heard that WB was planning to reshoot the film, I was worried they might ruin it. Fart jokes, groin punches, gross-out humor, part of which would be scored to the Troggs' "Wild Thing" as well as Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" for good measure.

Fortunately, that does not appear to be the case.

I cannot wait to see this film, and what's great about it is that it comes out on the same month as my birthday.

Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell" trailer

2009-03-17T11:05:00.003-04:00

I don't know about you, but Sam (Evil Dead) Raimi making a horror film is always good news to me. Even better, this film played SXSW last weekend, and killed.

The end of this month couldn't get here soon enough.

"Little Minx Exquisite Corpse" by Laurent Briet

2009-03-17T11:01:00.002-04:00

Here's Little Minx Exquisite Corpse, the short film from Laurent Briet, who will most likely be directing The Strangers 2.

Not bad, and maybe the job of directing a trio of masked killers who terrorize a small trailer park could lead to bigger and better things.

Midnight Madness video

2009-03-16T12:56:00.002-04:00

Louis Bekoe, a videographer from News & Record stopped by our first "Midnight Madness: Beer and a Bad Movie" of Troll 2 to make the following video:

If you haven't attended a "Midnight Madness" screening, my hope is that this video will make you reconsider. Unlike every other possible late Friday night event in Greensboro, ours won't damage your wallet or pocketbook, and as you can see, we always have a good time. So make your way out to the Carousel (1305 Battleground Ave.) midnight this Friday when we play No Retreat, No Surrender.

Watch the following trailer for just a taste of the Jean-Claude Van Dammage:

And while we're on the subject of the Carousel, all of us should do what we can to help them win Yes! Weekly's The Triad's Best 2009 award for Best Movie Theater. Why? Because even if they weren't hosting our crazy movie parties in town, they still provide our only source of genuine independent and foreign films here in the Triad. They are also the only theater that is locally owned.

So go here and vote. You don't have to select a candidate for every category. Just vote for Best Movie Theater, and show Greensboro and Winston-Salem that the "Best" is actually the best.

Looks like some people in Greensboro have the right idea....

2009-03-13T08:08:00.002-04:00

Went to Best Buy yesterday to return an unsatisfactory DVD player when I decided to try and buy a Blu Ray of Let the Right One In. That's when I discovered this:

The picture was taken with my iPhone, hence the lackluster quality.

And while I was a little disappointed I didn't get to buy my own copy last night, I am happy that enough people were interested in seeing this film to sell it out.

'Watchmen' screenwriter begs fans to see film again, makes arse out of self.

2009-03-13T07:52:00.002-04:00

Looks like Watchmen co-scribe David Hayter wrote an open letter to AICN I thought about posting just the link, or even just an excerpt, but the audacity of this letter as a whole is so shameless and absurd that it would ultimately do his letter injustice.

Prepare for intense pity and nausea. Here's the letter:

So it has been five months since I saw my first rough cut of WATCHMEN, and eight days since the premiere of the film I've been working on since late in the year 2000.

The reviews are out -- Some outstanding, others rankly dismissive, which can be frustrating for the people involved, (though I can only speak for myself,) because I firmly believe that WATCHMEN, the novel, must be read through more than once to even have the faintest grip on it. And I believe the film is the same.

I've seen it twice now, and despite having run the movie in my head thousands of times, my two viewings still don’t' allow me to view the film with the proper distance or objectivity. Is it Apocalypse Now? Is it Blade Runner? Is it Kubrick, or Starship Troopers? I don’t know yet.

All I know is that I had a pretty amazing experience the two times I've seen it. And both viewings produced remarkably different experiences. The point is, I have listened for years, to complaints from true comic book fans, that "not enough movies take the source material seriously." "Too many movies puss out," or "They change great stories, just to be commercial." Well, I f***ing dare you to say any one of those things about this movie.

This is a movie made by fans, for fans. Hundreds of people put in years of their lives to make this movie happen, and every one of them was insanely committed to retaining the integrity of this amazing, epic tale. This is a rare success story, bordering on the impossible, and every studio in town is watching to see if it will work. Hell, most of them own a piece of the movie.

So look, this is a note to the fanboys and fangirls. The true believers. Dedicated for life.

If the film made you think. Or argue with your friends. If it inspired a debate about the nature of man, or vigilante justice, or the horror of Nixon abolishing term limits. If you laughed at Bowie hanging with Adrian at Studio 54, or the Silhouette kissing that nurse.

