Ploafmaster General

Even though the keyboard-in-the-dishwasher is old news, I enjoyed Coudal Partners' short film on the subject. It has a very "1950's Documentary" feel to it. Very clever camera rig, too.

I found this gem via Coudal Partners' website (pardon some harsh language later on):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXKKtATfASY&w=425&h=350]

This short film is like an amplified version of how my mind works. Sigh.

Hot Fuzz is the second film (that I know of) to feature the excellent comedic duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Whereas Shaun of the Dead tackled zombie flicks, however, this fine film provides a loving mockery of/homage to the action movie genre.

I mean it - this movie is absolutely hilarious, expertly blending slapstick, innuendo, irony, and that classic British absurdism stuff that I dig so much. Beyond the comedy, though, we have a movie that is not only an excellent action flick in its own right (the last 30 minutes! WOW!!!) but also shines as a beacon of real creative film making amidst a sea of otherwise visually bland comedy films. Sure, I know Guy Ritchie's films can be humorous, but they're hardly comedies...more like "crime capers" that have some funny parts. Hot Fuzz, on the other hand, is humorous start to finish.

There's a level of gore more commensurate with the aforementioned zombie tour de farce, and one of the central premises divulged late in the movie is a bit flimsy. I consider these to be trivial in light of the movies broader aims, and don't for a second foster hesitation in my rating.

This is five stars out of five, hands down. I'll be buying this DVD in the very near future.

Oh, whoops...I meant to say, Dreamgirls.

Now really...the vocals from so many folks in this film were incredible. And Ms. Hudson, the girl who was (oh thank heavens) dropped by American Idol, proves that even though she couldn't win a dopey TV talent show, she deserved every ounce of that Oscar.

Unfortunately, I couldn't rate this movie higher than a 3 out of 5 stars because the majority of the music sounded as if Andrew Lloyd Webber sneaked into the production offices and swapped out the score for one of his. I understand this film is a screen version of a 1981 Broadway show, but wow, it doesn't seem to be one of the good ones...

To be fair, I'm really picky with musicals anyway, so the odds of my liking it were slim from the start (darned preconceived notions). But I seriously believe that outstanding vocal performances aside the music of Dreamgirls doesn't hold a candle to greats such as Rent or West Side Story.

Holy crap on toast...finally, a trailer for Michel Gondry's next film. At least it appears to have more than a vague story, unlike The Science of Sleep (great concepts, kinda meandering). Let's hope that's true.
http://www.movieweb.com/v/V07H7amDHILQRV

Looks like the viral campaign is kicking off for next summer's The Dark Knight; the quirky website now displays a flash box for the first teaser. Was that really Heath Ledger's voice as the joker?

Holy crap...crazy big props to my buddy Chris for pointing the way to this video:
http://www.factoryfilms.net/films/quicktimes/FuyijaMiyagi_AnkleInjury.mov

Today I discovered on Apple's movie trailer site that a Beowulf film is debuting on November 16th. I don't know why this was the first thing that came to my mind, but instantly, I couldn't help but think, "Scott Baiowulf."

Oh wow...imagine my delight when visiting Apple's movie trailer page I discovered the trailer for Wes Anderson's next film, The Darjeeling Limited.

I've known this movie was coming for quite a while, but I nearly squealed with excitement when I saw the expected release date in late September this year.

This is definitely a film I plan on seeing on the big screen, as soon as humanly possible.

Here are some movies that are out or releasing this year that I'm planning to see, in no particular order:

Hot Fuzz (I loved Shaun of the Dead)
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Yes, really...I never saw the first one, but the Silver Surfer looks incredible)
Ocean's 13
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Ratatouille (Read Jason Kottke's insight)
Live Free of Die Hard (Sometimes you've just gotta see a souless action flick!)
Transformers
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (This one is a given. Holy CRAP I can't wait)
The Simpsons Movie
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Kingdom
Across the Universe (Yeah, it's a musical, I think...Yeah, I really want to see it)
I Am Legend
Be Kind Rewind (A new Gondry flick - with Jack Black!?!?)
American Gangster

Not exactly a short list :-)

I'm sure most of these will be relegated to Netflix, but I hope to catch at least a few of them on the big screen.

Yesterday Val and I watched each of our two Netflix rentals...well, she mostly talked on the phone to her sister and organized the documents folder on our computer during my movie. I thought both movies were very good, yet each disappointing enough in their own ways that I couldn't go higher than four-out-of-five stars for the flicks.

My selection was Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson, starring Ryan Gosling. I have to agree with several of the film critics here - it's an excellent performance for Gosling, and one which I hope propels him into more high-caliber roles. The abundance of expert hand-held photography right to my taste as well, particularly since it's used during many essentially still shots. Two of my favorite parts, however, are the scenery (I have to find out where in NYC this is located just for my curiosity) and the music which both serve to drive the point home that Gosling's character is barely floating along in his depressed world when he isn't in class making a difference to middle school students.

