FRED Entertainment

March 31, 2006

Trailer Park: Well, funk you very much, too…

Filed under: Trailer Park — admin @ 8:54 pm

E-MAIL THE AUTHOR | By Christopher Stipp

March 31, 2006

Well, funk you very much, too…

For those who care, I’ve set up a MySpace account as it seems there’s been a spike of people rushing over there to peep things out for a reason or two; Kevin’s updates on CLERKS II with the “real” pages of Randal and Dante give this movie a whole other meta feel to it and have found myself not being able to stop visiting the site. Stop by and say hello won’t you, neighbor? I’ve got to find a way to trick this thing out and make it all look pimp but I spent a while filling in the holes with a lot of writing about myself and my hawesome taste in all things pop cultura. Now, back to the column at hand.

I do solid work.

I show up every week and bring it to you, unadulterated. For better or worse I’m here and I try to mix it up for your benefit as people who have grasped the ability to read.

I think this is why I had such a crap week with trying to get some things done, professionally, around these parts. My attitude is just bad and it all boils down to what I see is a perceived inequity between who I work for, Poop Shoot, and the resulting latitude I get when it comes to bringing new things to this page.

I guess it started when I thought it would be really nice to try and get Darren Aronofsky to chat it up a few months ago. He was doing “press” for all sorts of movie sites for the hell of it, ostensibly to start the buzz, and it was about this time when the trailer for THE FOUNTAIN broke; I dug the hell out of the snippets that were embedded in that thing and wanted to be a part of “the circle” of other uber nerds who were deserving of his time. Now, the circle I refer to isn’t as nebulous as you think and I found out how real this was when I went through a few hoops to track down the person who could’ve hooked up a one-on-one or, at the very least, a phoner.

Well, for sake of dragging out a long narrative, I introduced myself and stated what I wanted; it was what everyone else seemed to get: some time with the dude who has seemingly spoken to everyone else of much importance. I stated who I wrote for for, Movie Poop Shoot, and the person I talked to broke out in a bit of laughter and, as I’m used to, I waited until it subsided to quickly lay out facts about the site, who ultimately pays the bandwith bill and that I’m more than qualified to handle a phone conversation thanks to the many other people who saw that this website is more than just a clever novelty.

It’s always like this. This process was gone through, just as it was executed for Darren, with Hugh Jackman’s peeps.

Two different gatekeepers, two identical reactions. “We’ll let you know,” is the way things ended.

I hear that and I know it’s over before it begins. After a few days go by without a response I’m like the gimpy nerd who gets the point from the girl who I know won’t call back. It’s no sweat off my sack but it’s still a bitch move in my book. Kevin wanted this site to be able and be something more than just an amusing punchline and we’ve got the talent here to prove that it is an ever ascending beast. This is what brings us to the Phoenix Film Festival, which I was wonderfully press passed to, that was held this past week right down the street, quite literally, from my house.

It was great to be able and catch a dozen or so films that really were the epitome of independent and I was, for lack of a more mature adjective, jazzed about Lawrence Fishburne, Jason Mewes, Danny Trejo and others making their way to my backyard. It’s only the 6th year for this festival in the desert and I must admit that I was impressed with the fare that was offered.

Now, Phoenix wasn’t going to get the kind of movies which get their due at Sundance but with Mewes’ NICE GUYS, Fishburne’s AKEELAH AND THE BEE, LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN, HARD CANDY (This movie was a mind scrambler), LA MUJER DE MI HERMANO and others getting some play it was going to be a good time. The best thing about this 7-day festival was that if you missed the showing of SLEVIN, let’s say, on Friday you had a good four or five more chances to see it in replays during the week. Now, I haven’t been to many festivals but I have never known festival flicks to get the TiVo treatment. I’m not complaining, just observing. Thanks to the work I put in last year at the Comi-Con I was able to get myself all the credentials I needed in order to cover this thing properly. Now, here’s where the dark underbelly of the story comes in.

For fear of calling some people out on the carpet for what happened on the very first day of the festival, setting the tone for the rest of the week, I will only vaguely remark that I tried, with a few people, to try and get you people out there some great exclusives. I made a lot of calls, and wrote a few emails, to people in the know and who were in the position to make things happen. Now, the fact that all these attempts failed to yield anything doesn’t bother me as much as the relationship that I built up with certain people prior to the festival coming here and thought a lot of things were in the bag.

Turns out nothing was in the bag.

One person I talked to prior to this event happened to walk by me while I was credentialing on opening night. I introduced myself as being, well, me. I was given an, “Oh yeah! I’ll be right back.” But the guy, like a puss, never came back and instead tarried off with his little buddies behind the VIP line. After mingling and saying “hey” to a few people who actually did know who I was I see puss-boy later on and, like the two dollar whore from CAN’T BUY ME LOVE who feigns knowing Ronald when Pat Dempsey is exposed for the geek he really is, turns around when he sees me. “What the hell is this,” I thought. High school? The big girl happens to be someone prominent here in the Valley of the Sun and I can only surmise that being important in a market bubbling over with filmic goings-on is a big thing and couldn’t possibly be bothered to act like a person.

The really, really odd thing is that he wasn’t the only one. A few people happened to feel that being important was, well, important, and ultimately this meant a lot of promises were broken. Things I thought I was going to bring to you out there just could not be done and the nice power that I so enjoy in this space, turns out, does not translate to people who have it in the real world. I wish I could tell you all the names of people who I’ve sent real nice e-mails to in the hopes of scoring something, anything, only to be promised, confirmed and ignorned like my name was Stanley the Movie Noob, but I won’t do it. That would be juvenile. Immature. I work for Movie Poop Shoot and, as such, decorum precludes me from such antics.

I think I just bring this all up because you may think getting people like Robert Patrick to talk with me about WALK THE LINE is easy because I work for a site like this but I’ve hustled and sold myself to far better people than the assholes who feel that their own superiority somehow means that stiffing people like me is fine. I don’t talk to hear myself speak and I don’t write to see my own words reflected back to me so I hope you all understand that my coverage of the 2006 Phoenix Film Festival next week will be limited to two flicks I really really REALLY liked (HARD CANDY and LA MUJER DE MI HERMANO) and, hopefully, a slideshow which I think you peeps will dig.

Oh, and I will have to find a way to post what should have been audio from Jason Mewes’ “Conversation with Jason Mewes” that was supposed to have taken place last Saturday at 11:30. The nearly 2 1/2 dozen of us present were told Jason had a rough Friday night with some of the ladies from Scottsdale and was still in his room recovering from a long evening; in his defense, and as the slide show will prove, the ladies in this town are indeed that potent. Danny Trejo stood in for our favorite sidekick and it was an hour well-spent. Instead of transcribing the entire conversation I’ll simply post the audio feed. I think it’s utterly fascinating to hear the man who has been in over a 100+ movies, worked with Tarintino, Rodriguez and others give his own opinion about the state of movies today. Give it a listen in all it’s chaotic glory when I get around to figuring out the best way to get this out there to you.

And speaking of getting it out to you I wanted to try experimenting with the delivery method which I think will best allow me to share my multi-media from the festival so if this treat of being able to watch Wes Anderson’s short film called BOTTLE ROCKET which led to the full-on, full-length version of, well, BOTTLE ROCKET works out then we are a go for future launch.


LA MUJER DE MI HERMANO (2006) Director:Ricardo de Montreuil
Cast: Bárbara Mori, Christian Meier, Manolo Cardona, Gaby Espino, Beto Cuevas
Release: April, 2006 (Limited)
Synopsis: After almost 10 years of marriage, attractive Zoe discovers that her marriage lacks passion and surprise, and is seduced by the possibility of finding those sensations already forgotten in her husband’s brother. From this premise a series of events lead these three characters to a dangerous game of revenges, secrets and passions. Two brothers and one woman: the triangle is outlined in a disquieting way. It is a bomb that triggers family secrets, the contained rage of desire and the unmanageable power of love. An exciting story that subjugates the viewer from beginning to end.
View Trailer:
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Prognosis: Very Positive. I think that the natural evolution from being exposed to hardcore Latin cinema, courtesy of AMORES PERROS and Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, has warmed me a bit to wanting to see a flick that doesn’t include dusty and dirty youths trying to get their groove on or wanting to throw down with the nearest available ruffian.

A drama about a woman who steps out on her husband with the husband’s brother? Throw in a little sizzle, a pimp pad where all this goes down, plus set it in a warm climate where you’re gonna get a pool scene where you things aren’t going to go well for our cuckolded husband? Nice.

I feel obliged to start out by commenting on the music that begins this trailer. The musical bed directs emotion, no question, and the music coordinator here deserves some love by popping in a track that not only is pleasing but sets the mood like candles on the dining room table.

When we meet the couple that will no doubt implode like a supernova by film’s end, I’m unsure if these are actors or Banana Republic models. It’s okay, though, as that’s what actors are for; you rarely see the ugly ones holding anyone’s attention and the fact that the dude looks like Jeremy Sisto’s long lost Latin brother and Eva Mendes’ hotter sister only ballasts my superficial interest in what exactly is happening. And I’m glad I am not blasted by plot points. We take time here and I appreciate just being able to soak in the atmosphere.

Also, and this is a mind blower, this trailer allows its players to talk. As is my theory about what film studios want their foreign language films to do in order to get people to see them, not allowing the native language to be uttered is usually the norm. Not here, though, and I genuinely love it. You get a feel for this couple’s relationship with one another and, after seeing her splayed out on the bed in her underwear, I can honestly say my interest level increases with regard to what seems to be the issue.

As this husband, this wife, talk you are much better served in defining who is hurting whom by listening to their voices, their intonations.

We meet the brother who treats his hair like it’s a refuge for birds but dresses nice and seems to have a vibe about him that lures the young wife away from her distant husband. What I like here is the slow motion close-up of our bride placing her wedding ring and band on the nightstand, ostensibly to start hittin’ it. We don’t see the act happen, we never see the brother and the wife kiss, it’s all implied and the husband’s questioning of whether his wife loves him is emotionally effective. I believe it.

The modern style house that all this infidelity happens in is great eye candy. The mood of the house also reflects the relationship between these two people: cold, clean, gorgeous but, ultimately, heartless. Our people talk, the subtitles come up and none of it is a distraction to me; it helps to establish these characters.

The highest honors go to this trailer and I promise to do all I can to see how all of this translates, ultimately, to the whole film.


AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT! (2006) Director: Nathaniel Hornblower (AKA Adam Yauch) (dir.)
Cast: Beastie Boys (MCA, Mike D, Adrock)
Release: March 31, 2006
Synopsis: A formally innovative feature film experience, the Beastie Boys handed out 50 cameras to audience members at their sold-out performance in New York’s famed Madison Square Garden in October 2004. These 50 different passionate perspectives shot from the point-of-view of the audience take the viewer deep inside the world of a live Beastie Boys show.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Positive. Now this is a concert film worth getting excited about.

Thanks to Chappelle’s BLOCK PARTY the party line about what can draw in an audience has changed a bit. You can have an entire feature filled with music and not run the risk of completely alienating the audience and my only hope is that hype meets with performance for this one.

“In a world”¦”

The Beastie’s have always been known for their ability to rock a mic but they’re also adept at being fun without looking silly. They’ve got senses of humor and everything from their video for SABATOGE (always a fun video to watch all the way through) to their first real single unleashed on the world, FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY, has always reinforced their ability to lay it down about injustices in the world while also telling you how great it is to be married, “rockin’ the sure shot.” That’s why opening this trailer with the voiceover that starts in with the words “In a world”¦,” one of the most tried and true tropes of trailer creation, rings that superciliousness bell once more.

The next shot that shows us the back heads of the Beasties, dashing past the pretzel concession stand while in slow motion, the building of anticipation for what’s about to come is executed really well. Most everyone knows that this is all being done tongue-in-cheek but it’s great fun.

“When pure evil reigns over the realm of humans”¦ “

The shot of the guy who is no doubt sporting Kentucky Mud Flap under his mesh hat and handlebar moustache, his hands flailing around in slow motion comedy, does nothing less than induce laughter in me; he’s a fan, to be sure, but I guess he gets credit for rocking out.

“Only the strongest can rise to the challenge”¦”

The shot of the swirling mosh pit of enthusiastic fans and churning energy that’s being released with every shove and push captures the rawness of how this show is going to go. I never thought that a Beastie’s show was so physical but the buildup of the three guys about to get on stage helps to foreshadow the fact that they are about to break it down in a big way.

What’s also important to note is that the switching perspectives that’s shown here helps to establish the fact that there are multiple people responsible for shooting this movie but it’s never said. The montage at the very end of what dozens of cameras recorded, I am positive, only whets the appetite for any casual fan in showing that this movie’s experiment to show what happens when you entrust the shooting to your average person is going to have a huge payoff.

I can’t say for sure of whether this will be an ok film or that they should’ve entrusted someone like Spike Jonze with directorial duties but the world needs more concert films and I am glad that this is the band that’s comin’ correct to the big screen.


ALPHA DOG (2006) Director: Nick Cassavetes
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Foster, Sharon Stone, Dominique Swain, Lukas Haas, Bruce Willis
Release: May 12, 2006
Synopsis: ALPHA DOG is inspired by the true story of Jesse James Hollywood, a mid-level drug dealer from the San Gabriel Valley whose thirst for power led him to become the youngest man ever to appear on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Emile Hirsch stars as teenage suburban drug dealer Johnny Truelove, an ambitious young man whose lifestyle is a mecca for guns, sex and drugs. When a “client” cheats Johnny and a deal goes bad, he devises a plan to get his money back by kidnapping the client’s younger brother. But things take an unexpected twist as Johnny and his crew get caught up in the dangerous and violent world they once idealized.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Negative. I really don’t want to believe that Justin Timberlake is a good actor.

