Category: Movies

Like Movies and Want to Waste Some Time?

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It’s Friday and you know what that means – new movie releases! To honor the day, i’m going to post about some movie sites i’ve seen recently

The DoublerDouble Features!

To my parents: “I learned it from watching you!”My parents showed me how you can maximize the value of your$7 movie ticket by going to multiple shows back-to-back. We’d walk out of one and ask “so what next?” The accidental doubler is great, but over the years, we’ve begun to actually plan our lineup is before hitting the theater. You can imagine my happiness when i found the Double Feature Finder online which takes this to the next level. Check it out here. It lets you choose your theater and then it will sort through the times and lineup your double-feature. As they say on the site, “never sneak into movies again”

Dark Movie Finder

This is an interesting little online game which is also a clever little ad for M&M’sDark Movies new dark chocolage candies. In the game, there’s a large painting and in it there are 50 movie titles from a “dark” film hidden (there are also little M&M guys). Each movie title is represented by a visual riddle. To play you scroll around the painting until you figure out a visual clue, double-click, type your guess and so on. For example, the picture to the left shows Blade and Silence of the Lambs. Some of the other movies in the picture are: The Birds, The Fly, Invisible man, Wicker Man, Candyman, and so on. Enjoy and feel free to post what movies you found in there in the comments.  (game is here)
Online Movie Quiz

This is just a classic time waster. The site is a movie quiz which poses 20 questions to you. Each question has 4 pictures from a movie which don’t reveal any plot or major characters. You then have to guess from a list of 10 movies which film it is (here). I found that if i was familiar with the movie, i could usually get it right. If i wasn’t, i could usually guess correctly 75% of the time. But 100% of the time, i was pretty sure my time was being wasted and my life was becoming more and more worthless.

Knight Rider is Coming Back

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They’re finishing up the script and getting ready to remake the original pilot episode “Knight of the Phoenix” into a feature film.  One thing that has been confirmed: Hasslehoff will not be in the film.  Below is one of the proposed cars for K.I.T.T. (which is a Koenigsegg CCS) although the rumors are that it’ll be more like a 2006 Camero.  All details are fleshed out in this article.  Whatever the car is, i loved the show and am pretty excited to see it come to the big screen. KITT

MySpace Rolls Out "The Black Carpet"

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Apparently Black is the new Red. MySpace continues to crush the online world. In addition to being the #1 most visited site on the entire internet, they now are going after movie screens. Today, they launched a service called “The Black Carpet,” which allows MySpacers to see advanced screenings of movies in Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and 20 U.S. cities (including DC!).

The Black Carpet

All you need to do is add the Black Carpet profile to your friends list and you’ll receive notices on how to get access to movies previews at local theaters. The first movie being promoted is (the hysterical looking) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. If you haven’t seen the trailer, here it is: (and here’s the Borat MySpace page).

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_fzdEk0r8]

This is, of course, permission based marketing and social networks are the perfect place to accomplish it. Bands connecting with their fans on MySpace and Bebo was just the beginning, now MySpace allows you to add brands to your friends list such as Adidas Soccer or Nike Women. Meanwhile, Facebook is creating corporate groups, like the Apple Students group which gives away free iTunes tracks. It will only get worse as more corporation get wise to this whole “internet” and “social networking” thing.

I actually love the idea of allowing interested fans to preview a film prior to its release as these viewers are the ones who will evangelize and spread positive buzz both locally and within the blogosphere. Personally, i think the studios and MySpace could go even farther by using the online audience to provide user reviews and comments at various stages and improve the test screening process. Until then, i’ll be happy with my advanced screen tickets courtesy of The Black Carpet. Rock.

If you are totally clueless about MySpace, go check it out and feel free to add me as a friend. I’m at myspace.com/pescatello/

Trust the Man? Nope, These Men Suck

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I went and saw Trust the Man last weekend. It had an awesome trailer and i was pretty excited going in. Two hours later i left with a feeling that my gender had been bitch-slapped, hog-tied, thrown down the stairs and then urinated on. I wrote a few weeks ago about the impressive gender role reversal in Mr. & Mrs. Smith and at the end i commented about the overall lameness of men in most current Hollywood features, especially this summer. Trust the Man is the latest in that vein and most likely the worst offender yet.