Please go see the movie again next weekend.

You have to understand, everyone is watching to see how the film will do in its second week. If you care about movies that have a brain, or balls, (and this film's got both, literally), or true adaptations -- And if you're thinking of seeing it again anyway, please go back this weekend, Friday or Saturday night. Demonstrate the power of the fans, because it'll help let the people who pay for these movies know what we'd like to see. Because if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, they will never allow a film like this to be made again.

In the interests of full disclosure, let me also point out that I do not profi t one cent from an increase in box office, although an increase in box office can add to the value of the writers' eventual residual profits from dvd and tv sales.

But I'm not saying it for money. I'm saying it for people like me. I'm saying it for people who love smart, dark entertainment, on a grand, operatic scale. I'm talking to the Snake fans, the Rorschach fans, the people of the Dark Knight.

And hey, if you hated the film, if you think we committed atrocities, or literary mistakes of a massive, cephalopodic nature. If the movie made you a little sick to your stomach, or made you feel bad about your life. If you hated it for whatever reason, that's cool too. I'm not suggesting you risk gastro-intestinal distress just for the sake of risky filmmaking.

But if you haven't seen it yet? Well, I'll just say this...

It may upset you. And it probably will upset you.

And all along, we really meant it to.

Because face it. All this time...You there, with the Smiley-face pin. Admit it.

All this time, you’ve been waiting for a director who was going to hit you in the face with this story. To just crack you in the jaw, and then bend you over the pool table with this story. With its utterly raw view of the darkest sides of human nature, expressed through its masks of action and beauty and twisted good intentions. Like a fry-basket full of hot grease in the face. Like the Comedian on the=2 0Grassy Knoll. I know, I know...

You say you don't like it. You say you've got issues. I get it.

And yet... You'll be thinking about this film, down the road. It'll nag at you. How it was rough and beautiful. How it went where it wanted to go, and you just hung on. How it was thoughtful and hateful and bleak and hilarious. And for Jackie Earle Haley.

Trust me. You'll come back, eventually. Just like Sally.

Might as well make it count for something.

-David Hayter

--

See this film again? I'm upset that I saw it once. The one and only time I will ever see Watchmen again is to check out this legendary wonder-cut of the film that fans say will remedy all the movie's flaws. Even then, I will probably just rent it or borrow it from a friend.

Getting audiences ready for "The Room."

2009-03-12T08:00:00.002-04:00

You might know this already, but tickets for tomorrow night's "Midnight Madness" screening of The Room are now available online.

Starting tomorrow, they will also be available at the Carousel Box Office, first come first serve. For those who must absolutely attend this screening, I suggest that you get you get your tickets via either option. We sold out Troll 2, and the chances of doing the same with "The Room" are equal if not greater because of the rising popularity regarding the title. Matter of fact, one of the reasons I decided to go forward with "Midnight Madness: Beer and a Bad Movie" was because of the sheer volume of people who asked me to play this film.

Aside from buying a ticket, there are other things you can do to prepare for the screening.

1) Dress like writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau.

Here's a picture of Tommy Wiseau (center):

Easy enough, right? I mean all you really need is a black blazer:

And a black wig:

And as you can see, even a female can do it if she wishes to do so. And if you would like to seal the deal, it might be a good idea to bring a dozen red roses, like Wiseau's character Johnny gives to his fiance no less than three times during the film.

2) Bring a Nerf (or foam rubber) football:

Then during the two football scenes that take place in the film, you can throw the ball to your friends. However, if anyone throws a leather or non-foam rubber football, chucks a ball at the screen, or maliciously tries to hurt another person, they will be ejected from the screening. So don't be the douche who tries to take a cool thing and ruin it for everybody. Play right, and we all have fun.

-and lastly -

3) Make up your own drinking game. Due to unforeseen restrictions, I cannot officially sanction a drinking game with this film, but there's nothing that says you cannot start your own. Need some suggestions? Here's a great one I found on IMDB. But no matter what you do, always make sure to be safe and have a designated driver at the ready.

I've made up the perfect game for a couple of people to play before this Friday's screening. I won't spoil what it is, but I will say it involves a blanket, a boom box, and an R. Kelly CD. Should be lots of fun - if I can find a few willing participants, that is.

[PODCAST] 'Watchmen' vs. Chuck Norris' beard, Medea, and an army of grandmas.