I try to spend all my waking hours avoiding reading about this pop pud and his string bean girlfriend but along comes this movie that everyone’s talking about and I find myself having to give that gimp a fair shake instead of recusing myself from the flick altogether. My natural instinct to dismiss the movie because of him but that’s just not fair and I’m glad I didn’t.

The initial moments of this movie play out like a David Hockney painting; the American idealized, suburban lifestyle is one that has been derided as being soulless and that’s what comes across as you feel the numbing effects of suburbia.

You’re given images of turnpikes, po-pop’s responding to a disturbance at the local Krispy Kreme, kids playing little league. This is when a woman, someone off camera, says that the kids who are ostensibly going to meet, are good kids. The latter statement usually is in response to something completely awful that a pack of juveniles who have been given everything have done and are in need of defending.

The woman goes on to explain that the kids were living the rap version of “the life.” Again, these are kids who spend their afternoon playing X-Box, possibly schmoking a lil’ weed in between while the parents are off making the money to afford the lifestyle they’re all accustomed to.

“Inspired by true events.”

Now this is my favorite tagline and I give props to the filmmakers for busting out this little wee factoid so early in the trailer; it always makes me pay attention a little more closely.

Now, I’m a little thrown by what comes next. Our pro/ant/agonist is Emile Hirsch who, we’re told, is the ringleader for this little tribe of teens who are getting involved in something illicit. Now, the assorted images of Emile and his “crew” don’t tell me anything. Yeah, we’ve got Justin Timberlake doing pull-ups, his skinny frame belays any attempt to make him seem tough, and we even have Angel himself, Ben Foster, talking in a riddle-ish type speak to someone who’s looking to hang with him for the evening.

It’s all very scattered. Emile tells some guy who owes him some money that he go and make himself useful by working off the debt but I am getting a little aggravated that we’re not really being told what in the hell is going on. Is it drugs? Is it a gambling ring? Is it a high school prostitution ring and, if so, why couldn’t this have been going on in 1993? (West side Barrington representin’, yo.)

We’ve got a lot of innuendo but nothing to show for it.

When I see that we’re halfway through the trailer I begin to think that, for sure, we’re gonna get some context. It’s all about context and even though I had a little faith that we would get somewhere I get Ben Foster, donning that creepy ass tenor he used when he was on Six Feet Under, as he squaring off Emile. Ben, too, owes Emile money and decides to kidnap Ben’s brother until it gets resolved.

The hostage is oddly calm and optimistic throughout this whole ordeal, which is a little weird, and, of course, Ben’s parents flip out when they figure out Ben is using that creepy voice from Six Feet Under again; nothing good ever happens when he does it.

And, then, out of nowhere, we get a card that says 3 days, 38 witnesses. Now, three days I get. I understand that. 38 witnesses? That’s a few dozen people and I haven’t seen a few dozen people in this trailer but then I get our hostage getting his flirt on inside a pool with some lady. At first I’m thinking I’m watching the video to the Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” but I remember that this all about Emile.

I’m flat out confused. Is this drug related or what? Why was this boy kidnapped? I don’t have the answers to any of these things and you can lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of improper contextualization. If I don’t know why Emile stole a boy for ransom why should I care about any of these events? I don’t feel trusted as a viewer, like it’s a reveal that needs hiding, and I don’t like it.

I appreciate that the trailer ends with a wicked cool card that tells us that Emile’s character fled the country in 1999 and then was arrested in Paraguay in 2005. Now that’s the kind of “ooh” “ahh” I like in my trailers. I find it amusing that the final, final card tells us that the names, events and details of this “true” event have been changed for whatever reason but a quick search on New Line’s own website yields us all the information we need right here. It befuddles even me, people.


BASIC INSTINCT 2 (2006) Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Cast: Sharon Stone, David Morrissey
Release: March 31, 2006
Synopsis: Novelist Catherine Tramell (Stone) is once again in trouble with the law, and Scotland Yard appoints psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Glass (Morrissey) to evaluate her. Though, like Detective Nick Curran before him, Glass is entranced by Tramell and lured into a seductive game.
View Trailer:
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Prognosis: Funniest thing I’ve seen all year. Two thumbs up.

“But you know I saw this movie this year called last year called ‘Basic Instinct.’ Okay now…Bill’s quick capsule review: Piece-of-shit. Okay now. Yeah, yeah, end of story by the way. Don’t get caught up in that fevered hype phoney fucking debate about that Piece-of-shit movie. “˜Is it too sexist, and what about the movies, are they becoming too dddddddd.’ You’re, you’re just confused, you don’t get, you’ve forgotten how to judge correctly. Take a deep breath huuh, look at it again. “Oh, it’s a Piece-of-shit!” Exactly! That’s all it is. Satan squatted, let out a loaf, they put a fucking title on it, put it on a marquee, Satan’s shit, piece of shit, walk away. “˜But is it too, what about the lesbian connot.. ddddd.’ You’re, you’re getting really baffled here. Piece-of-shit! Now walk away. That’s all it is, it’s nothing more! Free yourself folks, if you see it, Piece-of-shit, say it and walk away.”
-Bill Hicks, 1992

“People just are sitting there going, like, ‘I don’t care what she’s saying, I don’t care what she’s saying, I just want to know, does she get naked in the movie? Is she naked? Nude nude nude naked Do I see her boobies? I don’t care what she’s saying, I don’t care, I don’t care, is she naked?’ So let’s just get through to that…YES!” […]

And I called my publicist, who’s this great, Jewish woman…”
-The Sharon Stone Experience, 2006, while sitting down next to Simon Peres in Israel discussing her latest role in BASIC INSTINCT 2 by way of Defamer.com

My vote is getting cast early, children, for my favorite comedy of 2006: BASIC INSTINCT 2. I would put the Billy Ocean World Tour ’06 on my list of needless things right above this movie’s existence and I am doing everything in my power to not shred this thing before we’ve all had a chance to indulge in this trailer’s goodness.

Because we are an equal opportunity column here I will reserve judgment until we make our way through this one which begins, oddly enough, solidly.

You’ve got a nice wide shot of London proper, with po-pos, or Bobby’s as you crumpet eating limeys would say, all descending on a crime scene. Our detective in charge of this investigation, a rough looking man with his tie sexily loosened up just a wee bit, is ranting that some chick’s fingerprints are all over the crime scene and that a psychologist is needed in order to declare our “suspect” insane.

Now, while I am all about having a woman kept behind bars, the world needs more movies about caged heat, I found my nads recoiling as we see Sharon Stone, looking quite mannish, trying to affect the sexiness of a woman who knows she is on the other side of a wall that is littered with the faces of ladies who should just let nature take its course.

“So, is this where we’re gonna do it?”

Oh, sweet Lord, did she really drop that double entendre? I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

So, she starts in with this psychologist by telling him that she’s a writer that toils in sexual perversions and power relationships that are about as healthy as anything you see on Desperate Housewives on a good day. She’s trying, really hard, to make us feel that her deviancy and lustiness are combos that will get dudes all schweaty in their drawers. Unfortunately, she just comes across as holding on too long like the old Asian madam in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA who is harboring the hotter meat in the annals of her cherry ranch; it’s sad, really. I half expect Kurt Russell to charge onto the screen but, alas, it doesn’t happen.

Not more than a few seconds later, the most unintentional, comedic moment happens. When her interview with the police’s psychologist rages on, Ms. Stone straddles a chair from the front. Instead of her beav being flashed to us the chair’s thick back support fully covers Stone’s privates like a big censor’s obstruction. I’d like to thank the Academy for that. It made me laugh.

I am at a loss to try and make sense of our psychologist’s attraction, and eventual giving in to, Sharon’s wiles. I guess the movie wouldn’t be as interesting if he called her out on her obvious insanity and delusions of grandeur but that moment when the two of them kiss I don’t immediately think this is a romance between two hot people; it’s an obvious cougar attack and our young boy has been vanquished by this woman who would probably fit in better at the Howard Johnson hotel bar on Karaoke Jam night than she would at a hipster night club.

“I feel like a cigarette”

Yes, Sharon has the last word in this trailer and I couldn’t agree more. For what better of an image of a smoldering, old butt that’s about to be flicked to the ground and twisted into the concrete to describe how this film’s going to be received?

I think if you’re going to see it, be open to it, don’t let what I’ve seen here be any indication of its goodness or badness. I just believe you’ve got to be in the mood to laugh.

Scrubs Blog: Week 20

Filed under: Production Blogs,Quickcasts,Scrubs Blog,Video — UncaScroogeMcD @ 3:54 pm
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VIDEO BLOG #41: “My Grand Dream” ““
Who hasn’t dreamt of a Grandfather Kennel, packed with tweedy goodness eager to come home with you?

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Download Scrubs Video Blog #41:

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VIDEO BLOG #42: “My Track Meet” ““
Is there anything the Janitor hasn’t done? And shouldn’t it be improbably hard to jump so high with a “˜stache so big?

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Download Scrubs Video Blog #42:

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VIDEO BLOG #43: “My Clothesline” ““
Never, ever cross the Janitor.

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“THE TODD” BLOG #10: Deep Thoughts –
Yes, even “The Todd” ““ the omnisexual surgeon played by Robert Maschio ““ has been keeping a blog, and here’s his latest.

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READ The Todd Blog #10:

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Scrubs: Todd Blog #10

Filed under: Production Blogs,Scrubs Blog — UncaScroogeMcD @ 3:48 pm
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March 29st, 2006
Deep Thoughts with High Five Todd:

Last night I was lying in bed and all I could think about was Dr. Cox. I’m obsessed with Cox. He rocks.  At first it was his name that I loved so much. I had fun saying his name. “Hey Dr. Cox, hey Big Cox, hey Coxmeister, how’s it hanging…”  It really never gets old for me. I could say his name all day long and it would still be fun! I love Cox! (See, it’s still fun.)

Then I got to know him a little bit, mostly I would see him at the gym and sometimes we’d spot each other. I tell you that Cox is big, strong, hard, tight, and he works out so much his veins really pop… (see, still funny). I hope one day, when I get to be his age, I am still hard and tight and strong like Dr. Cox. But I know I will have to work at it ““ after all, if you don’t use it, you lose it… and I owe it to the ladies never to lose it.

Sometimes I feel like I’m Johnny Appleseed and I have to spread as much of the Todd around as I can… to do that I have to be in tip top shape. And for inspiration I look to Dr. Cox to show me the way…

Dr. Cox Five!

later,

The Todd

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Vector Art Submitted by Sharon Milne from the UK

March 24, 2006

Film Flam Flummox

Filed under: Film Flam Flummox — admin @ 10:33 pm

March 24, 2006

Access Bollywood

Dil Se DVD
Perhaps the most striking feature of Spike Lee’s INSIDE MAN for me personally came at the opening frames of the Universal logo, when I heard not the traditional circa-1997 fanfare anthem but the opening strains of one of my favorite Bollywood tunes ever, “Chaiyya Chaiyya,” composed by the great A.R. Rahman for Mani Ratnam’s 1998 classic DIL SE… Like the lame Indian film geek that I am, I immediately sprung out of my seat and nudged some of fellow reviewer friends at the screening and explained how incredible this was (and of course received dumbfounded “shut up” looks from most people). Lee even plays more or less the entire track over the whole main title sequence (though the version used sounded like a cross between the slightly abbreviated and punched-up 2002 remix for the Andrew Lloyd Webber-produced Bollywood-themed stage musical BOMBAY DREAMS with the original 1998 film version), and then a faithful new remix version is played over the entire closing crawl; the only major deviation are some additional Terence Blanchard-contributed strings and a couple of surprisingly unobtrusive English rap verses contributed by Panjabi MC.

What will this mean in the ongoing mission to help bring Bollywood to Hollywood? Probably not a whole lot, but it is a step, and I hope if nothing else it draws more attention to the work of Rahman, who has been steadily gaining a western profile via outlets such as BOMBAY DREAMS (currently touring in the U.S.), which incorporates and adapts a number of his more notable Bollywood melodies with new English lyrics (“Chaiyya Chaiyya,” used as a second act curtain-raiser, being the only song with its original Hindi lyrics entirely intact); and the stage musical adaptation of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, which just opened in Toronto. A less likely side effect, though one I’m hoping for, is that people check out the atypically dark and uncompromising DIL SE…, which is a key work from one of the more adventurous filmmakers working in the Indian film industry.

Next time…

…more reviews. As always, check out my home site, Mr. Brown’s Movie Site, for additional reviews.

Trailer Park: MARCH MADNESS

Filed under: Trailer Park — admin @ 8:53 pm

E-MAIL THE AUTHOR | By Christopher Stipp

March 24, 2006

March Madness

I will remember to spell Sam Jaeger’s name correct next time.
I will remember to spell Sam Jaeger’s name correct next time.
I will remember to spell Sam Jaeger’s name correct next time.
I will remember to spell Sam Jaeger’s name correct next time.

One of the things about spending too long with a written piece is that you start to lose the ability to do the simple things. Now, when last week’s column ran about Sam I was all over making sure everything was attributed correctly, all the formatting was completely done right and made sure I wrote a solid, accurate assessment of how I thought the conversation went between us; be on the look-out next month when I try to squirrel some time with the director who wrote one of my biggest guilty pleasures this side of BETTER OFF DEAD, BRING IT ON, as I know there will be some mention in my opening about my initial feelings regarding it. I don’t want to tip my hand but every person who gets pitched to me initially sparks something in my mind about how unique I want to make the conversation and Sam was no different. Hell, in a couple of weeks when LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN comes out you’ll be treated to part two of our talk where the talk between us gets even better as he just opens up to the behind-the-scenes goings-on of a working actor.

