Movies that have come out that I somehow managed to see.

DRIVE

This movie is like a European art house version of The Transporter. It starts off hypnotic and meditative, fetishizing shots of Los Angeles like nobody's business. Complete with a soundtrack that should pay Tangerine Dream for the inspiration. Then it gets insanely violent. Throw in great performances from Ryan Gosling as the nameless Driver, Albert Brooks as a menacing heavy, and Ron Perlman as the Ron Perlman character, and you have yourself an awesome movie. Well worth the hype and reviews that have been lavished upon it.


DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME

Here's what you need to know about this movie: It's from Hong Kong, it's structured like a pretty awesome film noir, it has a terrific lead performance from Andy Lau, because it's from Hong Kong every character needlessly flips around when simple walking would suffice, and there's actually a character named Donkey Wang. It's a fun flick, and if you get a chance, see it on a big screen. IT probably won't happen, but it was definitely one of the better FX-heavy flicks I saw all summer. (Even if I saw it at the end of summer).


KILLER ELITE

Man, this movie should have been awesome. Chev Chelios pitted against Shoot Em Up?!!? And the trailer features Rock Me Like A Hurricane, and features Statham tied to a chair and kickin some dude's ass!?!?! SOLD! Alas, it turns out the film is more like a poor man's Munich. While not necessarily bad, it's not really that good either. One thing to point out, everyone's bitching out Clive Owen's mustache, but nobody bothers pointing out that the movie takes place in 1981, where those creepy staches were a sign of the times. 

OUR IDIOT BROTHER

I liked this movie. I thought Rudd was charming and a lot of fun. The ending is WAY too pat and tidy, but a movie like this, you just enjoy the ride. That's all I really have to say about that.

Brilliant

I'm Brady, and I made this movie

This is pretty damn terrific.


A reenactment of one of my favorite scenes from brady Shoemaker on Vimeo.

Catching up on some more flicks, PART 2

So, the insurance career I've recently partaken in has denied me the time I would normally spend all summer watching movies. As it stands, I've only seen a collection of the movies released this summer, and not the big ones that you would think either.

This turn of events both frightens and saddens me. Luckily, measures have been taken to remedy this.

Regardless, I have managed to catch a few flicks, and this is what I think about them.

SUBMARINE

Fun Welsh indie flick, reminiscent of Harold & Maude and Rushmore (mostly because of its teenage outcast protagonist, played very well by Craig Roberts) that balances the sweet and the sour of teen love and family life. Roberts plays Oliver Tate, and the movie is about his adventures. I can't really describe the rest, just know that it's worthy of checking out. A strong feature debut from Richard Ayoade, the actor from Garth Merengi's Dark Place and The IT Crowd. If I had a complaint, it would be that the soundtrack should've been better. That's it.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

This is one of those movies where the charm and chemistry of the leads takes it FAR beyond the premise. Justin Timberlake is very good as the male counterpart who wants to have sex with his friend Mila Kunis. She is also very good. Like I said the chemistry between these two is great, but my problems with the film stem from the horrendous direction, which manages to be edited in the most ADD, over-covered way imaginable (since Easy A, director Will Gluck's previous film, actually)/ Additionally, every scene is plastered with pop music to the point of annoyance. Still, not bad, probably worth a rental. (No, I didn't see the other movie that was practically the same with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, but I heard it was little better, mostly because the lead characters had lives outside of just boning each other). 


HARRY POTTER AND THE BLAH BLAH PART 2

It's the last Harry Potter movie. It's just as well made as the last one. I would have preferred if they just combined both movies into one epic, 4 hour event, but it's ok. What's strange is that I was more emotionally invested in the book than with the film. (I refer to certain characters' deaths that had more of an impact in print). And the coda in the future was just plain ridonkulous. Still, a great end to a series of films that actually kept getting better as they were produced.

ATTACK THE BLOCK

This movie was pretty kick ass. There was a lot of hype from the internet movie sites, hyping this thing to end, calling it the end all be all of geek cinema, which is not true. In fact, the over-hype may have soured me a little bit. However, this movie was pretty awesome, harkening back to an old school John Carpenter feel (down to the score, even). And the creature design is pretty terrific. So terrific that I kept drawing it on whatever I could find.

This took a good half hour out of my day.