2009-03-11T09:28:00.002-04:00

Watchmen gets its day in court on this week’s episode of the Movie Show. Sure, Joe hated it, but what’s Mike’s verdict? You’ll just have to listen to find out.

The guys also talk about Dakota Fanning's punk rock resume shift, a questionable turn in the career of Kevin Smith, the franchise opportunities for Grandma vs. Grandma, and how director Alexander Payne plans to ‘Downsize’ Paul Giamatti in a quirky new comedy.

Since there was only one new movie last week, Joe recommends five new DVD releases that could wash the horrid taste of Watchmen out of people’s mouths. Plus he and Mike discuss the future movie options for Tyler Perry’s Medea character, now that he’s run out of her plays to adapt for the big screen.

Soundtrack Selections include Nena’s “99 Luftballoons” from Watchmen, Pulp’s “Common People” from Happy-Go-Lucky, and Ennio Morricone’s “A Gringo Like Me” from Hot Rod.

Stream it!.

Trailer Park: 'Watchmen' Edition

2009-03-10T09:36:00.004-04:00

A whole slew of trailers were released last week to coincide with the opening of Watchmen.

Here are the best:

Star Trek

This trailer offers a little more plot information than the previous two. Now that I have an idea as to what this film is about, I cannot wait to see it.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

While nowhere near as ridiculous as the last one, this trailer still accomplishes very little in terms of restoring my faith in this project. It also confirms the involvement of a kid Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Storm, which means ridiculous mind-wipes will be needed in order to explain why the X-Men know nothing about Wolverine from the first movie -- if they even bother to explain the continuity at all, that is.

Up

Those Pixar guys are at it again, and this newest trailer shows a bit of a Miyazaki touch. And is that Owen Wilson providing one of the voices for Dug?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

This is the fourth trailer they've put out for the next Harry Potter film. I just wish they had released it in November. WB is such a tease.

Public Enemies

It's Jack Sparrow vs. Batman. The Director of Heat vs. the story of real life crook John Dillinger. Digital Cameras vs. the Great Depression. Who will win? The audience, hopefully. Have to say, though, that the gritty, slightly pixelated digital camera work isn't meshing too well with the film's period setting.

-and in case you missed it last week-
Terminator: Salvation

.
This trailer marks the first time I am actually optimistic about this film

Chuck Norris vs. The Rat

2009-03-10T09:31:00.003-04:00

If you're listening to the first story of this week's show right now, this is the scene from Missing in Action 2: The Beginning that we are talking about:

Anyone who voted on the Rat in this scenario was a damn fool.

Makes me wonder if the the remake the remake will have anything this cool in it.

'Watchmen' box-office victory nothing to celebrate.

2009-03-09T10:47:00.003-04:00

Even though the movie sucked, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that Zack Snyder's Watchmen would take top spot at the box-office this weekend. Reason being, it was hyped to hell, it was the only movie coming out this weekend, and the rest of the movies that had a reasonable shot at making the top five were at least two weeks old.

But when the numbers came back, I am sure Warner Bros. was a little miffed that the $100 million budgeted film only made an estimated $55 million. Compare that with the fact that Snyder's 300 made the same company $70 million on it's opening bow plus the enourmous marketing and legal fees that Watchmen incurred, and you have the makings of what could be a modest box-office flop.

Even more telling are the daily numbers. While most films tend to make more money on Saturday than Friday because more people can attend matinee screenings, Watchmen's numbers dropped from $25 million on Friday to $19 million on Saturday. And while part of Friday's numbers could be attributed to the $4 million worth fans who attended the midnight screening on Thursday, that still leaves $21 million on Friday proper, making for a $2 million drop between the first day of the weekend and Saturday.

Then the worst of it hit on Sunday, when the film's earnings dipped to $11 million. This was no doubt caused by bad worth of mouth, and limited repeat business.

It doesn't take a horse doctor to figure out the movie will drop even harder next weekend, when the movie shall weather both a wave of new releases and a negative critical and audience response.

I'm guessing the drop will be about 65-80%. Maybe Warners should rush out that Director's Cut DVD before nobody cares about the film anymore.

"Troll 2" - The Aftermath

2009-03-07T11:09:00.006-05:00

Most people who attended last night's screening of Troll 2 as part of "Midnight Madness: Beer and a Bad Movie" are probably still asleep, but I thought it would be nice to share a couple of pics that Niblog resident Tammy Weeks Dills took of the event, plus my take as to how it all went down.

Our story begins in Nilbog, Utah, population 26 including the Presents family.