The problem comes in, then, when you think you’ve done everything you can, editorially, done the work that needs to be done, put in the time to write the damn thing, put all the HTML goodness on it that it needs, only to find out you’ve misspelled your subject’s name a couple of times. It’s like a writer’s blindness to their own piece. It’s an odd odd thing but it’s something that you won’t see in a couple of weeks when we revisit Sam J-A-E-G-E-R so I hope you dig it.

Speaking of which, I wanted to just let you all get right into the trailers this week so I want to keep this brief: you must read, after you read me of course, and after you tell me what I did wrong or how bad it must suck to be me, this pithy little piece by a dude who is in perhaps one of the most savory comedic troupes to ever habitate and, ostensibly, depending on how well a show goes, fornicate, in Chicago. After seeing the guy was a fan of Kevin’s work I sent a shout-out to the man and, like a pair of 12 year-old girls trading notes, sent me this. In the vein of David Sedaris’ blisteringly (I never knew why this was associated with greatness; I usually attribute it to white pus-filled bubbles of skin on one’s person) funny take on what would happen if a serious critic took that critical gaze and deconstructed a Christmas pagent. And, verily, hilarity ensues as it does with Adam Witt’s work as he fictionalizes the life of a hard-core cinephile/critic who obviously can’t be bothered with mainstream motion pictures; the guy comes from a respectible pedigree, one part of the whole Schadenfreude pie, passed this selection on to me. I had a guffaw and a sugar sprinkled Chuckle as I read it and I asked if I could share with the rest of the class. If you have the time I would suggest taking a peep and letting me know what you think of the suggested reading for the week. I know the trope of the myopic critic is well-worn with other parodies out there but since I’m the driver of this short bus with the rubber stamp I decree that I like this brand of satire.

Do enjoy this week’s column and I hope to hear from some of you out there from the Peanut Gallery.


STREET FIGHT (2006) Director:Marshall Curry
Cast: Cory Booker, Sharpe James
Release: February 22, 2006 (Limited)
Synopsis: Follows the bare-knuckles race for mayor of Newark NJ, between Cory Booker, a 32-year old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law School grad, and Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent twice his age. An urban David and Goliath story, the film chronicles Booker’s struggle against the city’s political machine.
View Trailer:
* Medium (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Positive. I’m disillusioned with our political system as it is today.

Be it covert, secret initiatives that our president declares are in our best interest or the tub thumping our other elected officials do on a daily basis to show that their rhetoric is strong while being unable to do anything meaningful with their positions I just don’t believe in paying attention to words as I am to actions. One person last year, though, representing the city of Chicago in the Senate, Barack Obama, gave me hope that there are still reasons to believe in this convoluted system of ours. I like that his fiery spirit and words have been cashed in full with his follow-throughs to the people he represents. I’d like to believe there are more out there like him and I see this film as a chance to see whether there are.

This trailer is wonderful, right out of the gate. There isn’t any bullcrap narration setting things up for us all gingerly and such, no sir. We open with the meat of this story, mere split seconds, before we even have a chance to breathe. You’ve got a geezer who wants to keep his tenured political position to himself and you’ve got a young upstart who sees that fresh blood might be what’s needed to stir the passions of those in the community he wants to serve.

I’m floored by how much information you gain just by watching things unfold. The narrator lets us know that the position these men are vying for is won or lost in the streets in which they’re both trying to blanket with their faces and their speeches.

I didn’t really get a sense of who seems to be favored or who I wanted to win, the shots used are equally kind, until you get the old guy who likes his cushy gig turning to one of the cameras and gets a little ornery. I would go so far as to say his peeps try and start some shit with the documentary filmmakers.

You think you’re watching the paparazzi trying to get a shot of another nip slip by Lindsey Lohan as these big meaty fingers glom on to the dude’s camera and a verbal battle of a “let go you bastard” and “why don’t you make me, chump” ensues. I’m floored at the prospect of a fairly pleasant tale of these two dudes turning into a true Royal Rumble on the streets of Newark.

I thought politicians were all effete with their Dan Quayle-style hairdos that make them look better suited for playing tennis at “The Club” than they are with getting physical but I guess I’m wrong. We’ve got ourselves a Saturday Night ticket here, folks.

I think if I have any contention with this swiftly paced trailer it would be that we’ve got almost a quarter of the run time for this thing burned at the end with a slowly progressing series of awards this movie has been up for. I think it’s great that it’s been nominated for so many things but, man, give me some more footage or something because all that space is being burned away when you could be impressing me more with what this thing has to offer.


A SCANNER DARKLY (2006) Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Heather Kafka, Dameon Clarke, Rory Cochrane, Jack Cruz
Release: July 7th, 2006
Synopsis: “A Scanner Darkly” is set in suburban Orange County, California in a future where America has lost the war on drugs. When one reluctant undercover cop is ordered to start spying on his friends, he is launched on a paranoid journey into the absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Positive. Even better than the old thing.

One of the things that intrigued me about the first trailer for A SCANNER DARKLY is that its presentation was captivating. It was so many months ago when I first had a chance to feel what was going on in this movie and, unlike teasers that need to find their “voice” before giving us a true trailer, this film gets more and more momentum with defining its threat to slam people’s minds.

I like that even though WAKING LIFE didn’t make quite the dent I hoped it would on cinema Linklater sees the potential in fostering this brand of moviemaking. It is at the same time strange and malleable even though we can’t get a grip as to what dimension this movie exists in.

This trailer grabs your consciousness and it is due to two moments within the first 15 seconds of film: the first noteworthy happening is Keanu’s introduction; it seems wildly animated, not real, and it seems like we’re watching a so-so cartoon. The next moment is the appearance of a completely anonymous person who seems to be in various states of shifting as he walks across a room; the effect is jarring if for only a moment. Something is afoot here and you can see how the passage of a few years and a script that lends itself better to the format of animated/photo realism than dudes just chatting about the meaning of love and life has done Richard well.

The next moment of Keanu’s friends just bull-shiating on a late evening at home is a comfortable one as it doesn’t try and show all the fantastic ways this movie is going to change before your eye. It’s weirdly humanizing for the players involved in this picture. The same sentiment can be said for Keanu’s ride in a car with some floozie that wants to do a little tequila shooters with our man Bill while his buddy’s very real or very hallucinogenic mind trip mixes in some very wild images.

Robert Downey seems perfect for a role that seems to command that he be a little on the wire, paranoid and completely sharp. I haven’t felt excited to see him really do anything as of late but his embodiment here as a revolutionary of sorts is really entertaining. Speaking of which, the music could not be better scored while taking all of this in; using M83 is not only hip but the tempo of the techno fits the source from where both of these visions have come from.

I think, if anything, Woody Harrelson’s and Winona Ryder embodiment isn’t as compelling as everyone else’s. I like that Robert and Keanu take this movie on their shoulders but the two tag-alongs here just feel like voices who are animating a cartoon; I either don’t believe them or their caricatures just come off as false.


THE HEART IS DECITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS (2006) Director: Asia Argento
Cast: Asia Argento, Jimmy Bennett, Dylan Sprouse, Cole Sprouse, Peter Fonda, Marilyn Manson
Release: March 10, 2006 (Limited)
Synopsis: “The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things” is based on JT Leroy’s critically acclaimed novel of the same name. The story is about Jeremiah, a child who is pulled from his foster home and thrown into a troubled life on the road with his teenage mother, Sarah. With Sarah, Jeremiah travels through the country roads of the U.S. and learns first hand about the troubles of the world. With an impressive cast including Oscar winner Peter Fonda (Easy Rider, Ulees Gold), Jeremy Renner (S.W.A.T), and Asia Argento (starred opposite Vin Diesel in XXX), The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things will be one of the most anticipated independent film projects of 2004.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Positive. The woman comes from a well-seasoned lineage, no question. If my scope of movies only included the one appearance of Asia Argento in XXX I might be alarmed by this movie being not only acted but written and directed by her. For someone who is only thirty years old she definitely commands respect for the work she has done outside the purview of bad Hollywood blockbusters that were just plain busted. Her pedigree is rich, indeed, and the quality of her parts, even though they can be debated here and there, has been well-ignored by the populace here in the states.

What I like, and appreciate, even before we begin to get into things is the disclaimer that’s run right before we see an inch of footage. That J.T. LeRoy was just a sham of an author, in this era of James Frey-ian level of subterfuge, the moviemakers are well served here in running the disclaimer about how the IT who wrote the initial story was, in fact, a lying cad who deserves all the literary ignominy usually reserved for people like Monica Lewinsky and their one trick antics. Far better writers are languishing in obscurity while this asshat makes a solid coin by making shit up. Why can’t Norton or Doubleday realize I can make shit up all day long?

Oh well, but it is a solidly well-executed PR move by sliding this whole explanation in about this low-level author’s conceit and deceit before the trailer begins. I was a little off-put by it at first but when the trailer eventually does begin I feel good in how I view the events that transpire.

You’ve got Asia to start off with. She’s off-the-wall insane, a drug addict perhaps, as she tears a room apart with Guns N’ Rose-ian aplomb and she’s about to inherit her son. Now, the kid is the narrator here. I’m willing to overlook the kid’s well reasoned and insightful commentary about the events that lead to his eventual custodial turn-over to this crazy woman, as the only thing on my mind at 5 was when the Bozo Show was coming on, but you’ve got a true sense of directorial style going on. It’s nice. Even though Asia is as punk and white trash as you could possibly make a woman there is a feeling of reality that I really enjoy being expressed though this picture.

Sure, things get a little awkward when our narrator takes a beating from an adult, abuse is never easy to watch, but it’s nice to see that it’s offered up here for us to partake in. Other, less worthy directors, go for the silhouette shot of something bad happening to a kid or a completely sanitized, after the fact, kind of moment but not here.

We see that our young child’s life is filled with dealing with the fact his mother’s a sleazy ho and that when he does look happy it is at a moment when his mom has dressed him up in girl’s clothing, curled his hair and has applied makeup to his face. Recipe for psychiatric care later on if you ask me but since we’ve ultimately discovered this is all fiction it’s all good in the context of this moment.

The descent this film takes after this moment is riveting if nothing else.

The kid discovers, clandestinely, his mother is a stripper and a whore, he has Peter Fonda smacking the crap out of him as well, he’s got real oddballs for friends (who didn’t sniff this out for the fiction it was in the first place?) and he has a lot of issues that will need a lot of resolving my film’s end.

I think what clinched it for me was the moment when mother and son are huddled together, head to head, Asia affecting a really good cry, and the son says that he’ll protect her. If this was a sitcom I would be puking but, again, seeing the execution of the material here I am floored by the energy that is packed into this little movie. I honestly will forgive Asia for XXX if the end result is a movie that makes me believe in this mother/son combo.


X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (2006) Director: Brett Ratner
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Shawn Ashmore, Daniel Cudmore, Alan Cumming, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Kelsey Grammer
Release: May 26, 2006
Synopsis: In X-Men: The Last Stand, the final chapter in the X-Men motion picture trilogy, a “cure” for mutancy threatens to alter the course of history. For the first time, mutants have a choice: retain their uniqueness, though it isolates and alienates them, or give up their powers and become human. The opposing viewpoints of mutant leaders Charles Xavier (Stewart), who preaches tolerance, and Magneto (McKellen), who believes in the survival of the fittest, are put to the ultimate test — triggering the war to end all wars.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: I’m going, to be sure, but do I have faith? It’s waning. To paraphrase Mark Harmon from SUMMER SCHOOL, I’m a good sport, I’ll play along.

I that if you’re going to talk smack and break bad on a movie that hasn’t come out yet it’s in poor form to do so without any substantiating facts or reference points. Yes, Bryan Singer inherited a lot of Internet crosstalk about whether or not he would succeed at bringing a project that was languishing in Development Hell for a long time but he directed THE USUAL SUSPECTS, a flick that garnered two Oscar wins. He more than gained my confidence because of that movie’s staying power and prowess as a solid made movie. Brett Ratner, in contrast, has given us Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. There are differences between these two directors, to be sure, but I want to objectively break down what we have here in the newest X-MEN trailer creation. An argument cannot hold weight unless there is a foundation beneath it and I hope to prove why I am still dismayed at the prospect of this movie’s release.

To open, we’ve got our man Bill Duke, the best reason why PREDATOR is great is simply for his annunciation of the words “turn around” before taking out a scorpion on Apollo Creed, talking about what needs to be done, ostensibly, about the whole mutant thing. The tension that’s created is good and you’ve got a satisfactory establishment of the conflict that’s brewing between these two races. And, if you listen real close, the president’s voice sounds awfully close to the dude who delivers the lines about the “Lexus sales event” on television every now and then.

We’re then treated to an exterior shot of a convoy packed with SUV’s and one tractor/trailer holding Mystique; the black sheen on that big bad boy reminds me of that wicked show Highwayman. The lilting operatic music playing in the background has me confused, though. Is this an action movie or a drama? The slow, wandering pace of the trailer starts to get to me and even when we get Magneto delivering a speech that should stoke fear falls a little flat. The camera is far enough back that his words seem to be diminutive and without much fire.

Bobby getting his swerve-on with a young co-ed at Xavier’s only twists my confusion to another level. If this an action movie, not a drama or romance, then why are we spending time here? It’s just a personal feeling of mine that if this wants to be a tent pole for Fox then they’re not exactly firing on all pistons; hell, the peeps over at Paramount for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 at least gets this one right.

