Ugh sorry, I suck

Ok so I have a conference and this means the following: No new posts until Wednesday night (at the earliest).

Reviews will be forthcoming of Pirate Radio and Trick R Treat. Also the Last Waltz and should things go according to plan Fantastic Mr. Fox.

You can make fun of me in the comments.

In the Red: A Morning of Exploitation

Netflix served up a double helping of exploitation related material and like last time really dug one, didn't dig the other.
The Haunted World of Superbeasto: I'd long anticipated Rob Zombie's return to original material. I enjoyed The House of 1,000 Corpses though deemed it a bit too frenetic and reverential to prior films for its own good. I LOVED The Devil's Rejects in which Zombie compellingly followed the exploits of a gritty band of marauding murderers and shockingly made us care about them. Rejects shows a director with remarkable stylistic control who manages to shock and awe with brutality. Then the remake gigs came. Bad enough he should remake indisputable classic Halloween but to then do a sequel after specifically promising not to? For shame. The Haunted World of El Superbeasto though, an animated film following the adventures of an egotistical luchadore and hi sexy eye-patch wearing sidekick in a world of monsters, how could I resist? Unfortunately the film did not meet my expectations. The film starts off with an homage to an animated uncle Carl Laemmle appearing before the audience to warn them the following film may be too scary (as in the original Frankenstein). Off to a good start but then what follows is a series of John K. inspired gags that would've been tossed off after the first draft in the adult swim writer's room.

Want gratuitous nudity? The film starts with porno auditions. Want gross? A wave of rats are evacuated from a man's ass. Want violence? How about rows of nazi zombies being mowed down? Yep, plenty of it. Unfortunately there are no sympathetic or even fleshed out characters for the viewer to invest in. Each character is paper thin and the good gags are spaced so far apart its difficult to get into the sound and fury that's signifying nothing. I can see the fifteen year old version of me enjoying this, but it's entirely disposable. Not even game voice work from Paul Giamatti (as needy Dr. Satan) and Brian Posehn (as a horny robot) manage to bring life to the proceedings.

Not Quite Hollywood: The Story of Oz-ploitation makes for a really fun evening guaranteed to get you to fire up the netflix q or hit up amazon to find the titles on display. The doc runs down the history of genre cinema in Australia in a brisky hour and forty minutes, but I would've been content to watch hours more of this stuff. Aussie luminaries like George Miller and Brian Trenchard-Smith join "fan" Quentin Tarantino and a band of colorful rogues in this enticing exploration of a tragically unheralded area of cinema. The film gives you a bit of historical context and the need to for Aussie filmmakers to break the powerful grip of censors and then shows off a variety of great, fun looking films in various sub-genres. Among the areas explored are sex comedies, horror, cars and assorted other forms of action. Viewers get a chance to scope out Razorback (Jaws with a wild boar), Stone (an ultimate Aussie biker anti-hero), Patrick (a terrifying looking comatose psychic killer), Roadgames (a sort Rear Window/Duel hybrid) and Dead End Drive-In (a post-apocalyptic crazy car mash-em-up with a drive-in prison camp). Viewers will get all sorts of new names to admire and track down. Check out the trailer below.

Fantastic Mr. Link

Lots of cool stuff worth sharing this week.

Great vids: One of the best trends that have been developing virally is the use of classic footage to represent modern films. This use of Chaplin footage to replicate the Matrix is awesome, check it here.
Star Wars and I have been on a rocky road for a LONG time. The bulk of internet material produced on this franchise is by-in-large dreck. However, every once in a while you get something like this.

Interviews: Legend Ben Gazzara, delightful Teri Garr, Jake Gyllenhaal & uber-hottie Gemma Arterton, and then there's Britcom guru Richard Curtis. Oh and several bigwigs (Scorsese, Stallone, Sayles and Shatner to name a few) talk Roger Corman.

Lists: Tim Curry's career has been nothing if not prolific and varied, check out 10 of his strangest roles here.
Oh movies that are way more racist then they think are, you're delightful...ly racist.

Update: Dates will be upped

So I can't review or praise or snark about anything tonight because I will be chilling in the green room at Jimmy Kimmel Live because my good friend, Amir, is going to be a guest. Y'all should tune in 12:06/11:06 central. Who knows, last time the put me in the audience for the band and you could kind of see me, tonight, who knows? Also if the thought of seeing Amir and maybe seeing me wasn't enough, Frank Reynolds himself, Mr. DANNY DEVITO will be the first guest. So come on. Tune in.