But as an antidote to most of the big budget blockbuster alien flicks, this invasion flick about a gang of London punks who defend their building tenement from neon teeth beasts was far superior. Well worth checking out, even if it didn't quite live up to the hype, in my mind.


30 MINUTES OR LESS

If you saw the preview, you saw the movie. It's not necessarily that it's a bad movie, just that there was literally nothing more to it than what was shown in the preview, aside from a few good Aziz Ansari one liners. (You're not a grown up, last night you had a Lunchables for dinner!) But this tale of inept crooks who strap a bomb to a pizza guy's chest so that he robs a bank for them plays off like Elmore Leonard-lite, and that's not necessarily a compliment. Even more frustrating is (SPOILER ALERT) there are really no consequences for anyone given the survival rates of the characters. Good for a few laughs, but you can wait for Netflix for a breezy 80 minute time. Sorely lacking the style and wit of the director/star's previous outing of Zombieland, which leads you to believe that flick's strength was the doing of the screenwriters.

I've also managed to check out a few flicks at home, as well that are worth checking out. Never Let Me Go was like a very well made but depressing art house version of The Island. I also liked The Adjustment Bureau quite a bit until the literal dues ex machina in the end. Make Believe is a fun documentary about teen illusionists that's winning and fun. And speaking of illusionists, The Illusionist, the follow up to Triplets of Belleville, is another interesting animation using pictures and very little dialogue. It's also depressing as fuck. And finally, there's I Love You Phillip Morris, which felt like a Coen Brothers movie, anchored by a fascinating story and a not at all annoying lead performance by Jim Carrey.

That's what I've seen lately. I also finally caught Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which is pretty awesome, and I'm glad I didn't see it before Super 8, because that movie owes a LOT to Close Encounters. Anyway, I'm hoping to catch the Apes and Captain America before summer ends.

OH, and friend of the blog OMAR saw Colombiana, and his voice mail to me consisted of "Oh my goodness... oh my goodness... oh my goodness. You have to let me know when you see it. It does things I've never seen in an action movie before."

So there you have it. Straight from Omar's mouth directly to your ears eyes.

There have been a lot of videos posted lately...

And here's one more!



I promise I'll post up some reviews, but between new job and cutting a movie, I haven't had much time to see anything. But what I did see, I"ll let you know about.

Someday.

They made a Black Dynamite cartoon!

It involves Black Dynamite fighting puppets. It might be one of the greatest things ever. 

Shark Week

This gets off to a slow start, but the ending is worth the wait. 

Shark Hangover from Dolph Lundgren     

It's My Car

Larry's review of Zookeeper

"Dude, it's a masterpiece of awful and unfunny."

-Larry

Yeah, so here's They Might Be Giants doing a cover of Tubthumping

They Might Be Giants covers Chumbawamba

I drink a whiskey drink, I drink a vodka drink, and when I have to pee, I use the  kitchen sink.

I sing a song that reminds me I'm a urinating guy.

Catching up on some flicks, and stuff.

Yeah, yeah, I've got tons of excuses for not going to movies lately. But I've managed to see a few, and  here's what I have to say about them.

SOURCE CODE - Pretty terrific. The logic falls apart a bit by the end, but at that point I was so invested in the characters that I didn't care so much about logic. Duncan Jones makes great Outer Limits-esque storylines into compelling and awesome movies. (Loses points for not having as memorable a score as Moon).

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN - Like a demented Troma flick that never was. Rutger Hauer does a great job portraying the titular hobo, and I mean that in no sarcastic terms whatsoever. He really gives a great performance. Probably best I've seen all year thus far. The movie itself is bloody and nihilistic, and would feel right at home in the early 80s alongside Troma's War. Worth checking out, just try not to let the color timing talk you out of it. (PS- The Plague OWNS!)

THOR - The stuff in Asgard was like watching the greatest 70s prog rock album cover come to life! Chris Hemsworth gives a star making lead performance as Thor (The diner scene alone is proof enough of this) and I look forward to seeing more of him as this character. The rest of the movie was pretty entertaining as well, though the Asgard stuff was certainly more compelling than the Earth-bound stuff. I was happy that it didn't feel like another 2 hour Avengers commercial (Iron Man 2, I'm lookin in your direction...) Plus any movie that has Natalie Portman AND Kat Dennings, yet manages to have an even hotter woman in the form of Jamie Alexander, who kicks Frost Giant ass, is alright by me.