Before things fade to black we get Magneto on a close-up and I scream at the screen because this is what’s needed for Magneto to seem like he means business in this one: he needs to fill up our field of vision. He commands attention but it’s not afforded to him. Shame.

Sure, we got Wolverine flexing his skillz but, crap, he’s doing it in slow”¦motion. How am I supposed to be amped about a berserker attack with all claws extended when he seems to be performing a pirouette? Answer: I’m not and I don’t. Dr. Crane shows up in all his blueness and I feel torn between thinking this is much better than last time and feeling that this still isn’t the best result for what could’ve been a better looking creation.

From here we just get a little of the same old, same old from the initial teaser: Magneto flipping cars, Warren Worthington unleashing his mighty man wings, the Dark Phoenix walking around in her skivvies, etc”¦

We get to see the evil mutants doing their evilness on the Golden Gate Bridge as you’ve got Vinnie Jones still looking like he has way more abs than he needs and one chick who’s channeling the power of one member from The Misfits of Science which ran on NBC in the 80’s, she looks like she favors the hairstyling of that era as well, and then you get whisked away to the Danger Room where we know no one is any immediate danger.

I want a goddamn action movie trailer and all I’m getting here is a Very Special Episode of The West Wing.

I finally get a morsel, a taste of the goods when we have our X-MEN, Colossus in organic steel mode, ready to throw down. Now while Kelsey appears to be flying in a wire, which he is, and the whole thing looks like it’s set on a robust soundstage, which it most likely is, this actually excites me as a fan.

I don’t know if it’s too little too late but I know that I’m still not ready to believe that the best decisions were made for this project. But, as it stands, this is all my opinion. I could be wrong; I hope I am.

Scrubs Blog: Week 19

Filed under: Production Blogs,Quickcasts,Scrubs Blog,Video — UncaScroogeMcD @ 3:38 pm
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VIDEO BLOG #38: “My Second Mailbag” ““
Executive Producer Randall Winston answers a whole slew of your questions in the second installment of our fan mailbag. If you have a question you’d like answered by the cast and crew, send it in”¦ But hurry up, since time is running out before the season wraps!

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VIDEO BLOG #39: “My Best Scrubs” ““
Costume Designer Carey Bennett explains the difference between regular ol’ medical scrubs and the scrubs featured on the show ““ and how you can get a set of your own.

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VIDEO BLOG #40: “My Little Hints” ““
A lot of you have been intimidated by the most recent trivia contest, so here’s a few hints to help you on your way.

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March 17, 2006

Trailer Park: Sam Jaeger

Filed under: Interviews,Trailer Park — admin @ 8:52 pm

E-MAIL THE AUTHOR | By Christopher Stipp

March 17, 2006

JAEGER MEISTER

In this special, super-sized version of the Trailer Park, now with Riboflavin, I’ve got a lot of reading material for you peeps out there.

First up is an interview I did a few weeks ago with Sam Jaeger, an actor who will soon be on everyone’s lips as the dude who is going to make VA history by being the first “best friend” outside of Jason Mewes to appear on screen with Kevin Smith. Sam first came to me as a guy who is in the upcoming starfest, LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN, but in looking at his credentials I saw that there was a lot more to talk about than just shooting the crap about working with Ghandi and John McClaine. He was, genuinely, one of the warmest people I’ve been able to talk to in my tenure here at the ‘Shoot and I hope some of you aspiring actors/acresses read a little about what it’s like to survive inside the system of Hollywood while still retaining your sense of self.

Also, I’ve included a some trailer review action below the interview just in case an interview isn’t something you want to be doing with your Internets today.

And just in case you aren’t satiated by all of this writen goodness I wanted to let you know that I now can also be found writing periodically during the week over at Newsvine.com; my corner of that universe can be found right here. Not only is the site a solid destination to get all your news in one place without editorial oversight but it’s also very unique in that anyone can add to the news being reported on the site and I found that it was lacking a distinct voice in its movie coverage. Hence, I am spreading my stylistic talents like a mold virus through a piece of wet drywall. I’m testing out my skills at commenting on things that pop up during the week with regard to the movie business and I implore you to check it out and leave me some public feedback on the ‘Vine regarding what you think. My first real column was looking back at last week’s box office, commenting on Paul Haggis’ latest project and having a great time doing color commentary on Brett Ratner’s diary entry for UK Telegraph’s article on a day-in-the-life of a Hollywood director; it’s well worth your time and I am offering a free copy of the 25th Anniversiary DVD of HALLOWEEN to one random poster for any feedback left in the article’s comments section to get things started. I’ve also commented on some purported “test footage” of the new TRANSFORMERS movie that was “leaked” and offered up an opinion of this week’s announcement from theather owners’ planned push to have cell phone jammers installed in their multiplexes, or is it multiplexi?

Anyway, check it out if you can. I am confident that you won’t be sorry or let down by some additional content from yours truly; plus, and this is key, if you think it sucks harder than Paul Haggis’ CRASH you can publicly flog me for all to see. That alone should be worth the price of free admission.

Now, on with the column!

Usually interviews take on a rather superficial element not usually found in natural conversations; the actor/actress needs me in order to pimp their product and I, in turn, am looking for something intriguing enough to keep me involved and exciting enough to make you, the reader, curious enough to keep reading.

I have been fortunate that most every conversation I’ve had with someone involved in the making of a film or project has had a unique perspective on their respective roles within it. I’ve loved film all my life and I know that the predicate in the words “show business” wasn’t just a clever wording. It’s a cold fact that for every wicked awesome REQUIEM FOR A DREAM there is a HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS just waiting to be unleashed into our lives; it’s a matter of knowing what audience can be brought in, how much they’re going to spend and what percentage the movie will make in profit that determines, in some odd mathematical way, people’s career trajectories. Need proof? Ask Steve Guttenberg why he isn’t in X-3.

In a sense, this is what brings us today to Sam Jaeger. An actor who has performed on a lot of television shows in roles that you really didn’t pay attention to, it’s okay, I never noticed either, Sam has made a living in the past seven years doing what actors do: auditioning and praying. He’s made a life for himself, and a pretty good one, acting in shows like LAW AND ORDER, SCRUBS and THE WEST WING. Now, in a few weeks, you’ll see him on the big screen in LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN, starring alongside Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman and scads of others. And, for those in the know, Sam will make cinematic history of sorts in his role as Kevin Smith’s newest cinematic best friend, Mewes be dammed, in CATCH AND RELEASE, a movie that was tentatively slated to drop this spring but has been pushed back, way back, to 2007.

What Sam lacks in the numbers of people who know who he is he makes up for in a rich understanding of the machine that is his career: Hollywood actor. One of the poignant things that you learn about Sam is that he has the kind of perspective that you wish other actors have. He knows the fragility of one’s career and is a realist when it comes to looking beyond the work in front of him while enjoying the ride. It’s hard to not envy a guy who not only is getting bigger and more substantial roles but is also going to be responsible for being the first man to act alongside Kevin Smith in 2007’s CATCH AND RELEASE in a starring role as Smith’s best friend with Jason Mewes nowhere to be seen.

Part one of this two part series deals with Sam’s upcoming LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN, his thoughts on making a living by acting and shares what he thinks regarding having opportunities fall into his lap.


Well, I am glad that I am finally able to talk to you about a couple of movies you’re going to be in. Yeah, Yeah”¦ Now, I know LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN just came out overseas in the UK and Ireland”¦

Oh, did it?

Yeah, I spent the morning reading the reviews. I was wondering if you knew why those limeys get it first and we have to wait?

You know what, as an actor, you get to know so little about these things”¦unless you’re Kevin Smith…

(Laughs)

No, I think”¦I just have no idea. I think maybe the film feels a little bit like something that Europeans would get into. It’s got sort of a PULP FICTION”¦I hope you don’t mind I’m doing dishes”¦

(The sound of rushing water fills my ear as the clink of assorted dishes also makes its way into the conversation)

No, absolutely not.

I just think it has a little more of a PULP FICTION audience that it lends itself to, a London audience to be specific. I imagine they’re testing to see how it goes over there and see what kind of momentum it can get. At least that’s my guess”¦but I’m no Weinstein.

(Laughs)

So, I take it, then, you were there when the film screened at Sundance.

I was.

How did that go?

It’s such an”¦honestly, it’s a really stupid event. No, it’s really a great event but there’s something about it. I was there for 4 days and I saw 1 movie. The movies are impossible to get into. More people are going, there are more celebrities promoting their movies and it’s difficult.

I will say one of the strange parts was that I was involved with the whole schwag part of it. You know, you walk around places and people judge how big or insignificant you are and then give you gifts accordingly. It’s one of the stupidest things I have ever been a part of (laughs) and now that I am in the process of raising funds for a movie I’m directing this summer I am like, “You know what? We can sell all of this stuff online! I’m gonna call my uncle who has an E-bay account and give it all to him!” And, that’s kind of been the game plan.

I will say that the excitement at Sundance is really unique but, at the same time, there is a part of me that has tried to avoid Hollywood as much as I can. Living in Hollywood, and I live right in the middle of Hollywood, it is in the least celebrity heavy part of all of Los Angeles. I am surrounded by mostly Latino families just living their lives, working 9 to 5 jobs, and I really almost break out into hives whenever I cross La Cienega and get into Beverly Hills. It’s just not for me. It just makes me feel real uncomfortable.

I read that you grew up in the Midwest”¦Perrysburg, Ohio.

Yes, I grew up there and spent the rest of my life in LA. No, I’m kidding, I actually lived there all my life.

I can relate a little bit to you as the first time I visited Hollywood I was fresh off living in Illinois for nearly all my life and when I stepped into it I just couldn’t help but feel that it was a little weird. It didn’t feel real, it’s like reality but with a heavy coat of varnish on top of it.

Yeah. It’s a disappointing place to visit. You can see people come off the buses and it’s like, “What the hell? THIS is the magic machine?” And it’s not like I am disenchanted as I lived in New York for three years before coming out here and I like that Hollywood, at the least the middle of Hollywood, isn’t full of Rodeo folk. The people here are just trying to go about their work, their thing.

And the funny thing about going to Sundance was that my girlfriend and I were like, “You know, we flew a 1,000 miles to get away from people like this”¦And they all came.”

Is that what’s it come to? You hear people say of an annual event, no matter how great it is, that it’s never as good as it used to be.

Absolutely.

That seems to be the whole theme of this year’s event was to talk about how it’s declining and the coverage is all about who’s hanging with Eva Longoria. Is the hype real or are there quality independent films still making their splash at this event?

Well, I think there was a need by some people to try and keep it an independent festival and, I can’t remember the selections, but the ones that were crowned king and queen of the festival were movies that could really be helped with a prize for distribution.

I think, when you come down to it, a great movie is a great movie. It just feels like the festival is engulfed by Hollywood. I guess that’s Sundance and will be Sundance for a long time to come. I don’t see fewer people going to Sundance next year. I think it’s significantly different from when Kevin won for CLERKS but, hopefully, people will keep the focus on films that are engaging, engrossing stories.

On that note, then, how did the screening for LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN go?

It actually went really well. I think people were really enthused. It’s a movie that kind of keeps you on your heels the whole time and it’s kind of like a puzzle that you piece together as the film goes along. It was a huge, the biggest theater, that was showing the movie and it was a packed packed house. In fact, one of the producers had to buy his ticket online for 200 bucks.

Really?

Yeah, yeah, it was near impossible to get tickets. I was fortunate enough to get them. It was a good event. I think Paul McGuigan is a really strong director with really good instincts. Certainly, great style. I think, visually, better than WICKER PARK.

I wasn’t going to break bad on WICKER PARK but”¦

You know, it was just under acted in some of the roles. But, like in that movie, I feel, Josh Hartnett gives his best. He’s a very dedicated, charismatic actor but I think he does a wonderful job in this one.

I feel like Josh is on this bubble. He’s got these boyish features but he’s making a great run at trying to carry a complete movie on his shoulders. Did he ever mention anything about what direction he wants to see himself going in?

In the few conversations I had with him he seems to actually be someone who is focused on avoiding the traps of superstardom.

Really?

Yeah, I think he had a lot of opportunity to do those kinds of films, he did PEARL HARBOR, and I think somewhere along that line he has learned his lesson from working with these major major stars and seeing how, sometimes, unhappy and maladjusted they are. And, again, I don’t know him that well, but I think that’s one of the things he’s wary of.

One of the frustrating things about my job is that depending on who you’re talking to, as you want to have a good conversation with the person you’re engaging, there can be a plethora of information or none at all. For you, then, your resume is packed with work done on LAW & ORDER, CSI, NYPD: BLUE, SCRUBS, ER, etc”¦ but are you having to work to get these parts or are casting directors saying, “We need to have this guy”?

Well, every one of those shows I auditioned for. Nothing was handed down to me. You probably already know this but the mystique that opportunities just fall into people’s lap, and that some people can’t help but to be movie stars, or can’t help but be working actors, the same being true for writing, “He just sat at a typewriter and just had to come out of him,” it’s like”¦what a load of horseshit.

It just doesn’t happen and if it does happen then they are wrecked for the rest of their lives. I’ve been working now for almost seven years now and I would say that I have auditioned over a 1,000 times and things, eventually, fall into my lap because I do as much research and study my roles as much as I can before I go into an audition room.

I’ve just been fortunate to be a working actor for so long because I know how rare it is to be fully employed solely by acting. I just think it’s a matter of me being able to give the right performance at the right time. I will say that when I went and auditioned for CATCH AND RELEASE there was a pretty famous celebrity that walked out before I went in for the same role and I thought, “You know what? You don’t have a chance in hell so you might as well do the best you can.”