Unfortunately for me, the ending is really rather abrupt - we have seriously a two minute scene to close out the barely-existent story. And speaking of that near-non-story - I felt through much of the film that I was simply watching events happen rather than a narrative. Call me old-school in that sense, I suppose. Overall, though, as my 4/5 suggests, I did enjoy the movie a great deal.

Valerie's movie was Stranger Than Fiction, a story about a story, where the main character really exists and finds that the author is writing his life and imminent death. Will Ferrell plays quite well in this movie, as do Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. The movie is filmed quite a bit better than I've come to expect of comedies, including a rather creative shot inside an articulated bus, and an excellent use of info-graphics to punctuate the lead character's obsession with numbers.

This, too, disappointed largely because of the ending. There is such build-up and significance placed around the ending by the movie itself that when it finally arrives, it feels more like slowly letting the air out of a balloon rather than popping it. I found this unfortunate as the build-up was handled quite well. Again, however, I enjoyed this movie enough to give it 4/5. I hope this indicates a better direction for Will Ferrell in the future, though we can't be too sure with Blades of Glory and Semi-Pro in the future.

Last night I watched The Motorcycle Diaries, borrowed from my buddy Dave. This gorgeously filmed Che Guevara biopic quickly earned five stars from me because of it's lush photography, fantastic acting, and artfully rendered events in the life of the one-day revolutionary.

I only wish Dave's copy had been in wide screen instead of full-frame :-)

Valerie picked Talladega Nights for her Netflix queue, and tonight we watched it. Or, well, I did while she snoozed. That happens a lot - even with movies she likes.

I give this flick, co-written, co-produced, and starring Will Ferrell, 3 stars out of 5. The acting was alright, the humor, as my buddy Dave indicated, was limited mostly to what you saw in the commercials. The story was light, the cameos were gratuitous, and the film-making was amazing.

I was floored, actually, to finally see a major studio release a comedy that I felt contained excellent directing, photography, and editing. Full letterbox, well-composed shots, gorgeous color, and fantastic cuts that made portions of NASCAR racing exciting even to me, if only for those abbreviated scenes.

The film-making, I'd say, actually saved this movie from a crappy 2. Good show, Andy McKay.

Oh boy. I saw Ghost Rider tonight. That's a solid 1 out of 5 stars. Maybe less, but really, I'll stick with whole numbers for simplicity.

I think perhaps if you can overlook the script, the acting, the film score, and the photography, you may have...well...um...lots of gratuitous special effects. Yup. Oh! And Sam Elliott. Yeah. That's really about it.

I really only saw this because I was going with some buddies. I kinda expected it would be crappy, and oof - I wasn't disappointed. Or well, you know.

I just rated Little Miss Sunshine 3 of 5 stars on my Netflix account. The automated system suggested I would give 4.5 stars, and indeed, I anticipated the movie as something within the bounds of my ever more snobby taste.

Before I continue I have to say that the acting was excellent. From Steve Carell to Alan Arkin, the performances depicted characters, not merely the cast.

The rest of the movie, disappointingly, began to feel contrived about halfway in. Now if you haven't seen the film and want to judge for yourself, I suggest you stop reading, because I'm about to give away some details.

Still here? Okay.

I was fine with the travails of the Hoover clan as they drove on from New Mexico to California, Until Arkin's character died in Arizona. It's not so much the death that bugged me - rather, the family decides to plug on to Redondo Beach and sneak the body of Grandpa out the window of the hospital. And put him in the back of the Microbus. And drive his corpse through the desert to Cali-for-ni-a so they won't miss little Olive's beauty pageant. Did anyone else yell, "WTF?!?!" when that transpired? Am I the only one? I understand this is a movie, but it's a movie with a script that takes place in the generally realistic present day world. Nothing up to this point prepared me for the dysfunctional family to turn suddenly and morbidly crazy. Nobody else in the traveling party put up much of a real fight against driving the remains of a family member through the desert just to make it to a beauty pageant.

Add to this a cop who doesn't notice a dead body wrapped in a sheet in the back of the VW, a painful personal discovery for the older son Duane (because everybody on this Microbus of life has to suffer somehow), and the family dance on stage at the pageant, and you have a recipe for...well, it's a recipe. And that's the point. This film felt like it contained several elements of recent popular "Indie" film in America. Character driven story. Off-kilter humor. Non-mainstream sound track. Greater focus on cinematography. Heck, even I was delighted to hear not one, but TWO Sufjan Stevens songs in the film (well, one was during the end credits).