Actually, our story really begins at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas, where the number of actual Nilbogians was closer to seven. Tammy and Janet above (L to R).

As well as Kat, Ben, Sam, Nathan, and Megan. Considering the enthusiasm these guys had for their beloved historical epic, it was probably best that the remaining 19 Nilbogians stayed at home. By this point, we had already sold out one auditorium, and were well on our way to selling out the second one.

The Nilbogians were more than glad to share Sheriff Gene Freak's "laws" for the screening with everyone who attended via their handy green pamphlets. What friendly people those Nilbogians were.

This guy showed up in an authentic Troll 2 t-shirt (which can be purchased here). This screening was probably the one and only context a shirt like that could get him laid.

See what I mean?

Here's a pic of me introducing the film. That black stuff on my head is the residue from my Watchmen joke that I made for the audience in the other auditorium moments earlier.

Since the event was sponsored by the folks at Natty Greene's, we thought it would be a good idea to use their wares to host a drink-off between two attendees - both of whom had verified designated drivers - for the coveted prize of a Lawnmower Man 2 poster. The guy on the right took his down slow but steady, and won the race. The guy on the left tried to go it fast and choked, costing him both time and the poster. After losing, he asked me, 'Do I get a consolation prize?' My answer: "Yeah, you get to drink a free beer without waiting in line."

Speaking of which, before the show, we had a killer beer line...

...killer kids...

...killer cats, fish, and dogs, too.

Then the movie began.

The audience loved this guy.

This guy, too.

Yes, there was a CORN-GASM!

Then it all concluded with the most epic finale in movie history.

'No, not the bologna sandwich!'

'Yes, the bologna sandwich.'

'NOOO!'

'YESSSSS!'

'OH NOOOOO! I'M MELTING, AND MY EYES LOOK ALL GOOGLY!'

Thanks to Rob, Tony and the gang at the Carousel for hooking this up for us, plus all who attended. Hopefully I will see you all at next Friday's screening of The Room.

P.S. This is the remainder of the Nilbog cookies we gave away during the middle of the film:

Spring Garden Bakery & Coffee House custom made these for us with a maximum amount of green and a hint of lime. Or was it food coloring?

News and Record catches the 'Madness'

2009-03-05T11:49:00.003-05:00

Just thought I would share the story News & Record ran about "Midnight Madness: Beer and a Bad Movie."

A new Friday gig: Bad movie, cheap beer
By Charles Wood
Special to Go Triad

When the acting, directing, writing, and cinematography in a movie all fail miserably the results can sometimes lead to a charming and amusingly awesome bad movie.

Joe Scott and Mike Compton want to celebrate this badness.

Every Friday in March, Scott and Compton will present the film series "Midnight Madness: Beer and a Bad Movie!" at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas. The series begins midnight Friday with "Troll 2" and continues with screenings of "The Room," "No Retreat, No Surrender" (the director's cut), and "Switch Blade Sisters" on subsequent Fridays.

"We're calling these movies bad," says Joe Scott, a contributor to Go Triad and co-host of the film series. "And they are certainly bad, from a critical standpoint, but are good movies in an accidental way."

Admission to each screening is $5 and includes three beers for patrons 21 and older. Popcorn and soda will be given to those under 21. The event also will include zany retro trailers and a few interesting giveaways.

"Bad movies are like kids," says Compton. "They can be kind of stupid, sweet and guileless. By watching kids you can get a great education in the way people work. They make mistakes but you forgive them for it because they have an innocence to them.

"Bad movies are the same way. When you're watching a bad movie, you are always aware it's a movie; you don't get lost in it. It shows you a lot about filmmaking in general."

(You can read the rest of the story here.)

REVIEW: 'Watchmen' unwatchable.

2009-03-05T07:04:00.006-05:00

NOTE: This review is not for general audiences. It was written specifically towards people who have read "Watchmen," the classic graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. That means there are a few spoilers for those unfamiliar with the book.

In the film, Amelie, there's a scene wherein a young boy wins a gigantic collection of marbles at the very end of recess. The boy excitedly starts jamming the marbles into his pockets, scrambling to get as many as he can until his pockets burst and... no more marbles.

Well, director Zack Snyder is that young boy, the chance to direct a movie based on the graphic novel "Watchmen" is the cache of marbles, and in trying to take everything from the Alan Moore's book sans "The Black Freighter" and the giant squid monster and put it into the film, Snyder essentially keeps nothing.