So, I walked in, I met Susannah, she was kind of reserved and I did the first scene and she had me go back and do it again and she said, “Great, Moving on”¦” And I thought, “Ok. She thinks I am a good actor but I didn’t get the role. That’s fine.” There were three scenes and then we moved on to the second scene and she was, “Good. Third scene”¦” By this time I am convinced there is no way in hell I am getting this, “She just wants to get me out of here. This woman is done with me, maybe I insulted her kids or something”¦”

I get done, I shake hands, I leave, I get into my car, my girlfriend is waiting in the car and I say, “I did the best I could but I just don’t think I have a shot at this.” And then, a month later, I get the role.

It’s always a mystery. I think it has to do with just doing the best you can and it eventually pays off.

When you go into an audition like that are you aware of that one person who really has the final say of whether you’re hired or not? Like a producer, the director or someone else involved with the project and are you ever aware of the person you have to impress?

Yeah, it usually depends on the director. There are some directors who are taken under the wing by some producers and remain there, I think. But, Susannah, just like Kevin, is very strong. She has such a confidence and is very intelligent and very present. You can’t help but to listen to her and heed her suggestions. I think that I was pretty much an unknown compared to the rest of the cast I think it was her confidence that sold the studio on me.

I once had to audition five times for a guest-starring role on Dark Angel.

Really?

Yeah. That was a dark period in my life.

The nadir of your career…

(Laughs)

Right. My blue year. And, I didn’t even get it. This just goes back into why you just keep doing the work because I went into CATCH AND RELEASE and, 10 minutes later, I come out and a month later I get the role.

There is no specific scientific ways of getting these jobs. I just keep doing the work and then patting myself on the back because it’s all you can really do.

If I could compare the two, LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN and CATCH AND RELEASE, big difference between production values and days spent shooting these movies? Was any one “more indie” than the other?

I think one of the things about SLEVIN was the sheer number of unbelievable actors. There was an energy there was at a little more serious than CATCH AND RELEASE. There was, and I don’t want to say a stress, but there was a tighter schedule on SLEVIN. You had to work in all these colossally vital actors into the movie and it was a balancing act plus you had 6 or 7 or 8 producers working on that film. That’s a lot of finagling.

For my role, I shot it in one week. Yet, two weeks after I am done shooting my role, they fly me back to Montreal from LA, put me in a hotel for three days, they bring me to the set, they do their thing, and, five hours later, I am back on a plane. What’s more is that they did it the following week as well. And they did it because they had all these stars that they had to accommodate.

For CATCH AND RELEASE it seemed much smoother despite rain trying to hold us back. It felt a little more like a studio film, I will say, because it felt like a 9 to 5 job, I was working at least 4 or 5 days a week but it had a little more a relaxed vibe to it.

I know Kevin kept an online diary of the production and it was nice to read about the process of making the film while getting the feel that it was causal on the set. There was work to be done but I didn’t read anywhere about some PA pounding on his door at 4 a.m. to shoot a scene.

No, it’s a night and a day difference from the independents I’ve done. I think the process has taught me a great deal about making movies, especially being around Kevin and having such a good relationship with him.

Was he schooling you while you were together? How did that relationship go?

I don’t think it could’ve gone any smoother. The funny thing is that the first time I met him it was for a table read, before the movie began, and he was talking to Timothy Olyphant, who plays the lead in the movie, and says, “I am a big fan of Deadwood, you did good work on THE GIRL NEXT DOOR”¦” and he turns to me and says, “And I have no idea what you’ve done.”

(I laugh)

And I said, “I did a killer episode of “˜That’s Life.’ I can’t believe you didn’t see it”¦” It’s a relationship you’re just lucky to have.

I have nothing but respect for the guy and I think that’s what it is. We have a mutual respect for one another. He’s a great family man, he does everything he can for his friends and family; that’s kind of how I live my life. I live for my friends and my family, the people I love and he will go to bat for anyone who he loves.

That’s really nice to say”¦

Yeah, and I also like the fact that he speaks his mind. That’s what has got him so many fans. And his fans should rest assured that he is everything that he appears to be. He’s just a guy who says it like it is.

Did you find when you were with him in a scene that he just came in, did what he was expected of him and then leave or did he ever interject with suggestions of his own about a scene?

No, but that was one of the most fascinating aspects of the movie. Here’s a director who has directed six films, has written six films and is now being directed by a first time director. It would have been a lot more uncomfortable had Susannah not been such an accomplished writer, I mean she’s written ERIN BROCKOVICH, IN HER SHOES, and she is a confident woman. Kevin trusted her and they had a great working relationship once it got rolling. If there was a button on the scene that Kevin wanted to try she would let him try it so it was like having two writers on the set.

What would you say, going into a movie like SLEVIN or CATCH AND RELEASE, are you hoping to get out of your time on a movie? Some have said, “It’s a job, it’s just work,” but is there anything intrinsic to be gained from a movie set?

I think, in the past, my goal was to not get fired. And, I speak to that. On CATCH AND RELEASE I realized about two weeks in that, “You know what? Jennifer’s preggers. There is no way they can re-shoot this shit. I am in this movie for good.” You know? “They can edit me out, fine, but they’ve gotta keep what I’ve done here somehow.”

(I laugh)

I love it.

I am only thankful to get a role. When you get a job, you want to do the best job possible. I would sometimes kill myself trying to get to this character and, coming from a background in theater, it’s an ongoing process where you try and develop a character and try to build it into something that’s comfortable but with film I’ve learned that when you get cast generally for these movies you’re already the person they were looking for because they’ve already seen 600 to 1,000 people. They don’t need you to make huge adjustments. The audition you give is often the mold they want your character in. I purposely try to lay off memorizing scenes and so forth till the day before because I know I have a tendency to overanalyze things and it can become overly stiff. And I didn’t want that to happen here because Kevin and I are supposed to be laidback guys with a really strong friendship. It wouldn’t make sense to be so strict about the lines, so meticulous.


FIND ME GUILTY (2006) Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Vin Diesel, Annabella Sciorra, Alex Rocco, Peter Dinklage, Ron Silver
Release: March 17, 2006 (Limited)
Synopsis: A drama based on the longest Mafia trial in U.S. history, mobster Jack DiNorscio (Diesel), faced with a series of charges, decides to stand trial instead of ratting out his family and associates. A wrench is thrown into the system when DiNorscio opts to defend himself.
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Prognosis: Negative. Another movie set against the backdrop of a trial?

From A FEW GOOD MEN to nearly every John Grisham I am at a loss to understand the nature of what makes these movies such an appealing genre. I do know, though, that movies that fall under this kind of filmic purview, sporting events being one that comes to mind quickly, need to do something special in order to set themselves apart. It’s almost as if these movies have to work uphill even before they get started; where any other movie just needs to be original to be noticed these kind of genre movies need to additionally set themselves apart from those they share space with on the video shelf.

This is where I am coming from when this movie opens and you get the obligatory shot of flashbulbs, hubbub, boisterous news hounds and the frumpy, velvety track suits donned by the stereotypical Italian goombahs who find themselves in a courtroom.

It’s unimpressive. It’s flat.

I am intrigued by the card that tells me that I am about to see a story that revolves around one of the biggest criminal trials in our nation’s history but without context I am just left drifting in this trailer. What’s more, and this important to note, everything builds up for what should be something worthy of serious drama but we don’t get that. We’re offered, instead, Vin Diesel, mugging to the audience of his peers and I am almost sure this is being billed as a comedy.

You’ve got a jaunty soundtrack underneath Diesel’s claim that in this “trial of the century” he’s going to defend himself by being his own lawyer; when he’s asked whether he has any legal experience he states he’s been in the can most of his life and that he thinks sometimes he has, “too much legal experience.” Oh, the uproar this causes. Everyone laughs and thinks this the funniest crap they’ve heard. Is this a trial or a Saturday night at The Sands with Dean, Frank and Sammy?

I’m not too far off here as the subsequent clips that are chosen drip with a depression inducing grey palate with Vin talking about the man who shoots him four times, expressing the misguided sentiment that it was because his “family” loves him, and the trying-too-hard-to-be-poignant moment when he tells his old lady, his girlfriend, his daughter, who knows, that even though he’s being asked to rat on his friends the best two words in the English language are “things change.”

I’m just not sure what to make of a movie billed as a drama when Vin is playing the part of MY COUSIN VINNY. There is a lot of posturing for the camera, a lot of wacky and zany outbursts all the while one of the biggest legal battles between organized crime and the government goes on.

Even if, perchance, the movie is indeed the comedic equivalent of an episode of LA LAW there seems to be real drama with Vin getting his ass beat and him having to be restrained for his outbursts.

There is a movie in here, I feel it, but if this the marketing for what appears to be a marketing campaign that doesn’t know which way to sell the product then this movie is having its feet ensconced and being dumped in the Hudson.

Scrubs Blog: Week 18

Filed under: Production Blogs,Quickcasts,Scrubs Blog,Video — UncaScroogeMcD @ 3:29 pm
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VIDEO BLOG #37: “My Trivia’s Return” ““
The first one was so much fun, we’re doing it again! This go round, we’re playing “Spot the Crewmember.” In this week’s video blog, you’ll see a selection of crew members who have appeared on the show – to enter, you have to identify the crewmember, the episodes in which they appeared, and in what context (in other words, describe the appearance). Note: The crew photo in episode 5×07 – “My Missed Perception” DOES NOT COUNT. That’s just too easy, people. To enter, all you have to do is submit your answers by Sunday, April 2nd (4/2/2006) at midnight EST. Three winners will be chosen at random from those entries that get the most appearances correct. The winning entries will be notified via e-mail, at which time we’ll get your mailing addresses for the prize packs. The winners will be announced in the Friday, April 7th blog. Previous winners are ineligible for prizes, but you’re certainly willing to participate. Good luck, and may the most ardent labcoats (my term for Scrubs fans, natch) win!! CONTEST IS CLOSED.

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March 10, 2006

Trailer Park: SON…OF A BI%&$!

Filed under: Trailer Park — admin @ 8:51 pm

E-MAIL THE AUTHOR | By Christopher Stipp

March 10, 2006

SON…OF A BI%&$!

It is 9:22 of the p.m. on Sunday and, so far, I am getting my ass handed to me for Oscar pics by a wife who only knows of Heath and Jake from US Weekly and picked MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA to win for Costume Design because they “look cool” and a father-in-law who got harangued into picking nominees while setting the TiVo to tape his only two staples for entertainment: old timey westerns and everything on The Nature Channel; he would later tell the fam collected to watch this reach-around fest that anything with animals or weaponry in the title got his vote, hence explaining his votes for KING KONG and SIX SHOOTER.

I think the wheels really came off for me when I started letting my idea of what I thought passed as beautifully rendered storytelling, the hallmark for every great film, get in the way for what amounted to overhyped pap. I am talking here about CRASH and even though I saw it and thought it was alright I didn’t feel very moved by its message and nor did I feel that the film’s message had any resonance.

Since I paid my $7.50 with my school ID I think I am entitled here to a moment of what I feel was the real issue with CRASH’s sudden swell of support. I think that while Paul Haggis is a swell screenwriter and able-bodied director I think he relies too heavily on convenience and falsities when rendering his character’s world. Who lives with these overtly racist caricatures? If it would please the court I would like to present Exhibit A and B in their entirety. These two passages of dialogue come from Brenden Frazier and Matt Dillion, respectively.

Rick: Why do these guys have to be black? No matter how we spin this thing, I’m either gonna lose the black vote or I’m gonna lose the law and order vote!
Karen: You know, I think you’re worrying too much. You have a lot of support in the black community.
Rick: ll right. if we can’t duck this thing, we’re gonna have to neutralize it. What we need is a picture of me pinning a medal on a black man. The firefighter – the one that saved the camp or something – Northridge… what’s his name?
Bruce: He’s Iraqi.

Officer Ryan: [talking on the phone] I wanna speak to your supervisor…
Shaniqua: I am my supervisor!
Officer Ryan: All right well, what’s your name?
Shaniqua: Shaniqua Johnson.
Officer Ryan: Shaniqua. Big fucking surprise that is!
Shaniqua: Oh!
[Shaniqua hangs up]

Anthony: Look around! You couldn’t find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gangbangers? Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared, it’s us: the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the triggerhappy LAPD. So, why aren’t we scared?
Peter: Because we have guns?
Anthony: You could be right.

Who the hell talks like this? I have a grandmother who thinks it’s swell to plualize the African American community by calling them “the blacks,” and don’t think I haven’t been doing my part in taking every opportunity to let her know that just because she’s from a “different time,” a popular excuse we like to let our older generation off the hook for when we should all be concerned about evolving as a race, but people talking like this? I am amazed that a movie like this gets the atttention it did as I can’t see what we’re supposed to learn about the nature of racism by trying to understand these rather one dimensional caractures. I’m not trying to put this movie down but what I am trying to do is elevate the nature of film criticism beyond just hype and hyperbole and dust this movie off to see what kind of story, at its core, that’s being told.

To be honest, I don’t believe any of it.

Matt Dillion may be a racist at heart but what man would dare to verbally go on the offensive, pun intended, and make his venemous prejudices known to the world as casually as one would order a Carls Jr. with mayo? Heavy handed doesn’t begin to describe the way this movie comes across; a firm pimp hand across the maw of an all too willing audience comes close though.

One poster on the Fark.com message board summed up my feelings about CRASH succinctly when he said: “Talk about painting with a broad brush…Crash was painted with a crop duster. All that movie was missing was an Eskimo holding a harpoon. And apparently, Los Angeles is smaller than Mayberry.”