Looking ahead we've got Friday Links and hopefully I'll get out to theaters to see one or more of the following; Fantastic Mr. Fox, Pirate Radio (ne the Boat that Rocked) or An Education. Who knows maybe I'll try to track down Antichrist (CHAOS REIGNS!). Also I've recently gotten a passel of Blu-rays and I'd love to let you guys pick which one I'll review for the site. Please leave your vote for one (or more) of the following in the comments:
Up
Monsters, Inc.
North by Northwest
Trick R' Treat

Bad Blog Day

Tomorrow will be better but I just can't muster up the strength after watching the Extraordinary Measures, Clash of the Titans and Date Night previews all in one sitting.

A couple quick words on each:

Extraordinary Measures: I like Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford and I'm sure this film will get a little juice from their names but what on Earth makes this film cinematic as opposed to a Lifetime movie?

Clash of the Titans: Digging the monster design but let me just join the chorus of internet nerds in mocking the tag line of "Titans will Clash." Ugh. Really someone was paid to think of that. Let me run some others off the top of my head. Lost arks will be raided, blood will be there, Halls will be Annied, Clubs will be fought, Ghosts will bust. Money please.

Date Night: Hey middle America, you know the stars of those two shows on NBC you don't watch? I KNOW its hard to watch a sitcom without a laugh track to tell you when the funny parts are so instead we put them in a movie where everything is gonna be HI-larious. Don't worry, we got a bunch of zany antics that you've seen a billion times before, thats it, just buy the ticket and laugh and laugh and laugh at the silly people. All the Nick Krolls and James Francos in the world can't gild this turd.

Caveat: Obviously all films are the end product of countless hours of dedicated individuals working not only to provide themselves and their families with a living but strive to entertain everyone regardless of what coast they live on. Everyone deserves to be entertained not just people in New York and LA with film degrees. Ok, OK! God, leave me ALONE! Its just my feelings on the trailer.

In the Red: We're off on the Road to...

In this new feature I'll be writing short (well, relatively short) capsule reviews of what I've been wtaching on netflix. Todays films have two things in the common. One, they're both 2009 releases and the other is that they're both road trip films. From the charming adventures of Bing and Bob to the hopeless ambling of Fonda and Hopper, the road trip has long been a staple of the American cinema. Of these two new films only one really offers some new wrinkles into the genre while the other feels as spent and old as the road it travels. Ugh, its hackiness has worn off on me. So without further ado my look at Harold Ramis' Year One and Sam Mendes' Away We Go.
For a number of years Judd Apatow has ruled the comedy roost with nearly unmatched success. While even Apatow is subject to the periodic box office bomb, the films are at least compelling and funny (I'm thinking Funny People and Walk Hard in particular), but Year One is Apatow's first real out and out dud. The fim, which follows the exploits of slacker hunter/gathers Michael Cera and Jack Black is disjointed and poorly conceived. Sequences come and go with no rhyme and reason which COULD be excused if any of them were even remotely funny or creative. They aren't. Black and Cera's shtick works well against each other but at this point it has such a feel of been there done that. The rest of the cast barely overcomes the feeling of "earning a paycheck", even David Cross. Only Oliver Platt hits the glorious excess needed in a broad farce like this as a high priest for whom the phrase hedonist does not begin to describe. Even the unrated Blu-ray I watched didn't really yield any content that shocked or disturbed me. Ramis is just placing the camera and shooting giving none of the punch or keen eye for great comic moments thats shown up in earlier films. If I never think of this film again I won't be surprised. Save yourself the money and watch History of the World Part I.
The other film I saw was Sam Mendes Away We Go and it may be my favorite Mendes film. Its certainly his breeziest. I think this can be in part attributed to the airy, though not entirely weightless, script by real life couple Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. The film follows a young couple played by Maya Rudolph (who is something of a revelation in the film with a strong anchoring performance) and John Krasinski. Rudolph's character is pregnant and the film is in a place where they discover there's no reason for them to stay put (as his parents, the reason they moved, are going to be absent for their birth). It's a film that very adroitly captures the feeling of wanderlust and uncertainty that a couple that has hit a certain level of socio-economic comfort can face. In the couples odyssesy they come across a variety of family unit types in the form of relatives, friends and colleagues. The script reveals each family to be more than the broad types a lesser film would try to pigeon-hole them into being. Each sequence provides a good pair for our young, fun couple to play off of and Eggers and Vendela's script deserves kudos for sketching so many rich characters in such a short amount of time. For a quirky, but not too quirky, character piece about the challenges of finding your place in the world its well worth the rental.