Snyder's adaptation of "Watchmen" kills itself through a series of winks and nods. The book is too expansive to include every plot point or character, so instead of trying to do so - or better yet, dropping many of these things altogether in the service of making a good movie adaptation - Snyder includes a series of references. Tons of them. The only problem with these references is that within the scope of the film, they don't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything to conclude the film within the offices of The New Frontiersman - Rorschach's favorite right-wing newsrag in the comics - if you didn't bother telling the viewers what The New Frontiersman is in the first place. It doesn't mean anything to show the kid and the newsstand owner embrace in the face of doom if you never introduced who they are as characters. And it seriously doesn't mean anything to take the best line of dialogue from the book, which was recently referenced in the brilliant Pulitzer-winning novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," and have it recited by a another character in a wholly different context that strips the line of its impact.

To be fair, not all of the movie was a complete and total train-wreck. The opening scene and credits sequence were very good. We see Blake get murdered in all its cruelty, followed up by an inventive slow-motion montage of recreated comic panels that summarizes all of the events leading up to the point where the movie begins. Great idea, because to explore these events in a traditional narrative would have added another hour to a 161-minute movie. And while his soundtrack choices leading up to this point are indicative of a man who has never listened to a song that wasn't in another movie, I liked the way Snyder handled Dr. Manhattan's origin. Of course, by handled, what I mean is that Snyder took the brilliant way Moore along with artist Dave Gibbons did it in the book and made sure it got filmed as such.

Then the movie jumps the shark. No wait, scratch that. Because this is a comic book movie, it can't jump the shark - it sprays the shark.

Oddly enough, the shark-spraying happens in a location very similar to the one from the scene I am referencing above. Silk Spectre and the sexually impotent Night Owl are aboard the Owlship after having rescued a group of people from a burning apartment building, and just as they do in the book, they start to get it on. This sex scene is probably the worst one in recent film history. It's so bad, it makes me wonder if any of the people involved in the shooting of it - be it the director, the cinematographer, the lighting techs, the key grips, or even actors Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman - have ever had sex before in real life. The scene couldn't have been any worse in its execution if Night Owl whipped out a Batman Express card a la Batman and Robin. Then to add insult to injury, this visual train-wreck is synched to Leonard Cohen's wonderful song "Hallelujah" (as if we never heard that one in a movie before). Did Snyder bother looking at the dailies when he shot this thing? Did editor William Hoy show him a rough cut of this moment while cobbling the film together? Believe me when I say I would have more respect for the guy if the answer was 'no.'

Everything from this point on is downhill. The movie adds buckets of grisly violence where it wasn't needed. It wholly botches the wonderful moment in the book when Rorschach escapes from prison -- a senseless tragedy since it was so wonderfully storyboarded in the book. Then as a final act of cruelty in this hapless adaptation, Snyder's film takes the brilliant last act from the graphic novel and ruins it entirely. To be clear, I am not one of those people who needed the giant squid to appear in the film. Changing the method Ozymandias uses to manufacture a global catastrophe was not the problem. The problem was changing the characters' reactions to this moment, especially Night Owl's.

I can almost hear the studio money men's reaction when they read the conclusion from the book: "So let's get this straight, this Ozymandias character ended millions of human lives and the only person who tried to do anything about it was the crazy guy who got evaporated?"

What's so great about the book is that while it was a horrible thing for Ozymandias to murder millions of people, the reason no one but Rorschach gets too upset about it is because Ozymandias' actions probably saved billions of lives from an impending nuclear holocaust. In being the world's greatest villain, he was also probably its greatest hero. But instead of realizing this thematic brilliance on the big screen, which is also one of the reasons people care so much about Moore's "Watchmen" in the first place, the movie crudely shifts Night Owl into a vessel to grab Ozymandias by the scruff as if he were a dog so they could stick the character's nose into his own poop. That way the filmmakers can say "Bad Ozymandias! No! Bad! Bad!"

As I drove the 80 miles it took to get to the Charlotte screening of Watchmen, it was not my intention to see a film that took every moment, character, or detail from the book and convert it shot-for-shot into film like Sin City or 300. Nor was it really my intention to see a great film. What I was really looking for was a movie someone could show to Moore - who famously called his book unfilmable and refused to have anything to do with this movie - and say, "See, that wasn't so bad, was it? Guess that means your beloved book wasn't so 'unfilmable' after all, right?"

That's what I was looking for, but now that I have seen the film, all I can say is that Moore was right all along.