This Man Sucks, Don't Trust Him

There are two men in Trust the Man, Tom (David Duchovny) and Tobie (Billy Crudup) and while the movie pretends they’re likable guys and gives them some cute faces and funny scenes, the fact is that they are pretty much the most irresponsible, self-centered, insensitive, moral corrupt men to hit the silver screen in a romantic comedy this year. Tom (Dave D.), a stay at home dad, is married to Rebbecca (Julianne Moore) is a sex addict who tries to have sex with her at every turn no matter the time or place. He exercises no compassion nor tries to honest discuss why she won’t have sex with him. He instead decides to look at porn all day and have an affair with a single mother at his daughter’s school. Sweet. Tobie, a freelance writer, is dating Elaine (Maggie Gyllenhaal), obsessed with death and sports, totally self-centered, and avoids commitment and emotional honesty like its the plague. He’s also completely rude and annoying. He never once offers useful advice to Elaine or contributes any relevant conversation in any scene in the movie. Trust me, it’s painful to watch because i like all four of the actors and want to like them, but it was really pretty tough.

What do these men have going for them? Apparently nothing. The movie wantsSucky Dudes you to sympathize with them and it is a romantic comedy and both couples need to get together and live happily ever. So, it follows Tobie’s attempts to win Elaine back and tracks Rebecca’s troubles at work. In any normal situation, there’d be a solid guy or at least someone somewhat normal somewhere which would start dating Elaine and that would be the end of it. But not here. Why? Because every other man completely sucks too. This is a movie of horrible horrible men at every turn. Rebecca (Julianne Moore) is surrounded at work by theater assholes and a young super sketchy cliche of an actor. Elaine tries to date two guys: one who’s a loud, long-haired musician hippie sketchball and another who is unintelligent German sprocket.

What about the women? This movie would have you believe that women are a) the only ones capable of holding a normal job that requires hard work and dedication, b) the only tactful gender, c) the only people able to live an un-neurotic existence, d) a doomed to a life of having to hold the hand of their man through life.

The icing on this crap-cake is that at the end Tom and Tobie cause a huge scene at a play and utter a few romantic lines that are (i kid you not), “I’m a father and a husband. I love you.” (David D.) and “I don’t want to live without you.” (Billy C.). And, because these guys were SO lame the whole movie, these lines do seem like a HUGE accomplishment. Thus the two ladies are overcome with emotion, take them back and everyone lives happily ever after. Puh-lease.

Side note: You know what also pisses me off is when the characters in movies are actors, directors or in the theater. It makes me think that the writer so uncreative that he can’t think of a career for these people that is somewhat normal. The four characters in this movie are a) an actress, b) a sports writer, c) a receptionist who writes a children’s book, and d) a retired marketing exec who becomes a writer. So, to recap: 3 of 4 are writers and the forth is an actress. Gee – that’s real original. The writer took the phrase “write what you know” a little too literally. At least he didn’t have it take place in LA.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Hollywood's Gender Role Reversal

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I recently checked out last year’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith which is pretty sweet film with the uber-hot Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (who i actually like). What dawned on me while watching this movie is how they’ve written the roles to be completely opposite of their gender stereotype.

For example:

  Mrs. Smith (Brad) Mrs. Smith (Angelina)
Demeanor Creative and inventive Cold and calculating
Domestic Trouble He really wants to work it out and “talk about their issues” and continues to go to their therapy even after she bails. Doesn’t want to talk about their problems and convinces him to cancel the sessions.
Breakup On breakup, goes over to a friend’s house, talks about what’s happened and goes to sleep on his couch Buys a bottle of scotch, goes to work, drinks the entire bottle and passes out
 
Reaction to Other’s Job Tries to discuss it with her She tries to kill him. Repeatedly
Guns He always has a very small pistol, even called by Angela the “girly gun” She carries a ball breaking assault rifle. I don’t know what it’s called but it’s huge
 
Sex Has had 1/100 the amount of sex of her Slutted it out and is able to easily separate herself emotionally from the sex.