The damage is done and those with voting power have had their say. I shant rail any more about this but I did want to give a quick rundown of other observations I had about Oscar night:

-No matter what the popular press has to say Jon Stewart did a wonderful, solid job. F’ those who thought his joke about the Baldwins and Wilsons was mean. It was not only funny but it rang truer than any bell that rang that Sunday across our great nation.

-Will Ferrell. F-e-r-r-e-l-l. Hmm, I can’t seem to get a magazine to exploit my ability to twist the English language like a pretzel yet some obviously retarded yutz gets to keep his job after MISSPELLING Will’s name on the marquee when he and Steve Carrell presented. Shameful. I would’ve laughed had it happened with any other person.

-George Clooney. Brother man, send me a note, call me, do something to let me know you’re out there because he seems like a guy who you would just want to party with. Too many superlatives wouldn’t do justice to a guy who took A LOT of jokes on the chin with a smile (He, the smart one for realizing that they were jokes after all…) and made a nice, poigant message with his acceptance speech. It’s hard not to be jealous of a man who has it all together on the surface like that.

-The house band playing AT THE BEGINNING of an Oscar winner’s speech. This is just deplorable. A person works as hard as they do to bring a piece of art into our lives, some more than others but still, and they’re rewarded by having this pseudo wedding band playing ever so softly, ready to strike like a ninja hit squad as soon as their master gives the “kill” code, when their alloted time is up?

-I never thought I would ever write this in my lifetime but I had a ball laughing at the schoolgirl charm of Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin. The two of them together proved to be well worth me not blazing through their banter with my TiVo remote at the ready. Next to Stewart, these two could’ve went all night as far as I was concerned.

-Three 6 Mafia. They proved why the whole room needed to loosen up. It was just great seeing someone up there being real, honest and, frankly, ready to burst open a bottle of Crystal right on stage. Good for them.

-Tom Hanks. Thank you, thank you, thank you for providing me with the “Huh?” moment that not a lot of people have mentioned. If there are some really good lip readers out there I would love a word by word analysis of what is coming out of Tom’s mouth. Some really good dish about the moment in question comes to us via Defamer.com who reported that Tom had some issue with regard to the music he was introduced with as he took the stage. First Mike Myers has an issue with having people poking fun at him, Heath didn’t seem amused by Kevin’s genial ribbing for BROKEBACK and now this. I don’t care what it was one was all about but I just can’t stop rewinding the footage while I try to figure out, from a scientific standpoint, whether he’s saying “fucking douchebag” or just “douchebag.”

-Pre-show interviews. I don’t know in what JC Penny Sunday circular advertisements the network dug up these plasticine models but I have never before felt as bad for a celebrity than I have as these Brite Smile representatives with mics asked, perhaps, the most innane questions ever devised. Was there no game plan? Was the idea to trap any celebrity caught in their tractor beam of sucktitude and make the experience just as awkward for me as they no doubt made it for them?

Oh, and before I let you kids loose today, I did want to give the winner of Stipp’s 2006 Oscar and Super Cage Match Challenge their prize: the shout-out for the week. Sherry managed to squeeze out three more picks than I did, doing it by mere Jedi random selection, and shamed me completely. I bow to her greatness. Congratulations. You’re teh awesome. Even though I can’t prove she cheated nor can I make fun of how I completely think she chose far inferior fare than I did I am considering adding a short answer/essay portion to the field of potential hopefulls for next year’s competition.


P.S.-An interesting thing happened when I went over to the Apple iTunes music store to purchase the single for “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” (with Three 6 Mafia being the best advertising campaign since that Chuck Wagon dog food commercial I thought it was a no-brainer to get the tune). It seems that Apple has taken some of the best singles from the album off their a la carte menu for this digital selection. Not only did my comments (which are explicity solicited) removed, I guess their comments section is only reserved for those fellating the wonderment that is iTunes, regarding this matter I still feel like I should state this for the record: far be it from me to tell Apple what they can do with their digital sandbox I just think other people should be made aware of other places where people can get ALL OF their MP3 files at one .COM location without being jerked around like this.


LONESOME JIM (2005) Director:Steve Buscemi
Cast: Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel, Kevin Corrigan
Release: March 24, 2006
Synopsis: Casey Affleck plays Jim, a young man who, after deciding he can’t make it on his own, moves back to his hometown in Indiana — under his parents’ roof. He’s saved from his family’s dysfunction by a local woman and her son, who sees him as a father figure.
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Prognosis: Positive. I went to England once.

Saw a play there.

The play was called “This Is Our Youth” and it was written by Kenneth Lonergan, of YOU CAN COUNT ON ME fame. Matt Damon was supposed to be in it but he was “on holiday” or some such thing and was being replaced by some name I have yet to ever hear again. I thought about not seeing it but I was a fan of the flick and gave it a go. Casey Affleck was in it and it was, perhaps, the best part of the production. He was, without pole smoking his ego, marvelous. I liked him and have enjoyed his presence in other things since then. He has his own style and presentation and it’s nice to see he wants to have his own identity. When I saw the trailer for this, then, I felt that same rush of intrigue I had when I saw him ply his theatrical trade in London.

“He shot himself in the head”

The opening card that announces this is a new comedy from Steve Buscemi has the above line being uttered right before we know this. Casey’s dry, straight-forward speak is well-placed for what looks like, not a black comedy, but a quiet comedy. Liv Tyler plays, in what looks like, your average small town bumpkin who is outside the ken of Casey’s well-read universe. He’s not condescending but as he explains how Hemmingway did away with himself you feel that there is an imbalance in the parity between the two of them. As we walk deeper into the trailer you also get hipped to the knowledge that Casey looks like he is just drifting through his life.

The cinematography precisely reflects the grayness that seems to hover over his head; the danger in this, though, is you could end up with a protagonist who is so blue that the audience might start to wish he really does pull the trigger on his life, ending it all.

After admitting that he’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown to Liv, who really warms the climate in this trailer, Casey just absorbs the odd goings-on of his family. From his mother who seems to be cut from the cloth of every adoring mother character there is, to his strange uncle who seems equally cut from the crazy person bin of stock players there seems to be an honesty that just can’t be denied in here.

I am equally floored by how much I see hope in Casey’s frumpy, monotone persona. After telling a squad of diminutive, and equally downtrodden looking, girls that even though they are destined to lose their game but, “the past does not always predict the future.” Whoa, there, Neo, that’s a fistful of foreshadowing if I ever heard it. But, whatever, because the lilting guitars in the background, the modesty with which we’re pimped the number of film festivals the movie has played at and the ease with which this trailer makes its transitions is just commendable.

The ending is a little too cheeky for my taste, the young boy who helps to end things seems to be channeling the dark spirit of Jonathan Lipnicki circa JERRY MAGUIRE, and I really don’t care for Casey’s forced cancer-causing saccharine smile, but the pros far outweigh the cons and makes me really want to go out my way to see this movie.


ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (2006) Director: Terry Zwigoff
Cast: Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, Matt Keeslar, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Anjelica Huston
Release: April 28, 2006
Synopsis: Based on a comic story in Dan Clowes’ Eightball, Art School Confidential follows Jerome (Minghella), an art student who dreams of becoming the greatest artist in the world. Arriving as a freshman at a prestigious East Coast art school filled with every artsy “type” there is, Jerome quickly discovers his affected style and arrogance won’t get him very far. When he sees that a clueless jock is attracting the glory rightfully due him, he hatches an all-or-nothing plan to hit it big in the art world and win the heart of the most beautiful girl in the school.
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Prognosis: Negative. Hmm, is this a comedy?

I wouldn’t know it by first trying to take in the initial moments of this trailer. When John Malkovich embodies the spirit of an artist who is trying to teach his class the ways of being one I think, initially, he’s being serious. When he tells his audience that he wants to see something he hasn’t already seen many times over I feel he’s getting at something pretty right on the mark: when you’re an artist and trying to create for the first time, be it through words, pictures or sculpture, you sometimes call upon the muse of unoriginality. Sure, to you it’s the first time you’ve drawn a woman’s fun bags, milk wagons, her hoo-ha, what have you, but unless you find the right angle to tackle the singular subject in front of you you’re just going to be white noise compared to everyone else who has been here and done that miserably.

I got all of this just by his opening remarks, true dat, but I got uneasy when the jaunty voiceover starts telling me all about this artiste university, how artisans can explore their creativity (as you see some dude putting the finishing touches, literally, on some ice cream sculpture) and you have one guy in an audience Q&A asking what advice one can give to someone just starting out to which is said, “That is such…a stupid question.”

The Tex Avery wolf jaw plunking down to the ground, that metallic sound clanging off-screen, is what happened at this point. So, I ask again, is this a comedy? I guess it is as the following images, one after another, keep getting more and more obnoxious.

What’s more about this abrupt change is that, in another scene, one guy has his wrists tied with rope with alligator clamps attached to his nipples, leading to a car battery. It’s funny, to be sure, but as soon as he asks someone to hit the juice, he starts screaming and we are jerked, violently, to a woman who is about to disrobe in order to be painted as an artists’ model. I think there could have been a better way to snap from one image to another but this was not the way to do it. The flow is awful.

To add even more mediocrity into the mix we have our protagonist trying to score with some of the art school chicks. This should have been one the best parts of this trailer as we explore all the “wacky and zany” oddballs we can all collectively imagine that inhabit art schools but it’s just executed with the kind of grace that’s usually just reserved for showboating, women’s Olympic snowboarding. To prove my point you have no less than two needle scratch sound effects being employed to get the point across that these ladies are well-beyond the normal purview of women who would, in real life, attend these kinds of schools.

I mean, I get it, wild and crazy chicks are funny to mock and to get a guffaw or two out of them but this is just lazy trailer creation. One of the girls, oddly enough, exemplifies the stereotypical Bettie Page Syndrome I made mention of a few weeks ago; these girls with the retro black hair and sharply cut bangs are always a good go-to for a quick laugh.

I expected more from the dude who brought me BAD SANTA and I feel a little let down. I am just hoping this was a matter of giving this movie to the wrong agency in making the trailer.


DUCK SEASON (2006) Director: Fernando Eimbcke
Cast: Enrique Arreola, Daniel Miranda, Diego Catano, Danny Pereat
Release: March 10th, 2006
Synopsis: Takes you into one particular Sunday morning in the lives of two fourteen-year old boys, Flama and Moko. With their neighbor Rita and pizza delivery boy Ulises, they create their own adventures to overcome their boredom. “Duck Season” explores the loneliness of childhood, the effects of divorce and the curious power of love and friendship.
View Trailer:
* Medium (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Mucho Posi-TiVo. I am a fan of memes.

Whether it’s finding out who might be in contention for viral video of the week, the bottle rocket kid shooting one out of his arse was a good one, or that the odd digital short I turned off prematurely one night while Saturday Night Live, Lazy Sunday (And thanks to SNL finding that people actually liked something they’ve done they’ve decided to try and beat the living piss out of these digital shorts by including them in damn near every episode since then. Great idea, peeps.), would have me so hooked after I played it a few half dozen times. The Chuck Norris meme of the moment is good but none of these are possible unless you have 13 year-old boys like these dudes here to pass it along to their cronies.

What I enjoy about this trailer, primarily, is the strength of its opening. I am always amazed that for as many times as I’ve done this there are dozens of new approaches to get things started. Here it’s the black and white static shot of a mother walking out of an apartment door and pushing the elevator door as two boys look on. The musical cue comes in, a funky 70’s ba-wanka beat, and the screen goes black. The boys cheer in delight as their adult overlord has unmanned their post for a while, they crack open the Coke, sit their asses down in front of the television and go to town playing Halo. The music is crackin’ and the frags are poppin.

The power cuts out.

The mood sours as things get silent. Like true boys, they languish in their unfortunate situation by just sitting there.

Things turn strange when a girl from next door stops by for reasons we’re not sure of nor are we sure why an odd pizza delivery guy makes himself at home; if I had money on it, though, I would say it would to be to kill the three of them but that’s just my experience talking.

The lives of these four people start to fuse together as they delight in doing the kinds of things that kids are known for doing: inciting indirect mayhem by just having too much time, and imagination, on their hands. The music that lilts behind the cut scenes of these people getting goofy fits perfectly; it’s fun, it’s jaunty and makes no sense. You get a cadre, a lot, of different award props. There seems to be a couple of dozen that fill up the screen but you get the point, and they are cheeky about doing it, that while this is a seemingly wistful movie you’re going to get something more.

I cannot explain why watching this trailer is so soothing and enjoyable but in an arena where loud and brash are the tools of the trade I give this trailer positive vibrations solely for setting a nice mood.

You’ve got a foreign langauage film, strike number 1, plus you’ve got a movie about kids, strike 2, and your sole goal with this trailer is to garner some interest without using too much of your native dialogue, strike 3. I don’t envy this marketing department at all because foreign flicks ARE a hard sell to us Americans. We like to think of ourselves as melting pots of humanity but we likes our entertainments en ingles thank you very much.

This trailer manages to overcome all of these things by not being afraid to make it all money shots, and it hurts to see the flicks that have to resort to that in their adverts, and present the movie as it is supposed to be seen. It’s one of those things where, as good or bad as the movie may be, you’ve got to admire their one shot to reach the American audience takes this form.

Carl Taylor: “Golf clap?”

James St. James: “Golf clap.”


CLICK (2006) Director: Frank Coraci
Cast: Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken
Release: June 23, 2006
Synopsis: CLICK focuses on a workaholic architect who finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Depends on how mainstream I’m feeling that week. Let’s have an open discussion, okay, a one-sided discussion with your delayed thoughts to follow later, about the place where Adam Sandler movies fit in the filmic landscape.