The two of us need look no more

Who was Michael Jackson? Consummate entertainer? Creepy pedophile weirdo? Emotionally stunted recluse? If the answers are out there, This Is It doesn't provide them. What This is It does convey is brief glimpses of a Jackson kept hidden from the public. The visionary showman who was something of an affable taskmaster. Make no mistake, This Is It is a film that reaffirms Jackson as a talented singer and dancer who even in struggling through illness and pushing fifty, dances as lithely as he did decades earlier. His voice is no longer full, though this can probably be attributed to the fact that This is It is cobbled together fromrehearsal footage. Despite the fact this is a rehearsal Jackson performs with energy and enthusiasm. The footage was originally intended for the aborted This Is It concert series that was set to premiere in London shortly before Jackson's death as conceived by High School Musical director and choreographer Kenny Ortega.

Fans of Jackson's music will not be disappointed as the film covers a good deal of the greatest hits cannon (sadly "Ben" is omitted), which includes a package of Jackson 5 songs (which is unsettling given the contrast between Jackson then and now). The film is presented as a make-shift concert and the performances and design concepts behind each song are strong enough to keep the viewer invigorated even though they're likely to be very familiar with everything they're seeing and hearing. Ortega and Jackson try to keep the provceedings fresh. a 3D re-imagining of "Thriller" being one example. Even when the choreography doesn't feel especially new the general aura of enthusiasm that permeates the dancers stage crew, band and Jackson himself give the film a nicely propulsive energy.

Jackson is most likable when he's performing or getting into a groove, though he's at his most interesting when you see him fiddling with the intro arrangement of "The Way You Make Me Feel" or arguing that he'll "just know" when he needs to turn on cue during "Smooth Criminal." This is the most riveting stuff in the film, the unguarded imperfect moments where we see Jackson as both a perfectionist and a bit of an oddball artiste. There are other inspired flashes, brief interviews with Jackson's longtime music director, a rather brusque Russian choreographer reviewing with the dancers and others. These are nice moments that provide insight into the whole process of putting together a large concert like this but the film is more contented into getting into the next song or video.

I certainly wish the film gave more insight into Jackson, showed more revealing moments or taught us more about the people that surrounded him. I don't need a smear job or more recontextualizing of Jackson's death. There's been plenty of both. I'd be content to learn more about Jackson the performer as the film is in such a unique position to show off the world of one of this centuries most popular showmen.

Links: Based on a novel by Saphire

Hey new and returning viewers, its Friday and that means time for my weekly link round-up.

No time to waste, here are the links.

Fans of 80's cartoons (surely thats a good chunk of my readership), would do well to check out jaroo.com, which is hulu for people who woke up early to watch Nickelodeon, old school Fox Kids and KCOP. Come on people, Super Mario Brother Super Show (AND Link).

slashfilm.com is in and of itself an amazing repository for film-related links but one of my favorite daily features of thiers is daily cool stuff and this Tuesday was no esxception. Look at this cool, yet uynderstated Godfather t-shirt here.

Harry Knowles over at aicn.com has a tendency to getover-enthusiastic, though there are some occassions where this is called for. How about interviewing Rick Baker on the set of The Wolfman? Yeah, I'd say thats worth a little gushing.

My purchase is validated as none other than Martin Scorsese compliments the process' exquisite quality here. Speaking of Scorsese he lists his favorite scary movies here.

If you're like me you're fascinated by the insanity of crypto-zoology. io9.com has found a taxidermist who has made some...well...see for yourself here.

Tune in tomorrow for a review of a certain rehearsal doc that everyone has been talking about.

I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise

What if you made an instant connection with someone? An instant chemistry unlike you'd had with any other person ever? What if you met the love of your life only through speaking to that person and then, before ever having met them they died? This is the question that the lovers in the superb A Matter of Life and Death. The film by the collective duo known as the Archers (Michael Powell and Emric Pressburger) may be my new favorite love story ever captured on film.

In the fury of a World War II, airman Peter Carter (David Niven as the ultimate Englishman) connects with American radio operator June. Unfortunately its as his plane is going down. Peter dies, except because he is in deep fog the heavenly host has a bit of a bureaucratic snafu and instead of dying and going to the afterlife Peter meets June face to face. They hit it off as well in-person as they did on the radio and all seems right in the world. Then the after-life corrects their error and try to take Peter. But Peter is obstinate and insists since he's still breathing he has no business in the afterlife. This movie is as impressive as much as for what it is as wha it isn't. Though it deals with the afterlife the Archers keep it fairly non-denominational. Their afterlife is shot in a pristine monochrome. Whereas Earth is shot in vivd three-strip technicolor. Its a bold and telling decision to choose these color schemes. Their heaven may look pristine and art-deco gorgeous but it can't compare to the sensual, detailed color of real life.