PRIEST - This movie is like the inbred offspring of Underworld, Blade, and those crappy 20 minutes of Judge Dredd that took place in the wasteland. (As opposed to the crappy 80 minutes that took place in the major city). Hero of the blog KARL URBAN manages to be the only person (aside from the production designer, actually) that's having any sort of fun, and as such, any scene that doesn't feature him suffers greatly. This is a movie I wouldn't be surprised to find on How Did This Get Made. Yet, it's not so horrible it's entertaining, although it toes that line...

X-MEN FIRST CLASS - What a fun movie this turned out to be! I've been bitching and moaning about how the marketing for the film has focused way too much on showing almost everything, set piece wise (a claim which I still contend happened) but the result was far better than I was expecting. Terrific performances mostly all around, especially from McAvoy, Lawrence, and Fassbender. Only exception is January Jones, who is downright terrible, but is at least pleasing to look at in her underwear (which is practically the whole time). But they make up for it by casting EVERY awesome character actor to play minor parts, like James Remar, Ray Wise, and MICHAEL IRONSIDE! It felt like an old school Bond flick (Kudos to the composer for appropriate flavored tracks).

SUPER 8 - Unabashedly love this film. I can understand why people might not like it, and I can certainly understand the "Enough with lens flares, JJ" arguments, but quite frankly, I thought this was great. The kids were great, the nostalgic feel was pitch perfect, the kids filmmaking experiences is just as authentic as Son of Rambow's. Perhaps even more so. I may actually go and see this again in theaters. Just a great time. Can't recommend this enough.

On the video front, I recently caught The Mechanic (great Statham action flick, which means it's a pretty entertaining modern day Cannon flick), Due Date (rarely laughed, found it mean spirited and kind of obnoxious, actually) and I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Drive Angry is absolute shit.

Also, I've been mildly obsessed with the show Friday Night Lights, which I found dramatically compelling, but the continuity errors regarding the time of day/days of week, day/night, as well as the shaky cam editing can get a little obnoxious at times. Otherwise, it's great, although season 2 is getting a little crazy, but we'll see.

Wish I had these effects when I was a kid

We just had to use crap like our "Imaginations" and filming the TV to get Star Wars effects.

That Russian Dude with the Guns is BACK AND BIGGER THAN EVER!!!

Books... Check em out!

Occasionally I enjoy reading. More than occasionally, actually. Books are great. Just like this informative video tells us.



So recently I picked up The Devil's Candy, a book that chronicles the making of the Hollywood flop Bonfire of the Vanities. Nobody could have known while making it that the film would be as large a flop as it became.

(And certainly reading the book, you would have no idea that would happen, as it seemed to be a relatively easy shoot, not an unmitigated disaster of nonsense like Heaven's Gate or that Terry Gilliam film that never made it past 6 days of filming.)

All in all, it's a decent read, but what really makes it worth it, at least reading my copy of it, was this horribly inappropriate pull quote on the back from Kirkus Reviews.

That's one to grow on

Sure, it was from 1991, and there was no possible way of knowing what future events would lie in store, but, really, how fucked up a quote is this to say to begin with? On top of which, the book isn't really that ground breaking or provocative, or scandalous. It's quite passive agressive and full of meandering details that amount to nothing in the end.

Still, looks like I have a collectors' item on my hands.

Books... check em out!

ROADSIDE TRAILER

Check out this trailer I edited. It's for a movie I'm editing.

Fast Flippin Five!!! (and some other things)

Hands down, the best summer movie since Star Trek. Unbelievably badass and fun, in a turn your brain off and enjoy ridiculous fights, amazing car chases, and homoerotic tension between bros, bro.

My friend Larry says it best: It's like Bayhem, but with coherence.

Just a fun time at the movies, full of some terrific and exciting set pieces.

In Other News:

Den of Geek has a great interview with There's Always Mini Golf personal hero/patron saint KARL URBAN. Check that out.

Also, if you're in the market for a good podcast, check out How Did This Get Made. A bunch of funny people celebrating terrible movies. Well worth a listen.

Important message

This about sums it up.

And that's kind of a good thing.


Today Now! Interviews The 5-Year-Old Screenwriter Of "Fast Five"

Laughter... the best medicine.

Weird Al owns all.

Funny Or Die Beats Weird Al at Twitter from Al Yankovic