The knee-jerk response that he has a built-in audience won’t cut it for this argument and neither will that he has his own brand of humor that people seem to come out to watch in droves. I just can’t figure out what it is about his kinds of films just seem to exude. I am sure that the director of WEDDING CRASHERS, David Dobkin, who just got bounced from Sandler’s latest creation I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY, could give us a clue but since all I have is the trailer for his upcoming movie I will just break it down thusly. Now, since every movie deserves to be judged fairly, I’ll be impartial and just stick to what’s on the screen.

“Do you ever feel there is not enough time”¦”

I wish I could say this movie spells doom from the start but the choice of running with Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” as the sound bed to open this trailer is nice. I like the song and it somehow gets me in the mood for something safe, basic.

I’m not disappointed here as the sight of Kate Beckinsale walking her husband out of the house in the morning is a lot more un-common than it is real but it sets up the following scene of Adam being portrayed as a father who works too hard. The concept is as beaten and worn as anything else there is, David Hasselhoff not helping matters by being the prototypical boss who demands nothing less than obedience and hard work without regard to anything else. By David giving Adam this near-impossible assignment of coming up with something “great” over the 4th of July weekend you not only establish your characters’ motivation and problem but you have the added bonus of knowing, quickly, what the issue is at hand: he works too damn hard.

The effect is at once brilliant and yawn-inspiring. On the former, it’s brilliant because you manage to set things in motion quickly, not dwelling on stupid details that eat time and waste attention spans. On the latter, it’s lame because the premise is so cookie-cutter that it defies any kind of real sense of originality. In the subsequent scenes we are also led to believe he is so out of touch with his kids and their world by not being able to differentiate between any of the, da-da-da-dum, remote controls in the house. He’s turning on a ceiling fan, race cars, everything else but the television. He’s so wackily frustrated that he goes out to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get a universal remote; the store’s name is so prominently displayed that I am not sure there has ever been a product placement so boldly advertised in a trailer before. Kudos, trailer people.

Of course, this is when the crazy crap starts to happen. He hooks up with leader of the cow bells, Christopher Walken, and this is where I am sure hours and hours of time spent in a little writer’s room eventually led: Adam gets a remote that works on life. (Gasp!) I know, all you dopes who spent copious amounts of time in college to learn how to write are all wasting your time; no one can compete with these big league thinkers.

The application of this “remote” is prominently run though as we get Adam fast forwarding through fights with his old lady, which will no doubt get laughs from the ladies as well as the dudes who they subjugate; his boss, who he puts on pause so he can physically abuse and will earn the laughter from dudes who “so wish they could do that”; and the pause effect he applies to some woman wearing a tank top as she jogs, giving us all slo-mo boob floppin’ delight. The man is a genius. I want to dislike this trailer in so many ways but when, lo-and-behold, the remote breaks and he finds himself fast forwarding unwillingly through his life, his daughter quickly going through the stages in her life, I find myself being curious to know where things are leading.

I can’t figure out Sandler’s angle on most of his movies but I can see where he knows how to play the game of being able to reach multiple types of people with this movie. Good, bad or indifferent you can’t fault the guy for being a shrewd moviemaker.

Scrubs Blog: Week 17

Filed under: Production Blogs,Quickcasts,Scrubs Blog,Video — UncaScroogeMcD @ 2:48 pm
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VIDEO BLOG #36: “: “My Parking Lot Tour” ““
You asked for it, and here it is ““ the first in a series of tours around the Scrubs set, starting with the parking lot area found outside those familiar sliding doors.

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Download Scrubs Video Blog #36:

  • Large (560 x 420 – QuickTime – 81.57 MB)
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March 9, 2006

Ken P. D. Snyde-Cast #7

Filed under: Ken P.D. Snydecast — UncaScroogeMcD @ 9:44 pm

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Adult Swim’s Dana Snyder and FRED’s Ken Plume set out to have a literate conversation between two pals, but inevitably devolve into a verbal, and funny, free-for-all full of bickering, infighting, and the special kind of male bonding that comes from conflict expressed through the podcast medium.

Actor/comedian/raconteur Dana Snyder, you’re certainly aware, is Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Master Shake, Squidbillies‘ Granny, Minoriteam’s Dr. Wang, and The Venture Bros.‘ Alchemist. Available for weddings and bar mitzvahs (bat availability pending), you can keep tabs on him via his website, www.eyeofthesnyder.com.

Ken Plume is the editor-in-chief here at FRED. He is a friend of Dana’s, as well as his arch-nemesis.

VISIT THE SNYDECAST EXPERIENCE

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KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #7: Episode 7 – This week, Ken & Dana welcome special guest Jay Edwards, producer of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and writer/director of the independent monster flick Stomp Shout Scream. Speaking of screaming, even with a guest present, both Ken & Dana can’t seem to refrain from their tendency towards childish – yet utterly charming – bickering. Also, Ken wins the Prudhomme/Popper bet, though – of course – it’s contested by Dana..

[CONTENT WARNING]: This podcast may contain some foul language and horribly off-color jokes. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

DOWNLOAD: (right click to save)
Episode #7 (MP3 format)

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Got something to say? E-mail Dana & Ken at the Snydecast mailbag.

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March 3, 2006

Trailer Park: Innuendo

Filed under: Trailer Park — admin @ 8:50 pm

E-MAIL THE AUTHOR | By Christopher Stipp

March 3, 2006

Innuendo

One of the things that always keep me intersted in doing what I do here, and why I like movies in general, is that every single flick is an opportunity to see something new.

Never mind that what may be coming at you when you have date night is going to be a hellacious 90 minutes but what I want to focus on is how the real hard core geeks among us rely on information as a movie’s production rolls along. Case in point is the picture of SPIDER-MAN 3’s first real tease. What I dig, besides the obvious, is that something like this can stoke the flames of anticipation for your average movie-phile. You look at this picture and any fan of Rami’s first 2 installments starts to speculate about things. You begin to wonder if our man from SIDEWAYS will be a good enough Sandman or whether Topher Grace will be a good enough foil against Parker’s every-day personality.

It’s nice to deal in speculation and what-could-be’s if for no other reason than it gives fans the chance to build to the moment when that teaser trailer comes out. Kids start analyzing, people start prognosticating and, for people like me, it makes the whole conceit of “movie magic” a little more real as you find yourself counting down until you have the chance yourself to see if, in fact, those whole Venom/Mystery Villian rumors are true. As evidenced in great documentaries like RINGERS, STARWOIDS and even in TREKKIES you can see how getting caught in something like this can be a very enjoyable process.

Neverminding the small percentage of 12 year-olds with a propensity for filth, smack talk and a bad case of Grammatical Inconsistency in their sentence structure it is just nice to be able and feel like that what’s coming soon can really be something worth doting on for a while.

I think it is just the nature of watching as many trailers that I do that just reaffirms my belief that those who are down on the theater experience never really held it in much regard to begin with. Those who are purportedly putting a dent in theather attendence due to their feeling that waiting for the DVD of whatever movie in question is being discussed aren’t really the kind of customer who would watch a trailer or pour over news items and, as a result, be excited. The sites that exist for movie fans, like this one, speak to those who wouldn’t think twice about weighing the DVD window vs. going to the cineplex.

The reality, though, is that even though attendence is off across the board lately the marketplace needs to adapt to this changing enviornment. Moviemakers like Steven Soderbergh have given great ideas to alter the experience of watching films in the 2000’s but, at it’s core, those out there that deal in information, hard facts or innuendo will always ensure a healthy discourse of film will continue for decades to come.

By the way, for those wondering, that picture of Spidey is flippin’ sweet.


DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY (2006) Director: Michel Gondry
Cast: Dave Chappelle and Friends
Release: March 3, 2006
Synopsis: Dave Chappelle’s Block Party spotlights comedy superstar Dave Chappelle as he presents a Brooklyn neighborhood with its very own once-in-a-lifetime free block party. The unprecedented combination of comedy and music was shot on location. In addition to Mr. Chappelle performing all-new material, the stellar roster of artists includes Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, the Roots, Cody ChesnuTT, Big Daddy Kane, and – reunited for their first performance in over seven years – the Fugees. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michel Gondry and his Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind cinematographer Ellen Kuras capture all of the exclusive performances and crowd excitement on an unforgettable Saturday afternoon and night, as well as (earlier in the week) private rehearsals footage and Mr. Chappelle in the small Ohio town he calls home. In Ohio, Mr. Chappelle wandered through town handing out golden tickets to invite several dozen citizens to join the party, providing transportation and lodging for their first-time-ever visit to Brooklyn. Ohio’s Central State University marching band made the trip and helped kick off the festivities at the intersection of Quincy and Downing Streets. As a diverse crowd comes together, Mr. Chappelle’s freestyle wit guides them (and us) through a day-long, life-affirming celebration of music and comedy, history and community. The lineup of performers is distinguished not only by the caliber of their music but also by the strength and power that their art draws from keeping their creativity pure.
View Trailer:
* Medium (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Positive With 10 lbs. Worth Of Crazy. Obfuscation.

Some of the things I took away from Dave Chappelle’s interview with Oprah a couple of weeks ago had nothing to do with me feeling enlightened by Dave’s actions in the past year but, rather, I took away the feeling that he either doesn’t know how to answer a direct question, wasn’t prepared to give answers to direct questions and that he is ill prepared to talk in an interview. Period.

“Why did you walk out on a $50 million dollar television show?”

Crickets might have well been playing an orchestral movement because Dave seemed lost.

One thing, though, which piqued my curiosity, was his concert film that he planned on releasing. Now, this is good. There is an energy that’s apparent as soon as this trailer opens up and I am delighted that Dave’s inability to communicate to other humans hasn’t interfered with his capacity to bring the funny. Also, with Michel Gondry helming the directorial duties you can be assured that it will be captured with the right amount of personality.

When the screen opens and you see two dudes who are residents of Dayton, Ohio, where Dave has made his home for quite some time, and explain that they don’t do a whole lot and one fine day Dave Chappelle, who is slightly off camera but gives these guys a couple of tickets to his concert, offers to take them away for the weekend. The manner in which Dave surrenders a couple of the tickets is a bit unsettling, it’s almost as if he’s trying to entreat them to get into his van to help move a couch, wink wink, but I get it.

Fast forward to Dave working the crowd, moments before the concert begins, and he’s on. He just knows how to flip that switch and get a group of people going. He lets fly a few Lil’ John “Whaaat?!”s and so, I take it, that it’s alright for him to appropriate his comedy when it suits him but when other people do it to him it sends him into a frenzy that can only be quieted with a trip to South Africa. Got it. Check.

The next few moments are just Dave armed with a bullhorn and traipsing through Brooklyn spouting off whatever comes to his mind. It’s honestly good stuff; his riffing here is on par with some of the best rehearsed material that’s being plied to audiences.

Then, we get the talent. Erykah Badu is all up in there, you’ve got the Roots ready to bring it and you even have the man who may or may not need Common to bitch slap him a few times on Lower Wacker in Chicago, Kanye West. The energy is bursting off the screen and you can feel that this is really something special.

2 things. One, when Mos Def, who has been exceptional in parlaying his music career into a filmic one, pops up, keep your ears open as the music is simply bumpin’ when you see the Fugees start working the crowd for themselves. Two, when Dave, shortly after this is talking to a pack of kids while holing a pool cue taunts these children to bring it for reals in a game of 8-ball and simultaneously slapping down a large bill. The kids’ expression alone is enough to say that while Dave may have some things to work out he can work a wide spectrum of age brackets.


FILM GEEK (2005) Director: James Westby
Cast: Melik Malkasian, Matt Morris, Tyler Gannon
Release: Coming soon to a festival near you…Peep the release date information as supplied by Herr Westby below…
Synopsis: FILM GEEK is a hilarious new comedy about Scotty Pelk, a socially inept video store clerk with an encyclopedic knowledge of film. He runs a website, scottysfilmpage.com, which receives zero traffic. He annoys his customers. He annoys his co-workers. And when he is inevitably fired from his video store job, Scotty finds refuge in Niko, a downtown hipster who teaches him a thing or two about love and life. But Niko’s smarmy ex-boyfriend Brandon won’t go away quietly. As Scotty’s first love turns to obsession, his life begins to change in profound ways.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: Solid. There’s this one guy, down the street, where I rent my videos. Yeah, I know about Netflix but I am slow when it comes to these kinds of things.

The guy always always asks me about the films I bring back when I check out more. It could be that I was renting SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS but he interjects with his own narrative about how he came to like or dislike the movie. It utterly fascinates me that I could be renting YOUNG EINSTEIN and this dude would lay it out as to how he felt about the movie. He amazes me. That’s why I think I responded so well to this trailer about a know-it-all video jockey.

Yes, the story of video clerks has been well-documented on celluloid in recent years and that’s why it puts a movie like this in the precarious position of having to prove that there is still something fresh to say about this genre, this segment of the population who do these jobs.

When we open up things a solid music track neither distracts nor overpowers what is happening on the screen. You’ve got some customer providing the comedic bait to our protagonist, she’s looking for a movie with the word “heaven” in it, and we’re launched into this rundown of movies by our man who rattles off all kinds of flicks that might fit the ladies’ query. It’s soft comedy but it is, nonetheless, viable.

The cards lay it all out for us. He annoys people, he’s going nowhere, etc”¦but the nice thing about the trailer is that expediency seems to be the thing on this trailer maker’s mind and that’s a great thing to see. The most common thing for someone who is doing this sort of thing on a shoestring is to really showcase the artists’ talent; trailers run in the opposite vein of that. You want your story to go in, go out and leave an impression. What you notice after we get a 1/3 of the way into this movie is that it’s doing just that.