I think it’s really interesting that they flipped these roles around. If you think about it further, it seems that all the leading roles for guys in Hollywood these days are pretty weak. Thinking about the summer movies, i can think of My Super-Ex Girlfriend, X-Men 3, Pirates of the Caribbean where the men (Luke Wilson, Hugh Jackman, and Orlando/Depp) are more vulnerable and weak characters compared to the colder, stronger and more promiscuous women (Uma, Franke, and Kiera). Apparently, strong women characters are all the rage now, its just disappointing that it’s at the expense of quality dudes. Hell, even Tarantino had his latest kung-fu action flick starred Uma where she’s on a quest to take out her ex-boyfriend. I guess us guys are on the way out and it’s all about the women.

What do you think? In the quest for gender equality women have just become more like men and men?

Snakes On A Plane (Continued)

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Two more things i’ve seen in the past two days.

First, i don’t know why this wasn’t more widely reported, but apparently in Arizona some people actually released a bunch of rattlesnakes into a theater that was showing Snakes on a Plane. How frickin’ scary would that be to be watching a ridiculous movie about snakes and to see one slithering down the aisle. Story is here.

Second, i saw this clip of Samuel L. doing his thing on The Daily Show and it was funny to see that he actually just signed up to do this movie based on the title, which is funny b/c people are going to see it based soley on that too. I also like how excited both Sam and John are just to be able to swear on television – it never gets old for Stewart.
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=PupI1HytQW4]

Snakes On a Plane is Totally Absurd

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Snakes on a ComicSo i went and saw the movie with STB opening weekend and totally enjoyed it. It was totally absurd and gratuitous and not good at all – which is exactly what i expected.

My one comment – I actually wish they had made it more ridiculous. For example, in the very beginning a guy and a really hot gal get up from their seats and head to the bathroom to a) smoke a joint, and b) Get. It. On! I was pretty surprised to see that she got almost completely naked and there was an incredible amount of boobage displayed. Of course, one things start heating up a snake comes through the hole where the smoke detector was and makes a bullseye for her nipple. Sitting in the theater, my expectations for the movie immediately soared and i was pretty pumped that this movie was going to just be totally insane in both nudity and gore. Unfortunately, after this very cool scene, nothing else came close to delivering nudity-wise and it was a complete snake gore-fest, which is what you have to expect.

All in all, the movie was as expected – completely absurd

Get Your Ari Gold Fix

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This post is really only so i can repost the video below, which is gold baby, Gold!

Along with the rest of the world, i get pure satisfaction from watching HBO’s Entourage. It like a TV-show pixie stick – pure sugar. Some call it the Sex In The City for men, as it’s 4 guys walking around talking and doing what men want to do. However, Sex In The City did not have an Ari Gold. He makes the show. Thankfully, HBO has done more this season to round out his character
Here’s a video in case you missed any of his lines on the show:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf02gokKMFk]

And here’s a little bio i put together of the real Ari Gold in LA which of course includes Mark Walhburg – who Vincent Chase’s is based on. One interesting thing to note is that Jeremy Piven actually used to be Ari’s client.

  • Real Name: Ari Emmanuel
  • Agency: Endeavor
  • Legendary Story
    • There was a trainee taking a piss in the bathroom. The trainee had a full bladder and did a little walk-back from the urinal to get a little distance. Ari walks in and sees the kid and fires him on teh spot. One minute you’re taking a satisfying pee in a good job, the next minute you’re on the street. Rough.
  • Clients – these are just the people i’ve heard of.  Apparently he has many more clients but these are ones you might know.
    • Jason Alexander “George Costanza”, Peter Berg (Collateral, Friday Night Lights, The Rundown), Larry Charles, Sacha Cohen “Ali G”, Bob Costas, Mike Binder (Actor, Writer – I liked Mind of the Married Man), Larry David, Michael Douglas, Conan O’Brien, Shaquille O’Neal, Ozzy Osbourne (and Jack and Sharon and Kelly), Paris Hilton, Bonnie Hunt (Actor, Writer), Adam McKay, David Russell, Chris Kattan, Vince McMahon, Michael Moore, Garry Shandling, Joel Silver (Producer), Aaron Sorkin, Ben Stein, Martin Scorsese, Mark Wahlberg – of course

    Little Miss Sunshine Is Warm and Fuzzy

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    Little Miss Sunshine is a lovely little film that will undoubtedly bring a smile tolittlemisssunshine_p.jpg your face. From the very first moment when you see a 9 year old girl watching a beauty pageant, you know this movie is about dreams and desires. And by the second scene where a failed suicide victim is forced to room with a 15 year-old teenage boy who’s refuses to speak and writes “Please don’t kill yourself. Welcome to Hell” on his notepad before turning out the light, you know that most characters will be fairly eccentric and their dreams will be revealed, dealt with, shattered and reassembled by the end of the film.