The wonderful acting, the characters, the film making - none of this, regrettably, can make up for the slightly cheated feeling I'm still experiencing as a result of the story and it's palpably artificial plot constructs.

Here's hoping that Gondry's Science of Sleep leaves me better satisfied.

Awesome blend of Daft Punk's "Around the World" with some mighty old-school dance footage:
[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=339ixMtHrVk&w=425&h=350])

Seriously the most amazing thing I've seen in weeks. The below video was created by a Norwegian bloke using expertly edited video samples of himself playing several individual hits on a drum kit, and notes on a piano. He otherwise doesn't know how to play drums or piano, but clearly has an ear for music. And some hella tight video editing skillz.
[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo&w=425&h=350])

Jason Kottke has posted a delightful account of his resistance to recent pop culture hype.

Check out the header section of my page and look at the new link - it says "My Netflix Habits."

Click through and see the latest addition to my page. I put a new plugin on my site that allows me to show different feeds from Netflix, and currently I'm showing three: My three most recent films, the movie that's at home, and the next three in the queue.

It's pretty slick, but it's not perfect - it includes the movie that's at home in list of recent films, so at the time of this post you can see "Brick" twice on the page.

I also use a crappy hacked way of displaying multiple queues (or displaying them at all, really) - I added the code to the page.php file in the Wordpress theme, which means that the feeds would essentially show up on every page I create. I'm not worried about this at the moment, however, since I never really use pages for anything else.

Holy CRAP!

My crazy lil' bro Nick just got a call (well, my mom got the call, but it was for him) about an audition he did for Evan Almighty, the upcoming sequal to Bruce Almighty.

I don't know what kind of role he'll have, be it extra or walk-on, or maybe one line...but apparently they've been trying to contact him for a while via cell phone, but his battery has been kaput, etc...

Either way, they're filming in the Charlottesville/Crozet area, and he'll be doing something.  I hope it's a visible part, just so I can see my bro on the big screen!

Woot!

I just read a hilarious review of the wretched film, Bewitched, on New York Magazine's website.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Yeah yeah yeah, no pictures yet, blah blah.

But I did see a movie last night.

Dave and I watched Shop Girl – my latest selection of the ole’ Netflix queue. This morning I gave it a 3 out of 5, which was a little generous; I was feeling more 2.5, but to my knowledge , Netflix doesn’t allow half stars.

Steve Martin’s novella-turned-film starred Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman, and Steve Martin himself. The acting was generally decent, but acting alone couldn’t save what appeared to be amateur screen-writing. The story felt disjointed all the way through, and every time the movie took a turn for poignancy, Steve Martin’s voice kicked in - not as his on-screen character, but rather as an omniscient narrator. Martin’s bland narration further interrupted the flow of the story, as well as what could have been a few moving portions of the film.

I agree with Dave, who felt that this movie could have been truly good had it been about thirty minutes long and without dialogue.

And I don't mean a thin layer of mucous either.

On Friday I saw Thank You for Smoking with my buddies Dave and Jake. Holy crap. This movie was hilarous, intelligent, and excellently filmed. The lead roles and supporting cast contributed well. The dialogue between Aaron Eckhart and Rob Lowe was a high point. I think I'll add this to my collection when it hits DVD. Valerie had already seen it with a friend of ours, and she approves, so that should be an easy sell.

Saturday, I watched an achievement in acting. Valerie, Dave, and I watched Capote, starring the incredible and versitile Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's easy now to understand why Hoffman received Best Actor at the Oscars this year. Wow, his consistency of voice, physical expression, and facial mannerisms blew me away. The photography was terrific. The camera shots were delicious. The supporting cast contributed only positively. I'm going to watch this a second time before sending it back to Netflix.

On a final note: Friday evening - or rather, Saturday morning - I exposed Dave to Battlefield Earth. Here is a movie that I currently consider the worst film I have yet seen. With a story by the inimitable L. Ron Hubbard and a budget seemingly of one half of ten dollars, Dave's conclusion was, "I think that movie made me go blind." I can't help but wonder why my friend Chris, from whom we borrowed the DVD, even purchased it.

Ciao.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2. The Royal Tenenbaums

3. Gross Pointe Blank

4. The Shawshank Redemption

5. Garden State


6. Tombstone


7. Fight Club

8. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

9. Snatch

10. The Usual Suspects

Wow. I saw "Silent Hill" this afternoon. It was revolting.

The dialogue sounded as if a child repeatedly sat on a keyboard in order to write it. The story was wack. The conclusions were muddled.

It was freaky, but not particularly scary. Yeah, it was gory, but nothing too sickening.

This movie exemplifies why I don't care for the horror genre.

The only two saving graces were that I saw it with friends, and it was a matinee.

You know, I think I'm going to try to compile an actual top and bottom 10 of movies I've seen.