Things do, however, take a strange turn when our clerk gets canned from the one job he, no doubt, can only do real well. His punting coincides with him meeting some girl who wants to bring him out of his nebbish shell. This is where I have an issue with the trailer. It seems awkward that we go from complete geek to all of a sudden having this strange new woman exposing him to a life which has completely passed him by. He looks strange in the role of a guy going to parties, drinking beer, schmoking a lil’ weed and I don’t know if I buy the rapid romance here. It’s forced or at least it feels like we’re rushing through something we shouldn’t be.

I warm up to it a little bit, though, when we see this guy surviving life beyond the video store as he makes his way through things other than always preparing for Tuesdays. The geek’s admission that he loves movies and that they let you be other people is poignant and that’s where the real emotional buy-in comes in for a movie like this.

I felt confused, at first, with trying to peg where we are going with this guy. Was he a hapless geek who deserved what he got, was this a movie about how he was never going to get what he wanted or was this about trying to establish something new when the one thing you’re good at is taken away? It is the latter and even though there are a few visual miscues that try and throw you off the mark in getting the right idea about this movie it is nonetheless a solid trailer for a movie that has a story worth following through to the end.

And those interested in knowing when, and if, this is coming close to you soon, Mr. Westby sent me this note:

Syracuse, NY
Palace Theatre
March 3, 2006

Orlando, FL
Downtown Media Arts Center
March 30 ““ April 9, 2006

Austin, TX
Alamo South Lamar
Opens May 1, 2006


NACHO LIBRE (2006) Director:Jared Hess
Cast: Jack Black, Ana de la Reguera, Héctor Jimenez, Richard Montoya, Peter Stormare
Release: June 2, 2006
Synopsis: Jack Black stars as Ignacio (friends call him Nacho), a Mexican priest who moonlights as a lucha libre wrestler to raise money for his orphanage in this comedy from the creators of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and the writer and star of THE SCHOOL OF ROCK.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)

Prognosis: You’re on your own with this one. I don’t know what the hell is going on but I feel fine.

One of the strangest predicaments to be in, I would imagine, is to create something so good that not only have you managed to spark an entire legion of fanatics that like to mimic moments from your film whilst toiling away at their cubicle jobs but you’ve also had the secondary effect of helping to make Q3’s financials for Suburban-Mom-Mall-Approved Hot Topic some of the best they’ve ever been by pimping everything from shirts that still admonish me to Vote For Pedro to a bobble head that can sit quietly on my desk.

How do you possibly follow that up? With all the adulation that was heaped on NAPOLEON DYNAMITE you’ve thought that the bigger budget second movie Jared and Jerusha Hess would’ve blown their load, as it were, on something safe yet solid. They chose, obviously, to go with the latter and ditch the former because this is all sorts of out there.

I can’t, for the life of me, understand where the nexus of this movie came from or why Jack Black was the obvious choice when choosing who would make the best luchador in a movie that has all the flavor of NAPOLEON’s former self. Jack opens this bad boy in all his girthy glory. His un-Godliness is spoiled, however, when he does and ankle grab that treats us to a full moon that’s Neptunian in diameter. The pace is perfect, though, as the music, the same kind of windy pipes usually reserved for those South American scenes from CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, makes me feel there is a fire fight about to occur. Jack is getting his vinyl jack boots laced up and is compressing his head into his mask when he explains the method to his madness.

Before I feel comfortable in the explanation given as to why this is all happening, I am yanked precipitously to the back story involving Jack hustling business using his ped-taxi, probably whisking people to and from the Dream Palace, Skin Cabaret or Wide World of Hymens, and coming upon the greatest luchador he’s ever seen.

His story is involved as his awe turns to work. He wants that attention, that adulation, and will do anything to achieve it. His Spanish accent is amusing, sure, and his nun friend who explains that unless his cause is for something righteous God will not bless him.

The angles here are all sorts of odd but, again, there seems to be a reason and direction so instead of being frustrated I am left feeling that, fine, be weird for weird’s sake but keep the information flowing, you know?

The next scene, though, throws me for a loop-da-loop when Jack is slo-mo running, pushing his anemic looking partner out of the way while taking in a dusty jog on a dirt path and then tossing a freshly snapped off bee hive at the same man. Wha huh?

Some scenes later, the golden luchador that inspired Jack into this business of wrangling and tangling steps out into a packed house and is greeted with fireworks and hot chicks at his side. The image, while strange, is common enough when you’ve grown up on the WWF. Jack’s theatrics to counter balance the golden child are birdlike and I can’t get a handle over whether he means business or is trying to also play up to a crowd that’s looking forward to seeing Jack get all sorts of schooled.

I am then treated to Jack ripping off his shirt, with an accompanying explanation about how he could do such a thing, displays his skills for a couple of dudes who look high on glue, and then I get not one but two butt shots of Jack; in one he gives me a full clench and, the other, a butt that’s tightly secured in red tights.

The rest of this trailer is filled with multiple shots of wrestling, of Jack’s partner looking to get his groove on with a rather unsavory chica, and there’s a sweet shot of Jack taking flight out of the ring, getting some wicked air, as he tries to land on his golden hero.

The ending, though, leaves me scratching my brain. He invites the woman who is, ostensibly, the female love interest in this movie to his room at the monastery, I guess he’s a monk too, to have a piece of toast. I guess it’s supposed to be funny and I think there’ll be some people who will say this is all sorts of humorous but I don’t understand. Is toast eating the new hotness or did I just miss that memo?

I’ll probably see this movie simply to see how the sophomore outing ultimately goes but, damn, don’t make me feel that I may regret my loyalty.


TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY (2006) Director: Adam McKay
Cast: Amy Adams, Sacha Baron Cohen, Leslie Bibb, William Boyer, Gary Cole, Elvis Costello, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Ferrell
Release: August 4, 2006
Synopsis: NASCAR stock car racing sensation Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is a national hero because of his “win at all costs” approach. He and his loyal racing partner, childhood friend Cal Naughton Jr. (John C. Reilly), are a fearless duo — “Thunder” and “Lightning” by their fans for their ability to finish so many races in the #1 and #2 positions, with Cal always in second place. When flamboyant French Formula One driver Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) challenges “Thunder” and “Lightning” for the supremacy of NASCAR, Ricky Bobby must face his own demons and fight Girard for the right to be known as racing’s top driver.
View Trailer:
* Medium (Flash. I would’ve punted you to another site that has it but since I don’t like their player I’m not going to give them the shout-out. So there.)

Prognosis: Negative. No.

I thought this was going to be, in the parlance that my English teachers would no doubt flunk me for, a slam-dunk.

This trailer has challenged me to really sit down and meditate on the reasons why this movie appears, on the surface, to suffer from the wrong kind of angle sell. An angle sell, as I have coined, stamped and now dispersed in the annals of conversational currency, is a phrase I’ve come to realize means how a piece of advertising like this trailer, as a whole, is packaged. If you’ve got the wrong angle to begin with, usually resulting in a marketing department being confused with how to pimp a product to the masses, you’re going to start, proceed and end being way off the mark. Classic examples of movies being marketed all sorts of wrong litter the conversations of many directors who get upset when the promotions people have the end-all be-all decision power to tell the public what a movie ultimately is. Is it a drama, a comedy, a dramedy? What this all means, ultimately, is that figuring out the angle of a movie is like having a loaded gun with only one bullet in it: you’ve got to know where to shoot it and when.

The trailer for TALLADEGA NIGHTS suffers from a poor execution. This should be the movie that brings the crazy ass Will Ferrell back from the schlock (i.e. KICKING AND SCREAMING and his part in giving us the color infused pastiche pap of CURIOUS GEORGE) that helped finance his summer home in Monaco and back into the fold of comedic icons. This is the movie that should be what ANCHORMAN really wasn’t: funny. It should pop off the screen with Ferrell’s brand of giddiness but what we’re served is an opening sequence packed with promise with ZZ Top’s “La Grange” only to be let down with a crazy child to crazy adult transition that’s as amusing as the first CARS trailer.

The arena for NASCAR should be a hotbed of funny but, as we progress even further to setting up what this movie is about, getting a funny moment when we hear that Will’s kids in this movie are named Walker and Texas Ranger, respectively, the jokes are taking a long time to get out there.

That’s the problem, I think. The next sequence when Will and John C. Reilly go back and forth about couplings that go together, Chinese Food and pudding being rebuked for peanut butter and jelly when involving a lady, isn’t as good as it should be because you’re making me work too damn hard to get the joke. Oh, and look at the time, half of the trailer is gone, wasted. These jokes necessitate a set-up and the momentum for this movie pays the price.

And, when we finally come upon Sacha Baron Cohen’s character we’re given just enough time to see him, hear him utter a few words and he’s quickly forgotten. What the fu$%? Yeah, not many people really like the whole Ali G thing but I am a fan and, dammit, this is Will’s nemesis in this movie and I want something witty. No, I get Will driving with a cougar and Will signing a baby’s forehead. Yeah, the explosion of comedy just doesn’t relent.

I will say that the angle for how you market this thing is found when Will puts on a blindfold, ostensibly to do a little Jedi driving, whilst behind the wheel. The subsequent sequence of him careening into parked cars, straight out BEVERLY HILLS COP, and then veering off the road into a house is what every moment of this trailer should have been. It’s obnoxious, irreverent, wacky and the kind of thing that dudes want to see.

PLUS, and this is important, the moment of Will running around after a crash on the track and he’s in his underwear, spouting all sorts of nonsensical bullshit, even managing to drag Tom Cruise’s good name into it? THAT’S it. THAT’S the ethos of this movie and every other moment of this film’s trailer should have been just as irreverent.

As it is, I’m not really looking forward to this movie as I am just hopeful that someone will get it together and give me a better trailer. Booyakasha.

Scrubs Blog: Week 16

Filed under: Production Blogs,Quickcast Commentaries,Scrubs Blog — UncaScroogeMcD @ 2:22 pm
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BLOG-COMMENTARY #3: Episode 5×11 – “My Buddy’s Booty” –
Producer/Director Randall Winston and Writer Mark Stegmann enter the audio booth for another fun and frolicsome commentary. This time it’s episode 5×11, “My Buddy’s Booty” – just for you. And you know who “you” is. All you have to do is download the mp3 file below, cue up the episode on your TIVO, VHS, DVD, or computer, then hit play on the commentary. Hope you dig it – And let us know if you want more. Seriously. Write us a letter and tell us what you want.

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Download Blog-Commentary #3:


“THE TODD” BLOG #9: Todd’s Tips –
Yes, even “The Todd” ““ the omnisexual surgeon played by Robert Maschio ““ has been keeping a blog, and here’s his latest.

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READ The Todd Blog #9:

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Scrubs: Todd Blog #9

Filed under: Production Blogs,Scrubs Blog — UncaScroogeMcD @ 2:17 pm
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New Tattoo Suggestions, Viagra and Etc.

The Todd is thinking about getting a new tattoo! Maybe a Tiger on my shoulder or a Mermaid on my crotch or a Shark on my chest. I’m open to suggestions. If you have an ideas for what kind of tattoo I should get and where I should put it, email me your suggestions!!!

I’ll pick the best idea and get it! New Tattoo Five!

Anyway.

I met a hottie nurse in the Urology department. It was classic Todd. There I was in the stirrups, getting swabbed with vinegar for my yearly test for STDs. As she was in the middle of handling me, I asked her out. Bang! She said no, because she was a lesbian and in a relationship. So I suggested the 3 of us get together sometime, since we all liked the same things, She politely declined. I understand. She did see me in all my glory and was probably intimidated by my prowess…

Speaking of which…

I have a friend. He likes to carry a little piece of Viagra in his front pants pocket at all times. He says it makes him feel “cocky.” You know, confident, self assured and ready to get busy with the ladies the moment the opportunity presents itself. Now the Todd doesn’t need any help in this department, but who am I to judge what another man wants to do to give himself an extra bit of umphhh…maybe the Todd will get a tattoo of a Viagra shaped blue pill on my arm to signify my virility!!! Virility Five!

That’s it for now…Todd Blog Five!

The Todd

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March 2, 2006

Ken P. D. Snyde-Cast #6

Filed under: Ken P.D. Snydecast — UncaScroogeMcD @ 9:50 pm

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Adult Swim’s Dana Snyder and FRED’s Ken Plume set out to have a literate conversation between two pals, but inevitably devolve into a verbal, and funny, free-for-all full of bickering, infighting, and the special kind of male bonding that comes from conflict expressed through the podcast medium.

Actor/comedian/raconteur Dana Snyder, you’re certainly aware, is Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Master Shake, Squidbillies‘ Granny, Minoriteam’s Dr. Wang, and The Venture Bros.‘ Alchemist. Available for weddings and bar mitzvahs (bat availability pending), you can keep tabs on him via his website, www.eyeofthesnyder.com.

Ken Plume is the editor-in-chief here at FRED. He is a friend of Dana’s, as well as his arch-nemesis.

VISIT THE SNYDECAST EXPERIENCE

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KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #6: Episode 6 – Ken & Dana make the futile gesture toward making this a shorter episode, in order to allow Dana to be a pirate-loving ubergeek and also prep for the arrival of Aqua Teen‘s Jay Edwards. But surprise, surprise, things degenerate ““ as they always seem to do ““ into an argument about something or another and answers to fan letters. Ken, as always, is exasperated and bitter, while Dana is a bit of an a**.

[CONTENT WARNING]: This podcast may contain some foul language and horribly off-color jokes. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

DOWNLOAD: (right click to save)
Episode #6 (MP3 format)

[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/snydecast/ken_p_d_snyde_cast-06.mp3]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to this Podcast via iTunes

Got something to say? E-mail Dana & Ken at the Snydecast mailbag.

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CLICK HERE FOR THE SNYDECAST ARCHIVES

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