The film goes from love story to court-room drama as Carter employs friend of June and recently deceased Dr. Frank Reeves (Archer favorite Roger Lievesey), who believes that Peter's raving about heaven trying to take him is all in his head. Here the Archers sneak in both a sharp critique of English Imperialism as well as a impassioned defense of British values as Reeves eloquently tries to make the case that Carter should live. The prosecutor, played by Raymond Massey defiantly argues that bringing Carter back to life is a pointless gesture as their cultures are too different and a couple that's known each other so briefly can't truly be in love. It is here that film daringly becomes about the then budding world power of the US and the in decline British empire. The film never loses sight of the love story, but its refreshing to see a film present and challenge the viewer with something so different than what they've seen before.

Though they share very few scenes together Niven and Hunter have electric chemistry with one another. Niven, ever the model of unflappable British wry humor delivers his lines with expert precision. "I love you, June. You're life, and I'm leaving it" he signs off as his plane goes down. Hunter on the other hand is all big emotion, but never veers into cloying obnoxiousness. Livesey as Dr. Reeves orates with confidence and quiet power in his big moments though his performance here can't compare to the absolute masterwork in the Archers later film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

The film compliments its rich storytelling and splendid performances with exquisite and creative production values. The film's alternate title, Stairway to Heaven is in evidence as a massive escalator is used at several points in the film as a passage-way between heaven and Earth. This escalator appears infinite in scope and deftly conveys a genuine sense of other-worldliness in a seemingly very mundane, commonplace object. The Archers continuously play with perspective, space and time. The film is loaded with gorgeous push-ins and pull-outs. For example the heavenly host is assembled in court-room for judgment and the camera pulls back to convey more and more people in attendance that the courtroom become an amphitheater, then almost a stadium and then further still into a seamless matte painting of a vast series of similar stadiums in a vast heavenly mountainscapes. These epic backdrops provide an intriguing contrast to the very intimate love-story on display. Its a love story that fans of great love stories should rent as soon as possible.

Universally Beloved

A preface: This blog isn't about to get populist or mainstream, but I want to foster a dialogue and be accessible to new readers so here we go.

In a recent discussion with a friend I was asked to name my top five movies. I did my usual hemming and hawing about how it was like choosing a favorite child and blah, blah, blah. Then I named my five and perhaps not so surprisingly, she'd seen none of them and heard of only two of them. It got me thinking about the gulf between popular and good and the list in this article is an attempt to bridge that gulf where the two meet.

So what are the movies that everyone, critics and civilians alike, can agree on? What are the movies that everyone loves? I started thinking about this and have narrowed it down to a master-list of five. Obviously with millions of films to choose from I'm going to be stepping on some toes but that's part of the fun (and what the comments section is for). Before I get started here are some that I'm intentionally leaving off the list.

Any Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or Super-hero film didn't make the cut. By their very nature these films create very niche communities, some of these communities can be large but has your grandma seen them? Your girlfriend? Your cousin? Your teacher? The same goes for musicals (again, not my choice but some people can't get around the major conventions-namely people breaking out into song and dance). Same goes for horror, some people just refuse to be scared.

I think the real reason for this list is to try to find common ground in the movies that unite us. I will proceeed each title with some good follow-up films that you can recommend to the not as adventurous viewer.

Here's what I came up with.
Ghostbusters-Funny but not raunchy, scary but not too scary and at the end of the day just plain fun. Everyone who watches Ghostbusters loves it and the workmanlike attitude gives the outlandish premise a solid foundation that anyone can plug into.
Princess Bride-Its sweet, but never sentimental, the frame-story prevents that from ever happening. There's romance, there's adventure and lots of comedy. That's a full meal of cinema right there.
Wizard of Oz-Musical yes, but the sheer innovation and universality of the story makes this a sentimental favorite for just about everyone. Whether you want to read it as a critique of the antebellum South, a young woman's journey to maturation or an appreciation of home and hearth, Oz resonates across all lines. It taps into the child in us all.
Back to the Future-Perfectly structured, charming and ironically enough timeless. The story of Marty McFly resonates because it echoes within us our desire to know where we came from and the desire to shape our destiny.
Annie Hall-The perfect romantic comedy. Endlessly inventive and innovative, some things are just so in their perfection. Even Allen haters need to give it up for this one.

Ok so where did I go wrong? What do you think qualifies in the universally beloved cannon? Put it in the comments.