    Throughout the movie we are introduced to all six family members and their respective dreams. One wants to be in the Air Force, another to sell a self-help book, another to do drugs and have sex with as many people as possible before he dies, and so on and so forth. With each character’s dreams on display and with 6 characters, that’s a lot of storytelling. Thankfully, each story is fairly entertaining and well acted – each actor absolutely nails their scenes.

    All the characters are interesting, but none of them are extremely captivating (except Arkin) so works that there is no main character and we can jump from one storyline to the next. Ultimately we realize that each character’s dream is a great setup for some good comedy and not much else.

    I believe the movie dreams to be nothing else other than quirky and really funny. Towards this goal, it completely succeeds. The movie does not have much depth nor will resonate very long. It is like a beautiful summer day of sunshine – great to experience and fun to enjoy if you have the time, but not necessarily memorable.

    Overall: 8 out of 10

    Some notes:

    • The film is very similar to Chevy Chase’s National Lampoon’s Vacation. Both are about a family roadtrip where generations, siblings and ambitions are thrown into a “family trickster” and shaken up. Grandma in Vacation and Grandpa in Sunshine serve a similar purpose and Greg Kinnear does a good job playing the Clarke Griswold roll – especially when things start going south. Luckily though, this movie does not hinge on Greg Kinnear’s performance the way Vacation relied on Chevy. No, this movie relies on the complete ensemble and they flat out deliver.

    • griswoldandsunshine.jpg

      My one complaint is the development on Kinnear’s character. Throughout most of the movie he is selfish, patronizing and oblivious. Come the end of the movie, his 180 U-turn seems unbelievable. However, the climax was heart-warming enough that I was easily able to gloss over this issue

    (this is also posted at the movie site: doubler.wordpress.com)

    8 Ways Pirates of Carribean steals from Return of the Jedi

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    Watching Pirates of the Carribean this past weekend, i was stunned about how much of it was lifted from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Let me count the ways…

    1. The beginning of Jedi has a desert monster that did the bidding of Jabba.kraken.jpg This happens to look exactly like The Krackin – the sea monster that does Davy Jones’ bidding. You may recongnize the same little pointy teeth that they both have. (it was called a Sarlacc in ROTJ)
    2. The Ewoks are a cute little bunch of animals in the jungle. Pirates has a group of cannibals on an island who have a similarly cute little language. Just as they confuse Jack Sparrow as a god, the Ewoks confuse C3PO to be their god and place him in command
    3. The Ewoks are cannibals too – seriously, it says so on Wikipedia (although we all know how accurate that is)
    4. The Ewoks decide to burn Han Solo alive above a big fire pit that looks very similar to the fire where the cannibals try to burn Captain Jack. (Have to give credit to my friend Justin for this one). So basically Pirates took the Ewok scece and instead of having Luke, Leia, Chewy, and RD2 tied up and C3P0 as God, they used Jack for all it.
    5. Luke Skywalker is a lame, painful-to-watch guy with amanishwomen.jpg lightsaber who is upstaged by the more manly Princess Leia. Similarly, Orlando Bloom is (as always) a lame, painful-to-watch guy with a sword who is upstaged by the more manly Keira Knightly
    6. Both Luke and Orlando try to save their dads who have aligned themselves with the main villian (Emperor and Davy) – the main villians who are both trying to kill Luke/Orlando or convince him to join the bad guy army of troops.
    7. Comic relief is provided by Han Solo – a renegade that is temporarily trying to do the right thing to land a gal (Leia) – just as funny-man Jack Sparrow, a renegade pirate has a brief spell of integrity to impress Kiera.
    8. There are many other character similarities i could make such as between Lando and Cutler, R2D2 and CP30 are the same as the two funny guys with bad teeth who steal the chest and tried to steal the Black Pearl, and the Millenium Falcon is very similar to the Black Pearl.

    Can you think of any others?