[PODCAST] Who will watch the 'Watchmen'?

2009-03-04T13:28:00.001-05:00

Who watches the Watchmen? Nobody yet, but that doesn’t stop Joe Scott and Mike from talking about it. Stephen Mayer and Jermaine Exum from ACME Comics also stop by for the most insightful discussion of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s graphic novel in the history of radio.

But man is that not all. The guys also discuss upcoming remakes of The Neverending Story and Total Recall, two potential comedic rebounds for Eddie Murphy and John Cusack, plus what’s next for Juno writer Diablo Cody.

You also get four songs from “Watchmen” and a pair of reviews for Fanboys and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, It short, this might be the greatest episode of The Movie Show ever made.

Stream it!

Mixed Tape Film Series Vol. 2 - We need your help!

2009-03-03T08:44:00.002-05:00

We're getting ready to plan this year's Mixed Tape Film Series, and would love to get input from you on ways to help make next year's series even better (title suggestions, etc.). If you help, you'll automatically enter yourself into a drawing to win four (4) free movie tickets. Plus, it's a perfect way to make sure that we only play the movies you want to see.

Take the survey here!

10 minutes of "Watchmen"

2009-03-03T08:17:00.004-05:00

Looks like someone posted their entire EPK of Zack Snyder's Watchmen on YouTube. I saw the footage on Friday, and debated whether I should host it on the site. The movie is 161 minutes long, but even then, that ten minutes is roughly six percent of the entire film.

So I am going to offer the following disclaimer:

It might not be a good idea to watch this footage. Especially if you already want to see the film. However, if you're still on the fence because of the slow motion-addled trailers, check it out. The slow-motion is thankfully absent, and there are some really good scenes. Especially the moment between Rorschach and Nite Owl.

Tonight, I will be risking life and limb to drive to Charlotte so that I can see the remaining 151 minutes of the film. Should be able to convey what that experience was like very soon.

The new Terminator: Salvation trailer rocks! (Plus a bit about the upcoming Wonder Woman film)

2009-03-03T07:14:00.004-05:00

After watching the trailer below, I am now on board with this film.

McG has always been a director of style with limited substance, but with a screenplay by Jonathan Nolan (Momento, The Dark Knight), Terminator Salvation could be the film that changes how the fanboy community looks at him. Especially if the movie lives up to the promises made by this trailer.

In other news, my wife and I watched WB's animated straight-to-DVD Wonder Woman, which is surprisingly great. Not good, folks, great. The 70-minute feature introduces you to Wonder Woman, shows you what she's about, and gives lots of great character moments plus an empowering message to young girls to boot. There are several wonderfully animated action scenes, but my favorite moment isn't an action scene at all. It's this moment wherein Wonder Woman confronts this American chick about needing a man to move a desk for her. I won't spoil what happens, but it's great. You also get to see Wonder Woman pound tequila like an Amazon.

The reason I bring this up is because as we watched the movie, my wife and I began to dream up a major Wonder Woman film in our heads. Anne Hathaway would obviously be choice one to play Wonder Woman. As for the director, I would love to see Quentin Tarantino direct it, but we all know this would never happen. Then I got to thinking, which director loves comic books, can direct movies with big action and special effects, and can present a powerful and beautiful warrior goddess in a big budget action film without exploiting her as being merely a sex object?

I thought about this for quite a while. Then when I remembered the fact that McG directed both Charlie's Angels movies, he loves comics (he almost directed a Superman film on two seperate occasions), plus the fact that the Terminator Salvation trailer looks awesome, he could certainly be the man for the job.

Of course they'll probably need to see how Terminator Salvation plays out first, but if I ran Warner Bros., I would tell an intern to start leaving Wonder Woman comics in McG's company mailbox.

Best-worst death scene of all time.

2009-03-02T02:35:00.002-05:00

In honor of "Midnight Madness: Beer and a Badmovie" which starts this Friday, I thought I would post a series of bad movie clips, all of them leading up to the big day.

The following is a glorious death scene from the Andy Sidaris' film Hard Ticket to Hawaii, wherein musclebound bad dudes Rowdy and Jade must defend themselves from an assassin simply known as 'Skater.'

And while Skater might have been armed with both a machine gun and a sex doll, I do think Rowdy goes a little too far....

Wonder why the assassin's name was Skater? Was it a reference to the way he sort of breezed through life before he was killed? Kinda tragic when you think about it.